The
Mexican Drug War: an issue that affects the entirety of Mexico and the
southwestern states of the United States of America. Shortly after Felipe Calderon(president of Mexico) was sworn into office in 2006, the drug
war became widely known. Since
then there has been nearly fifty thousand deaths involving
citizens, government officials, and criminals alike. The purpose of these killings, crude
in
nature,is to serve as a symbol of the cartels' power instilling fear and
ensuring further obedience. this article, I will provide factual
insight and possible remedies for the war on drugs in Mexico.
The
Mexican drug war has been a hot debate in the world since Felipe
Calderon, declared war on drugs in Mexico when he sent six thousand five
hundred
troops to cull a rivalry between two opposing gangs. This was the
beginning of a war that would kill many innocent people and create mass
violence in Mexico. The United States gave Mexico and other countries
one billion four hundred thousand dollars to help
combat drugs. It is not widely known why this was done but, the
assumption is that it may have been done to prevent the overflow of
drugs into the United States. America of drugs does not greatly effect
the American population. However, according to a recent
interagency intelligence assessment nearly
sixty five percent
of all the cocaine in America comes across the southwestern border-- a
staggering statistic if I do say so myself. This statistic also shows
that neither Mexico
nor the United States Border Patrol is very successful in abolishing the
drug trade.
According
to some who are analyzing the Mexican drug war, the drug cartels that
power this movement were founded within the United States prison
system.
During the early stages of the drug war alliances were formed by
inmates in the prisons of the United States. These alliances were formed
so that drugs could be smuggled in and out of prisons and amongst the
prisoners. Once these inmates were released they
were sent back to Mexico where the alliances that they formed in prison
prospered into powerful organized crime circuits. Now they are the very
drug lords that President Felipe Colderon is battling in his war on
illegal substances. At the time, the United
States was unaware that it was pouring fuel on the fire that would become the Mexican drug war. It
is important to understand who is fighting
who on this matter and where the battle originated. There are two
dominant cartels in the mix of the war-- The Sinaloa gang and the Gulf
Cartel. The Sinaloa gang is the country’s largest cartel by volume of
drugs trafficked. The Sinaloa gang grew out of the
coastal state of Sinaloa which was once known for the opium gum produced
by Chinese immigrants. This is now produced by hundreds of thousands of
Mexican campesinos. At the head of the Sinaloa gang is “El Chapo”
Guzmán. Forbes magazine estimates his wealth
at nearly one billion dollars and the United States government
currently has a five million dollar bounty out for his capture. The
second largest group is the Gulf Cartel. The Gulf Cartel was founded in
the northeaster border state of Tamaulipas. The cartel
grew dramatically in the chaos of the early 1990’s. The group not only
does drug trafficking but it is known to do direct sales as well as
various other illegal activities. The group has managed to produce a
violent image for themselves.
It is very evident that most of the Mexican population is very unhappy with the military led campaign that the president Felipe Calderon is condoning. In a recent luncheon that occurred early in 2012 where the president was presenting a creative industry development plan that he claimed would benefit the countries security’s interest a man that was identified by the press as Tonatiuh Moreno shouted “When will this war be over? Where will you live when your term is finished?” Calderon was quick to reply “maybe here in Guadalajara, mi estimado,” or “maybe here in Guadalajara, my esteemed.” The question posed by the citizen is a very good one. It not only put the president on the spot where he had no pre planned speech to help support himself but it also asked about after his term where he would live. This is a very important question in the respect that it concerns the presidents life and how after his term he will not be as safe as he is now, and that he when his term is over he will see the side of the problem from the point of view of the common man, rather than the statistics he may receive on his desk. The presidents reply can be taken as the fact that he is not afraid of the drug lords and he is not afraid of the war, also that he is willing to stick behind the problem. This is not the only outburst by a citizen during the president’s term, in fact, his term is marked with memorable outbursts from disheartened citizens. In 2008 a teenage science whiz named Andres Gomez Emilsson had an out burst at an awards ceremony at the National Palace. In his outburst he stood up with his hands straight up in the air and yelled “espurio” which means false. It is believed that the teen was eluding the presidents election victory. In 2010 the mother of two teenage victims who were gruesomely murdered stood up and berated the president and the first lady by shouting in tears “for me you are not welcome here, try and put yourself in my shoes and feel what I feel.” Calderon used Moreno’s retort to help fuel his campaign by saying "If you or others presume that the Mexican government -- my government -- would cross its arms and watch as they attack the young people of Mexico, as they kidnap them, as they extort them, you are very mistaken."
