Alicia Calderón’s   harrowing  documentary.  ‘Retratos de una Búsqueda’ (‘Portraits of a Search) was introduced to journalists and diplomats in London ’. recently and after the showing Newsroom’s representative was able to spend time with the director.

By Joe Wallen

IN  2016, studies suggested Mexico’s ‘War on Drugs’ claimed an estimated 200,000 lives and left more than 30,000 people missing.

Alicia Calderón’s documentary primarily focuses on three Mexican mothers, Guadalupe, Natividad and Margarita, as they search for their children who have gone missing.

Calderon  highlights on the mothers’ resilience and resolve as opposed to portraying the women as mothers-in-mourning. They are seen to possess an inexhaustible, irrepressible desire to discover the truth about their offspring, however devastating it may.

One mother enlists the help of the FBI in sourcing DNA tests. Another scours the country, making endless calls to unhelpful personnel within the Mexican authorities. At the end of the film we see all three women unite to endure a seven-day hunger strike outside the local government  the  local government. Office.

Following the screening of her documentary Alicia joined me to  discussthe future of the ‘War on Drugs’ and what could be done to bring security and stability to her homeland.

Do you foresee any changes in the policy of President Pena Nieto towards the ‘War on Drugs’ in the lead up to the Mexican Presidential Election in 2018?

Not really. The only change I have seen has come in speech but not in actions. Enrique Peña has not mentioned the consequences of the war against and between drug trafficking, but the number of disappeared people continues to grow during his term and we have not seen a real strategy to reduce impunity and to effectively search for missing persons.

The figures tell us that every day 13 people disappear and, on the other hand, very few are located. There are hundreds of graves that the families of the disappeared have located in different parts of Mexico and many of them have not been analysed by the authorities.

The remains of thousands of people are underground, and the government of Enrique Peña Nieto is not able to rescue them and analyse them to try to identify them and give them to their relatives.

The Mexican Army continues its actions in the streets, committing atrocities and participating in many of the crimes committed against the civilian population.

Mexicans have not seen any benefit in the alleged fight against criminals, on the contrary, our quality of life is increasingly worse because of the fear we have of being a victim of the growing violence.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZVtyyHgYEA

How do you see the election of President Trump affecting the war on drugs in Mexico?

I definitely see it as something negative for Mexico. Trump is not in favour of regional growth and development in North America, including Mexico. On the contrary, he has repeated dozens of times his famous phrase "America First".

Mexico's economic development is highly dependent on the United States. Trump does not try to promote Mexico's economic growth, on the contrary, he has announced a renegotiation of the Free Trade Agreement that benefits the United States more.

The poor people of Mexico are the "cannon fodder" of drug cartels and criminal groups that take advantage of the families' need to include them in their criminal tasks. If Mexico fails to combat poverty, it will be difficult to combat organized crime. I think that with Trump, the poverty of Mexico could be aggravated.

Furthermore, the United States is the largest consumer of drugs in the world. Most of the drugs produced in Mexico go to the neighbouring country. Trump does not appear to have a policy or intention to discuss the legalization of certain drugs, such as marijuana, which in my view would reduce illegal demand and thus hundreds of deaths.

The excessive use of weapons in the United States and illegal traffic to Mexico is not a debatable issue for Trump, on the contrary, he is a president who favours arms policy and the use of arms by the civilian population. He is not a peaceful president.

What knock on effects do you see the war on drugs having across Central America as a whole? If it continues which other nations will be affected the most?

According to several studies in Central America, the war against drug trafficking in Mexico has strengthened the presence of drug cartels in countries such as Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. Violence related to organized crime has also increased in Central America thanks to the Mexican cartels that have been displaced and expanded to these countries as a result of confrontation with the Mexican Army.

Unfortunately both Mexico and the countries of Central America are the closest countries to the United States, the world's leading drug consumer. This geographical position favours the production of drugs in these countries where, in addition, corruption and impunity are also two serious problems.

In my opinion, both Mexico and the rest of Latin America have to work to strengthen their democracy, the substantial reduction of poverty and the judicial system that allows more effective control of drug cartel operations and organized crime that increasingly threatens the integrity of the population. This idea is perhaps for the time being a utopia, given that criminals have a good presence within governments at all levels.

On the other hand, the poverty of Central America that forces hundreds of migrants every day to try to cross Mexico to get to work in the United States has resulted in the death of dozens of them in Mexican territory and their kidnapping by the criminals themselves.

Central American migrants are often victims of Mexican cartels and the most unprotected group in the great pyramid of violence that plagues the country.