"Even if the big drug lord of the Golden Triangle comes, he has to back down three points in front of the Mexican drug lord."
On the vast plateau and vast desert border of southern North America lies Mexico, the "land of cacti". Because of its complex and diverse climate and distinctive customs, Mexico is also known as the "Pearl of the Plateau" in North America.
But beyond the steaming heat of "Taco (Mexican cuisine)" and beneath the desert road where the heat is rolling, this country stretches across the vast desert and hides the dark reality of "drug paradise".
Mexico, controlled by drug traffickers, controls almost all of the drug trade in neighboring countries.
In North America, almost every drug that smells dangerous is produced by this "friendly neighbor".
And what is more "magical" than the drug trade is the big drug lord who manipulates drugs behind his back.
These heavily armed extrajudicial fanatics wrote the indescribable rampant on their faces. In the face of official anti-drug censorship from the government, they did not hesitate to pour bullets, treating authority as waste for drug production, and trampling on it arbitrarily!
Relevant data show that in just 5 years, more than 80 Mexican anti-drug mayors have died under the hands of drug lords! Some even died tragically under the dark and cold guns of drug dealers just over an hour after taking office.
Why can these drug dealers, who lick blood from the tip of the knife, be able to run amok in this land without fear?
How did Mexico slide step by step from the "land of cacti" to the abyss of drugs?
And why doesn't anyone care?
- First, the "drug kingdom" on the plateau
As early as the Discoveries at the end of the 15th century, colonists from Europe brought drug cultivation to Mexico. Thanks to the diverse climatic conditions of the North American plateau, many drug crops have found ground to take root here.
At this point, this land that had not been contaminated before has never returned on the road of drug production and drug trafficking.
During World War II, due to the impact of the war, the route of drug imports in the Golden Triangle for a long time in the Americas was cut off, which to a certain extent led to the prevalence of drug trade in Latin America. The Latin American "Silver Triangle" of drug trafficking, represented by Colombia, took this opportunity to rise rapidly and become the largest warehouse for drug consumption in North America.
In the 90s, due to the Colombian government's severe crackdown on the country's drug trade, drugs produced in Latin America were temporarily shipped north. Drug lords have planted their drug trade organizations in Mexico to operate the trade in smuggling drugs into North America.
As a result, Mexico gradually appeared to be full of drug traffickers.
As one of the closest countries to the world's "largest drug consumer", Mexico has a unique "geographical advantage".
Mexico occupies the northwest of Latin America and the southern tip of North America, and has always been known as the land bridge of the Americas, and is a necessary place for land transportation between North and South America.
From Juarez City, Chihuahua, Mexico in the south to Phoenix, Arizona, in the north, it spans a total of 700 kilometers of long roads, almost effortlessly.
Drug lords bring cheap raw materials from Colombia, Peru and other places, process them into high-purity drugs, and then smuggle them out at high prices. Smuggling is also not carried by plane, just packing drugs and hiding them in cars.
Under this sales system, the price of one gram of cocaine even crushes the same weight of gold, and the profit from the sale of finished products is almost 50 times the price of raw materials!
In 2009, the U.S. National Drug Intelligence Center estimated that the American drug cartel, represented by Mexico, made between $17 billion and $38 billion from U.S. "addicts."
It can be said that the hidden drug trade makes drug lords make a lot of money.
After making high profits, Mexican drug lords began to buy large quantities of ordnance from the United States to build their own private armies.
At the same time, drug traffickers who landed in Mexico formed alliances with each other to form many drug trafficking alliances that control drug production and smuggling - "drug cartels". This is the most basic chain of the Mexican drug trade, which together drives the huge engine of the "drug kingdom".
In addition, the huge and unimaginable profits have led more and more Mexicans to devote themselves to the illegal industry of drug manufacturing, and Mexico has begun to become a real "drug den".
By 1998, as many as 300,000 farmers were engaged in drug production in Mexico, and 468,000 were involved in the drug trade!
According to the assessment of relevant US agencies, more than half of the illegal drugs imported from abroad each year, such as heroin and cocaine, come from Mexico, while marijuana is almost always authentic "Mexican goods".
For this reason, drug production and trafficking once became an important industry driving Mexico's economic growth.
With the development and growth of the institutional industry and the surge in the number of private drug users, the attitude of Mexicans towards drugs has gradually shown another extreme, and they have gradually moved from the initial disgust and rejection of drugs to the opposite side, and even worshiped drug lords as gods.
As a result, the "Cactus Kingdom", which should have demonstrated the warm, generous and unique style of the North American plateau, has gradually turned into a "drug paradise" addicted to drugs under the poisons of drug dealers.
Former Mexican President Díaz once lamented this: "Mexico's misfortune is that it is too far from God and too close to the United States." ”
- Second, the mayors who died
In the Hong Kong movie "Infernal Affairs", the drug lord Han Chen not only installed a number of undercover agents in the police station, but also dared to openly argue with the police, and even sent his subordinates to brutally kill police officer Huang Zhicheng, like an arrogant posture of a living Yan King.
