Silver or Lead, the drug war in Mexico

Silver or Lead cover

A few months ago I did a series of illustrations for a short book called “Silver or Lead, the drug dilemma.” It was written and designed by my talented friend Marissa Haro. To see more of her work check out her website: www.marissaharo.com

index

In the book Marissa tackles several issues pertaining to the drug war that is taking place in Mexico and the US. Mexican president Felipe Calderon openly declared war on the Mexican drug cartels in December of 2006, and heavily militarized the country. Since then, more than twelve thousand people have been killed.

so far from God, so close to...

In Mexico there is a saying “so far from God and so close to the US,” and in the case of the drug war, the saying is more than accurate. The US is the largest exporter of weapons and the largest consumer of drugs. Ninety percent of the weapons that are seized from Mexican drug traffickers can be traced back to the US. Most of these weapons are actually bought legally and then sold in the black market.

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90% of the weapons

That is not say that the Mexican government is exempt of responsibility for the current situation. Widespread corruption among Mexican officials has allowed the cartels to flourish and to have their present strength. Corrupt officials continue to protect them.

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without govermental coruption...

However, any realistic end to the drug war must involve a shift in policy from the US towards both the use of drugs –treating addicts clinically as oppose to criminally—and towards gun control.

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To me it’s simple economics. Consumption, not production is what needs to be deterred. If there is demand there will be supply. If a day ever came when the Mexican cartels no longer existed, new cartels would spring up in the Caribbean, in Asia, or anywhere else in the world for that matter.

In Drugs We Trust

I have an earlier post on the subject. This is a link to it: https://duncantonatiuh.wordpress.com/2009/04/21/narcocorridos/ The illustrations in that post have backgrounds, etc. Marissa decided to use only the characters in the images I made for design purposes.

elected Mayor of the largest borough in Mexico City caught at a table dance… dancing!

Juanito, elected Mayor for Mexico's City most populous borough

Rafael Acosta better known as Juanito is by far the most surreal of Mexican politicians to be in the scene for a while. Before becoming an activist (and by activist I mean being a part of demonstrations, getting beaten and beating police up) Juanito was a soft porn actor, lucha libre wrestler and a street vendor (still is). His idols are Rocky and Rambo and his favorite restaurant is a street market stall that sells shrimp with lots of ketchup.

In these past elections he received support from the influential Manuel Lopez Obrador, the left candidate who almost became president of Mexico in 2006.  The deal however was that if Juanito (from the PT) won he’d give his post to Clara Brugada, Obrador’s actual choice, who wasn’t able to win the nomination for candidate (PRD) because of internal conflicts in the party.

Juanito accepted the terms, and to the surprise of everyone he won the election for Mayor of Iztapala, Mexico City’s most populous borough. He surprised everyone even more days after when he rebelled and claimed that he had won the election and that he was going to become Mayor of the borough disregarding the deal.

Unfortunately the entertainment is over. After a meeting with Marcelo Ebrad, Mexico’s City Mayor Juanito gave a news conference in which he declared that due to heart problems he would after all resign his post and give it to Clara Brugada.

Juanito wasn’t actually caught at a table dance dancing. But he might as well have been. These are some images of the real Juanito. Someone please write a Wiki entry about him!

Juanito