jesus malverde protect us

it’s easy to demonize the cartel boys from Mexico as they slay each other by the dozen. how could they be so brutal, so inhuman? why have they allowed the drug trade to take over their communities? perhaps it’s better to break it down a little.

•during the mid to late 1800's the US fought a dirty war in attempt to capture as much Mexican territory as possible. Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian gives us a graphic, albeit fictional account of how that time transpired
•completion of the Glenn Canyon Damn in 1963, effectively robbing water from Mexico -“the Colorado River Delta in Mexico is deprived of silt and vital nutrients, which has changed a once lush environment to infertile land.”
•NAFTA

oh there’s a lot more in the history over the past 100 years that can help explain why Mexico is in the state that it is today. the war on drugs in Mexico is nothing more than an economic struggle. the people from the north of Mexico have no way to make a living. the lands are not arable. factories have closed due to cheaper labor in Asia.

the cartels exist because in North America and Western Europe there is a huge demand for drugs. at what point will we take responsibility? are we not to blame for the violence which happens in order to maintain the flow of drugs north? it’s the same with diamonds and hard woods from the Congo, or coal from Colombia, or garments from sweatshops in South East Asia.

at what point do we accept some responsibility for the slayings, the desertification of once fertile lands, the indentured servitude of millions of hands, deforestation, starvation, human trafficking, and on and on? I don’t mean to navel gaze. I’m completely aware as to how I benefit from our taking and taking. I just want to be honest, and see myself as no different than the cartel boys. the only difference between them and me is our weapon of choice. mine is my wallet while theirs is the pistol.