History of the Mexican drug cartels. Mexican passions: drug cartel wars; shootings, robberies and violence against civilians; chainsaw executions chainsaw executions in mexico
The low standard of living of a significant part of the local population contributes to the emergence of numerous criminal elements in the country. Therefore, crime in Mexico is not only drug mafia and corrupt officials, but also petty thieves, scammers, kidnappers, blackmailers, etc. The degree of safety largely depends on the specific region of the country or area of the city, but precautions should always be remembered.
The most dangerous regions of the country and disadvantaged areas of cities
The most dangerous states are Chihuahua, Sinaloa, Durango, Guerrero, Baja California, Michoacan, Tamaulipas, Veracruz. These are mainly northern territories, with the exception of Guerrero, Michoacan and Veracruz. The rampant crime here is associated with two factors: drug trafficking and illegal migration across the Mexican-American border. Coupled with the corrupt police, the situation certainly leaves much to be desired.
The high crime rate in the southern and eastern states is associated with the low standard of living of the population, for which drug trafficking sometimes becomes the only means of survival.
| State | Situation |
|---|---|
| Chihuahua | It borders the US states of Texas and New Mexico. It is here that the notorious city of Ciudad Juarez is located, which in 2009 ranked first in the world in the number of violent deaths per capita. Since 1993, feminicide—the mass murder of women—has been rampant here. There are many drug trafficking routes across the state. Marijuana cultivation has been cultivated in mountainous areas for decades. |
| Sinaloa | Located in the north-west of the country, it became famous thanks to one of the largest drug cartels with the same name. |
| Durango | In some cities in the state, for example, Gomez Palacio, until recently even the police were afraid to appear. This is one of the poorest states in the country, which is an active zone of drug mafia and criminal gangs. |
| Baja California | The place where another symbol of the Mexican underworld is located is the city of Tijuana. This is one of the centers for the transfer of illegal immigrants to the United States, as well as the smuggling of cigarettes, alcohol and drugs. |
| Guerrero | Sometimes it is rightly called the “bloody state”. In 2014, 43 students disappeared here and were later found murdered. In March 2017, the massacre claimed the lives of 12 people at one time, in November 2016 - 24 men and women. Such incidents happen here regularly. There are several drug trafficking routes through the state, so the number of criminal elements here is incredibly high. |
| Michoacan | Located along the Pacific coast. The main population is non-Spanish speaking Indians. The state is a zone of influence of two competing drug trafficking groups. The associated high crime rate forced local residents to organize into self-defense units, conflicts between which often lead to shootouts. |
| Tamaulipas | It is located in the northeast of the country and borders Texas. For many years it has suffered from clashes between local gangs vying for influence in drug trafficking. One of the most disadvantaged cities in the state is border Reynosa. It's so dangerous here that the police have introduced a color-coded warning system. |
| Veracruz | A major port in the Gulf of Mexico and another area of interest for drug cartels. The state became famous for the discovery on its territory of a mass grave of victims of criminal gangs with 250 skulls. |
Authorities strongly discourage tourists from traveling through dangerous areas, especially alone. Here you risk being robbed, kidnapped or killed simply because you happen to have gold jewelry, some cash, an expensive camera or a nice car. The low standard of living and high concentration of unreliable citizens make even an ordinary walk along the streets dangerous in these areas. It doesn’t matter at all whether you are connected with criminal organizations or not.
Crime-prone and disadvantaged areas of Mexico City
Despite the fairly high standard of living and good police work, there are dangerous places in the capital of Mexico. The city is a patchwork quilt with a mix of rich and poor neighborhoods grouped around the tourist center.
Tepito is a metropolitan area favored by buyers of stolen goods, pimps, and drug dealers. It is located literally a 15-minute walk from the parliament. Tepito's calling card is showdowns between local gangs, invariably accompanied by stabbings and shootings. Tourists often disappear here. It is not surprising that even local taxi drivers will not take you deep into the area.
Such areas of Mexico City as Ciudad Azteca, Guerrero, Peraviya, Iztapalapa, La Paz, Iztapaluca, Nezavalcoyotl also have a bad reputation.
Cuidad de Basura (Garbage City) is an area that is not on the map. And yet it has its own transport, business related to waste recycling, canteens and traders. Extremely dangerous for tourists to visit.
In addition, crime in Mexico City thrives in the slums, where the poorest sections of the city's population barely survive. Any alleys and areas with the same type of low-rise buildings are potentially dangerous. So be careful!
Dangerous areas of Cancun
Cancun is a favorite vacation spot for thousands of tourists. It is one of the calmest cities in Mexico. But even here, dangers may await you; you just need to move a little away from the hotels and deviate from popular routes.
Conventionally, the city is divided into two parts: Zona Hotelera (Hotel Zone) and Downtown (Downtown). Downtown is the residential areas familiar to us. And although the crime rate in Cancun is significantly lower than the national average, it is recommended to walk and live here in fenced areas with 24-hour security at entry points.
Sona Rural is a rural area six kilometers from the city center, which until the 90s had a bad reputation due to the large number of slums and gangs operating there. Later it was landscaped, but the contingent remained the same. Ordinary Mexicans with low incomes live here. And if you don't want any problems, avoid walking in the area if possible.
The outskirts of the city, located an hour's drive from the beaches, are squalid slums with cesspools in the courtyards, local authorities and beggars. And the highest risk of becoming a victim of robbers. 
Fraud in Mexico: how to avoid becoming a victim of deception
Fraud has become a means of survival in Mexico for a huge number of poorly educated and poor citizens.
For example, fake police officers can be found even in busy tourist areas. Therefore, if you are suddenly approached and demanded to pay a fine, do not hesitate to ask and check the documents of a law enforcement officer. And be sure to get accurate information about what they decided to fine you for.
Dishonest boat guides are another category of citizens who inflate prices for their services and profit from inattentive vacationers. When inviting you onto the boat, they tell you one price for a trip to see dolphins or turtles, and at the end of the voyage they tell you another price, significantly higher than the original one. And to leave the boat, you have no choice but to pay. Therefore, negotiate the full cost of the trip in advance - this way you will save your money.
Remember that gas station attendants in Mexico have no official salary. Their bread is tips. So if you give an employee a large bill, you may not receive change. That is why you should calculate in advance how much you will refuel for, and prepare bills for payment and tips.
Card readers with video cameras in street ATMs are a modern method of robbery. They allow scammers to obtain your card's magnetic stripe data and PIN code. Therefore, in order not to lose funds, use ATMs at bank branches or located in shopping centers. And give preference not to credit cards with a large limit, but to debit cards with a limited amount of funds on them.
