Mexican drug lords, their cronies and those who simply imitate them today have their own music, their own cinema and even their own patron saint. The Mexican drug culture did not leave the country for many decades, remaining a completely unknown phenomenon to the rest of the world.
Everything has changed in recent years, when, following migrants and smugglers, the drug culture literally poured into the United States. Today, documentaries are made about her, books are written and even plays are staged.
The prerequisites for the emergence of a drug culture should be sought in the distant past - when Mexico was not yet Mexico, and the Indians who inhabited these lands could no longer imagine their life without peyote. In the 16th century, Spanish conquerors brought hemp here, and at the end of the 19th century, opium poppy arrived in the country along with Chinese immigrants.
Peasants treated drugs as ordinary agricultural crops, with little difference in importance from potatoes or corn. But when a ban on the same opium and hemp was introduced in the United States, the cunning Mexicans quickly realized that they could make good money by transporting prohibited plants abroad. The ban on the cultivation of cannabis and poppy was introduced only at the beginning of the 20th century, and even then under pressure from the United States. In the country itself, peasants continued to quietly grow, transport and sell poppy and hemp. True, now it was necessary to unfasten local officials, ranging from minor police ranks all the way up to the governor.
The Great Depression in America became a real high point for drug-growing artisans. It was about completely different money, and small groups in which peasants united to protect their business began to sort things out not with their fists, but with the help of weapons.
Years passed, whole caravans with drugs stretched from Mexico to the USA, and other caravans - loaded with money - came towards them.
Major drug cartels in Mexico
№ 1
SINAOLA CARTEL (PACIFIC CARTEL)
Appearing in the state of Sinaola on west coast Mexico, this cartel quickly spread its influence to several states: Baja California, Durango, Chihuahua and Sonora. The cartel is headed by Joaquin Guzman Loera, nicknamed El Chapo, who after the murder of Osama bin Laden became the first on the list of the most wanted criminals.
№ 2
GOLF CARTEL (GULF CARTEL)
Based in the city of Matamoros on the Gulf Coast. A small number of fighters of the head of the cartel were compensated by mercenaries from the former military. In the late 1990s, this mercenary army became a separate cartel - Los Zetas.
№ 3
LOS SETAS CARTEL
Los Zetas fighters are among the most trained, as they are recruited from retired police and military personnel. In skirmishes with competitors or federal troops, the cartel uses a rich arsenal of weapons that not every army can boast of. In addition, Los Zetas is distinguished by the fact that they conduct real special operations, actively using special forces tactics, weapons and technical equipment.
№ 4
TIJUANA CARTEL
A major cartel that controls the northwestern part of Mexico. It was formed around the same time as the Sinaol cartel, so it is considered one of the oldest in the country. Interestingly, the founder of the cartel is a peasant from Sinaola, Luis Fernando Sanchez Alleriano. Steven Soderbergh made his famous film “Traffic” about the life of his family.
№ 5
TEMPLE CARTEL
This organization was created after the collapse of the La Familia cartel. Much attention is paid to the ideological training of fighters, forcing them to take an oath to “fight and die for social justice.” True, it is not very clear what meaning these guys mean by the concept of “social justice”.
Has its own combat wing - grouping
La Resistencia, whose main task is the war with Los Zetas.
Over time, the image of the smuggler has also changed. Where once the drug smuggler was just a guy living next door, he has now become a legendary figure, a defender of the poor and a cruel executioner of those who wrong the common people. Considering that many Mexican states live solely on the production or transportation of drugs, drug lords in the eyes of local residents really look like benefactors, providing work and not allowing them to starve.
Mexican youth, especially from poor neighborhoods, sought to join the ranks of drug cartels because they simply had no other prospects for a better life. Some succeeded in this, while others were forced to only imitate the appearance, manner of speaking and habits of local smugglers. This is how narcos appeared, who became the main drivers and figures of the Mexican drug culture.
The cradle of drug culture is considered to be the state of Sinaola, where the cartel of the same name is based - one of the largest and most influential in Mexico. It is a rare resident of the state who is not associated with the production or smuggling of drugs, and drug lords and cartel members are respected here by everyone without exception.
The clothing style of narcos has undergone major changes since its inception, following the fashion of a particular period. But the enduring classic remains the commitment to the cowboy style characteristic of the border regions of Mexico: hats with curved brims, classic jeans, belts with weighty badges, embroidered shirts and pointed boots made of genuine leather. Among young drug addicts today, T-shirts with aggressive prints on the theme of drug trafficking and cartel life, embroidered leather jackets and fake polo shirts with giant logos are in fashion.
More serious guys prefer popular European brands such as Guess, Gucci, Burberry or Ralph Lauren. The latter was a total embarrassment: drug lords Edgar Valdez Villarreal, nicknamed Barbie, and Jose Jorge Balderas, arrested in 2010 and 2011, were wearing polo from this manufacturer at the time of their arrest. The exhaust was so loud that now in Mexico and the neighboring American states these shirts are associated exclusively with drug trafficking in the eyes of the average person.
