The Drug War Has Destroyed Mexico

[TroglocratsRdumb]

Latin America has the highest violent crime rates in the world and that crap is coming to a town near you.

 

[DustyInfinity]

My biggest fear is that massive corruption becomes 'normal' to Americans. We always talked about politicians being worthless liars, but things seem different now. The decay of the West Coast is slowly becoming a new normal. Now we have politicians openly flaunting being above the law, and a media that no longer cares.

 

[RoshawnMarkwees]

We could easily reduce the murder rate by legalizing murder.

 

[Godboy]

Thanks largely to American drug addicts.

No, id say the cartel drug dealers who go around chopping off heads are more to blame for the violence.

 

[JLW]

There is a symbiotic relationship between Mexico and the US that has caused this explosion of drug cartels in Mexico. Mexican cartels supplies the US with drugs. US arms dealers supply the drug cartels with weapons. In order to confront the problem there would have to be a concomitant reduction of American drug use along with reduction of arms sales to Mexico. Reducing one without the other may not reduce the violence plaguing Mexico.

 

[Mac1958]

When I was a kid growing up in Laredo,Texas, in the 1950s and 1960s, tourists from all over the country would come to Laredo to get a taste of “old Mexico.”

Thanks largely to American drug addicts.

Yep.

The drug cartels have made tens or hundreds of billions off of our drug addictions, and we respond with a phony "war on drugs". Meanwhile, the cartels continue to lay waste to much of the area south of our border.

As the cartels destroy virtually everything to the south of us -- WITH MONEY WE CONTINUE TO GIVE THEM -- their desperate people risk everything to head north for something better. ANYTHING better.

And how do we take responsibility for our obvious role in this ongoing human disaster? We insult and dehumanize these desperate people, and then try to build and hide behind a wall. Because we're classy like that!
.

 

[Likkmee]

So what have we learned from this thread?

Mexico is a shit hole. Thanks first and foremost to corrupt Latinos in Mexico, and secondly to idiotic drug users in the US.

Above it all lies one thing

 

[TheParser]

Yes, what has happened to the United States of Mexico (its official name) is very sad.

1. For some reason, I can never forget this statistic: In 1940, there were only 20 million people in all of Mexico. Today about 130 million.

2. Mexico has long had a history of political violence. And it didn't help that the Americans helped overthrow their democratic-minded leader Francisco Madero at the turn of the 20th century. (The Mexican army then proceeded to murder him.)

3. I have read that when the Americans succeeded into driving the drug cartels out of other Latin-American countries, they ended up in Mexico, where they are now solidly entrenched.

4. It seems that a significant number of Americans want drugs. So for the foreseeable future, we can expect the violence in Mexico to continue.

Sad.

 

[wamose]

They'll never stop drugs because some very powerful people are profiting from it and paying off government. And drugs will always find the path of least resistance, therefore our southern border will remain a war zone for battling drug gangs. Trump is doing the right thing building the wall and trying to close certain loopholes but his job is much harder than it should be because Democrats are solidly behind the cartels. KAG. Flip the House

 

[Biff_Poindexter]

When I was a kid growing up in Laredo,Texas, in the 1950s and 1960s, tourists from all over the country would come to Laredo to get a taste of “old Mexico.” Laredo is situated right on the border. The downtown area was connected to the downtown area of Nuevo Laredo with one international bridge. The two cities were essentially one large city separated by the Rio Grande, which serves as the international border.

Tourists would either walk or drive across the bridge for a day of shopping at the market, eat lunch and drink a beer at the Cadillac Bar, and eat dinner, have drinks, and take in a floor show at some nightclub. When I was in high school, that’s what we would also sometimes do on dates (sometimes without the knowledge or consent of our parents). It was all safe and secure. With the exception of sometimes having to pay a bribe to a cop for illegal parking, there were rarely any adverse incidents.

Not anymore. Nobody in his right mind would go into Nuevo Laredo except in a case of extreme necessity. That’s because everyone is now subject to the very real possibility of being killed or kidnapped by drug cartels and drug gangs or caught in the crossfire of drug turf battles.

Why the problem now and not back then?

One simple reason: The war on drugs or, to put it another way, drug illegality. The drug war destroyed the tourism business in Laredo and Nuevo Laredo. In fact, with the exception of well-secured tourist resorts on Mexican beaches, the drug war has essentially destroyed the tourism business across the country. My parents drove from Laredo to Acapulco for their honeymoon. No one in his right mind would do that today.

If you want to trouble yourself there are some numbers here.

I wouldn't put it that way. What actually killed it was simple corruption and greed, the drug war was simply the mechanism by which it was carried out. I noticed that corruption was a common denominator in every country that I visited that was settled by the Spanish and they were also mainly Catholic for whatever that's worth.

it's not worth much....

 

[Gdjjr]

it's not worth much....

What's "it's"?

