Blog dedicated to reporting on Mexican drug cartels
on the border line between the US and Mexico
.

Saturday, May 25, 2013

Inside Mexico's Drugwar: Who are the 70k Dead?

Borderland Beat
 

This video was recommended by a Borderland Beat reader.  It is a worthy view loaded with information, even if a person does not agree with the viewpoint in its entirety .  Thank you to the anonymous reader who sent it in....Paz, Chivis
 
"Inside Mexico's Drug War"  Part One and Two
 

Investigative journalist John Gibler takes us inside the drug war in Mexico, revealing the facts behind the popularized versions of the violence.

In Part One:  Gibler, author of "To Die in Mexico", analyzes the narcotics traffic as a $250 to 500 billion a year global business providing illegal drugs everywhere in the world. He debunks the myth that those who are killed -- as many as 50,000 since Felipe Calderon took office in 2006 -- are all somehow involved in the drug trade. In the U.S., anti-drug policies have traditionally had racial implications, as detailed in Michelle Alexander's book, The New Jim Crow.


Part 2: Mexican journalist Diego Osorno reveals the war on narcotraficking as a ploy to consolidate the power of President Felipe Calderon -- a war that has escalated killings and crime without diminishing the availability of illegal drugs. Ted Lewis of Global Exchange comments on U.S. policies and Investigative journalist John Gibler takes us inside the drug war in Mexico



 

38 comments:

  1. interesting videos chivis I just ordered the book.

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  2. First observation, these guys probably joined the rest of the idiots at Occupy Wall Street, doing nothing but promoting urban camping and crapping in public. I went to the one in San Diego to check it out and 2/3 of them had some sign about greed, banks, and the killing of the environment, and then they left enough trash that it took a week for the city to clean it up. Rich kids upset about the fact that life isn't fare, and then voting again for the guy who has done nothing but made life even harder for Americans.
    In the last half, he said what can we do. I agree, yes, ending prohibition would be good…for us. Not so good for Mexico. We have seen an evolution of a evil and violence that hasn't manifested itself since the middle ages and these people have made tons of money the easy way. What do you think they are going to do when the money isn't coming in? Quit? No, they are going to expand into more corruption of Mexico's infrastructure and you are going to see kidnapping and extortion go nuts. It will be bad for Mexico, and no one seems to see this.
    Third, these guys are the typical "blame the US for everyones problems", just like Obama did when he went to Mexico last month. How about we get a President to go to Mexico and tell them that THEY are the reason we have the drug problem, and that if it wasn't for their greed, we wouldn't loose so many kids to addiction. And if Mexico cared about the guns flowing south, why haven't they done anything but complain? Why do our guards now have to check vehicles going IN to Mexico, violating our privacy, when the guard on the Mexican side just waves you on through? So we are supposed to be on the lookout for both countries and do all the work, while Mexico does all the crying? Horrible. I do agree with these guys that the drug war was a slight of hand move. Calderon went about this all wrong. Hell, there is NOTHING you can do about it as a whole until Mexico magically finds greed to be a disgusting trait to have. But its always been as popular as roosters and bad music, so things aren't changing any time soon.

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  3. what part of this don't you agree with Chivis? What is your opinion of the hyper-violence going on in Mexico? What is the cause? Who is responsible? What is your deep understanding of what is happening? What is Mexico's role? What is the United States' role? What is yours?

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    Replies
    1. Yes, please answer that Chivis just want to see your take

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  4. It is ridiculous how much power Chapo has he gots about 25 Billion USD engrossed.

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  5. I got a fullTac AR10 and 2 Five seveN on me nobody wants to see me. I'll put a quadcopter in the air.

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  6. still absorbing info...no comment. thanks for upload.

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  7. I made about 20Million on the trade. Puro Culiacan gunner but I push the tons.

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  8. Chapo told me to push 10 tons to Chicago. From San Antonio. Gunna

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  9. Pow! Pow! Pow! Pow! jajaja ok 8:51 put down your chivo de cuerno, I want to see what you readers have to say before I answer your questions, however if you read what I write you will know I have always taken the stand that the hyper violence and Mexico's ills are not narco driven, not at the core, narco violence is the byproduct not the cause.

