Fundametns In Importance (Memo 2)

Information can be spread out to any one because of the media. This is one of the best tools that society has created to inform and explain in the most complex governments. Without the media most of the information known from the public would not exist. However, governments like this that do not allow media to flow around as easily like this, but that is not even called a government that is called Totalitarian Dictatorship. Media expresses the feelings of those who do not have a voice. The cartels have been acting up, but the media has given the chance of knowledge to the public. Two articles that I have found from the search engines of Google scholar and EBSCO Host explain very thoroughly the effects of the Mexican drug cartels.

The first article was written by Colleen W. Cook. This article is a CRS Report for Congress and the information it contains is about the effects of cartels as well as the many groups that are found all over Mexico. One part of the article it says “Mexico arrested 15 cartel leaders, 74 lieutenants, 53 financial officers, and 428 hitmen (sicarios).” This goes to show that there are many people in this business because clearly it does not only involve twenty or thirty, but it reaches the hundreds. The cartels identified are the following: Gulf Cartel, Sinaloa Cartel, Tijuana Cartel, Juarez Cartel, Colima Cartel, Oaxaca Cartel, and Valencia Cartel. Within these cartels there are groups that follow and distribute the drugs with certain names. For example Los Zetas and La Familia fall under the Gulf Cartel two of the most known groups that are currently in Mexico.

Second Article was written by Jorge Castaneda. The main focus of this article is to describe the reasons to why the government can not fight against the cartels. It describes how the government officials can not really fight off because the forces can not over take these powerful groups. It mentions “There is a tremendous consensus in the country on this matter. We want an army that is corrupt, poorly trained, poorly equipped, and totally useless. Why? Because those armies don't overthrow their governments. We have not even had an attempted military coup in Mexico since 1938.” –Paragraph 9, sentences 4-7. With this statement it clearly describes the effect of the government and why nothing has really changed the outcome. Later on the article points out “since approximately the end of the Vietnam War, the United States has placed a series of restrictions on military aid that involve human rights provisions, military supervision, and instruction, among others. That means that we can't get American aid on our terms, and thus it has been very limited. Who then is fighting the war on drugs? We don't really know.” –Paragraph 12, sentences 4-6. With this you can see that Mexico does need help, but in order to obtain this help US needs so work on Mexican terms. Though they may reach same terms, but there are other reasons to why they can not work together because of the Powell Doctrine.