Mexican Drug Cartel Terrorism Rule Juarez Valley

While many people are getting ready for the Cinco de Mayo celebration, other Mexicans are literally are running for their lives with the population statistics waning at a rapid rate. In Mexico’s Juarez Valley, people are moving out of their homes. The people are abandoning homes, jobs, schools and country in a matter of hours after a warning from the drug smugglers. In El Porvenir, there are normally about 3000 residents, but now only about 200 remain. The exodus appears to be the work of the Sinaloa cartel, Mexico’s most power drug cartel. They have seized control after a two year bloody battle with the Juárez cartel. Mexican drug cartels want no interference with their business and they use terror to control the people. They burn down homes and there have been more than 100 murders of municipal employees since 2007.

It is a heartbreaking scene as families load up whatever belongings they can and look for a new place to live. Many head away from this cotton farming town to seek safety in Texas, primarily in the farming areas of Fort Hancock and Faberns. It has been reported that easily 20 loaded pickup trucks a day cross the border. The requests for asylum have steadily grown. The murders, burning of churches and homes have terrified the people. Officials live with this terror daily. The Prison director Gerardo Ortiz in Ciudad Juarez, has an armored car and five body guards and he still doesn’t leave the prison very often because of the risk. After serving in this position 11 months and 10 days he stated his goal was “Leave here alive.” In the past year 8 prison guards have been murdered.

Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman is the drug lord of the Sinaloa cartel. Mexican officials say Guzman is trying to show them who is in charge. Joaquin Guzman is a billionaire from trafficking cocaine. At 5’8”and 56 years old, Guzman is considered the country’s most wanted criminal. American authorities are interested in him as well, as he traffics billions of dollars of cocaine to the USA each year. The United States has offered a financial reward of $5,000,000 for his capture. He escaped federal prison in 2001 and has been on the run ever since.

Guzman was born in a poor family with an abusive father who kicked him out of the house as a child. His drug career began as an apprentice of El Padrino (Godfather) Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo, who was heading the most powerful drug cartel in Mexico at that time. In 1980, Guzman established his own cartel and placing posts in 17 Mexican states. The Sinaloa cartel’s name came from a Mexican state on the Pacific coast long known for drug trafficking for many years. Guzman inherited some of the territory when Gallardo was arrested in 1989. He established groups of violent henchmen, known as “Los Negros, Los Texas, and Los Lobos” were established being responsible for committing more than 1,000 murders across Mexico, including rival drug lord, Rodolfo Carrillo Fuentes of the Juarez cartel.

Guzman was arrested in 1993 for murder and drug charges for the accidental shooting death of Bishop Juan Jesus Posadas Ocampo by a competing cartel who mistook Ocampo for Guzman. While he served his 7 year sentence for conspiracy, bribery and “health crimes,” he paid off prison officials for conjugal visits and business meetings to continue control over his empire. He was then indicted in 1995 in “San Diego for money laundering and conspiracy to import tons of cocaine. Ultimately he escaped prison by bribing officers; he was smuggled out in a laundry truck and is still on the run. In 2008, Mexican and Colombian traffickers laundered between $18 billion and $39 billion in proceeds from wholesale shipments to the U.S. Guzman, an alleged tunnels expert, is believed to have directed anywhere from a third to half of the cocaine during the past 8 years.

He actually allowed an interview with a magazine which is extremely rare for drug lords. He said his biggest fear was being locked up, but even if he was it wouldn’t affect the drug business as there are plenty of replacements ready. He said soldiers have closed in on him four times, but he knows the countryside, the rocks, rivers and vegetation so he has been able to escape.

Fear has also grown along the Mexico and USA border. Terrorism is happening as an explosive device was thrown at the United States consulate in the city of Nuevo Laredo. There is concern that the violence will continue to spill into the United States. A well known rancher was murdered in Arizona last month. This prompted the governors of New Mexico and Texas to send troops to the border. Mexico has sent dozens of soldiers to the Juarez Valley to try and restore order. Federal Police have replaced the Army to guard Juarez city. The residents of Fort Hancock are farmers were told to arm themselves. One resident said, “It is better to be tried by 12 than carried by 6.”

These are several pertinent aspects to this ever growing problem:

• The drug cartels are obviously stronger or better organized than the Mexican government at this time as they are winning the war.

• They cartels fight amongst each other and the strongest or luckiest survive. This is a major problem for Mexico, and it is becoming a major problem for the United States as drugs are moved into the U.S.

• The U. S. Ambassador Carlos Pascual stated on Friday that the threat Mexico is facing is from a “transnational criminal organizations, leaving the United States little choice but to assist its southern neighbor or risk an increasingly grave threat to its own security.”

• After the two year battle that has killed over 5000 people, Guzman’s cartel controls the most coveted traffic route through Cuidad Juarez., therefore it is a dying city.

• What should the United States due to help the displaced people?

• What will the United States do about illegal alien’s situation and will it affect these people differently?

• Should those displaced by violence receive asylum in the USA?

• Mexican tourism is down and Americans are warned to not travel in unsafe areas.

• There is reason to believe that there are perhaps hundreds of tunnels from Mexico into the USA that are yet undiscovered, as they have found 100 since 2001.

In summary, these are severe problems that will probably take military action to resolve, at least in Mexico.  There is at least millions of dollars worth of drugs being smuggled into the United States.  The tunnels need to be located and destroyed.  The United States will have to beef up the border and it is a difficult situation for an agent to sometimes distinguish between a drug mule and an alien just looking for a better life.  More lives will probably be lost.