Thread: What is wrong with Mexico?

http://www.examiner.com/x-15870-Populis ... ith-Mexico

What is Wrong with Mexico?


It seems not a day goes by where we don't hear about another murder in Mexico --another shooting, an assassination, more drug cartel violence.
Ciudad Juárez, the city across the Rio Grande from El Paso, TX, has become the murder capitol of Mexico. In the past week, the El Paso Times reported these stories from Juárez:
--18 people were killed after dozens of gunmen mounted apparently coordinated attacks targeting two army garrisons in northern Mexico.
--Five men shot to death at an auto garage near the city's airport. Twenty-nine bullet casings were found at the scene.
--A 21-year-old man found in his bed shot dead by gunmen armed with AK-47s
--Six people found dead in the Valley of Juárez, a prime smuggling corridor and a battleground in the war between two drug cartels
On Tuesday, Mexican authorities announced that new information had surfaced in connection with the deaths of three people linked to the U-S consulate in Juárez. A gang member suspected of being involved in those killings confessed that the intended target was the husband of a consular employee. He was a detention officer with the El Paso County Sheriff's Office, and he was targeted because he mistreated gang members at the El Paso County Jail.
Nearly 5,000 people have been butchered in this city in three years and so far this year, 500 more. Throughout the country in that same period, 17,000 have been killed.

Last week, a power team of Obama administration officials went to Mexico to meet with President Felipe Calderón to discuss issues of border security and drug trafficking.
The American contingent included Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Go down and send the message the U-S is serious; we want to help Mexico solve this., Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Michael Mullen, and Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano. The drill was familiar: Go down and send the message the U-S is serious; we want to help Mexico solve this.
But there's a much more profound and much more troubling question which no delegation from the United States is ever going to have the nerve to raise in a meeting with the leadership of Mexico: What in the hell is wrong with Mexico? Why is Mexico the disaster that it is?

Mexico is an economic basket case. Mexico has the largest number of millionaires per capita of any country on earth and it is now also home to the world's richest man.
It has oil wealth and natural resources, and a lively tourist trade. And we know it has hard-working people because when immigrants come to this country, legally or illegally, they do backbreaking work to pay their own bills and to send money home to their families in Mexico. Until the recession dried up work and sent many illegals back to Mexico, they were (along with legal Mexican immigrants living in the United States) sending home $25 billion a year. It WAS the second largest source of currency in the Mexican economy. Today, Mexican drug criminals earn some $30 to 50 billion a year, second only to petroleum in Mexico's lucrative exports.
Yet, the country seems on the brink. Incompetent, corrupt political leadership and increasing levels of violence are turning Mexico into a narco-state.
Juárez is a microcosm. On the surface, it looks like any other city of 1.3 million people: A flat tapestry of one-story buildings, familiar sites like Applebee's or Denny's, or a Radisson hotel.
Yet, under the surface, you learn that 100,000 people have lost their factory jobs and 40 percent of the businesses closed their doors in the last year, largely because of the fear of extortions and assaults for not paying fees to the drug cartels. A survey found that 97 percent of the population felt unsafe which might explain why some 30 percent of the population has fled the city; 25 percent of the houses --116,000 homes-- have been abandoned.
Half of all 6th-12th-grade kids are not in school, and a recent survey found that 40 percent of all young men said they aspired to be contract killers.
And, of course, there are the killings.

The rising tide of violence is a response to the failures of the Calderón administration. Felipe Calderón was elected Mexico's new president in December of 2006. In late 2007, Calderón dispatched the Mexican army to take over the Juárez police force and take on the drug cartels. The number of homicides increased tenfold, from an average of 20 killings a month to almost 200.
The 307 drug murders of 2007 jumped to 1,600 in 2008 and 2,600 in 2009. The military proved slow in responding to emergencies and totally unprepared to investigate crimes. The constant presence of armed soldiers in the streets has worked to intimidate the population and create a generalized culture of fear rather than to scare away the criminals.
The murder rate this year is on a record pace.
In all of Mexico since Calderón's election, 19,000 Mexicans have been slaughtered in the drug wars.

