Ever since the war on drugs was started, most of the battle has been concentrated in Latin America, leaving trails of devastation from deep within Latin America up to the largest consumer of those substances. After years of fighting, and series’ of more and more aggressive policies put into place by the United States, drugs are just as prevalent if not more so than when the war began. Illegal drugs are still easy to obtain, demand for such substances has skyrocketed and cartels are becoming increasingly affluent. Drug violence since 2006 has resulted in the death of more than 60,000 people. Clearly, our current policies in waging this war are not effective, we have spent over 35 billion dollars over the course of 2013 to attempt to combat drug cartels and decrease the amount of violent crime that occurs due to cartel influence.
Central American countries have begun to be afflicted by drug smuggling, even Costa Rica, which doesn’t have a standing army, have begun to see the violence that cartels bring along with them. Several countries have ceded this war, in an attempt to take an alternate approach, appeasement. Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos supports decriminalization of cocaine and Guatemalan President Otto Fernando Pérez Molina had said, that he was open to the legalization, and transport of drugs throughout Guatemala. A summit was called by Guatemalan leaders in order to address the potential of a unified approach to drug trafficking. Due to pressure from the US government, most countries withdrew from this summit, which took place in 2012 with Guatemalan, Colombian, and Panamanian officials in attendance. El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua were expected to be in attendance, but pulled out under the pressure of the...
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... own group. They have been collaborating extensively with the Sinaloa Cartel. They control the narrow but geographically significant area in Tamaulipas from Matamoras to Reynosa. The Gulf Cartel is often seen as the “white knight” group as they don’t brutalize the surrounding populous as Los Zetas do, and as the Sinaloa Cartel tends to do as well.
Many of the cartels throughout Mexico are enemies, trying to hang onto their market slice, and willing to fight to the death to hold onto it. Money laundering is something that used quite often in order to minimize any complications regarding the amounts of money that change hands. Even if the US’s “War on Drugs” does work out, unless there is a international policy to deal with the drug trade and the groups that that trade is tied to, no lasting impact can be made on the ability of cartels to make a killing off of it.
The Los Zetas cartel consists of some of the most deadly men in Mexico. Comprised and founded by rogue Mexican Special Ops soldiers they branched off from their former employers (The Gulf cartel) and are now fighting for their territory. Based in Matamoros the Gulf Cartel was the original heavy hitter of Mexico's cartels. Currently the Gulf Cartel is in an ongoing war with the Los Zetas. Lead by El Chapo the Sinaloa Cartel is the current leader of the drug trade in all of Mexico. The cartels are fighting the Mexican government for power over the country. Federal agents target cartels and are able to weaken them but just before the agents can take over a rival cartel comes in and takes the territory starting the whole process over again. The cartels act like a Hydra Kill one Head and two will take its
In 1999, 31 Mexican military special ops members trained by US Navy Seals and Israeli special forces members deserted their ranks within the Mexican Army to join the Gulf Cartel as the security force for high ranking cartel operatives and as escorts for special shipments of drug trafficking. This was new for the Mexican military as thru the 80s and 90s the Mexican government had a generally laissez faire approach to cartels. Basically if the cartel wasn’t attacking the government and being blatantly obvious about their operations, then the government would not do much about it. As the Institutional Revolutionary Party’s (PRI) power dwindled in the late 90s, the high ranking members of the Gulf Cartel saw that this period of hands off policy towards organized crime was ending and made a move convincing these 31 men to join as a security force known then as the Zetas (Borderland).
Mexico has a long history of cartels the deaths, drugs and weapon trafficking is in all time high increasing year by year. “Mexico's gangs have flourished since the late 19th century, mostly in the north due to their proximity to towns along the U.S.-Mexico border. But it was the American appetite for cocaine in the 1970s that gave Mexican drug cartels immense power to manufacture and transport drugs across the border. Early Mexican gangs were primarily situated in border towns where prostitution, drug use, bootlegging and extortion flourished” (Wagner). They keep themselves armed and ready with gun supplies shipped from the U.S, taking control of the drug trades. The violence is spilling so out of control that they overthrew the Mexican government.
The film, American Drug War: The Last White Hope was directed by Kevin Booth. He lost four close people who were addicted to alcohol, nicotine and prescription pain killers. Through this film he portrayed how the war on drugs in the United States is a way for those in power and on wall street to profit meanwhile incarcerating the poor people who sell to get food on the table or are addicted to drugs. President Nixon created the Drug Enforcement Agency and the scheduling of drugs eventually declaring a war on drugs. Since his presidency the American government has been in a state of war on the fight against illegal drug use. There has been no advancements in this war, if anything the drugs are winning. It was stated in the film that there are
America's War on Drugs: Policy and Problems. In this paper I will evaluate America's War on Drugs. More specifically, I will outline our nation's general drug history and look critically at how Congress has influenced our current ineffective drug policy. Through this analysis, I hope to show that drug prohibition policies in the United States, for the most part, have failed.
