, 2010). Writing in the peer-reviewed World Policy Journal, Kellner and colleague explain that another Mexican drug gang, Los Zetas, is known for kidnapping and demanding ransoms; and police are "outgunned" and "overpowered by criminals, who have become increasingly brazen…" (Kellner). Hence, the well-hidden and diverse drug cartels in Colombia are in stark contrast to the big, blood-letting cartels of Mexico.
THREE: Do these cartels present as much of a danger to the United States as terrorist organizations? The answer has to be no, they do not, because while the cartels kill, kidnap and behead police and politicians in Mexico, they have not yet invaded the U.S. with a strategy of murdering authorities. On the other hand, just this month in Boston, Americans were reminded as to the danger terrorists present (even U.S. citizens who terrorize communities) when they plant bombs in public places. There are dangers associated with tons of cocaine and heroin coming across the U.S.-Mexican border (addiction, crime, etc.) but it is in no way is it the same threat to U.S. security as the terrorist acts.
In conclusion, writing in the Third World Quarterly, a peer-reviewed journal, Julien Mercille suggests that the U.S. "…war on drugs has served as a pretext to intervene in Mexican affairs…rather than as a genuine attack on drug problems" (Mercille, 2011). While that may be an exaggeration of the problem and the issue, it is widely believed that the "war on drugs" has...
banks have made profit by "laundering drug money from Mexico" (Mercille). Hence, while the differences between the Mexican and Colombian cartels -- pointed out in this paper -- is interesting and worth studying, the problem is in part based on the demand for cocaine by American drug users and on the movement of weapons across the border from the U.S. To Mexican cartels; many of the weapons sent to Mexico were purchased in gun shows where there are no background checks, and since Congress refuses to tighten up the background checks, the guns will likely continue flowing south to the cartels.
Works Cited
Gootenberg, Paul (2010). Blowback: The Mexican Drug Crisis. NACLA Report on the Americas, 43(6), 7-12.
Gootenberg, Paul. (2012). Policy Issues: Cocaine's Long March North, 1900-2010. Latin
American Politics and Society. 54(1), 159-180.
In Sight Crime / Organized Crime in the Americas. (2011). Mexican and Colombian groups may
Soon start battling it out for control of drug trafficking routes in Ecuador. Retrieved April
26, 2013, from http://www.insightcrime.org.
Kellner, Tomas, and Pipitone, Francesco. (2010). Inside Mexico's Drug War. World Policy
Journal, 27(1), 29-37.
Mercille, Julien. (2011). Violent Narco-Cartels or U.S. Hegemony? The political economy of the 'war on drugs' in Mexico. Third World Quarterly, 32(9), 1637-1653.