Catholic Latin America has always been famous for the abundance of saints invented by the people, who are responsible for almost every aspect of the life of a believer. The mixture of Christianity and Indian totemism gave rise to a bizarre religion, in which there is a place for both the baby Jesus in a poncho and the Virgin Mary in the image of Saint Death.
Narcos also have their own patron saint. Jesus Malverde - “drug saint”, “generous bandit”. It is not known for certain whether such a person actually existed. It is believed that the prototype of Jesus Malverde could be a certain “noble robber” who robbed the rich and distributed goods to the poor. In 1903, this nameless folk hero fell into the hands of the authorities and was executed. According to legend, the tree on which he was hanged withered and never turned green again.
The cult of Jesus Malverde, whom the official Catholic Church does not want to recognize as a saint, is especially widespread in the state of Sinaola. There is even a chapel dedicated to the “generous bandit” in the state capital of Culiacan.
The children of drug lords, raised in luxury, have become a separate phenomenon within the Mexican drug culture. Unlike their fathers and grandfathers, they were born in cities, in luxurious conditions, never wanting for anything. They are not very concerned about the practical side of their parents’ business, but they borrow the external environment very willingly.
Kilograms of jewelry, hefty wads of money, luxurious clothes, expensive cars and gold-trimmed weapons are the main attributes of any self-respecting drug junior.
The main difference between drug juniors and their fathers and grandfathers is moral principles, or rather the lack thereof. If old-school narcos always put family and neighbors at the forefront, then for junior narcos all these words are an empty phrase. As a result, the poor, who were once supported by old-school cartel gangsters, today often suffer from the unmotivated aggression of drug juniors who live by the principle “I’ll do it because I can.”
In December 2006, Mexico's newly elected Felipe Calderon declared war on the drug cartels, thereby ending the state's passivity in this matter. Since then, some progress has been made, but at a high cost. Shootings, murders, kidnappings, conflicts between rival cartels, punitive measures. Since December 2006, nearly 9,500 people have been killed in anti-drug efforts, and last year- more than 5300.
Ammunition seized from members of the Pacifico drug cartel at Mexico City airport. March 12, 2009. (REUTERS/Jorge Dan Lopez)
An American police officer in a captured greenhouse in the basement of a ranch in Tecate, Mexico. March 12, 2009. (REUTERS/Jorge Duenes)
A policeman walks among bags of cocaine in the city of Buenaventura, Colombia's main port on the Pacific coast. Monday, March 23, 2009. Colombian police confiscated 3.5 tons of cocaine that they were trying to smuggle into Mexico in a container of vegetable oil. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)
Yanet Daynara Garcia (center) and Zigifrido Najera (2nd from left), members of the Cardenas Guillen drug cartel, attend a press presentation at the Defense Minister's headquarters in Mexico City. March 20, 2009. (LUIS ACOSTA/AFP/Getty Images)
Mexican drug trafficker Vicente Zambada Niebla meets with the media in Mexico City on March 19, 2009. Zambada was arrested along with five other suspects, police said. The arrested were found to have money and weapons. (REUTERS/Daniel Aguilar)
Soldiers guard a police station in the border city of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. Monday, March 16, 2009. Since the military mainly handles law enforcement in this city of 1.3 million people, a retired officer was appointed head of the police as an accomplice after the previous police chief resigned from this post after succumbing to threats drug dealers. (AP Photo)
Federal police officers aboard a plane during a flight to the border city of Ciudad Juarez in Mexico. Monday, March 2, 2009. The deployment is part of a plan to increase the law enforcement presence in Ciudad Juarez by 5,000 as the city suffers from an infestation of organized crime. (AP Photo/Miguel Tovar)
A soldier oversees the burning of fourteen tons of drugs in the city of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. December 2, 2008. (J. Guadalupe PEREZ/AFP/Getty Images)
Police drive past a burning patrol car in Zihuatanejo, Mexico. Wednesday, February 25, 2009. Earlier in this coastal resort town of Zihuatanejo Pacific Ocean, militants opened fire and threw grenades at a patrol car, killing four police officers. (AP Photo/Felipe Salinas)
Mexican police stand near a car containing two people killed in a shooting. Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. November 25, 2008. (J. Guadalupe PEREZ/AFP/Getty Images)
A corpse on a table in the morgue before an autopsy. Tijuana, Mexico. Monday, January 19, 2009. (AP Photo/Guillermo Arias)
Federal police patrol the city of Ciudad Juarez. March 2, 2009. Hundreds of military personnel in full gear and police convoys patrolled Ciudad Juarez in an attempt to restore order in one of the most violent cities. (REUTERS/Tomas Bravo)
Mexican soldiers check documents during a drug and weapons search in Reynosa, on Mexico's northeastern border with the United States, March 17, 2009. (AP Photo/Alexandre Meneghini)
