In the Documentary “Mexico’s Drug Cartel War”, it displays a systematic approach of drugs and violence. The Drug War has been going on since the United States had a devastating impact on Mexico after the recession where it nearly doubled its interest payments. Mexico could not afford the interest payments but did have many agricultural imports. This created the trade between the United States and the land owned by the two million farmers. It spread the slums to Tijuana and Ciudad Juarez to work in maquiladoras (assembly plants just across the border) (Jacobin, 2015). This paper will focus on explaining how drugs are related to violence in Mexico, how drug enforcement policies influence the relationship between drugs and violence, and how battle for control in their own country.
Drugs have influenced daily life and society since the day of their discovery centuries ago. Their impact ranges from medical to industrial, to recreational to political, and to criminal. Drugs can not only influence the individual, but even cities or countries as whole. A prime example of the power of drugs is the establishment and occupation of the drug cartels in Mexico. Not only have the effects of these cartels infamously changed Mexico, but they have traveled to the United States (US), and change continues to be exchanged between the two. The following report attempts to answer the question, what are the Mexican drug cartels, and how are the United States and Mexico effected by them? A brief history and introduction of Mexican drug cartels
Narcoterrorism has a long past in the history of Colombia, focusing mainly on the market development of one drug: cocaine. Colombia, with its arid tropical climate and lush land, is an ideal place for the sowing and reaping of the coca plant whose extracts are synthesized into the powder cocaine drug. As Colombian cocaine production skyrocketed in the 1970’s and 1980’s thanks to booming demand for the product in Americas, drug kingpins in Colombia began to wield immense power in the country. ...
A former director of the United States Drug Enforcement Agency’s Mexican office once stated:” The heroin market abhors a vacuum.” The truth in this statement can be extended to not only the heroin trade but also the trade of numerous other drugs of abuse; from cocaine to methamphetamines, the illicit drug trade has had a way of fluidity that allows insert itself into any societal weakness. Much like any traditional commodity good, illicit drugs have become not only an economy in and of themselves, they have transformed into an integral part of the legitimate global economy. Whether or not military or law enforcement action is the most prudent or expedient method of minimizing the ill-effects of the illicit drug trade is of little consequence to the understanding of the economic reality of its use in the United States ongoing “War on Drugs”. As it stands, not only has the illicit drug trade transformed itself into a self-sufficient global economy, so too has the drug-fighting trade. According to a CNN report in 2012, in the 40 years since the declaration of “The War on Drugs”, the United States Federal Government has spent approximately $1 trillion in the fight against illicit drugs. Additionally, a report in the New York Times in 1999 estimates that federal spending in the “War on Drugs” tops $19 billion a year and state and local government spending nears $16 billion a year. Given the sheer magnitude of federal, state, and local spending in the combat of the illicit drug trade, one would reasonably expect that the violence, death, and destruction that so often accompanies the epicenters of the drug economy would be expelled from the close proximity of the United States. While this expectation is completely reasonable to the ...
The other front of the battle of the “War on Drugs” comes from locating and shutting down the manufacturers of cocaine. Cocaine is manufactured from the coca plant, the drug’s main ingredient. When the government imposes sanctions on different nations for growing the coca plant, careful considerations must be made. Just like any other market, there may be underlying circumstances for growing the plant that are perfectly innocent to the illegal cocaine market.
The Mexican drug war began in the 1960s, with America’s love for illegal drugs fueling the fire. Narco-violence has claimed the lives of thousands of citizens in recent years. Drug cartels have become comparable to Mafia figures, and have resorted to Mafia-style violence to prove to the Mexican government that they remain in control. The violence caused by drug cartels is rumored to lead Mexico to become a failed state. George W. Grayson, regular lecturer at the United States Department of State, has made more than one-hundred and twenty-five research trips to Mexico, and is considered an expert on U.S.-Mexican relations. A recent book by Grayson, Mexico: Narco-Violence and a Failed State, describes the depressing situation provoked by drug cartels, and debates the controversial argument of whether Mexico will become a failed state. Narco-violence in Mexico will be analyzed by the severity of the drug problem and the executives’ influence on the drug war, to determine if Mexico will reach the status of a failed state.
