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Narco-Blogger Beats Mexico Drug War News Blackout
An anonymous reader writes "An anonymous, twentysomething blogger is giving Mexicans what they can't get elsewhere — an inside view of their country's raging drug war. Operating from behind a thick curtain of computer security, Blog del Narco in less than six months has become Mexico's go-to Internet site at a time when mainstream media are feeling pressure and threats to stay away from the story. Many postings, including warnings and a beheading, appear to come directly from drug traffickers. Others depict crime scenes accessible only to military or police."
I don't know if they're so much sweeping it under the rug so much as (very rightfully) fearing for their lives. NPR was recently running a string of stories about this with the related story found here: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128929784 I can not blame the traditional media for avoiding a subject where they face more danger than most war zone correspondents do. The blog in question seems to have done something that traditional media can not: Avoided identifying itself in a way that allows the cartels to go after it with violence. I am personally happy to be living in an era where the dissemination of such dangerous information is possible. Maybe we wont get it how we want to, but the information is out there to be had. Especially in a country where Orwellian measures aren't being taken, important information has a way of finding its way past blocks that may have been 100% effective in stifling it in the past.
1: Most guns in Mexico come from central america or from the mexican givernment/military. See those pictures of the drug lords with H&K G3 rifles or MP5 submachine guns? Yeah, those couldn't have come from America. We can't get those here. (Well, we can, but they're 30k or more)
2. Very few americans own M-16's. As in less than a thousand most likely. Why? Because the process of purchasing a fully automatic firearm is such a pain that most people don't go through with it. Do you want the ATF to have a sheet of paper where you signed a waiver allowing them to walk into your home at any point, on ant day, without notice to search your home? Neither do most of us, and that's EXACTLY what you have to do to own a fully automatic firearm in this country.
Those of us who do own full auto firearms fall into three categories:
A: Law abiding citizens who like firearms and enjoy shooting. We pay our taxes, don't dream of murdering people, and largely consider our autos to be investments much like classic cars or sports memorabillia.
B: Criminals and thugs who don't go through the proper, legal channels to purchase their weapons (I use the word weapon here intentionally, as it is these people who consider their firearms to be weapons, and intend on using them.) Outlawing firearms will not affect these people in the least as it is already illegal for them to own these firearms. When guns DO move across the border (not often as Mexico throws anyone entering their country with even a single round of ammo into jail for 20+ years) it is these outlaws and criminals who do the moving and selling.
C: Fringe elements made up of crazy mountain men and people who consider their friends to be a militia of some sort and are still out in the woods each weekend preparing for the Soviet Union to invade their small town. Really? Are you worried about these people taking over your country? They aren't a threat to anything except their local dentist's children getting the money for college... Sure, they're vocal and love making a spectacle, but they're on every watch list in the country and are largely law abiding citizens like group A. Those who fall into group B don't usually last more than a year or two before the ATF is at their door taking their toys to the furnace and hauling them off to federal prison for drug or firearms charges.
Being scared of an armed citizenry is about as sane as being scared of dogs. Sure, there are bad apples out there, but just because one in ten dogs have bitten someone doesn't mean that your neighbors lab is about to rip into your leg as you walk by...
I carry a pistol every day. You know how many people I've ever shot? none.
The other day I was at the grocery store and a woman saw my pistol. When she noticed that the hammer was back (the proper way to carry a 1911 is with a round in the chamber, the hammer back, and the safety on) she asked me "Isn't that dangerous."
My answer to her: "Yes, that's the point of owning a pistol. They're dangerous when you need them to be."
She smiled, got the point, and went about her day.
--Forest C. Adcock--
Good luck with that. The money and power these cartels have achieved comes from the fact that it is illegal. You think that they will let that change? And are you foolish enough to believe that our government isn't owned by these same cartels? We are their main source of income, and wall street is their pipeline to Washington. These cartels have proven they are willing to take any measure to keep this going. If a true anti-drug war candidate ever had a serious chance at the oval office, i am sure he would quickly turn up dead.
If it were legalised and taxed there would be.
Look, it's very simple. I'm a Mexican living in Mexico, I also know more cities of the us than most us citizens. Drugs are consumed in Mexico (at a tenth of the price, btw), by some people and that ain't never going to go away neither here nor there in the us.
