If you still need some proof that Mexico is being taken over by drug cartels check out these pictures.

Those are pictures of members of the Mexican military, 2,000 of them to be exact, headed to Ciudad Juarez to crack down (pun intended) on the drug gangs. If those pictures don’t illustrate the seriousness of the drug cartel problem in Mexico I don’t know what will.

The drug gangs have literally begun to overtake parts of the country, mainly along the U.S.-Mexico border. The standard police forces in these regions are no where near powerful enough to contain these gangs.

There was a recent story about how the Mexican government had captured one of the leaders of the “Los Zetas,” a drug cartel whose members are primarily former Mexican military soldiers. As the government was transporting the captured leader to the airport the gang launched an attack on the armed vehicle. This set off a fight between the government and the Los Zetas, the government prevailed. When they searched the area they discovered that the Los Zetas were heavily armed…

Mexican federal agents captured 540 assault rifles, more than 500,000 rounds of ammunition, 150 grenades, 14 cartridges of dynamite, 98 fragmentation grenades, 67 bulletproof vests, seven Barrett .50-caliber sniper rifles and a Light Anti Tank (LAW) rocket.

That’s a mini-military right there, no ordinarily police force would be able to handle that amount of supplies. Put simply, these people mean business.

And the worst of this violence is happening in Ciudad Juarez, where about half of Mexico’s drug related murders occur. Because of this Ciudad Juarez now has the distinction of having the highest murder rate in the country, there have already been 400 murders there this year. The brutality is a product of violence between rivaling drug cartels, but it has grown beyond that, murders and rapes in Juarez come at the hands of corrupt police and a corrupt government as well.

The drug cartel problem is not only a Mexico issue, it is also a United States issue. Not only are these drug cartels smuggling narcotics into the United States via Texas, but they’re also killing American citizens across the border.

Marisella Molinar lived in El Paso, Texas but commuted to her job in Juarez everyday. One day she was driving her boss into the United States so he could do Christmas shopping, unfortunately her boss was the target of a cartel attack.

As Molinar’s car was about a mile away from the border crossing back to the United States, gunmen walked up to her car and fired 85 rounds from an AK-47 into their intended target. One shot hit Marisella Molinar, a mother of two and proud grandmother, in the chest, killing her instantly.

There have also been numerous reports of cartel members crossing the border and murdering American citizens, usually by beheading them.

There are several reasons why the violence from cartels has taken a sudden spike. Last year Mexican President Felipe Calderon began a war against the drug cartels. This interrupted the normal drug routes from Mexico into the United States and thus many drug routes were up for grabs. This has lead to violence between cartels over control of lucrative drug routes.

The violence has also increased because cartels have been retaliating against the government. Calderon has waged a war on the cartels and the cartels aren’t backing down. However, unlike the Mexican military, the drug gangs don’t care if they kill innocent civilians in the process.

The increase violence is also about control and intimidation. The cartels will often simply kill innocent people to display their power in an attempt to scare a rival cartel. It’s all about getting the best routes to push drugs into the United States and throughout Mexico.

Drug violence is putting Mexico on the brink of collapse. According to the U.S. Joint Forces Command on worldwide security threats, Mexico is one of two countries that “bear consideration for a rapid and sudden collapse.”

But drug violence is only part of the problem. The Mexican economy, like many other countries, is in a severe downturn. Part of that is due to the sour U.S. economy and our increased enforcement of illegal immigration. The second largest source of foreign income for the Mexican economy is money sent back from illegals living in the United States. Unfortunately for Mexico we’ve decided to actually enforce our laws, and illegals have been either deported or leaving voluntarily.

It suddenly makes sense why the Mexicans never lent a helping hand to the U.S. when we wanted to crack down on the border, but that Mexican stubbornness is beginning to bite them in the butt.

The situation in Mexico is getting worse by the day. At the current rate the number of murders in Juarez will reach last year’s total by the end of April, and with all of the Mexican’s military focused there, cartel violence could easily spread to other border cities. Mexico is increasingly becoming a top national security threat, and we must keep this situation in the lime light. I will certainly keep you updated on the situation as it continues.

–jb

More information on the cartel violence
Ciudad Juarez:The Serial Killer’s Playground
Mexico’s Red Days