Ben Rhodes

They're not some sort of backwoods neophytes.

They've been doing this for generations in some cases, and they will do all they can to avoid having a direct conflict with U.S.

Well, they definitely want to see much more accountability for criminals in Mexico.

There's a sense that her predecessor, who was a very popular president, he was not popular in terms of the security issues.

practices of his government, which were to concede a lot of space, frankly, to organize crime, which under Scheinbaum has been reversed.

And that part is popular, making criminals

pay a price or be held to account is popular because the level of insecurity in Mexico is quite high.

People still disappear in large numbers.

In some parts of Mexico, it's still quite dangerous for ordinary people.

On the other hand, this is going to remind people of the worst parts of when Felipe Calderon, a prior president,

basically declared war on the cartels, and they declared war on the population.

And you saw massive violence that really began a period of large-scale disappearances, fragmentation, a lot of infighting that led to a lot of civilian deaths as well.

So I think that they are fearful of the consequence.

But I think in general, the idea of being more aggressive against organized crime is popular.

Wow.

What has been effective?

Very little.

Very little.

The reality is that what has been effective is, to an extent, a demand reduction in the United States sometimes works.

Look, you're exactly right about that.