Current Event

A Mexican drug cartel known as the Zetas has dumped forty-nine bodies in a town close to the Mexican-American border. This barbarity is not unique; many other powerful gangs have also participated in these mass killings, and the number of killings is growing tremendously leading up to the Mexican presidential elections.

I know this sounds strange, but one of my biggest fears is Mexican drug cartels. While, needless to say, there are few violent drug cartels in South Mississippi, last summer I spent a ton of my free time learning about them. My family and I spent a few weeks in in San Diego, and I was determined to go to Tijuana. We were so close, and I didn't understand why, if we had our passports, they refused to take me. We eventually compromised, and they said that we would go to the border but no further. When we got to the boarder, I was appalled. I was extremely ignorant as to how big of a deal the whole drug trafficking issue had become. There were hundreds of Mexican and American border guards everywhere we looked, and there were around ten helicopters circling right over our heads.
After that experience, I learned all about the sophisticated cartels. The most powerful had their own 747 planes, submarines, and private cruise ships to transport their products. I also learned that these transportation methods frequented the United States. I think what scares me most about these most recent killings is their proximity to our country. Boarder areas are known for their violence, and these acts are happening increasingly closer to our home. Some of these people were probably even killed in the United States. This also makes me think about the innocent people in these drug infested cities. If these killings scare me thousands of miles away, I can't imagine what the local people are feeling. Many are too poor to escape, and, with the corruption of the government and police force in favor of the drug cartels, they have no protection.

Miroff, Nick. "‘Total barbarity’ as Mexican cartel dumps 49 torsos along highway." The Washington Post, 13 May 2012. Web. 13 May 2012.