24 Comments
User's avatar
Jeff Judson's avatar

We've been driving all over Mexico and staying for weeks or months every year for the past 30 years. We recently quit driving because the truck traffic on the toll roads is too much, not because it was unsafe. We have never directly encountered any cartel activity in 30 years. The worst we have experienced is getting a "speeding ticket" from a Mexican cop just inside the border who wants the ticket paid to him. But the violence is definitely spilling over and the Mexican people are getting fed up with it. Cartels used to manage their drug business and leave others alone, expecially Americans. But now they demand protection money from many businesses. They are killing innocent children and adults with the cross fire of their battles to knock off each others leaders. The citizens of Mexico I believe would welcome US troop direct involvement. As it stands now, we are only giving "intel" but I'm not sure if the Mexican military is up to the task of really cleaning out the cartel as they have done with gangs in El Salvadore. But that is what is required. I don't see how the cartels are helping the socialist president achieve her goals either. Hard to tell her level of committment to getting the job done in cleaning up the country.

Kenn Goodwin's avatar

A Mexican vacation has been out of the question for the last 40 years. Although the highly educated, white overweight female will tell you is so very safe to travel about and maybe even camp under the stars. After all it is the very dystopian utopia that they love. It’s like fools who can’t see the danger.

Patrick Chine's avatar

Great article. Kay Griggs confirms that the drugs pay for the weapons that the military-industrial complex wants to sell. Terrorizing a public induces more public debt to buy more government services, supposedly to protect the citizens, and the increase in public debt benefits the globalist bankers. Money laundering is putting money in a bank that can transfer the money to a more respectable bank. There are other forms of money laundering, but the aforementioned method is the most used.

As a Navy officer at the NSA around the time the internet was formed, I was the technical expert on the drug wars. Seeing it as unwinnable at that time, like a new Vietnam Conflict (War), I note that drones can win the drug war. So why haven't they been employed to do so? Answer is the pay-offs to US officials. Judges in Florida wanted $1 million cash into an off-shore account for removing one key piece of evidence as "illegally obtained" in just one prosecution. DEA agents have their hands out plenty and persistently. Governors and local politicians are much cheaper and could be bought for $50,000 (governor) and $20,000 - $30,000 (local politicians). Law enforcement, other than DEA agents, expect about $10,000 per year, and often closer to $20,000. Prices are much higher now than they were 30+ years ago.

In other words, the corrupt US officials don't want the drug war to end, just to convince the public it is being managed.

Jeanne L Virissimo's avatar

Bingo!! As long as their all getting their palms greased this will never ever end🥸

Alan's avatar

How would you even define a win in the drug war? It and the war on poverty have been ongoing for decades but both are defined by human nature which requires and entirely different approach. Ending the cartels does not end drug consumption. It only ends one of many suppliers and/or changes the drug of choice.

Ken Frazier's avatar

Roger, thanks for giving some attribution to trump, but you’re not telling the full story, trump is fighting the one square mile city of London who is perpetuating their modern day version of the opium wars anainst China, but now against North American. Everyone knows who the enemy is, it’s the dying British empire and oligarch bankers whe who control all the drug,human, child, arms, trafficking around the world, that’s who trump is fighting. Why don’t you ROGER say this. God bless trump. People should unsubscribe from Roger

CHUCKY's avatar

Quiet, nutjob.

WI Patriot's avatar

Al Capone comes to mind of 'how' things are run the Mexicali way. You could sell homemade beer in Chicagoland, but the 'Boss' wanted a cut and if you thought you could get away without paying, well it could crimp your sales. The politicos in Chicago looked the other way, until the dead people in the streets, became too much. I'm not sure Presidente Sheinbaum is up for the fight against the 'mob' but the fires set ablaze on the streets is going to keep the tourist away. Al knew innocent people dead in the streets was bad for business and now the people of Mexico have a choice to make. I hope they have the courage to save their country. Godspeed Amigos.

Peter Henne's avatar

how many can be unalived by highly trained black ops teams?

CHUCKY's avatar

The US military knows where all their farms and processing plants are located, as well as where all the big shots live. Just go in with some stealth bombers and destroy everything, and send in A-10 Warthogs to clean up what's left.

Alan's avatar

Why not take out the sellers in the US? If they know where they are outside the US why not start at home?

CHUCKY's avatar

Were you asleep while the Minneapolis ICE Drama was happening last month? The media was foaming at the mouth as ICE was going after illegal aliens and all the lefty blue hairs went out LARPing in the streets. What do you think would happen if they started summarily executing cartel members and drug dealers on US soil with "no due process?"

Use your head.

