The Crack in the Mexican Drug War

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Mexico is a poor stricken country with no way to help itself out of the hole it has dug with the war against drugs. The influence of drugs has always been a problem, along with drug trafficking and drug related violence. Unfortunately, only drug related crimes are prevalent throughout the news. However, the media fails to mention the political side of the drug war or the reasons why certain organizations are lashing out. While the Mexican presidents had good intentions of stopping and controlling the drug war, their actions only made things worse.
Traditionally people hear the same basic story of Mexico. There were drugs and violence throughout Mexico but it did not become apparent until Vicente Fox became president. He was in office from 2000-2006 and was part of the National Action Party (Partido Acción Nacional, PAN). However, before Fox’s presidency, corrupt PRI (Institutional Revolutionary Party) officials had created a “Pax Mafioso”, or a period of peace and stability with the mafia, by allowing criminal organizations to engage in illicit drug trafficking, in exchange for large bribes. They required that criminal groups not to fight each other, to abstain from violent behavior, and from selling drugs within the Mexican borders.
Nobody knows when and what caused the drug war to escalate, but many believe the war became worse when Felipe Calderon was in office. Others speculate that there has always been a war, but Calderon just shined a light on it, exposing it to the world. After just a few days after his inauguration, Felipe Calderon publically announced war on drugs in all of Mexico. He had the drug lords found and captured, however, in doing so he caused more tension and violence within cartels. Many cartels started figh...

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... rival gang members there.

Works Cited
Castañeda, Jorge G., and Hector Aguilar. "The Future of Mexico." Web.
Contreras, Viridiana Rios. "How Government Structure Encourages Criminal Violence:." Diss. Harvard University, 2012. Abstract. Web.
"Drug Cartel Members Arrested in Eastern Mexico." Latin American Herald Tribune. Web. 13 Jan. 2014.
Hernandez, Daniel. "Calderon's War on Drug Cartels: A Legacy of Blood and Tragedy." Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, 01 Dec. 2012. Web. 14 Jan. 2014.
"Mexico’s Peña Nieto Discusses Armed Forces’ Crime-Fighting Role." Latin American Herald Tribune. Web. 13 Jan. 2014.
"PhD Student Uses Google to Track Drug-Trafficking Gangs in Mexico." Latin American Herald Tribune. Web. 13 Jan. 2014.
Rios, Viridiana. "Why Did Mexico Become so Violent? A Self-reinforcing Violent Equilibrium Caused by Competition and Enforcement." Web.

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