And such a plot that appears in the movie has long become a commonplace reality in Mexico.
Not only the anti-narcotics police who are confronting it, but also the anti-narcotics mayor who is in a high position is also doomed.
- Mexico's "heroic female mayor"
Maria Santos Salazar, former mayor of Tiquizio, Michoacán, is a heroine in the fight against the forces of drug trafficking.
A medical graduate, she knows the depth of the human body of drugs, which is why she abhors the dirty reality of drug trafficking in Mexico and vows to make drug control a lifelong belief.
After being elected mayor of Tiquicchio, in order to further combat the drug traffickers, Maria joined the Left Democratic Revolutionary Party and actively participated in anti-drug activities to promote anti-drug ideas to the whole people.
Her actions quickly drew ostracization from drug dealers, who repeatedly threatened her to resign "before she could" or face the consequences. But Maria was unmoved, and still adhered to the firm will to fight drugs.
In October 2009, Maria and her husband were attacked by armed men while driving, and her husband died of his injuries, but Maria survived after being rescued. But Maria was not intimidated, she endured her grief and continued to fight drug dealers with unwavering determination.
Since then, Maria has been attacked several times, and although she survived, she is already bruised.
Even so, she still said publicly: "I am a mother of three children, I want to set an example for them, my husband... taught me the value of existence and fighting for it..."
She even showed the scars of being beaten and persecuted by drug dealers in public to show her determination to fight it to the end.
On November 12, 2012, while driving their daughter to school, Maria's mother and daughter were stopped and kidnapped by drug dealers.
For the sake of her daughter, the unarmed Maria pleaded with the drug dealers to let her daughter go.
Eventually, her daughter was released and she was tied up in a car.
After that, Maria suffered cruel abuses such as beatings and burning, and finally died of her injuries. Her body was abandoned by drug dealers on the side of the road, her hands and feet tied and covered in shocking scars.
Maria's murder sparked a huge repercussion in Mexico, and the Mexican woman, known as the "heroine of the 21st century" for her insistence on drug fighting, is now a role model for countless staunch drug collectors.
- She was mayor for only 14 hours
At 7 a.m. on January 2, 2016, a shrill gunshot was heard from a home in the Mexican city of Termisco.
The tranquility of the early morning hour was shattered in an instant. It turned out that four gunmen openly broke into the house of the new mayor, Hisela Motta, tied him up, beat him inhumanely, and finally shot him.
The new female mayor of Temisco, who died in the morning sun, was brutally murdered just 14 hours after she was sworn in.
At the mayor's inauguration one night earlier, dressed in red, wearing a yellow scarf over her shoulders and a smile in her eyes, she swore the oath of office and righteously announced that she would fight the local drug traffickers.
And just because she showed an attitude against drugs when she took the oath of office, she was killed.
The drug lords' eyes are only focused on monetary gain, and if their vision is blocked by anything, they will destroy it indiscriminately.
The speed is staggering, and the cruelty of the means is staggering.
After killing Motta, the four gangsters fled the scene in a black pickup truck, and the police killed the two murderers during the chase, and successfully captured the remaining two murderers and another suspect.
Surprisingly, these cold-blooded killers do not seem to be fierce and evil on the surface, and the three are middle-aged women, men who have just reached adulthood, and a minor.
In terms of age, they should have had their own lives, or had their husbands and children, or studied hard, or had fun. But in the rules of the game for drug lords, they become tools for drug lords to exclude dissidents and are pawns that can be sacrificed at any time.
- He was shot dead within an hour and a half of taking office
Coincidentally, Alejandro Aparicio, former mayor of Traciaco, Oaxaca, Mexico, had a career as mayor of only one and a half hours.
As a member of the National Regeneration Movement, he quickly attracted the attention of drug traffickers. On January 2, 2019, Chief Aparicio, who had just been sworn in and had not yet had time to inspect the entire city, was openly shot in the street.
Due to his injuries, Aparicio died of his injuries, becoming the shortest-serving mayor in Mexico and the entire world.
These outlaws who lick blood with the tip of the knife show the ugliest cruelty and murderous genes of mankind undisguised and unobstructed, making everyone who hears sigh: "Hell is empty, and the devil is on earth." ”
Assassination is only a relatively "economic" means of unnecessary effort for them. If these outlaws really play with their lives, they will inevitably set off a bloody storm.
- The town hall "bloodied" by drug traffickers
On October 5, 2022, the city of San Miguel Tortolapan was bathed in the peaceful autumn afternoon sun.
As everyone knows, this piece of stability will soon turn into fragmented dust.
In front of the city hall, several large vehicles blocked the road at an unknown time, and dozens of heavily armed unknown personnel quickly broke into the city hall and shot indiscriminately at the officials working inside.
Accompanied by the roar of death, more than 20 municipal officials, including Mayor Conrador Mendoza, died. After the massacre, the outlaws dragged the bodies to the door of the city hall and placed them in a thoughtful manner as a sign of intimidation and demonstration.