A tourist leaves the hotel. A policeman is standing guard nearby - one of the participants in the operation to defuse a bomb in a departmental institution in the border city of Ciudad Juarez. A report that a bomb had been planted in the building prompted local police and federal forces to launch the operation, local media reported. (REUTERS/Tomas Bravo)
Mexican soldiers inspect vehicles and carry out customs clearance at customs checkpoints near the town of Miguel Aleman, on Mexico's northeastern border with the United States. March 18, 2009. (AP Photo/Alexandre Meneghini)
A Mexican soldier stands on the Mexico-US border in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. March 6, 2009. (AP Photo/Miguel Tovar)
Soldiers patrol near the town of Miguel Aleman, on Mexico's northeastern border with the United States, March 19, 2009. (AP Photo/Alexandre Meneghini)
Shoes used for marijuana smuggling are seen at the Drug Museum at the headquarters of the Ministry of Defense in Mexico City, March 9, 2009. The museum displays many exhibits: sniper rifles, mobile and cordless phones encrusted with gold and diamonds, clandestine drug laboratories and many other items. that once belonged to drug traffickers. (REUTERS/Jorge Dan Lopez)
President of Texas Armoring Corp. Trent Kimball inspects his company's bulletproof glass, which was left with bullet holes from the previous day's shooting. San Antonio, February 26, 2009. Due to an increase in the number of clashes with drug traffickers in the northern regions of Mexico, American companies are increasingly ordering armored lining, bulletproof glass along with armored lining, bulletproof glass and such security gadgets as electronic door handles and alarms. pressing smoke screens. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Dawn over a canal near El Centro, California. March 12, 2009: El Centro has the highest unemployment rate in the United States: 22.6%. This is the same high rate, was recorded during the Great Depression. It’s especially hard for Latinos now. People living in the Imperial Valley, a desert north of the US-Mexico border and east of San Diego, are now suffering not only from the effects of the global financial crisis, but also from drought. (David McNew/Getty Images)
Central American migrants released by the military were held hostage by Mexican gang members in Reynosa, Mexico on March 17, 2009. More than 50 migrants are currently being held captive by the gang, which is involved in kidnapping for ransom, according to the Mexican army. (AP Photo/Alejandro Meneghini)
Forensic investigators remove one of nine bodies found near the border city of Ciudad Juarez on March 14, 2009. An anonymous caller called police to report that at least nine bodies were found in a shallow grave, local media reported. (REUTERS/Alejandro Bringas)
A man arrested by the military at a house where a gang was holding Central American migrants hostage. Reynosa, Mexico, March 17, 2009. (AP Photo/Alexandre Meneghini)
A forensic investigator examines the vertebra and other bone fragments. This is all that remains of a human body that was burned in a barrel of acid. The murder matches the signature of "El Teo", one of Tijuana's most wanted drug lords. (Los Angeles Times photo by Don Bartletti)
A border patrol vehicle smoothes the sand so that the tracks of potential border violators are visible. New prefabricated stair railings have been installed along the Mexican border between Yuma, Arizona and Calexico, California. March 14, 2009. (David McNew/Getty Images)
Newly built fence on the US-Mexico border. Photo taken at dawn on March 14, 2009, between Yuma, Arizona and Calexico, California. The new 15-foot-tall (4.5-meter) barrier is installed on top of the sand dunes so it can be lifted and repositioned when migrating dunes begin to cover it. Almost seven miles (11 km) of such fencing were installed at a cost of $6 million per mile. (David McNew/Getty Images)
Numbered boxes containing evidence collected from multiple autopsies. Mortuary in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. February 18, 2009. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)
Corpses in a mortuary refrigerator in the border city of Ciudad Juarez. Mexico, February 18, 2009. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)
In the foreground is a .50 caliber rifle. In the background is a meeting on issues on the Mexican border. The meeting is attended by representatives of the US Department of Homeland Security and the Subcommittee on Foreign Affairs. Thursday, March 12, 2009, Capitol Hill, Washington, DC. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Soldiers escort drug lord Hector Huerta-Rios to an air force base in Salinas Victoria, on the outskirts of Monterrey, northern Mexico. March 24, 2009: Hector, head of the Beltran Leyva drug cartel, was captured by the military on Tuesday. He is accused of murdering the head of the Monterrey police. Huerta Rios was captured along with five of his associates. The arrested were found to have money and weapons. (REUTERS/Tomas Bravo)
Shot in the head by unknown assailants in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, March 11, 2009. (AP Photo/Miguel Tovar)
A policeman searches a field after a shootout looking for weapons. Tijuana, Mexico. Monday, March 9, 2009. (AP Photo/Guillermo Arias)
Sharing my impressions of my trip to Mexico, I already wrote about its originality. I would also like to talk about the social landscape of the country, about its hardships and troubles in this area. You feel the special features immediately, even on the streets of Mexico City. They are always crowded: there are too many unemployed. There is a queue for unskilled work.
