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While We Tend to Things ABROAD, the WAR NEXT DOOR is BOILING OVER...
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[link to www.theguardian.com]
Mexico: on the verge of a meltdown
The drug violence threatens safety and the entire economy. Mexico is at a fragile point as President Peña Nieto knows well
Mexico has 9 cities listed in the top 50 most dangerous cities in the world. I have seen the violence first-hand. A good friend was killed due to wounds inflicted from being shot in an attempted robbery while eating a taco at an open taco stand in Mexico City on a Saturday morning . As a sales executive for a major home appliance company based in Monterrey, I have fond memories of many clients. My top client for high-end products is based in San Pedro, Monterrey. She now lives at an undisclosed location in the Yucatan Peninsula due to fears of being kidnapped. Another friend of mine, a former senior advertising executive, finally realized his dream of opening a furniture store in Mexico City, only to be kidnapped and extorted. He closed his business and told me quite simply that "You cannot do business in Mexico".
The violence is mostly drug related. The drug business for Mexico represents around $50 billion, according to some sources. Obviously, no one knows the full extent. That's a lot of money, more than tourism and remittances, which are two basic sources other than oil for the entry of foreign currency into Mexico. How is that money used? Payoffs to police and politicians perhaps, payoffs to border guards perhaps, saved in tunnels and safe houses for future use and, of course, the purchase of weapons principally from the US. What we do know is that the "drug war" has claimed 60,000 lives in Mexico since 2006 alone.
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