The War You Haven't Heard Of...

Spore

<TL;DR Mexico's drug war dwarfs any war in the Middle East and yet gets no press>

We all know about Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan, Sudan, Egypt, the West Bank etc. etc. But what about the war that eclipses all the above in terms of fatalities, savagery and global reach? Just over 4,000 perished in Iraq in 2010 that’s less than a third of the death toll for the same period in this particular war…

And the war? The Mexican Drug War.

Roughly there are seven main cartels both at war with each other and with the Mexican state since President Felipe Calderón started a military confrontation with the drug gangs back in 2006. The gangs are the Gulf Cartel, The Sinaloa Cartel, The Zetas, La Familia, The Juarez Cartel, The Beltran-Leyva Syndicate and the Tijuana Cartel.

As I write I’m struggling to keep up with the sadistic brutality of the killings. Every day it gets worse. Some recent items include the deaths of two men from being skinned alive and having their hearts gouged out with blunt instruments – the images are too shocking to even post a link to (you can find it on borderlandbeat). A video of a woman slowly beheading a man as he begs for his life only to be then butchered methodically over the space of 15 minutes by her gang of sadists. It’s chilling to hear the insistence of the camera man to keep the butchery in shot and focus. The wholesale slayings of busloads of migrants desperately snaking their way through the killing fields of Mexico to reach the promised land of the USA – one particular lot of 72 men were shot to death a few months ago. Why? Because they refused
to work for one of the most savage of the Mexican Drug Cartels, the Zetas (Los Zetas).

Women and children aren’t safe any more. Even in Iraq these soft targets are generally off-limits. A recent escalation has seen the deliberate targeting of the children of rivals and law enforcement agencies to spread terror and force truces. A young girl was shot in the head whilst being cradled in her grandmother’s arms recently. The rest of the family were found riddled with automatic fire.

Indiscriminate grenade attacks on bars, nightclubs and crowed town squares. Car-bombings. The coercion of news organisations. The emergence of Narco-Banners and Narco Corridos (Narco-banners are large banners hung from highways and overpasses in prominent places that spread the Cartel’s warnings [usual accompanied by headless, tortured copses dangling alongside the ominous messages]; Narco Corridos are folksongs praising local druglords and their crimes). The terror and the drug-dealing penetrate every facet of Mexican society, from the lowly peasant who now sows marjuina instead of corn, to the top state officials who often turn renegade under the plata or plomo (silver or lead i.e. bribes or death) ultimatums of the drug lords. The very worst of the cartels, The Zetas, were formed, unbelievably, from an entire unit of Elite Mexican Army Rangers designed to combat the drug mafias. 30 highly trained soldiers defected and brought with them the tactics and methods of modern elite counter-terrorist units to the Cartels. Sadism doesn’t quite cover their methods of murder…

The US are worried, very worried. A potential game-changer happened two months ago with the merciless slaying of ICE agent Zapata by (who else) The Zetas. Unarmed, pleading for his life in English and Spanish, his body was practically obliterated with eighty rounds from a submachine gun. Turns out it was a case of mistaken identity, not that the Zetas care. The US cares, however. The US have called up the National Guard in Texas and other border states and have mobilised thousands of border agents in a preventative measure in case the drug war spills over the border. There’s evidence that a recent spike in home invasions in US border cities has suggested that the war has already come to America. The US have deployed an array of measures to counteract the increasing sophistication of the cartels over the border, who have migrated from clumsy air dropped drugs caches to developing narco-submarines and re-routing shipments through central American countries slowly spreading their terror and corruption throughout the region. First comes the bribes. Then the bullets. Then the bodies start turning up bearing signs of unimaginable torture. Cartels have been known to retain doctors to prolong the lives of the poor bastards that get picked up by these thugs.

Why is any of this of any relevance for us here in little ol’ Ireland? Apart from the fact that there’s no oil to be got from bolstering Mexico’s fragile democracy? Cocaine. If you’ve tried coke once in the last five years there’s a 50% chance it’s passed through one of the Mexican drug cartel’s distribution channels. If you’re a habitual user the chance tends towards 100%. The cartels have spread their influence far beyond Mexico, infiltrating every state in the US and Canada, recently infesting Central America and west African states, and have been known to operate in Britain, Spain and Italy (among other European nations).

In other words the Mexican drug war is as big a global threat as Al-Qaeda and yet gets no press…

For anyone interested there are two very good websites continuously updated:
http://projects.latimes.com/mexico-drug-war/#/its-a-war and
http://www.borderlandbeat.com/

Be warned, the latter site can be very NSFW. Some of their items are un-sourced but I find it very credible as a lot of the information it provides turns up on more reputable news channels days later. Some of these reporters risk their lives to bring us this information as Mexico is now one of the most dangerous countries in the world in which to report the news.

Just thought I’d share…

El Horseboxo

I'm Mexican and i'm actually sick of people bringing this up to me every time i meet mates or even strangers that ask what my background is. A lot more people know about it than you give credit for. Been a few threads on here bout it too.

Dunjohn

Umm, everybody's heard of this war.

seanybiker

Where have you been hiding? I thought that was well known about

Nodin

Wars that are less likely to be heard of include West Papua, Western Sahara and a few ongoing attempts for independence within India....

Biggins

Been following this war for a long time now.
Its shocking the many, many thousands that have been killed - even in their own back yards during parties and weddings.

Oranage2

Is Mexico somewhere in north Africa cause nobody cares about about africa!