The second half of the Guadalajara Cartel, the Tijuana Cartel was started in the 1990s and by the early 2000s became one of the “biggest and most violent criminal groups in Mexico,” as stated by the article, “The Five Most Famous Drug Cartels”. Led by the Arellano Felix brothers, the nephews of Miguel, and later their own nephew, Luis Fernando Sanchez Arellano, the Tijuana Cartel suffered through many deaths and arrests, which made the group smaller, yet still influential.
As described in novel The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference the course of any trend, movement, social behavior, and even the spread of a virus has a general trend line that in essence resemble a parabola with 3 main critical points. Any trend line first starts from zero, grows until it crosses the first tipping point, and then spreads like wildfire. Afterwards, the trend skyrockets to its carrying capacity (Galdwell, 2000). Then the trend gradually declines before it reaches the next tipping and suddenly falls out of favor and out of memory. Gladwell defines tipping points as the “magic moment when an idea, trend, or social behavior crosses a threshold, tips, and spreads like wildfire” (Gladwell, 2000).
Drug trafficking has been a massive concern between the borders of Mexico and the U.S. “since mid 1970s” (Wyler, 1). Drug trafficking is “knowingly being in possession, manufacturing, selling, purchasing, or delivering an illegal, controlled substance” (LaMance, 1). A dynamic relationship exists amongst Columbia, Mexico, and the U.S. the informal drug trafficking economy. This growing informal drug economy leads to many individuals creating a substantial living through this undercover market. These individual drug cartels monopolizing the trafficking market are a growing problem for the U.S economy and need to be located and controlled. If this trafficking continues, the U.S. informal economy will crush the growth of legal industries. The trafficking and abuse of drugs in the U.S. affects nearly all aspects of consumer life. Drug trafficking remains a growing issue and concern to the U.S. government. The U.S. border control must find a way to work with Mexico to overpower the individuals who contribute to the drug trafficking business. This market must be seized and these individuals must be stopped.
...ation in a 10-vehicle convoy in July, sprayed it with hundreds of rounds of gunfire and then lobbed grenades at it. Rosas Perez survived.” This quote shows just how reckless and violent the cartel is. It also shows how they can have an affect on politics.
The Mexican drug cartel is made up of many different cartels, but the main one is the Sinaloa cartel. The Sinaloa cartel is one of the most dangerous cartels in mexico, it is also the most optimistic cartel in mexico, they will go to high extents into their projects. The leader of the Sinaloa cartel is Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, he is believed to be one of the most powerful drug lords in the whole world. There aren’t many organizations trying to stop the cartels besides the DEA which stands for Drug Enforcement Administration. The drug cartel is all about smuggling drugs to many parts of the world but mostly the U.S. since they share borders and is the closest place to take drugs to.
Over the last decade, Southwest border violence has elevated into a national security concern. Much of the violence appears to stem from the competing growth and distribution networks that many powerful Mexican drug cartels exercise today. The unfortunate byproduct of this criminality reaches many citizens of the Mexican border communities in the form of indiscriminate street gang shootings, stabbings, and hangings which equated to approximately 6,500 deaths in 2009 alone (AllGov, 2012). That same danger which now extends across the border regions of New Mexico, Arizona, Texas, and California has the potential for alarming escalation. Yet, despite the violence, evermore-brazen behavior continues to grow, as does America’s appetite for drugs. Even though drug-related violence mandates that law enforcement agencies focus on supply reduction, the Office of National Drug Control Policy should shift its present policy formulation efforts to only drug demand reduction because treatment and prevention efforts are inadequate and strategy has evolved little over the last three decades.
The argument over drug reform and the current prohibition has been going on for years. It seems to be an argument between a wise parent and a young teenager, but as generations change more and more of the parents seem to switch sides. While prohibitionists say the mainstream drugs like cocaine, heroin, LSD, and marijuana are harmful and immoral, legalizers argue the opposite (Rachels 223). While they are both valid and interesting arguments the drugs named above still remain illegal. Many organizations and respected citizens have come to America’s attention in their support for drug reform or complete legalization of certain drugs. These people range from normal citizens who support the recreational use of marijuana to judges and ex- law enforcement agents who say the war on drugs has been a failure. The drug issue in the United States of America has been going on for years with the counterculture of the sixties up until the more recent medicinal marijuana debates today, and it seems that it is not going to go away anytime soon.
The Strands of the Sinaloa drug cartel web. The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved from http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jul/24/local/la-me-cartel-20110724. Logan, Samuel. A. A. 2012, February 16 -. A profile of Los Zetas, Mexico's second most powerful drug cartel.
The world has many different issues, and without them the world would be a perfect place. An issue that causes a lot of controversy is drug abuse. Though the world can never be a perfect place, humans still need to do our best to make in inhabitable as possible, and drugs cause a lot of harm towards humans. Therefore, it is my belief that the first thing that needs to be fixed should be drugs and their abuse. Many possible solutions to this problem exist.
In the early 1980s, policymakers and law enforcement officials stepped up efforts to combat the trafficking and use of illicit drugs. This was the popular “war on drugs,” hailed by conservatives and liberals alike as a means to restore order and hope to communities and families plagued by anti-social or self-destructive pathologies. By reducing illicit drug use, many claimed, the drug war would significantly reduce the rate of serious nondrug crimes - robbery, assault, rape, homicide and the like. Has the drug war succeeded in doing so?