In its last days in office, the Bush administration came to the drastic conclusion that Mexico may soon become a failed state. The Joint Forces Command has compared Mexico to Pakistan, arguing that both may be on the verge of a "rapid and sudden collapse" [pdf] and could become a narco-state in the coming decade.
And yet, that grim forecast and these grim numbers are paradoxically accompanied by a blind faith in President Calderón. We go down there to do the diplo-dance about what a great friend Mexico is to the United States and how the two governments are cooperating with each other. Meanwhile, over the last three years, people are being slaughter on a daily basis while the Mexican government stands impotent against the drug cartels, and our solution is to keep doing what we've been doing: An extension of a Bush-era initiative,the Merida Initiative of June 2008, which committed $1.4 billion in military assistance to Mexico on the theory that high-tech helicopters and listening devices can solve the problem.
More likely, a continuation of a policy that isn't working will only make the situation worse.
So, what should the U-S do?
We might start by reexamining the North American Free Trade Agreement, which has destroyed peasant agriculture in Mexico and bankrupted small industry in Mexico. And we should address the elephant in the room and reexamine our war on drugs here in the United States. It has produced a massive market for the Mexican cartels:

Perhaps the top contribution the United States could make is to redouble its efforts to reduce American demand for illegal narcotics. The trafficking in Mexico is driven overwhelmingly by U.S. consumption -- especially of cocaine, marijuana, heroin and methamphetamine -- which is estimated to exceed $60 billion annually. Moreover, the U.S. government estimates that $18 billion to $39 billion flows south each year as a result of American sales of illegal narcotics. Some of this money is invested in high-caliber weapons purchased in the United States and taken across the border illegally.

To her credit, Hillary Clinton, who led the U-S delegation to Mexico last week, admitted that an "intense U-S appetite for illegal narcotics is at the core of the problem," and she pledged to reduce the demand for drugs here at home.
How? Hopefully, not with the same war on drugs we've waged in the United States for the last 40 years? That has proven an endless, costly and losing war. Is ending prohibition and focusing on addiction rather than law enforcement interdiction a solution?
Drug users in the U-S provide the money to corrupt government officials in Mexico, while the drug cartels purchase almost all of their weapons north of the Rio Grande. Who is selling those guns to these cartels? How do we police those kinds of transactions without infringing on Second Amendment rights or passing yet another pointless gun law?
John Ackerman, a professor at the Institute for Legal Research at the National Autonomous University of Mexico and editor-in-chief of the Mexican Law Review, writes that defeating the drug cartels depends not on soldiers in the street and strongman tactics but on a more transparent, effective rule of law, and that's going to require a shift in strategy by the Obama administration:

When President Barack Obama visited Africa last year, he issued a clear message against corruption and the abuse of power. "No country is going to create wealth if its leaders exploit the economy to enrich themselves, or police can be bought off by drug traffickers," he said. "Africa doesn't need strongmen; it needs strong institutions."
But Obama has turned this logic on its head in his relationship with Mexico. He rarely misses an opportunity to express his "total confidence" in Calderón's strongman tactics, and only 15 per cent of the $1.4-billion Merida plan -- the U.S. aid package directed toward helping fight the cartels -- is earmarked for "institution-building and the rule of law." The rest is for military and technological support.

Isn't it time to stop pussyfooting around here? Enough with sending delegations to Mexico to fly the American flag and enough with welcoming delegations from Mexico to fly the Mexican flag.
If the Obama administration is serious about turning the page on its relations with Latin America, it should reassess President Bush's unthinking support of the Calderón administration. Obama should recognize that there are many more effective allies in Mexican civil society --watchdog groups, journalists and scholars-- and reach out to them in an effort to consolidate democracy in North America. And it also wouldn't hurt to develop creative measures to stem the southward flow of weapons and reduce drug consumption in the U-S.
Or am I missing something? What is the answer to the disaster that is Mexico? What the hell is wrong with Mexico?

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I mostly agree with what this guy is saying but....I just really wonder when it comes to drug consumption in the United States...WHO exactly are the consumers of drugs in the United States? Illegal immigrants?

There are countries with far less in riches and resources than Mexico
that have very good economies and take care of their people.

The reason for Mexicos failing are many , but it starts with the people and the society.

Look how easily millions of them break our laws and have no sense of personal responsibility.

Nobody can tell me that the govt of Mexico couldn't wipe out the drug gangs, put their people to work and stop the flow of illegals tomorrow, I won't believe it.

They don't want to , we all know that

and a recent survey found that 40 percent of all young men said they aspired to be contract killers.

YES! These are the fine upstadning young men the USA NEEDS!

This is what a failed state looks like and it appears to be heading our way

airborne, its already here, if you ask me

Originally Posted by jamesw62

airborne, its already here, if you ask me

Ditto James!

A huge part of Vegas is already there

Originally Posted by jamesw62

airborne, its already here, if you ask me

I agree ... I just think it's picking up speed

It is absolutely here, but that was the plan all along. Our military will not kill American citizens, but Mexico drug cartels have no problem with it.

This is LA lmao... no wonder they are boycotting Arizona. But look at these animals who came here for a better life? The video is halfway down the page.

http://www.prisonplanet.com/what-if-tea ... d-l-a.html