Mexican Drug War: Drug Trafficking and its Effects on Mexico

According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, and one-year survey conducted by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services, estimated that were 19. 1 million sight in the get unneurotic States 12 years or older who were currently users of illicit doses. There are ab come on(predicate) 14. 6 million marijuana users, 2. 0 million cocain users, and about 166,000 heroin users in the United States. These statistics show that in that respect is obviously a re aloney high demand for illicit doses in the United States despite its under-the-counter status. The question that virtually people do not tend to crave is how is this demand being met?Who is supplying it and how? American users are supplied most of their drugs from Mexico, which is very conveniently directly south of the border of the United States. Mexico is a major supplier in heroin, marijuana, methamphetamine and cocaine. It is estimated that roughly 40 to 67 part of all marijuana and about 95 perc ent of cocaine in the United States comes from Mexico. In order for all these drugs to be produced, organise, and merchant marineed to the United States there has been a creation of cartels and gangs in Mexico, which in turn has created what is referred to as the Mexican Drug War.Throughout the paper I will discuss the development of the organized drug game in Mexico, different drug cartels, g everyplacenment legal action and the effects that all of this has caused in Mexico. For a very long time, end-to-end the 1980s and early 1990s, the Colombians were the ones that concurled cocaine traffic tabby. Starting in 1975, Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria began developing his cocaine operation. Soon he became cognise as the king of cocaine and at his height of power he was fifteen tons of cocaine a day, worth more than than half a billion dollars, in the United States.After enforcement increased in both(prenominal) southwestern Florida and the Caribbean, the Colombian organized hor ror began to form partnerships with Mexico-based to transport cocaine through Mexico and into the United States. Mexican transporters were equal to meet this need of reli fitting cocaine transporters because they already had infrastructure cross out up from their sourcing out of marijuana and heroin. Mexican transporters were given anywhere from 35 to 50 percent of each cocaine shipment. This allowed Mexican transporter to locomote involved in distri hardlyion as well, moving themup to plump full on traffickers.They soon became quite adept to trafficking globally, which allowed their organizations to flourish, most notably the Sinaloa engagement and the disconnection cartel. Soon enough, Mexican traffickers took almost full control condition of trade, leaving Colombian organizations behind. The popular Mexican phrase, Mas vale vivir cinco anos como rey, que 50 como buey, which trans posthumouss to Its better to live five years as a king than 50 years as an ox, encapsulates th e way many young marginalized people think in regards to drug trafficking in Mexico. legion(predicate) believe that while theyre in poorness in marginalized neighborhoods they would pay off more opportunities becoming a drug trafficker than their long-term outcome if they didnt join. According to the dead 8-minute video, The Roots of Mexicos Drug Violence, drug cartels look to these marginalized or in poverty to recruit for this very reason. One of the major drug cartels in Mexico is the Sinaloa promise, based in the city of Culiacan, Sinaloa with operations in Baja California, Durango, Sonora, and Chihuahua.According to United States Intelligence, the Sinaloa Cartel is the most powerful drug trafficking organization in the world. The Sinaloa Cartel is estimated to import several tons of cocaine shipments from Colombia through Mexico and into the United States. They withal produce, smuggle, and make do marijuana, methamphetamine, and heroin. The cartel is led by Joaquin El C hapo Guuzman and is estimated to get to a benefit worth of about one billion dollars and is considered as the biggest drug maestro of all time even surpassing Pablo Escobar.In 1993, Joaquin Guzman was directenced to 20 years in prison in Mexico after being caught in Guatemala but was able to escape in 2001 by bribing prison guards. After escaping, Guzman had his eyes circle on the city of Juarez, which was under the Juarez Cartel. Despite having an alliance with the Juarez Cartel, Guzman decided that he wanted to take out the leader, Rodolfo Carrillo Fuentes in order to gain control of routes around and throughout the city of Juarez. He succeeded in this by hiring Los Negros, assassins for the Sinaloa Cartel, whom killed both Rodolfo and his wife.By this, the area was no longer under the Fuentes familys control. Unfortunately, this led to a countrywide drug struggle, which resulted in 5,000-12,000 deaths in drug link up abandon. At this point, Guzman had angered the other ca rtels since he had broken the nonaggression pact between all the major cartels, bringing upon the forceing between cartels for drug routes. By 2006, it was estimated that about 50,000 people lost their lives in drug related violence. Another orotund drug cartel in Mexico is Los Zetas, which partnered with the disjuncture Cartel in Matamoros, Tamaulipas.In the late 1990s, The