Violence on Mexican Border Could Worsen
Travel Blog • Jim Benning • 10.06.08 | 1:56 PM ET
Drug-related crime and violence have taken a toll on tourism in Mexican border cities like Tijuana and Ciudad Juarez, which have offered Americans a quick, cheap taste of international travel. Now, the Mexican government’s effort to break up powerful Mexican drug cartels brings some more bad news for would-be tourists and those who benefit from their dollars, at least for the short term.
Reports the San Diego Union-Tribune, border violence will likely get worse before it gets better.
As one expert explained: “The Mexican government has said that their strategy is to attack the cartels and break them down to a more manageable size. The problem with breaking cartels up into smaller, supposedly more manageable pieces is that it becomes disorganized crime. You start to have people who are broken off, fractionalized, fighting among each other.”
That’s right. What’s worse than organized crime? Disorganized crime, it seems.
Related on World Hum:
* Are Robberies and Carjackings of Surfers on the Rise in Baja?
* Starbucks vs. the Traveler
Photo by Jim Benning
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Jim Benning is the editor and co-founder of World Hum.
john 10.07.08 | 4:58 PM ET
When is the drug war going to stop? As we see again, increasing a drug war does nothing but escalate violence and increase drug prices, thus making people more apt to use illegal methods to obtain money for them. It is now time to stop this insane war and legalize drugs. I have been to Mexico many times and I know that drugs are not the problem in Mexico. Crime by gangs and thieves is the real problem. One time I was a victim of crime in Mexico and when I called the police they never came—even after calling them several times. There are citizens in Mexico that have been stabbed almost to the point of death and have clearly identified their purpetrators with no action resulting from the police. I saw a poll in a Mexican newspaper 2 days ago and it asked people what they thought was the biggest problem in Mexico and drug traffiking was rated by only 14% of the people as the biggest problem, while public safety and security was at 75%. The Mexican and U.S. government need to get their priorities straight and need to fight real crime and stop wasting time and money on a drug war. When are our leaders on both sides going to get it through their thick heads that the drug war is not for the good of society and that there is real crime that needs to be dealt with? Both Calderon and Bush need to be kicked out of office.
RICHARD WELSH 10.24.08 | 10:46 PM ET
why dont we engage the us military inside mexico. those problem people would go away like fast as we help our border brothers and increase tourism from every nation.400 million with 10000 soldier would be a real wake-up to the cartel who dont really fund anyone but their own agendas. its good investment for the usa.