20 million tourists visit Mexico every year to spend their money in Acapulco, Tijuana, Cabo San Lucas, Mexico City, Guadalajara, enjoy the Mayan culture, lie on the beach or taste gazpacho soup. That was the case until recently.

On February 24 this year in Mexico, at least eight people were killed in the popular resort of Acapulco, the Guerrero State Public Security Ministry said. A letter was found next to one of the bodies threatening Mexican soldiers participating in operations against drug cartels. The country, for which tourism is the fourth largest source of foreign exchange, is in danger of being left without it.

Earlier on February 21, in the Mexican city of Ciudad Juarez, located on the border with the United States, at least 40 people were killed in three days. The Chihuahua state prosecutor's office stressed that that weekend was one of the bloodiest in many years in the city, which is considered the most dangerous in Mexico due to the ongoing armed conflicts of local drug dealers.

It got to the point that the police of the Mexican city of General Teran quit after a series of attacks on their colleagues. The chief of police and all 37 officers resigned. The cops quit after the mutilated bodies of their two colleagues were found, who are suspected of being murdered by drug-trafficking gangs.

The number of victims is already in the tens of thousands. According to the official authorities of Mexico, over 30 thousand people died in the bloody showdowns that the drug lords are waging with the armed forces of Mexico, declaring a kind of "vendetta" to them.

It is worth remembering how the business of drug traffickers acquired such a colossal volume. It is worth noting that the United States of America has been and remains the main consumer of drugs. In the 40s of the 20th century, Mexican businessmen could not compete with the large Colombian syndicates, who needed money for a bloody civil war that did not stop for many decades. However, after the defeat of the largest cartels of Cali and Medellin, Mexico got carte blanche to bring cocaine into the US by gaining control of the traffic by buying the product at wholesale prices from Colombian producers. With the growth of capital turnover, the Mexican bosses had the opportunity to expand their business by growing on fertile southern soils marijuana. The profit of drug cartels in the American market began to reach from 25 to 40 billion dollars a year. Mexico now produces a large amount of marijuana, heroin and synthetic drugs.

For many years, Mexican businessmen have been running their dirty business, feeding the Mexican authorities, who turned a blind eye to such cases. And the drug lords filled the entire south of the United States with their goods. The growing traffic led to the struggle of groups among themselves, for spheres of influence in the United States, which resulted in local skirmishes between gang members. official authorities acted as observers and did not get involved in the affairs of bandits.

Consider a typical representative of such structures: the Sinaloa Cartel, a Mexican drug cartel operating in the states of Sinaloa, Baja California, Durango, Chihuahua and Sonora. There are other names for this cartel - "Cartel Pacific Ocean and the Guzman-Loer Organization. The first name "Cartel of the Pacific" refers to the location of the cartel zone. The second is with its leaders.

The Sinaloa Cartel supplies drugs to the United States of America, and in the period from 1990 to 2008, it transported about two hundred tons of cocaine and heroin across the borders of Mexico to the United States, according to known information. Not bad for one drug cartel? And imagine that in Mexico today there are nine drug cartels, different in size and significance. The Sinaloa Cartel operates in seventeen different states around the world. The centers of his trade and machinations can be called such cities as Mexico City, Toluca, Tepic and Cuautitlán. Basically, the drug cartel is engaged in the distribution of smuggled Colombian cocaine, heroin from Southeast Asia and Mexico, Mexican marijuana and methamphetamine.

However, in 2006, a Harvard graduate, a member of the center-right National Action Party Felipe Calderon (to whom the United States did not hide its sympathies), came to power in Mexico, the main point of the election campaign of which was the fight against drug traffickers. From words, the president quickly turned to deeds, developing a plan of measures to combat the illegal circulation of the potion, to which the gangs responded with terror against the security forces, law enforcement agencies and civilians in order to deprive the anti-drug company of the support of the people. The Associated Press, citing independent research, stated that 230,000 Mexican citizens became forced migrants. Half of them crossed the US border, the rest moved to the states of Chihuahua, Durango, Coahuila and Veracruz. Residents of the country are afraid of becoming accidental victims of open hostilities that occur almost every day, even in areas with high security measures - proud resorts, administrative centers.

