Will the International Criminal Court Investigate Mexico's 'Drug War'? Jesus Perez Caballero - InSight Crime
go to original November 5, 2014

The violence of Mexico's so-called "war on drugs" has caught the attention of the international community, with calls for the International Criminal Court (ICC) to turn its attention to the country. If they're successful, high-level government officials - or even leaders of drug trafficking organizations - may be prosecuted in the Hague. But it's a difficult road ahead.

The ICC's Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) is the body that will decide if there's evidence that the most serious atrocities under international law have taken place in Mexican territory. According to the Rome Statute, drug trafficking isn't within the ICC's jurisdiction, but the way that different actors may either fight or defend the drug trade is - if, for example, war crimes are committed, or crimes against humanity.

Under international law, a war crime can only occur during an armed conflict. To define a situation as such, jurisprudence requires that both sides in the conflict are organized and are engaged in intense combat. In Mexico, this could encompass the armed capacity of the drug trafficking organizations, and the state's use of military force to combat them. There have been episodes of intense violence involving the Zetas and the Gulf Cartel in northern Mexico, like the May 2014 killings in Tamaulipas.

Nevertheless, there has been no coordinated effort among the cartels to confront the security forces - every organization works on its own. They haven't yet overcome their differences to unite against the state and become something like a belligerent force.

Nor are the criminal groups hierarchical. The Zetas' so-called "military outlook" is marked by their frequent use of violence. They've used tactics that have caused widespread social alarm, like terrorism, but they haven't declared war against the state. In that sense, their case is similar to that of Colombian criminal group the Urabeños. Although ICC prosecutors describe the latter group as having a vertical structure, this isn't a general dynamic and the group essentially operates in a decentralized way, acting on its economic interests.

Read the rest at InSight Crime

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