Sellers of exotic goods and animals are another category of citizens with whom it is better not to deal in Mexico. The fact that you were sold an item made from the skin of a jaguar, a turtle shell, or the feathers of a quetzal bird does not at all guarantee the legality of the transaction. Checking your belongings and finding similar goods in them when leaving the territory of some states can result in confiscation, a serious fine and even imprisonment.
Kidnappings for ransom in Mexico
In 2011, Mexico set a sad record: the country ranked first in the world in the number of kidnappings. However, the number of such crimes still remains very significant. Thus, in the first half of 2016, 867 people were kidnapped in the country.
The average ransom for a member of a wealthy family is about $200,000. The relatives of the kidnapped person are given no more than a month to collect the required amount. For a simple tourist they can ask $3000-$5000. But even after paying the required amount, kidnapped people are often killed.
Currently, the crime rate in Mexico is so high that absolutely everyone is at risk - from wealthy tourists to relatives of gang leaders.
Following these simple recommendations will help you avoid the fate of being kidnapped:
- use official taxi services;
- do not meet on social networks and do not go on blind dates;
- do not display expensive things or jewelry that indicate your wealth;
- avoid slums;
- do not hitchhike;
- try to walk in the company of familiar people or accompanied by a guide.
In the northern and central states of Mexico, the number of kidnappings of girls aged 15-17 years for the purpose of their subsequent sale to brothels is steadily increasing. So you shouldn’t attract too much attention to yourself by wearing revealing clothes and uninhibited behavior.
Organized crime groups in Mexico
The scope of activity of Mexican organized crime groups is the illegal transportation and trafficking of drugs. The damage caused to the country as a result of their division of spheres of influence is so great that in 2013 one of the local companies even offered everyone insurance against organized crime. In addition, organized crime in Mexico is closely intertwined with government agencies and the police. 
Drug cartels, criminal organizations of varying sizes and levels of influence, have literally divided the country among themselves like a pie. Their confrontation leads to massive armed conflicts, causing kidnappings and major robberies.
In addition to drug cartels, there are also a lot of small gangs operating in the country.
Changes in organized crime in Mexico
Organized crime in Mexico dates back to the 1980s. However, at the beginning of the 21st century, organized criminal groups in the country underwent serious changes. Their result was a significant expansion of the cartels' areas of activity through the theft of software, the supply of live goods to brothels, smuggling and the illegal import of weapons.
The low standard of living and the inability to provide a normal life legally leads to the fact that the source of income for large areas of Mexico is smuggling or growing marijuana. At the same time, entire states are involved in internecine wars, as a result of which thousands of people die.
Since the 2000s, due to political changes in the country and the loss of previous loyalty on the part of the authorities, the cartels, in fact, challenged the state. All their efforts were aimed at protecting drug transportation routes. And in this matter they did not disdain any methods.
In recent years, the cartels' appetites have begun to spread to the central regions of Mexico. And this jeopardizes the country's national security.
The process of globalization in the Mexican drug business
Guatemala, Belize and Honduras are countries that have become areas of interest for Mexican drug cartels in the 21st century. Having extensive connections in Africa and Asia, Mexican groups have seriously strengthened their positions and achieved the unification of local criminal structures with Colombian ones. Using the patronage of state authorities and police representatives, they formed stable groups that became famous for their particular cruelty.
The experience of the mid-2000s showed that even after defeat, such cartels do not disappear, but are revived under new names and with new leaders at their head. At the same time, structures that control drug markets in the United States began to enjoy special influence.
Consequences of the merging of state and criminal structures
One of the reasons making it difficult to fight organized crime in Mexico is the involvement of government officials and the police in its structures. Indicative in this regard is the arrest in 2008 of the head of the Mexican anti-drug agency, Noe Ramirez, who was convicted of connections with the criminal world and receiving bribes from the largest Sinaloa cartel. By reporting on planned police operations, he had been thwarting efforts to combat the drug trade in a particular region for years. And this is far from an isolated case. A wave of such revelations seriously undermined the population's trust in the authorities.
Currently, the drug mafia in Mexico is not only thriving, but partially absorbing the state: gang leaders often become the heads of municipalities, and corrupt judges and police officers ensure their safety.
Problems of corruption in Mexico
According to a 2013 study by Transparency International (TI), Mexican political parties were the most corrupt institutions. One of the reasons for corruption in the country is the huge size of bribes offered to officials.
The authorities never tire of reminding us of the negative impact that corruption in Mexico has on the country’s development:
- public order is disrupted;
- democratic institutions are weakening;
- economic damage is caused.
At the same time, the problems of general prosecutorial supervision in Mexico are very acute - dishonest servants of Themis simply turn a blind eye to existing violations of the laws. Thus, as a result of one of the personnel purges in the country, 1,200 police officers were fired.
Against this background, the creation in 2015 of a coordination council, which included the Ministry of Civil Service, the Federal Audit Service, the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office and the Supreme Tribunal for Administrative Justice, seems logical.
Speaking about which anti-corruption body has been created in Mexico, it should be understood that this is not one organization, but a multifunctional structure consisting of several important sectors. The formation of a closed coordination council will help to avoid the penetration of criminal elements into the control and justice system.
Social inequality in Mexico and related conflicts
According to research by Coneval (National Council for Social Policy), in 2014, 46.2% of the population in Mexico lived below the poverty line. At the same time, there are 14 billionaires living in the country.
The largest percentage of poor people is among Indians - more than 70%. Geographically, these are the southern states of Mexico. A sign of belonging to the middle class in a country is the presence of a washing machine in the house.
Representatives of the country's white population predominate in leadership positions and among officials, which causes a negative reaction from the rest of the citizens.
Regressive taxes are one of the reasons for the significant stratification of Mexican society: the rich pay proportionally less than the poor. And this only enhances the existing contrasts. 
A major problem in Mexico has been the increase in the number of women working. Deciding that they were taking away their jobs, many men turned to active violent actions. And this is not only rape, but also murder. This phenomenon is called feminicide.
Penalties for various types of offenses in Mexico
Penalties for various types of offenses in Mexico are determined primarily by the Mexican Administrative Code and the Mexican Federal Criminal Code.
Despite the high crime rate in the country, the death penalty has been almost completely abolished. It was replaced by life imprisonment for up to 70 years or more. Exceptions: treason against the Motherland during a war with foreign countries, parricide, treacherous murder, arson, kidnapping, highway robbery, as well as piracy and serious military crimes.
Possession of more than 15 grams of drugs can result in a hefty fine and even a prison sentence of up to 25 years.
You can be fined $20-30 for smoking in a public place. There are penalties in Mexico for kissing in public places - for this you can be sent to correctional labor or fined. Smiling or winking at a girl you don't know may be considered an attempted rape.
