The Patriot Post® · Drug War Is Fueling Central American Violence

Columnist Jacob Sullum: “[T]he government’s response to that demand fuels criminality by creating a black market in which thugs violently vie for artificially high profits. That policy is one of the main factors driving the recent surge in unaccompanied minors making their way to Texas from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala. … In a 2013 survey by the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, 66 percent of children from El Salvador, 44 percent of children from Honduras and 20 percent of children from Guatemala mentioned ‘violence by organized armed criminal actors’ as a reason for leaving home. … Gen. John Kelly, who runs the U.S. Southern Command, estimates that ‘perhaps 80 percent’ of the violence behind ‘the mass migration of children we are all of a sudden struggling with’ is tied to the illegal drug trade. … Intensified enforcement is not just futile, but also positively harmful, fostering violence by destabilizing the black market.”