While everyone has undoubtedly been following the turbulent swings of the state of the (worldwide) economic crisis, there is a smaller yet albeit important battle being waged far from the trading rooms of the New York and London stock exchanges. Along the sandy and scorched earth that separates the U.S. and Mexican border, a turf war is taking place across certain border cities (on the Mexican side) that by all accounts has become as violent as Iraqi street battles that plagued that country from 2004-2006. With local police turning up killed, mutilated, and sometimes decapitated, horrendous crimes are taking place against anyone who dares stand against the drug lords. Controlling the smuggling routes which traffic the vast majority of cocaine which comes into this country, these kingpins are incredibly well funded, and sadly, well armed.
For a long period of time, there wasn't much the Mexican or American governments could accomplish, until now. In early March, Felipe Calderon, Mexico's President ordered massive number of federal police, or "federales" as they are colloquially known, into the most volatile city there is, Ciudad Juarez. Not dissimilar from the "surge" of troops the U.S. injected into Baghdad in 2007, this influx of over more than 7,500 police units, that are not as willing or able to be bought off as the local police, is designed to take back territory that is literally in the hands of drug smugglers and their well equipped muscle. The irony in this is that Cuidad Juarez literally borders El Paso across the Rio Grande river, and typically when lower tier countries (come on guys, face the facts) border more wealthy and prosperous ones, its typically the border area which is most positively influenced (the vast majority of Canada's population lives within 100 miles of the U.S. border). The problem with this scenario however, is that because the U.S. is the worlds largest consumer of Cocaine, the money and power goes to those willing to smuggle the product in, and this has made many of the Mexican cities that border the U.S. increasingly dangerous.
Therefore, as loathe as I am to admit this, Secretary of State Clinton was correct in her observation last week that the violent situation persists because both parties are at fault. Mexico has failed to assert control over its territory against drug lords, and America's penchant for blow has funded much of the mayhem. Aside from the fact that its true, it was also important to share blame in this situation, if nothing else to show solidarity with the Mexican government, a government by which all accounts has only become truly democratic within the past 2 decades. While our friends to the south have been somewhat reluctant to cooperate fully (they have rejected the notion of joint border patrols), serious help in this situation was direly needed, before the violence potentially spread onto our side of the border.
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