Mexican Drug Problem: Just Add Water?

Recent measures of control and restriction won’t win in drug wars as much as, rooting out all personal corruption.

Brother Jason Huynh

Recent measures of control and restriction won’t win in drug wars as much as, rooting out all personal corruption.

What might make it into opening paragraphs in next week’s major news papers would read as follows: “Approaching Felipe Calderon’s 3rd anniversary of presidency, we commemorate the audacious action against drug cartels from confiscating over $48 billion worth of drugs to arresting hundreds of cartel leaders including corrupt government officials.” However, what hasn’t and may not make it into US papers is our relevance to this troublesome issue.

The common news topic of such ranges from Obama’s $10 million defence pack reinforcing border patrol to the department of Home Land security considering using the National Guard to the late October arrests of the Familia Cartel in 5 US major cities; nothing in relation to our cooperation with the corruption.

Whether we like it or not, America is involved.

You might be surprised at this year’s inventory of hi-tech weaponry Mexican authorities have confiscated from the regional drug cartels: anti-tank rockets, armour-piercing munitions, kevlar helmets, AR-15 automatic assault rifles… Billions of dollars didn’t come from Mexico’s border country of Guatemala any more than the Kevlar helmets were found… And let’s add that Joaquín “el Chapo” Guzmán didn’t make it into the Forbes 500 the same way that Carlos Slim did.

The fact is ATF’s (the bureau of alcohol, tobacco and firearms) estimate is that 90% of weapons recovered in Mexico come from US gun dealers and 90% of Mexican illegal drugs are exported directly to the United States.

Again, America’s hot topics range from Pelosi on health-care to crisis in number of troops in Afghanistan. Do we not care that this year’s death toll peaks close to 6,100 not in Iraq, not in Afghanistan, nor the two combined? Thousands are dying, America is involved, and worse yet public media is content with putting out this fire by just adding water, government intervention.

There are several reasons why our relation to this issue has not been properly dealt with. One reason is when dealing with in a drug war we speak simply to corruption. And corruption is hard to identify. Therefore the more we identify areas of corruption, the more a possible solutions maybe applied, for corruption is resolve be rooting it out. It’s a guarantee that your father never told you to simply keep the lawn short and trim so that you can’t see the weeds.

The president of the Mexican Conference of Bishops, Monsignor Carlos Aguiar Retes proposes a possible solution, “How often do we do things we shouldn’t do just to make things go easier? We say, it’s much easier to pay $50, $100, $200, $1000 now... This is corruption!”

It’s good that the authorities are doing the necessary to quell it even to its ashes. It’s good that the public media has been following its advances step by step. However it’s more than just adding water. It’s up to you and me to root out first in our own personal lives and then helping others do the same.

Categories: organized crime, war on drugs