The international drug trade from Latin American states is having an impact on a global scale. The trafficking of drugs along with corruptness and murder is an international conflict that is being fought daily. There are many aspects of the drug war from Mexico and other Latin American states which have effects on United States policy as well as policies from other countries that participate in the global suppression of illegal drugs.
It can be hard to differentiate between conflict and issue in regards to Latin America’s drug war and International Relations. The Mexican drug war is a global issue because it interferes with the states ability to collaborate and form policy in order to address the issues between international borders. Conflict arises because certain states want to resolve the situation and are willing to do what is necessary to do so. While drug-related violence in Mexico receives considerable attention, the Northern Triangle of Latin America is far worse. Venezuela has emerged as a major departure point for cocaine trafficked to Europe. Between 2006 and 2008 over half of all detected maritime shipments of cocaine to Europe came from Venezuela. (Crime 2010) These ports in Latin America have had an impact on the cities in the Bahamas as well with the drug cartels exporting their drugs quicker to the surrounding countries; they use the ports of the Caribbean to refuel while on the way to America. The waters of the Caribbean islands are patrolled by navies from the United States, France, Canada and the Netherlands. (Barnes 2010) However, the patrolling of the waters has not had a significant impact in the delivery of drugs to other countries.
As the international drug trade continues to spread and grow, Mexican dru...
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...it is their states right to produce these illegal substances if they wish. Supply and demand also shows that as long as people are willing to do illegal drugs states and people will continue to produce them. The United Nations, an international organization, has set up an office called the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, this office is authorized to set up field based projects, research and analytical work, and normative work in the effort to counteract illegal drugs, crime, and terrorism. This office reports directly to the general assembly and is part of a larger Intergovernmental Organization. (U. N. Crime 1997) With this office and the principles of reciprocity, a response to another’s actions when states that help one another in times of trouble or need, governments across the globe are uniting their efforts to stop the trafficking of illegal drugs.
Mexico may never be able to take away the drug trade because they are much a poor country. People must chose between “silver and lead”, either making the money by selling drugs or taking a bullet to the head. Even with all the new police officers being hired, because of the previous corruption of authority, the government is trying to minimize the distribution and selling of illegal narcotics. They are still fighting to this day for a peaceful
Since 2006, a growing issue of drug smuggling and trafficking has arisen between Mexico and the United States. Not only does this issue affect the economies of the two countries but also the social life of the populations.
A drug cartel is a combination of drug manufacturing and drug transportation organizations under one person’s leadership. While there is numerous drug cartels around the world the Mexican cartels have arguably more power than most in regards to territory and membership. This power has allowed them to have main control in not only Mexico but in the United States as well making them a key player in the drug trade. In 2006, the Mexican government challenged multiple drug cartels such as the Sinaloa cartel, The Los Zetas, and the Gulf cartel, beginning the Mexican Drug War. This war has gone on for the past ten years and is still continuing today, causing the death of 10,000 people a year on average. The Mexican Drug War is having a negative impact
This past decade Mexico has been known for having its massacre era, where civilians have been killed or marked by the drug cartels excessive power. The United States have been affected by having an increase of drug use and violence due to the Mexican cartels. The power of the cartels has stretched to the United States, where now the U.S. government has noticed the impact the drug war in Mexico is having over their country. With the hope to stop the war in Mexico, the U.S. has tried aiding civilian, capturing the kingpins in control, and legalizing marijuana to stop the violence.
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.
.... Weak economies and high poverty rates haven’t been much assistance in preventing drug trafficking either. People have become more susceptible to making risks in order to find ways to support their families and drug networks are always looking for more people to distribute their drugs around the world. Because of drug trafficking, there are constant civil wars going on between the drug corporations, law enforcement, and citizens. This has become a common theme all throughout the world. Drug trafficking has only became worse and worse each and every day, and it is going to continue to be a problem for quite some time.
The Mexican drug-trafficking cartels are said to have been established in the 1980s by a man named Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo, also known as “The Godfather”. With the help of Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo and Rafael Caro Quintero, Miguel started the Guadalajara Cartel, which is one of the first to have thrived from association with the Colombian cocaine trade. The two men who helped Miguel Gallardo establish the cartel were arrested, so Gallardo, the single leader of the cartel “was smart enough to privatize the Mexican drug trade by having it run by lesser-known bosses” (The Five Most Famous Drug Cartels”), that he often met with in Acapulco. Eventually Miguel was arrested as well which caused the split of the Guadalajara Cartel into the Sinaloa Cartel and the Tijuana Cartel.
in the International Drug Policy Debate - Drug Law Reform in Latin America N p n d Web 30 Jan 2014
In Jeanette Schmidt’s article, Transporting Cocaine states, “Colombian cartels would pay the Mexican groups as much as $1,000/kilo to smuggle cocaine into the United States” (Schmidt, 2). The Colombian cartels would then pick up the drugs and resume distribution and sales efforts, making personal profits that are unrecorded. In order to seize these individuals who are growing in power and numbers, the U.S. must control the connections between Mexico and Columbia. Mexico is the biggest transporter amongst Columbia and the U.S. because it shares a border with the U.S. This increasingly poisonous drug trafficking leads to drug dealers...
. “The illegal drug market in the United States is one of the most profitable in the world. As such, it attracts the most ruthless, sophisticated, and aggressive drug traffickers.” Throughout the years drug trafficking has been a major issue in America. These issues have impacted our economy, security, which promote new laws and policies throughout the U.S. and among our boarders. Drug Trafficking has created conflict with other countries such as Mexico. “…criminal groups operating from neighboring Mexico smuggle cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, amphetamine, and marijuana into the United States. These criminal groups have smuggled heroin and marijuana across the Southwest Border and distributed them throughout the United States since the 1970s.” (Policy Almanac).
Concerned authorities have focused essentially on criminalization and punishment, to find remedies to the ever-increasing prevalent drug problem. In the name of drug reducing policies, authorities endorse more corrective and expensive drug control methods and officials approve stricter new drug war policies, violating numerous human rights. Regardless of or perhaps because of these efforts, UN agencies estimate the annual revenue generated by the illegal drug industry at $US400 billion, or the equivalent of roughly eight per cent of total international trade (Riley 1998). This trade has increased organized/unorganized crime, corrupted authorities and police officials, raised violence, disrupted economic markets, increased risk of diseases an...
The United States has a long history of intervention in the affairs of one it’s southern neighbor, Latin America. The war on drugs has been no exception. An investigation of US relations with Latin America in the period from 1820 to 1960, reveals the war on drugs to be a convenient extension of an almost 200 year-old policy. This investigation focuses on the commercial and political objectives of the US in fighting a war on drugs in Latin America. These objectives explain why the failing drug policy persisted despite its overwhelming failure to decrease drug production or trafficking. These objectives also explain why the US has recently exchanged a war on drugs for the war on terrorism.
...es all resulted in failure. The government's failure to suppress drug trade at the international level is due to two reasons: the international drug trade was far too complex and resilient for law enforcement to deal with and and the national security operations in the “drug source countries”, primarily during the Cold War, had seriously undermined the “U.S. Interdiction effort.”18
Drugs and crime have always been linked together. Generally for good reasons. Many organized criminal groups are associated with the smuggling of hard drugs such as cocaine and heroin into the United States. Such groups are the Medellin Cartel and the Mafia are notorious for smuggling ha...
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) 2002, Globalization, Drugs and Criminalisation: Final Research Report on Brazil, China, India and Mexico, viewed 3 April 2014, http://www.unesco.org/most/globalisation/drugs_vol2.pdf