Criticism towards tough measures began to gain momentum, as citizens believe that the military only "turned the hive" and turned ordinary people into objects of revenge. Anti-criminal operations lead to casualties among the civilian population, since the bandits are well-equipped, trained formations, which are often recruited from the ranks of former police officers from the military, who are not able to feed their families with honest labor (the salary of a policeman is about 1 thousand pesos - $ 70). The huge arms depots that government troops find every week are packed to capacity with rifles, machine guns and ammunition that flock to Mexico from all over the world (mostly from the US, where the sale of automatic small arms is on stream).

However, in a recent report, President Calderon pointed out that the success of the fight against the drug mafia in Mexico depends only on the United States, which is the world's main drug consumer. "If the United States were not the world's main market for drug consumption, we would never have experienced the wave of violence unleashed by drug cartels in Mexico," Calderon told the French newspaper Le Monde.

After this statement, the United States still had to take measures to combat cartels. In February 2009, the FBI announced the arrest of 750 members of the Sinaloa Cartel in the United States. This was the result of Operation Xcellerator. At the same time, they managed to seize almost sixty million US dollars in cash. At the same time, various types of transport were confiscated from the cartel - boats and even planes.

In March 2009, the Mexican government sent 1,000 federal police officers and 5,000 soldiers from the Mexican army just to clean up the city of Ciudad Juarez. In this city, the blood of innocent people was shed, the number of victims here was the largest in all of Mexico.

Also, more than once, operations were carried out to close the routes of drug trafficking from Mexico to the United States. So, one such route lay from Mexico to Chicago, and about two tons of cocaine were transported along it every month. Deliveries were carried out mainly at the expense of the Sinaloa Cartel.

However, all these measures were not very effective in the face of ordinary human greed. In May 2010, information was leaked to the press that the Mexican federal police and military were involved in collusion with the Sinaloa Cartel. Although, again, it is not known whether this information was leaked to the press, or it was beneficial for someone to throw such information to the masses.

But it has been reported that the government is helping the Sinaloa Cartel to take control of the Juarez Valley region, as well as destroy all other drug cartels in Mexico.

Of course, this information was submitted for a reason. She was adorned with various interviews and facts. Thus, the former police commander claimed that the Sinaloa Cartel helped him fight all the other drug cartels in the country. He also talked about how the "Sinaloa Cartel" bribed a lot of the military. One Mexican reporter claimed that the military was involved in many of the killings.

Some people believe that the Sinaloa Cartel only negotiated with the government to gain control of the region. And authorities monitoring the case say the Sinaloa drug cartel arrest rate is much lower than that of other drug cartels. This speaks of harboring by the authorities.

In turn, the Mexican authorities completely deny any connection with the Sinaloa Cartel.

On the other hand, all the evidence against the lack of communication between the drug cartel and the authorities suggests that it is possible for the drug cartel to bribe the authorities. Not a contract, as everyone thinks.

And who knows, maybe the war that started in 2006 is the war to eradicate all of Mexico's drug cartels except the Sinaloa Cartel? But this is just speculation, nothing more. We can all only speculate about the affairs of the Sinaloa Cartel and the Mexican government.

Nevertheless, the Calderón report contains impressive figures. According to him, since the end of 2006, 99 tons of cocaine and $72 million in cash have been confiscated from traffickers. Several major leaders and more than 8 thousand dealers and mercenaries of the drug mafia were arrested. Army units were able to seize 27,000 firearms, 1,900 grenades, 8,000 cars, 74 light aircraft, and 24 fast boats.

Currently, about 55 thousand soldiers out of 250 thousand of the total Mexican army are involved in the fight against organized crime in the country. Here are some impressive statistics. However, the report does not mention a word about the victims of this war.

Only recently, having realized the importance of the fight against cartels, President Barack Obama promised to increase financial assistance to the Mexican authorities and at the same time significantly strengthen the protection of the American border. But, according to experts, in order to radically change the situation in the region, these measures are not enough. It will take years to eradicate the evil that originated in the south of the continent. And the fight must begin directly with consumers.

Almost 40 years ago, in his book The Naked Lunch, William S. Burroughs wrote (in this passage, the word "garbage" refers to hard drugs): "If we want to destroy the garbage pyramid, we must also start from the bottom: from the Street A drug addict - and stop being quixotic against the so-called "bumps", they are all immediately replaceable. A junkie on the street who needs garbage to get on with his life is the only irreplaceable factor in the whole garbage equation. When there are no more drug addicts to buy garbage, there will be no garbage trade. As long as there is a need for garbage, there will definitely be someone who will serve it."

