Why Mexico, U.S. can't work together on guns and drugs

[Judi Lynn]

Given how little the U.S. political system seems to care about gun violence in America, it's hard to believe it will do much to help curb the violence in Mexico.

By Eduardo Porter Bloomberg Opinion AUGUST 5, 2023 — 6:00PM

On July 24, the Department of Homeland Security announced that officials from the U.S. and Mexico reinforced their commitment to "joint efforts" to disrupt the trafficking of fentanyl and its precursors across the border from Mexico to the U.S., as well as the flow of weaponry moving in the other direction.

The careful phrasing of the release, however, with 38 words on what the Americans need on the fentanyl end and another 38 on what Mexicans want on weapons in return, underscores the precarious balance between the two nations' interests.

Indeed, it's mostly wishful thinking. U.S. officials must acknowledge that their overriding goal — stoppin

Mg the cross-border flow of illegal narcotics — is only circumstantially related to the Mexican government's objective of reining in the violence that is destabilizing the Mexican state. Those differing objectives lead to different priorities.

Not that long ago, up until the 1980s, Mexico was a country in which drug cartels and a corrupt state could cut deals that took much of the bloodshed out of the business. It was a landscape many Mexicans, in and out of government, now look back on with barely concealed nostalgia.

More:
https://www.startribune.com/why-mexico-u-s-cant-work-together-on-guns-and-drugs/600295128/

[marble falls]

1. There's too much money to be made createing high paid jobs for for people cattying fire arms ...

... there's too much money being made by corrupt police and officials on both sides of the border. there's too much money being made by the private "corrections" corporations. There's too much money and political be made by so-called law and order politicians.

Legalize it, take the profits out it. Kill the gun industry. Take the profits out of it. Take high paying jobs for criminals away from them.

[Alexander Of Assyria]

2. The U.S. political system, is it? What part of republicans have gone insane on guns is complex?

Although America, #1 importer and consumer of illicit drugs and Guns, giving lessons to Mexico on gun violence is…irony on steroids.

[Historic NY]

3. Well if they really wanted to stop the drugs they would shut down cross border traffic or limit it

Limit Transit by motor vehicle. Limit it to commercial vehicles that could be fully search with all electronic means.

You want to go the walk across the border station. I'm sure a taxi in Mexico would gladly take on fares.

Cruel no, I've walked across the border to Canada more than once.

Cartels are supposedly using drones now also to get drugs in.


Most fentanyl is being smuggled into the U.S. along the southern border, often in vehicles driven by American citizens, as cartels and other criminal groups in Mexico have turned the production of the synthetic opioid into a clandestine industry that has become the primary source of fentanyl in the U.S., according to the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA).

[link:https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/stats/drug-seizure-statistics|]