Designating Mexican cartels as terrorist organizations is a bad idea, said Center for the U.S. & Mexico’s Nathan Jones. Any benefit gained “would be wiped out by a lack of [U.S.-Mexico] cooperation that would likely result.”
“Basically, the motivation (for Americans) is on some level greed, quick money,” Center for the U.S. and Mexico’s Nathan Jones said of the growing number of cartels online. “Sometimes you do feel for the person in a desperate situation, but the act is still illegal.”
“It’s a massive betrayal of the relationship between the U.S. and Mexico and the law enforcement cooperation,” said scholar Nathan Jones on the charges facing Genaro García Luna, Mexico’s ex-security chief, related to the killing of a DEA informant.
Mexican cartels are deterred on U.S. soil by effective policing and judicial entities — one reason the U.S. homicide rate is much lower — but it's difficult to measure how much violence in the U.S. is directly linked, said Center for the U.S. and Mexico's Nathan Jones.