VivirLatino

Regular followers of VL know that the drug wars in Mexico have been a problem for a while. Violence has increased tremendously in the past few years–according the to the following article, over 10,000 people have lost their lives in Mexico due to drug related violence since December of 2006.

A new crop of arrests just happened in Mexico–34 men were apprehended while at a family gathering in a church.

Mexican federal police say they arrested 34 men suspected of belonging to a ruthless drug cartel blamed for a rash of violence that left at least 18 federal agents and two soldiers dead since July 11.

Officials said the suspects belong to La Familia Michoacana drug gang, which drew national attention when it was accused of torturing and killing 12 off-duty federal agents three weeks ago. The bodies of the 11 men and one woman were found dumped on a road.

Some of the 34 suspects were arrested at a family celebration Sunday at a church in the city of Apatzingan in Michoacan state, said the federal secretariat for public safety. Another was arrested in the city of Lazaro Cardenas, also in Michoacan.

Two of the men were put on display for the media Monday in Mexico City.

Call me silly, but I don’t think that capturing 34 drug lords will end the drug trade in Mexico. I come from a city with a HUGE drug problem, and if the police captured 34 people–or 340 people–the problems wouldn’t end. Which brings me to the observation that many of the tools used by the Mexican police to capture these drugs lords were supplied by the U.S. government (i.e. Black Hawk helicopters, etc).

And this just makes me think: it is the U.S. that is creating the *demand* for these drugs that drug lords are selling. And at the *same* time, it is the U.S. that is supplying weapons and money to capture, kill, and imprison the same drug lords.

Something doesn’t add up here. If it were the U.S. that was selling drugs to Mexico–would drugs still be illegal? That is, if it were the U.S. that was making huge amounts of money off of the drug addiction of Mexicans, would the U.S. still be supplying weapons and money to Mexico?

In other words, how much of U.S. dominance over Mexico specifically and Latin America in general, is dependent upon the drug trade never becoming legalized specifically so that Mexico/Latin America never becomes an economic force to be reckoned with?

How much money would Mexico and Latin America stand to gain if the trade of “illegal” drugs became legal?

And how much of the subsequent violence in Mexico (and U.S. cities I might add), would be eliminated because underground trafficking was brought into the light?

Something to think about, no?