The violence against innocents has risen to new levels of macabre in Mexico.
In the border town of Nuevo Laredo, two bodies of a man and woman were found hanging from a bridge next to a sign warning against posting “funny things” on the internet. Translation? Criticism of drug cartel activities.
As Ricardo Mancillas Castillo for CNN recently reported,
“A man and a woman, both in their early 20s, were left hanging like cuts of meat. The woman was hogtied and disemboweled, her intestines protruding from three deep cuts on her abdomen. She was then hung from the bridge by her feet and hands, topless. The bloodied man was suspended next to her by his hands, his right shoulder severed so deeply you can see the bone.”
The Drug War in Mexico has heated up exponentially over the last few years with an increasing body count. It has claimed more than 40,000 victims, including perceived enemies of the drug cartels: police, prosecutors, political leaders and journalists—but many of the victims were innocent civilians caught in the crossfire.
There are about a dozen drug cartels operating in Mexico controlling the flow of drugs from South America and Mexico into the United States, weapons from the U.S. to Mexico, and laundering an estimated $18 billion to $39 billion dollars from the U.S. each year. Mexican drug organizations are responsible for 70% of foreign narcotics imported into the U.S., including marijuana, methamphetamines, heroin, and cocaine.
The Christian Science Monitor in January stated that,
“…(the Mexican) government reported that it made more than 27,000 arrests related to the drug war in 2010. It also said it freed 1,184 victims of kidnappings last year. It has confiscated 2,172 tons of marijuana and 12.6 tons of methamphetamines. The most dramatic seizure, the largest confiscation of marijuana in a single operation, included 148 tons in Tijuana in October.”
The origins of the current conflict point toward entrenched corruption within the Mexican police forces, judicial system and governmental officials taking kick-backs, paybacks, and bribes to stand aside and to not obstruct the massively profitable business of drug manufacture and smuggling into the United States.
The unbridled terror being waged against Mexico’s citizens—40,000 dead—has created a runaway environment of fear; as President Calderon has ramped up prosecution, the resistance has only stiffened, increasing the violence and producing thousands of more victims.
Many experts believe a combination of hard and soft power will help diminish the purveyors of organized crime over time. The soft power approach would be similar to how Columbia turned around its own drug centers like the city of Medillin with urban planning and social welfare programs. The drug cartels—whether in Columbia or in Mexico—have filled an economic vacuum in poverty wracked areas. Consequently, to effectively counter the drug cartel’s success, job opportunities must accompany the restoration of a secure environment brought on by militarily cracking down on drug cartel infrastructure, command and control. It’s a two-pronged approach which in Mexico is now in its beginning stages of execution.
For example, as Sara Miller Llana reported in 2010,
“This year, the Mexican federal government, working with local officials, launched an ambitious program in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico's most violent city, to improve security via microcredit, jobs, parks, and new educational facilities.”
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