In the subway, airports, and shops, the floors almost shine - a whole army of cleaners wield rags more efficiently than any machine guns. In museums, instead of pensioners, as we are used to here, strong young guys sit as caretakers in the halls: at least you can earn some money. They also pay in the army, so there is no end to those who want it, especially from villages. And besides, there are many folk musicians, jugglers, acrobats, magicians, and beggars. Usually they stage a micro-performance at an intersection - they manage to run around a dozen cars with a hat, taking advantage of the fact that traffic lights change, not like us, rarely, sometimes after 3-5 minutes.
Or this scene: a skinny guy, naked to the waist, enters a subway car, spreads a rag with broken glass on the floor and lays down on it, first with his back, then with his chest, and then walks around the car with drops of not dried blood - can you not serve it?
Newspaper “wanted” sections do not hesitate to invite a bricklayer, a secretary, a painter for 600 pesos, although this is illegal, since the minimum payment is 1200 pesos per month (they write, supposedly for half a day). But what is typical is that foreigners will not be allowed near their workplaces.
Of course, what has been said applies only to the poor; the middle class, the “middle”, has completely different money. For example, a successful professor can earn more than 100 thousand pesos per month. The “scissors” are very significant, so it is unrealistic to give “cheap-expensive” estimates. The poor eat simply: flatbread, milk, beans, pepper, vegetable oil. And they drink a lot of Coca-Cola - 2-3 times more than Americans. As for alcohol, preference is given to beer. In addition to the fact that the heat is not conducive to strong drinks, tequila is also five times more expensive than our vodka.
The street party in the city center, in parks, and on university campuses is lively, free, colorful, and does not have the assertive speed and gloomy concentration of the morning human flows of European metro stations. The women are attractive, many can be called beauties, if not for the almost universal traditional spreading and weighting of figures down from the waist (however, other points of view are also legitimate).
Where there is poverty, there is lack of education. In the metro, pictures are required next to the names of the stations: “Medical Center” - a blue cross, “Juarez” - his portrait, “Balderis” - a cannon. This is for the illiterate; there are quite a few of them among the young (though even the literate like it - it’s generally human nature to say goodbye).
“We are turning this thesis around: where there is illiteracy, there is poverty. No matter how much you do good to the poor, the money will go into the sand, and an educated person will solve many problems himself,” says Cecilia Loria, Minister of Education and Culture of the state of Quintana Roo. Listening to the minister is not only interesting, but also pleasant, because Senorita Cecilia is also a charming woman with a Hollywood smile and tired eyes: “Education reform should go ahead of other reforms, as was the case in Japan and Germany after the war. There are almost 15 percent of Indians who do not speak Spanish, and our first task is to make education truly universal, with equal opportunities.We also care about quality, you saw in the school series the thick volumes of Dostoevsky and Tolstoy, they are perhaps the most revered among us after Cervantes. Not everyone knows that we are the first in the world to produce televisions and cars (“it’s begun,” I thought), there would seem to be a lot of jobs, but these factories are foreign, high-tech (that is, high technology) they don’t let us in, and the profits are leaving the country.”
What is true is true. I tagged along with the President of the Congress of Metallurgists, Professor Tomayo, to fly for half a day to oil workers in the Gulf of Mexico, he advises them on underwater welding. The view from the helicopter is amazing! But that’s not what we’re talking about: the platform is Norwegian, the laying of pipelines is led by the Americans, and the “Papa Carls” are Mexicans. “And among our students,” says Cecilia, “the most prestigious specialty is “commercial engineer”: he has just enough knowledge to be smart, selling American goods - from computers to toilet paper. That’s why our wealth is 60- 70 percent is exported from the country unprocessed."
Something about Mexicans
There are 270 thousand students studying at the National University of Mexico, and 180 thousand at the Polytechnic Institute. Scale! But the trouble is that the “educators” themselves are not very educated: 70 percent of school teachers do not have a licentiate (primary university 4 years), and many university teachers have not completed the full course and do not even have a first academic degree (it sounds charming here - " maestro", not to mention "candidate of sciences"). There is no need to talk about doctors of science - all of Mexico produces fewer of them than the University of Texas at Austin alone.
Every new Mexican president certainly promises to defeat the country's two main ulcers: poverty and corruption. Poverty is visible to the naked eye. The highest echelons of society cannot be reached, but the fact that, for example, all rent is paid in black cash without deductions to the state, or that some professor works full time in three or four universities at the same time and does not appear in any of them, sending graduate students in return, is so This is not considered corruption in our country either. What should I write about?
But what really exists and goes hand in hand with these vices is crime. Unidads hire security guards, but the entrance doors to the apartments are still metal. Single houses are protected by intercoms and concierges (usually men). In the villas there are security guards, rottweilers, electronics, and live wires. And yet they steal and rob. But there is also a street. When your wallet is taken out of your pocket in a crowded subway or market, this can be understood and taken into account for the future. But when a bus is stopped in broad daylight right in the city and three or four young men “quickly, but slowly” rob passengers and the driver - how do you feel about that? I was warned, put money for shopping in a sock, I did this for two days, then I asked: “Don’t “they” know this?” Of course they do. Therefore, if you have a large amount, it is recommended to keep a “distracting” wallet with 200 pesos in a visible place (less likely to offend “them”) in several bills (so that it does not look like a bribe). Alas, “they” know this too.
