Drug Trade between Mexico and the United States - Research Paper Example

The Human Geography of the Drug trade between Mexico and the United s Introduction The following discussion of human geography will focus on the the impact of drug trafficking across the Mexican border with the United States. The discussion will be conducted in four parts. Initially, the nature and history of the drug trade will be briefly outlined. Then its effects on the populations on each side of the border – that is to say within Mexico and within the United States will be examined. The fourth section will focus on the impacts that the drug trade has had on the interstate border itself. Finally, the disparate threads of the argument will be drawn together in a concluding section. The Drug Trade and Mexican Human Geography The transshipment of drugs from Mexico across the international border to the United States is not a new phenomenon. Geographically adjacent to the United States it is perfectly positioned as a transshipment point for drugs from other parts of the world. Very little cocaine is grown or processed in Mexico. Rather, it is grown and processed in South American countries such as Peru, Bolivia and Columbia and then shipped to Mexico to be taken across the border into the United States. Much marijuana is grown in Mexico but,again, even more is shipped to Mexico and then across the border to the United States. That said, the behavior of traffickers has changed recently. The shipment of illegal substances to the United States holds the promise of huge profits for those engaged in the trade. The pursuit of these profits has made the cartels – the organizations engaged in smuggling – to become increasingly violent recently, particularly since President Calderón declared war on the drug cartels shortly after coming into office in 2006. The Mexican border states have become much like a war zone with heavily armed military units on the street (since the President deemed local police too corrupt to deal with the cartels) and frequent firefights between the military and the cartels. According to The L.A. Times 28,288 people have died in Mexico since January 2007 as a result of the drug wars. (“Mexico Under Siege – The Drug War on Our Doorstep”, 2010) Mexico as a whole is not an extremely dangerous place to live or visit. It is less safe than the United States or the United States northern neighbor Canada. However, it is as safe as Jamaica or Israel for visitors and residents. However, this is not the case in the border states. According to The Washington Post, “The bloodshed is geographically concentrated in key trafficking corridors, notably in the states of Sinaloa, Chihuahua and Tamaulipas.” While Mexico as a whole is not a failed state, these three border states are failed states. ("Five myths about Mexicos drug war", 2010) This has had a profound effect on the human geography of this border region. According to The L.A. Times, "Drug cartels new weaponry means war" the militarization of the drug war now sees the increasing firepower of the drug cartels, “more appropriate to an army -- including grenade launchers and antitank rockets.” ("Drug cartels new weaponry means war", 2009) This has also led to assertions that the violence is being fueled by weapons imported from the United States and assertions that drug dealers in the United States frequently pay for their product with weapons purchased, and often manufactured, in the United States. According to The L.A. Times, “Nearly 70,000 U.S.-originated firearms were recovered in Mexico between 2007 and 2009.” (Serrano, 2010) Also, the huge sums of money involved have seen the level of corruption increasing. In the summer of 2009, CNN reported that “Julio Cesar Godoy Toscano, elected July 5 [2009] to the lower house of Congress, is accused of being in charge of protection for the [Familia Michoacana] cartel and another failed congressional candidate was “accused of being in charge of the cartels activities in the Huacana area.” (CNN News, 2009) Other politicians have also been implicated in corruption. On the other side of the coin, politicians and policemen (as well as journalists) who have opposed the cartels have been murdered. Facing this corruption and the increasing firepower of the cartels President Calderón has deployed the army to combat the cartels. “The Calderón administration has deployed 45,000 troops across the country.” ("Briefing: How Mexico is waging war on drug cartels", 2009) The net result is that the police, the army and the cartels regularly engage in pitched battles in the cities in Mexico adjacent to the border. The vast majority of the population in these states and cities has no connection to the drug trade. Irrespective of their innocence and lack of involvement they are forced to live in the midst of a virtual civil war. Frequently innocent civilians are caught in the crossfire and killed as the cartels and the authorities do battle. This is the most significant impact of the drug trade on the Mexican population in these border states. Writing in The Rolling Stone in 2009 journalist Guy Lawson presents a gritty account of the personal face of drug violence in border states in Mexico. It brings home the harshness and savagery of the violence and that although Mexico as a whole may not be descending into civil war the border states have become much like a war zone with heavily armed military units on the street and frequent firefights between the military and the cartels. (Lawson, 2009) The Drug Trade and the Human Geography of the United States The drug trade has not imported its violence to the United States. However, it is having other effects within the United States. In the broadest sense it has led many to question the effectiveness of the American war on drugs. Demand for drugs from Mexico remains high in the United States from both addicts and recreational users. Critics of the war on drugs argue that as long as domestic demand persists and profits can be made the demand will continue to be satisfied regardless of American attempts to interdict the supply and attempts, in the international arena to control the production and trafficking of drugs. Writing in Englands The Guardian, George Monbiot argues, that cocaine users and marijuana smokers share a large burden for the drug wars in Mexico because they provide the demand