Blog Carnival: Mexico – The United States and Violence in Mexico

This post is part of our special coverage Mexico's Drug War.

In this fourth installment of the summary for our Blog Carnival: Mexico – Citizenry, Violence and Blogs we present the participants who wrote about the relationship between the United States (U.S.) and Mexico on issues of violence.

The U.S sets a worldwide standard and its actions affect people all over the world. On the issue of violence, many associate the events of September 11, 2001, with a change in the way countries fight against drug trafficking and deal with matters of public security. Although confronting the perpetrators of violence was always a priority, after September 11 the discussion and the actions around persecuting these individuals became more frequent.

Regarding the relationship between Mexico and the U.S, it is also worth remembering that they share a border and that only one other country besides Mexico is as geographically close to the American way of life.

Migrants are also fed up; by Flickr user Brenmorado (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0).

Migrants are also fed up; by Flickr user Brenmorado (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0).

The United States and violence in Mexico

Just as there is much talk about Mexican migrants who go to the U.S. in search of opportunities and to escape violence, the U.S. also goes to Mexico, but to make war. This is what Jeanne M Dorado of Lapuff analyzes and questions:

No. I’m intrigued at how since the death of OBL the US has now turned its beady eye to their neighbors south of the Rio Grande. What really needs to stop is this senseless Mexican violence that is now an everyday occurrence thanks to the latest war in vogue, Drugs. As global Gestapo, concerned with protecting the virtues of gentle folk, how does the US plan on stopping this frenemy? […] The “War on Drugs” has a nice ring to it and feels like a morally correct battle to wage. It also jives with all of the other “wars” the US is currently occupied with, so the pill is easier to swallow. But who is it exactly that we’re fighting against? And why are all these random Mexicans dying?

The presence of the U.S in Mexico it no only physical. Katitza Rodríguez from the Electronic Frontier Foundation analyzes the U.S. government's plans to permanently monitor public data on the Internet, plans that were unveiled by Mexican newspaper El Milenio:

The document, obtained by El Milenio through a U.S. Freedom of Information Act request, discloses how OPC’s National Operations Center (NOC) plans to initiate systematic monitoring of publicly available online data including “information posted by individual account users” on social media. […] The NOC report […] reveals that NOC’s team of data miners are gathering, storing, analyzing, and sharing “de-identified” online information. The sources of information are “members of the public…first responders, press, volunteers, and others” who provide online publicly available information. To collect the information, the NOC monitors search terms such as “United Nations”, “law enforcement”, “anthrax”, “Mexico”, “Calderon”, “Colombia”, “marijuana”, “drug war”, “illegal immigrants”, “Yemen”, “pirates”, “tsunami”, “earthquake”, “airport”, “body scanner”, “hacker”, “DDOS”, “cybersecurity”, “2600” and “social media”.

Yalí Noriega Curtis, from Reflexiones de una RIta, also blogs about the role of the United States in the so called ‘War on Drugs’. Besides analyzing possible solutions to this conflict and the role citizens could play, she adds:

A final consideration is to remember the interests of the United States of America, our neighbor to the north. The USA is one of the largest markets for Mexican and other South American drug dealers, which of course promotes the production and transportation of drugs across this country. This is compounded with the trade in firearms flowing from the USA into Mexico, supplying the drug cartels with all the weapons they need to continue the fight against the federal government as well as with each other. No long term solution to the conflict currently unfolding in Mexico will be complete without addressing these two issues. Unfortunately, they do not seem to be a priority at all in the American cabinet.

This post is part of our special coverage Mexico's Drug War.

Editor's Note: Due to the article's length we have decided to publish this summary in several parts. Here are the first, second, and third installments. We will soon publish the fifth and final summary.

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