Cars are not only stolen, but also taken away. I have already said that “red” can burn for about five minutes, and at this time a teenager approaches the car for alms, but suddenly opens the door (don’t yawn), two of his friends with knives appear nearby - a “change” occurs: they - into the car , you are on the sidewalk.
The sensitive topic of drugs here does not sound quite the same as in our media. “Yes, almost every day the front-page news is either the arrest of a major drug trafficker or the discovery of a secret tunnel under the border with Texas. Tens of thousands of drug couriers end up behind bars every year, and what changes? Not a single government can appease the handful of guerrillas (bandits?) of Chiapas, bordering Guatemala. Why? “Because billions of dollars are circulating in this business, and they end up where drugs are sold, in the States, that is. Their bosses subsidize our “national liberation front,” and if you read in the newspapers that the American authorities sent helicopters and instructors “to help” us, keep in mind that this is to control and protect drug highways. As for the drugs themselves, our ancestors regularly used marijuana as a sedative from a natural first aid kit. Remember, Mexico gave tobacco to the world, and the first smoker in Europe was Leonardo da Vinci, so that’s it.”
Big Brother is nearby
For the last seventy years, the country has been continuously, almost without alternative, ruled by the Party of Revolutionary Institutionalism (“you can’t trample against the PRI”). In the 1930s, especially under the strong President Cardenas, oil production was nationalized, social reforms were launched, and sharp statements were made about foreign policy independence. Everything is a great success. But time passes, the world changes, everything becomes boring. In recent years, PRI leaders have not been called anything other than “mastodons” and “gerontocrats,” and the National Activity Party, representing pragmatic businessmen, won the 2000 elections. Its leader, Vicente Fox, previously director of the Mexican branch of Coca-Cola, became its president for the next 6 years. His orientation towards his powerful northern neighbor is obvious. The president claims: “The election results are a mandate for reforms,” but he is not so free in his actions. Here's a recent scandal: the president was going to travel to the USA and Canada, but parliament objected, saying it was a waste of money, and he didn't go!
Relations between Mexico and the United States began to develop in the first quarter of the 19th century. In 1821, after 11 years of bloody struggle, Mexico's independence from Spain was proclaimed, and the United States was the first to recognize the new republic, effectively challenging all European owners of the West Indian colonies and the formidable Holy Alliance. Mexico appreciated the gesture; it tried in everything to imitate its neighbor, who won its independence 45 years earlier. The new republic began to be called the “United States of Mexico” (now there are 31 of them), adopted a constitution, declared universal equality of citizens, and curtailed the power of the church.
When Spain was significantly pushed back and weakened, friction began between neighbors. The energetically growing United States expanded to the west and south and at first was quite content with the de facto seizure of Mexican territories. American settlers colonized uninhabited lands, not too worried about trespassing borders and relying only on the power of their own Colt - it was in the 1840s that this multi-shot miracle came to the people, “making everyone equal.” But as soon as the Mexican parliament bucked, the cowboys bucked too. In 1847, the expeditionary force of General W. Smith (future US presidential candidate) landed in Veracruz and, almost unopposed, moved towards Mexico City. In the capital, near Chapultapec Castle, a “battle” took place with the cadet boys, during which one of them, wrapped in a Mexican flag, jumped out of the window in despair. Today the Monument to Children Heroes is one of the most visible and revered in the city.
According to the peace treaty, Texas and part of Upper California now de jure went to the United States - Mexico did not have the strength to fight for them any longer, and the government convinced itself that these desert lands far from the capital were not so attractive (who could have foreseen then, that oil will be discovered in Texas, and Hollywood in California?). In 1861, there was a new misfortune: England inspired Spain and France to get even with Mexico for the past. The timing was right: the United States was overwhelmed by the Civil War and they had no time to defend the Monroe Doctrine. And this time the expeditionary force repeated the “path of Cortes”: landing in Veracruz and marching to Mexico City. The republic was liquidated, and Maximilian, an Austrian Habsburg prince and author of a couple of books on the study of palace politesse, was installed as emperor.
But this time Mexico didn't go down. President Benito Juarez retreated with the army deep into the country, and then 33-year-old General Porfirio Diaz, the future famous dictator of Mexico for almost 35 years, stood out in his entourage. But things didn’t work out for the interventionists - there was something vaudeville-like in the idea of bringing the monarchy from Europe to tropical America in the second half of the 19th century. England "jumped" from the event before it began, the Spaniards set sail a year later, the French - after 5 years. For the abandoned connoisseur of court etiquette, who blissfully believed in the love of his “subjects,” the time has come that is best characterized by the words “a hangover at someone else’s feast.” Vaudeville turned into drama: in June 1867, Maximilian and his wife Charlotte were shot by patriots in the Queretara hills.
