Mexico U.S. Drug Trade Border the Challenges
The challenges of an extremely volatile economy are significant in any culture or population but one of the starkest situations today is the extreme variation between the economies of Mexico and the United States, which shares a 3,000 mile long border. The variations of the economies are so extreme and poverty is such a challenge in Mexico that hundreds of thousands and possibly millions of people cross over from Mexico to the US, both legitimately and illegally to attempt to obtain income that is not available in Mexico, via legitimate employment. One of the most significant problems with this disparity is the fact the population of Mexico can and often does fall prey to one of the only ways to earn significant income, drug smuggling. The US has an almost boundless demand for narcotics and Mexico's poverty and limited and strained infrastructure has an almost boundless ability to supply these narcotics. (Jenner 903-904) According to one US border patrol officer, Renee Felix, in Nogales the problem began to be really bad for this small town, now considered the epicenter of the drug trafficking into the US from Mexico and trafficking of weapons and cash back from the US, began in the 1970s (National Geographic, 2010-2011, S01E05).