Mexico and the “War on Drugs”: Greater Mexico podcast #2
This podcast looks at the two overriding issues of Mexican politics today – the ramifications of the 2006 presidential election and President Calderon’s so-called “War on Drugs”. We speak to leading political historian, Wil Pansters, a professor at Utrecht University, the Netherlands, and author of numerous books on Mexican political history including Caciquismo in Twentieth-Century Mexico, Citizens of the Pyramid: Essays on Mexican Political Culture and Politics and Power in Puebla: The Political History of a Mexican State, 1937-1987. We also talk to journalist and author Sam Quinones. Sam is a reporter at the LA Times and author of Antonio’s Gun and Delfino’s Dream: Truer Tales of Mexican Migration and True Tales from Another Mexico: The Lynch Mob, The Popsicle Kings, Chalino and the Bronx.
October 19th, 2008 at 7:43 pm
I didnt really know anything about the 2006 presidential elections of Mexico, and i really did not think that the podcast went into much background on this topic for people who had no prior knowledge on what happend, becuase to me it seemed as if it was expected of us to have some kind of background in what happend during the presedential election to actually understand it better. I did learn that their was some kind of coruption between the two parties PAN and PRD, to make the PAN win when PRD was suppose to win, this does not really suprise me becuase the PAN was already the party who had the power during the last term so they had more access to do such a thing. Calderon’s war on drugs to me has not really had any effect becuase i am originally from a border town between Mexico and Texas were literally every day you hear on the news some sort of drug related news, i think the drug related killings have also increased over the past years if anything i think Calderon’s war on drugs has actually worsen the situation. Most of the murders related to drugs in Mexico also has to do with the fights going on between the Cartel del Golfo and the Cartel de Sinaloa, and their subgroups like los Zetas of the gulf cartel. Even though the podcast mentioned that the same amount of drugs are going into the U.S. as their was two years ago, more people are dieing for the drugs to come into the U.S. It was suprising to me that the podcast also mentioned that only a very small percent of the population is involved in the drug trade, which kind of contridicts itself with what the UN says that 50 to 60% of Municipalities are involved in the drug trade. What i personally think is that not alot of people are involved in the drug trade in Mexico as a country but i do think that alot of people are involved in Mexico’s border regions. I also think that maybe most of those municipalites that are involved in the drug trade are probably those along the border.
PID # 8170
October 21st, 2008 at 7:26 pm
This second podcast is more competitive for me to get a full understanding for both the topic is more profound and the sound effect makes it even harder for me to completely acquire the information. But here is what I got and related:
The podcast begin with talking a bit about 2006 Mexican election focusing on Felipe Calderon stole the election from Lopez Obrador(PRD left wing) and the so-called war on drugs of Mexico. This reminds me of the CH.3 in “Antonio’s gun & Delfino’s Dream” also mentioned chaos in the political election. I looked other classmates’ response on this podcast. Some even from Mexican origin said the Mexican government is one of the most corrupt governments among the world. This is hard for me to take a side for I know too little about Mexico but from the knowledge from this class. But sure is that Felipe grabbed election away from Lopez even Lopez had got most votes in the bag until one month before election and 60% Mexican governors are involved in drug money. The professor in the podcast also made mention of 2008 election panorama is affected by the pronounce of political polarization a couple of years ago. The polarization never resolved in political way but some illegal ways.
The war on drugs of Mexico caused 1500death, in Michihuacan more than 100people died and 8 died including a 13 years old boy. And more and more people are dead for this war. They think this is good because the death indicates the successful work they had done. But I think for any reason, people died can never be a good thing. Bush government put 400million dollars to help but not enough still. The sxtremely violent conflict still happened on the both sides’ boarder. The illegal drug trade from mexico is still high as two years ago and killings didn’t go down.
I think both Mexican and U.S. should analyse the situation and get a common idea, then work in hand to solve this problem in a long time project.
#8184
October 23rd, 2008 at 3:04 pm
living next to the border i have heard about the cartels of Mexico and how Mexico is corrupted with drugs and violence. how the police is involved with drug trafficking and crossing drugs over to the united states. everyday in the news i would hear about people dieing but not just of natural causes and accidents but with drugs and betrayal of the cartels. Also famous artist from Mexico for example Valentin Elizalde he sang a song of drugs and was killed for singing the song people say that he got some cartels mad for reviling some of there secrets, but artist like tigeras de norte they have been singing about drugs for many years now and nothing has happen to them. what can the government of mexico do to stop this violence still happening. if they get involved they are in danger so what do they do? Their are so many people dieing everyday.
January 15th, 2009 at 1:49 pm
Contrary to what most people in the US believes the war on drugs in Mexico is not a new thing. The Mexican Army has been in this fight for 3 decades with thousands of dead soldiers. It is truth however, that President Calderon has given more support and more freedom to the Army to operate against the Cartels, but this is a necessity rather than a strategy.
The 400,000 policemen in Mexico are completely useless. After decades of neglect, they are either corrupt or incapable- in terms of training and equipment- to stand up to the Cartels.
With a record 85 billion dollars in reserves, a 400 million dollars aid from the Merida Initiative is really useless; the problem is not money, the problem is the police and judicial systems are heavily infiltrated. The Army can only detain drug dealers in fraganti -red handed-, and are not allowed- by the constitution- to investigate or follow up, hence the ones detained are later freed by the corrupted system.
To say that the Cartels out gun the Mexican Army is an exaggeration; it is truth that they have an impressive arsenal for a civilian criminal organization, including grenades, diverse assault rifles, 50mm Barret guns and even maybe Rocket Propelled Grenades -which if they have they have not used yet-, but the Army can handle this, they have done it so far. Every fight or battle, either on the streets or the sierras or mountains of Mexico, invariably ends up with the drug dealers running or dead.
As for the allegations that the Cartels “frequently steal from the Mexican Army stockpiles”, it’s completely false and lacks any support. The Mexican Army has a limited arsenal and is very closely guarded; the weapons used by the Cartels do not come from there. They don’t come from the gun shops in the border either; the weapons used by the Cartels come from the US Army stockpiles and/or directly from the manufacturers like Armalite, Colt and Bushmaster to name a few.
Why is the US backing Mexican Cartels?
Here is why: there are 30 to 40 million consumers of drugs in the USA that demand their daily fix. Billions or drug dollars move freely and are laundered every year in the USA with the complacency of US Government and the public. The American public has been indoctrinated into believing that drug cartels come only from the south; but what about the American cartels that distribute and have the lion’s share of the drug business? Why does the DEA only arrest low level street distributors? – Mexico with very limited resources and a corrupted judicial system arrests many more cartel heads than the US-, Where are all the big fish? Apparently drugs distribute themselves in the USA.
You can have all the international cooperation and support that you want, but the fundamental problem remains: as long as the American society keeps focused on money instead of family, more and more consumers will join the market, demand will increase and the drug business will thrive.