Probably, the heads of both countries should think about it.

The drug mafia in Mexico is getting stronger. Although the total number of murders in the country has been steadily decreasing over the past two decades, drug dealers commit heinous crimes. They have undermined the rule of law so much that ordinary Mexicans are now and then publicly interested: did the mafias win the war against the state?

The history of modern Mexican drug traffickers begins in the 1940s, when farmers from the mountain villages of the Mexican state of Sinaloa began to grow marijuana. The first Mexican drug traffickers were a bunch of villagers connected by family ties. For the most part, they were from the small northern Mexican state of Sinaloa. Sandwiched between the Gulf of California and the Sierra Madre, about 300 miles from the US border, this poor, agrarian state has become an ideal place for smuggling. At first, marijuana was grown here or bought from other "gardeners" of the Pacific coast, and then the drug was shipped to the United States. For decades, it remained a stable and not too risky small business, and violence did not spill out beyond the narrow world of drug dealers. Later, cocaine, which came into vogue in the 60s, was added to marijuana smuggling. However, for a long time, the Mexicans were just "donkeys", serving one of the channels for the supply of Colombian cocaine to North America. And they did not even dare to compete with the powerful Colombians.

The heyday of Mexican drug gangs began after the defeat of the Colombian drug cartels of Cali and Medellin by the US and Colombian governments. One by one, El Mexicoano and Pablo Emilio Escabar were killed, the brothers Ochoa and Carlos Leder (El Aleman) from the Medellin cartel were put in Colombian and state prisons. Following them, it was the turn of the Cali Cartel, led by the Orihuela brothers.

Also, after the Americans closed the supply chain of Colombian drugs through Florida, the Mexican delivery route became virtually uncontested. The weakened Colombians could no longer dictate their will to the Mexicans and now only sell them large quantities of drugs at wholesale prices.
As a result, Mexican gangs gained control over the entire chain of drug trafficking - from raw material plantations in the Andes region to points of sale on American streets. They managed to significantly expand the scale of the business: from 2000 to 2005, the supply of cocaine from South America to Mexico more than doubled, and the volume of amphetamine intercepted at the US-Mexico border - five times.

The United States, largely due to the entrepreneurial spirit of the Mexican drug cartels, ranks first in the world in terms of cocaine and marijuana consumption. And the drug cartels themselves began to earn from 25 to 40 billion dollars a year on the American market. In general, Mexico produces about 10,000 tons of marijuana and 8,000 tons of heroin annually. Almost 30% of cultivated farmland in the country is planted with marijuana. In addition, almost 90% of the cocaine consumed in the United States comes through Mexico. Most of the methamphetamine consumed in the United States is produced in Mexican laboratories (although there used to be a lot of meth - four times more pseudoephedrine was imported into the country than required for the pharmaceutical industry, and now the focus is on marijuana, which provides almost 70% of the cartel's income). All this is sold through controlled outlets, which the Mexican drug cartels have in at least 230 major American cities.

However, this expansion of business also affected relations between the leading Mexican cartels. A multiple increase in the supply of cocaine and marijuana with a fixed number of plazas (transshipment points at the border) and the number of drug addicts in the States led to a sharp increase in inter-cartel competition for the American market. It's time for big money. And big money, as you know, brings big problems. This is how drug wars began in Mexico, because “if there are standard legal ways of competition in legal business, then in illegal, most effective method bypass a competitor - kill him.

At first, families dispersed from Sinaloa began to vie for control of the main border transit points. Accordingly, the very structure of the cartels has undergone a change. If in the old days, the drug mafia was a sort of guy with a gold tooth and a Colt .45, now everything is completely different. Now there are whole groups of militants trained in a military way. To fight each other, the cartels began to create private armies consisting of mercenaries - sicarios. These mercenaries are armed with last word technicians and are often superior in technical equipment and in terms of training even to parts of the Mexican army. The most famous and violent of these groups is the Los Zetas. Its core is former Mexican special forces from the GAFE (Grupo Aeromóvil de Fuerzas Especiales) unit. Modeled after Los Zetas, their competitor, the Sinaloa cartel, created their own army called Los Negros. There was no shortage of recruits: the cartels openly posted advertisements in the towns bordering the United States, inviting former and current military men to join their organizations. Cartel vacancies have become one of the reasons for the mass desertion and dismissal from the Mexican army (from 2000 to 2006 - 100 thousand people).

