A gruesome video depicting the decapitation of five members of a Mexican drug cartel by a rival gang has been posted on the internet in the latest atrocity in the raging battle over drug-smuggling routes.
The chilling, three-minute video is the latest stunt in the deadly feud - which has already claimed a number of similarly gruesome deaths. The video, which was posted on the cartel-tracking blog Mundonarco.com, shows masked members of the Gulf cartel standing behind five shirtless members of the Zetas cartel, who have black 'Zs' painted on their chests.
The drug wars in Mexico have seen more graphic and gruesome public displays of power, though nothing new, the displays of power are becoming more frequent.
As a country with a lot to offer, the militaristic power of the drug industry blights this country. Ppruners come from many a varied background, from law enforcement, to militray and special forces through to law. Also we have many from the left and right and many with strong opinions..
so tasked with the issue of tackling the blight on the country, any ideas ??
Start a few whispers about this or that cartel is helping the DEA (or equivalent) to round up the other ones, sit back, then when they've more or less wiped each other out send the military in to mop them up.
Last edited by green granite; 30th Jun 2012 at 10:44.
Militarize the US/Mex border i.e. actually put proper resources into it rather than tinker as they currently do. Create a 20km free fire buffer zone from the border. Take the gloves off...black ops, targeted assasination, rendition. Failing that..legalize the drug trade and tax it
IMHO the current state of lawlessness merely plays into the politicians hands, it gives them a common enemy to keep the populace onside.
No person with a drug conviction will ever be allowed to work in any profession. That should stop the rich buggers doing it. Pop stars, movie stars etc should spend the same amount of time, in the same jails, as street druggies. A few high profile convictions should stop the posers/idols doing it. They should also have a performance ban, say more 5 years. No person with any medical condition who is on illegal drugs, or who has a condition caused/exacerbated by illegal drugs, is entitled to state treatment. Own finances or charity will have to pay.
You could have a sliding scale, but class A drugs is a lifetime ban.
To make this politically possible, you could consider making marijuana legal also. But bring in random drugs tests (including alcohol) for any job where being under the influence is dangerous (airlines, construction, etc).
Last edited by Fox3WheresMyBanana; 30th Jun 2012 at 11:03.
Legalise drugs like alcohol & ciggies are. Tax, control and regulate. Educate to make drug's 'not sexy' (like ciggies). Advise on safe drug use and treatment options if 'addicted'. Treat abuse as a health issue. Stop treating drug use as a crime & punishment issue.
Problem will pretty much go away then & we get a new tax stream.
Plus the $$$ from drug profits won't go to terrorists / people trafficking & such.
Easier than a ban, just publicly string up a few of the so called 'A' listers, job done.
A well known so called A lister more B or C in my opinion, was stopped at a Middle East airport in a state known for its dislike of druggies. Entered airport customs, was told they were being stripped searched and said 'don't you know who I am' Reply yes we do that's why you're being striped searched, released an hour later after being searched. What a pity nothing was found!
Turn all drug dealers into a free fire target, from the smallest street dealers to the cartel leaders, and don't stop until they are all DEAD, then start on their families if required. Start at the street dealers, give them a choice, turn in the next link in the chain or we execute you publicly in the next 24 hours no appeal no reprieve, if you give evidence and it is found to be true, 25 years in prison and on a chain gang with very hard labour, but if not sentence to be expedited in 12 hours.
some fair points, however as a question does that not lay the response for dealing mexico's drug wars on foreign entities dealing with their own internal issues ?
Let's put it another way, what are the ways for Mexico to deal with the drug wars internally?
It seems that the level of systematic, well funded and equipped violence means that military intervention would be required, most likely by using outsourced special forces, but then that has been attempted before. or is the situation irrevocable ?
Prohibition has never worked and has only served to make the Bad Guys rich. Very, very rich. What we don't need in this world are rich people posessed with a criminal mindset and lacking in morals (we have enough of these who are posing as legitimate business poeple..).
I would suggest a 2 pronged approach to this problem: cut off the dealer's market by legalising drugs and send in Black Ops, missile equipped drones and Cobra helicopters to sort out the baddies. If you have had to watch what drugs do to the lives of the users and their family and friends, you can only conclude that Hanging's too good for 'em.
