By Howie Katz
Sinaloa cartel co-founder and current leader Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, along with El Chapo's son Joaquín Guzmán López, was tricked into believing his plane was landing in northern Mexico when in fact it landed in El Paso where he and El Chapo's son were captured by the FBI on July 25, 2024
Make no mistake about it, we created the Mexican drug cartels. We did it with our insatiable hunger for drugs and our refusal to crack down on the users of illegal drugs.
The Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco New Generation (CJNG) are the two most powerful of the Mexican cartels. The have their own armies and control large areas of Mexico.
Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, commonly referred to as El Mencho, is the founder and leader of the Jalisco New Generation (Pictured with two of his children)
Soldiers of the Jalisco New Generation army
How did Mexico's cartels arise to become so powerful? It all goes back to the counter culture that popped up during the Vietnam War. Prior to that time, America's users of illegal drugs were sent to prison if caught and no one gave a damn. Why? Because then most of the illicit users were were mostly blacks and Mexicans.
The counter culture that arose out of the anti-Vietnam War protests changed everything. Young people, referred to as hippies, drifted to the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco where marijuana and heroin were plentiful. Suddenly it wasn't just blacks and Mexicans that were into using illegal drugs.
The Haight-Ashbury scene during the late 1960s
With the white sons and daughters of middle and upper class Americans being into drugs we, of course, did not want them to be imprisoned. Thus we changed our hard on drugs to a soft on drugs policy and were on the way to becoming the leading nation in the use of illegal drugs.
Compare that to the harsh drug policies of other nations. In Japan, drug users, if convicted, are confined in either a drug rehabilitation program or imprisoned. In Indonesia and Malasia, drug users are imprisoned and drug dealers are executed.
In the Philippines, Former President Rodrigo Duterte's drug policies were so harsh that they were publicly condemned by President Barack Obama. In return, Dutertr called Obama a son of a bitch, causing the American president to cancel a schduled visit to the Philippines.
Former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte called Barack Obama a son of a bitch after the American president had condemned his harsh drug policies
That is not to say that Japan, Indonesia, Malasia and the Philippines do not have a drug problem, but the problem in those countries is negligible compared to America's problem.
Since most of the illegal drugs in the U.S. prior to the 1960s originated in Mexico, it follows that the increased demand for drugs resulting from the counter culture would be met by suppliers in Mexico. That led to the rise of drug cartels, of which the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco New Generation (CJNG) are the two most powerful today.
Areas controlled by Mexico's drug cartels in 2022
Sinaloa cartel co-founder and current leader Ismael “El Mayo”
Zambada, along with El Chapo's son Joaquín Guzmán López, was tricked
into believing his plane was landing in northern Mexico when in fact it
landed in El Paso where he and El Chapo's son were captured by the FBI
on July 25, 2024
The imprisonment of El Chapo did not bring about an end to the Sinaloa Cartel and the capture of El Mayo will not bring about its downfall either. There may be a bloody contention for the cartel's leadership, but a new leader will emerge and the cartel will continue to flourish.
The insatiable hunger for drugs by Americans gave rise to the Mexican drug cartels and continues to keep them in a profitable business. We cannot blame Mexico for the drug mess in both our countries. We ourselves created the cartels with our failure to crack down on illicit drug users and the dramatic increase in the demand for drugs like marijuana, heroin, cocaine and meth that resulted therefrom.
3 comments:
When there is that much money involved you will always find somebody willing to go for the gold.
Drugs should be legal, that would solve the cartel problem and keep our government out if people's business.
Drug production and smuggling is the national economy in Mexico. If Mexico was to declare a war on drugs, they would have to kill half their population to stop it. The last President to make a real attempt to stop the drug production and crack down on smuggling was Presidente' Vicente Fox. He tried because he was already a very rich man who didn't need the mordida from what was becoming a violent problem. Vicente Fox owned Coca-Cola for all of Mexico. (USA)
Post a Comment