Mexican+Drug+Cartel+-+2012Predictions+-+FA11

media type="custom" key="12008283" Culture: It effects the people because drugs are pretty much a part of everyday life. There is even a movie genre called narco cinema, which glorifies drugs. Narco cinema has been gaining in popularity. There is also a genre of music that talks about drugs called narcocorridos. Mexican people are pretty much surrounded by things related to drugs. Some people do drugs as a part of their culture/religious rituals. It also effects people because it is likely in the every day news that someone new died due to drug violence or overdose. A lot of people are in gangs, and a lot of kids learn from a young age that it’s okay to be a part of that. It matters who their friends are, and who they can trust, and that impacts a lot of people because they can get violent if other people don’t do the right thing by their standards. Structure of family: The families that live here are nuclear, but they usually have a lot of kids. Well, more than Americans, averaging about 2.5 kids a family. It effects families of those who have a drug trafficker that lives with them, since they're out doing illegal things. It effects everyone as well, considering that they have to deal with drug violence, or worry about having friends that are not who they say that they are. Parents could also worry about their kids being exposed to this kind of thing that young. Structure of economy: Their economy is doing okay, but people are also suffering because of the lack of money distribution. There are families that live off of pennies a day, and barely have walls around them. A lot don’t even have a roof. To get out of this situation, they pretty much have two options, immigrate to America, or sell drugs. Structure of government: Mexico is a federal republic, which means they operate as a centralized government. They have a legislative, judicial, and executive branch, but the executive branch has more power than the other two. Each state has their own governor, that’s elected by the people. While this sounds good and everything, the government is actually pretty corrupt when it comes to the way that it handles the drug issue. The cops and higher officials actually have connections with the drug cartels, and are helping to fund them. They also don’t do all that well when it comes to protecting their citizens from drug violence. It’s to the point where journalists can’t even write their editorials because they don’t know who is who, or who to trust. People take matters under their own hands, and do their own neighborhood watches. environment: A lot of trees and forests are being destroyed because there is a lot if things being torn down because they need space to grow marijuana, Mexico’s biggest cash crop. They also dig holes in the ground to get the drugs across the border, which could damage plants and crops. It effects the people because it makes it so that they can’t breathe or eat the way that they’re supposed to. If they didn’t dig up the plants and trees, then they would probably be able to get more food to their people. Trees make oxygen, and if there’s a lack of trees, there’s a lack of fresh air that is needed in a hot dry place. human rights: It would be naive to think that there isn’t a lot of violence stemming from this problem. People are being held hostage if they don’t buy drugs. The government officials are also arresting people who looks suspicious, and using torture to attempt to get information out of them. Almost always, they have the wrong person, and they have done all of the torturing to people who didn’t even deserve it. They attack the indigenous people, as well as the poor people.
 * __impact on their citizens-__ **

Structure of family: In Chihuahua City, a mother was gunned down in front of a government building to protest her daughter’s murder that was just acquitted by a court even thought there was clear evidence that he was guilty of her daughter’s murder. Many of the different cartels in Mexico believe that the government has been fair in terms of how the economy is doing. Structure of economy: One study reported that the loss of the drug business would shrink Mexico’s economy by 63%. “The Mexican government estimates that thejump in violence resulting from its crackdown on drugs has taken a percentage point off the country’s economic growth.” The Mexican economy would be much more advanced if it weren’t for the amount of violence there. Some businesses such as Pemex have been targeted by drug cartels. Drug cartels don’t just affect impoverished areas, more and more incidents have been targeting the wealthy. Between the years 2006 and 2011 the drug war has cost the country 120 million dollars in security spending and lost investments. The security spending has been dealing with inforcements like police officers that haven’t past a drug test or failed their lie detector test. Structure of government: President Calderon has attempted to stop smaller and weaker organizations hoping that Sinaloa will act by reducing violence. The anti-cartel operations started by president Calderon in 2006 includes checks of police weapons in places where there is concern that police are working with the cartels. Several agents and high ranking officials have been arrested and charged with selling information or protection to drug cartels. The Mexican government is in denial in terms of real impact of violence on tourism and economic development in general. environment: Environmental damage results from the way the crops, like marijuana, are harvested. Large amounts of pesticides, fungicides, and toxic chemicals are required, but they end up being dumped into the rivers. “Colombia, for example, was under intense pressure during the 1990s to allow the use of fumigation planes to drop chemicals on coca and poppy fields in the country's eastern savannas and jungles, a major area of drug crop cultivation.” human rights: When President Felipe Calderon took office in 2006, he announced a military–led strategy against the drug cartels, totally in line with the American declared “war on drugs”. The use of military forces to support the weak police system has however caused a rise in the number of reportedhuman rights violations committed by the army and led to an increasingly violent war, which has resulted in an estimated45,000 of deaths since 2006. Human rights organizations have reported human rights violations such as illegal arrests, secret and prolong detention, torture, rape, extrajudicial execution, and fabrication of evidence. One way people are getting the word about the drug violence is Twitter and Facebook. Pictures and blogs
 * __Impact on the regions-__ **