As soon as this case came out, the whole country was shocked.
Officials claimed it was a well-planned and well-organized murder in which the gang parked large cars in advance and set them on fire to block the road so that they could kill with impunity.
Then, the drug trafficking organization of Tequila, which had long been in a standoff with the government but was forced to disappear in 2018 by the assassination of its leader, announced on social media that it would be responsible for the case.
In addition, the organization said in a high-profile way - "We are coming back!" ”
Disappearing for five years, and now rearming its troops and horses, this is obviously not a good sign for the Mexican government...
Assassinations, massacres, scenes that mostly only appear in movies nowadays, are commonplace on Mexican soil.
So, in the face of the high death rate of officials, can the Mexican government really solve the problem of the century of "drug control"?
- Third, the lingering haze of drugs
In 2000, Vicente Fox was elected President of Mexico.
At the beginning of his term of office, he decided to implement a comprehensive anti-drug policy, vigorously expand the anti-narcotics police force, and spare no effort to eradicate drug trafficking organizations.
For the serious problem of official corruption, the Fox administration has also conducted a comprehensive review of Mexican officials, increased anti-drug propaganda, and jointly carried out cooperative operations with the United States to catch drug traffickers.
Although this has stopped the drug trafficking culture in Mexico to a certain extent, it has also invisibly contributed to the intensification of "drug trafficking violence".
Before Fox took office, successive administrations had been silent about the drug trade, which also made it possible for drug dealers to make deals without resorting to violent means. And Fox's comprehensive anti-drug policy forced them to go the other way, purchase armaments, and fight "violence" with "violence", which laid the seeds for the subsequent drug trafficking violence in Mexico.
Since then, the Calderón administration has continued the Fox administration's anti-drug policy.
But at the time, official power was increasingly stretched against increasingly powerful drug lords. In order to alleviate the situation, Calderón's government even sent the military to participate in the fight against drugs, which once elevated drug control to the level of war.
By 2012, the Mexican government could no longer afford to maintain a high-intensity anti-drug campaign. Under the situation that the individual armed forces of drug lords have already taken shape, continuing to maintain the anti-drug posture will trigger more fierce resistance and threaten the lives of the masses.
And the Mexican government's dilemma and ambiguity towards the drug trade has also led to more arrogance among drug lords.
Under Peña's administration, Mexico's drug violence increased by 40 percent, and murders of government officials were proliferated, making it the bloodiest period in Mexico's modern history.
Unstoppable drug trafficking, rampant assassinations, and fearless drug trafficking organizations have been engraved on Mexico's body like a brand, making Mexico's international image plummet.
Mexico is struggling to find answers to how to root out the drug trafficking chaos, deal with unruly drug lords, and reverse the world's stereotype of its "drug kingdom."
Why has Mexico repeatedly failed to fight drugs?
How to find a way out in the dilemma of various drugs chasing and blocking?
These questions continue to plague Mexico like a lingering nightmare...
- Fourth, there is no end to the drug war
It can be said that Mexico's drug problem is inevitable due to historical factors. In addition to the above-mentioned drug-making traditions and the fact that it is on the verge of being the largest consumer of drugs, Mexico's repeated prohibition of drug trade is more due to its own shortcomings and shortcomings.
Throughout the modern history of the world, Mexico does not occupy much space, and in the hundreds of years of social changes, Mexico often presents an image of the old system.
The social governance system that has been difficult to adapt to the historical trend for a long time has made it difficult to solve the problem of the gap between the rich and the poor that has plagued Mexico for a long time, which has also laid the groundwork for a large number of Mexican people to join the drug trafficking industry later.
The problem of official corruption and drug official collusion, which is difficult to eradicate, is also one of the main culprits in Mexico's deeper and deeper drug trafficking quagmire.
Similar to the drug lord Han Chen in "Infernal Affairs", Mexican drug lords will also install their own forces and eyeliner in the police station, and the entire Mexican police system has long been infiltrated by drug traffickers into a "back garden".
The more police officers who take bribes, the more likely it is that drugs will circulate. Even if there are police officers who are righteous and resolutely opposed to drug trafficking, it is difficult to guarantee whether their colleagues and partners around them are "in Cao Ying and have a heart in Han".
Therefore, once there is a gangster in the police force, the arrest operation of the police is tantamount to playing cards with clear cards, and every move is controlled.
Even if the government is determined to crack down on narcotics, the long-stretched fiscal situation will become a wall in front of you. In the face of high-end armaments that drug lords pay a lot of money to import from the United States, the Mexican government's equipment is not at the same level as it.
Not to mention being able to confront drug lords?
Because of the above factors, even today when the official announcement of the "drug war" has ended, drug violence in Mexico is still endless, and the drug problem is still difficult to solve.
I don't know, when will this land, which grew up in the sea of sands on the plateau, prospered under the cactus cluster, and was intoxicated by all kinds of drugs, get out of the haze and delusion and embrace the clean and pure soil?