Corruption In Mexico Research Paper

The changes in key government leadership positions have had significant implications on Mexico 's drug trade business (Lupsha 1995). Take the example of one of Mexico 's leading drug traffickers, Juan Garcia Abrego who is widely known as the inventor of Mexican drug trafficking. Abrego 's drug smuggling operations flourished under former President Salina 's administration. When former President Zedillo entered office in December of 1994, Abrego lost the high-level protection provided under the former President Salina. Without this level of protection, Abregos influence in the drug trade industry decreased dramatically to the point of bankruptcy, in a traditional business sense. During this transformation, other well-connected cartels gained uncontested access to large drug trafficking corridors once controlled by Abrego. Despite Abregos deteriorating drug influence in Mexico, President Zedillo put a large bounty on him, making Abrego the most wanted drug smuggler in Mexico. Nevertheless, Abrego 's eventual capture was highly celebrated by the United States as a sign of Mexico 's increasing efforts and dedication to the elimination of illicit drug smuggling operations. In my opinion the example of Abrego 's lost influence and highly celebrated capture directly relates to the politic rhetoric and corruption that is associated with

At first, Mexican drug cartels were structured just like family owned businesses. There would be a family member who was the main drug lord and cousins and uncles of the family would be the body guards and drug dealers. After the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) lost their power within the Mexican government the structure of drug cartels became much more complex. A hierarchical diffusion is seen within the drug cartel system because the drugs spread from one important drug lord to another, and we generally see this happening in the urban part of Mexico, more than in the rural areas. A corporate structure began forming as hierarchies began developing under drug lords and more people got involved. Professor Guillermo Trejo of Notre Dame 's Kellogg Institute claims that once the PRI lost their power there was a rapid increase in violence. This is because of Mexico’s former President, Felipe Calderón, who politically associates with the National Action Party (PAN). In 2006 President Calderón declared war on the drug cartels. This milestone triggered a huge change within Mexico’s international relations, government, and culture.

Mexico is the eleventh most populated country in the world with a $2.2 trillion economy (CIA, 2017). It is also an extremely popular tourist destination for Americans and Europeans alike. Moreover, its people have had the highest average annual hours worked in the world every year for the last three years (OECD, 2017). Despite this, their unemployment rate is estimated to be 3.6% and their underemployment at 25% (CIA, 2017). I am going to expand on this country’s issues with corruption, organized crime, violence, the economy, and how I assess their future will affects us here in the United States.

Drug trafficking has been going on in Mexico for a long time caused by economic instability among Mexican population but it has also been sparked by its neighbor country laws and prohibitions. The United States prohibition on alcohol of the 1920’s that eliminated the consumption of alcohol to prevent crimes and alcoholism. The United states created the unpopular

The extent of drug cartel’s economic dependency on U.S. and other foreign buyers shields individual empires from oppression and the threat of rival groups. As the percent of cocaine being transported into the US raises from 77 percent to more than 90 percent, drug cartels are becoming stronger and more widespread (Lee n. pag.). With the rapidly escalating number of U.S. cocaine sales, Mexican mafias profit immensely. These cash profits fund all cartel activities including the

They argue that the increase can be related to drug trafficking. They explain that illegal activities are usually associated with violence because members of organized illegal enterprises can’t seek legal means of dealing with violations of business agreements and must resort to violence as a way to resolve conflicts. The authors acknowledge several limitations in gathering data on violence related to drug crimes. For example, most data sets don’t cover exactly the same period of time, they vary in the geographic level of data aggregation, and some report at national levels while others report at the state level. However, characteristics such as the use of certain types of weapons and tactics, extreme forms of violence like torture or decapitation, overt messages to authorities and rivals. and intentional public evidence of their violence are usually a way of distinguishing a homicide as being associated with drug trafficking organizations. The authors use various secondary sources and figures to support their argument that violence has increased dramatically in Mexico. They also point out changes in distribution and quality of violence that suggest a relationship to drug trafficking. For example, they found that the highest rates of homicide were concentrated in areas associated with production or transit of

In 2006, Mexico began to crack down on drug trafficking operations in union with the United States. Why all of the sudden? In regard to that question, my paper will include a history of events leading up to this sudden crack down on drug trafficking, from its start in the 1960’s until today. After the history of the drug war, I will discuss the main states involved like the United States and Mexico itself. Along with their main goal of eliminating drug trafficking all together, although it is a very high expectation. Mexico has sent out 50,000 soldiers that are being paid less than a burrito vendor, in attempt to lessen the

