Terror Defense No Al Qaida Terror
Mexico Defense Mexican Stability
Download 2.62 Mb.
|
- Navigate this page:
- Cartels
- Marijuana legalization decreasing cartel violence and influence now
- Specifically, the Zetas are not a threat- no leadership
Mexico DefenseMexican StabilityViolence in Mexico is decreasing—latest statsGomez 15 [Alan, an immigration reporter at USA Today, “After years of drug wars, murders decline in Mexico”, USATODAY, April 30 2015, http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2015/04/30/mexico-drug-war-homicides-decline/26574309/] AW Murders in Mexico fell for a third straight year in 2014 — the most pronounced declines occurring along the U.S. border — a sign the country is slowly stabilizing after gruesome drug wars. There were 15,649 people murdered in Mexico in 2014, a 13.8% reduction from the previous year and down from a peak of 22,480 in 2011, according to a report set to be released Thursday by the University of San Diego's Justice in Mexico Project. The reductions were steeper along the U.S.-Mexican border. Five of the six Mexican states that border the USA reported a combined drop of 17.7% in the number of homicides. "These data really help to underscore that we're talking about a sea change in violence," said David Shirk, co-author of the report and director of the Justice in Mexico Project, a U.S.-based initiative to protect human rights south of the border. "You still have elevated levels of crime, so we still have a long way to go. But there is improvement, and we have to acknowledge that improvement and understand why it's happening so we can try to further it." The reduction in homicides does not mean Mexico has completely solved its security problems. Maureen Meyer, senior associate for Mexico at the Washington Office on Latin America, said Mexicans still face extremely high levels of kidnappings, extortion and other violent crimes. American travelers have also been attacked. The U.S. State Department issued a warning April 13 that said U.S. citizens continue to be victims of carjackings, robberies and other violent crimes. Meyer said the overall reduction in murders is an encouraging trend that allows Mexican officials time to cement improvements in the judicial system, anti-corruption programs and police practices. She said the government must "make sure that the space opened by having less violence leads to structural changes to Mexico's institutions to guarantee a strong rule of law in the future." Mexico became home to a bloody, nationwide drug war after then-President Felipe Calderón announced in December 2006 that the government would crack down on drug cartels and go after its leaders. The United States agreed to help, and Congress has sent $2.3 billion to Mexico since 2008 to train police and buy new aircraft, scanners, X-Ray machines and nearly 400 canines that can detect drugs, weapons and explosives. The strategy seemed to work. Calderón's administration boasted several high-profile successes, capturing or killing the heads of different cartels. But the unexpected consequence was an explosion of violence throughout the country as lower-level cartel members fought to fill the power vacuum. At least 138,000 people have been murdered in Mexico since the end of 2006, according to the report. When President Enrique Peña Nieto took office in December 2012, he continued going after cartel leaders, most notably capturing Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán, the biggest drug supplier to the USA, last year. Shirk said the violence that usually follows such high-profile arrests has not materialized in recent years. Meyer said some cartels appear to have negotiated deals to split up the lucrative smuggling routes into the USA. CartelsPena-Nieto administration crackdown has already eliminated the biggest cartel threats and ensured government stabilityGUERRERO 14— (EDUARDO, “Yes: Violence and Murder Are Decreasing in Mexico,” Americas Quarterly, FALL 2014, http://www.americasquarterly.org/content/yes-violence-and-murder-are-decreasing-mexico). WM When Mexican President Felipe Calderón left office in 2012, the nation’s war on the drug cartels had already claimed 60,000 lives. Now, two years into the presidency of his successor, Enrique Peña Nieto, security conditions are still far from praiseworthy, but have improved in several key areas. Homicides, the most reliable indicator for measuring public security in Mexico, have steadily decreased over the past two years. According to Mexico’s Insituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía (National Institute of Statistics and Geography—INEGI) the number of murders decreased 13 percent between 2012 and 2013, and the homicide rate per 100,000 people declined from 22 to 19. Organized crime-related deaths have decreased even faster. According to the database of Lantia Consultores, a Mexico City-based public policy consulting firm, there were 1,956 organized crime-related deaths in the second quarter of 2014, down from a peak of 4,587 in the second quarter of 2011. The pace of the decline in organized crime-related deaths has been especially encouraging in two key metropolitan areas. In Ciudad