Mexico’s War on Drugs Essay

Drug cartels have arisen as a major crisis for the future in the Americas. Individuals indulge themselves on drugs for many reasons such as tradition, attempting to escape poverty, and generating revenue for rebellious activities. Drug trafficking has proven to be ludacris, with the increasing involvement of corrupt government officials in their distribution. The UN has stated the approximate estimation of profits of drug trade is roughly around $150 billion alone in the Americas, which accounts slightly less than 5% GDP. Currently the most common way of drug transport is land through Central American countries like Mexico, and it eventually crosses over the border to the United States.

The problem of drugs coming over into the United States from Mexico is not new, but it is serious and in spite of many efforts by American law enforcement and border authorities, it continues day after day. This paper reviews the problem from several perspectives and brings to light attempts the U.S. has made to stop drug trafficking on our border with Mexico. The biggest issue regarding border security is the power of the drug cartels, and the majority of emphasis in this paper is directed towards the cartels.

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

A journal article written by Luis Astorga and David A. Shirk, dives head first into the Mexican

In February 2011 the United States began sending unarmed drones to collect information on drug traffickers. Later in August, the United States started in cross border raids, sending CIA operatives and older military personnel to aid the Mexican military. In addition to assisting Mexico, the United States increased security on our side and spends approximately $3 billion on securing the border. Decriminalization is a highly disputed policy option, in November of 2012 two states in the United States passed laws for the legalization of recreational use of marijuana. However, it is still a United States federal law that marijuana is illegal. Although decriminalization would lead to less incarcerations, it would put more drugs in the hands of users and increase drug exporting from Mexico. A prime strategy that both the United States and Mexico have been using is to take out the “high value” individuals or “foot soldiers”. This takes out the mass exporters but still leaves the middle and lower class drug traffickers. Which then the middle class moves up and takes over for whatever “high value” cartel that was just taken out. Almost immediately after, Mexico’s new president, Enrique Peña Nieto took office in December of 2012. Of those who reported missing or those who just “disappeared” the Peña Nieto government claims they will seek to verify all the missing ones. After coming into office, the administration of Peña Nieto changes the security policies. In

The war on drugs has been going on for a while between Mexico and the US; George W. Bush had signed the Merida Initiative with the then, President Felipe Calderon. Shortly after the Merida Initiative was signed, in April of 2006, Project Gunrunner launched. Developed by the Ammunitions, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) agency who planned “to stem the flow of firearms into Mexico and thereby deprive the narcotics cartels of weapons” (Embassy of the United States Mexico, n.d.). Fast forward 3 years, and Attorney General Eric Holder took office, in order to continue support to the southwest border. In a speech given speech in Cuernavaca, Mexico, Holder stated “the Justice Department was committed to adding “100 new ATF [Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms,

Recently, Mexico has been facing a horrendous civil war. This internal conflict is coming from the country’s powerful drug leaders. This epic drug war was been taking place ever since these “cartels” relocated from the South American nation of Columbia to Mexico in the mid 1980s. since then , this bloody conflict has arose several issues in Mexico. Mexico’s new president, Felipe Calderon, just recently launched an all out military campaign against these drug lords in 2007. This campaign included increased military personnel stationed in locations of intense combat. These increased troops eventually ammounted to more than 25,000 troops stationed throughout

On December 11, 2006, Calderón sent 6,500 soldiers, marines and the federal police to the state. The plan was to “take back” that has been taken over by organized crime. That was ten years ago, till this day, the drug war still rages on. The drug war has left people over 150,000 people dead and 30,000 people have gone missing since 2006. Even with all the death and missing people, the drug flow remained steady north to the United States. As Romero has noted, “the world’s largest consumer of cocaine (United States); 84% enters via the Mexican border.” Mexico has spent at least $54 billion on security and defence with the help of the US donating at least $1.5 billion. Mexico has began trying a new tactic to stop the drug flow by using their own armed forces, but ends up hurting more than helping. “The armed forces have been turned against the Mexican people, and have gradually established a record of violating human rights” (Romero). Since Calderon’s has become president, the number of citizen abuse complaints about 541 more. Even the police couldn’t be trusted. The president knew “90% of Mexicans feel are corrupt” (Romero) and to undertake his crusade. Also about estimated “99% of crimes go unsolved” (Romero) due to the corruption of the police. “Calderón would be only the second Mexican leader who did not hail from the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI), which had ruled for most of the 20th century”