Let us note that the United States, having completed its internal “showdowns,” began actively participating in the expulsion of the French in 1865. And after the Spanish-American War of 1898, when the United States took the Philippines and Puerto Rico from Spain, it became finally clear to the whole world, and Mexico too, who was the boss on the American continent. On the nightstand in my room is a luxuriously designed “Mexico,” published in Miami. The brief historical sketch contains the following sections: "Colonial Era - Independence - French Intervention - Revolution - Today." What about the war of 1846-48, in which Mexico lost half of its territory to the United States? I answer: history is not made by heroes or the masses; history is made by historians, in this case American ones.
In 1994, Mexico signed the North American Free Trade Agreement (TLCAN, or NAFTA, in English). Then the nationalists shouted about surrendering positions and loss of sovereignty. However, Mexico survived the 1995 financial crisis only thanks to US assistance.
It is believed here that Fox's presidency began the long process of Mexico's integration into the US economy. Americans are very supportive of Mexican resorts, which is why, in addition to the world-famous Acapulco, about fifteen years ago they began to upset Cancun specifically “for the Americans.” Now there are more than a hundred luxury hotels on the local coast. It's convenient to have a "fiesta" on hand, and there is a ferry here from Florida. “In return,” 15 million Mexicans, including seasonal workers and illegal immigrants, work in the United States. It is they, and not oil, that provide the main dollar income to the country.
But despite all this, Mexicans somehow surprisingly steadfastly maintain their racial identity. They know the history of the country quite well, they idolize their nature and difficult climate, they prefer tequila to other strong drinks, in families, even intelligent ones, Americans are called “gringos”, and “just Marys” do not strive to become Mary.
The Mexican drug war is an armed conflict between rival drug cartels, government forces and police in Mexico.
Although Mexican drug cartels have been around for decades, they have become more powerful since the collapse of the Colombian Medellin and Cali cartels in the 1990s. Mexican drug cartels currently dominate the wholesale illicit drug market in the United States.
The arrests of cartel leaders have led to increased levels of violence as they have intensified the cartels' struggle among themselves for control of drug routes into the United States.
Mexico is the main foreign supplier of cannabis and the largest supplier of methamphetamine to the United States. Since 2006, 26 thousand people have become victims of the drug war. The drug war has become a national threat in Mexico. Since the 70s, some government agencies in Mexico have assisted in organizing the drug trade. The growing drug war in Mexico has also affected the United States. Mexico is the main source of cocaine and other drugs entering the United States. In turn, the United States is the main source of weapons used in the showdown of drug cartels in Mexico. In certain areas of Mexico, drug cartels have accumulated military-style weapons, have the ability to conduct counterintelligence, have accomplices among the authorities and an army of rank and file from among poor young people seeking to join to them. The police and armed forces of Mexico and the US DEA anti-drug service are fighting against drug cartels. The Mexican government under the rule of Felipe Calderon for the first time hit smugglers, extradited them to foreign countries, and confiscated their money and weapons.
The US State Department estimates that 90% of the cocaine entering the country comes from Mexico and Colombia, the main producers of cocaine, and that illicit drug revenues range from $13.6 billion to $48.4 billion a year.
Military and forensic experts examine a handcuffed body outside a nightclub.
The body of a man on the side of the Acapulco-Mexico highway.
Soldiers enter the city of Ciudad Juarez to patrol the streets. The city is completely owned by drug lord Vicente Carrillo Fuentes.
Arrested gang members and their weapons.
The body of one of the killed bandits during a special operation to free hostages from the hands of drug dealers. Machine guns, cannons, ammunition, four trucks and about 2 tons of marijuana were also seized.
206 million US dollars - police catch when detaining methamphetamine producers.
Guns, drugs, cash and jewelry seized in several anti-drug operations in Mexico are displayed during a press conference at the Attorney General's headquarters in Mexico City.
Seized 1.2 tons of cocaine.
134 tons of marijuana at the Morelos military base in Tijuana, destined for destruction.
The scene of the murder of 8 people involved in drug trafficking.
Gold and silver pistols encrusted with precious stones from members of one of the gangs, found during house searches.
An arrested drug dealer who was holding several people hostage.
In the coffin is three-year-old Iliana Hernandez, shot along with her father by unknown assailants.
A friend mourns the body of Sergio Hernandez, a fourteen-year-old who tried to cross the US border and was apparently killed by American border guards.
The bodies of two men with their hands and faces tied. The reasons for the murder are unknown.
Two bodies weighing on the bridge in the center Mexican city. The reason for the execution is either a showdown within gangs of drug dealers, or an act of intimidation for everyone trying to cooperate with the police.
After a police shootout with a gang of drug dealers.
Searching for bullets near shot young men in handcuffs. The reason for the murder is unknown.
More than a ton of cocaine, which was shown to the media after the arrest of a drug shipment.