 

[Biff_Poindexter]

it's not worth much....

What's "it's"?

His belief that Mexico and other Latin countries being colonized by the Spanish/Catholics may be the reason why Latin America is such a horrible place....

 

[EvilCat Breath]

My biggest fear is that massive corruption becomes 'normal' to Americans. We always talked about politicians being worthless liars, but things seem different now. The decay of the West Coast is slowly becoming a new normal. Now we have politicians openly flaunting being above the law, and a media that no longer cares.

The decay in the West Coast has a lot to do with the liberalization of drug laws and the legalization of pot. Those needles laying around aren't from criminal users. They are from quite legal needle distribution clinics.

 

[Likkmee]

My biggest fear is that massive corruption becomes 'normal' to Americans. We always talked about politicians being worthless liars, but things seem different now. The decay of the West Coast is slowly becoming a new normal. Now we have politicians openly flaunting being above the law, and a media that no longer cares.

The decay in the West Coast has a lot to do with the liberalization of drug laws and the legalization of pot. Those needles laying around aren't from criminal users. They are from quite legal needle distribution clinics.

On Drug Decriminalization in the United States

 

[DustyInfinity]

My biggest fear is that massive corruption becomes 'normal' to Americans. We always talked about politicians being worthless liars, but things seem different now. The decay of the West Coast is slowly becoming a new normal. Now we have politicians openly flaunting being above the law, and a media that no longer cares.

The decay in the West Coast has a lot to do with the liberalization of drug laws and the legalization of pot. Those needles laying around aren't from criminal users. They are from quite legal needle distribution clinics.

To be fair, I wasn't just talking about the West Coast. Everyone kind of chuckles when they talk about dead people voting in Chicago, but things still seem different. I sense the voters are losing ground on being able to matter.

 

[Gdjjr]

Those needles laying around aren't from criminal users.

They're from people who were or would be criminalized. It doesn't matter what the action is, if it changes status in society there will be abusers and users and haters using one or both to justify their feelings.

 

[Dr Grump]

it's not worth much....

What's "it's"?

His belief that Mexico and other Latin countries being colonized by the Spanish/Catholics may be the reason why Latin America is such a horrible place....

They are two common denominators...

 

[Dr Grump]

So what have we learned from this thread?

Mexico is a shit hole. Thanks first and foremost to corrupt Latinos in Mexico, and secondly to idiotic drug users in the US.

James Michener wrote a book called Caribbean. He waxed lyrical about why all Central and South American (ie Spanish/Portuguese) countries, and the Spanish-influenced Caribbean island nations were third-world shitholes (last word is mine, not his - the book was written in 1989) and yet most (but not all) of the British colonies - Canada, US, Australia, New Zealand - were first world. His reasoning was that in the most part - again not all - the British govenment usually chose the best person to do the job (ie govern), whereas most Spanish governors or whatever got their position due to nepotism as opposed to ability. This lead to a lot of incompetent administrators and corruption, which has gone on down the generations. Interesting perspective. True? Dunno...

Ummmm...yea....I’m sure that’s it....

Then what is it?

 

[Gdjjr]

Donald Boudreaux: Remembering not-so-noble Prohibition experiment

One final cost of Prohibition warrants mention — namely, its assault on personal freedom. If we truly wish to enjoy the blessings of liberty, we must accord to each peaceful adult the freedom to eat or drink as he or she choose. Each of us, in short, should mind our own business.

 

[MaryL]

When I was a kid growing up in Laredo,Texas, in the 1950s and 1960s, tourists from all over the country would come to Laredo to get a taste of “old Mexico.” Laredo is situated right on the border. The downtown area was connected to the downtown area of Nuevo Laredo with one international bridge. The two cities were essentially one large city separated by the Rio Grande, which serves as the international border.

Tourists would either walk or drive across the bridge for a day of shopping at the market, eat lunch and drink a beer at the Cadillac Bar, and eat dinner, have drinks, and take in a floor show at some nightclub. When I was in high school, that’s what we would also sometimes do on dates (sometimes without the knowledge or consent of our parents). It was all safe and secure. With the exception of sometimes having to pay a bribe to a cop for illegal parking, there were rarely any adverse incidents.

Not anymore. Nobody in his right mind would go into Nuevo Laredo except in a case of extreme necessity. That’s because everyone is now subject to the very real possibility of being killed or kidnapped by drug cartels and drug gangs or caught in the crossfire of drug turf battles.

Why the problem now and not back then?

One simple reason: The war on drugs or, to put it another way, drug illegality. The drug war destroyed the tourism business in Laredo and Nuevo Laredo. In fact, with the exception of well-secured tourist resorts on Mexican beaches, the drug war has essentially destroyed the tourism business across the country. My parents drove from Laredo to Acapulco for their honeymoon. No one in his right mind would do that today.

If you want to trouble yourself there are some numbers here.