Mexican Drug Cartels

(Recognize this country? If you said: America's National Park... you're wrong. That's Canada)

The biggest issue seemed, for a while at least, to be the illegal immigration problem. And after the plethora of problems that America has encountered over the past year, the most impacting domestically (bar the economic crisis) is quite unexpected. Mexico might just be breaking out into Civil War. The issue revolves around the problem with Mexico's exploding drug problem. Over the past year more than 6,300 people have died in the fight between the drug lords and the Mexican Army (Johnson Para. 4). 

And with things spiraling out of control the Obama administration has to been preparing to aid and has sent Mike Mullen, the chairmen of the Joint's Chief of Staff to Mexico according to MSNBC. Mullen is there to sign a security agreement with Mexico, but with the harsh conflict with the drug cartels is surely a topic of conversation (Johnson Para. 3). In addition to the average of 100 deaths a week due to the fighting, the cartels also have had quite the effect on the drug trade in American. 90% of all cocaine that comes to America goes through these Mexican Drug Lords. Additionally, the majority of the Marijuana trade comes is through these cartels... as well as heroin (Johnson Para. 7).  

And with 1,000 deaths in the first two months of the year already, the war seems to be picking up pace (Johnson 4). Not slowing down. The U.S. government just this past thursday began a plan to militarize the southwestern border of the United States to deal with these cartels. With a combo-team of the Department of Homeland Security and the National Guard if they are overwhelmed, the U.S. is stepping up its commitment to security. What to make of all this: Will it harm Mexican-American relations? Hispanic Americans? American Security?

I think collectively the answers are Maybe, maybe, and maybe. It all really depends on the way that the tides begin to turn in the upcoming months. I think that overall Mexican-American relations are strong but have been strained due to the whole illegal immigration debate. But, since Mexico is linked to the dollar source as Americans spend a lot of time traveling to Mexican cities such as Cancun, Los Cabos, etc. More than 100,000 students travel to Mexico every single spring break. Now they are more likely to meet possible drug wars and violence which may sway travelers away from the country. Personally, I know that a few friends of mine have already changed their travel plans (going to Spain instead). 

How will Illegal Immigration be affected by the drug cartels? I doubt very much. Illegal Immigration has already begun to slow due to the current economic crisis. Still, Illegal Immigration could become more and more hated or even violent if the drug wars spill over the borders. We have enough issues with Illegal Immigration as it is and to turn it violent would lead to a backlash by the citizens of the Southern States as well as the population. We already see the negative attitude towards illegals and Mexicans in general in The Tortilla Curtain (By T.C. Boyle). The main hispanic protagonist is named Candido who deals with racism towards him throughout the novel at various aspects from being told to "die beaner" to having dirty looks thrown towards him and having to deal with the fact of being thrown out of the country at every waking moment. The Americans in the novel already show a condescending attitude towards the immigrants... which sometimes borders on racist. Just look at Jack who constantly is preaching about the immigration problem, dehumanizing those like Candido and America into nothing more than animals or as he says "peasants." It's also interesting that Deleany, someone who I consider more of a moderate is already swayed by these racist views. Imagine if there was more of a violent aspect in addition to just illegals abusing our tax dollars. The drug cartels and war in the South would be the first time that America has had actual war on its soil since the Civil War. This could lead to southern outrage and more of a backlash towards immigrants from Latin Countries. At best case scenario, the current Cartel Wars will end before it spills over to the U.S. At worse case, we have a third major war on our hands.

And from American-Security this "war" is a huge issue. The physiological aspect of going to war would no doubt hurt our country with its already fragile state and I doubt we could handle three wars at once. Illegals would be hunted out and basically even more so than before they would be considered a threat and thrown back to Mexico or worse--imprisoned. These drug cartels should not be overlooked and could become one of the largest stories of the upcoming year.  

Update:

And apparently the saga continues. According to Newsweek, the Drug Cartels have already spilled passed some American towns on the border to major cities such as Phoenix Arizona. Just a few tidbids are disturbing: Phoenix has become the capital of kidnappings in the United States with 368  abductions in the past year. 33 people were recently indicted as having ties to the cartels in Greenville Tennessee, for selling 24,000 POUNDS of marijuana. And lately sources are saying that the trend is reaching Atlanta all the way in Georgia which is being dubbed as the "new southwest border". Homeland Security Security Janet Napolitano has told Newsweek that, "this is getting the highest level of attention." She indicated that more border control and National Guards are being deployed at requests. 

Has the war on drugs really failed so badly? What's next?

All I can say is wow.