Cellular phones in the country are only allowed to be used by people over 14 years of age.
Mexico officially prohibits torture, flogging, confiscation of property, branding, and punishments involving the deprivation of body parts. At the same time, the country does not have a system for protecting consumer rights at the legislative level.
Law enforcement officials may detain you for a maximum of three days until the circumstances are clarified.
Features of the work of the Mexican police
The Mexican Federal Police (abbreviated PF) was created not so long ago - in 1998. It was based on such units as the financial and traffic police, as well as intelligence units of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the military police brigade. The main function of the Federal Police is to combat drug trafficking in the country.
Due to the hostile environment, police officers in Mexico are generally well armed. Their uniforms are black or blue. In tourist areas, law enforcement officials treat visitors quite favorably and provide all possible assistance to those who contact them.
In 2014, the National Gendarmerie was formed, the main function of which was to ensure order in border areas, in the territory of strategically important ports and airports, and oil centers.
In addition, community policing and civil self-defense groups are active in the country.
Confrontation between the state and drug cartels in Mexico
Felipe Calderon is the leader of the Mexican state, who went down in history as the man who declared war on the drug cartels. The army and navy became its support. Information support was provided by the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).
The result of numerous sweeps and arrests was the liquidation of several large drug cartels. At the same time, the leaders of these entities, after their arrest, were extradited to the United States, where they could not be helped with their escape by corrupt courts and prison authorities, as in their homeland.
However, the cost of this war was more than 57 thousand civilian deaths, which led to the formation of an anti-war movement, as a result of which Enrique Peña Nieto came to power. 
The methods of the new government are devoid of a forceful component. First of all, the country’s leader showed a willingness to negotiate with the leaders of the drug cartels, which resulted in a slight decrease in the level of violence in the regions they controlled. In addition, the country is focusing on legalizing soft drugs, which is depriving illegal dealers of profits. For example, for a serving of up to 10 g you are in no danger.
The difficulty of fighting drug cartels is partly due to the fact that, despite their criminal activities, they never disdained charity, large donations to the church and invested in the improvement of the territories under their control. This still provides them with support from the local population.
The government's response was the introduction of a national program for the social prevention of violence and crime, launched in 2013, which supports the poorest sectors of Mexican society. Thanks to this, the war on crime in Mexico received support from the local population. One example of the program is the street improvement in Gomez Palacio, Durango. Another example is the rehabilitation of streets in the Nuevo Mexico area, Torreon, Coahuila. And there are more and more positive results!
How to make your trip to Mexico safe: the main rules
Mexico is a country where you can easily be approached with a knife or gun in broad daylight. Moreover, criminals will actually be ready to use their weapons to take your wallet or phone.
Crime statistics in Mexico are depressing: according to a report by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), in 2016 the country ranked second in the number of violent murders. Over the past ten years, about 200,000 people have died in the country and about 30,000 have gone missing.
Despite this, if you follow a number of rules, traveling around Mexico will become not only interesting, but also safe.
- Try to avoid wallets stuffed with cash and cards that protrude seductively from your trouser pockets. You don't want to attract the attention of robbers, do you? You should not put all your available funds in one bag or pocket, so as not to lose everything at once. The best solution would be to store cash and cards in different places, and so that they are not visible.
- You should not take your laptop with you on a walk. It is better to keep the camera in your bag and take it out only when taking photos. At the same time, it is better to give preference to an ordinary digital point-and-shoot device rather than expensive equipment - the chances of being robbed and losing the second one are much greater. It is generally recommended to leave valuable property in hotel safes - it should be borne in mind that in poor areas local authorities can “confiscate” any valuables for walking through their territory.
- It is not recommended to attract undue attention to yourself by wearing too expensive or revealing clothes - keep it simple and try to blend in with the crowd outwardly.
- It is preferable to carry bags in your hands, since the straps are often cut off, stealing property.
- Carry a photocopy of your passport with you, leaving the original document in a safe place.
- It is recommended to call a taxi by phone and write down not only the car number, but also the taxi driver’s license number. When traveling in your own or rented car, choose toll roads - they are the safest. Don't hitchhike.
- Do not take photographs without the permission of local residents, especially Indians - this can cause an extremely negative reaction.
Life in Mexico: Video
History knows many sophisticated methods of execution, from which we, modern people, involuntarily send shivers down our spines, and our hearts clench with fear. Just imagine what life was like for people from past centuries, who were subjected to inhuman torture for even the slightest offenses. Judging by how cruel these executions were, we can say that our ancestors were bloodthirsty and evil and invented new types of execution for their own entertainment.
Death under an elephant
In Southeast Asia, execution with the help of an elephant, which crushed the condemned, was popular. Moreover, elephants were often trained to act in such a way as to prolong the death of the victim.
Walk the plank
This form of execution - walking along a plank overboard - was mainly practiced by pirates. The condemned often did not even have time to drown, because the ships were usually followed by hungry sharks.
Bestiary
Bestiaries were a popular entertainment during the times of Ancient Rome, when the condemned entered the arena against wild, hungry animals. Although sometimes such cases were voluntary and entered the arena in search of money or recognition, mostly political prisoners who were sent to the arena unarmed fell to the mercy of the victims.
Mazzatello
This execution was named after the weapon (usually a hammer) used to kill the defendant in the Papal States in the 18th century. The executioner read out the accusation in the city square, after which he hit the victim on the head with a hammer. As a rule, this only stunned the victim, after which his throat was cut.
Vertical shaker
Originating in the United States, this method of capital punishment is now often used in countries such as Iran. Although it is very similar to hanging, there is a significant difference: the victim did not have a hatch opened under his feet or the chair was kicked out from under him, but the condemned man was lifted up using a crane.
Flaying
Flaying a person's body was often used to instill fear in people, as the flayed skin was then usually nailed to a wall in a public place.
Bloody Eagle
The Scandinavian sagas described a bloody method of execution: the victim was cut along the spine, then the ribs were broken out so that they resembled the wings of an eagle. Then the lungs were pulled out through the incision and hung on the ribs. At the same time, all the wounds were sprinkled with salt.
Roasting rack
The victim was secured on a horizontal grate, under which hot coals were placed. After this, she was slowly roasted, often stretching out the execution for hours.
Crushing
In Europe and America there was also a method similar to Indian elephant crushing, only here stones were used. As a rule, such an execution was used to extract a confession from the accused. Each time the accused refused to confess, the executioner added another stone. And so on until the victim died from suffocation.
Spanish tickler
The device, also known as a cat's paw, was used by executioners to tear and skin the victim. Often death did not occur immediately, but later as a result of infection in the wounds.