Juárez, once known as the world’s most violent city, organized crime-related deaths have dropped from a peak of 787 during the third quarter of 2010 to 54 in the second quarter of 2014—a 93 percent drop. Likewise, in the Monterrey metropolitan area, Mexico’s industrial capital, murders in this category dropped from 472 in the first quarter of 2012 to 38 in the second quarter of 2014. The improvement in Monterrey seems to be the result of a thorough revamping of state and local police departments, which is largely the result of aggressive lobbying by the city’s powerful business community. This demonstrates the potential of local institution-building efforts in Mexico. Even the U.S. Department of State acknowledged as much in its August 2014 Mexico Travel Warning, which stated, “Security services in and around Monterrey are robust and have proven responsive and effective in combating violent crimes.”1 Moreover, over the past two years, peace has returned to cities throughout northern Mexico to an extent that seemed impossible between 2008 and 2012. High-profile attacks, shootings and roadblocks are less frequent. (One exception is Tamaulipas, which experienced a violent crisis as recently as last April.) Unfortunately, data for crimes other than homicide remain unreliable in Mexico. Thus, it is very hard to assess whether the downward trend in murders extends to other violent crimes, especially kidnapping and extortion, which are foremost concerns for Mexicans. The Peña Nieto administration has also recorded a number of important operational successes. The Zetas, a particularly violent cartel founded by defectors from elite military groups, have been nearly disbanded. (The decision to have federal forces target Zetas was taken at the end of the previous administration.) Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán—Mexico’s most notorious drug lord—was captured last February by Peña Nieto’s forces. His capture was skillfully executed and managed to avoid a violent conflict among factions of the Sinaloa Cartel. Some would argue that capturing such kingpins represents only a temporary setback to the cartels. However, such captures convey an important message: the Mexican state is only willing to tolerate so much violence or public notoriety, and it has the strength to prevail over drug lords. Arguably, Peña Nieto’s biggest victory thus far has been the successful operations in the state of Michoacán in early 2014, which dealt a significant blow to the Knights Templar—a drug cartel that had exercised virtually uncontested influence over political and economic activities in the state for the previous two years. Former Governor Fausto Vallejo and several mayors have acknowledged that the gang extorted protection money from almost all 113 municipal governments. A stream of recently released videos featuring mayors, state-level officials and even Vallejo’s son talking and drinking with the Knights Templar leader, Servando “La Tuta” Gómez, seem to confirm the cartel’s tight grip over local and state authorities. What made the Michoacán case particularly challenging was the emergence of armed self-defense groups in the Tierra Caliente region that organized to combat ever-increasing extortion by the Knights Templar. As the initial uprising rapidly expanded, a widespread civil conflict became a serious threat. The intervention of federal troops should have begun earlier, and was triggered only when self-defense groups were about to march on Apatzingán, the stronghold of the Knights Templar in the Tierra Caliente region, risking massive bloodshed. However, since the arrival of hundreds of federal forces in Michoacán last January, stability and security have improved. Organized crime-related deaths decreased 40 percent between the first and second quarters of 2014, and another large reduction is expected for the third quarter. Several Knights Templar leaders and some of their political associates have been arrested, avoiding an extensive witch hunt. In an effort to restore the rule of law, the federal government created the Comisión para la Seguridad y el Desarrollo Integral en el Estado de Michoacán (Commission for Security and Development in the State of Michoacán), which has displaced the state government as the key decision maker in the region. The Commission has brokered a ceasefire with most self-defense groups, many of which opted to join the ranks of a legal rural police. Marijuana legalization decreasing cartel violence and influence nowMierjeski 7/1– (Alex, “The Surprising Effect Legalized Marijuana Is Having On Ruthless Mexican Drug Cartels,” July 1st, 2015, ATTN:, http://www.attn.com/stories/2221/legalized-marijuana-good-states-bad-catels). WM *Edited for ablest language On Wednesday, Oregon became the latest state to allow the recreational use and possession of marijuana, though sales are not expected to roll out until sometime next year. Still, the state can expect to see tax revenues flush with new money––more than $30 million each year, under proposed legislation––and a sharp reduction in the number of serious felony convictions for marijuana-related crimes. But the benefits of legalized cannabis in Oregon, like in other states, will likely extend beyond state borders. In Mexico, where marijuana has enjoyed something of a cash-crop status over the years, violent drug cartels are beginning to see their grip loosen on what was once a tightly cornered market as the reach of U.S.