Once you really consider things like drug trafficking, which functions here to turn the people into prey to harvest profits out of at the expense of their own well-being

I don't think this provides the whole picture.

EZLN are losing territory because people, the locals in some territories, are finding that the drug cartels are able to make them a lot of money.

They are not necessarily unleashing these drugs on the local populace. They are producing the drugs and shipping them abroad, where they make far more money from them. This money then becomes the wages they pay the people in production.

The problem is that these cartels have such large resources that they're able to actually acquire local support because the money to be made is higher than outside. Couple this with ruthlessly murdering anyone opposing them and you get entire territories turning into industry for the cartels.

This would all be considerably easier if it was just rehabilitating addicts and turning them into a force against the cartel but it's not so simple, the cartel is providing more than these people had before the cartel arrived.