The 'War on Drugs' has been a dismal failure (unless you are a grower/dealer and have become very, very rich) because of a lack of total commitment to really wage war on the cartels. What is needed to really screw these guys over is the following: 1) Aggressive education program in schools as to how uncool drugs are. 2) Legalise drug use from approved, controlled and registered suppliers who pay tax on their profits with 20 years to life in prison for unregistered dealers 3) Special branch of government security agencies to track and confiscate assets of the drug zsars. 4) Kidnap or assassinate the bastards, where possible.
The guys in the picture, well, I don't give a hoot-in-hell about them! They were drug dealers and the only good dealer is a dead one as far as i am concerned. Schapelle Corby and the Bali 9? They should get the same treatment as Barlow and Chambers did at the end of a rope. I approve that the AFP tips off known drug mules to agencies in countries where they have the Death Penalty for drug smuggling (good work, boys ). Good that they get either hanged or shot in some Asian rat hole whereas they would get a slap on the wrist if arrested back here in Oz.
In the immortal words of Frank Zappa: "Drug users?? They should all be taken out and shot!!"
It is not possible for Mexico to deal with the problems internally. The drug money comes from the US (mainly). It is more than the Mexican tax base.
The Government is not doing enough for the ordinary Mexican to win hearts and minds, neither in terms of protection from the drug lords or social provision. I think this is due primarily to corruption and incompetence.
Like any war, it is about logistics and popular support in the end. The Mexicans are losing. It will become a rogue state in about 10 years.
There is a serious risk that the southwestern US states will follow domino style by 2030, although I think the advocators of 'shoot to kill' will get their way in Arizona at least. This will not solve the problem. Only a demand-side solution can work without throwing Human Rights legislation out of the window.
I do think the method of being meaner than the drug lords, as air pig suggests, would work. However, it will not be possible with current legislation. Also, just wait till the first politician's offspring gets shot, or let off because of who their parent is, and the policy will collapse. I suspect that individuals/groups in the southwestern US will start doing this in a few years, Government-approved or not, when their security is threatened. Unlike the Mexicans, even the Mexican army, they have serious weaponry and training.
'The War on Drugs' has been going on since the early 70's (Nixon IIRC). It's been a total failure. If anything it's made things far, far worse than they ever needed to be.
But - carry on if you wish with talks of hanging 'A-Listers' - the price of charlie & all the other stuff will stay pretty much as it always has done (in reality therefore - cheaper now than then) - or it pushes people to try (make & distribute) other drugs - which gave you the whole shitty methamphetamine (ice / bing / crank etc) crap & the trouble that's brought.
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Create a 20km free fire buffer zone from the border.
Would you mind making that 10km??!!
Despite the extreme information posted above, I get the feeling not many of the forum members really appreciate just how bad the situation is. Perpetrated by second-generation born killers, these young warriors are not burdened by compassion. Not one little bit. These days it seems, seeing headless bodies hanging from bridges doesn't even stop the traffic. c40,000 murdered in the last five years. Yes, that's four naughts on the dead, and no naughts on the years. Killing is routine, with even youngsters in the street a likely to shoot up a car just because they don't have a target that day.
Not an everyday occurrence I agree, but I'm mindful of a mother and child, barely back in their own country, when a kid strafed their car, killing both of them.
The "Fast and Furious" debacle is a current and huge embarrassment to the US government. The killing of the agents was coldly efficient, but some guns found it seems, were numbered along with the ones supplied for the F&F operation.
Probably one of the most insane ideas ever to come out of a human scull is the border fence. American citizens, once looking out of their windows at the Rio Grande, now look at a wall of steel. Some lovely homes rendered near valueless. To finish such a barrier, the sheer scale of the task would be mind-boggling, and given the very varied borderline, the 1,800 miles becomes 2,500 . . . if you want it sealed, and it would have to be built on some of the most rugged terrain imaginable. Oh, but wait. They're already climbing over it, and the crafty ones have already tunneled under it. So what's the point in spoiling the homes and to some extent the lives, of American citizens with a kind of Berlin Wall replica?
