| | |  Editorials | Opinions 
Are the Mexican Drug Cartels Taking Over Mexico? Is There Any Doubt?
 Hugh Holub - Tucson Citizen
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October 09, 2010
It seems like daily we read news accounts from Mexico that more headless bodies have been found, more Mexican police have been assassinated, more newspaper reporters have been killed, and more local political officials have been kidnapped and murdered.
 |  | It is long overdue for Mexico to quit blaming US drug users and US gun policies for this situation. |  | | |
It is obvious that the Mexican drug cartels are seeking to create “control zones” within Mexico where they can operate with impunity. The federal government of Mexico is losing control of its countryside to the cartelistas.
This is of special concern on the northern border. Cartel gunmen virtually run major border cities such as Juarez prompting a Juarez newspaper to beg cartel shooters to quit killing their reporters.
While we don’t get much news about what is going on in our Mexican border cities, there are a lot of anecdotal reports that the cartels are gaining control of northern Sonoran communities.
The border town of Sasabe, according to many first-hand accounts from friends who have been over there in recent weeks, is cartel controlled. Residents of Sasabe can’t even drive from there to Magdalena without cartel permission.
Agua Prieta is another border city falling into the clutches of the cartel.
Increasingly the economies of Sonoran border community are dominated by drug and people smuggling. The traditional economies of these border towns, such as tourism, have been destroyed by the cartel activities.
Ranches on the Mexican side of the border are being bought outright by cartel interests, or being attacked by the cartel to secure their smuggling routes.
We are not going to achieve a secure border solely by pouring thousands of additional Border Patrol agents and National Guard troops into our side of the border. A secure border has to be secure on both sides of the border.
The Mexican government is rapidly losing the battle with the cartels….and we may be seeing a narco state emerging just across the border.
That has profound implications for our national security as well as on the illegal immigrant issue. We could well be looking at a mass exodus of terrified Mexicans fleeing drug cartel terror. We have no apparent ability or willingness to grant Mexican residents asylum if they want to escape threats from the cartels.
It is long overdue for Mexico to quit blaming US drug users and US gun policies for this situation. The day is rapidly approaching where the central governmental authority of Mexico will not extend much beyond Chapultepec Park in Mexico City. |
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