Burning at the stake
Historically popular method of capital punishment. If the victim was lucky, he was executed at the same time as several others. This ensured that the fire was much larger and that death was due to carbon monoxide poisoning rather than combustion.
Bamboo
Extremely slow and painful punishment was used in Asia. The victim was tied over pointed bamboo shoots. Considering that bamboo grows phenomenally quickly (up to 30 cm per day), it grew directly through the victim’s body, slowly piercing it.
Buried alive
This method has been used by governments throughout history to kill convicted prisoners. One of the last recorded cases was during the Nanjing Massacre in 1937, when Japanese troops buried Chinese people alive.
Lin Chi
Also known as “death by a thousand cuts,” this form of execution involved cutting small pieces from the victim's body. At the same time, the executioner tried to preserve the life of the victim as long as possible.
Colombian tie
Drug cartels in Colombia and the rest of Latin America practice similar executions of traitors who give information to the police or competitors. The victim's throat is cut and the tongue is pulled out through it.
The war against drug cartels in Mexico has been going on for several years now, claiming many lives every day.
(Total 26 photos)
1. Doctors and nurses during a protest against violence in the Mexican town of Ciudad on December 7. On December 2, traumatologist and orthopedist Dr. Alberto Betancourt Rosales was kidnapped and his body was discovered two days later. (Dario Lopez-Mills/AP)
2. A policewoman stands near a car abandoned by attackers suspected of killing two of their fellow officers in the city on December 6. One police officer was killed in the shootout. (Dario Lopez-Mills/AP)
3. The bodies of three young people killed by armed criminals in the back of a pickup truck in the city of Acapulco on December 5. During the first weekend of December, 11 people were killed in drug wars. (Bernandino Hernandez/AP)
4. A soldier accompanies Edgar Jimenez Luga, nicknamed "El Ponchis", during his presentation to the press in Cuernavaca on December 3. Soldiers arrested a 14-year-old drug cartel gang leader as he tried to cross into the United States. Jimenez - by the way, a US citizen - is suspected of participating in a drug cartel in the state of Morelos, consisting of several teenagers who brutally killed their competitors. (Margarito Perez / Reuters)
5. Members of a forensic team work at a mass grave in Palomas, Chihuahua, on the other side of Big Bend National Park in Texas. Investigators recovered 18 bodies from 11 graves. (Reuters)
6. Mexican Federal Police escort 32-year-old Arturo Gallegos Castrellon, leader of the Aztec drug gang. The gang is suspected of several murders, with Gallegos being blamed for the murder of 15 young people in January this year during a party in Ciudad Juarez, as well as the murder of an American consulate employee in March. (Marco Ugarte/AP)
7. A Mexican soldier squats in a tunnel found under the Mexico-US border in Tijuana. US border agents have found a small tunnel under the Mexico-US border and seized a significant amount of marijuana from a warehouse in San Diego. About 30 tons of marijuana passed through this 548-meter-long tunnel, equipped with a guide system, lighting and ventilation. (Jorge Duenes/Reuters)
A forensic scientist places "Damaged" stickers on a car window at a crime scene in Guadalajara on November 22. According to local media, three men in the car were killed by unknown assailants. (Alejandro Acosta / Reuters)
9. Christians pray for peace at Macroplaza in downtown Monterrey on November 13. More than 30,000 people have died in drug violence since late 2006, when President Felipe Calderon launched his sweeping campaign against the cartels. (Tomas Bravo/Reuters)
10. Eight-year-old Galia Rodriguez, the daughter of reporter Armando Rodriguez, who died in Ciudad Juarez, came to the anniversary of his death in the journalist's park on November 13. Earlier this year, Rodriguez, who worked for the publication El Diario de Ciudad Juarez, was shot and killed by unknown drug traffickers. (Gael Gonzalez/Reuters)
11. A man walks past a poster hung by members of the Zetas gang on a pedestrian bridge in Monterrey. Zetas criminals posted messages between trees and over bridges in Reynosa and other cities throughout the northeastern state of Tamaulipas, celebrating the death of Gulf Cartel gang leader Ezekel "Tony Tormenta" Cardenas, who was shot and killed by Marines the previous day. (Tomas Bravo/Reuters)
12. A forensic scientist examines a car containing the body of bodyguard Carlos Reis Almaguer on the outskirts of Monterrey on November 4. The bodyguard of the mayor of the municipality of San Pedro Garza Garcia Mauricio Fernandez was shot dead by unknown criminals. (Carlos Jasso/AP)
13. Relatives and friends attend the funeral of a drug war victim killed during a birthday party in Ciudad Juarez. (Gael Gonzalez/Reuters)
14. People clean up the bloody courtyard of a house in Ciudad Juarez. Thirteen people were killed and 15 injured when the house was attacked at a teenager's 15th birthday party. (Raymundo Ruiz/AP)
15. Morgue workers place coffins in graves at the San Rafael cemetery on the outskirts of Ciudad Juarez. The bodies of 21 men and four women killed in the drug wars were buried in the city morgue for months after relatives failed to come forward to claim them. (Gael Gonzalez/Reuters)
16. Confiscated weapons from members of the Zetas gang found in a horse trailer, including rifles with enhanced ammunition, grenades and various ammunition. As a result, two people were arrested. (Miguel Tovar/AP)
17. Soldiers unload 134 tons of marijuana intended for burning at the Morelos military base in Tijuana. Soldiers seized the drugs earlier in the week during a raid. Heavily armed soldiers raided several houses in a poor neighborhood of Tijuana. As a result, 11 people were arrested and the drugs were burned. (Jorge Duenes/Reuters)
18. People gathered around a dove of peace made of candles in the courtyard of the Autonomous University of Nuevo Eon during a protest against violence and in memory of the murdered student Lucila Quintanilla in Monterrey. Once an oasis of peace and tranquility, this one of Mexico's richest cities has now become a battlefield for bloody drug wars. (Edgar Montelongo/Reuters)
19. A forensic scientist looks at a package with a human head and a message in Tijuana. (Alejandro Cossio/AP)
20. Mexican police work next to the body of a murdered man in Ciudad Juarez. Since the government declared war on drug cartels in late 2006, 30,000 people have died. (Jesus Alcazar / AFP - Getty Images)
21. The bound bodies of 72 migrant workers at a ranch in San Fernando, Tamaulipas state. Marines discovered the bodies after several shootouts with drug dealers. (Tamaulipas "State Attorney General"s Office via Reuters)
22. Residents came to the funeral of the mayor of the tourist town of Santiago Edelmiro Cavazos in the city center. Drug traffickers have killed 17 mayors in Mexico since the beginning of 2008. (Tomas Bravo/Reuters)
23. Gold pistol with engraving and diamonds at the Drug Museum in Mexico City on August 18. In this unique museum you can see golden weapons, children's clothing with LSD stickers and religious paintings with cocaine. (Ronaldo Schemidt / AFP - Getty Images)
24. The grandmother of slain police officer Jose Ramirez cries over his body in Acapulco's Las Joya district on July 17. The attack also killed three of Ramirez's comrades. (Bernardino Hernandez/AP)
25. Security film at a crime scene in Ciudad Juarez on January 31. Gunmen stormed a birthday party, killing 13 people, mostly teenagers. (Alejandro Bringas/Reuters)
26. Police officers work at the scene of a terrorist attack on the main road in the center of Ciudad Juarez on July 16. The criminals blew up a car near three patrol cars, killing two police officers and injuring 12 others. Another grenade exploded as medics and journalists arrived at the crime scene, leaving one person seriously injured. (Jesus Alcazar / AFP - Getty Images)
The drug mafia in Mexico is becoming more powerful. Although the overall murder rate in the country has been steadily declining over the past two decades, drug dealers are committing heinous crimes. They have undermined legal norms so much that ordinary Mexicans now and then publicly wonder: did the mafias actually win the war against the state?
