AmericaLatina

Besides the last two years, now, the annual Mexican migration into America has been increasingly larger. Legal migration or not, the hope of the “American Dream” still lies in the hearts and minds of thousands of Mexicans as they make a treacherous journey into America. As data shows, from the article “A Right to Move-and to Stay Home”, by Joseph Nevins, the number of migrants dropped from over 500,000 in 2004, to just around 100,000 this year. (https://nacla.org/blog/2011/7/13/right-move—and-stay-home)The large drop-off is a direct result of the Clinton, Bush, and Obama efforts to put a stop to the illegal migration, but another underlying and even more substantial factor is the economic boom Mexico is experiencing.  Now, one might wonder what is powering and heightening the Mexican economy?

The American and European economies are facing enormous deficits, while a surprising Mexico is powerfully boosting ahead economically. According to “Latam economies race ahead”, by Simon Romero, the Mexican government claims that they are out outpacing America. Over the first quarter, the Mexican economy has already grown 4.3% and expecting to rise to 5% by the end of the year, while the U.S is projected to only grow .2% in the next year.  Mexico’s growth is driven mainly by manufacturing and assembly line type of employment. As Randall C. Archibold explains in the article “Despite Violence, US Firms Grow in Mexico”, “TV sets are being assembled, car parts boxed up and electronic widgets soldered together in the large manufacturing plants here known as maquiladoras. The result is a boomlet in jobs in some of Mexico’s hardest-hit cities.” Jobs in the manufacturing field grew 8.2%, amounting to over 1.8 million workers. As a result of this burst of industrial business, Mexico decreased their unemployment and they are keeping inflation to a minimum. Manufacturing is fueling the economic growth, which in return has increase the middle class of Mexicans.(https://nacla.org/blog/2011/7/19/mexican-economy-booming)

Mexico has generally been split between the “rich” and the “poor” with an almost non-existent middle class. However, with the recent economic growth, the middle class of Mexico has also enlarged. The increase in the middle class is another factor that is leading to the success of the economy. With a larger middle class, more hard-earned money is circulated throughout Mexico’s own businesses. For instance, the sale of domestic goods, whether it’s buying food from a local restaurant or buying typical suburban style cloths, has risen. The larger middle class is substantial for a steady exchange of goods and services, which keeps money flow within their economy. A more sustained middle class has proven to sustain the Mexican economy, while raising their gross domestic production of goods and services.(http://www.latinamericanpost.com/index.php?mod=seccion&secc=2&conn=6210)

In conclusion, the strides Mexico has made industrially have stimulated their economy encouragingly in the past year. Compared to the usual economic powers, such as the U.S. and Britain, Mexico has had a larger growth rate than both. As a result, the Mexican middle class has also expanded and therefore shortening the large gap between the rich and poor. At the same time, the middle class’s higher incomes infuse more money back into the economy, increasing their national GDP.

By Eric Jason Baron

Kidnappings have always been a major issue in Mexico. However, since Felipe Calderón, the current president of Mexico was elected in 2006, it has gotten worse. Even though kidnappings are mostly an issue in Mexico and other countries around Central America, some cases have occurred in Arizona during the past years. Crime in Mexico has gone up by almost fifteen percent in 2011. This is a response from the drug cartels to Felipe Calderón and the Federal Government who are trying to fight them. Trying to fight cartels is very complicated since authorities are sometimes part of them, too. Calderón is the first President that is trying to do this and trying to end a long lasting corrupt government in Mexico. Numbers of reported abductions keep going up every day, especially in Mexico City and in El Estado de Mexico. Statistics show children and young adults are usually more targeted for kidnappings. Tourists and wealthy businessmen come after.

There are three common types of kidnappings in Mexico. The first one is abduction of children. Kidnapping children can be done in either a sophisticated way or in a non- sophisticated manner.  A sophisticated technique is when members of a gang follow families for a long time to know their daily routine and then abduct the child. Once the child is abducted, they ask for ransom in return. Non-sophisticated techniques are employed through the use of public transportation and taxi cabs. Something that is becoming more common is the use of taxi-cabs to kidnap children. The most common one out of the three would be express kidnappings. Lately, kidnappings have become more organized and professional whereas before most abductions were made by gangs and small groups of delinquents. It consists in abducting someone, and then taking something valuable from them, credit cards, jewelry, cellular phones, and etcetera. Kidnapping for ransom would be the last one. Well organized gangs are usually the ones to kidnap for ransom. Most targeted people for this type are wealthy families who can afford to pay ransom to rescue the person that has been abducted. A 13-person gang who used taxis in order to kidnap people was caught earlier in September. They did express kidnappings and also kidnappings for ransom.

There have been thousands of kidnappings in Mexico during the past years. One of the most famous ones is the Rubén Omar Romano one. Romano is the coach for one of the most important professional soccer clubs in Mexico. He was found sixty-five days after his abduction in a “casa de seguridad”, this is the name for the house kidnappers used to keep their victims so that no one can find them. One of the kidnappers that was arrested happened to be the same one that had participated in the kidnapping in 2002 of Laura Zapata, the sister of a famous singer in Mexico, Thalía. Romano was found by the AFI, Agencia Federal de Investigaciones (Federal Investigations Agency). The AFI deals with most of the kidnappings for ransom that happen in Mexico. Another example would be the abduction of the mayor of a city outside Monterrey on August, 2010. He devoted his life to fighting drug cartels. He was tortured and killed after he was kidnapped.

