In the News: Gladys McCormick

"As communities take matters into their own hands, implementing their own safety protocols and taking the helm of how they each prepare for the coming pandemic, we see a further erosion of the federal government’s authority," says Gladys McCormick, Jay and Debe Moskowitz Endowed Chair in Mexico-U.S. Relations. 

"With poorly communicated and inconsistent messaging that offers no clear guidelines, [Mexico's] federal government’s inaction has given rise to widespread rumors that are beginning to stoke panic and insecurity," says Gladys McCormick, associate professor of history and Jay and Debe Moskowitz Endowed Chair in Mexico-U.S. Relations.

According to Gladys McCormick, Jay and Debe Moskowitz Endowed Chair in Mexico-U.S. Relations, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard are anticipated to resist and challenge the designation of Mexican cartels as terrorist groups by the United States.

A whole series of sort of mid-tier and lower level and smaller kind of up-and-coming, wannabe cartels are trying to set up shop in this terrain," says Gladys McCormick, associate professor of history and Jay and Debe Moskowitz Endowed Chair in Mexico-U.S. Relations. "They're striking deals with each other, with the big players."

Gladys McCormick, associate professor of history and Jay and Debe Moskowitz Endowed Chair in Mexico-U.S. Relations, says Thursday’s apparent capitulation to the Sinaloa Cartel was "sending a loud message to other organized crime networks…that if they show up with enough firepower to a fight, they will win and get their way because the government does not have the wherewithal to fight back."

"What is incontrovertible is that the Sinaloa Cartel won yesterday’s battle," said Gladys McCormick, associate professor of history and Jay and Debe Moskowitz Endowed Chair in Mexico-U.S. Relations. "Not only did they get the government to release Ovidio, they demonstrated to the citizens of Culiacan as well as the rest of Mexico who is in control."

"Because of the fact that it has a horizontal leadership structure, the decentralized network of bosses, a lot of local gangs with specialized duties that are affiliated with the Sinaloa cartel, what we're witnessing is sort of a moment of transition," says Gladys McCormick, Jay and Debe Moskowitz Endowed Chair in Mexico-U.S. Relations.

"Since Mexico’s President Felipe Calderón declared the start of the Drug War in 2006, both the U.S. and Mexico’s security forces have aggressively pursued what is referred to as the kingpin strategy: they go after the 'head’ with the intent of weakening the ‘body,’" says Gladys McCormick, associate professor of history and Jay and Debe Moskowitz Endowed Chair in Mexico-U.S. Relations.

"The question we should all ask is whether President Donald Trump’s threat of imposing scaled tariffs on Mexico will go the way he plans—including shutting down the border," says Gladys McCormick, Jay and Debe Moskowitz Endowed Chair in Mexico-U.S. Relations.

"The fallout of such tariffs could be catastrophic to Mexico's economy, thereby worsening the migration north," says Gladys McCormick, associate professor of history and Jay and Debe Moskowitz Endowed Chair in Mexico-U.S. Relations.

Gladys McCormick, the Jay and Debe Moskowitz Endowed Chair in Mexico-U.S. Relations at the Maxwell School, was published in The Hill. She writes about the interpolation by the Trump administration of southern border refugees as Mexican, whereas these immigrants are also fleeing Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador as well.

Gladys McCormick, Jay and Debe Moskowitz Endowed Chair in Mexico-U.S. Relations, explains (former) Mexican President Felipe Calderón's strategy to crack down on drug trafficking organizations was to eliminate drug kingpins. But rather than eliminating the cartels, the capture and death of cartel leaders have led to their members creating smaller organizations.

"The U.S. government’s ties to humanitarian aid to Venezuela are deeply suspect and it’s common knowledge that it’s intended to fast track the military’s defection of current President Nicolás Maduro," writes Gladys McCormick, associate professor of history and Jay and Debe Moskowitz Endowed Chair in Mexico-U.S. Relations. "If it truly is to be humanitarian aid, the Trump administration needs to decouple it from its aggressive, militaristic agenda," she adds.

"If history has given us any lesson, it is that the U.S. government should step aside and let the Venezuelan people—with the assistance of multilateral organizations—guide this much-needed opening for democratic change forward," writes Gladys McCormick, associate professor of history and the Jay and Debe Moskowitz Endowed Chair in Mexico-U.S. Relations.  

There is nothing new here when it comes to putting military officers in charge of a police force. This is the same thing that has been trotted out by other administrations," says Gladys McCormick, associate professor of history and Jay and Debe Moskowitz Endowed Chair in Mexico-U.S. Relations.