Judith - Article Images and References

I grew up in a border town, highly populated by Mexican-Americans, most of which are first generation including myself. Listening to the stories of how the drug wars in Mexico have affected not only my immediate family of those iwho still live in Mexico, but also my family who happens to live 15 minutes from the border of Mexico, but on the American side. Seeing how Mexico’s problem was slowly becoming a US problem made me wonder, was the US involved in protecting its land. I had read an article in the Huffington Post that forced me to question the validity of this drug war, and how the biggest nation in the world could facilitate the murder of thousands of innocent people, who race to the  border to find an escapism from the violence and corruption on the other side. In the article the words are clear “In fact, some 87 percent of firearms seized by Mexico during the previous five years were traced to the U.S., The Guardian reported, citing a federal Government Accountability Office report. Mexico's neighbor, Texas, was the single largest source.” In a botched federal gun trafficking investigation called “Fast and Furious”, the federal officials encouraged the selling of firearms destined to cartels in Mexico, the intention was to trace those guns in hopes to find “bigger fish” in the cartels. Out of the 94,000 cartel weapons captured in the drugs war, more than 64,000 originated in the US. Undercover agents at the Drug Enforcement Administration laundered millions of dollars in drug proceeds. Alright it’s a little dark, but I saw something on Daily Show 2 nights ago, that reminded me of this story.