The Rise of Mexican Drug Cartels and the Surge in Cartel Violence

Abstract

[Name] EN 1311 [Instructor Name] 10/3/2023 Mexican Drug Lords and Cartel Violence The rise of drug cartels in Mexico in the 1970s brought with it a new form of violence. Consider these cartels as large-scale gangs. "El Cartel de Guadalajara," headed by Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo and El Señor de los Cielos, was among the first to come to mind. They joined forces with Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar, further complicating matters. At the time, Mexico was relatively calm, whereas Colombia was experiencing several troubles. Things were quiet at first when the drug trade began in Mexico, but suddenly, the calmness broke fast like a storm. The prominence of cartel violence changed Mexico's atmosphere and destroyed its beauty. Years went by, and in 1993, Pablo Escobar was murdered in Colombia. He was the main drug exporter to the U.S. at the time, so the drug trafficking business in Colombia fell off; as a result, El Cartel de Guadalajara tried to take advantage, and they became the main drug exporter into the U.S. and the organization started seeing more money, because of that an internal conflict in the Cartel began and the main leaders at the time parted different ways. El Señor de los Cielos stayed with El Cartel de Guadalajara and Hector Luis Palma Salazar, and his peers began his own organization, "El Cartel de Sinaloa." When that happened, cartel-related violence in Mexico became more popular. El Cartel de Sinaloa and El Cartel de Guadalajara started a huge war in those years, which led to a massive number of deaths in Mexico. A couple of years went by, and El Señor de los Cielos passed away when he tried to get plastic surgery so he could go undercover for the Mexican Government and the DEA. Four years after that, Joaquin Guzman Loera, better known as El Chapo, escaped from prison for the first time, and that is when he took over the drug trafficking business, partnering with Ismael El Mayo Zambada. They took over around the year 2001, and they changed many things in Mexico. They were the main organization, but around that time, a lot of new cartels started appearing: El Cartel del Golfo, El Cartel de Tijuana, Cartel de Juarez, Caballeros Templarios, La Familia Michoacana; they all started battling for control over land in Mexico and to see who made more money and had the most power. El Cartel del Golfo an internal conflict happened in the organization and some people parted ways and created their own organization, " Los Zetas," and they had a big war happening in Mexico, mostly in Reynosa, Tamaulipas and Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas which is where my family is from and that is why I am somewhat familiar with the things they do and what they are capable of doing. I started noticing all these types of details or things at a very young age; I remember my parents had planned out a big birthday party for me when I was turning 5, and they had to postpone it at first because there had been very dangerous shootings for a couple of days in a row right before my party and then at the end of the day they had to cancel it because it was really insecure and no one wanted to leave their houses at the time. A more recent example happened about two years ago. It was New Year's Day, and I had a younger cousin whose birthday was on that day. My family always gets together on that day to celebrate him and the new year, too. That day, we bought a cake for him and a piñata, so it was an incredibly special family reunion, and everyone was having fun. We were in my house in Mexico when it started getting "late ."I put it in quotation marks because there is no sunlight around 6 pm in the winter. It was around seven or 7:30 pm, and some of my family members had already left, but some of us were still having a fun time. We were in the living room when suddenly, one of my uncles told everyone to be quiet. At first, we were all confused because we were having an excellent time, but once he told us to pay attention to see if it was only him or if anyone else could also hear the gunshots. What I did was make my way to the door and try to listen, and he was right. There was a shooting a couple of blocks down from my house because it didn't sound like it was happening right around the corner, but at the same time, it did not sound far away. That night, we all stayed in my house just to be sure we were safe, and no one was exposed to danger. I am aware that this is not a normal lifestyle, and this is why tourism has decreased in Mexico over the years because of all this violence and shootings happening every day throughout the country, and it is not only happening in residential cities. It happens all over the country, including in the mountains or even in tourist areas like Cancun. Cancun is one of the most beautiful cities in America, and it used to be extremely attractive to tourists, but a couple of years back, the tourism numbers ridiculously decreased because even in those areas where a lot of people from the U.S., Europe, and different parts of the world visit there are still...