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Omar Petty
Malcolm Campbell
UWRT 1103
November 10, 2016
More Homeruns than Strikeouts: Mexican Drug War
Imagine sitting in bed, drinking a nice glass of water when suddenly, youre interrupted
by a phone call. On the other end of the line, is a mild mannered policeman who has had to do
this one too many times. He is almost annoyed at the fact that he has to go through all of this
because he had to make a similar call just two nights before. The policeman says, Maam, we
need you to come to the hospital and confirm the identity of your son, and he hangs up. Nothing
could ever prepare a mother walking into a hospital and seeing their sons chest wide open
because he was part of a Mexican drug cartel. This is the harsh reality that many Mexican
families go through as they battle the war on drugs, as they have for the past decade (CNN).
Will there ever come a time where we defeat the drug cartels that cause so much
destruction and tear apart families? The question persists and there are many views on this
matter. In 2006, Felipe Caldern, was elected the new president of Mexico and he wanted to get
rid of the cartels as much as the citizens did. His plan was to deploy the military into the streets
and try to find people who worked for cartels. Some say it was a success, and others say it
wasnt. President Caldern saw it as a victory when his people had captured/killed 25 of the top
37 drug lords in the country (CQ Researcher). In fact, it was the total opposite because as soon as
one king pin would fall, another would take his place and carry on the duties that his predecessor
had left for him to complete. The cartels had an answer for President Caldern. They fought

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violence with violence and started to murder government officials and policeman. The homicide
toll at the end of Calderns presidency in 2012 had totaled up to 120,000.
Enrique Nieto, the current president is reiterating the same plan that Caldern had
implemented, but there has been no signs of improvements unless you cut out the civilian deaths.
The death toll has doubled through his presidency and there is an average of 18 deaths per
100,000 people compared to that of the USA which is approximately 4.5 (New York Times).
Sicarios are the cartels hitmen and all they do is listen to the orders of their higher leaders and
kill on request. The hitmen are considered to be the most loyal to their cartel compared to that of
other jobs in the cartel business. Deaths range from knocking on the door and being shot in the
head, to being tortured for hours and slowly dying until they get information out of you.
The emergence of new cartels that sprung up all over Mexico meant more competition.
More competition meant producing more drugs and in the end more drugs resulted in more
money for the cartel. One of the most well known Mexican cartels happens to be the Sinaloa
cartel. Their leader, Joaquin Guzman, widely known as El Chapo, is one of the most feared
human beings that ever walked the Mexican streets. According to the United States Intelligence
Community, they are the most powerful drug trafficking organization in the world. They are the
major exporters of opium and marijuana all across the globe. Connects in different parts of the
world open up an endless amount of possibilities of where the drugs could end up. This is one
reason it is very hard to stop the cartels. The capture of El Chapo was a remarkable one in
February of 2014, but as many people expected, he escaped. He did this twice from 2014-2016.
Mexican officials are thought to be some of the most corrupt in the business and they are easily
bought by the cartels to let things go under their noses. Since most of the policemen are
basically paid by the cartels, that makes another reason why it would be so difficult to stop them.

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The cartel is a very complex system that employs many different types of people. They have
accountants, secretaries, judges, and little kids that are used for watching out for incoming
military personnel, just to name a few.
Mexico isnt just doing this just to do it. There is big money to be made and it is an
estimated $30 billion industry (US-Mexico Relations). They got this way because people are
buying, and guess who their biggest buyer is? Yes, you guessed correctly if you said the United
States. Fernandez de Castro, former Mexican government official, states, Drugs, for the U.S.,
are a public health problem, for Mexicans, its about making sure our children can walk in the
streets and play in the parks safely. He hit it home with this statement. People in the United
States are not necessarily concerned with the violence that the cartels bring because its usually
not in our home country. Mexico on the other hand is experiencing the violence first hand so
there are different ways Mexico and U.S. will have to deal with this. The United States has given
Mexico well over $100 million in police assistance and military training to help fight the cartels
(Truth Out). The US Marshal Service has recently been sending specialists disguised as local
security forces to hunt down criminals (WSJ). People are skeptical about this though, saying we
shouldnt risk our men into a war that isnt necessarily our own, however; the war is also
Americas since they are spreading throughout the states.
There is a presence of the Mexican drug cartels that operate in the United States. There is
a total of seven cartels that supply America currently. The Sinaloa Cartel is present in Charlotte,
NC (Business Insider). So far, police havent found them doing any kind of violent acts around
here, but as they continue to stay, Im sure there will be some conflict that needs to be dealt with,
knowing the reputation of this cartel. Once they establish positions in the community they are in,
they try and recruit others that they can trust to help them operate the business. Its a constant