Illegal drug trade in Colombia is the practice of producing and distributing narcotics domestically and around the world. As of 2012, Colombia was the world leading cocaine producer in the world (Neuman, 2012). Cocaine, marijuana and heroin along with other illegal drugs have become a big part of Colombians lifestyle and a major source of income for many people. Since the establishment of the War on Drugs in the late 20th century, European countries and United States have provided billions of dollars, logistics and military aid to the Colombia government to combat the illegal drug trade (Lilley, 2006). As of 1999, Plan Colombia has been one of the biggest movements towards Colombia’s biggest rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). The movement was implemented as Colombia supplies 80% of cocaine to American citizens (Vellinga, 2000). The US Drug Enforcement Administration estimated that Colombia’s annual profit ranges between $5-7 billion from drugs smuggled into the United States.
The commodity chain for coca/cocaine is vast and complicated. Coca frontiers for illicit export spread massively into the deep jungle of the Huallaga Valley and Bolivia’s Chapare. This is where most coca plants are grown and harvested, and occasionally transformed into coca paste. In the past, most of the raw coca leaves or coca paste was transported to Colombia where well-located entrepreneurs, under a weak state, consolidated as the core middlemen in this trade. Colombians refined coca and marked up the prices of the Bolivian peasant product. In the 1980s, Mexico became a transit point for cocaine heading to the United States and other Western nations for sale by Mexican or Colombian suppliers (Gereffi and Korzeniewicz 1994: 195). However, due to the illicit and clandestine na...
in the International Drug Policy Debate - Drug Law Reform in Latin America N p n d Web 30 Jan 2014
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Narcotics, guns and violence, the powerful elements of the never ending war. All these elements are part of the campaign to rid the world of the disaster that drugs so ferociously have inflicted upon America. The war, created by The United States’ demand and government circumstances, has been fighting drug lords and opportunists. The United States has for the past three decades declared that it is in a full fledged attack against drugs and the violence it fosters. For decades billions and billons of dollars have been justified through the infamous War on Drugs. The drug problem has not stopped. The money and military activity have not been enough, and the “urban problem,” has not been solved. It is that our governments do not have the strategic smarts to solve the problem? The United States has the largest demand of drugs in the world. While other countries also face the drug problem, The United States has spent the most and its effectiveness is questionable. Today’s “War on Drugs,” is merely the justification to the apprehension of many U.S. interest enemies and has been a loop hole to exploit many developing countries in South and Central America. The commerce that the narcotics create transcends the social, economic, political and cultural aspects. The corruption that the United States is trying to fight will not end as long as the organized corruption and demand in the United States is in existence.
The war over drug routes and power between rival cartels has left Mexico in a bloody war. The violence occurring throughout the country only seems to escalate. In part, the United States has a role in this war because of the exploitation of weapons. Unfortunately, a lot of people are being killed every day because of the drug war. Action from Mexico must be taken swiftly to avoid any further casualties by collaborating with the United States on how to stop the smuggling of guns, building trust between the community and the police, and deciding on a plan to the help the economy for their citizens.
Visiting a tourist attraction in Mexico, tourists do not realize the gruesome reality that Mexican civilians face on an everyday basis. Dead bodies cover the streets, the echo of gun shots ring through the streets daily, and seeing the cartels terrorize businesses. The rise of Mexico’s violence in the past decade has marked the country and made its way to the United States. The United States has ignored the problem for many years, since they always referenced Mexico’s drug crisis as a non-emergent issue. In the past decade the U.S. government has seen an increase in violence and consumption of illegal drugs due to the Mexican cartels. This issue is becoming more impactful to the U.S. as they continue to ignore it. Mexico plays a significant role in the United States economy and politics, therefore the United States involvement will play a critical role in ending the drug cartel war in Mexico, by helping the people in Mexico, targeting all the kingpins to get them off the streets, and legalizing marijuana.
Along with the threat of terrorism is the threat of illegal drugs. “The consumers of illegal drugs often commit crimes to support their habits” (Cooper) and this must be seceded in the United States. Not only are the illegal drugs that pour into America bad for health but “Federal spending to combat drugs has increased from $1.5 billion in 1981 to $12 billion in 1992” (Cooper). Drugs
In 1995, the US began to fund aerial eradication campaigns in Colombia. Military planes dumped pesticides over thousands of acres of coca fields. These campaigns turned out to be counterproductive, leading to an actual increase in the amount of coca acreage. The spraying of coca only led Colombian growers to diversify their techniques, growing coca amongst other crops or in locations that were hard to identify by radar techniques. In 2002, the CI...