Mexican standoff on drugs
As Mexico devolves into a huge battleground between the various cartels and the government, Americans begin to look towards our southern neighbors in fear. One has to ask themselves what caused such a violent war to happen?
This archived article was written by: Cassidy Scovill
As Mexico devolves into a huge battleground between the various cartels and the government, Americans begin to look towards our southern neighbors in fear. One has to ask themselves what caused such a violent war to happen?
The reason these cartels are fighting is to control the drug trade in America. Because of their illicit nature, there is massive profit to be had. Mexico is in the perfect position to trade drugs into America. It is the land that bridges North America to South America, and as such, is the central location for the trading huge amounts of drugs across the border. Mexico already deals in heroine and marijuana, but Columbian traffickers are now partnering the Mexican runners to ship cocaine into America.
The borders of America and Mexico is a hot issue politically, although the focus politically seems to be on the immigrants and not the drugs. Immigrants cost America a fraction of what we’re spending on our two wars. The crime they introduce is more likely caused by the drugs that are being transported across our border.
These cartels are essentially the Mafia in Mexico, except they have more firepower and people than the mafia ever had. The Mexican cartels are fast becoming an international affair. They are now in dealings with African gangs. With partners in Africa they could finally get their drugs into Europe, where Asia is the primary supplier of drugs. The mafia was essentially various powerful Italian families, the Mexican cartels are separated by locations. There are eight cartels for various regions, and those eight are separated into two groups. Those that support the Gulf Cartel and those that support the Sinaloa cartel. It is the fighting between these two groups that cause the huge amount of casualties in Mexico.
The war in Mexico is escalating so that the U.S. Justice department now considers them the number one. Organized crime threat to our country. The cartels are more violent than ever with the Mexican government cracking down on the drug trade in Mexico.
The casualties of both innocents and criminals has reached to over 1500 some of those include journalists investigating the drug trafficking. A member of one of these cartels was kidnapped by a rival cartel, had his face sewn onto a soccer ball. The rest of his body was cut into pieces and hung Sinaloa. The soccer ball was found in a bag with a note that read “Happy New Year, because this will be your last!”
One can only hope that the current Mexican President Felipe Calderón manages to prevent further escalations in the Mexican cartels drug wars.