Gulf Cartel hired a group of 31 fog former elite legions soldiers to determine with them. It is believed that many of them had received learning in commando and urban warfare from Israelis particular(prenominal) Forces and American Special forces units. With this training they learned skills such as ambushes, profligate deployment, marksmanship, intimidation, and counter surveillance. Throughout the early 2000s, the Zetas were incredibly important in the Gulf Cartels domination of the drug trade. It is uncertain whether the Gulf Cartel or Los Zetas began the disagreement that eventually led to their en d of partnership.What did solidify the Zetas office to strike out on their own was being able to quit and extradition the Gulf Cartel leader, Osiel Cardenas Guillen. It had become clear that the Zetas beat out the Gulf Cartel in revenue, membership, and influence. The Zetas began to work in other areas of organized annoyance on top of drug trafficking, including, extortion, kidnapping, homicide, and theft. By early 2010, it was made know to the public that the Zetas and the Gulf Cartel were no longer working together and instigated a bloody drug war amongst each other for the neon Mexican drug trade routes.Eventually, because of cartel alliance, the Sinaloa Cartel was forced to fight the Zetas in 2010 and 2011. One of the cartels most notorious acts was the 2010 San Fernando massacre. close Spanish speakers in the United States had heard about this act since it was widely reported on by Spanish media. The Zetas had a mass writ of execution of 72 undocumented immigrants in Sa n Fernando, Tamaulipas. 58 men and 14 women, from South and Central America were aspect in the back of the head and indeed piled on top of each other.There were only three survivors- one of which was shot in the neck and face, faked his death and then eventually made it out and tried to seek military help. Once they were informed, the Mexican Military confronted members of the drug cartel and lay down them inside of a ranch. According to the article, Migrants Killed for Refusing to be Assassins, young Says, the Zetas gunmen intercepted the migrants as they moved towards the border, then took them blindfolded to the ranch where they were told to hand over cash. The immigrants were unable to pay the amount demanded by the Zetas and also refused the deal to work with the Zetas.Once they refused to do either, the Zetas opened fired killing everyone but three roaring survivors. Inter cartel violence had always occurred before the Mexican drug war but the government had a very passi ve border on to dealing with it through most of the 1990s and 2000s. It wasnt until December of 2006, as the new President Felipe Calderon undertook Operation Michoacan and sent about 6,500 military phalanx into the state. This was seen as the first huge undertake to fight organized crime in Mexico since the drug trade began and is regarded as the beginning of the war between the Mexican government and the powerful drug cartels.President Felipe Calderon is quoted saying that the cartels are want to replace the government and are trying to impose a monopoly by force of arms, and are even trying to impose their own laws. The war against organized crime continued as another 45,000 troops were sent in the following months. According to the Secretary of National Defense, the Mexican military captured 11,544 people in 2011 who were thought to be involved with drug related crime. Despite Calderons intentions to decrease violence throughout Mexico, the opposite has seemed to happen. unp eaceful warfare between rival cartel leaders has actually worsened.Calderons methods of confronting the drug cartels directly, has resulted in a lot of public killings and torture from the cartels and also government forces. Also, as a drug cartel leader is remote from power, there is more intense, violent competition for that leadership role. It is also believed that cartels have corrupted and subverted military at high levels. All of this has created more misgiving and fear within the Mexican population due to this increased violence and the possibility that their own lives may be in danger. Other areas such as journalism and media were also being threatened.At the beginning of the 21st century, Mexico was considered the most dangerous country in the world for journalism. Many journalists have been remove and tortured for giving out information or reporting on certain things. So the question is, how can these issues be fixed? Many believe that the violence will not end entirely but instead seek for the country to regain normalcy and not be entrenched in this conception of violence as something normal. Another idea is demand- the reason there is such a need for supply and transport of these drugs is due to the high demand in drugs.Research And Development also known as RAND Corporation, a nonprofit global policy think tank, found that using drug user treatment to reduce drug ingestion in the United States could be up to seven times more cost effective than law enforcement. This could also potentially cute the drug demand by a third. I, myself as a Mexican have known people that have gotten kidnapped and never returned and its believed to be because of drug cartel violence. It is an urgent matter for those that live in marginalized or poverty for the fear and violence to be taken control of in Mexico.