-grown pot expands in legal states. And while exports of other illegal drugs have increased in the vacuum of marijuana's shrinking money-making viability, relaxed marijuana laws in the U.S. are Disregard their claims for Mexican collapse- there’s a large gap between failing to achieve certain goals and the entire collapse of MexicoCanto Jr. 14— reporter (Silvio, “Mexico is not a failed state but it has problems,” Before Its News, November 16, 2014, http://beforeitsnews.com/opinion-conservative/2014/11/mexico-is-not-a-failed-state-but-it-has-problems-2935480.html). WM It’s funny how quickly things can change for a Mexican president. I remember President Lopez-Portillo on top of the world in 1981 and then hated by everyone after the devaluations a year later. He left office as a disgraced man and spent much of his retirement in seclusion. What about President Salinas? He was doing great and then came that awful 1994 and all of the accusations of corruption. He became a “bad word” and left the country for years. President Pena-Nieto was doing well a year ago after important oil and school reforms. Today, he faces a lot of criticism for corruption and the recent deaths of 43 students. It seems like the deaths of the students have broken the back of the camel, as Mexican journalist Jose Carreno-Figueras just wrote: “To use a cliche, it was the straw that broke the camel’s back, a strong indication that Mexico’s people are no longer willing to tolerate the current state of affairs. Some have suggested that the government will fall, and others have said Mexico is a failed state. The Mexican government does not appear ready to fall, not even close. But it seems to be in a defensive situation, maybe waiting for the tempest to wane so that it can regain the political initiative.” To be fair, it’s not all President Pena-Nieto’s fault. At the same time, he’s the president and gets the credit and the blame. Mexico faces a serious problem and I don’t see any easy answers. There is too much money in the drug business and the authorities seem incapable of controlling the gangs behind the violence. (We remind you that we in the US consume the billions of dollars going to the cartels) Last, but not least, there is a sense that the whole system is “compromised” as Mr Carreno-Figueras wrote. Mexico is not a failed state but it is failing in many areas, specially in projecting to its citizens that the justice works for all. Specifically, the Zetas are not a threat- no leadershipBBC 15— (“Mexico arrests Zetas cartel leader Omar Trevino Morales,” BBC, 5 March 2015, http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-31731842). WM Omar Trevino Morales, leader of the notorious Zetas drugs cartel in Mexico, has been captured by security forces. He was arrested in the early hours of Wednesday in the city of Monterrey in the northern state of Nuevo Leon, police said. He is believed to have run the Zetas cartel since the capture of his brother, Miguel Angel, in 2013. The arrest comes days after Mexican police captured another suspected drug lord, Servando "La Tuta" Gomez. Servando Gomez was the leader of the Knights Templar cartel in Michoacan state. Omar Trevino Morales, known as Z-42 and believed to be 40 or 41 years old, is wanted in the US and Mexico on charges of drug trafficking, kidnap and murder. The Mexican government had a 30m peso (£1.3m; $2m) reward for his capture while the US offered a $5m (£3.2m) reward. 'Extremely violent profile' Mexican media, citing officials, said he had been seized in the Monterrey suburb of San Pedro Garza Garcia in a joint operation by the army and the federal police. He was arrested in a luxury home without a shot being fired, local media said. null Neighbours told El Universal newspaper the house had been bought about six months ago by a family "which kept themselves to themselves and did not mingle with other neighbours". He has been transferred under heavy security to Mexico City and paraded before television cameras. National Security Commission Director Monte Alejandro Rubido Garcia said intelligence gatherings since the capture of Omar Trevino's brother led to his arrest. "For the past few years, he's been one of the country's most-wanted delinquents, with an extremely violent profile," said Mr Rubido. The capture of not just one - but two - drugs kingpins in less than a week is a coup for the Mexican government. It has come in for criticism in recent months for failing to quell the violence. Directory: file -> view view -> Western Europe after wwii view -> Author study: paul fleischman view -> Qpa1 7ela study Guide view -> Arctic Oil/Gas Neg view -> November 1970 Approximately 150,000-500,000 deaths Bhola Cyclone Bangladesh view -> Grade Level: 6 Unit of Study: Caribbean glce view -> Citation: Duffield, Katy view -> Table of Contents Lesson # view -> Chinese Wind Energy Disad Download 2.62 Mb. Share with your friends:
|