The history of modern Mexican drug traffickers dates back to the 1940s, when farmers from the mountain villages of the Mexican state of Sinaloa began to grow marijuana. The first Mexican drug traffickers were a group of villagers connected by family ties. They were mostly from the small northern Mexican state of Sinaloa. This poor agricultural state, sandwiched between the Gulf of California and the Sierra Madre Mountains, about five hundred kilometers from the US border, has become an ideal location for smuggling. At first, marijuana was grown here or bought from other “gardeners” on the Pacific coast, and then the drug was transported to the United States. For decades it remained a stable and not too risky small business, and the violence did not spill out beyond the narrow world of drug traffickers. Later, cocaine was added to the smuggling of marijuana, which became fashionable in the 60s. However, for a long time, the Mexicans were just “donkeys” serving one of the channels for supplying Colombian cocaine to North America. And they didn’t even dare to compete with the powerful Colombians.
The rise of Mexican drug gangs began after the defeat of the Colombian drug cartels of Cali and Medellin by the US and Colombian governments. One after another, El Mehicano and Pablo Emilio Escabar were killed, brothers Ochoa and Carlos Leder (El Aleman) from the Medellin cartel were sent to Colombian and US prisons. Following them, came the turn of the Cali cartel, led by the Orihuela brothers.
Also, after the Americans closed the Colombian drug supply channel through Florida, the Mexican delivery route became virtually no alternative. The weakened Colombians could no longer dictate their will to the Mexicans and now only sell them large quantities of drugs at wholesale prices.
As a result, Mexican gangs gained control over the entire drug trade chain - from raw material plantations in the Andes region to points of sale on American streets. They managed to significantly expand the scale of their business: from 2000 to 2005, the supply of cocaine from South America to Mexico more than doubled, and the volume of amphetamine intercepted at the US-Mexico border fivefold.
The United States, largely due to the entrepreneurial spirit of the Mexican drug cartels, ranks first in the world in terms of cocaine and marijuana consumption. And the drug cartels themselves began to earn from 25 to 40 billion dollars a year on the American market. In general, Mexico produces about 10 thousand tons of marijuana and 8 thousand tons of heroin annually. Almost 30% of the country's cultivable farmland is planted with marijuana. In addition, almost 90% of the cocaine consumed in the States comes through Mexico. Mexican laboratories produce the majority of the methamphetamine consumed in the States (although a lot of meth used to be produced - four times more pseudoephedrine was imported into the country than was required for the pharmaceutical industry, and now the focus is on marijuana, which provides almost 70% of the cartels' income). All this is sold through controlled distribution points that Mexican drug cartels have in at least 230 major American cities.
However, this expansion of business also affected the relations between the leading Mexican cartels. The multiple increase in the possibility of supplying cocaine and marijuana with a fixed number of plazas (transshipment points on the border) and the number of drug addicts in the States led to a sharp increase in inter-cartel competition for the American market. It's time for big money. And big money, as we know, brings big problems. This is how drug wars began in Mexico, because “if in legal business there are standard legal methods of competition, then in illegal business, the most effective way to get around a competitor is to kill him.”
At first, families who had fled Sinaloa began vying for control of the main border transit points. Accordingly, the structure of the cartels itself has undergone changes. If in the old days, a drug mafioso was a guy with a gold tooth and a Colt 45 caliber, now everything is completely different. Now there are entire groups of militants trained in a military manner. To fight each other, cartels began to create private armies consisting of mercenaries - sicarios. These mercenaries are armed with the latest technology and often surpass even parts of the Mexican army in technical equipment and level of training. The most famous and violent of these groups, Los Zetas. Its core is former Mexican special forces from the GAFE (Grupo Aeromóvil de Fuerzas Especiales) unit. In the model and likeness of Los Zetas, their competitor, the Sinaloa cartel, created its own army called Los Negros. There was no shortage of recruits: the cartels openly posted advertisements in towns bordering the United States, inviting former and current military personnel to join their organizations. Cartel vacancies became one of the reasons for mass desertion and dismissals from the Mexican army (from 2000 to 2006 - 100 thousand people).
The first major war between rival drug cartels began with the arrest in 1989 of Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo, the founding father of the cocaine business in Mexico, a friend of Jose Rodriguez Gacha (El Mexicano). This contributed to the fragmentation of his group and the founding of the first two major drug cartels - Sinaloa and Tijuana. Then the unexpected appearance of a group with no connection to Sinaloa added fuel to the fire. They were drug traffickers calling themselves the Cartel del Golfo, from the Gulf Coast state of Tamaulipas. People from Sinaloa were divided: some were for the new players, some were against. When the cartel formation in Mexico was completed, they split into two parts: one group consists of the Juárez Cartel, Los Zetas, Tijuana Cartel and Beltrán Leyva Cartel, and the second group from the Cartel del Golfol, the Sinaloa Cartel and the Cartel La Familial. . Later, two more were formed - the Oaxaca Cartel and Los Negros.
And ordinary Mexicans were clearly shown a new way of waging drug wars when a group of men in black walked into a roadside disco in the state of Michoacán and shook out the contents of a garbage bag - five severed heads. A new era of Mexican drug trafficking has begun, when violence has become the means of communication. Today, members of the drug mafia monstrously disfigure the bodies of their victims and put them on public display - so that everyone realizes the power of the drug lords and fears them. The You Tube site has become a propaganda platform for the drug war, where anonymous companies upload videos and drug ballads praising the advantages of one cartel leader over another.
