Similarities to counter-terrorism are only partial. Cartels aren't driven by ideological anti-Western sentiment. Locals angry at botched US intervention would not be similarly motivated to join them. The cartels are also not merely hiding in certain regions but functioning as quasi-governmental organizations (and often with support of local government officials), so destabilizing the governance of those areas is not as unambiguously bad.
The fundamental problem with Mexican drug cartels is that they have government backing. Naturally one arm of Mexican government trying to shut down the cartels will be neutralised by the other arms which are making out like, uh, bandits from the drug industry.
You seem to think that the cartels are innocent choirboys victimised by a ruthless state police. Not so. A couple of times a week the equivalent of a Nova Massacre people die, some innocent victims of the cartels, some cartel foot-soldiers in inter-gang warfare, some state security forces and a few, a very few, killed by the state. How do you think those US weapons got into the hands of the cartels? They were given to the cartels! Wars tend to be bloody, brutal and violent. We are dealing with bloody, brutal and violent criminals. As Neville Chamberlain discovered, olive branches simply don't work.
Similarities to counter-terrorism are only partial. Cartels aren't driven by ideological anti-Western sentiment. Locals angry at botched US intervention would not be similarly motivated to join them. The cartels are also not merely hiding in certain regions but functioning as quasi-governmental organizations (and often with support of local government officials), so destabilizing the governance of those areas is not as unambiguously bad.
The fundamental problem with Mexican drug cartels is that they have government backing. Naturally one arm of Mexican government trying to shut down the cartels will be neutralised by the other arms which are making out like, uh, bandits from the drug industry.
You seem to think that the cartels are innocent choirboys victimised by a ruthless state police. Not so. A couple of times a week the equivalent of a Nova Massacre people die, some innocent victims of the cartels, some cartel foot-soldiers in inter-gang warfare, some state security forces and a few, a very few, killed by the state. How do you think those US weapons got into the hands of the cartels? They were given to the cartels! Wars tend to be bloody, brutal and violent. We are dealing with bloody, brutal and violent criminals. As Neville Chamberlain discovered, olive branches simply don't work.