WHY I DON’T WANT TO VISIT MEXICO

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When I was in the Canadian navy (1951-1954) our ship docked  at San Diego and then. I then took a bus to Tjuana, the Mexican city right at the border of the USA and Mexico that is just south of San Diego. I spent four hours in that Mexican city. I had no occasion to be afraid while I was walking about in that city. In 1969, I drove from Canada and through the USA and then  through Mexico to in order to reach central America., I had no cause to fear while driving through Mexico, Years later when I, my wife and second oldest daughter visited the Mexican city of Laredo just south of the border of Texas, we spent an hour in that city and had no reason to be afraid. Years later when my wife and I visited the Mexican Island of Cozumel, we had to fear of walking about in that island,   

Currently, there are thirty countries around the world that are considered too dangerous to visit and Mexico is one of them, Nowadays, you couldn’t pay me to visit Mexico unless I was accompanied by at least ten heavily armed guards. Why am I so fearful of being in Mexico. The answers is in in two words—drug cartels.

Continual and sensational news coverage of Mexican drug cartels may have desensitized people to the realities and sources of the existence of violence. It is easy to forget how long the crisis imposed by the cartel has gone on and how far it is from over. To place the issue back into perspective, discussed below are 10 facts about Mexican drug cartels and the ways through which the government has attempted to deal with them.

 In December of 2006, the former Mexican president Felipe Calderon sent 6,500 troops into Michoacán to address the rampant gun battles, execution-style murders and police corruptions which cartel rivalry had unleashed on the community. In so doing, Calderon launched the Mexican war on drugs, a literal war which would involve more than 20,000 troops within the first two months.

The United States, is home to tens of millions of drug  users as it comprises of the world’s largest drug market. In fact, in 2013 about 10 percent of Americam population over the age of 12 were regular users, and drug consumption remained on the rise. Mexican drug cartels were estimated to earn between 19 and 29 billion dollars annually from U.S. drug sales alone.

As more of the United States decriminalizes marijuana, that illegally-smuggled Mexican product cannot compete with the quality or price of the American marijuana production. Simultaneously, a prescription opioid epidemic across the U.S. has raised the demand for heroin. As a result, Mexican production of heroin rose by 170 percent between 2013 and 2015, while marijuana dealings have largely diminished.

Huge quantities of drugs continue to make their way into the US. Drug consumption in the US is the world’s biggest market that continues to steadily rise with 24.6m recent users in 2013 – equating to 9.4% of the population over 12 years old, compared with 8.3% in 2002.

Drug trends tend to wax and wane, in part reflecting the focus of law enforcement efforts, so while cocaine use has gone down slightly down, marijuana, heroin and methamphetamines are on the upswing.

Improved collaboration between US and Mexican intelligence and security services has resulted in numerous high-profile arrests and drug busts. Officials say 25 of the 37 drug traffickers on Calderón’s most wanted list have been jailed, extradited to the US or killed, although not all of these actions have been independently corroborated. More than 110,000 tonnes of cocaine was decommissioned and almost 180,000 hectares (444,790 acres) of marijuana and poppies destroyed during President Calderón’s term.

The biggest costs to Mexico have been human. Since 2007, almost 200,000 people have been murdered in Mexico and more than 28,000 reported as having disappeared. In September 2014, 43 trainee teachers disappeared and are presumed to have been killed after they were attacked by corrupt police officers and handed over to drug gang members. The case  in which the Mexican army as well as corrupt politicians were implicated  has become emblematic of the violence perpetrated in heavily militarized zones.

Human rights groups have detailed a vast rise in human rights abuses by security forces who are under pressure to make arrests, obtain confessions and justify the war against the cartels. Reports of torture by security forces increased by 600% between 2003 and 2013, according to Amnesty International.

As the cartels have fractured and diversified, other violent crimes such as kidnapping and extortion have also surged. In 2010, the Los Zetas cartel that was  founded by a group of Special Forces deserters massacred 72 migrants who were kidnapped while trying to reach the US border.

Hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced by violence, and self-defence or vigilante groups have emerged in several states including Guerrero, Oaxaca and Michoacán, as communities have taken up arms in an attempt to protect themselves. Some of those militias have in turn been targeted by state forces or co-opted by organized crime.

Ssince Calderon’s successor, Enrique Peña Nieto, took power in December 2012, as many as101 of his administration’s 122 most wanted capos were killed or in custody; again however,  not all the reported deaths and detentions have been independently corroborated.

The biggest victory and most embarrassing blunder under Peña Nieto’s leadership was the recapture, escape and another recapture of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, leader of the Sinaloa cartel. Guzmán was fighting extradition to the US, though this was increasingly futile since he is now serving a life sentence in a heavily secured prison.  Meanwhile, his rivals are making audacious moves to annex his lucrative routes, generating a new wave of violence in states such as Colima, Baja California and Sinaloa.

The crackdown and capture of kingpins has won praise from the media and US, but it has done little to reduce the violence or establish the rule of law in Mexico.

Under pressure from the authorities, some crime factions have splintered – only to regroup and re-emerge as smaller, often more ruthless groups.

