So Long Sombreros, Cervezas and Good Times

by the PissedOffVaquero

Growing up, I remember taking trips just across the Texas-Mexico border into a small Mexican town called Ciudad Acuna in the Mexican state of Coahuila. Acuna was a palace for cheap products. I’ve sat and ate many times in Ma Crosby’s, the restaurant made famous by George Straits’ “Blame it on Mexico.” The locals were friendly, the food was great and the beer was cold and cheap. As I grew older, my friends and I began to travel the three or so hours from our home town of Big Lake to Acuna for various reasons other than a nice meal at Ma Crosby’s. Ask any red blooded Texan that can remember a visit to the Corona Club or the infamous Boystown and they will probably proclaim that they were fine establishments. Mexico was fun. It was a weekend or holiday getaway for many people. Not only was it beneficial to the Americans traveling across the border looking for cheap beer, good food, a good time, and in some cases a nice senorita, but the economies of these small border towns were highly dependent on tourism. The people of these towns relied on making money off of the various goods they sold from their street front shops to support their families.

 Now a days, as many know, the Mexican border is no longer a safe place for Americans to travel to and in many cases it is not necessarily safe for the residents of the cities. Powerful drug lords and their cartels are in a deadlocked all out war for drug trafficking territory. There around 8 major drug cartels battling it out. The two most powerful cartels are the Los Zetas and the Gulf Cartel. The two cartels once worked together. The Gulf Cartel hired the Los Zetas to do security work for them. The Zetas were comprised of highly trained ex-special operations forces for the Mexican Army. The two turned on each other when the Zetas made a deal with a rival of the Gulf Cartel, the Sinaloa’s. In 2006, Mexico’s president, Felipe Calderon began to fight a war against the drug cartels. He sent federal troops to the border to combat the cartels. Not only were the cartels fighting amongst each other, now they were battling the Mexican Army. What many did not know (or may have known) was that the majority of the Mexican Police Force was corrupt and had been bribed by the drug cartels. Most of the Police force was fired during President Calderon’s war on the cartels as a result of this knowledge. These drug cartels have no regard for life and no mercy. Cartels consistently attack Mexican police headquarters. Many towns’ police forces have a hard time opening their mail without finding the decapitated head of their new sheriff in a box. The cartels are ruthless to anyone that disagrees with them or does not accept their bribes. Speaking of bribes, 12 mayors and one candidate for governor were killed in 2010 alone. Calderon also holds a valuable position on the cartels most wanted list. It seems no one can escape this violence. From December of 2006 to present day 36,226 people have been slaughtered in this drug war.

                             

                         

            These cartels don’t obtain their weapons to murder innocent women and children from their home country of Mexico. No, they get the majority of them from the good ole’ US of A. They simply smuggle most of them across the border. Other more powerful weapons are obtained through deserters of the Mexican Army. These weapons would make the infamous crips and bloods of LA look like fat schoolyard kindergarteners with popguns. AR-15’s and AK-47’s are smuggled over the border as a semi-automatic only firing weapon and later converted into full-automatic weapons that spray lead. There are also reports of the cartels using grenade launchers against Mexican police forces. These police forces do not have the upper hand on these cartels. They are simply outnumbered and outgunned. Being as the United States is the global hegemony, I believe that we are probably the only ones that can stop this. Obviously the Mexican government cannot. I understand that many people have the ‘who gives a rat’s ass’ opinion about what is happening in other countries. As my father would most likely say to me, “We have enough problems with our own country, why in the hell should we worry about some crazy ass gunslingin’ Mexicans? Why should we spend our tax payer’s dollars on them?” Well I will tell you why. These cartels are expanding their influence. There are many reports from inside the cartels that they are now recruiting from inside U.S. borders, recruiting from schools. That’s right, publicly funded schools along the U.S.-Mexico border. Since early 2010, the Obama Administration has sent around 1,800 men composed of National Guard members, customs agents and border patrol agents to the border. This has done nothing to stop the violence. If anything, it has escalated. Also, there is a higher demand of cocaine in Europe where buyers are paying double the amount of the price in the U.S. There is now a presence of these cartels in Italy and in Spain. These cartels are going international.

                                              

I am NOT trying to present this problem in a way that makes it seem like the drug cartels of Mexico are going to overthrow the governments of North America and resemble something close to Hitler’s Third Reich and the world will be consumed by WWIII. They are not going to become the new Nazi’s of the world and send people to concentration camps where they will be force fed jalapeños and Dos XX by Poncho Villa and his associates until they die of alcohol poisoning and/or heart burn . Although that would be a glorious way to go out, it’s not realistic. I am simply stating that something should be done about this problem that has been dubbed America’s third war. The problem should be dealt with before it gets entirely out of hand (not to say it already hasn’t). You don’t let a termite problem eat away at the foundation of your house until it falls down; you nip the problem in the butt before it begins. I am not here to solve the problem. That is up to you folks and our government. I am just trying to spread word of the ongoing conflict that has spilled over our borders. Until this drug war ends, Mexico will continue to see a decline in their economy. Tourism is a large part of the Mexican economy. Who wants to go to Mexico looking for a good time and come back their head in a Nike shoebox? Not I. The streets of small border towns like Acuna, Juarez, and Nuevo Laredo will remain empty until it is once again safe to venture across the border. Mexico used to be a fun place full of warm and friendly people. The beer and tequila were abundant and you could walk (or stumble/crawl) the streets without a worry or a care. Now it’s hard to go there without being kidnapped or becoming target practice for some drug runner’s new U.S. made AR-15, especially if you are a gringo. George Strait was right. “Blame it on Mexico!” Assholes.