Border Problems
In the past five years Mexico has been one of the most dangerous countries in the world for police, civilians, and reporters. Mexico is currently battling one of the largest scale drug wars in its countries history. Since 2006, when the drug war officially began, nearly 30,000 people have been killed due to the violence. Mexico’s geographical location makes it a natural staging and choke point for the worldwide drug trade. Another problem is weapon and human trafficking with and estimated 90% of the Cartels weapons being from the United States.
President of Mexico Felipe Calderon was elected in November of 2006. One of his first major actions against the cartels was, on December 11, 2006, to send 6,500 troops in try and end the violence in Michoacán along Mexico’s southern coast. It is considered to be the first major action taken by Mexico against the drug cartels. Up until then violence had been minimal and no real action had been taken against them. The corrupt Mexican military was even used to help traffic some of the cartels drugs.
Before this action by President Calderon the cartels operated fairly quietly and with the corrupt government and military and out of the honest governments way. It started with Mexico transporting locally grown marijuana and heroin. Later when Columbia started its lucrative cocaine trade the Columbians, including Pablo Escobar, needed a way to get their product, cocaine, into the United States. Mexico was the solution to that problem. With the smuggling routes and techniques already underway with the Mexican cartels and their drug trade it was easy for the Columbians to join the cartels and start sending their cocaine into the US. The Columbians ended up paying the cartels up to 50% of the earnings per shipment to transport the cocaine. Over 70% of the foreign narcotics that enter the United States are through Mexico. The number is even higher with cocaine as over 90% of the United States cocaine enters through Mexico with its origins being from Columbia.
2007 saw dramatic rise in violence with over 2,300 people being killed that year. The violence increased exponentially in 2008 when accusations of corruption started emerging. Police, political officials, even judges are being fired and charged with corruption. An anti-kidnapping team in Baja California turned out to be the ones kidnapping for the cartels. Police were working for the cartels and protecting them.
The corruption has been never ending. Even in early August of this year over 3,200 Mexican Federal police, and law enforcement officials were fired and another 450 of them were charged. A member of the Mexican Congress and lawmaker was recorded talking to a leader of one of the local cartels. Cesar Godoy was recorded talking to Servando Gomez, who is the leader of the “La Familia” cartel, which is one of the largest and most powerful cartels in the southern costal state of Michoacán, which is also the state that Godoy represents. Godoy is already in trouble for helping cartels in his state, but because of his lawmaker status his is immune to law and cannot be charged. This is expected to change with the new evidence. When confronted about the conversation Godoy said the accusations were false and these new accusations were part of a smear campaign to remove him from office. He later said that the voice was not his and the nobody could prove that it was his and then went on to deny it.
There are currently nine main cartels that are essentially running the areas they are located in. In certain states cartels are imposing their own laws in certain cities. Recently the Los Zetas cartel drove through a border town and threatened to kill anyone who stayed the night. As a result 300 people fled the town and went to a shelter in a nearby town for an unknown amount of time. They have received a decent amount of aid from the government and have even been promised temporary jobs so they can make a little money. Whether or not the temporary jobs will actually happen is the real question.
In another town the entire police force quit three days after the inauguration of their new station. Their station was shot up with over 1000 rounds of ammunition, a K-9 unit was killed, and all six police vehicles were destroyed in the bold attack by the local cartels.
In October Tijuana had the least amount of violence it had experienced since the drug war initially kicked off. President Calderon called it a success story, there were parades in the street and the government efforts seemed to be working, these successes would prove to be short lived however. Within two weeks of the parade and visit the violence returned and escalated to an all time high. Bodies were hanging from bridges and heads were showing up on people’s doorsteps. This was a sign from the cartels that they were still in the city, operating, and active. They were telling the president that he didn’t do anything and that the cartels are still in control of the city.
Since the majority of the violence is happening along the US border there has been some concern about if and when the violence spills over into US cities. Some of the most violent cities on the border are right next to major US cities. San Diego is right across from Tijuana, which I already mentioned the problems going on there. El Paso is right across from one of the most dangerous and violent cites in the world, Ciudad Juarez. This fall a couple was riding jet skis on Falcon Lake near Brownsville Texas when, apparently, several boats full of armed men shot the man in the head killing him and attemptied to kill the woman. She eventually escaped but the mans body and Jet Ski were never found. Her story is in doubt because she has given out multiple versions. Either way the violence is becoming more prominent around the country. The cartels are getting more daring attacking tourist resorts and kidnapping people from these supposed safe areas.
This violence is having a significant impact on Mexico’s citizens. Traveling anywhere in Mexico is extremely dangerous even in the “safer” parts. The Cartels wear police or military uniforms and create checkpoints and rock blocks and extort people for their money or lives, and some times it is the actual police. They stop passing cars and demand money or shoot the people in the car. It is a problem because the police set up real “safety” roadblocks and the people cant tell the difference. This becomes a problem for the citizens of Mexico who have to commute to work to earn a living. They have a dilemma on their hands: risk their lives on a daily trying to support a family or stay home. Several months ago a man was driving with his family when they came across a roadblock. Not knowing if it was the real police or the cartels and trying to protect his family he sped through and was killed along with another passenger. The checkpoint was real. It is a terrible situation for any person to be put through.
Solutions to this ongoing problem are not simple and there is no easy answer. The problem starts within the own government, military and police force. Like I said earlier even the Congressmen and lawmakers are involved and are on the Cartels’ payroll. One thing that the government has had some recent success is in capturing or killing cartel leaders. This also proves to be a problem. When the leader of a cartel is killed or captured it leaves the cartel in a state of chaos. Top ranking leaders within the cartels are left to battle each other over the top spot. Often times when this happens part of the cartel might split off and start a new one. That happened four times in the past year with four new prominent cartels emerging.
One thing that does need to happen is the US needs to get more involved. Currently we are giving money and trying to help out on the border. It is estimated that upwards of 90% of the cartels weapons are smuggled across the border from the US.
Mexico is in a rough position. There is no easy way out and I believe it will get worse before it gets better. The violence has only gotten worse each year and the Cartels are running certain areas. Police, judges, and even Congressmen are on the Cartels payroll. The people of Mexico live in fear of the Cartels and in fear of the people assigned to protect them.
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