Mexican Drug War

Although many years agoMexicowas a great power, nowadays Mexicans face the worst recession in over a half century. The worst devaluation of the Mexican currency, the Peso, in the 1990’s threwMexicointo economic turmoil. As a result, many Mexicans don’t have access to healthcare and the unemployment rates remain high. Additionally, there is one more problem that makes the socio-economic status ofMexicoworse, the increasingly high crime rates, which in its majority is the result of the illegal Mexican drug traffic. However, in order to understand the importance of the United States’ intervention in this affair, people should know how critical the Mexican drug traffic is, and the power drug cartels have and their connection to other terrorism organizations.

In order for drug traffic to be possible, Mexican drug smugglers have created highly organized criminal organizations usually known as “Drug cartels.” Among the most famous Mexican Cartels are La Familia or The Family cartel, El cartel de Juarez or Juarez Cartel and El Grupo de los Zetas or The Zetas’ Cartel. These well-financed drug cartels don’t just traffic with drugs, but also with people in order to increase the amount of members in their cartels. One way to achieve it is recruiting illegal immigrants trying to cross the U.S-Mexico border. Victims have told the Mexican authorities that the recruiters give the illegal immigrants two options: becoming a member of the cartel or die. A lose-lose situation.

For example, on Tuesday 24th, 2010 the Mexican Secretary of the Navy reported that 72 bodies, 58 men and 14 women, were found in a ranch in Tamaulipas, Mexico. According to The New York Times (2010), all of the victims were illegal immigrants from South and Central America on their way to theUnited States. The Mexican Navy troops were alerted to the area after a wounded man, the only survivor in the shooting, arrived at the naval checkpoint asking for medical support after being kidnapped, tortured and almost killed by members of the Zetas. This massacre caught media’s attention around the world which demanded an explanation from authorities about what they have accomplished in abolishing drug cartels. 

Presently, Mexican authorities fear that besides drug traffic and killings such as the Tamaulipas’ massacre, drug cartels are also uniting forces with Al Qaeda, which can make the situation even worse. According to CBS News (2010), on July, 2010, for the first time, drug smugglers used a car bomb as a weapon. “The use of car bomb clearly represents a tactical escalation. We’ve seen the first car bombing, there probably will be more,” said Brian Jenkins with the Rand Corp. Furthermore, CBS News also reported that President Calderon blamed theU.S.forMexico’s troubles. President Calderon states “[t]he origin of our violence problems begins with the fact thatMexicois located next to the country that has the highest levels of drug consumption in the world.”

Aljazeera (2010) reported that the U.S. Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, promised to increaseU.S.efforts to prevent gun traffic from theU.S.toMexico, which is also another reason why the Mexican drug war has been unsuccessful. Although theU.S.has supported the Mexican Government with hundreds of millions of dollars destined to the suppression of drug traffic, all efforts have failed. Therefore, the Mexican government is demanding more support especially more involvement in strategies and planning in order to win the war against drug trafficking. With more support from the U.S., Mexico could become a safe place to live and visit.