Alan's avatar

Of course you are right with respect to the left but taking out cartels in Mexico will at best temporarily reduce the supply. The social issues that most often result in drug abuse will remain the same. Drug abusers can simply change their drug of choice if need be, much like the street kids in Latin America you see sniffing glue.

Yet the most important question remains - why should the US government continue to fight a drug war that is really is just the remnant of prohibition? Prohibition did not work - why is this any different?

CHUCKY's avatar

Alcohol and alcoholism are bad for society, but narcotics and drug addiction are far worse. There’s really no comparison, and if you’re a “legalize drugs” guy who can’t see the difference, I really don’t have anything else to say.

Alan's avatar

Prior to certain drugs becoming illegal, they could be prescribed by physicians. Heroine addicts lived normal lives as the dosis could be controlled and the purity was guaranteed unlike today where it can even be laced with cement.

The drug wars simply force everything underground. In many neighborhoods it is easier for a teenager to buy hard drugs than a beer. This is absurd.

Richard Luthmann's avatar

Let’s stop pretending this is just Mexico’s internal problem. The cartels are narco-terror armies, flooding American streets with fentanyl while torching their own cities to prove dominance. El Mencho’s death is symbolic, but symbols don’t dismantle supply chains, money laundering pipelines, or political corruption. Fragmentation breeds bloodshed. Weak governance invites escalation. The United States must treat cartel power as a national security emergency — not a tourism hiccup. Secure the border. Crush the financial networks. Back decisive enforcement. If cartels can shut down airports and resort cities at will, that’s not organized crime — that’s insurgency. And insurgencies require overwhelming response, not press releases.

Ray Commisso's avatar

Legalize drugs in the US and control their distribution. The cartels will fold within a year, and the taxes collected from the US government on the sale of drugs will pay down the national debt. But Congress won't do this so we have to wonder why ? Its tied to the question of why a person would spend a million or more dollars for a Congressional campaign when the job only pays $145,000 per year. The twin issues likely are one in the same.

Candidates for Federal office in the US likely are taking campaign donations from veiled companies owned by the drug cartels. The quid pro quo is that Congress will pass no law that infringes on the cartels' abilities to sell their drug products in the US. Even with a hundred thousand overdose deaths per year and the heightened crime rates caused by the need of addicts for cash to support their addictions, Congress blames the addict for allowing him or herself to become addicted. Its the rationalization that allows the Congressperson not to feel guilty about playing a role in the murder by drugs of a hundred thousand young people every year.

Legalizing drugs stops this ridiculous kabuki dance, and saves many of those hundred thousand martyrs of the drug wars in Mexico. The money that pays the cartels for everything from the bribes to the weapons all dries up if drugs were legal and controlled. Legalize drugs, declare victory in the war of drugs, and watch the real victory emerge as the cartels turn on each other as they fight for much more limited resources.

Tirion's avatar

Maybe Trump should set his sights on thoroughly disinfecting and rehabilitating Mexico first before Greenland?!

Rick E Titus's avatar

Years ago I heard that the Mexican police say they are protected by St Michael, but the Cartel gang members say they are protected by the same patron Saint. I saw a set of Rosary beads hanging on the cars rear view mirror as the Cartel gang member was shooting up another cars occupants and people running for cover. Wake up people! The Pope is just the leader of all these sinners. Yeshua is the Messiah and he is the only one that you should worship, and no man can take his place.

Timothy Winey's avatar

But Roger, I thought we were all God's children? Nancy told me so...

helene's avatar

I know many people who have traveled to Mexico for holidays, some with their kids, and they had a great time.

For me personally I think the risk is too high.

Same with the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, etc.

The cartels have moved to Mexico from Colombia.

And so many businesses have to provide payola to the cartels for "security", etc. just like the Mafia.

The amount of corruption in Mexico is a very old story, the players may change but the graft is the same.

Apparently all avocados from Mexico are owned by the cartels.

Alan's avatar

"The fentanyl killing tens of thousands of Americans each year originates in Mexican cartel labs". Do you really believe that a business would intentially kill off its consumers? Much like big pharm needs illness to not be cured but rather relies on permanent drug consumption, the cartels need the same. Curing a disease or killing a consumer reduces the demand.

Torrance Stephens's avatar

Fast and furious

Obama and Holder

All I have to say.

Must be nice living life as a limousine liberal

https://torrancestephensphd.substack.com/p/the-limousine-liberal-syndrome-strikes

Soulhunting's avatar

With respect, calling Mexico a “failed state” rings hollow while the U.S. grapples with elite impunity in cases like Epstein.

And you can’t discuss El Mencho's capturing without acknowledging the U.S.’s massive drug demand and the steady southbound flow of U.S. manufactured firearms. Accountability cuts both ways.