We cannot, because your government will not let us, decriminalize consumption in Mexico. And it wouldn't do as much good as it could because if they aren't legal up there then most of the Dough that comes here, that buys guns and officials and blood, will still be puouring in.
We need an international effort to legalize personal production of all personally produceable drugs. Not public consumption, not a blanket for junkies, but just a way for people to use their freedom in NOT helping the cartels.
As a side note, we could also start subsidizing legal drug prime matter, such as opium poppy and coca plant so that pfizer and all those Bauer fuckers would buy from the guys that now make the prime matter for illegal drugs. If you've ever seen a porter business analysis you will see that this two pronged strategy hits at both sides of the drug cartel business.
NO SIG
Actually, some people learned quite a bit from prohibition. Mainly: don't let it end, no matter the cost. Now the very evil people that we have made very rich and powerful are spending quite bit of the money they make to ensure that it doesn't end. The ones whom really learned from prohibition are on the wrong side of the war
Most of them are being shipped south across the border. They need something to haul back after they sell all the drugs up here, after all.
You would make a great truck broker (booking loads for the return trip), but the weapons that the cartels are using are not readily available in the US. They are far easier to acquire from the Mexican army deserters and the southern border.
Bring back Sirius Punk!
We cannot, because your government will not let us, decriminalize consumption in Mexico.
I think you guys just did about a year ago.
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
I've decided to self-censor myself because I'm tired of being marked "troll".
Wow, moderation actually works. Cool!
Oh and I agree that legalizing marijuana/cocaine growing in the US would basically end the war. Mexican and South American druglords could no longer fund their wars without that money.
You would think so, but the root of the problem is deeper than that. Latin America has always been torn apart by various factions wanting power, even before the drug wars started. Corruption is encouraged, but not caused by drugs. Latin American countries will continue to have these issues even after drugs are legalized.
Consider that Canada is just as much a supplier of drugs to the US as Mexico is, and yet Canada isn't torn apart by war. The major issues won't be fixed in Mexico by legalizing drugs, although it might hide them deeper under the surface.
Qxe4
They're not coming from the US, that's for sure.
Small time shit? Maybe. The cartels? Not a fucking chance. They have M16s (which aren't the domestic firearm that you see typical American citizens buying; M16s are fully automatic, and would run you or I several thousand dollars and some big-time licenses from the ATF). They have AK47s. They have fucking grenade launchers.
This crime, down in Mexico? It's not a few gangs running around scrounging up supplies. It's large paramilitary organizations. They have no interest in Pappy's scattergun. They want military arms.
... still waiting for this free-as-in-beer free beer I keep hearing about.
Legalising drugs is not what the drug lords want, it's what the drug consumers want. They could not compete with legal operations in terms of price. They would continue to do bad things, but they would not be able to keep large numbers of armed thugs on their staff without a source of income similar to the one that would evaporate with legalisation. They could switch to providing some other commodity, but what? It would take time to transition their production infrastructure over, and they would be faced with competition from established players. At least some of them would probably have underlings who realised that they could make money (although maybe not as much) as a legal supplier. A few at the top would probably be killed off, and some other sociopath would take their place, but that's not necessarily a bad thing: most CEOs of US companies are just as sociopathic as typical drug lords, but they exist in a system where their best interests are not served by killing people.
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
When I was an intern, I worked briefly at an outpatient infectious disease clinic that primarily treated illicit IV drug abusers. These were genuinely good people that had too little regard for their own bodies. One of hospitals that I work at currently has a methadone clinic nearby, and while we don't have any affiliation there, we often admit patients for other medical reasons. Many people are surprised to learn that a large percentage of this patient population are not unmotivated high school dropouts, but rather former working professionals, some having been quite well off, and even nurses, physicians, and occasionally pharmacists--all being people who are well trained in the danger that controlled substances pose. These people lose everything: their jobs, their careers, their families, their independence, their health and too frequently, their lives. Addiction is a very complex behavior that no one fully understands. It's been postulated that many of us are unknowingly predisposed to addictive behavior, though we haven't been exposed to an event to trigger it's onset. There's an issue of public heath here too and I think the legalization of the sale or possession of illicit narcotics stops short of seeing that.