Beginning of the first major war between rival drug cartels came to an end after the arrest in 1989 of Miguel Ángel Felix Gallardo, founding father of the cocaine business in Mexico, friend of José Rodríguez Gacha (El Mexicano). This contributed to the fragmentation of his group and the founding of the first two large drug cartels - Sinaloa and Tijuana. Then fuel was added to the fire by the unexpected appearance of a group that had nothing to do with Sinaloa. They were drug traffickers, who called themselves "Cartel del Golfo", from the state of Tamaulipas on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. The natives of Sinaloa were divided: some were for new players, some were against. When the cartel formation in Mexico was completed, they split into two parts: one group consists of the Juárez Cartel, Los Zetas, the Tijuana Cartel and the Tijuana Cartel. Beltran Leyva Cartel" ("Beltrán Leyva Cartel"), and the second group from the "Golf Cartel" ("Cartel del Golfol"), "Sinaloa Cartel" ("Sinaloa Cartel") and "Family Cartel" ("Cartel La Familial") . Later, two more were formed - "Cartel of Oaxaca" and "Los Negros".

And ordinary Mexicans, clearly demonstrated a new way of waging drug wars, a group of men in black went to a roadside disco in the state of Michoacán and shook out the contents of a garbage bag - five severed heads. A new era of the Mexican drug business has begun, when violence has become a means of communication. Today, members of the drug mafia monstrously disfigure the bodies of their victims and put them on public display - so that everyone is aware of the power of the drug lords and feared them. You Tube has become a propaganda platform for the drug war, where anonymous companies upload videos and drug ballads that extol the advantages of one cartel leader over another.

The United States, as you know, is not only the main market for drugs, but also the source of weapons involved in the dismantling of drug cartels in Mexico. Almost anyone with a driver's license and no criminal record can buy weapons here. There are 110,000 sellers with licenses to sell, 6,600 of which are located between Texas and San Diego. Therefore, for the purchase itself, Mexicans usually use dummy Americans - "straw people" (mostly single mothers who do not arouse suspicion), who receive 50-100 dollars for the service. These front men buy guns by the piece, either from stores or from "gun shows" that take place every weekend in Arizona, Texas, or California. Then the trunks are handed over to dealers, who, collecting a batch of several dozen, transport it across the border. And they make good money doing it. For example, a used AK-47 can be bought in the States for $400, and south of the Rio Grande it will already cost $1,500. Armed in this way, drug cartel armies have mortars, heavy machine guns, anti-tank missiles, grenade launchers, fragmentation grenades.

The Mexican border guards themselves cannot stop the arms traffic. Or rather, they don't want to. Mexicans are not very active in searching cars entering their territory from the north, this passivity is explained by the fact that the border guards are faced with the choice of “plata o plomo” (silver or lead). Many prefer to take bribes and turn a blind eye to smuggling. Those who refuse "silver" usually do not live long. For example, in February 2007, an honest Mexican border guard stopped a truck full of weapons. As a result, the Gulf Cartel missed 18 rifles, 17 pistols, 17 grenades, and more than 8,000 rounds of ammunition. The next day, the border guard was shot dead.
Until 2006, periodic mafia showdowns had practically no effect on ordinary Mexicans. The cartels were doing big business, and big business requires a quiet environment. Drug gangs have even become an everyday element in the lives of citizens. Simple people, seeing the success of drug dealers (especially against the backdrop of total poverty in the country), they began to compose “drug ballads” about them. Since Mexico is a very religious country, the cartels even got their own "drug saint" - Jesus Malverde, whose central temple is installed in the capital of the state of Sinaloa, the city of Kualican, and the "drug saint" - dona Santa Muerte.