What would I do? Legalize, yes. But drugs are only part of the issue. Sheer profiteering from kidnap is rife.
A friend here suffered a kidnap attempt. Hispanic, with years working for a good company behind him, he had to routinely cross the border for business. One day he was ordered to get in a car. He said no.
Effectively he was saying, kill me now, I'm not getting in. I suppose the gang were a little taken aback, because they did not kill him or really put enough force on him to get him in the vehicle. He thought help was at hand when a smart looking L-R spelled Trabant swung across the street. Wrong. A gang member started talking to the driver. For some reason, that person told them to let my friend go. Knocked about, and still with the sight of those handguns clear in his mind, he came back to the US and ultimately, lost a good job. He was not going back.
Taking the law into one's own hands. When a group of parents did exactly this when a school was targeted by a gang, I assume with kidnapping in mind, the parents found themselves in hot water. I have a feeling there was more to this that met the eye - I have heard they entered a police station to get at them - but certainly, there wasn't a blind eye turned. Pity.
With mass graves reported in other parts of Mexico, it's astonishing there's any tourism left. There are some breathtakingly beautiful places on the Pacific coast, but I don't think I'd find myself going there right now. The tourism loss to that nation might seem to be unacceptable to any politician, but the reaction to these atrocities seems strangely inadequate. I don't know, but the mention above of the sheer mass of funds entering the country nags at me a bit. You get my drift.
The country is supposed to be so poor that the money sent back home by workers here in the US surpasses their GNP. I'm not sure about that, but just imagine how much greater drug proceeds are.
What is odd is still being able to experience the normality of daily life in some big towns. People talk of the fear, but then go on with their lives. But then, what else can they do?
A thoroughly nasty business and unlikely to clear up on it's own, so the good doctor recommends a cream for the outside and tablets for the inside and after a while all back on the straight and narrow.
As has been said without the consumption (mainly from the pious USA) the trade will shrink, so with real penalties against middle/upper class users and social abhorrence encouraged that might be achieved. Within Mexico, hard-core special forces/commando action, even from foreign and 'contractor' sources to allay fears of being bought off, and with the compassion of a ruthless surgeon, cut the cancer out of the system by breaking it down into ever smaller disjointed elements until it gives up or is eradicated.
As has been said, the megalomania of the politicians might well skew such actions as politicians love nothing better than having a hoard of submissive citizens waiting for them to do something, even if it's just the impression of doing something.
Get the CIA out of the drug business would be a start given US military and intelligence agencies have been involved in supporting industry for many years.
Also jail every single banker that after a certain date is unable to prove that the money they investing and taking on behalf of clients is drug free.
Financial capitals of the world are just money laundering zones and always will be.
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I'd seriously envisage a final, if drastic solution. Considering that the Mexican government has over many decades had the time to enact measures (or ask for help) to combat Mexico being used as a convenient transit point for drugs destined to the USA.
Mexico might even have considered the legalisation of these prohibited drugs, perhaps putting the onus on the countries (eg. USA) to controlling their own borders and reflecting on their own attitudes towards prohibited substances.
What I'd do (in my current state) as President Barack Obama this afternoon would be to order the launch of all the USA's remaining ballistic nukes (spoiling away in their underground hangars), their collective target being Chicxulub, situated on the Yucatan peninsula. Whilst fully aware that each 50 megaton equivalent device would only represent 1/2,000,000 of the original asteroid impact (that lead to the demise of the dinosaurs 65 million yeras ago), I'm reassured that a few hundred 50 megaton equivalent devices would rapidly bring some order out of the chaos that the State of Mexico represents today...
At the end of the day, the USA could blame it all on the Chicxulub Asteroid II. NASA could provide suitable footage etc. (like for the ficticious moon landings)...?!
Who syas that lightning (or asteroids) never strike twice in the same place...?!
Far too much interfering in other people's business in the world right now. Anyone else read the interview with Blair in the FT today ? See what I mean ?
).
). Good that they get either hanged or shot in some Asian rat hole whereas they would get a slap on the wrist if arrested back here in Oz.
