United States and Mexico's Collaboration Against Mexican Drug Cartels Essay

United States and Mexico's Collaboration Against Mexican Drug Cartels - Essay Example The main role of U.S. has been the supply of funding and intelligence to the Mexican authorities that support their domestic efforts in fighting the cartels. However, there have emerged cracks in this co-operation since it is becoming apparent that the two nations have divergent objectives in the fight (Stewart). While the Mexican government would like to eliminate or at least control the scourge at home, the U.S. government is more concerned with protecting her borders. In addition, some of the moves made in the U.S. such as the decriminalization of Marijuana are calling to question their commitment to the war and the extent to which they are willing to help fight the scourge. This paper will examine the efforts of these two neighboring States to combat jointly the drug cartels, with emphasis on the role of the U.S. in the partnership as well as how its actions weigh in on the fight. The U.S. drug strategy for Mexico is grounded on three principles, which are co-operation, containme nt, and willingness to take the responsibility for the problem (Walser 5). The co-operation between the two countries received a major shot in the arm when the former president Bush and Coldiron signed the Merida initiative that designated over $1, 4 billion dollars into Mexico and other South American nations. The idea  behind these funding was with the mandate to destroy the grip of organized crime in the regions (ONeil 64). In the recent past, the U.S has sent thousands of military personnel in Mexico to aid in training laws law enforcement agencies, they have also deployed drones to collect intelligence about the drugs crimes run-on sentence. In addition, over $3 billion is used in patrolling the U.S border to reduce the incidences of drugs being illegally brought into the United States.

The War On Drugs Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

The War On Drugs - Research Paper Example Despite of intense crack the border remained closed for only twenty days. US also worked with the government of Bolivia and Peru to reduce drug supply by spraying plant killing chemicals on million of acre of drugs and compensating farmers to grow other crops instead. With this move coca production was reduced to half. But the production of drug moved from those countries to Colombia, looking at the situation US government came up with the plan Colombia. Plan Colombia was an effort on behalf of US government to combat against war on drugs. Millions of dollars of military aid was given to Colombia in order to combat against guerilla groups who are involved in drug trafficking. Colombian military personnel also took training from US military and other law and enforcement agencies. But this effort of US government was criticized by many analyst and congress men as according to them US is keeping focus only on south side whereas ignoring drug trafficking from the North part of the countr y. One of the most evident signs of the failure of this war appears in 2006, when Mexican President Felipe Calderon launched an offensive against drug cartels in which 40,000 people were killed and media named this event â€Å"drug Violence† 40,000 people include not only cartel members ,police officers and many US citizens. However billion dollar support package was sent to Mexican government to fight against cartel but as the aid delivered the death rate have risen with 15,273. According to the Department of Justice, the illegal drug market in US is dominated by 900,000 criminally active gang members affiliated with 20,000 street gangs who have their setup in more than 2500 cities of US as explained in Law Enforcement against Prohibition (2011) This illegal drug market affected countless US communities, as it was fought in US streets with law and enforcement agencies who imprisoned many US citizens. Number of citizens who were imprisoned increased in the last three decades. This was due to anti drug abuse act of 1986 which created serious minimum sentencing laws for drug abuse. Due to which drug arrests tripled between 1980-1997 and according to Whitehead(2012) in every 19 seconds at least one person was arrested in US for violating the laws against this war and in every 30 seconds a person arrested for violating marijuana law, thus making it fourth most common cause of arrest in US. Drug abuse has severe emotional and financial strain on families in addition to other reported domestic abuses. It was also observed that the offense of drug abuse has also affected subsequent percentage of women and children. Women in prison are more likely than men who have convicted of a drug offense. In 2005 there were 29% of women and 19% of men and two third of children under age of 18 who had convicted drug offense. Federal welfare legislation of 1996 imposed lifetime ban on welfare benefits for anyone convicted drug abuse. This created another challenge for the people when they return back to the society especially for women. Also only one in seven among the prisoners was given treatment for drug. Graph below shows the comparison between the percentages