Essay on Mexican/Latin American “War” on Drugs and Trafficking

The Mexican Government should conclude obsolete programs and devote those resources to drug cartels. The Mexican Government spends unnecessary millions of dollars paying for local police departments that do not combat the trafficking of drugs. Local authorities are afraid of confronting the drug cartels. “We can just watch how they transport the drug from the Silverado to the Ram, crossing from Sinaloa to Chihuahua, We know who they are but we do not dare to oppose them, it’s a death sentence” (Soto). Alberto Soto stated that the local police department has been corrupted or threatened, “They do not care about their jobs but they fear for their families”.

With the decline of tensions between United States and the Soviet Union as a result of the end of the Cold War, the United States would shift their interest to new pressing issues. One of the major issues the United States took interest is was the persistent of illegal drugs. The “war on drugs” has been an issue in American politics since the presidency of Richard Nixon. The aim of the American government has been to reduce the amount of drug trafficking. International drug trafficking had become such an issue within the United States because of the high presence of consumer demand.

Another dimension to the predicament in Colombia is the drug problem. Colombia is the largest producer and provider of cocaine in the world. This problem, however, is not separate to the armed conflict. In the recent past decades, control over the drug business in Colombia has shifted from drug cartel organizations such as the notorious Medellin Cartel, to both the

The drug war has cost many problem problem in many countries especially in mexico where the heat of the problem has come to be from raging war between the govt of mexico and drug cartels, from many cities not being safe because of the constant violence throughout the country to economic disruption and more, more than 164,000 people had died between 2007 and 2014 because of the drug war in mexico more than the iraq and afghanistan war zones combine (Kurzgesagt).

The United States has a long history of intervention in the affairs of one it’s southern neighbor, Latin America. The war on drugs has been no exception. An investigation of US relations with Latin America in the period from 1820 to 1960, reveals the war on drugs to be a convenient extension of an almost 200 year-old policy. This investigation focuses on the commercial and political objectives of the US in fighting a war on drugs in Latin America. These objectives explain why the failing drug policy persisted despite its overwhelming failure to decrease drug production or trafficking. These objectives also explain why the US has recently exchanged a war on drugs for the war on

During the mid-2000’s former President of Mexico Felipe Calderon announced his war on the cartels and led to a crackdown against these organizations, along with assistance with

Ever since the war on drugs was started, most of the battle has been concentrated in Latin America, leaving trails of devastation from deep within Latin America up to the largest consumer of those substances. After years of fighting, and series’ of more and more aggressive policies put into place by the United States, drugs are just as prevalent if not more so than when the war began. Illegal drugs are still easy to obtain, demand for such substances has skyrocketed and cartels are becoming increasingly affluent. Drug violence since 2006 has resulted in the death of more than 60,000 people. Clearly, our current policies in waging this war are not effective, we have spent over 35 billion dollars over the course of 2013 to attempt to combat

Drug trafficking has become an increasingly growing problem in the world today. Illegal drug trade is a worldwide black market consisting of production, distribution, packaging, and sale of illegal substances. Although today’s "War on Drugs" is a modern phenomenon, drug problems have been a common problem throughout history. The market for illegal drugs is massive, when we consider the estimated global drug trade value is worth $321 billion (Vulliamy). The most drug trafficking happens on the border between Mexico and the United States. Former Mexican President Felipe Calderon said, “Our neighbor is the largest consumer of drugs in the world. And everybody wants to sell him drugs through our door and our window”

According to Johnson (1999) one of the reasons that there is such a profound war on drugs is the U.S. antidrug policy. Ever since this policy has been in effect it has contributed to the growth of the problem. The trafficking of drugs into the United States of America has corrupted officials everywhere. It had an effect on the economy and democracies creating violence and terrorism. It has had the ability to control major parts of the economy. (Bruce, 199) An example would be the Medellin cartel, led by Pablo Escobar; he killed a presidential candidate, judges, and hundreds of Colombian citizens to force then Colombian society to accept his drug business. In order for his business to run effectively he

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

In 2007, the president of Mexico, Felipe Calderon, aggressively waged a battle on drug traffickers. Regrettably the toll on human life has been unbearable. In 4 years, over 28,000 people have been killed. These killings are due to shootouts between drug traffickers and police, opposing drug gangs or slayings connected to drug use. The bulk of these unnecessary deaths take place in the Northern Mexico border area where cartels wage a lethal war over import routes to the United States. The most noteworthy cartels are the Sinaloa and Beltran-Leyva and La Familia. The Zetas, who offer security to the Gulf Cartel were built from former members of the military and now work privately.

The war on drugs is a serious issue in today’s society. One of the main places that has to endure this is Mexico. All around Mexico’s states, there are constant drug wars among different powerful cartels and drug lords. Due to these organizations, there are many instances of violence and needless deaths. There are many different drug lords, and they have caused many issues throughout Mexico.

“International events, like the recent soaring demand for heroin in the United States and the earlier crackdown on Caribbean smuggling routes and Colombian cartels in the 1980s and 1990s, have had significant local repercussions in Mexico. Even though the various sides are fighting for different goals this time around   the current war has much less to do with ideology and much more to do with wealth the Drug War participants and their methods are remarkably similar to those of the Cold War.”(Keller). In Keller’s article he explains how that now a days the war has more to do with wealth and power. Mexico’s cartels make billions of dollars off of the U.S with different kind of drugs. “Mexico produces and distributes marijuana, cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamine to most of the world. Its largest market, the U.S., sources 90% of its cocaine from Mexico. Drug trafficking is a lucrative activity for the Mexican cartels, generating estimated annual revenues of US$35 billion to US$45 billion for Mexico, with a profit margin of approximately 80%” (Duff) Duff Explains why cartels are getting so violent, Mexico gets about $35 billion to $45 billion due to the U.S getting 90% of its drug source from Mexico. Currently there’s seven major cartels that are providing drugs to the U.S.” For this reason, many cartels are fighting for the

Many illegal drugs are produced and sold in Latin America. Latin America has illegal drugs such as cocaine,marijuana,and basuco wich is a form of crack cocaine. It affects this country because it causes drug trafficking in Latin America. Drug trafficking is where you buy and sell illegal drugs.Wich is considered a very dangerous and serious crime.This causes crime rate to go up causing more and more people getting sent to jail,so this causes government officials to figure out ways to fix these problems in Latin America.

Pien Metaal, Drug policy in the Americas – a new set of Latin American policy proposal VOL. 12 NO. 3 2012, pp. 141-145 This article aims to give some background information about the debate around drug policies in Latin America and to provide a view on a possible future direction of the developing debate. High political level figures indicate that the current strategies in Latin America is has failed in reducing drug use. The results of this study are some of the policies and being debated are possible replicas of policies implemented in the US.