The Drug War in Mexico: What is Really Going On?

Apparently, when free trade (NAFTA) was inaugurated, the drug cartels moved into the vacuum created when Mexico’s economy was destroyed. In a lot of ways, this is our mess that the Mexican Army has had to clean up.

Understand that when Mexican mayors and poor migrants are mowed down and murdered, this is also how by our actions, like signing in NAFTA, we impact them. Then we get it back in more shipments of cocaine and other illicit drugs, criminal activity, more illegal immigrants looking for jobs and financial stability, and so forth.

Frankly, American businesses actively look for and invite these immigrants over here, either illegally or legally. Even if the companies are cited and the Feds catch a bunch of illegals for deportation, they can always find more. The recent salmonella egg recall comes from one Iowa business (out of at least three) Wright County Egg, that has already been cited for hiring illegals and other offenses. Only these immigrants would be hired to deal with the dirtiest and filthiest and most unsafe of these jobs. Many times, they are hired to cut costs and wages. Did you see the condition of those chicken farms on the evening news? It would make any American run down to the health food store for free range.

And because of Americans’ continuing hunger for illegal drugs, these drug cartels continue to flourish.

The recent arrest of La Barbie, American-born Edgar Valdez Villarreal, which has been trumpeted all over the news media here, is important but it’s really the tip of the proverbial iceberg. The Obama Administration and the Calderon Administration have got a way to go.

“La Barbie was one of the heir apparents of the Beltrán Leyva cartel and a particularly vicious criminal whose crimes have terrorized Mexico,” Feeley said. “That he is an American citizen only underscores the shared responsibility our governments have in confronting transborder organized crime.”

Rosas acknowledged the U.S. role but described the operation as “largely Mexican.”

Valdez faces an indictment in U.S. District Court in Atlanta on charges of distributing thousands of pounds of cocaine in the eastern United States from 2004 to 2006. The U.S. government is expected to seek his extradition.

Valdez Villarreal was called “Barbie” because he looked white. Skin like a perfect Barbie doll. He certainly looks Anglo in his yearbook pictures. He also spoke fluent Spanish and English. He started as a small-time marijuana dealer and then rose through the ranks as an assassin and enforcer. Eventually, he ended up as a drug kingpin. Sort of a Mexican Scarface story. Valdez Villarreal’s gang was responsible for bringing in a ton of cocaine into the United States a month, largely through Interstate 35 which culminates in North Texas.

Valdez Villarreal hardly looked fazed during his arraignment. He laughed and smiled throughout. The Mexican Army had better make sure that he doesn’t pull a Dillinger.

From the Real News Network, a bio of Bruce Livesay, the journalist talking above:

Bruce Livesey has been a journalist for more than 25 years, most recently focusing his attention on the drug war in Mexico where he produced radio pieces for NPR and CBC radio. He previously worked as a television producer at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation current affairs program CBC News Sunday; which followed six years at the CBC program, the fifth estate as an associate producer where he worked on stories involving, among others, George W. Bush‘s connections to the bin Laden family, the failings of the Patriot missile, Canada’s most powerful mobsters, and an examination of the rise of Islamist terrorism in Europe as part of a co-production with the PBS program Frontline and the New York Times. He has written for over 30 newspapers and magazines and produced television stories for Al-Jazeera English and Current TV.

Check it out.