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  10. Puro killer, kidnapp your kids.

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  11. Borderland Beat is named in the credits!

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  12. Interesting videos, thanks, I was partly aware of the whole social mess in 2006, the Oaxaca strikes and the election fraud mostly, but I wasn't in Mexico back then yet so the information I had was quite diluted, it makes sense (and it's also what EPN is doing right now) trying to divert the attention, I found that bit specially interesting.

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  13. Thanks Chivis for posting the youtube videos..I had sent you the link a while back...It's an interesting research done by these guys on the Mexican drugwars.

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  14. @9:40 thank you I did not see that BB was named in the video credits....nice!

    @10:33 and THANK YOU! We have the best readers, many of you are always looking out for something we may be interested in and sending it in. I have a number of posts in draft sometimes that creates a lengthy time before something is posted. I liked the perspective of John and Diego and thought they brought something new to readers. You sent the link for the part one and yesterday I saw there was a part 2 with English captions so that made a complete post. Thanks again, great find....Paz, Chivis

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  15. i like these guys' perspectives. really thoughtful and concise, and infective enthusiasm

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  16. Thanks Chivis but you forget the Mexican Mafia Eme (american gang) and all the american gangs in USA and why the government of USA is just with an eye in MExico??

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    Replies
    1. There u go with ur eme. Shit up dude

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  17. Great article Vato, you and BB are doing a great job. Assassins in Texas http://www.txdps.state.tx.us/Texas10MostWanted/fugitiveDetails.aspx?id=162

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  18. Trends show that the American economy will go from bad to worse and very soon we may see American gringos mowing lawns for rich and powerful Mexicans and American young girls working as nannies and maids for the elite Mexicans...An after thought: this trend may already have started.

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  19. If this guy hates capitalism so much, will he be giving his book away for free. Or maybe bartering each copy for a kilo of mota?

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  20. learned nothing new, his promoting legalization i have no problem with, cheap and high quality crack and heroin will solve the drug problem quickly,i agree that this fight cannot be won, but as anonymous says they will move on to kidnapping and extortion mexican society has lived with corruption

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    Replies
    1. When its legal the cartels won't have money to pay cops.and the Mexican government will have
      Billions to hire cop because they will be selling the dope when its legal

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  21. reading borderland is very depressing, this young man however well intentioned solutions are naive at best, the evil that is the problems in mexico run so deep i truly believe they will never be fixed the county that i love i despair for, you cannot have half your population leave and expect a good result this is the result

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  22. @8:15 pm and 4:30 pm "they will move onto kidnapping and extortion" as in nothing will change or things will only get worse if drugs get legalized, I disagree, without the flow of money coming from drugs criminals would lose the means to buy authorities at the level they are doing it now, kidnapping and extortion are way less lucrative than drugs, and without bought protection they become very risky activities, would some sicarios turn to this? definitely, and most would end dead or in jail, same fate they face today with way less to gain, would the whole cartels structures do it? nope.

    Mexicans are not inherently corrupt, they are used to live within a system that works that way, which is very different, it means change is not just possible but also wanted.

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  23. I live in nuevo Laredo most of the murders are because there involved in drug.most of the murders and all other
    Crime in USA is because of drugs.everybody I know here who got murder was narco .and I no about 12.so I believe caldaron is more accurate than this guy.

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  24. In the European news:
    MEXICO TURNS DOWN THE DEATH TOLL IN THE BLOODY DRUG WAR
    Saturday 25 May 2013 kl. 03:33 by AFP

    The number of murders committed by organized crime has dropped in Mexico, says the country's interior.

