On July 12, 2015, Mexican drug lord Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman, the leader of the Sinaloa drug cartel, escaped from his jail cell in Altiplano prison, outside of Mexico City. With an estimated net worth of a billion dollars, Guzman is known as a brutal leader responsible for the thousands of murders, and the exportation of large amounts of cocaine, methamphetamine and marijuana into the United States. To many Mexicans, he is also a folk hero like Jesús Malverde, a Mexican Robin Hood figure who robbed Mexican banks in the early 1900’s (Campbell). In the Mexican state of Sinaloa, he is a hero, with candles burning in shrines dedicated in his honor. To U.S. authorities, Guzman is considered a drug kingpin, responsible for more than a quarter of the drugs that hit American streets (Rusche). Until his arrest, Guzman was also a billion dollar customer of HSBC, a respected British multinational bank.
Mexican drugs are shipped to the U.S., where they are consumed in increasingly large amount. In 2015, 85% of Mexican exported drugs were smuggled into the U.S. (Rusche). “El Chapo” is representative of the close relationship between U.S. drug addiction, and Mexico corruption. To some Mexicans, “El Chapo” is a figure, like Malverde, who is a common person who rises up and takes advantage of the naturally unfair world of Mexican-American power elites. However, there is very little evidence the legendary Malverde ever lived. The Mexican Robin Hood legend was created by mixing stories of two documented Sinaloan bandits, named Felipe Bachomo and Heraclio Bernal, who lived in the 1800’s. Both were anti-government rebels who stole from the rich, and probably never gave much to the poor. Their stories were exaggerated and grew into a mythology involving anti-governmental bandits who stole from the rich, and gave back to their local communities, who were poor. Today, Jesus Malverde is worshipped as saint by those involved in dealing to protect their shipments. There are shrines in his honor throughout Mexico. In the U.S., the popular television show “Breaking Bad” featured a Malverde bust, in a shrine. The Guadalajara beer brewery sells a popular microbrew called Malverde, and a popular Mexican rapper performs under the pseudonym Jesús Malverde. The name offered the rapper instant street credibility (Rusche).
However, if Americans are doing Mexican drugs, it was European bankers who were profiting off the violence and addiction by laundering hundreds of millions of dollars for the world’s largest drug organization, the Sinaloa cartel of “El Chapo” Guzma (Rusche). The United States consumes Mexico’s drugs, which fuels the Mexican cartel, and their insane violence. In Europe, bankers launder the money by investing it in Asian stock markets and real estates ventures from Dubai to the Philippines (Rusche). In the United States, drugs create crime and overdoses. In Mexico, the drug violence is a social, economic and political issue as the cartels fight for control of the drug markets. Some of the drugs make their way to Europe, but they are primarily “party drugs’ including ecstasy and MDMA (Molzahn, Rios & Shirk).
In 2006, Mexican President Felipe Calderon initiated a governmental war on drugs, but since then the violence and amounts of drugs exported to the U.S. has increased. The Mexican quasi-military offensive did not decrease the power of the cartels (“Mexican Drug War”). In fact, there were unintended consequences,. In communities that lacked a supportive governmental presence, the cartels became de-facto governments. The violence destroyed peaceful communities. More than fifty mayors have been killed, kidnappings became common, and nobody wanted to assume formal leadership as the massacres of civilians increased. In March of 2010, over 23,000 people remain "disappeared" (Rusche). As a result, the media, academia, and governmental agencies have focused on the United State's role in the increase of drug related violence in Mexico (Howard).
However, the problem is not isolated to the U.S. and Mexico. In 2012, executives with HSBC, the largest bank in Europe, admitted that it laundered billions of dollars for Mexican drug cartels. The bank politely apologized for its collusion with Mexican drug lords, and promised “reforms” had implemented. HSBC said that “the external environment in Mexico challenging. Bank employees faced risks of being targeted for bribery, extortion, and kidnapping”(Rusche). The billions of dollars created by the Mexican drug trade created problems in Mexico, Europe, and on the streets of the United States, where cheap drugs, like heroin, which were substituted for prescription pain killers, like oxycodone. Since 2006, many American got hooked on painkillers, were cut off by their doctors, and then resorted to heroin, which was cheaper and much more easily available. It was not until 2012, that evidence of money laundering emerged in the HSBC case. In a report, one executive admitted to "rubber-stamping unacceptable risks.” (Rusche). HSBC's Mexico offices transferred over seven billion dollars of drug money into the their US subsidiary. Mexicans provided the drugs, Americans were doing the drugs, and European bankers were making a profit. The Mexican-American drug trade is violent, destructive and lucrative, and in the border towns between the U.S. and Mexico, the murder rates are higher than war torn areas of Iraq. (Molzahn, Rios & Shirk). The Sinaloa Cartel has a serious enemy in the Juarez Cartel, based across the border from El Paso Texas. They are even more violent than the other cartels, known for chopping the heads off their competitors, mutilating their corpses and then dumping them along busy highways to scare the public, law enforcement, and their rivals. As a result, vigilantes known as autodefensas (group of self-defense) have been created in in rural areas to combat narco-traffickers, offering protection where corrupted or fearful local police have fled. However, in other areas, the drug organizations become de-factor government, offering social welfare support and law and order. Their trade also provides a source of income and pride for local residents (Bagley & Walker).