Critics outside and inside of Mexico who are witness to the casualties of the Mexican War on Drugs are keen to blame Felipe Calderon’s administration (the Mexican government) for the escalation of conflict within the country starting in 2006; arguing that the fast militarization and the lack of the state’s strength augmented such conflict. In the article “Did the Military Interventions in the Mexican Drug War Increased Violence?” by Valeria Espinosa and Donald B Rubin; the statistics analysts, studied two articles from a leading Mexican magazine Nexos, both with the same conclusion, “that military interventions had increased homicide rates in those states where intervention took place” (Espinosa and Rubin, 17). The results, although it was

During the early 1990’s Colombia being one of the biggest exporters of narcotics in history, led by Pablo Escobar, who had a wide range of organized crime affiliations throughout Latin America. Pablo Escobar was a Colombian drug lord and he smuggled narcotics all the way to South Florida as when authorities tried to capture him. One of Pablo Escobar’s most important alliances was that of the Mexican-based traffickers. Escobar knew that this was an important trade route because of its geography and how it would be easier to smuggle the narcotics into the United States. This allowed a smuggling partnership between both countries and Mexico was to eventually lead their own drug based trafficking system with the help of Pablo Escobar. From the distributed drugs, cartels would take a certain amount of profit, and would use that money to bribe Mexican officials. By bribing Mexican officials it was insured that if smugglers were to be arrested they would either be let go, the case would be dropped or taking action against a rival smuggling group by giving away information about the rival’s plan to carry

The 19th century wars had killed hundreds of thousands people, and with the 100 million (75% city) population was under poverty, this is show that the government did not do a good job on their role, but too bad the people in Mexico did not have the second choice, there is only one party the Partido Revolucionario Institucional, which stabilized their nation for 71 years since 1929. The political system was in the heavily corruption. Then the culture where kids grown up in crime actives, all of this make Mexico open to OC and drug cartels. The government pushed their people to become the OC and drug cartels, where the people can have protection and the stable live without scare of die in poverty. If you are living in the culture, where you lost all the trust in government and with all the crime actives around you since you was kind then you will likely turn in a member of crime.

However, corruption did not slow down either during the PAN’s administration. In 2008, the abduction of Fernando Marti “the Mexican public was particularly outraged upon discovery of the involvement of law enforcements-including federal police officers- in the kidnapping ring” (Edmonds-Poli & Shirk pg.242). Corruption in the law enforcement sector is something that is not uncommon nor is it a recent problem affecting Mexico. The police force is something that many Mexican people actual fear and think that they can’t depend on for help. This is because many of the police officers take jobs in this field just for money. Many see police work as a way to “build up savings to establish his own business”, or “that make police work a way of life, passing from one department to another”, and there are also those who use it as a way so that “as a policeman, no one will come looking for me for killing Carmelo” (Artega & Lopez pg. 61-62). With a lack of a good law enforcement agency the “less than 20 percent of Mexicans said that they would expect the justice system to provide a fair trial and due process” (Edmonds-poli & Shirk pg.232). Without a change in the amount of corruption that these people faced on a daily basis, the Mexican people just became irritated with the lack of help from the PAN

The government has made some gains, but at a heavy price. A total of 34,612 people have died in drug-related killings in Mexico in the first four years (Siddique). Most of these killing are between cartel rivals fighting for the control of territories. There are five cartels operating in Mexico: the Sinaloa, the Gulf, Juarez, Tijuana, the Zetas. The major cartels are the Gulf, Sinaloa and Juarez (Cook 21). Many of these cartels have joined together forming powerful alliances known as the “Federation” (Cook 17). The cartels work together, but they remain independent organizations.

Mexico has been associated with the trafficking of crack-cocaine since the 1960’s, the decade that showed the first sizable wave of cocaine trafficking in Mexico. If Cuban drug gangs had not been separated at this time to seek lives in Mexico, Mexico would not have been introduced as a major actor of crack cocaine smuggling so early on. Since then, Mexicans have bargained with

“Founded by Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo, Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo, and Rafael Caro Quintero, the Guadalajara Cartel is one of the five most famous drug cartels in history as it was among the first to work with and significantly prosper from the cocaine trade started in Colombia. Though his colleagues were arrested early on, Félix Gallardo was smart enough to privatize the Mexican drug trade by having it run by lesser-known bosses-yet top drug leaders-whom he had convene at “the plazas,” a house in Acapulco. He was eventually arrested and the Guadalajara Cartel split into two other powerful cartels, both mentioned

The Economics and Politics of Drugs and Violence in Mexico video by the University of Chicago, explains some of the problems of violence in Mexico as well as the drug cartel that is rising. Eduard Guerrero explains the evolution and triggering mechanisms of Mexico’s organized crime violence since December of 2006, and that it has increased in numbers to up to 76 thousand by 2011. While the drug cartels that have been around, also lead to violence in Mexico.