Starting in 1914 the U.S introduced the first probation acts that prohibited the consumption of Opiates and Cocaine with the Harrison Narcotics act of 1914 Later this act was amended to include marijuana. This Act was the first use of federal criminal law in the United Sates to attempt to deal with the nonmedical use of drugs (wisegeek). The war of drugs started primarily in the 1971 when Nixon declared the war on drugs. He dramatically increased the size and presence of federal drug control agencies (Drug Policy). With the first major organized drug imports from Columbia from the Black Tuna Gang based in Miami, Florida Columbia was quickly growing into a drug superpower able to feed America’s growing addictions.

For this week’s discussion, I have chosen the US involvement in the Mexican Drug War. The US has been deeply involved on the side of the Mexican Government since the election of Mexico’s President Felipe Caldron in 2006 (Mazzetti & Thompson, 2011). Since that time, The US government has reportedly provided over “$2 billion in military and police support, training to more than 16,000 Mexican security personnel, and over $4 billion worth of weapons” (LaSusa & Albaladejo, 2014, pp. 12). Considering the hundred other armed conflicts that the United States have gotten themselves involved in, it’s not a surprising event to see the U.S. respond to a conflict on their doorstep with military, police, and weaponry. I understand that this is a conflict

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.

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.

The amount of drugs in mexico is a crazy. The number of drugs they have been bringing into america is also hardcore. Tens of thousands of people die every year due to this business. On September 27, 2011 ,Five severed heads are found in a sack near an elementary school in Acapulco which is really jacked up. Just imagine a little mexican kid walking down the street eating a taco and seeing five heads just in a sack by his school. Today, Mexico is a major supplier of heroin to the U.S. market, and the largest foreign supplier of methamphetamine and marijuana. Mexican production of all three of these drugs has increased since 2005. Which is not a good thing.

Due to a high increase in drug related violence, the slight thought of legalizing drugs crossed through former President Felipe Calderon’s mind. Felipe Calderon was a former Mexican President that was known to cause the increase of drug related crimes in Mexico between the years of 2006 and 2012. Felipe Calderon built campaigns in order to target or try to eliminate some of the biggest cartels in Mexico and eventually this backfired with some of this most severe effects that have ever been experienced in Mexico’s history. Many people may not even realize or just think for a minute about how important this situation is for Mexico. Drug related violence is not only something that is effecting Mexico’s economy, but also its future generations.

The US/ Mexico borderlands are the site of a number of “flows” of goods, people, and ideas over the last century. The US is attempting to increase the “flow” of some goods such as food, but restricting others like illegal immigration and drug trafficking. The US has been trying to stop drug smugglers and illegal immigration by setting some policies. When Salinas became the president of Mexico, his number one priority was to stop drug trafficking and smuggling it into the US so both countries could sit and talk about NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement). Drug trafficking was and still is the number one problem in Mexico. “During Salina’s six-year term in office, arrests nearly doubled, prominent traffickers were jailed, and principal figures in the Camarena case were convicted.”(Andreas) The Salina’s antidrug offensive helped pacify US critics and paved the way for the passage of NAFTA. But this agreement did not stop drug smugglers, it actually encouraged more drug-related corruption. “As more government resources were devoted to drug control, smugglers responded by devoting more resources to paying off those doing the controlling.”(Andreas) The NAFTA was consider a success in the early years, US Government thought that Salina’s government did very good and it was going to stop drug trafficking. It was not until later that they realized NAFTA was not as good as it looked, Mexican trucks were able to cross the border with food without being checked by the US police, so