"The birth of all Mexican drug cartels is traced to former Mexican Judicial Federal Police agent Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo ('The Godfather'), who in the 1980s controlled all illegal drug trade in Mexico and the corridors across the Mexico-USA border. He started off by smuggling marijuana and opium into the U.S.A., and was the first Mexican drug capo to link up with Colombia's cocaine cartels in the 1980s. Through his connections, Félix Gallardo became the point man for the Medellin cartel, which was run by Pablo Escobar. This was easily accomplished because Félix Gallardo had already established an infrastructure that stood ready to serve the Colombia-based traffickers.
There were no cartels at that time in Mexico. Félix Gallardo was the lord of Mexican drug lords. He oversaw all operations; there was just him, his cronies, and the politicians who sold him protection. Félix Gallardo kept a low profile and in 1987 he moved with his family to Guadalajara city. According to Peter Dale Scott, the Guadalajara Cartel, prospered largely because it enjoyed the protection of the DFS, under its chief Miguel Nassar Haro, a CIA asset."
"The Godfather" then decided to divide up the trade he controlled as it would be more efficient and less likely to be brought down in one law enforcement swoop. In a way, he was privatizing the Mexican drug business while sending it back underground, to be run by bosses who were less well known or not yet known by the DEA. Félix Gallardo "The Godfather" convened the nation's top drug narcos at a house in the resort of Acapulco where he designated the plazas or territories. The Tijuana route would go to the Arellano Felix brothers. The Ciudad Juárez route would go to the Carrillo Fuentes family. Miguel Caro Quintero would run the Sonora corridor. The control of the Matamoros, Tamaulipas corridor - then becoming the Gulf Cartel- would be left undisturbed to Juan García Abrego. Meanwhile, Joaquín Guzmán Loera and Ismael Zambada García would take over Pacific coast operations, becoming the Sinaloa Cartel. Guzmán and Zambada brought veteran Héctor Luis Palma Salazar back into the fold. Félix Gallardo still planned to oversee national operations, as he maintained important connections, but he would no longer control all details of the business."-Wikipedia
26 mayors and 1 congressman have been assasinated.
Journalists and the media
Mexico is considered the most dangerous country in the world to practice journalism, according to the National Human Rights Commission and the Reporters Without Borders, since more than 80 journalist have been killed for publishing narco-related news.
Offices of Televisa and of local newspapers have been bombed. The cartels have also threatened to kill news reporters in the U.S. who have done coverage on the drug violence. Some media networks simply stopped reporting on drug crimes, while others have been infiltrated and corrupted by drug cartels. In 2011, Notiver journalist Miguel Angel Lopez Velasco and his wife and son were murdered in their home.
Since harassment neutralized many of the traditional media outlets, anonymous blogs like Blog del Narco took on the role of reporting on events related to the drug war. The drug cartels responded by murdering bloggers & social media users. Twitter users have been tortured and killed for posting and denouncing information of the drug cartels activities. In September, 2011, user NenaDLaredo of the website Nuevo Laredo Envivo was murdered allegedly by the Zetas.
"The
Mexican Drug War is an ongoing
armed conflict taking place among rival
drug cartels who fight each other for regional control, and
Mexican government forces who seek to combat drug trafficking. However, the government's principal goal has been to put down the drug-related violence that was raging between different rival drug cartels in Mexico before any intervention was made. In addition, the
Mexican government has claimed that their primary focus is on dismantling the powerful drug cartels, rather than on
drug trafficking prevention, which is left to U.S. functionaries.
"-Wikipedia How it affects us: The drug cartels dominate the US illicit drug industry. 70% of foreign narcotics. 90% cocaine. (Drugs originate in south america, but have to pass through mexico in order to make it over the boarder.) We are so reliant on social networks. An opinion that you post online could cost you your death in certain places of the world. For some reason we assume that "freedom of speech" is the standard everywhere.
The Mexican Army has severely curtailed the ability of the Mexican drug cartels to move cocaine inside the U.S. and Canada, prompting an upsurge in gang violence in Vancouver, where the cocaine price has increased from $23,300 to almost $39,000 per kilo as both the U.S. and Canadian drug markets are experiencing prolonged shortages of cocaine.[29] As evidence of this pressure, the U.S. government says the amount of cocaine seized on U.S. soil dropped by 41 percent between early 2007 and mid-2008.[29]
