Why have many people in Mexico turned to drug trafficking?
Kate Rosenthal
Mr. Knollman
2GH AP World History
27 May 2016
Aranda, Salvador Maldonado. “Stories of Drug Trafficking in Rural Mexico: Territories, Drugs and Cartels in Michoacán”. Revista Europea de Estudios Latinoamericanos y del Caribe / European Review of Latin American and Caribbean Studies 94 (2013): 43–66. JSTOR.Web.16 May. 2016
In this article, Salvador Maldonado Aranda writes about drug trafficking in response to Mexico’s transitioning political system. Mexico’s newly introduced and unstable social, economic, and political policies played a part in assisting drug traffickers to thrive in their jobs. He notes that the drug traffickers are regarded as heroes
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Aranda is currently working on two research projects that include violence and drugs as well as political parties and citizenship. He has also done field work in many cities throughout Mexico. This article talks about how drug trafficking was thriving due to the new and unstable Mexican government, as well as drug lords and traffickers being regarded as heroes. This article touches on the fact that drug trafficking in Mexico is so widespread due to alliances between some drug lords and politicians. Overall, this article explains in detail how and why drug trafficking is so popular in areas across …show more content…
However, Mexico is still fighting drug trafficking internally although they hardly have any resources to properly do this. Chabat comments that drug trafficking is so popular do to the demand for the drugs in other countries. In the mid-1900’s the Mexican government made way in cracking down on illegal drugs. They created punishments for the traffickers and signed agreements to help prohibit drug trafficking in general. Still, drug trafficking in Mexico seems to be present and a large problem due to the violence it creates.
Jorge Chabat has been a professor of International Studies in Mexico City at the Center for Research and Teaching on Economics since 1983. He is also an expert not only on national security but drug trafficking as well. Since Chabat is located in Mexico City and has for a number of years, this makes him a knowledgeable and credible source regarding problems such as drug trafficking in
After reading Mexico’s Illicit Drug Networks and the State Reaction, I have concluded that this short read is highly informative and intriguing. I personally was drawn in by the horrific stories of violence, kidnapping, and mass murders of deadly encounters, and fascinated by learning how the state planned and responded. Author Nathan Jones, is able to illustrate why Mexican drug cartels have been able to prolong existence while under attack by Mexico and the United States. He is able to do so by examining and comparing two types of illicit drug networks and how they provoke different state reactions based on their business strategy. Jones relates his discoveries to the Arellano Felix Organization because “it was one of the first Mexican cartel to be targeted by the state and split along trafficking-oriented and territorial lines [where] one survived and one did not” (p. 12). This read is significant because it allows for the government to better distinguish between drug networks that will withstand the test of time, and those that will crumble under pressure. Jones utilizes his findings and applied it to the novel, and the current drug prohibition program.
A piece from a report based on Mexico’s Drug Trafficking Organizations: Source and Scope of the Rising Violence is presented. The spike in violence due to inter- and intra-cartel conflict over lucrative drug smuggling routes has been accompanied by an increase in kidnapping for ransom and other crimes.
Drug trafficking first started to show itself in Latin America during the years from the 1960s to 1970s, when the use of drugs began to become more popular throughout the youth of this period (“Crandal”). During this time, the people in these exporting countries started to see a large growth in the revenues brought upon by the trafficking, and rural communities began to supply more and more drugs, beginning with Marijuana, but eventually becoming a much larger exporter of cocaine(“Drug Trafficking”). Cocaine began to seem like the perfect drug to traffic
Crime in Mexico is one of the most urgent and serious concerns facing Mexico today. Crime statistics in Mexico show that even over the years, the crime rate has decreased. Over the last 100 years or more there has still been a huge upswing in drug related crimes, especially within the last few decades (Tuckman). Crimes as of today are not all reported, so the rates may be higher than statistics indicate. The government is not able to catch all of these drug and violent crimes going on throughout the country. The vast majority of these crimes are due to assault and theft. Mexico is known as the “gateway” for illicit goods and all things illegal; many criminals take that to the extreme advantage. Many
Approximately 1.2 million people were victims of human trafficking within Mexico in 2010 (Gurney, 2014). An estimated 50,000 women and children are trafficked into the United States (O'Niel Richard, 1999). The majority of the trafficking victims in the United States are either from or pass through Mexico (O'Niell, 2010). These smuggling rings tend to be small gangs, larger criminal groups and corrupt individuals that victimize people from their own country, that work together to traffic individuals (O'Niel Richard, 1999). In addition to these groups, there is evidence that state officials, such as police officers, that are involved in trafficking, either directly or by compliance to the gangs (House, 2010). Human trafficking is a fast-growing
Drug lords pays well to his helpers, for some because of the wealth they could have they change form a teacher to a trafficker. And drug traffickers has their own benefits in the ‘society’ they are the law in Mexico. The age of recruitment has been getting younger as teenagers are an easier bait for glamorous living dressed with cars and girls. The drug trade provides incomes for many but bring the city to a legitimate economic down pour. For decades Mexico was controlled by the Partido Revolucino Institucional or PRI, the relationship between the drug traders and PRI begins and solidified after the World War II. The PRI ‘government’ viewed that the illegal drug trade as a source of profits and power. Hence it moulded a durable political, police and military infrastructure to allow drug lords
The Mexican drug cartel is a major actor on the world scene. Even though it is not seen this way by the general public, those who pay attention know how far their reach is. The Mexican cartel has expanded. There seems to be no sign of them slowing. They have the perfect storm of money, military backing, political connections and Public intimidation. Their empire is growing by the minute. Unfortunately most people have not given these ruthless criminals the attention they deserve. They have direct impact on people around the world. This paper will explain various aspects the groups and explain why more light needs to be shed on them
The Mexican drug cartels have been a cancer that has grown through out Mexico. Influenced by Colombian cartels, such as the Pablo Escobar’s Medellin and the Cali Cartel. In 2008, over 5,600 people were killed in Mexico; many were torture/or beheaded (Hixson, 2009). It has stretched from the border town of Tijuana all the way to the beaches of Cancun. Many people have been robbed, tortured, kidnapped, injured, and murdered through out the domestic drug war that is going on in Mexico. Police officers have been known to take bribes from different drug traffickers, which has given more power to the drug cartels. Even some politicians have been accused of being backed by particular cartels. Felipe Calderon, Mexico’s current President has taken
The ultimate goal of the drug cartels is to make money and protect their power. Their power comes from the physical control of certain regions within Mexico and the US. They do not seek political power, but instead rely on government corruption to protect them from prosecution of narcotics trafficking and money laundering. Annual contributions to the Mexican economy is estimated at $25 billion; this is one of the greatest strengths of the DTO’s. In addition, weapons, corrupt officials, paramilitary enforcers, and community goodwill contribute to the strengths of the DTO’s.
