By Richard N. Baldwin T. /HispanicVista.com An Infamous Date In Two Countries
The date is 16 May 2007. The two countries are the United States and
México. In the US, I am referring to the Virginia Tech massacre that left 32
victims dead and the lone shooter a suicide. In this case, the shooter was an
immigrant legally residing in the US and attending Virginia Tech. Sorry, Mr.
O'Reilly; he wasn't an illegal Mexican crossing a broken southern border. The
shooter came from South Korea and had severe emotional problems that were
missed by many around him. The two pistols he used were purchased in a
perfectly legal manner locally.
In México on the same day, 21 dead bodies turned up, sprinkled across 9
states including the Federal District. This is a high number, if not a record,
in the on-going drug war in México. Most of the bodies appeared to be drug war
victims. Some had the notes and markings that are typical of these types of
killings to intimidate either the police or rival drug gangs. Additionally,
more than 100 law enforcement agents were detained in the northern state of
Nuevo León on 16 April. Included are both local and state police suspected of
drug related corruption. That state has had more than 50 dead in the drug war
this year so far.
While the US killings were done with a legal weapon, most of the weapons
used in México are illegal. In México, there are very strict firearm laws that
make anything over .22 caliber requires an almost impossible permit to obtain.
The problem is that there is a large and almost uncontrollable illegal arms
traffic from the US, where these weapons can be obtained with little problem.
México asks the US to better control its addiction to drugs and asks them to
curb the illegal arms flow into México. To the US, it is simply a nice
business to be in. But in México, the drug business is ripping the country
apart. And with the billions of dollars floating around in this business, it
is of little wonder that there is so much corruption related to the drug
business.
There are some interesting parallels between the drug war in México to
the war going on in Iraq. It is not my purpose to discuss the advisability of
the Iraq war here, but there is a similarity about that war and the Mexican
situation. In both cases, a war was started with little or no thought of what
instability these wars would cause. As a result, the Iraq war left a highly
unstable country with no real planning on how to prevent that.
In the Mexican case, while with the best of intentions, top cartel rulers
were prosecuted and jailed. That left a big power vacuum. Some of the drug
lords were able to continue running their businesses from their prison cells
for a time (read corruption), but the end result was drug cartels running
without strong control and the remains of these organizations fighting one
another for the biggest slice of the ludicrous market. In short, they were
taken over by a bunch of "young Turks" whose trademarks are extreme violence.
Now, just like Iraq, México has a war going on killing off Mexicans from
both sides of the conflict. In the US case, the Bush administration did not
demonstrate the insight and planning to avoid a civil war and the US in now in
an internal fight on how to do something about it. All of the options look
grim.
We had the same lack of foresight and planning with the Fox
administration, and the escalating war has now fallen on the new Calderón
administration. Calderón seems to have a plan and the courage to follow it
through and he also recognized that it is going to be a long war. At least he
does have the support of his people.
México wants the US to restrict arms exports and to curb drug imports.
The US wants México to curb both drug exports and immigration exports. But in
both cases, the problem is that there are strong markets on both sides that
want the products. The US wants drugs and at least one influential sector want
cheap (illegal) labor. A strong and influential sector in México wants to
export drugs and there is a long established sector in México that wants to
export their poverty.
Some scholars in México say that it will take 20 years to really bring up
the living standard in here to join the first world. That will curb
immigration. It took Ireland that long from being a people exporting country
to being an attractive immigration destination. The question is if México will
have the staying power to carry this plan out.
But how long will it take for the US to get really serious about shutting
down their dope market?
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Richard N. Baldwin T., a HispanicVista.com (http://www.hispanicvista.com/)
contributing columnist, lives in Tlalnepantla, Edo de México. E-mail at:
R1041643422@aol.com
By
Richard N. Baldwin T. /HispanicVista.com