Pwindedd

I haven't heard of it - thanks OP - for giving me more to worry about as if redundancy, imminent bankruptcy, ill health and a teenage daughter weren't enough to worry about.

Lone Stone

its well known

flash1080

As long as it's not happening on people's own doorsteps they don't care, they'll continue to use these illegal drugs regardless.

Biggins

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-10681249

Lone Stone wrote: »

its well known

To some, yes.

El Weirdo

Even Ross Kemp has made an episode of his Sky1 programme about it.

Killer Wench

If I remember correctly, there were more Americans killed in the Mexican Drug War than there were American military killed in Iraq in 2010.

discus

Listen, I have great respect for Ross Kemp, particularly that he has gone to some real danger spots. But I doubt that he got anywhere close to the worst parts of Mexico.

El Horseboxo

discus wrote: »

Listen, I have great respect for Ross Kemp, particularly that he has gone to some real danger spots. But I doubt that he got anywhere close to the worst parts of Mexico.

He was in Juarez and most of that city is pretty bad. It was bad enough when i was last there but in recent years even parts that were considered safe enough are bad. Most of the cops are crooked but in fairness they don't really have a choice. Well they do. Plata o plomo. Which means take the money or get the lead. But that threat extends to family members and some young pandillero won't have no problem carrying out the task for them. While i'd say Ross Kemp was protected to extent it would have been still dangerous as his protectors could have been easily bought. But i reckon he got word from some cartel member that he would be cool if he just followed their script for filming.

Dangerous Man

It's on the news here every day. Funnily enough, the Mexican tourist board is pumping out the ads lately too.

Yakult

Who provides these criminals with guns? Only look above of Mexico and you have your answer The US of A.
Infact, I remember reading something about how they will give them guns with specially marked serial numbers and ammunition so they can trace they crimes back to the owners. One case where a US agent was shot dead by a gun given to the gangs by the USA.
Funny that.

mike65

Thought this was about Korea.

El Horseboxo

A lot of the weapons do in fact come from police weapons depots in the US. It was same during the height of the crip and blood wars in LA. You'd have to wonder why it's so easy for police armories to be regularly robbed.

Big Nasty

I wonder how Colombia compares in comparison?

El Horseboxo

MCMLXXV wrote: »

I wonder how Colombia compares in comparison?

If you are talking about the time of the Cali and Medellín cartels Mexico is nowhere near as bad. The part that makes México seem a lot worse than it is is due to how close to the US the drug trade murders occur and the fact that many civilians have been killed. Whereas in Colombia there was a very low civilian death rate. Don't get me wrong, México is bad but Colombia was worse in the 80's and 90's. There they were fighting for production and smuggling routes whereas in México it's just for smuggling routes. I've been to Colombia a few times and felt very safe all over the country except for maybe areas close to Venezuela.

Big Nasty

I thought parts of Colombia would be much worse!

WoollyRedHat

I was actually going to read the OP properly but you basically summarised the whole post at the start so I didn't bother

TL;DR Put this at the end,not the start.

Biggins

Yakult wrote: »

Who provides these criminals with guns? Only look above of Mexico and you have your answer The US of A.
Infact, I remember reading something about how they will give them guns with specially marked serial numbers and ammunition so they can trace they crimes back to the owners. One case where a US agent was shot dead by a gun given to the gangs by the USA.
Funny that.

Definitely sad and ironic.

Herb Powell

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxYrjWMvmdg

aligator_am

Biggins wrote: »

Been following this war for a long time now.
Its shocking the many, many thousands that have been killed - even in their own back yards during parties and weddings.

Same here, heard nearly 30,000 killed in the past few years, it's an awful state of affairs, and one that has the potential to become much worse, the Americans are now patrolling their border region with UAVs / drones and there's a group to really look out for called Los Zetas, a drug gang made up of ex Mexican military commandos, they've got some serious equipment and aren't just some gang of shams.

Many reports coming in recently indicating that they're crossing the border and wrecking towns in the U.S. although I'm unsure how valid these reports are, if true then this could turn much uglier very soon

Latchy

The war we haven't heard off ......jasus give us some credit , it's not exactly breaking news and being going on for years now ,it's just that the body count has gone up and multiplied yes last two years or so ...big time but there's being other threads covering it last year or so to

anotherfinemess

flash1080 wrote: »

As long as it's not happening on people's own doorsteps they don't care, they'll continue to use these illegal drugs regardless.

If all drugs were legalised, like alcohol and nicotine are, the sale of them could be carried out without all the mayhem and taxed, like alohol and nicotine.

HalloweenJack

What about the war in DR Congo?

Spore

Latchy wrote: »

The war we haven't heard off ......jasus give us some credit , it's not exactly breaking news and being going on for years now ,it's just that the body count has gone up and multiplied yes last two years or so ...big time but there's being other threads covering it last year or so to

Sorry, boardsies and net savy people know, but a lot of people I've talked to, even people planning trips to Mexico, haven't a breeze. Thought it a bit mad, like a conspiracy by the Mexican tourist board or something. I just think its one of the most horrific ongoing news stories at the moment that doesn't get enough media exposure.

Spore

anotherfinemess wrote: »

If all drugs were legalised, like alcohol and nicotine are, the sale of them could be carried out without all the mayhem and taxed, like alohol and nicotine.

I used be very against the idea of legalising drugs... but yes, it would cut the cartel's income at one fell swoop (robberies, extorition, kidnapping would probably explode overnight also). It's never going to happen though.