A couple of days ago I wrote about the war on drugs, which we seem to be losing. Last weekend's WSJ had a cover story by David luhnow and Jose De Cordoba, which shed more light on what is happening in Mexico. President Calderon has been trying to bust up the drug cartels. In his first three years in office there have been 153 clashes with drug gangs, whereas during the six-year presidency of Vincente Fox there were only 16. Nevertheless, practically every local police department in Mexico is still corrupt.
Two of the main drug cartels each employ 10,000 gunmen! In 2008 6000 people, 90% of whom were linked to the drug trade, were murdered. Dozens were beheaded. The cartels also extort businesses, creating a parallel tax system. Teachers in Juarez were warned by handwritten signs pasted on schools to hand over their Christmas bonuses or die. The gangs have taken over the border, highways, cops, and are now trying to take over the cities. Gangsters go into barrios and hand youth $30 and tell them to go block traffic and hold up anti-military signs.
Mexico is a country of 100 million people, and is the U.S.'s second biggest trading partner. Organized crime gangs from Mexico are now operating in at least 230 towns and cities in the U.S. Phoenix had 370 kidnapping cases last year. Gangsters are often better armed than the police or military. Where do the arms come from? The United States!
In 2000 the people voted out the PRI Party, which had been in power for 71 years, and had developed corrupt alliances with the drug cartels. After 9/11 border security tightened, and the cartels began selling cocaine in Mexico. Demand for cocaine has increased 20% a year since then. The U.S. has given Mexico $400 million to beef up its military. The goal is to break down the cartels into smaller, more manageable gangs.
Here in Colorado law enforcement officials say they have crippled the MS-13 gang, which was attempting to gain a foothold here for drug trafficking. MS-13 gang members are mostly Salvadoran nationals and first-generation Salvadoran-Americans. They also include Hondurans, Guatamalans, Mexicans, and other Central and South American illegal immigrants. They have 7,000 to 10,000 members in at least 42 states. They specialize in drug distribution, murder, rape, prostitution, robbery, home invasions, kidnapping, carjackings/auto thefts, and vandalism.
I might be wrong, but I don't think we need them here.
2 comments:
Those are staggering statistics. I don't advocate shooting people trying to cross the border, but, short of that, I do think we need to make it as difficult as possible for illegals to enter.
My heart goes out to the average working joe in Mexico. And there are plenty of them. Can you imagine how horrfying to live in such a world and have America just a few miles away? No wonder they come here in droves. I do sometimes think they ought to just vote to be part of us. Then we could come in with guns blazing and help them out. What would be the downside?
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