People in Mexico have attempted to stop violence in many ways. More rigid sentences for delinquents are an example of one of them. Songs by famous singers like Ricardo Arjona’s “La nena”, based on a true story about his niece who was abducted, and books like Jayne Valesca’s “We have your husband” are also examples of people’s attempts to stop this. Her book is based on the true story of her husband who was also kidnapped. Some scholars predict violence in Mexico, especially abductions, will continue to rise until Calderón gives up the fight against drug cartels.

By Claire E. Olsen

For many years now the Mexican government has been fighting a gruesome and bloody war with drug cartels. These cartels have been around for decades, but since the demise of two very important Columbian cartels, Mexican cartels have grown in size and strength. Their location has allowed them to dominate the illicit drug market in the United States and this is estimated to bring in between 13.6 to 48.4 billion dollars annually. And not only are they at war with the government, but they are at war with themselves.

The cartels in Mexico change leadership and alliance often, but five of the largest and most powerful cartels are the Tijuana cartel, the Gulf Cartel, the Juarez cartel, the Sinaloa Federation, and the Zeta cartel. The Tijuana cartel is currently led by Luis Fernando Sánchez Arellano and was once the strongest of the cartels, but recently has somewhat weakened. Tijuana has infiltrated the Mexican government and is responsible for much of the trafficking to the U.S. This cartel is widely known for its extremely violent character. The Gulf Cartel is led by Jorge Eduardo Costilla Sánchez and is currently considered one of the most powerful cartels in Mexico. This cartel has made an alliance with the Zeta Cartel and is also a big supplier of illicit drugs to the U.S. It traffics many drugs including cocaine, marijuana, methamphetamine, and heroin, and it imposes taxes on anyone passing drugs or aliens through Gulf Cartel territory. This cartel is also widely known for its violence and commonly uses methods such as kidnapping for ransom. The Juarez cartel controls one of the main transportation routes for the majority of illegal drug trafficking, but has lost a good amount of power since the death of Amado Carrillo Fuentes. The Sinaloa Cartel has taken a great deal of its territory and is growing in power.  These gangs are constantly at war, and will often times leak information about the whereabouts of an enemy cartel to the police as a means of revenge. The Zeta Cartel is one of the most powerful cartels in Mexico, and is currently in alliance with the Gulf Cartel.This cartel is famous for their ruthless and violent tactics, and just several weeks ago they were targeted by another gang in retaliation for their violent and careless massacres of innocent civilians which is frowned upon by most drug cartels.

Both the Mexican and U.S. government have taken measures to shut down these cartels, and seem to be approaching it with a new and intensified vigor. In Mexico, President Felipe Calderón was elected in 2006 and got down to business by sending 6,500 troops to Michoacan to terminate the drug violence existing in this state. Since then, the cartels and government have been at war and an estimated 40,000 people have been killed as violence rates continue to rise.

In 2009 the United States created the Merida Initiative which has supplied hundreds of millions of dollars to Mexico as well as Central America, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic. Though both governments have made a huge effort to eliminate these drug cartels, they continue to thrive. Despite the 40,000 death toll and hundreds of millions of dollars spent, this war is far from over.

The Juarez Cartel is a Mexican drug cartel, based in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, sharing a boarder with El Paso, Texas.  Ciudad Juarez is considered Mexico’s most violent city, and almost all of its violence is attributed to the drug and cartel wars.  This cartel controls one of the primary routes drug traffickers use to distribute billions of dollars’ worth of illegal drugs to the United States. The Juarez cartel has one of the most ruthless armed wings, La Linea which corrupt officers that many times perform murders and executions.  The corruption and ruthlessness of this cartel, which severely affects Mexico, is portrayed in the following 2 articles.

The effect of corruption related to Mexican government officers only enables the cartels to continue to grow stronger.  Recently, 10 Mexican Federal Cops were indicted for extortion and kidnapping.  “Judge Carlos Miguel Garcia Treviño formally accused the officers Wednesday after finding sufficient evidence of their involvement in crimes that also included causing bodily injury, abuse of authority, illegal weapons possession and crimes against health.”  A businessman from Juarez, Mexico stated the policemen kidnapped him and demanded a $5,000 payment.  If the businessman didn’t pay, he said the police officers told him they would plant drugs on him, as well as beat him and steal his bank cards.  This level of corruption related to cartels, particularly the Juarez cartel makes it nearly impossible to stop their illegal activities.  In attempt to combat the corruption, “Some 5,000 federal forces have been sent to Ciudad Juarez, which has been battered in recent years by a turf war pitting the Juarez and Sinaloa cartels with backing from local street gangs.”  These federal officers were sent to replace notoriously corrupt local cops.

The Juarez cartel and its enforcement wing, La Linea have been noted as one of the most ruthless in Mexico.  Luckily, Mexican authorities recently arrested a high ranking leader of the Juarez cartel.  Atonio Acosta Hernadez, one of Mexico’s most wanted criminals, was arrested with collaboration from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the Mexican federal police anti-drug unit.  During investigation, Acosta “said he ordered the killings of about 1,500 people, mostly in Ciudad Juarez and Chihuahua’s capital.”  Acosta was also accused of being connected with the massacre at a house party which killed 15 people and a car bombing outside a police station.  Although the arrest of Acosta is encouraging, the federal government realizes bringing down the cartels is an ongoing battle, much of which is uphill.