# Mexico, as the NY gang wars in the US old west on meth?



## edgeee (Jun 21, 2012)

(i tried to pick a title that would hold up over time, where ever it goes.)

i've been bouncing between the threads on politics, corruption, crime, etc.
i wondered if tying them together would work. i'll try anything once.

on another forum i found a link to an article, from The New Yorker magazine.
(don't count that as a bad thing.)
i read it. i was stunned. well, i often am, so don't make too much of that.

but the words here are special. it's a long piece, but it had to be, to be so good.

reading it, i could see so much more about the history of GDL, and the story of the marriage of authority and carnage.
it was written before the recent elections, (July 2 is publish date.), so it's not really about Nieto, 
tho the opening might make you think it is.
read on. the first 1000 words, will seduce you, the rest will surely include something you didn't already know.

i never believe everything i read, but it's hard to doubt the basics much, as presented.
many of you must have toughts on this, want to share some?

i had to read it slowly, backing up often. that usually means it's good writing.
or a users guide. (maybe it is, in a way.)

LETTER FROM MEXICO

The Kingpins
The fight for Guadalajara.
by William Finnegan
July 2, 2012


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## conklinwh (Dec 19, 2009)

Interesting! I also found this NY Times article posted by Alvin Starkman.
www.nytimes.com/2012/07/04/business...tart-with-the-numbers.html?_r=1&smid=fb-share


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## edgeee (Jun 21, 2012)

conklinwh said:


> Interesting! I also found this NY Times article posted by Alvin Starkman.
> www.nytimes.com/2012/07/04/business...tart-with-the-numbers.html?_r=1&smid=fb-share


good article.

it's too bad that humans have a history of not learning from history.

prohibition taught us nothing, unless you count what the criminals and common people absorbed in experience.

IMO the 'public opinion' - twisted and torn, then fabricated anew, by media and such - is a poor indicator to judge anything by.
as information travels, it gets distorted.
lazy labels place limits on meaning, interpretations vary by far.

since 'common' people don't see how the drug war relates to them, they assign it little importance.
if you don't know you are paying the bill, you don't care so much about the cost.

the financial numbers are staggering, and that may make it harder to swallow the whole idea that so much has been lost with so little gain.

to think of how much extra suffering all that waste has caused makes me cringe.
when i consider that the war has barely begun, i can't bear to think of what the future holds.


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## conklinwh (Dec 19, 2009)

Lot of discussion here about what the US legalizing all or some drugs, i.e. marijuana, might have on Mexico. Basic thoughts are that higher ups in most cartels probably OK or might move to Central America as they have established worldwide channels.
Questions are the Zetas and lower rung people in the other cartels. The Zetas, as your article points out, are really a different animal in that without established drug channels, they very much focused on extortion and kidnapping. This would probably be expanded. 
As to the lower level cartel members, the thought is that its unlikely that they will become grocery store baggers so increased street crime a real possibility.
Net is that it will take something like US legalization to change the direction of violence but that in itself will have issues to be addressed.


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## edgeee (Jun 21, 2012)

*Is "Hit-Teen" story legit?*

Sinaloa is making the news, with the 16 year-old assassin, so i wonder what to believe.

If the story so far is basically true, it does not bode well. My first thought is that there must be more like him, and even if there are none yet, there will be now.
Maybe a better thread title would be "WW III started in Mexico...."; well no, but the cartels sure sound like ruthless armies to me.
My second thought is to be a skeptic at first. Fiffty murders is a lot for one so young. Did he start at age ten?
Any inside info floating out there?
:confused2:


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## stilltraveling (May 7, 2012)

conklinwh said:


> As to the lower level cartel members, the thought is that its unlikely that they will become grocery store baggers so increased street crime a real possibility.


In the beginning, sure. But slowly they'll be rounded up by a police force that is no longer working for drug traffickers and/or spending all it's time and resources looking for drugs. Additionally, they won't have the resources to recruit thousands of new cannon fodder every year like they currently do.


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## stilltraveling (May 7, 2012)

edgeee said:


> Any inside info floating out there?
> :confused2:


The cartels started hiring kids a long time ago. They're cheap, pliable, and they don't get as much scrutiny from the police. This is just another example of how systems evolve in a changing environment. So long as there is prohibition, there will be people out there willing to do whatever it takes to fill a market need for drugs.


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