Guest Column
Druggyland
By Rami Schwartz- June 20, 2006
- FROM MEXICO
- Mexico has a new name, druggyland, the Disneyland of the drug
cartels and dealers. The priorities of Mexico’s political class are
upside down. While presidential candidates spend 600 million dollars
in advertising for the July 2 election, while President Fox spends
120 million additional dollars in advertising the null achievements
of his administration, kids in Mexico are consuming more drugs than
ever before, more drugs than any other youth in the world. Millions
of Mexico’s youngsters and infants are already a wasted generation…
Last week, Mexico hosted the first world conference on the prevention of crime and addictions, and the news that came out of the event proves that no country in the world is producing more addicts and prostitutes than Mexico.
- The DEA confirmed that Mexico’s drug cartels are officially the most dangerous, powerful and roothless in the world and that Colombian drug lords have become simply providers of merchandise for the Mexicans.
- Tony Garza, US ambassador to Mexico revealed a study that shows that Mexican children are beginning to consume drugs at the age of 10, down from the previous 12 years old.
- Mexico’s drug consumption grows at an annual rate of 20%, the highest of any country in the world.
- Mexico is now the most violent country in the world; this year there will be between 2,000 and 3,000 drug related murders, more than the US soldiers that have lost their lives in Iraq in three years of uninterrupted war.
- The regional coalition against the traffic of women and children said that only in Mexico City, over 200 thousand people engage in prostitution, 90% of which are women and children and 75% of them began prostituting when they were 13 years old or less.
- In the last year alone, over 2,500 “drug shops” opened in Mexico City alone, an average of 7 every day. Between January 1, 2005 and December 31, 2005, the number of these shops doubled a situation that can only be explained with the complicity of the police and the city authorities.
These are the numbers of Druggyland, the Disneyland of organized crime. This is how Mexico is creating generations upon generations of lost kids. Now they don’t have to wait until they turn 18 and not find a job to realize that they have no future. In druggyland all you have to do is turn 10 years old and begin consuming drugs or become 13 years old and be accosted by a pimp to become part of Mexico’s lost generations.
The reality is that Mexican authorities don’t even have a plan to reverse this situation, to the contrary, they have proven, over and over, that they don’t even have the political will to turn things around. A few days later a meeting of all the attorney generals of the country took place and there President Fox said that the Mexican Government "doesn't have enough resources to fight drug retailing" in Mexico's streets, parks and schools.
A few weeks ago, on the presidential debate, none of the candidates addressed this problem, not one offered a plausible plan and viable solutions. Not only that, as governor of Mexico City, one of the candidates, Lopez Obrador, basically turned Mexico City to the mafias of organized crime and according to his chief of police, "six of the seven major drug cartels in the country operate in Mexico City".
The other two parties have also questionable reputation when it comes to fighting drugs. Both PAN and PRI presided over the major increase in drug consumption in the history of the nation and both have given political protection to many governors accused of being in the payroll of the Cartels: Yarrington former governor of Tamaulipas, Millan, former governor of Sinaloa or Estrada Cajigal, Governor of Morelos. The three major parties and candidates have done nothing to protect Mexico’s children and youngsters from the immense power of the drug lords, they all seem pleased with the current situation, as if they aspired to become presidents of Druggyland, not Mexico.
Instead of investing in a massive ad campaign against drug consumption, of having an army of teachers go school by school talking children out of consuming drugs and prostituting themselves, instead of promoting a policy to revert the loss of family values, they opted to spend close to a billion dollars of taxpayers money in a long, ridiculous political campaign, that by the way, became a contest of lies and disqualifications between the candidates. So while these politicians become rich, while they grant juicy contracts to their relatives, while they travel the country and the world, Mexico’s kids are smoking more pot, inhaling tons of cocaine, taking synthetic drugs and engaging in prostitution at a younger and younger age.
Politicians should not be surprised if on election day, many prefer to stay home and smoke a joint, inhale cocaine or shoot heroin instead of going to the polls. That's what happens when priorities are upside down. - _____________________________________________________
- Rami Schwartz has a BS in economics from the Wharton School of Commerce and Finance of the University of Pennsylvania; is Founder, CEO and President of Mexico.com, one of the country's leading portals with over 1.2 million visitors a month; and Chief economic commentator for radio newscast with the highest rating in Mexico "Y usted, qué opina", conducted by Nino Canún – contact at: rami@mexico.com)
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