Terror? Forget Afghanistan or Iraq, think Mexico.

The results of the drug war are now devastating our neighbor to the south. Unfortunately, it's already taken it's toll on other southern countries. Places like Columbia have been bathed in blood and corruption for decades, as a direct result of the demand for drugs in the United States and our choice to criminalize drug possession. Here is an article pondering whether Mexico could collapse in the near future:



The response of Mexican leadership has been predictable- denial, while the people think unfettered immigration is the answer:



http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090118/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_mexico_besieged

Most Americans have no idea how bad it's gotten in Mexico. It's not just gangs killing other gangs anymore. The violence is out in the open, a grenade will be lobbed into a crowded disco for example. There is no law and order in large swaths of Mexico anymore, the police and security forces are told "either you join us, or you die." And the deaths can include horrific torture. Americans traveling in Mexico have been stopped by the police and never heard from again. This has already spread into border towns like Laredo, Texas as well as gangs gaining outposts in places as faraway as Michigan.

IMO, this won't be stopped by simply tossing money (that we no longer have, anyway) at it. The violence that is occurring is the same that occurred under the prohibition of alcohol and for the same reason. ONLY a repeal of our insane drug laws, combined with increased education and treatment facilities and enforced border security, will stop the wave that's headed our way.

But will Obama do it? I doubt it. It's a politically risky choice, and the signals he's sent indicate a middle of the road approach.

It makes the case that peak oil is the root cause of decline in Mexico. Could be, I can't say for sure one way or the other. I'd say that Mexico was never in particularly good shape. Only recently did it emerge from decades of one party rule, and it seems to be a society will a million peasants and a handful of rich, like the guy Carlos Slim (the second richest man in the world) the article mentions. Combine it's basically slim hold on prosperity, with new cheap labor being found in China, and it's probably inevitable it will decline. Also, as the article points out, Mexico would be even poorer if it wasn't for all the money that immigrants, legal and otherwise, send back to Mexico.

My feeling is that Obama needs to deal with as soon as possible, because if he doesn't, serious xenophobia will take over and we will see an all out war in border towns. Americans are not going to stand around while their towns are turned into war zones. If the authorities don't handle this, they will take matters into their own hands which won't be good for anyone, since these drug cartels are really a military force at this point, with armor resistant humvees and rocket launchers and AK-47s and all the rest.

Long story short...for the past 10 years we have been going to an orphanage in Ensenada to deliver, food, clothing, make repairs on the place etc. The fucking police have gotten even MORE corrupt there, to the point where we can't even make our monthly trips down there.

The last time we went there, the corrupt assholes pulled us over expecting a bribe, and when my pal refused to give him one they kept his drivers license. We tried to explain to the prick that we come down here from California to help out with the orphanage, and that we have been giving our time and money to help out the Mexican kids that have to stay in the orphanage for the past 10 years, and what the fuck has he done to help his own countries people? Asshole unsnapped his holster, and told us to get back to America and never come back here. Fucker kept my buddies drivers license to boot.

I've been to third world war zones that I feel safer in than I do in Mexico right now.

But these days it's even worse because the cartels literally have a representative walk up to a commander and say to them "you will join us, or you will die". The ones lower in the command, like the cop, also go over to the cartel's side. The only honest cops or officials in Mexico are in graves.