According to the NYT:
“We want you to explain to us what you want from us,” the front-page editorial in El Diario in Ciudad Juárez asked the leaders of organized crime. “What are we supposed to publish or not publish, so we know what to abide by. You are at this time the de facto authorities in this city because the legal authorities have not been able to stop our colleagues from falling.”
This was after a 21-year-old photography intern at the newspaper was shot dead for reasons that are unclear. Another intern was wounded.
All along the border, news organizations have silenced themselves out of fear and intimidation from drug trafficking organizations, but El Diario had a reputation for carrying on — and paying a price. One of its reporters was gunned down two years ago.
A little more about that reporter:
The killing of Armando Rodríguez Carreón, the police reporter for El Diario shot dead in front of his 8-year-old daughter in 2008, remains unsolved; the investigation suffered a devastating setback when the lead prosecutor on the case was killed as well.
Jesus.
They’ve taken over. There is no government authority in the northern states. The cartels are de facto governments now. Except they will continue to fight with each other.
Once lodged, they’re impossible to remove. Marijuana legalization won’t have any effect at all; legal outlets will be forced to buy from the same cartels the dispensaries buy from now.
@1 If it were legalized, why would we continue to buy weed from Mexico?
Best analysis of the Tea Party ever written:
Tea Party: Prototype for Emergent Web Organizations
http://www.internetevolution.com/author.…
Man, they are so fucked.
We need to kneecap them using the 50 percent of the US GDP that is in the West.
If we legalize MJ here and only go after the drug cartels and pushers, we can cut their money supply in HALF.
But that would take guts. The only way to win a guerilla war is to either make money supplying arms to both sides (Cheney) or to cut their supply lines (decriminalize).
@2, because reality says you’re not going to get the quantity you need, partly because legalization is not going to come all at once, and large grows are likely to remain illegal. Mexico’s cartels can provide massive quantities, as much as you have money for.
Another reason is because the Mexican cartels are going to TELL you to buy it from them, and you’re going to do exactly as they say unless you want to see your children’s heads propped up at the foot of your bed.
Another reason is that the Mexican cartels already do a fair amount of their growing here in the US, including many remote areas of our national parks.
No more Mexican vacations for this gringo. San Diego is as close as I’ll go. Jeezsssh!
@7 theres alot more mexico than the parts run by the cartels.
can we invade this shit already? it would be a hell of alot easier than afganistan. and uh doesnt mexico have an army? cant they invade this shit? wtf?
I’m going to Cabo in a month. Obviously, not where all the terrible stuff is going on but I’m suddenly feeling much better about my decision to fly, rather than drive.
This is sickening. If you grow or manufacture your own drugs for your own personal use, then I have no issue with you; however, if you buy drugs on the street, I do have a bone to pick with you. Regardless of your feelings on wether drugs should be legal or not, the reality is that, at this moment, they’re not legal, and that produces the huge and horrible problem of Drug cartels in Mexico (and everywhere else). For as long as drugs remain illegal, anyone buying them, is fueling this dreadful drug war and keeping millions of people in Mexico in fear for their lives every day. The horror stories keep getting worse.
So, think about that the next time you consider purchasing drugs.
What?
@10: Volunatry prohibition is the answer? Yup, that’ll work.
-Voluntary
@10 bullshit. oversimplification. all my weed is locally grown. i know several growers too, they ain’t mafia.
@8 -The existence of drug cartels in the border cities is a direct result of the US Drug War. And you’re suggesting that this utterly failed war be expanded? Bad idea.
By the way, most of your local MJ supply is from local sources or from the north, I wouldn’t worry about using any Mexican supply here.
Any argument that it’s impossible to buy weed without de-facto funding the mexican cartels had better explain the existence of Mendocino County, California.
@7 Same here. This kind of shit kept me from going there earlier this year.
@15 the drug war was pussy shit. if we rolled in the 92k troops from iraq and some major gear we could lock the place down for 10 years for a few trillion or less. then we just put bases and use the drones and just blast em when they act up and shit will be stabilized.
@7, @18, if you won’t go to Mexico because of this you’re an idiot. I wouldn’t go to Juarez, but why would you want to go there anyways? You’re safer in most of Mexico than you are here.
@19, I see what you did there.
@20 – Exactly. I’ve got another trip to a town I really like 45 minutes north of PVR planned for January, and some friends—other logical friends, that live if SF for chrissake!—are a little worried about this before they book. I guess there’s still people that feel safer in cars than on airplanes still. It’s the fear of not being in control.
“otherwise”, I meant.
@22, San Blas? Bucerias? Sayulita? Have we had this conversation before?
There’s been a little drug warring up the mountain in Tepic, but if you’re not a member of one of the warring cartels your chances of getting caught in the crossfire are considerably less than they are in Belltown.
@24 – We have, and it’s Sayulita—a town that a dozen major media outlet is hell-bent on advertising as “they’re secret”, but thanks to generally unadventurous Americans and a shit economy is still a lovely small town devoid of resorts and hotels—and maybe some San Pancho, which is very sleepy, but just up the road and has a good restaurant or two. I’ve seen military trucks roll through town just for a show of force (two years ago), but there isn’t much crime there beyond the occasional vacation house break-in.
I’m a little surprised, and saddened, that some of these issues have spread to Monterrey, though.
@10: And no produce picked in the USA except from CSAs staffed by volunteers. The cartels make immense amounts of money smuggling humans into the U.S.
@25, I’ve been to San Pancho. It was nice, but a tad too upscale and Americanized for me. There seemed to be a lot of older white women selling expensive jewelry around town. Lovely beach, though. The marshy area is amazing for birds. Next time I hope to get up to the bird sanctuary near San Blas, if we can hack the sand fleas up there.
I shot this cute li’l feller in San Pancho: http://www.flickr.com/photos/fnarf/33661…
@27 – Nice pics… and yeah, there’s more than a few ex-pats—and probably wealthy Guadalajarans—retired there, it almost feels like a weird suburb, as far as small Mexican beach towns go. The beaches are nice, but usually have a wicked rip-tide (like the north end of Sayulita) that makes swimming a little harrowing.
@Fnarf, you were kind of cute in 1987 – which is, disturbingly, the year I was born. I feel like a child now, great.
Dee, both Fnarf and I were older than you are now in 1987.
And meanwhile, thirty comments in, six hours, and the headline here still says “Jurez” in it.
Legalize pot! Legalize everything these horrible people have been peddling! Take the market away from them and give it to good people, and see how fast this problem evaporates. We don’t have to import weed, it grows fine in our own climate. Take away the money and the gangs will wither and die.
it’s San Francisco you dicks. San Pancho to tourists and hip transplants (white). And mi pobre Sayulita is no longer. but, yeah don’t spread out much further. it wouldn’t be “safe”.