There was no large-scale violence in the country. With Mexican President Vicente Fox, the cartels interacted according to the formula "Live yourself and do not interfere with others." Everyone controlled their territory and did not climb into someone else's. Everything changed with the victory in the 2006 presidential election, Felipe Calderon. Immediately after being elected new head States have declared war on drug cartels. The president took such a radical step for two reasons. First, he needed to start some kind of popular campaign to strengthen his position after the mixed election results (Calderón's lead over his closest rival, Andreas Manuel López Obrador, was less than 0.6%). Of the two potential popular directions - the war on crime and the beginning of deep economic reforms- he chose the first as, in his opinion, the easiest. Secondly, the new president realized the danger of the coexistence of cartels and the state. Calderón realized that further “see nothing, hear nothing” tactics against the drug cartels would inevitably lead to a weakening of the government. Every year the bandits penetrated deeper and deeper into state institutions especially to the police.

By the time Calderón arrived, the entire police force in the northern states of Mexico had been bought by the cartels. At the same time, law enforcement officers did not fear for their future if their ties with bandits were revealed. If a local police officer is fired for corruption, then he simply crosses the street and is hired by the cartel (for example, in Rio Bravo, the Los Zetas recruiting office was located directly opposite the police station). Former police officers know the principles of police work from the inside, and they were taken with joy. That is why the authority of the police in the country was very low.

As a result of an active campaign, Calderon managed to inflict some damage on the drug mafia. In 2007-2008, 70 tons of cocaine, 370 tons of marijuana, 28,000 barrels, 2,000 grenades, 3 million rounds of ammunition and $304 million were seized from the cartels. In the US, this has translated into numbers: cocaine prices soared 1.5 times, while the average purity fell from 67.8% to 56.7%, and the cost of amphetamine on American streets rose by 73%.

After the new president violated the unspoken truce, the drug cartels declared a vendetta against the government and law enforcement agencies and are waging it with their inherent cruelty and intransigence (for the sake of this, two sworn enemies, the Gulf Cartels and Sinaloa, even reconciled for a while). Those who did not run away and did not sell out are mercilessly shot. Briefly, the chronicle of the most significant victories and losses looks like this:

In January 2008, in the city of Culiacan, one of the leaders of the cartel of the same name, Alfredo Beltran Leyva (nicknamed El Mochomo), was arrested. His brothers, in revenge for his arrest, orchestrated the assassination of Federal Police Commissioner Edgar Eusebio Millano Gomez and other high-ranking officials in the Mexican capital itself.
In the same month of January, members of the Juarez cartel pinned a list of 17 police officers to the door of Juarez City Hall and were sentenced to death. By September, ten of them had been killed.

On October 25, in the prestigious area of ​​Fraksionamiento Pedregal, Tijuana, troops and police stormed the villa located here, arresting the leader of the Tijuana cartel Eduardo Arellano Felix (nickname "Doctor"), after which the leadership in the cartel passed to his nephew - Luis Fernando Sánchez Arellano.
However, after the arrest of Eduardo Arellano Felix, one of the leaders of the drug cartel, Teodoro Garcia Simmental (nicknamed "El Teo") left the group and started a war against its new leader, as a result of which Tijuana was swept by a wave of violence that, according to various sources, claimed from 300 to almost 700 people. . Within a year, rivals fought for control of a road through Nogales, Sonora, and the city's homicide rate tripled.

In November, under strange circumstances, the plane of Juan Camilo Mourino, the President's national security adviser, crashed.

And in early February 2009, one of the most popular Mexican military, retired General Mauro Enrique Tello Quinones, was kidnapped, tortured and killed. Less than 24 hours before his kidnapping, he took up the post of security adviser to the mayor's office of Cancun - a resort town, one of the drug lords' recreation centers.

On December 16 of the same year, Arturo Beltran Leyva, one of the leaders of the Beltran Leyva drug cartel, was killed in a shootout with members of the Mexican Navy, and on December 30, in the city of Culiacan, law enforcement agencies detained his brother and one of the leaders of the drug cartel, Carlos Beltran Leyva.

On January 12, 2010, one of the most wanted Mexican drug lords and leaders of the Tijuana drug cartel, Teodoro Garcia Simmental (nickname "El Teo"), was caught in Baja California.
In February, the Los Zetas cartel and its ally the Beltran Leyva cartel launched a war against the Golfo cartel in the border town of Reynosa, turning some of the border towns into ghost towns. It was reported that a member of the Golfo cartel killed the Zetas' top lieutenant, Victor Mendoza. The group demanded that the cartel find the killer, but he refused. Thus, a new war broke out between the 2 gangs.

