On the streets of Mexico, over the past 3 years there have been more than 10,800 people brutally murdered as a direct result of ongoing Drug
War between some of the country’s most prolific drug lords and their cartels.
This war, which has also seen some 45,000 people arrested doesn’t appear to be easing, with the constant battle for territory and power affecting the millions of Mexican inhabitants in their everyday lives as they walk the streets in fear.
In response to this ever increasingly bloody conflict, the Mexican government headed by president Felipe Calderón has deployed up to 46,000 specially trained armed forces throughout the country. As of yet however, this effort has been almost ineffective in quelling the violence.
The most effected areas of the conflict have been the northern cities of Chihuahua, Baja California and Sinaloa. The later of these three cities, Sinaloa, is the home of one of the most prominent figures of this drug war and also one of the richest in the world. Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman is head of the Sinaloa Cartel, one of the two biggest cartels in Mexico along with the Gulf Cartel.
Power and territory are the biggest factors in this ongoing war, which originally started out as an inter cartel feud. However, since 2006 when Felipe Calderón took office and declared an end to the drug culture in the country, there has been an increase in policing along the Mexican border with the United States, meaning fewer routes through which the drug runners can pass. This has meant that cartels are now fighting for control over these highly profitable routes.
In response to the increase of violence, the United States committed to sending millions of dollars and more armed forces to work with the Mexican Government. President Barack Obama personally visited the North American country, while Secretary of State Hiliary Clinton publically apologized for the role the United States played in the war, a huge step forward, at least politically, for both countries.
In the past, this war was just between members of these cartels, however, with the high level of poverty in Mexico, an increasing number of young men and women are turning to a life of crime in an attempt to improve their lives. Many young people follow the old urban mantra that
states ‘its better to live 6 months as a king, the your whole life as a thing’. This sentiment appears to be having an effect on these impoverished youths, as thousands of new ‘recruits’ are being found to fight this conflict for the cartels.
Unfortunately for the Mexican armed forces, the cartels are becoming increasing better equipped to deal with this conflict. Arms are being smuggled into the country from places like Columbia, a country which also has huge drug problem.
It is extremely difficult and almost inappropriate to determine when this drug war will end. However, until then, Mexican people all across the country walk the calles in fear, the very calles that have witnessed thousands of murders in such a short time.
Corí (“,)