    Drug-related killings that have plagued Mexico dramatically in recent years, has declined in number over the last six months. It said the country's interior.
    Miguel Angel Osorio Chong to a group of foreign journalists in Mexico City. The number of homicides related to organized crime has fallen by 20 percent since the new government took office in December.
    President Enrique Pena Nieto came to power 1 December and promised that he would reduce the drug-related violence under the predecessor Felipe Calderon leading to 70,000 deaths in six years.
    But it's not all who believe that the number of homicides has fallen so drastically. Doubts have risen about the government's numbers and the method that has been used to report deaths in organized crime.
    Alejandro Hope, security analyst at the Mexican Institute for Competitiveness, estimates that the number of murders has decreased by only 0.6 percent in the first quarter compared with the first quarter of 2012.
    Chong defends his ministry way to count the dead, and also says that the list of 26,121 people who disappeared in the drug war between 2006 and 2012 will be drastically lowered.
    Many of the people who were reported missing, had just left their home for personal reasons, because of work or because they had emigrated, says the Minister.
    He added that in two months he was able to say more precisely how much the number of missing persons has decreased.
    / REUTERS / AFP

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  25. Los Z matando Golfos en Zacatecas y Texas!

    De Laredo a Mante epaaaa!

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  26. Excellent video and thanks to BB for putting the video up.

    I have to say that I think their analysis and comments are on the money.

    Quite a few comments (in the video)that might quickly (and erroneously) be attributed as "anti-American" are actually about capitalism which is the dominant global economic system. More accurate to talk about it in these terms than as anti-US.

    I like the comment(s) above regarding this as a Mexican vs. American problem. Mexicans are not inherently corrupt - the Mexicans I know have generally been victims of the corruption. Likewise this is more complicated on the US side than just some low life drug users. The drug war is part of a self sustaining system.

    El Juero

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  27. I hate to be an ass about this, but no one ever said that ALL killed were part of the drug trade, that is a strawman fallacy.

    There are innocent victims. But what I would like Mr. Gibler to articulate is how to distinguish drug related violence from petty crime and crime in general. Case in point, in 2011, around Christmas, 21 people or so were killed in Mazatlan. Those 21 were petty criminals and car thieves, killed by the Sinaloa cartel due to bring attention to the region. Is this a drug crime, or a non-drug crime? It goes both ways, right? It is clearly not a drug crime per se, but it is related to a cartel. Some killings in Sinaloa are simply the cartels cleaning up society, like it or not, because the police don't do it.

    The leftist interpretations of "grabbing political power" and the like defy the economics of the situation. Had Calderon really wanted to centralize power, he would have made deals with the cartels, and been the man that solved the violence problems. Talk about centralizing power! He didn't, and what Mr. Osorno misses is that economics have been harmed due to political instability not necessarily directly involved in the drug trade, but as a by product of it. And if anything that decreases Calderon's power.....

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  28. Era puta lol lol

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  29. Re:Anonymous at 6:25

    Why not pick a name? You're an anonymous possibly responding to other anonymous postings - your point/counter point might be a bit better made honestly.

    If I'm not mistaken, Mexico recently moved into the number one spot for economic growth in Latin America, faster than Brazil. Despite the horrendous levels of violence this has been a very profitable period for those in power in Mexico. Hard to counter what you're describing as left leaning analysis with the economic situation at the upper levels at least.

    I think you're correct in pointing out that the violence that occurs in Mexico crosses different lines but I think the video is looking at the bigger forces at work. The small time car thief or pickpocket may be on the edges of the cartel due to poverty as much as anything. Not to justify either small time thievery or cartel nonsense.....

    El Juero

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  30. Greedy white hispanic eqeals corruption You never see the indian mexican in powers of positions

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    Replies
    1. Thats right! I knew youd wisen up...

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    2. I heard the fat zetas are getting it across the border...

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  31. the cartels are the defacto authority in most vital Mexican cities, so what! the Mexican gov is:

    A: in bed with the narcos, therefore Mexico is fucked.

    B: the Mexican gov is weak and has no power to enforce laws and fight corruption, therefore Mexcio is fucked.

    C: Greed and corruption is so rampant and intertwined within Mexican DNA that all heads of local and State are easily corrupted, therefore Mexci is fucked!

    D: all of the above therefore Mexico is fucked!

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  32. How do I join the zetas? Love money would love to make it. Have slashed a few throats b4 would love to join this trade.

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