Culture: Drugs are becoming a normal thing for the youth of the world and they’ll be growing up around them and the accessibility to them making drugs a bigger part of our world culture. Already we see a lot of legalization in certain countries and i see that becoming more common within the coming years.
 * __Impact on the world-__ **

Structure of family: Families all over the world will be torn apart by death, either from overdose or actual violence. With the drug cartels becoming more connected all over the world it allows them to exploit family connections and black mail people.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Structure of economy: The dirty money in the system that was from the cartels bribing officials and higher up corrupts the economy and the economy will stay corrupt allowing the cartels to hold more sway over the system. Governments all over the world are buying up drugs from these cartels and are importing it from these Latin American countries fueling their economy and building it on a trade that could falter at anytime. The dirty money will end up going all around the world and will cause corruption and money problems in these countries. In Colombia the entire economy of certain villages are based on the cocaine trade and growing the plant, so if you took that out you’ll completely destroy a countries economy and take everything from them.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Structure of government: Different latin American countries are seeing more and more corruption in their system and is now being exponged so that they can effectively fight against the cartels. In the US the border patrol is becoming corrupt though because of the high hiring rate they have and the fact that families are being split across the border and cartels are exploiting these relationships. Since drugs are now hitting Europe from these cartels the governments over there will become more affected by these “businesses” and will be prone to corruption.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">environment: Many mexican drug cartels have been using United States federal wildlife reserve land to grow marijuana, so that they avoid the whole crossing the border thing. 4.3 million acres of land, primarily in Arizona, is now being patroled by the cartels. The marijuana being produced in this area accounts to around 60% of the cartels annual multi-billion dollar industry.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> imperialism:

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">human rights: When standing up to the cartel bad things happen, your house could be burned down, family members killed, or even being tortured. Basic rights of owning property, free speech, and saftey from violence. The cartel takes what it wants and if you don’t comply they’ll do whatever it takes to get what they wanted. You can’t speak out against them or go to the police over something they’ve done because you’ll end up in a ditch with a bullet in your head. Saftey from violence in cities like Juarez is almost impossible when the police force that is supposed to protect you is being killed or paid off by the cartel. The violence has gone down but only by like 2,000 murders a year, still not very good. The right to a fair trial is taken away when the cartel is going around and killing you without just cause or what they consider a just cause, the mexican government isn’t in charge the cartel is running the country

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">global interdependence: Mexican cartels have increased operations in other countries such as Spain and other European countries in the sales of cocaine. Europeans are paying more than twice the going rate for drugs than Americans are. Europe


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Each of the topics can impact (and be impacted by) one of the major themes we discussed this semester. **


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; vertical-align: baseline;">__Thesis:__ **


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; vertical-align: baseline;">__Consequences:__ <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> “If the health of the Mexican state declines because criminal violence continues, increases, or spreads, U.S. communities will feel an even greater burden on their systems of public safety and public health from narco-refugees. Given the ever-increasing brutality of the cartels, the question is whether and how the U.S. Government should begin to prepare for what could be a new wave of migrants coming from Mexico.” (More illegal immigrants, some of them on drugs. That would threaten the American’s public safety and health.) **


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; vertical-align: baseline;">__How it can be stopped:__ <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> One answer to how drug violence in Mexico can be stopped is to legalize the marijuana that fuels the Mexican Drug cartels. This would move that trade into the open market, forcing the price to go down and decrease the power and influence of the cartels. The Mexican government has either arrested or killed several high-ranking cartel leaders in the last 18 months, and hopefully this trend will continue as cooperation and information sharing between Mexican and US authorities increases. **