Mexico is known for many things ranging from there beautiful coastlines to there ancient ruins and museums to the brutal war of drug trafficking. The drug war in Mexico is one of the biggest events in narcotics history. Drug trafficking was best known in Michoacan, Guanajuato and Guerrero but it has recently spread across all of Mexico. Michoacan was the first place where it erupted due to an organization of cartels known as La Familia. Mexico was once a place that didn’t have as much violence or drugs but its economic crisis lead to the outbreak of violence, the rise of the world’s biggest cartel Joaquin Guzman Loera, and deals Guzman made with people in Mexico and the United States.
The Mexican and U.S. government, think tanks, the academia, journalists, etc have studied the recent outburst of criminal violence in Mexico. The two main reasons they found of why this trend has occurred in the last couple of years is the rise of illegal drug groups and the 'war on drug trafficking' declared by the government of Felipe Calderón and the corruption within the Mexican government and its subsidiary public institutions and enforcement forces. In fact, “during the neoliberal era, narcotrafficking has flourished to become one of the country's biggest sources of revenue, as well as its most violent, with over 12,000 drug-related executions in 2011 alone.” Corruption within the public institutions, in the same way, has increased dramatically
Secure places to visit. In 2006 Mexico was a safe place to visit, but everything changed after Felipe Calderon took over as new president. After few months of his new position, President Felipe Calderon decided to send 45,000 soldiers and 5,000 federal police to the state of Michoacán to eradicate the drug trafficking. He also fired hundreds of dishonest police officers. The drug trafficking movement is not a new movement. It has been existed for many decades, but now it is expanding further due to the born of new drug trafficking organizations or cartels. The cartels fight against each other to win control or to open new trafficking routes into the United States, on their fights many innocent people die or disappear every day. Residents from some states tired of all the crimes committed by the cartels and sometimes the authorities; had decided to protect themselves by forming self- defense groups Also, other movement has emerge, since the drug trafficking became more notorious and dangerous the Narcocultura movement. Mexico in conjunction with United States had been fighting to end with the drug trafficking war. The lack of education, the poverty, the corruption and the unrestricted demand for drug in the United States, have made Mexico the center of one of the world’s most sophisticated drug system Mexican nation is in crisis because the continuance of violence, due to the drug trafficking movement.
They fail to recognize that Mexico’s drug trade has been integration into the nation’s bureaucracy since the Mexican Revolution. In fact, according to scholar Benjamin Smith, the drug trade was an important element in maintaining Mexico’s political stability following the revolution, allowing the government to appease both leftist and rightist sectors of society (Smith). Mexico’s uneasy, but functional, relationship with the drug trade lasted until controversy over the Institutional Revolutionary Party’s (PRI) corrupt practices resulted in Mexico’s democratization. As Mexico cracked down on internal corruption, drug cartels developed outside the traditional realm of the state. They formed into the violent, paramilitary organizations that we know today. Transnational factors, however, also contributed to the violence of the drug cartels, as United States intervention in the “War on Drugs” escalated the conflicted. In this paper, I argue that, contrary to the popular belief that Mexico’s corruption caused the increased violence of the Mexican drug trade; Mexico’s democratization and foreign intervention have caused extreme violence of
trafficking is one of the most severe cross-border crimes affecting the world today. Drug trafficking involves both the narcotic and the non-narcotic substances like marijuana. The criminalization of drugs has made the elements gain significant values in the global market. The United States of America (U.S.A) is one of the largest markets of global narcotic drugs and related substances. Mexico has proved to be the most significant distribution channel and a significant source of drugs and associated materials. Mexico is the home of the most dangerous cartels or drug trafficking organizations specialized in the trade. The consequences of drug trafficking are the reasons for the increased global campaign against the products. The effects of drugs
According to Antonio Pereyra, a professor at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, in Mexico, there is a co-existence of two forms of power: sovereignty and governmentality. In other words, the author seeks to differentiate the contrary-dichotomous logic of the high levels of power of drug traffickers and, at the same time, the strong militarized fight that the government is waging against these traffickers and their drug organizations. The drug market, the constant wars between cartels and the combat against drug trafficking assumed by Calderón’s government show that the "war against drug trafficking” is a complex web of mimetic lack of differentiation between groups. But why is it hard to differentiate between these “opposing” groups?