What has happened to the Los Zetas cartel is a good example of how the Mexican drug war is not only between the cartels and the Mexican government. The war on drugs is also between rival cartels and even between members of the same cartel. The fall of the previously mentioned Gulf cartel is not because of the actions by the Mexican government, but it is by the actions of the Los Zetas cartel, a group inside the Gulf cartel that they had trusted. Today, the Los Zetas cartel has not grew weak because of the hard work of the Mexican government. Instead, it is because of the internal split and the lust for power by the two leaders of the cartel. This may turn out to be a lucky break for the Mexican government because it is scary to think what would happen if the Los Zetas cartel continued to expand. With corrupt These strategies are a few strategies that the Mexican government may want to lock down on if they want to emerge victorious in the war on drugs. Without any internal violence, these accounting strategies would keep the Los Zetas at the top because they would not be losing much revenue if they continued to maintain the revenue they have already earned. Top that with the knowledge and brutality that comes with having a cartel full of military men and another cartel like the Los Zetas cartel will keep the war on drugs going on for a long time. Luckily, the brutality by the Los Zetas had come back to haunt them, but the Mexican military cannot rely on luck in order to emerge victorious. They need to focus on how to take down the top cartels as soon as possible instead of relying on an internal split like what had occurred with the Los Zetas cartel. Another example of a cartel splitting is what had occurred to the La Familia Michoacana cartel. However, the result of the split is not as favorable to the Mexican government as it was with the Los Zetas cartel. Although La Familia Michoacana was a powerful cartel,
Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office (Procuraduria General de la Republica, PGR) had issued information related to the conformation of the seven principal drug cartels present at Mexico:
The arrest of Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman was a victorious circumstance for the Mexican government, who have been closing down on his presence for the recent past years. Mexican authorities began taking down high ranked members of the Sinaloa Cartel including two of Guzman’s main associates. On February 22, 2014, the world’s most wanted man had also been captured. Although the biggest drug lord has been captured, the crime and violence left behind cannot be forgotten.
So no matter all the things that Mexico has already gone through it just never ends because even now Mexico has its up and downs. Some parts of Mexico are nice places to go and visit for vacation but ever since 2007-2008 drugs and cartels started running Mexico and using it to ship their drugs and store their drugs which is now the problem we are still facing today in Mexico and it’s not only Mexico but Mexico seems to be the number one drug ran country that’s all over the news.
Having grown increasingly frustrated with these rampant displays of impunity by gangs, the Salvadoran public pressured its government to prioritize public security above all else. In response, the Salvadoran government has attempted to tackle the gang phenomenon using several strategies and methods which have evolved, due to the political and economic dynamics of the country and region, over time.
II. Main Point 1: The Sinaloa Drug Cartel was created when a previous powerful drug cartel failed due to the arrest of its leader
Our team presentation focused on three Latino gangs, MS-13 (Mara Salvatrucha), the Mexican Mafia and the Los Surenos gang. My part of the presentation was to provide information on the type of crime these three gangs are known to commit. The crimes committed by the MS-13 gang are varied, violent, and take place all over the country. The FBI even put together a task force called the MS-13 National Gang Task Force in December of 2004 to try to put a stop to this gang’s activities. (www.fbi.gov). Los Surenos or Sur-13, originally based in Los Angeles, has also branched out from turf wars with rival gangs to “for profit”, violent crimes across the country. The Mexican Mafia has a similar story to tell as well in regards to gang crimes, which again range from respect crimes, and retaliatory violence to crimes for profit.
People do not want to travel to the beautiful country of Mexico anymore because of this danger. Mexican citizens fear easy things like going grocery shopping because they do not want to be involved in a confrontation between cartels. The young generation gets manipulated by the narcocorrido lyrics. All they see are the riches, but what they do not see is the violence. They can be living in paradise
For the 71 years that the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) was in power, Mexico saw great political, social and economic upheaval. This can be seen in the evolution of the PRI party, whose reign over Mexican society came at the expense of true democracy. “A party designed for power, the PRI's mechanisms for success involved a combination of repressive measures. The party professed no specific ideology, enabling it to adapt to changing social, economic and political forces over time. It attached itself virtually all aspects of civil society, and in this way, it become the political extension and tool of the government.” In 2000, however, the PRI’s loss of its monopoly on political power and institutional corruption gave rise to inter-cartel violence that was created in the political void left after the PAN won the national presidential election. These conditions gave rise to the Zetas: a new type of cartel that changed the operational structure of previous drug cartels. The Zetas operate in a new militant structure associated with a higher brand of violence, which has led it to branch out beyond a traditional drug smuggling enterprise common under the PRI government. Simply put, the electoral defeat of the PRI in 2000 was supposed to usher in a more democratic era in Mexican politics. Instead, the PRI party’s defeat created a state of chaos that gave rise to inter-cartel violence and the birth of the Zetas cartel.
