Hui. That's difficult to sum up in a few sentences.

Are cartels criminal or terrorist organisations by nature? I think criminal. There should be laws and courts to convict and punish them. Well, when criminals and law enforcement officials enter into mutual relationships (aka corruption), then regulation by law doesn't work.

But that is only the basis for the cartels becoming so powerful that they can do whatever they want. The path to terrorism is then not far off, but it is still not there. It remains organised crime like any mafia in the world, any triad, any Cosa Nostra...

Is radical state power a means of ending this? No. On the one hand, parts of this state power will always be corruptible. On the other hand, this zero-tolerance policy simply does not work.

Another approach: legalise drugs. If possession, acquisition, consumption and trade are no longer illegal, prices will fall. No criminal energy is needed to deal drugs anymore. It would be a business like any other. The cartels would become obsolete. They would try to switch to prostitution, human trafficking, robbery: this is easier to manage and prevent by law, and it has no support among the population.

Is this a silver bullet? Only if it goes hand in hand with education, support services and a good basic social structure. What is needed, therefore, is a comprehensive social transformation towards a way of life in which cartels no longer have a place.

If, on the other hand, you destroy the clans today, their successors are already waiting in the wings, grinning, and will make everything much worse.