The anti-war movement in the United States has totally ignored the war in Mexico. The mainstream media also has ignored this war. Most Americans don’t know there is a major war happening right now in Mexico. Cuidad Juarez, the city with the most deaths from the war, is only 1,250 miles from Chicago. War broke out in Mexico in December 2006 when the newly elected president Felipe Calderon sent 6,500 troops to Michoacan state to fight the drug cartels. Few people outside Mexico even noticed the war and no protests against the war, outside of Mexico, have taken place.
Currently 45,000 Mexican troops are battling drug cartels whose combined force is estimated at 100,000 fighters. Most of the violence is concentrated in northern Mexico. The US government has played a huge role in the Mexican Drug War. Bush and Obama have been strong supporters of Calderon’s war. The US government has supplied the Mexican military with millions of dollars worth of weapons, training and intelligence. The death toll in the Mexican Drug War is 2,477 killed during 2007 and 6,290 killed during 2008 and 7,598 killed during 2009. The war in Mexico is the deadliest armed conflict occurring right now in the world except of course for the other US-led wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen. One big reason the US government supports the war is so American corporations can maintain their control over Mexican workers. US corporations like Reebok and Nike operate a lot of sweatshops in Mexico. If many people in Mexico get their income from the drug trade then they are less likely to work for the sweatshops. One more drug cartel member is one less sweatshop worker.
Another reason the US government supports the war is that they do not want the drug cartels to overthrow the Calderon regime which is friendly to US interests. Mexico also has large quantities of oil in the ground and Mexico is the third largest supplier of oil to the United States. In Mexico all healthy males are required to join the military at the age of 18 and serve for at least 12 months. Human life is more important than oil and corporate profits. The people of Mexico have a right to self-determination, indeed, people everywhere have a right to control their own lives. This includes being free of oppressive sweatshops, factories, corporations, governments, military conscription and warfare. War for oil, money and other resources is always wrong. Calderon’s war must end. The war in Mexico is a crime against humanity. It is a war for US domination of Mexico. There is no need for this war.
(via)
