Introduction:
Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo, also known as “El Padrino” or the godfather, was a powerful Mexican drug kingpin from the late sixties to his arrest in 1989. Before entering the drug sphere, Gallardo was a policeman in Guadalajara. Gallardo got his start by selling opium and marijuana on Mexican soil, before expanding into wholesaling Colombian cocaine. Along with Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo and Rafael Caro Quintero, Gallardo founded the Guadalajara Cartel. At its peak, the Guadalajara Cartel provided 90% of the cocaine entering the United States and took in nearly five billion USD per year from the drug trade. In addition, the cartel controlled much of the Pacific Coast and the Mexican border with the United States. Personally,
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The surviving members of the National Liberation Army (ELN) are hiding in the northeast of Colombia and the FARC has lost a majority of its soldiers and resources during skirmishes with the army in 1973. In addition, public opinion is turning against the FARC, since kidnapping for ransom has disrupted communities. Members of the FARC are now restricted in their movement and the organizational capacity is severely limited. Reviving the support of peasants is essential for the success of FARC. Although the organization does provide some services to peasants, stepping in where the government has not will improve the view of the FARC in the eyes of peasants. More specifically, providing education, healthcare, and jobs to peasants will improve public opinion. In Mexico, the Guadalajara Cartel engages in similar poverty assistance programs, which have helped the cartel gain influence and …show more content…
In the countryside, peasants suffer a poor lifestyle due to a lack of jobs. The solution to the employment problem is simple: narcotics. Colombia is a logical place for the narcotics trade to occur. For thousands of years, indigenous people in Colombia and surrounding countries have used coca, the plant from which cocaine is made, for medicinal purposes. Many farmers already grow coca, since it is known for its medicinal qualities. The geography of Colombia also adds to its position in the drug trade. Situated between five countries and two oceans, the physical location of Colombia is ideal for traffickers to smuggle cocaine without detection. In addition, the mountain ranges make hiding from international and national anti-narcotics agents relatively easy. Although the beginning of the Medellin and Cali Cartels are emerging, the FARC should also become a major player in the narcotics industry. A transition plan to complete control over rural farmers should occur in two parts. First, the FARC should begin encouraging the planting of cocaine and marijuana in exchange for protection to small farmers. Many farmers are struggling with legal crops, so selling drugs to the FARC will provide a reliable income source to them. The FARC should then process the cocaine and work with the Guadalajara Cartel to ship the cocaine to Mexico. Processing infrastructure, such as holding facilities and cocaine
In the Documentary “Mexico’s Drug Cartel War”, it displays a systematic approach of drugs and violence. The Drug War has been going on since the United States had a devastating impact on Mexico after the recession where it nearly doubled its interest payments. Mexico could not afford the interest payments but did have many agricultural imports. This created the trade between the United States and the land owned by the two million farmers. It spread the slums to Tijuana and Ciudad Juarez to work in maquiladoras (assembly plants just across the border) (Jacobin, 2015). This paper will focus on explaining how drugs are related to violence in Mexico, how drug enforcement policies influence the relationship between drugs and violence, and how battle for control in their own country.
The business process of the Mexican drug cartels is not easy, but is a very simple method. Step one is the drugs are produced in Mexico. Step two is the drugs are smuggled across the boarder. Step three is the drugs are distributed to the drug dealers in the U.S. Step four are the drug dealers sell the drugs and U.S. cash dollars are made. It is a simple four-step method, but the process of the four steps comes with a lot of trouble, risk, and violence.
Mexico has a long history of cartels the deaths, drugs and weapon trafficking is in all time high increasing year by year. “Mexico's gangs have flourished since the late 19th century, mostly in the north due to their proximity to towns along the U.S.-Mexico border. But it was the American appetite for cocaine in the 1970s that gave Mexican drug cartels immense power to manufacture and transport drugs across the border. Early Mexican gangs were primarily situated in border towns where prostitution, drug use, bootlegging and extortion flourished” (Wagner). They keep themselves armed and ready with gun supplies shipped from the U.S, taking control of the drug trades. The violence is spilling so out of control that they overthrew the Mexican government.
Cocaine originated from South America, from coca leaves. Originally, the coca leaves were chewed by workers to decrease fatigue, improve endurance and have a greater resistance to the cold. This was to benefit the workers so they could work longer hours and be more productive. In 1855 the active ingredient in cocaine was isolated from the leaves, and in 1880 it was used as a local anesthetic (Nunes,2006). It was also used in coca cola. In 1855, coca cola was a soda beverage that contained sixty milligrams of cocaine for every eight ounces of the beverage. The idea behind this was to give people energy and a sense of well being (Nunes, 2006). By the late 1880s Sigmund Freud was using cocaine regularly and was even recommending it to others. This only lasted for less than twenty years, until he started discouraging it to others. Then by 1914 cocaine was banned for medical use and in beverages. This caused the use of cocaine and by the 1930s, the use had drastically decreased. It then became popular for recreational use in the 1980s (Nunes, 2006). It was often used and shown in movies such as Scarface, and is famous for the amount of cocaine that Al Pacino uses in one of the final scenes of the movie. Now it is still used recreationally and used by a ‘party crowd’. Although this is the primary category of people who use cocaine, people of all demographics use cocaine recreationally.