A police officer guards a crime scene where four people were shot dead in the border city of Ciudad Juarez - the... dangerous place Mexico. More than 2,000 people have died this year in Mexico's drug war, mostly between rival gangs, as they fight to control U.S. drug smuggling that passes through the city.
On the woman's nails are sheets of marijuana and a portrait of one of the drug lords.
Marijuana plantation.
The box in which the woman's corpse was found. Initially it was thought that the box might contain a bomb.
After a shootout between bandits and police in Ciudad Juarez.
Approximately two tons of seized cocaine are being tested at the naval base.
Ciudad Juarez. Murdered members of the city's local government.
Arrest of a pregnant woman for possession and distribution of drugs.
A policeman stands outside a Mexican house where members of a drug gang consisting mainly of Colombians were arrested.
Found corpses of employees of a law firm, thanks to which drug dealers were previously arrested.
The body of a man in Guatemala after a shootout in the street.
Colombian police check packages of cocaine after a flight with drugs weighing 3.5 tons was delayed.
One of 17 bodies dumped in prominent locations in Rio de Janeiro just after the president announced a $60 million anti-crime budget ahead of the 2016 Olympics in Brazil.
20 million tourists visit Mexico every year to spend their money in Acapulco, Tijuana, Cabo San Lucas, Mexico City, Guadalajara, enjoy Mayan culture, lie on the beach or taste gazpacho soup. This was the case until recently.
On February 24 this year in Mexico, at least eight people were killed in the popular resort of Acapulco, the Guerrero State Ministry of Public Security said. A letter containing threats against Mexican army soldiers involved in anti-drug cartel operations was found next to one of the bodies. The country, for which tourism is the fourth largest source of foreign exchange, risks being left without it.
Earlier on February 21, at least 40 people were killed in three days in the Mexican city of Ciudad Juarez, located on the border with the United States. The Chihuahua state prosecutor's office emphasized that that weekend was one of the bloodiest in many years in the city, which is considered the most dangerous in Mexico due to ongoing armed conflicts between local drug traffickers.
It got to the point that police officers in the Mexican city of General Teran quit after a series of attacks on their colleagues. The police chief and all 37 officers resigned. Police officers quit after the mutilated bodies of two of their colleagues were discovered, suspected of being murdered by drug gangs.
The number of victims is already in the tens of thousands. According to the official authorities of Mexico, more than 30 thousand people died in the bloody showdown that the drug lords are waging with the Mexican armed forces, declaring a kind of “vendetta” on them.
It is worth remembering how the business of drug dealers acquired such a colossal volume. It is worth noting that the main consumer of drugs has been and remains the United States of America. In the 40s of the 20th century, Mexican businessmen could not compete with large Colombian syndicates that needed money for bloody civil war, which did not stop for many decades. However, after the defeat of the largest cartels of Cali and Medellin, Mexico received carte blanche to ship cocaine to the United States, gaining control over the traffic by buying goods at wholesale prices from Colombian producers. With the growth of capital turnover, Mexican bosses have the opportunity to expand their business by growing marijuana in the fertile southern soils. The profits of drug cartels on the American market began to reach from 25 to 40 billion dollars a year. Currently produced in Mexico a large number of marijuana, heroin and synthetic drugs.
For many years, Mexican businessmen carried on their dirty business, feeding the Mexican authorities, who turned a blind eye to such matters. And drug lords filled the entire southern United States with their goods. The growing traffic led to a struggle between groups among themselves for spheres of influence in the United States, which resulted in local clashes between gang members. The official authorities acted as observers and did not interfere in the affairs of the bandits.
Let's consider a typical representative of such a structure: the Sinaloa Cartel - a Mexican drug cartel operating in the states of Sinaloa, Baja California, Durango, Chihuahua and Sonora. There are other names for this cartel - “Pacific Cartel” and “Guzman-Loer Organization”. The first name "Pacific Cartel" is associated with the location of the cartel zone. The second is with its leaders.
The Sinaloa Cartel supplies drugs to the United States of America, and in the period from 1990 to 2008, it transported about two hundred tons of cocaine and heroin across the borders of Mexico into the United States, according to known information. Not bad for one drug cartel? Imagine that in Mexico today there are nine drug cartels, varying in size and significance. The Sinaloa Cartel operates in seventeen different countries around the world. The centers of his trade and machinations include cities such as Mexico City, Toluca, Tepic and Cuautitlan. The drug cartel primarily distributes smuggled Colombian cocaine, heroin from Southeast Asia and Mexico, Mexican marijuana and methamphetamine.
However, in 2006, a Harvard graduate and a member of the center-right National Action Party, Felipe Calderon (for whom the United States did not hide its sympathies), came to power in Mexico. The main point of his election campaign was the fight against drug traffickers. From words, the president quickly moved to action, developing a plan of measures to combat the illegal trade in the potion, to which the gangs responded with terror towards security forces, law enforcement agencies and civilians in order to deprive the anti-drug campaign of popular support. The Associated Press, citing independent research, stated that 230 thousand Mexican citizens have become forced migrants. Half of them crossed the US border, the rest moved to the states of Chihuahua, Durango, Coahuila and Veracruz. Residents of the country are afraid of becoming accidental victims of open hostilities, which occur almost every day, even in areas with high security measures - city resorts, administrative centers.
