Cartels and Foreign Relations: Merida Initiative and Beyond

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As the demand for drugs in the United States has risen, the amount of drug–trafficking cartels in the US has increased proportionally. Each cartel, or a group of people that controls the production and distribution of drugs and other illegal substance, is trying to gain their own place in the multi-billion dollar black market. Violence is used to gain and maintain trafficking routes and ports into the United States. This makes the 2,000+ mile border between the United States and Mexico a warzone for cartels fighting against each other and against law enforcement. Cartels use immigrants wanting to enter the US, as mules to carry over drugs as they enter the US’s. The constant tension between the United States and Mexican governments and the cartels has risen as the violence continues and worsens. Cartels have played a major role in the relations between the Untied States and Mexico as the US has cracked down on foreign policy regarding drugs and violence on the border and in Mexico through the Merida Initiative and Beyond.
Drug policies in the United States are now targeting the root of the problem; the cartels in Mexico that push illegal substances over the border. As violence has increased on both sides due to cartels and drug trade, the US government has made strides to help Mexico deal with their problems in an effort to stop cartels at the source. The US hopes to stop the routes of human and drug trafficking along the border, at the gates entering the US and over and under the fence. In order to get drugs across, cartels use immigrants entering into the US as vessels to carry over their drugs. Drugs are sent through, on people or somehow built into cars as they cross. Security at the border has increased to stop the attempts...

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...n Relations. Council on Foreign Relations, 05 Mar. 2014. Web. 14 May 2014.
"The Merida Initiative: Expanding the U.S./Mexico Partnership." U.S. Department of State. U.S. Department of State, 29 Mar. 2012. Web. 15 May 2014.
Perez, Catherine E. Shoichet. Evan, Nick Parker, Ray Sanchez, Mike Martinez, and CNNMexico.com. "'El Chapo' Guzman: How the World's Most Wanted Drug Lord Was Finally Busted." CNN. Cable News Network, 24 Feb. 2014. Web. 14 May 2014
Thompson, Ginger. "U.S. Widens Its Role in Battle Against Mexico's Drug Cartels." The New York Times. The New York Times, 06 Aug. 2011. Web. 15 May 2014.
"United States-Mexico Partnership: A New Border Vision." U.S. Department of State. U.S. Department of State, 23 Mar. 2010. Web. 15 May 2014.
Ware, Michael. "Los Zetas Called Mexico's Most Dangerous Drug Cartel." CNN. Cable News Network, 6 Aug. 2009.hbg Web. 15 May 2014.

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