This is not just an US-American problem. However, there is little cooperation between countries (Molzahn, Ríos & Shirk). There is a high level of mistrust between the two governments regarding the issue, where the U.S. believes the Mexican authorities are corrupt, and the Mexican government believes the Americans are unwilling to admit their countries role in fueling the drug trade. In 2012, Mexican President Nieto promised to follow a new path and concentrate on curbing the violence, corruption, kidnappings, and extortion that plague the country. This was initially promising, including the high-profile arrest of major drug lords, including "El Chapo.” His escape in 2015 was blamed on prison officials who were terrified by violence, and willing to allow him to escape, instead of having their families murdered (Paullier).
Ultimately, the effects of drugs on the heroin addicts of American, and the drug-related violence of Mexican border towns are major threats to civilized society. In some parts of Mexico, the cartels have assumed the role of both criminal organization and state,
offering “military, and political control of vast territories and have taken on many functions of the state” (Campbell 14). In depressed areas of Mexico, drug cartels are criminal, police, and government. According to some political scientists, they have become “political entities with narco-propaganda as a powerful new form of political discource” (Campbell 19). In some communities, it has become more than political, and Jesus Malverde shrines celebrate the exploits of drug trafficker where parishioners can pray for the safe delivery of shipments of drugs to large U.S. metropolitan cities. The U.S. buys the drugs that promotes the political corruption and escalating violence in Mexico. The $30 billion drug trade constitutes 4 percent of Mexico's $1.2 trillion annual GDP (Rusche). In 2014, 85 percent of Mexico's exports were sold in the United States (“Mexican Drug War”). Mexico has large oil reserves and other resources. However, for poor Mexicans, who have no socioeconomic access to education or employment, drugs are seen a necessary evil for survival. To them, “El Chapo” is a heroic underdog (Paullier).
Mexican president José de la Cruz Porfirio Díaz is well known for a famous quote: “Poor Mexico, So Far From God, So Close To The United States." He was elected seven times between 1876 and 1911 and believed Mexico had two problems, corruption and proximity to the United States (“Mexico Timeline”). President Diaz believed Mexico was “so far from God,” in that it had its own problems with corruption and crime. However, it was also “so close to the U.S.” which was only exacerbated its problems. Today, Mexico has assumed leadership in the global drug trade, and the U.S. has provided the demand for the drugs. As governmental powers erode, drug cartels fill the power vacuum, creating folk heroes like “El Chapo,” who are really only murderers, taking advantage of the poor communities who have been left without resources or support. The U.S. appetite for drugs fuels the violence and corruption in Mexico, and American and Mexican governmental “war on drugs’ have proved futile against powerful economic and social forces within Mexico. HSBC, which profited off the relationship between the U.S. and Mexico, got off with a small fine of 1.9 billion, which was only part of their questionable business practices, including shuttling money for “rogue states” like Libya, Iran and Sudan. Today, President Diaz might say, “Mexico, so far from God, so close the United States, and banking with the British.”
In todays globalized world, Mexican drug traffickers like “El Chapo” could not exist without American consumers and European bankers. There is a symbiotic relationship that thrives until it falls apart. ”El Chapo” was imprisoned and HSBC was fined. However, they both seem to have emerged relatively unscathed, which suggests that the Mexican drug trade may be a problem that is too economically profitable to be solved using traditional governmental methods. While it is easy for the U.S. or Europeans to blame Mexico, it is clear that the drug trade is global business.
Works Cited
Bagley, Bruce Michael, and William O. Walker, eds. Drug trafficking in the Americas. New Brunswick, NJ, USA: University of Miami, North-South Center, 1994.
Campbell, Howard. "Narco-Propaganda in the Mexican “Drug War” An Anthropological Perspective." Latin American Perspectives 41.2 (2014): 60-77.
"Mexican Drug War." Council on Foreign Relations. Council on Foreign Relations, n.d. Web. 22 July 2015. <http://www.cfr.org/mexico/mexicos-drug-war/p13689>
"Mexico Profile - Timeline - BBC News." BBC News. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 July 2015. <http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-19828041>.
Molzahn, Cory, Viridiana Ríos, and David A. Shirk. "Drug violence in Mexico: Data and analysis through 2011." Trans-Border Institute, University of San Diego, San Diego (2012).
Paullier, Juan. "Drug Lord El Chapo Hunted in Mexico after Prison Escape - BBC News." BBC News. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 July 2015. <http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-33517418>.
Rusche, Dominic. "HSBC 'sorry' for Aiding Mexican Drugs Lords, Rogue States and Terrorists." The Guardian, 17 July 2012. Web.