Mexico is a country rich in tradition, history and culture. Unfortunately, Mexico has not been talked about for any of those descriptions I mentioned above lately. Mexico has become a country full of death and violence. The Mexican government has been fighting a war with drug traffickers since December 2006. At the same time, drug cartels have fought each other for control of territory. More than 60,000 people have been killed (CNN). Despite the “war” launched at these multi-billion dollar organized crime groups, Mexico has not been able to stop its slide as a failed state. Almost every day there seems to be either dead bodies lying on the ground, a school closed due to vandalism, disappeared people, or bullet-riddled houses and cars. Sadly, there is not much the citizens of Mexico can do to ask for justice and change to the mess they are living in right now. So who is to blame for all of this? The Mexican drug cartels have completely taken over Mexico. They have become powerful through corruption and violence. The cartels use their power to intimidate and even murder anyone who tries to get in their way. They do not have a problem with decapitating heads in order to make a statement. The drug cartels also use their money to gain power. Given the amount of money they have, the cartels have millions of dollars invested in keeping authorities off their business. They can be very effective in bribing government officials at all levels, from border patrol just patrolling the border to state and high ranking federal officials. Given the resources they have, they can reach out and kill government officials at all levels. Since government officials are faced with bribes and or certain death, even the most unbreakable are caut...
Nuestra Familia (NF, Spanish for Our Family) was created in the late 1960’s at the Soledad Correction Training Facility in California. (NF 2011) Nuestra Familia was created because some of the Spanish inmates had gotten tired of the abuse handed out by the Mexican Mafia to fellow Mexicans. (Nuestra Family (2011)) Nuestra Familia was created as protection from the Mexican Mafia for young Mexican-American from rural areas. The first members of Nuestra Familia were strictly from Northern or Central California. (NF 2011) The all-out prison war between the Mexican Mafia and Nuestra Familia occurred in 1968 when Sonny Pena was stabbed to death by a member of the Mexican Mafia at San Quentin state prison. The recruitment for the two gangs split California in two. ...
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.
Over the last several decades, violence has consumed and transformed Mexico. Since the rise of dozens of Mexican cartels, the Mexican government has constantly been fighting an ongoing war with these criminal organizations. The cartel organizations have a primary purpose of managing and controlling illegal drug trafficking operations in Central America and South America to the United States. Violence on a massive and brutal scale has emerged due to the nature of the illegal drug trade. Because the drug trade is vastly widespread, cartels are often fighting one another and competing in business. Mexican authorities count at least 12 major cartels, but also talk of an untold numbers of smaller splinter groups. (Taipei Times). Five cartels from Mexico have risen to become the extremely powerful amongst all the drug organizations operating in Mexico. The Guadalajara Cartel, the Sinaloa Cartel, the Tijuana Cartel, the Juarez Cartel, and the Gulf Cartel. These organizations, along with other distinguished Mexican cartels, have plagued Mexico with violence, terror, and fear due to the essence and nature of illegal drug trafficking.
The Sinaloa Cartel was led by Joaquin Guzman who was a most-wanted Mexican drug trafficker worth a billion dollars. Under control of Joaquin, the Sinaloa Cartel became powerful and won the battle against the Juarez Cartel who was a former partner of the group. The battle, caused by want for more routes into the U.S. resulted in 12,000 deaths and led the group to employ gangs such as the Artist Assassins, Genre Nueva, and Los Mexicles to fight against the Juarez Cartel. The second half of the Guadalajara Cartel, the Tijuana Cartel was started in the 1990s and by the early 2000s became one of the “biggest and most violent criminal groups in Mexico,” as stated by the article, “The Five Most Famous Drug 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
"For the commercial insurgency, border controls are perfunctory in "free trade" areas, and there is still a great demand for goods that are linked to smuggling" (PRISM Issue No 3). President Calderon's term in office has seen numerous arrests and significant cooperation with U.S. law enforcement, and intelligence activities, which has negated the freedom of movement the cartels once enjoyed. It has also prompted them to seek other venues to keep their revenue flowing. The arrests aren't without criticisms. Due to recent arrests of ...