Meanwhile, new battlegrounds have sprung up in previously peaceful states as military operations incited gangs to find new smuggling routes in rival territories.

Calderon’s policies have remained largely intact under President Peña Ñieto even though the rhetoric changed significantly in an attempt to rehabilitate Mexico’s desperate image and attract foreign investment.

Whereas the Calderón’s administration was obsessed with security, President Peña Nieto has been obsessed with not being obsessed with security.  President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said he believed Mexico could resolve its security problems without foreign “intervention,” but he has opened the door to FBI cooperation provided the country’s national sovereignty is not violated.

Under the current Mexican government, the security and defense budget has continued to rise, and yet so has the bloodshed. About 63,000 people were murdered in the first half of Pena Nieto’s term – 50% more than in Calderon’s first three years.

Mexico’s decade-long war on drugs would never have been possible without the huge injection of American drug users’ cash and Mexican military cooperation under the Merida Initiative. The funds have continued to flow despite growing evidence of serious human rights violations by Mexican police.

The US government has described the Sinaloa Cartel as one of the largest drug-trafficking organisations in the world. It was founded in the late 1980s and was for many years headed by the notorious drug lord Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán. "El Chapo" which means "Shorty" and who is now in prison. He was once ranked as one of the world's richest men. His life and vast drug-trafficking empire have been the subject of numerous books and TV series. Under his leadership, the cartel garnered a fierce reputation for violence and outfought several rival groups. Mexican cartels often clash with one another, but it's also worth noting that they can form strategic alliances as well.  The cartel is primarily based in the city of Culiacán, Sinaloa with it’s operations in the Mexican states of Baja California,

The cartel kidnapped, tortured and slaughtered members of rival criminal gangs. It also had access to a huge arsenal of weapons, including a rocket-propelled grenade launcher and Guzmán's own gold plated AK-47.

Guzmán’s imprisonment for life has brought about an increase of violence in the region as other groups sought to take advantage of his imprisonment. Despite this, the Sinaloa Cartel remains hugely powerful. It still dominates north-west Mexico and is reported to have a presence in cities ranging from Buenos Aires to New York.

Bloody struggles are continuing unresolved, and cartel groups remain locked in nasty turf wars. This environment means that most of these clashes will rage on well into 2019 and the following years.

Canadian Foreign Affairs has listed warnings for parts of Mexico on its website. If you visit Mexico and rent a car to drive around that country, you are in great danger of being killed by members of drug cartels.  Consider what happed to the Mormons who were attacked my members of a drug cartel in November 2019.

Nine members of a Mormon community in northern Mexico died in an ambush conducted by gunmen of a local drug cartel while travelling from their home on the La Mora ranch to a nearby Mormon settlement. But how did the victims in which all were US-Mexican citizens, come to be in the line of fire? Did the killers believe that they were part of another drug cartel that is actually operated by another Mormon drug cartel?

The dirt road that the victim were driving on that runs through the Sierra Madre mountains and which is definitely no place for anyone   to drive on, It is remote, rocky and cold in  the  month  of  November. Worse yet, it is controlled by men financed by Mexico's illegal drug trade and armed by America's guns. It's about as hostile a stretch of road as can be found anywhere in Mexico.

Dawna Ray Langford and her sons Trevor, 11, and Rogan, two, were killed in one car while Christina Langford Johnson, 31, was killed in another. Her seven-month-old baby, Faith Langford, survived the attack. She was found on the floor of the vehicle in her baby seat.

The raw grief of the extended LeBarón family is worsened by the upsetting details of how the infants met their deaths on that stony track - trapped in a burning, bullet-riddled car.

Eight-month-old twins, Titus and Tiana, died alongside their two siblings, Howard Jr, 12, and Krystal, 10, and their mother, 30-year-old Rhonita Miller.

Their grandfather filmed the aftermath of the cartel ambush with his mobile phone "for the record" as he put it, his voice cracking. The disturbing footage showed a blackened and still-smouldering vehicle, the charred human remains clearly visible. sn you imaging the fear these babies had when shot and then burned to death? What human monsters would do such a thing? Obviously , human monsters who have no empathy for any human beings.

The media showed pictures of burning vehicles spewing black smoke, much like you would see in war torn countries.

Fortunately, a 14-year 0ld girl escaped the shootings and took some of the small kids with her. Hour later after hiking  in the mountains for many hours, they all arrived in a town in safety. 

Perhaps the only solace for this tight-knit Mormon community exists in the knowledge that the children who died were with their mothers - a family united to their untimely, violent end, Imagine if you will the anguish the mothers had watching their children dying. Would you be willing the drive your children on the country roads in Mexico?  I did it fifty years ago when driving on roads in Mexico was safe. I certainly wouldn’t do it anymore.

Violence is still rampant across Mexico. Earlier in October of 2019, more than one dozen police officers were massacred in a cartel ambush in western Mexico. A day later, 14 suspected cartel  members were killed by the Mexican Army. Homicides in Mexico this year are on track to surpass last year’s record total of more than 29,000 killings,

As I said earlier, I wouldn’t drive in Mexico ever again. However, I think I would feel safe if I flew to Mexico City.