On June 14, members of the opposing Zetas and Sinaloa cartels staged a massacre in the Mazatlán city prison. A group of prisoners, tricked into stealing the guards' pistols and assault rifles, broke into a nearby cell block, massacring members of a rival cartel. During this and at the same time, in other parts of the prison, 29 people died from the riots.

On June 19, in the city of Ciudad Juarez, the mayor of the city of Guadalupe Distros Bravos Manuel Lara Rodriguez, who was hiding there after receiving threats against him, was shot dead, and ten days later the criminals killed Rodolfo Torre Cantu, a candidate for governor of the northwestern state of Tamaulipas.

On July 29, the military discovered in the suburbs of Guadalajara, the whereabouts of one of the leaders of the Sinaloa drug cartel, Ignacio Coronel, and he died during the ensuing shootout. In the same month, in municipal area Tamaulipas, the military raided the ranch where the alleged members of the drug cartel were located and 4 people were killed during the shootout. While searching the area around the ranch, the Mexican military found a mass grave (the bodies of 72 people, including 14 women).

On August 30, the authorities managed to arrest the influential drug lord Edgar Valdes (nicknames Barbie, "Comandante" and "Guero"), and in early September, in the wake of operational intelligence information, one of the leaders of the drug cartel was arrested by the special forces of the naval forces in Pueblo "Beltran Leyva" Sergio Villareal (nickname "El Grande").

The next major success of the Mexican law enforcement agencies was the arrest in the Cancun resort of the head of the Los Zetas drug cartel, Jose Angel Fernandez.
A few days earlier, on November 6, during a shootout with the military in the city of Matamoros, one of the leaders of the Gulf Cartel, Ezekiel Gardenas Guillen (nickname Tony Tormenta), was killed.

On December 7, one of the high-ranking members of the La Familia drug cartel, José Antonio Arcos, was detained. And the next day, hundreds of police and military entered the city of Apatzingan, where La Familia is based. And with the support of helicopters, they fought for two days with armed members of the drug cartel, during which several people (civilians, militants and policemen) were killed, including the head of the La Familia drug cartel, Nazario Moreno Gonzalez (nickname "Mad").

On December 28, in the city of Guadalupe Distrito Bravos, unknown people kidnapped the last policeman remaining here, after which the city was left without a police force, and in order to ensure law and order, the authorities sent troops to the city.
On January 18, 2011, near the city of Oaxaca, one of the founders of the Los Zetas cartel, Flavio Mendez Santiago (nickname Yellow), was arrested, the Los Zetas Cartel, the Los Negros Cartel and the Oaxaca Cartel. You can read more about each of them by clicking on the links-names of the cartels.

And a little about Russians, in this interesting topic:

Mexican drug cartels use members of Russian organized crime groups, as well as former KGB officers, to smuggle drugs into the United States, as well as to increase their influence in the region.

Head of Organized Crime Squad at the office Attorney General Mexican Luis Vasconcelos claims that "Russians are highly professional and extremely dangerous."

Russian mobsters help Mexican drug dealers launder money. This was stated by the head of the intelligence department of the US Federal Drug Enforcement Administration Stephen Casteel. Russians charge 30% of the money laundered for their services.

Castile argues that the emergence of Russians in Mexico is due to the globalization of organized crime. For the first time, fighters from Russian "brigades" appeared in Colombia and Mexico in the early 90s, but their finest hour came a little later. After the arrest of the head of one of the largest drug cartels in Mexico - Benjamin Arellano Felix, as well as several dozen of his assistants, the cartel began to rapidly disintegrate. Bruce Bagley, a specialist from the University of Miami, claims that it was then that Russian mafiosi began to gradually infiltrate the fragments of the once powerful organization.

"Russian fighters are much cooler than the Mexicans. They are much more brutal. They silently do their job and try not to shine unnecessarily. They don't wear gold chains, they don't cut people with chainsaws and don't throw them into rivers," says Bagley - "But don't underestimate them. These guys are the most brutal people you can imagine."