The United States, as you know, is not only the main drug market, but also a source of weapons used in drug cartel fights in Mexico. Almost anyone with a driver's license and no criminal record can buy a weapon here. 110 thousand sellers have sales licenses, 6600 of which are located between Texas and San Diego. Therefore, for the purchase itself, Mexicans usually use fake Americans - “straw people” (mostly single mothers who do not arouse suspicion), who receive $50–100 for the service. These fake people buy guns individually either from stores or at “gun shows” that are held every weekend in Arizona, Texas or California. Then the barrels are handed over to dealers, who, collecting a batch of several dozen, transport it across the border. And they make good money from it. For example, a used AK-47 can be bought in the States for $400, but south of the Rio Grande it will cost $1,500. Armed in this way, drug cartel armies have mortars, heavy machine guns, anti-tank missiles, grenade launchers, and fragmentation grenades.
Mexican border guards themselves cannot stop weapons traffic. Or rather, they don’t want to. Mexicans are not particularly active in searching cars entering their territory from the north, this passivity is explained by the fact that border guards are faced with the choice of “plata o plomo” (silver or lead). Many people prefer to take bribes and turn a blind eye to smuggling. Those who refuse "silver" usually do not live long. For example, in February 2007, an honest Mexican border guard detained a truck full of weapons. As a result, the Gulf Cartel was missing 18 rifles, 17 pistols, 17 grenades, and more than 8 thousand rounds of ammunition. The next day the border guard was shot dead.
Until 2006, periodic mafia clashes had virtually no effect on ordinary Mexicans. The cartels were big business, and big business requires a quiet environment. Drug gangs have even become an everyday part of citizens' lives. Ordinary people, seeing the success of drug dealers (especially against the backdrop of total poverty in the country), began to compose “drug ballads” about them. Since Mexico is a very religious country, the cartels even have their own “drug saint” - Jesus Malverde, whose central temple is installed in the capital of the state of Sinaloa, the city of Cualican, and the “drug saint” - Doña Santa Muerte.
There was no large-scale violence in the country. The cartels interacted with Mexican President Vicente Fox according to the formula “Live yourself and don’t interfere with others’ lives.” Everyone controlled their own territory and did not interfere with others. Everything changed with the victory of Felipe Calderon in the 2006 presidential elections. Immediately after his election, the new head of state declared war on the drug cartels. The president took such a radical step for two reasons. First, he needed to launch some kind of popular campaign to strengthen his position after the controversial election results (Calderon's lead over his closest rival, Andreas Manuel Lopez Obrador, was less than 0.6%). Of the two potential popular directions - the war on crime and the beginning of deep economic reforms - he chose the first as, in his opinion, the easiest. Secondly, the new president realized the danger of coexistence between cartels and the state. Calderon realized that continued “See No, Hear No” tactics against drug cartels would inevitably lead to a weakening of the government. Every year the bandits penetrated deeper into government institutions, primarily the police.
By the time Calderon arrived, the entire police force in the northern states of Mexico had been bought by the cartels. At the same time, law enforcement officers did not fear for their future if their connections with bandits were revealed. If a local policeman is fired for corruption, he simply goes across the street and is hired to serve by the cartel (for example, in Rio Bravo, the Los Zetas recruiting office was located directly across from the police station). Former police officers know the principles of police work from the inside, and they were gladly hired. That is why the authority of the police in the country was very low.
As a result of an active campaign, Calderon managed to inflict some damage on the drug mafia. During 2007–2008, 70 tons of cocaine, 370 tons of marijuana, 28 thousand guns, 2000 grenades, 3 million cartridges and $304 million were seized from the cartels. In the USA, this resulted in its own indicators: cocaine prices soared by one and a half times, while the average purity decreased from 67.8 to 56.7%, and the cost of amphetamine on American streets increased by 73%.
After the new president violated the unspoken truce, the drug cartels declared a vendetta on the government and security forces and are waging it with their characteristic cruelty and intransigence (for this reason, two sworn enemies, the Gulf and Sinaloa Cartels, even reconciled for some time). Those who did not run away and sell out are mercilessly shot. Briefly, the chronicle of the most significant victories and losses looks like this:
In January 2008, in the city of Culiacan, one of the leaders of the cartel of the same name, Alfredo Beltran Leyva (nickname El Mochomo), was arrested. His brothers, in revenge for his arrest, organized the murder of Federal Police Commissioner Edgar Eusebio Millano Gomez and other high-ranking officials in the Mexican capital itself.
Also in January, members of the Juarez cartel pinned to the door of Juarez City Hall a list of 17 police officers who had been sentenced to death. By September, ten of them were killed.
On October 25, in the prestigious Fracionamiento Pedregal district of Tijuana, troops and police stormed a villa located here, arresting the leader of the Tijuana cartel, Eduardo Arellano Felix (nickname “Doctor”), after which leadership of the cartel passed to his nephew, Luis Fernando Sánchez Arellano.
However, after the arrest of Eduardo Arellano Felix, one of the leaders of the drug cartel, Teodoro Garcia Simental (nickname “El Teo”) left the group and started a war against its new leader, as a result of which Tijuana was swept by a wave of violence that, according to various sources, killed from 300 to almost 700 people . Within a year, rivals fought for control of the road running through Nogales, Sonora, and the number of murders in that city tripled.
In November, under strange circumstances, the plane of Juan Camilo Mourino, the presidential national security adviser, crashed.
And in early February 2009, one of the most popular Mexican military officers, retired General Mauro Enrique Tello Quinones, was kidnapped, tortured and killed. Less than 24 hours before his abduction, he took up the post of security adviser to the mayor's office of Cancun, a resort town and one of the drug lords' recreation centers.
On December 16 of the same year, in a shootout with soldiers of the Mexican Navy, one of the leaders of the Beltran Leyva drug cartel, Arturo Beltran Leyva, died, and on December 30, in the city of Culiacan, law enforcement agencies detained his brother and one of the leaders of the drug cartel, Carlos Beltran Leyva.
On January 12, 2010, one of the most wanted Mexican drug lords and leaders of the Tijuana drug cartel, Teodoro Garcia Simental (nickname “El Teo”), was caught in the state of Baja California.
In February, the Los Zetas cartel and its ally the Beltran Leyva cartel began a war against the Golfo cartel in the border city of Reynosa, turning some border towns into ghost towns. It was reported that a member of the Golfo cartel killed the Zetas' top lieutenant, Victor Mendoza. The group demanded that the cartel find the killer, but he refused. Thus, a new war broke out between the 2 gangs.
On June 14, members of the rival Zetas and Sinaloa cartels carried out a massacre in a prison in the city of Mazatlan. A group of prisoners, having seized the guards' pistols and assault rifles through deception, broke into a nearby prison block, committing reprisals against members of a rival cartel. During this and at the same time, in other parts of the prison, 29 people died from riots.
