Blog 1: The Mexico Drug War

         In the past five years, Mexico has lost 48,000 lives to drug related violence, not including 5,000 who have disappeared, and those children orphaned by this violence. The perpetual war on drugs just across our border has become so violent and dire that there appears to be no end in sight. Drug cartels and gang leaders are estimated to gain 39 billion dollars of profit annually from their wholesale drug markets each year, and it seems that even that astronomical number isn’t enough. The extent of the violence reaches to extremes such as 14 year old “head-chopping cartel assassins,” to stacks of bodies being left on busy highways. And of course the violence extends across the border into the US. It’s estimated that cartels have hubs in at least 230 US cities across the nation.

            My response to this article is shock. I knew that the war on drugs was intense, but I didn’t quite know it reached had this level. I wondered what could prompt these people to put themselves, their families, and their nation in such danger just for some drugs. In our Global Problems book by Scott Sernau, it explains that in Tijuana, the new industries prefer to hire young women so, “for young men, some of the most immediate opportunities are in the illegal trafficking of people, drugs, and other items across the border”(127). This does make sense to me that poverty and desperation is probably the main motivation for getting into a lifestyle like this, but somehow greed and obligation keep them in these positions for life. I’m worried however, that if this issue gets worse, that we will have to defend our borders more heavily, which could escalate into a possible war against Mexico.

http://www.cnn.com/2012/01/15/world/mexico-drug-war-essay/index.html