The Vetting Process in Mexico

Yesterday, December 30, 2012, Officers of the Directorate of Public Security (Secretaría de la Seguridad Pública) working at Puerto Peñasco participated in a model anti-doping test to detect the presence of drugs in their urine. Both male and female police officers were tested by medical personnel as required by law to obtain or retain a firearms permit.

Commander Lugo Duron said, "We are accepting provisions of the public safety act which obliges practice exams antidoping to each of the elements so that they are able to carry his weapon's charge," 

Guillermo Valdés Castellanos, CSIEN Director

The drug cartels do not require testing before handing out machine guns, ammunition and hand grenades -- though the failure to test positive for narcotics (providing that the cartels offered a test) might make them believe that you were a cop. 

USGOV has pushed for increased vetting of MEXGOV officials through the Office of Bilateral Implementation (OBI)** and the chemical tests to determine recent illegal drug use is just one part of that process. Another level involves the use of the polygraph (lie detector). Guillermo Valdés Castellanos, director of CISEN has been a strong proponent of the polygraph.

**OBI is staffed with U.S. and Mexican personnel to follow-up on joint activities and projects under the US-Funded Merida Initiative.

Genero Garcia Luna,
Corrupt head of SSP

Does the polygraph really work as advertised? The short answer is that it works against honest people with remarkably effective results. It is completely worthless when employed against sociopaths. Since most narcos are by definition, sociopaths, one can only express concern that this is relied upon. Blood tests work of traitors within the system use drugs. If they don't, the tests only push them through as being somehow "reliable".

When Genero Garcia Luna, Minister of Secretaría de la Seguridad Pública (SSP), is a bought and paid for asset of the Sinaloa Federation drug cartel, it's difficult to contend that the vetting process in Mexico that is designed to remove criminals from within the ranks of SSP is effective. In fact, because the vetting process is relied upon (primarily by USGOV), it has become a dangerous thing.

I have spoken to influential members of USGOV in Mexico and pointed out that this or that person is unreliable because they are corrupt, they inevitably tell me, "Juan, that person - and those people - have been vetted**. You must be wrong." 

**VETTING was originally a horse racing term, referring to the requirement that a horse be checked for health and soundness by a veterinarian (or vet) before being allowed to race. Thus, it has taken the general meaning "to check". Today, Vetting is the processes of assessing the integrity of individuals (such as their adherence to relevant human rights standards, past involvement with criminal elements, drug use, etc.) in order to determine their suitability for public employment.

The government system in Mexico is corrupt because the process of vetting that might work well in, say, the USA, is ineffective in Mexico.