Criticism of the harsh measures has begun to gain momentum, as citizens believe that the military has only “stirred up the hive” and turned ordinary people into targets of revenge. Anti-criminal operations lead to casualties among the civilian population, since the bandits are well-equipped, trained forces, which are often recruited from the ranks of former police officers and military personnel who are not able to feed their families with honest work (the salary of a police officer is about 1 thousand pesos - $ 70). The huge weapons warehouses that government troops find every week are filled to capacity with rifles, machine guns and ammunition that flock to Mexico from all over the world (mostly from the United States, where the sale of automatic small arms is rampant).
However, in his recent report, President Calderon pointed out that the success of the fight against drug mafia in Mexico depends only on the United States, which is the main consumer of drugs in the world. "If the United States were not the world's main drug market, we would never have faced the wave of violence unleashed by drug cartels in Mexico," Calderon said in an interview with French newspaper Le Monde.
After this statement, the United States still had to take measures to combat the cartels. In February 2009, the FBI announced the arrest of seven hundred and fifty members of the Sinaloa Cartel in the United States. This was the result of Operation Xcellerator. At the same time, they managed to seize almost sixty million US dollars in cash. Then the cartel was seized different kinds transport - boats and even planes.
In March 2009, the Mexican government allocated a thousand federal police officers and five thousand soldiers from the Mexican army just to restore order in the city of Ciudad Juarez. The blood of innocent people was shed in this city; the number of victims here was the largest in all of Mexico.
Also, operations have been carried out more than once to close drug trafficking routes from Mexico to the United States. So, one such route lay from Mexico to Chicago, and about two tons of cocaine were transported along it every month. Supplies were carried out mainly at the expense of the Sinaloa Cartel.
However, all these measures were not very effective in the face of ordinary human greed. In May 2010, information was leaked to the press that the Mexican federal police and military were involved in collusion with the Sinaloa Cartel. Although, again, it is unknown whether this information was leaked to the press, or whether it was beneficial for someone to plant such information among the masses.
But it has been reported that the government is helping the Sinaloa Cartel take control of the Juarez Valley region, as well as destroy all other drug cartels in Mexico.
Of course, this information was not given just like that. It was decorated with various interviews and facts. Thus, the former police commander claimed that the Sinaloa Cartel helped him fight all other drug cartels in the country. He also said that the Sinaloa Cartel bribed many military personnel. One Mexican reporter alleged that the military was involved in many killings.
Some people believe that the Sinaloa Cartel only negotiated with the government to gain power over the region. And government officials tracking the case say the Sinaloa drug cartel's arrest rate is far lower than that of other drug cartels. This indicates a cover-up on the part of the authorities.
In turn, the Mexican authorities completely deny any connections with the Sinaloa Cartel.
On the other hand, all the facts that testify against the lack of communication between the drug cartel and the authorities indicate that bribery of the authorities by the drug cartel is possible. And not a contract, as everyone thinks.
And who knows, perhaps the war that began in 2006 is a war to eradicate all drug cartels in Mexico except the Sinaloa Cartel? But these are just guesses, nothing more. We can all only guess about the affairs of the Sinaloa Cartel and the Mexican government.
Calderon's report nevertheless contains impressive figures. According to him, since the end of 2006, 99 tons of cocaine and $72 million in cash have been confiscated from traffickers. Several major leaders and more than 8 thousand dealers and mercenaries of the drug mafia were arrested. Army units were able to seize 27 thousand firearms, 1.9 thousand grenades, 8 thousand cars, 74 light aircraft, 24 high-speed vessels.
Currently, about 55 thousand military personnel out of 250 thousand total in the Mexican army are involved in the fight against organized crime in the country. These are some impressive statistics. However, the report makes no mention of the casualties of this war.
Only recently, having realized the importance of fighting the cartels, President Barack Obama promised to increase financial assistance to the Mexican authorities and at the same time significantly strengthen the security of the American border. But, according to experts, these measures are not enough to radically change the situation in the region. It will take years to eradicate the evil that originated in the south of the continent. And the fight needs to start directly with consumers.
Almost 40 years ago, in his book Naked Lunch, William S. Burroughs wrote (in this passage, the word “garbage” refers to hard drugs): “If we want to destroy the pyramid of garbage, we, too, must start at the very bottom: with the Street Addict - and stop being quixotic against the so-called big shots, they are all immediately replaceable. A drug addict on the street who needs garbage to continue living is the only irreplaceable factor in the entire garbage equation. When there are no more drug addicts left to buy garbage, there will be no trade in garbage. As long as there is a need for garbage, there will definitely be someone who will serve it."
Perhaps the heads of both countries should think about this.