On June 19, in the city of Ciudad Juarez, the mayor of the city of Guadalupe Distros Bravos, Manuel Lara Rodriguez, who was hiding there after receiving threats against himself, was shot dead, and ten days later, criminals killed a candidate for governor of the northwestern state of Tamaulipas, Rodolfo Torre Cantu.
On July 29, the military discovered in the suburbs of Guadalajara the location of one of the leaders of the Sinaloa drug cartel, Ignacio Coronel, and during the ensuing shootout he died. That same month, in the municipal area of Tamaulipas, the military raided a ranch where suspected drug cartel members were located and four people were killed in a shootout. While searching the area around the ranch, the Mexican military discovered a mass grave (the bodies of 72 people, including 14 women).
On August 30, the authorities managed to arrest the influential drug lord Edgar Valdez (nicknames Barbie, Comandante and Guero), and in early September, following operational intelligence information, a special unit of the naval forces in Pueblo arrested one of the leaders of the drug cartel "Beltran Leyva" Sergio Villarreal (nickname "El Grande").
The next major success of Mexican law enforcement agencies was the arrest of the head of the Los Zetas drug cartel, Jose Angel Fernandez, at the Cancun resort.
A few days earlier, on November 6, during a shootout with the military in the city of Matamoros, one of the leaders of the Gulf Cartel, Ezequiel Gardenas Guillen (nickname of Tony Tormenta), was killed.
On December 7, they managed to detain one of the high-ranking members of the La Familia drug cartel, Jose Antonio Arcos. And the next day, hundreds of police and military personnel entered the city of Apatzingan, where La Familia is based. And with the support of helicopters, for two days they fought with armed members of the drug cartel, during which several people died (civilians, militants and police), including the head of the La Familia drug cartel, Nazario Moreno Gonzalez (nickname “Mad”).
On December 28, in the city of Guadalupe Distrito Bravos, unknown persons kidnapped the last policeman remaining here, after which the city was left without police, and in order to ensure law and order, the authorities sent troops to the city.
On January 18, 2011, near the city of Oaxaca, one of the founders of the Los Zetas cartel, Flavio Mendez Santiago (nickname Yellow), was arrested.
On June 21, during a raid near the city of Aguascalientes, in the state of the same name in central Mexico, police detained the drug lord of the La Familia drug cartel, Jose de Jesus Mendez Vargas. The following month, in the state of Mexico, police arrested another of the founders of the Los Zetas cartel, Jesus Enrique Rejon Aguilar.
In total, since 2006, 26 thousand people have become victims of this conflict. For comparison, the number of Soviet military deaths during the 10 years of the war in Afghanistan was 13,833. Twice smaller!!!
Currently, there are nine main drug cartels operating in Mexico: the Sinaloa Cartel, the Tijuana Cartel, the Juarez Cartel, the Golfo Cartel, the La Familia Cartel or La Familia Michiocana, the Beltran Leyva Cartel, the Los Zetas Cartel, the Los Negros Cartel and the Oaxaca Cartel. You can read more about each of them by clicking on the links with the names of the cartels.
And a little about Russians, in this interesting topic:
Mexican drug cartels use members of Russian organized crime groups, as well as former KGB officers, to smuggle drugs into the United States and also to increase their influence in the region.
Luis Vasconcelos, head of the Mexican Attorney General's Office of Organized Crime, claims that "the Russians are highly professional and extremely dangerous."
Russian mafiosi help Mexican drug traffickers launder money. This was stated by the head of the intelligence department of the American Federal Drug Enforcement Administration, Stephen Casteel. For their services, the Russians take 30% of the money laundered.
Casteel argues that the rise of Russians in Mexico is linked to the globalization of organized crime. For the first time, fighters from Russian “brigades” appeared in Colombia and Mexico in the early 90s, but their finest hour came a little later. After the arrest of the head of one of the largest drug cartels in Mexico, Benjamin Arellano Felix, as well as several dozen of his assistants, the cartel began to rapidly disintegrate. University of Miami specialist Bruce Beigley claims that it was then that Russian mafiosi gradually began to infiltrate the fragments of the once powerful organization.
"Russian militants are much cooler than the Mexicans. They are much more brutal. They do their job silently and try not to show off unnecessarily. They don't wear gold chains, don't cut people with chainsaws and don't throw them into rivers," says Bagley. Don't underestimate them. These guys are the cruelest people you can imagine."
Bagley claims that the latest Mexican police operations, which have effectively "decapitated the Mexican drug cartels," provide the Russian mafia with a "golden opportunity to operate in Mexico." A large cartel is breaking up into small armed groups that operate at the state and city level in Mexico. There they are more difficult to identify, and it is easier for drug traffickers to bribe local officials. Small groups of Mexican drug traffickers welcome the Russians with open arms.
The Russians carry out most of their money laundering operations in various offshore zones - Haiti, Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. The Russians escort large cargoes of drugs that are transported to the United States. In April 2001, American coastal police seized a ship with a cargo of 13 tons of cocaine and a mixed Russian-Ukrainian crew.
The whole truth about life in drug cartel-controlled Mexico is told by a citizen who fled the daily shootings to Canada.
The drug trade is a quirky culture.
Drug dealers here are not afraid to say they are drug dealers. Each cartel has its own emblem. You join any of them and receive a “branded” large bag, only it will not have the Adibas logo, but the cartel logo.
People actually brag about their cartel membership on Facebook. Cartels post photos of murdered bloggers and anti-drug activists as if they were pictures of kittens. This is called drug culture, and it is what happens to you when you deal with various gangs for long enough. It becomes a kind of football fans' club, but with a hint of cocaine and marijuana.
The drug culture has its own patron saint - Malverde. Mexicans call him the "guardian angel of the poor" or the "generous bandit," and all smugglers pray to him before setting off with a shipment to America or before raiding another cartel's hideout. If everything goes well, Saint Melverde receives a new thanksgiving candle.
The drug culture also has its own multi-million dollar musical style, beloved by all the poor youth of Mexico. They dream of wealth and power, and only the drug trade can help them achieve this. This style is called "narcocorridos", and many have heard at least one song without even knowing it.
And if it seems cool and cool to you, then...
This is a real war.
Here's a little story. The cartels started having problems during Prohibition in the United States. It all started with small family-owned beer cartels that smuggled their product into the United States. When America repealed Prohibition, bootleggers were confused... but then the United States banned marijuana. This was an opportunity for drug manufacturers and murderers. The players have changed, but the meaning remains the same. America bans something, and in Mexico people start shooting at each other for a piece of the pie called the black market, estimated at tens of billions of dollars.