for illegal drugs that is at the root of the drug wars in Mexico. (Monbiot, 2009) The drug trade has also had an impact on the American populations adjacent to the border. The Mexican border has always been problematic for the United States. Long before drug trafficking was such a dominant issue there were problems with illegal immigration. However, the recent demonization of illegal immigration and renewed efforts to control Hispanics in the United States can be seen as a psychological spinoff of the increasing violence. James Walsh categorizes the Minuteman Project, a grassroots vigilante movement dedicated to directly policing the nations borders, as a social body response to illegal immigration and drug smuggling along the U.S./Mexico border. He argues that its history, ideology, practices and interactions with authorities demonstrate its members appropriate, enforce and extend many of the principles of governance and statecraft; whether, surveillance, policing, security or territoriality. This is a unique human response to the situation along the U.S. Mexico border. (Walsh, 2008) Further, Arizona recently enacted a law allowing police to stop persons they suspect might be illegal immigrants and demand identification. On the one hand, their has been a backlash against the constitutionality of this law. On the other hand, many states including California and Texas, all bordering Mexico, are considering adopting similar legislation. (Gardner, 2010) Similarly, in November 2005, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced the launch of the Secure Border Initiative (SBI), a multiyear, multibillion-dollar program aimed at securing U.S. borders that includes a physical and virtual fence along the entire border between Mexico and the United States. The program is a consequence of the threat of terrorist attacks and illegal immigration. However, it would be ridiculous not to see the Mexican border fence as also a response to the drug trade: As both an attempt to keep the drugs out of the United States and an attempt to keep the drug violence out of the United States. Taking the broadest perspective Dominic Corva argues that the militarization of the Mexican border and the war on drugs are both reflective of the death of liberalism in America both domestically and internationally. He sees the militarization and trans-nationalization of the U.S. war on drugs as a technique for identifying populations that must be governed in other ways. He sees the war on drugs as evidence of the rise of the penal state and the construction of the Mexican border fence as trans-nationalization in the context of neoliberal governance and punitive illiberalization in the Americas. In his view the war on drugs is an excuse to militarize borders and enforce widespread incarceration within the United States. Conclusions The drug trade has had impacts on human geography on both sides of the Mexican-American border and on the border itself. The principle effect on Mexican human geography has been the extraordinary levels of violence, and the militarization and corruption that have accompanied it in the last five years. On the American side of the border there has been a hardening of the attitude toward Latino immigrants legally and the emergence of militias like the Minuteman Project dedicated to controlling the border. Also, the border itself has hardened with the construction of physical and virtual fencing and other measures. "2 Mexican politicians sought; drug cartel link alleged". CNN News. (July 15, 2009) http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/americas/07/15/mexico.violence/. Retrieved 2010-10-24. "Briefing: How Mexico is waging war on drug cartels.". The Christian Science Monitor. August 16, 2009. http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Americas/2009/0819/p10s01-woam.html/(page)/2. Retrieved 2010-10-20. Coleman, M. “U.S. statecraft and the U.S.–Mexico border as security/economy nexus” Political Geography 24: 2 (2005) 185-209. Corva, Domenic “Neoliberal globalization and the war on drugs: Transnationalizing illiberal governance in the Americas”. Political Geography 27: 2 (2008) 176-193. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA). http://www.justice.gov/dea/index.htm. Retrieved 10-27-2010. “Drug Trafficking in Mexico”. http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/mexico-drugs.htm. Retrieved 2010-10-20. Ellingwood, Ken; Tracy Wilkinson (). "Drug cartels new weaponry means war". Los Angeles Times. March 15, 2009 http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-mexico-arms-race15-2009mar15,0,7497626,full.story. Retrieved 2010-10-20. “FACTBOX-Facts about Mexicos drug war in Tijuana” January 12, 2010. http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN1220358620100112 "Five myths about Mexicos drug war". The Washington Post. March 28, 2010. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/26/AR2010032602226.html. Retrieved 2010-10-29. Gardner, Michael. (November 22, 2010). “Arizona-style immigration law pushed for California”. San Diego News. Retrieved from http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/nov/23/arizona-style-immigration-law-pushed-in-california/. Retrieved 23-11-2010. Lawson, Guy. "The Making of a Narco State". The Rolling Stone. March 4, 2009. “Mexico Under Siege – The Drug War on Our Doorstep”. The Los Angeles Times. http://projects.latimes.com/mexico-drug-war/#/its-a-war. Retrieved 11-10-2010. “Mexican Drug War". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexican_Drug_War. Retrieved 2010-08-29. Monbiot, George. “Yes, addicts need help. But all you casual cocaine users want locking up”. The Guardian. Monday 29 June, 2009. http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jun/29/drugs-cocaine-environment-fair-trade. Retrieved 10-29-2010. Serrano, Richard A. (November 10, 2010). “U.S. effort to slow flow of guns into Mexico failing”. The L.A. Times. http://articles.latimes.com/2010/nov/10/nation/la-na-mexico-guns-20101110. Retrieved 11-11-2010. United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. World Drug Report 2010. http://www.unodc.org/documents/wdr/WDR_2010/World_Drug_Report_2010_lo-res.pdf. Retrieved 01-11-2010. Walsh, James. “Community, surveillance and border control: The case of the minuteman project”. Sociology of Crime Law and Deviance 10 (2008), 11-34. Read More