The deaths
in the drug war were nearly reaching an exponential increase until june of 2010 where the toll went down slightly. The
reason
for the recent decrease in deaths is not certain however most people
would agree that it will not stay that way for long. Just two years ago
in june of 2010 when the toll hit its peak there was about one thousand
and four hundred people that were dieng
per month due to the Mexican drug war. Throughout the drug war there
have been multiple American casualties due to the drug war from
2006-2011 only reach about one hundred and eighty five. It is unsure if
the deaths of the American casualties were directly
related to the drug wars in Mexico however it is known that these deaths
were violent in nature. The deaths by year seem to stay fairly constant
and high in six states of mexico, these states are Baja California, Chihuahua,
Coahuila, Nuevo León, Sonora,
Tamaulipas.
The death tolls in these six states are substantially higher than the
other states. The reason for this may be due to the fact that these
states border the United States and the
amount of drug trafficking into the United States may have an influence
on the amount of violence. Deaths
of citizens are not necessarily directly connected to the war, for
example, in
Nuevo Larado in Novemeber of 2011 there were at least four deaths that
were recorded due to being a reporter on an issue or even posting on
blogs. In fact, many of the mainstream media company's have stopped
there coverage of the drug war due to being threatened
or being bribed by the drug organizations. This means that the Mexican
population may not be aware of the violence that is occurring all over
their country due to the lack of coverage. There is a similar system in
North Korea where the government only lets
the people see what they want them to see, the Cartel’s only let the
news cover what they want them to cover. In the Picture seen below it
can be easily depicted that violent deaths are an everyday occurance
based off of the fact that the people in the background
are not even paying attention and going about their usual day.
image from Denver Post |
In
the article “Guns: The U.S. Threat to Mexican National Security” the
issue of Americans smuggling guns into Mexico is examined. This is a
critical
argument that shows how the Mexican drug rings may get there weapons. In
2004 the United States Congress allowed the federal ban on assault
rifles to expire and in 2005 the Mexican authorities’ confiscated and
unprecedented ten thousand five hundred and seventy
nine smuggled weapons and they say that nearly ninety percent of them
came from the United States. That means that approximately nine thousand
five hundred and twenty one guns came from the United States. With this
amount of guns traveling into Mexico it is
no wonder that the Cartel's have established connections with the
borders of the United States. These connections may not only be used for
the supply of weapons but to outsource the drugs into the United States
Some of the solutions
that have been tried have clearly not worked, for instance, in March of
2009 the Mexican president Felipe Calderon administration asked the
United States congress for seven hundred million dollars. The basis for
this request was that the money would fight the
violent trafficking of drugs into the United States and to reduce
illegal flows of drugs. However, the drug trade does not seem to be
slowing down any across the border. Also, the firm plans to clamp down
on the amount of drugs that are smuggled into America
by creating more drug treatment facilities and increasing the amount of
funding that drug courts receive. The problems that are being forseen
with this are that drug trafficking is a very lucrative business and it
is a black market that attracts people purely
do to the fact that it is a black market. Also, many believe that as
long as these drugs are illegal the trade of them will be done by crime
organizations. A new solution to this problem is to not make all of the
drugs legal but to make some of the drugs of
lesser lethality legal, such as marijuana. This legalization will give
the drug traffikers less drugs to smuggle across the American border due
to the fact that the drugs will be widely available. Also the american
border patrol as well as the Mexican border
patrol are cracking down on the amount of guns that have been smuggled
into and out of the united sates. I believe that president Felipe
Calderon should decrease the amount of brute force that is being used to
try and combat the issue and focus more on the
technology aspect of the situation. Brute force is proving to just make
the drug Cartel's angry and to show violence.
Print Works Cited:
Kellner, Tomas, and Francesco Pipitone.
"Inside Mexico's Drug War." World Policy Journal 27.1 (2010): 29-37.
Academic Search Complete. Web. 10 May 2012
Weinberg, Bill. "Guns: The U.S. Threat To
Mexican National Security. (Cover Story)." NACLA Report On The Americas
41.2 (2008): 21-26. Academic Search Complete. Web. 10 May 2012.