One of the biggest causes of drug trafficking is very futile economies where people are searching for ways to make money. Places with weaker economies, such as Mexico and Colombia, usually have a lot higher drug trafficking rates than places with strong economies. As I said before, it is believed that Mexico’s economy would shrink by over sixty-three percent if it wasn’t for drug trafficking. That in itself is enough to show how dependent some places are on drug trafficking. These areas don’t have the job opportunities that many places throughout the world have either because they don’t have good economies. This is beca...
The cocaine commodity chains play a big role in the history of illicit commodity chains in North America. The origins of the chain begun in the Andes when the drug was found in coca leaves discovered in the 1800’s. In the first paragraph of my essay I’m going to touch on the history of the commodity chain, however my main focus will be on the growth of the chain in North America between 1950 and 2000, the geographical regions, spatial logistics and organization.
The Mexican drug-trafficking cartels are said to have been established in the 1980s by a man named Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo, also known as “The Godfather”. With the help of Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo and Rafael Caro Quintero, Miguel started the Guadalajara Cartel, which is one of the first to have thrived from association with the Colombian cocaine trade. The two men who helped Miguel Gallardo establish the cartel were arrested, so Gallardo, the single leader of the cartel “was smart enough to privatize the Mexican drug trade by having it run by lesser-known bosses” (The Five Most Famous Drug Cartels”), that he often met with in Acapulco. Eventually Miguel was arrested as well which caused the split of the Guadalajara Cartel into the Sinaloa Cartel and the Tijuana Cartel.
“Mexicans smugglers have long trafficked homegrown heroin and marijuana to the U.S. But in the 1980’s, mexico also became the primary route for colombian cocaine bound for the U.S” (Bates). According to Bates, when Guadalajara’s leader was arrested in 1989, the groups remaining capos, including a young Guzman divided up its trafficking routes, creating the Sinaloa, Juarez, and Tijuana Cartels.
Some teenagers are part of drug cartels because of poverty. With this current issue, teenagers are being killed and arrested every day for smuggling drugs and weapons across the border in the United States. Drug cartels started in 1980 led by Federal Police agent Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo also known as “The Godfather”. Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo increased his power by affiliating with the Colombian cartels in the 1980s, he hid out in his hometown with his family as his partners in crime however, his family was arrested for murdering
D. After the high demand of cocaine in the United States, Pablo made so much cash that he stored most of it in different warehouses, where 10% had to be considered as “spoilage” because of rats that nibbled on hundred dollar bills. In 1982, Escobar was elected as an alternate member of the Chamber of Representatives of Colombia as part of the Colombian Liberal Party. II- The Ultimate Power A. During the Medellin cartel’s height of power, the cartel brought in more than $60 million per day. B. According to Pablo Escobar, the essence of cocaine business was simple, “You bribe someone here, you bribe someone there, and you pay a friendly banker to help you bring the money
Beith, Malcolm. (2013, September 24). The current state of Mexico's many drug cartels. CTC Sentinal
In Jeanette Schmidt’s article, Transporting Cocaine states, “Colombian cartels would pay the Mexican groups as much as $1,000/kilo to smuggle cocaine into the United States” (Schmidt, 2). The Colombian cartels would then pick up the drugs and resume distribution and sales efforts, making personal profits that are unrecorded. In order to seize these individuals who are growing in power and numbers, the U.S. must control the connections between Mexico and Columbia. Mexico is the biggest transporter amongst Columbia and the U.S. because it shares a border with the U.S. This increasingly poisonous drug trafficking leads to drug dealers...
FARC is a left-wing guerrilla army based in Columbia. The group is a major player in Columbia’s drug trade, bringing in an estimated revenue of $500 to $600 million annually from their illegal endeavors. Through other illegal ventures, such as demanding ransoms for kidnappings, extortions, as well as charging local merchants and businesses protection taxes, the group has become one of the richest and most violent guerilla armies in the world.
The guerrillas were becoming a serious challenge to handle for the Colombian government due to the “capability to attack and overrun small and medium garrisons; the ability to directly confront and defeat army units in open combat; and the capability to simultaneously mass large units against multiple targets around the country” (Spencer, 1998). “Since mid-1997 the guerrillas, particularly the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), have rapidly advanced from being able to launch successful massed attacks against single isolated posts, to open combat with an army battalion, and now to a coordinated and simultaneous nationwide offensive, massing forces against multiple high profile targets” (Spencer, 1998). Once Andres Pasrtana was elected as president in 1998, he proposed a plan that was intended for large amounts of foreign aid that would be used to fight corruptions, negotiation with guerrilla groups, and crack down the illegal drug trades with aid from the U.S. Instead of focusing on socio-economic issues, they concentrated on military army, resulting in problems for the U.S. Although the U.S. has provided significant amounts of equipment, they have been victims of murders, hostages, and plane crashes. This gives an insight to the outside resources Colombia has needed in attempts to fight against the guerrilla groups, as well the consequences for the
In recent years the Central American region has been a hotbed for drug cultivation and trafficking. The tropical climate and poor law enforcement have facilitated the growth of the drug trade and of violent cartels. This kind of atmosphere had led the region to become infested with “disputes over [gang] territory, extortion, money laundering, etc” (3). The municipal police forces of the countries in the regions have devised manys plans to combat this epidemic, but police corruption makes these efforts extremely ineffective. For years Central America has been used a drug highway, but with regional cooperation, these illegal activities can be stopped.