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cycle of hiring people and killing people down in Mexico. People in the states dont really know
about the presence of cartels here because they are not seeing bodies pile up in the streets with
pictures surfacing the internet as they do in Mexico.
The corruption in the Mexican government poses a threat for all of its citizens because if
people cant even trust the integrity of their higher leaders, who can they turn to for help? Most
of the homicides do not get solved and when thats the case, anyone could be killing anyone and
getting away with it. Once that happens, its so hard to implement policies that will override that
because of the corrupt leaders that are supposed to enforce them. If the executive office doesnt
enforce the laws and bring people to face the courts, what is stopping the cartels from killing
each other? In order to stop the cartels, you have to start at the core and work its way out. The
core in this case is the government. The government is supposed to help their citizens to feel
protected and safe when in reality there may be congressmen with bodies on their belt! Scary to
think of, right? Finding the corrupt people in the government isnt as easy as people would
expect it to be either. Cartels arent just going to give up peoples names if they are helping them
get away with things in exchange for money. Money talks and just about anyone can be bought;
its a sad reality when people get elected and the citizens do not know which ones work for
cartels. Trust is the first step in voting for a person, and once the trust is broken, it ruins it for
everyone. Dont get me wrong, there are good congressmen in the Mexican government, but like
the saying goes, one person can ruin it for everyone. This in turn gives people a bad view when
looking at any person that is elected to office. In order to distill the trust back into the citizens of
Mexico, and surrounding areas, the government will need to go through a thorough cleaning and
background check of all the members of congress. Even though this could have flaws, it would
be a good start in finding out the good and bad.

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Immigration from Mexico to the United States is a big issue for many Americans to think
about because of the stereotypical views that we instill upon the group because of the flaws of a
small percentage. In Obamas first two years of presidency, the border patrol had seized 7.7
million pounds of illegal drugs trying to cross the border into the United States. Janet
Napolitano, Homeland Security Secretary, states The plain fact of the matter is that theres more
manpower and technology at that border than ever before. There are ground sensors, drones,
and hundreds of cameras lined up all around the border. People would think with all of that, no
one would get through with illegal drugs, right? You would think so, but that just isnt the case.
Drug cartel personnels pay men and women to swallow narcotics and try and get it across the
border. This is very dangerous for the person that consumed it as a little baggy may burst open
and spill the contents inside the victims body. These victims are known as drug mules and are
usually granted the promise that they will be able to cross international borders freely, and once
they get there the drugs are retrieved from their bodies. One account was that up to 1kg of
cocaine was found in the body of a woman after the bag had burst open. She died almost
immediately.
Without the ongoing support of a strong government, drug cartels will be in the hands of
the future generations that want to see a change. Although people do not see an end coming to
the cartels soon, many experts believe a breakthrough could happen in the future that would
jeopardize the smoothly running cartels.
Works Cited
Barrett, Devlin. "U.S. Marshals Service Personnel Dressed as Mexican Marines Pursue Cartel
Bosses." The Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones & Company, 21 Nov. 2014.
Bender, Jeremy. "Mexican Cartels That Are Operate in the US." Business Insider, Business Insider,
31 Jan. 2016.

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Botelho, Greg, and Martinez. "'Mission Accomplished': Mexican President Says 'El Chapo'
Caught ." CNN, Cable News Network , 8 Jan. 2016.
Karaim, Reed. "U.S.-Mexico Relations." CQ Researcher, CQ Press, 6 Sept. 2016.
LaSusa, Mike, and Albaledejo. "US Support for Mexico's Drug War Goes Beyond Guns and
Money." Truthout, Truthout, 1 Dec. 2014.
"Huge US-Mexico Drugs Tunnel Found in San Diego." BBC.com, BBC, 21 Apr. 2016.
"Mexico Drug War Fast Facts." CNN.com, Cable News Network, 18 Aug. 2016.
"Secretary Janet Napolitano, Before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and
Governmental Affairs: "Securing the Border: Progress at the Federal Level"." Homeland
Security, Homeland Security, 3 May 2011.
Veiras, Jos Luis Pardo. "A Decade of Failure in the War on Drugs." The New York Times, 9 Oct.
2016.