Incredible Blog

For the last couple of months i've invested my time on doing a bit of research about the ongoing war on drugs that has cost Mexico the incredible number of 35 thousand deaths in the last 4 years, it seems to me that 35000 dead citizens is a painfully high price to pay for keeping drugs out of the streets, and with a number that high, the war better be working, sadly, it isn't, the war on drugs was lost before it started, the table is tilted, greed, addiction, intimidation and corruption prove to be an overpowered enemy of this otherwise noble cause, and on this series of blog entries, i will try my best to show you why Mexico is fighting an unfair battle.



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The United States of America is pound for pound the undisputed biggest drug consumer in the world, and that doesn't include alcohol, tobacco and prescription drugs, the reason behind this  is probably because its one of the largest countries in the world, most of its drugs come from Mexico and there are consumers there, but the US has almost two times the population of Mexico, the ammount of drugs consumed on both countries is unknown, but its estimated that drug cartels make billions of dollars a year from illegal drug trade. Forbes estimates Joaquin Guzman Loera, the biggest drug lord in mexico, to have a personal wealth of over 1 billion dollars. According to the CIA World Factbook,  the United States is the "world's largest consumer of cocaine...Colombian heroin, and Mexican heroin and marijuana; major consumer of ecstasy and Mexican methamphetamine; minor consumer of high-quality Southeast Asian heroin; illicit producer of cannabis, marijuana, depressants, stimulants, hallucinogens, and methamphetamine; money-laundering center".

This of course became a top priority for the american government, most of its drugs, if not all of them are smuggled from the mexican border, so the best solution back in 2006 was to politically pressure mexican president Felipe Calderon into taking strong actions against the mexican drug cartels that for many years had become part of Mexico's social and political structure. Calderon's undeclared war against the cartels triggered the biggest violence wave and blood bath in the country since it's civil war in 1910. Much like the ruthless drug war in Colombia during the late 80's and early 90's, mexican streets became a shooting range for police, soldiers and drug cartel henchmen, every corner of their society has been affected, civilians, clergy men and politicians have all been killed during this ongoing struggle.

Official numbers estimate that around one thousand minors have been killed because of gunfights, over 15 deaths have been caused by mexican soldiers that have shot civilians that didn't stop on different checkpoints on the country's roads, including one american citizen named Joseph Proctor who in August of 2010 was not only murdered by mexican soldiers but they also planted an AR-15 rifle on his hands and claimed that Proctor had attacked them first, it took 6 months for the united states to pressure mexican government who finally in December 2010 arrested 5 soldiers, Proctor's case was the third that year that accused soldiers of killing innocent civilians and planting evidence on their bodies.