Introduction
Over the years, Mexico has been associated with production, distribution and consumption of drugs, an exercise that is mainly conducted by organized groups commonly referred to as cartels. Currently, there are six major cartels in drug syndicates namely Sinaloa Federation, Gulf Cartel, Los Zetas, Juarez cartel, Tijuana, and Beltran Leyva (United Nation, 2010, p.239). These cartels are a major cause of conflict with national authorities or other cartels due to the benefits accruing from such conflicts. In most cases, the cartels use conflicts to evade police arrests, protect trafficking routes from other cartels or to discipline members in the cartel who defect or tend to become betrayers.
The main drugs involved in these cartels are marijuana, heroine, cocaine, and methamphetamine. Apart from being involved in transportation and distribution of illegal drugs and arms in large parts of United States, the cartels are also associated with murder, kidnapping, and theft among other antisocial behaviors. It is estimated that 9,635 people were killed in 2009 in drug related crimes, the dead included police officers, civilian, diplomats, and members of drugs cartel (Warner, 2010, p.129).
How cartels are supporting conflicts
The cartels recruit member and train them in rigorous military practices like using of weapons. They attract a large number of recruits since they pay good salaries and promise other luxury goods. One success story among them is their ability of encouraging desertion from the military whereby, it is estimated that 2.5% of the defense force are deserting the military to join the drug cartels (Hawley, 2008). It is also believed that the cartels have been exporting terror to the neighboring nations; for instance, the US border with Mexico suffers constant conflicts emanating from cartels trafficking drugs or arms with the boarder control guards (Warner, 2010, p.132).
The cartels support the distribution of drugs to smaller streets gangs who are retailers; these street gangs are in turn frequently involved in violence activities. Most of the violence results from addicts failing to pay their dues. More often, the cartels work with street and prison gangs, increasingly creating havoc and insecurity in the society. Moreover, arms trafficking play a huge role in the increasing number of violent crimes and insecurity.
Cartels involved in conflict
It is recorded that, inter-cartel conflicts occur in order to control trafficking routes or protecting a market region from other rival cartel groups. These conflicts (conflicts among members of the same cartel) are used to discipline members, or punish members who betray others (Beittel, 2010, p.11).
From a different perspective, government officials are exposed to the risk of conflict from drug cartels, due to their efforts of stopping activities of these groups. In this case, the cartels use various ways of intimidating legal intervention against them; and from these, kidnapping for money, human trafficking, and vehicles theft in Mexico has increased. In addition, the cartels intimidate and threaten people in the society to stop them from giving information to the authorities.
The Guardian reported that some innocent people in the streets, rehabilitation centre, factory, and at a birthday party were killed by cartel groups, creating a new wave of violence (Tuckman, 2010). However, as conflicts escalate, the Mexican cartels are moving to the northern part of the US country to seize the drug market from other cartels that controlled the market. Regularly, the cartels’ distributors have conflict with their retailers due to payment for drugs sold. Moreover, arrests or death of top leaders may result to conflict within the cartels as they fight the vacant position. Lastly, the cartels threaten or kill journalists to intimidate them from covering their activities (Warner, 2010, p.131).
.How cartels are benefiting from conflict
Cartels profit from conflict as they inflict people with fear, hence they are able extort money from them. In addition, the cartels run protections rackets and extort money from business people in pretence of protecting them from the prevailing conflicts. However, these cartels are able to evade from arrests from the authorities when trafficking drugs and arms with a lot of ease.
The conflicts destabilize the government, hence allowing the cartels to operate freely without much fear. In this case, they are able to transport, produce, and distribute illegal drugs in the country and to other nations without fearing that the authorities will catch up with them. Through conflict, they have the ability to acquire new market share or expand their regions of control, mainly due to the fact that they can transport drugs through other cartels routes without paying taxes. Moreover, due to their power, these cartels are in a position to acquire the most profitable routes of drug and arms trafficking (Warner, 2010, p.130).
How Mexico drug cartels are cause of conflict
In certain cases, it has been established that, the cartels are getting backing from senior government officials, and this has resulted to conflicts among the officials. For instance, there have been conflicts between the Mexican police and the army over drug territories (Jordan, 1999, p.203). In addition, the possession of numerous sophisticated arms in the hands of drug cartels has led to proliferation of crimes and conflicts in the society.
Another source of conflict arises from an attempt of splitting these cartels, which has resulted in large conflicts between members of the ensuing factions; for example, splitting of Allerano Felix cartel brought about conflict in Tijuana area (Beittel, 2010, p.4). Recently a drug cartel killed some recovering addicts in a rehabilitation centre, and other people in a party and streets (Tuckman, 2010).
Rehabilitation centers, as well as persons working in them, have become a target since they are seen to be drawing away addicts from consumption of drugs. More often, arrests of key leaders of these cartels often result to violence from the members. Therefore, drug cartels conflicts between members of different cartels have led to an increase in the level of violence in the society (Beittel, 2010, p.11). For instance, the department of Homeland Security reported that violence from the Mexican boarder spilled to the U.S. side (Warner, 2010, p.132).
The relationship cartels have with arms smuggling
Arms smuggling is on the increase in regions where drugs cartels operate (Shanty, 2008, p.94), as these cartels require highly sophisticated weapons to counter the police and other rival cartels. In addition, the cartels accept arms in exchange for their drugs. The cartels also obtain arms by buying from licensed arms holders.
Arm smuggling from other countries through the borders of Mexico has been attributed to the protection being offered by the cartels. In most cases, most arms seized from drug cartel members are smuggled from its neighbor United States. Generally, arms trafficking involve both small-scale i.e. small numbers of arms to large shipment of armory tools, which pass through the boarder or underground channels.
How one or more conflicts have had an impact on the Mexican Drug Cartels
Two cartels, Gulf and Le Familia, merged to fight a third cartel known as Zetas whereby, they formed an alliance to wipe out Zetas, which is primarily composed of former military commandos. The two cartels’ reasons for merging were that, they shared a common enemy who was threatening their existence. The conflict has resulted to escalation of other conflicts; for instance, the Sinaloa cartel incidentally joined the Zetas to fight Gulf and Le Familia alliance. Moreover, as the market share reduces, the violence between the cartels has significantly increased (Beittel, 2010, p.8).
Conclusion
There is a close relationship between Mexico drugs cartel and conflicts. Primarily, conflicts have largely been used to establish the cartel authority in a region like market share or trafficking routes. The cartel members often use violent acts like beating and torturing to discipline members who defect or betray them. In addition to drug trafficking, the cartels are widely involved in trafficking of arms and human beings. Most of the arms smuggled are obtained in the U.S. and later used in conflicts in Mexico; besides, the cartels usually accept arms as payment of drugs.
References
Beittel, J. (2010). Mexicozs Drug-Related Violence. NY: DIANE Publishing.
Hawley, C. (2008). Mexico cartels post ‘help wanted’ ads.
Jordan, D. (1999). Drug politics: dirty money and democracies. NY: University of Oklahoma Press.
Shanty, F. (2008). Organized crime: from trafficking to terrorism. CA: ABC-CLIO.
Tuckman, J. (2010). Mexico’s drug wars: the end of an exceptionally bloody week. The Gurdian.
United Nation. (2010). Globalization of Crime: A Transnational Organized Crime Threat Assessment. NY: United Nation Publisher. Web.
Warner, J. (2010). U.S. Border Security: A Reference Handbook. NY: ABC-CLIO.