I wonder if U.S. citizens realize the extent of murder and mayhem that is going on in Mexico. In 2006 Felipe Calderon was elected President of Mexico and vowed to take down the Mexican drug cartels. Since Calderon’s presidency over 23,000 Mexican citizens have been murdered and mutilated.
The Mexican cartels were trafficking cocaine into the U.S. for the Columbians at first, then in the 80’s they became distributors as well. The Columbian cartels came up with an agreement where instead paying the Mexican cartels cash they would give them 30% up to 50% of the drug shipment as form of payment. This worked out great for the Mexican cartels because they already had drug routes into the U.S. from smuggling Heroin and Marijuana. When the Columbian drug cartels specifically the “Medellin “and the “Cali” cartels were dismantled during the 90’s the Mexican cartels benefited even more.
The Mexican cartel’s now own the U.S. illicit drug market with 70% of all U.S. illegal drugs coming from Mexico and over 90% of the cocaine in the U.S. comes from Mexico. The illegal drug trafficking from the Mexican cartels accounts for between 15 and 45 billion dollars annually. With that amount of money being made the cartels have been able to corrupt Mexican politicians and members of the Army. General Sergio Aponte is in charge of all anti drug campaigns in the state of Baja California and he has made public allegations about police corruption in his state. He went as far to say that the anti kidnapping unit in his state is actually doing the kidnapping for the Cartels and acting as their body guards. Another example of corruption is when in 2008 a U.S. border patrol agent was held at gun point by the Mexican army on U.S soil in the city Ajo Arizona. When the borders agents back up arrived the Mexican Military personnel retreated back to the Mexican side of the border.
In a evolving trend the Cartels are using younger and younger smugglers to cross the border with the illegal drugs. As recent as June 25th of this year another juvenile was found in a tunnel crossing underneath the Rio Grande River in Texas with over 200 pounds of marijuana. The sector chief in that area of Texas said that the cartels are exploiting the Mexican youth and putting their lives at ever increasing danger.
In recent developments President Obama has promised an additional 1200 U.S. troops to the Border States to help with border enforcement. The troops break down by state is as follows, 524 will be going to Arizona, 224 will go to California, 72 will be going to New Mexico, 250 going to Texas and another 130 will be special Liaisons. I am not an expert on border security but I would say maybe we need some more troops on our border not 1200 divided up by 4 states.
The violence is getting closer and closer to our border and soon I am afraid it will spill over. The way these cartels are cutting off heads in Mexico makes Al Qaeda look like a bunch of pansies. Once again we in the U.S. will have to wait until there is a full out invasion by the Mexican Cartels over our border before we really start taking this situation serious.Why is securing our border taking so long to happen why can’t Congress get their act together and secure our border? I think the reason is that they want to wrap securing our border into an immigration bill. If we have to wait for an immigration bill to come out of Congress that includes border security we might be looking at the Mexican American war part 2. Forget about an immigration bill we need to secure our border the right way and a positive side effect will be less illegal immigrants coming into our country and that’s should be priority number one.
I know what I am saying is easier said than done but you can say that about everything. We need clear and precise actions with results to improve the attitude of Americans. This will also put the fear into the drug Cartels and illegal’s crossing the border that we are serious and we mean business. Please leave your thoughts and share your opinions.
CNN - U.S. officials find Drug smuggling tunnel underneath Rio Grande river. http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/06/25/mexico.smuggling.tunnel/index.html?npt=NP1
Yahoo - 524 Guard soldiers headed to Arizona Mexico border http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100628/ap_on_re_us/us_arizona_governor_border
The Washington Times - Border patrol agent held at Gun point. http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/aug/06/soldiers-cross-into-us-hold-guns-to-agent/
Minutemen - Video of Mexican army incursion on U.S. soil. http://minutemanhq.com/hq/article.php?sid=40