But in 2006 everything changed. It was then that Mexican President Felipe Calderon decided to turn the “war on drugs” into a real war. He invaded the drug world with the help of the army and a real bloody war began. While everyone agrees that the cartels will never go away as long as there is still easy money to be made, at least 80,000 people have died, making the Mexican drug war a bloodier affair than the American war was in Vietnam.
The drug war is touching every aspect of life in Mexico's northern cities and in cities dominated by cartels. In cities where gangs still compete with each other, shootings are perceived as bad weather and traffic jams. Murders have become commonplace in the endless cartel wars. The cartels even issue warnings so ordinary people know not to leave the house after 7:00 pm or 8:00 pm, or whenever the gangs decide it's time to kill. Yes, this can be called caring for ordinary citizens, but everything would be much better if they did not kill ordinary road workers in order to warn the cartel in the area.
Ordinary citizens began to form groups called "autodefensas". They also have guns because they take them from killed cartel members. They've cleared out about 5 percent of Mexico within a year, but it's clear the government doesn't approve of a vigilante army operating outside the law. It doesn't help that the cartels have money and influence - they control most of Mexico's government and police, even in a time when the president has been harshly critical of the situation.
What's even more incredible is that the government is attacking the vigilante groups with tanks and helicopters to "disarm" them. And then the cartels tap their badge-wearing buddies on the back and prove that mass murder, like riding a bike, is a skill you'll never forget, no matter what uniform you wear.
The cartels have an advanced PR campaign.
When I got into [a city that they refused to name for fear of being executed], I saw a billboard: "Mexican soldier! You only get $800 a month. You eat unhealthy food. Join us and you will earn at least $1000-2000 a month. And at the same time you will get more free time!" Similar cartel advertisements offering cash to soldiers for their weapons or loyalty can be seen in various parts of the country.
They also have their own news form. Distributed primarily through Facebook, the cartel's news contains less information for people and more intimidating slogans and photos and videos of gruesome executions. And of course selfies, because even brutal killers feel the need to snap their face whenever possible.
But no good PR campaign is limited to the Internet. The cartels also make every effort to spread propaganda to people who live near where they operate. If a hurricane, flood or other disaster strikes, you can be sure that the cartel trucks will be the first to help. They will instantly fill the affected area, and the cartel’s “ministers” will painstakingly film it all for YouTube. And all because a few trucks filled with food and water at the right moment completely erase all memories of the murders.
For many Mexicans, the cartels are the government.
Successful cartels control Mexican society through more than just fear. The cartels give out gifts at Christmas like Santa Claus with a beard full of cocaine. In addition, they allocate money. Yes, they just give money.
Since the Mexican government simply does not have any leverage in some parts of the country, the cartels have taken on the mission of building schools and hospitals. But it is not out of the goodness of their hearts that they recruit their members from these institutions. We are talking about poor children in rural areas of Mexico where there are no other opportunities. Imagine, your dad worked all week seven days a week for $20, and then a kid at school with an iPad and designer jeans starts saying, “You know, you can make $800 or $900 a month, and I can introduce you to people who will tell you how..."
They will begin to listen carefully to such a child and will begin to consider him a true “friend.” It's not even a question of money; most of us would do exactly the same if we were faced with a choice between “wages and starvation” and “fast, illegal, but huge money.” It's the same with the police; You can earn as little as $11,000 a year as a city police chief, but if you're flexible enough, you can earn three times that amount or more. Integrity disappears pretty quickly when it stands between you and things like antibiotics for your children or just money for booze.
And for those who don't join...
This is worse than dictatorship.
The cartels have their own checkpoints, just like the government. While government checkpoints are looking for drugs and weapons, cartel checkpoints are looking for anyone who may be working for a rival cartel.
For example, a guy born near the Bay Area decided to drive across the country towards the Pacific Ocean. Real police officers won't worry because it's completely normal. But the cartels may suspect that he is working for their enemies from the other coast, and therefore this guy simply will not make it to the opposite coast. There is no need to prove anything, no trial or investigation. If they suspect something, they will simply kill you.
Living under cartel surveillance changes everything you can talk about with friends. With a dictatorship, as long as you stay out of politics, you are safe. But in a cartel-run area, if a drug dealer likes your girlfriend, he will kill you. You have no right to exist. If you are a woman and he wants to "date" you, you have no right to refuse. Complained about a cartel on a blog? You will be lucky if you live to see your next birthday.
Two people I know were in a restaurant (in another city that I won't name) when two thugs entered the premises. They grabbed the guy in front of his family and dragged him outside. Another bandit told the other clients: "Be quiet or we will kill you all." The guy they took was never found and most likely never will be found.
If you're asking yourself why all this is happening in Mexico, there's one thing to keep in mind...
Money and weapons come from America.
I'm irritated by the way Americans don't take cocaine seriously, like in American movies like The Wolves of Wall Street, because 90 percent of the coke Americans buy goes through Mexico on its way to the American nose. Cartels make up to $64 billion a year selling drugs in the United States. Marijuana legalization in Colorado and Washington may have cut their revenues by as much as $3 billion, but coke and meth remain a lucrative business, and no one in the US is going to legalize them.
All of these drug profits do not stay in Mexico. The money flows back across the border to the 6,700 American firearms dealers who operate near the border. Nearly half of all gun dealers in the United States depend on arms trade with Mexican cartels. You'll never hear about this in an NRA (National Rifle Association) ad, and when you hear people complaining that they need big walls along the border to keep drugs and immigrants out, they forget about the flow of deadly weapons going the other way . Rather, it is precisely because of this that the United States is not seeking to strengthen control on the border of the two countries.
Gun trafficking is illegal in Mexico. There is only one legal gun store in all of Mexico City, and you can only buy guns with permission from the country's armed forces. So while the US fights armed attacks, weapons of all kinds are flowing into Mexico and killing people. And no one in the US, when talking about a gun ban, will think of Mexico, because who cares about the suffering of others, right?
In US political circles, there has recently been discussion of the ATF program or the program of "selling weapons directly to the cartels to see what happens." Isn't this wild? The issue was quickly hushed up when a US border patrol member was shot and killed with weapons smuggled from the US. And no one counts the people who died from the same weapons in Mexico itself. Maybe their names are too complicated for dumb Americans to spell?
And can you imagine the anger of American politicians if, say, seven people in southern Arizona were killed in an ambush by a Mexican drug cartel? But if you go about a mile south, you will find yourself in Mexico, and even the shooting of 100 people will not be noticed. This is the magic of the US-Mexico border and it is this amazing quality that allows everyone to believe that what happens on the other side will never be their problem.
Don't bring evil into someone else's house and you won't get it back.
Material prepared by GusenaLapchataya
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