Bagley claims that the latest operations by the Mexican police, which have effectively "decapitated the Mexican drug cartels," provide the Russian mafia with a "golden opportunity to operate in Mexico." The big cartel is breaking down into small armed groups that operate at the state and city levels in Mexico. It is more difficult to detect them there, and it is easier for drug dealers to bribe local officials. Small groups of Mexican drug dealers welcome the Russians with open arms.

Most of the money laundering operations are carried out by Russians in various offshore zones - in Haiti, Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. Russians escort large shipments of drugs that are being shipped to the United States. In April 2001, the US Coast Police detained a ship carrying 13 tons of cocaine and a mixed Russian-Ukrainian crew.

In December 2006, the newly elected Felipe Calderon of Mexico declared war on drug cartels, thus putting an end to the state's passivity in this matter. Since then, some progress has been made, but at a heavy cost. Shootings, murders, kidnappings, conflicts between rival cartels, punitive measures. Since December 2006, about 9,500 people have been killed as a result of anti-drug activities, and more than 5,300 last year alone.

Ammunition seized from members of the Pacifico drug cartel at Mexico City airport. March 12, 2009. (REUTERS/Jorge Dan Lopez)

An American police officer in a captured greenhouse in the basement of a ranch in Tecate, Mexico. March 12, 2009. (REUTERS/Jorge Duenes)

A police officer walks among packets of cocaine in the city of Buenaventura, Colombia's main port on the Pacific coast. Monday, March 23, 2009. Colombian police confiscated 3.5 tons of cocaine, which they tried to smuggle into Mexico in a container of vegetable oil. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

Yanet Deinara Garcia (center) and Sigifrido Najera (2nd from left), members of the Cárdenas Guillen drug cartel, at a press presentation at the defense minister's headquarters in Mexico City. March 20, 2009. (LUIS ACOSTA/AFP/Getty Images)

Mexican drug suspect Vicente Zambada Niebla during a media meeting in Mexico City, March 19, 2009. According to police, Zambada was arrested along with five other suspects. The detainees were found with money and weapons. (REUTERS/Daniel Aguilar)

Soldiers guard a police station in the border town of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. Monday, March 16, 2009 - As law enforcement in this city of 1.3 million is largely military, a retired officer was appointed chief of police in accomplice after the previous chief of the police department resigned after succumbing to threats drug dealers. (AP Photo)

Federal police officers aboard a plane during a flight to the border town of Ciudad Juarez in Mexico. Monday, March 2, 2009 This deployment is part of a plan to increase the police presence in Ciudad Juarez by 5,000 as the city suffers from organized crime. (AP Photo / Miguel Tovar)

A soldier oversees the burning of fourteen tons of drugs in the city of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. December 2, 2008. (J. Guadalupe PEREZ/AFP/Getty Images)

Police drive past a burning patrol car in Zihuatanejo, Mexico. Wednesday, February 25, 2009. Earlier in the Pacific resort town of Zihuatanejo, militants opened fire and threw grenades at a patrol car, killing four police officers. (AP Photo/Felipe Salinas)

Mexican police near the car in which there are two killed in a shootout. Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. November 25, 2008. (J. Guadalupe PEREZ/AFP/Getty Images)

The corpse on the table in the morgue before the autopsy. Tijuana, Mexico. Monday, January 19, 2009. (AP Photo / Guillermo Arias)

Federal police patrol the city of Ciudad Juarez. March 2, 2009. Hundreds of soldiers in full ammunition and police convoys patrolled Ciudad Juarez in an attempt to restore order in one of the most cruel cities. (REUTERS/Tomas Bravo)

Mexican soldiers check documents during a drug and weapons search in Reinos, on Mexico's northeastern border with the United States, on March 17, 2009. (AP Photo/Alexandre Meneghini) #

The tourist leaves the hotel. Nearby on guard stands a policeman - one of the participants in the operation to defuse a bomb in a departmental institution in the border town of Ciudad Juarez. The report that a bomb had been planted in the building prompted local police and federal forces to launch the operation, according to local media. (REUTERS/Tomas Bravo)

Mexican soldiers inspect vehicles and clear customs at a customs checkpoint near the city of Miguel Alemán, on Mexico's northeastern border with the United States. March 18, 2009. (AP Photo / Alexandre Meneghini)

Mexican soldier on the border between Mexico and the United States in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. March 6, 2009. (AP Photo / Miguel Tovar)

Soldiers patrol an area near the town of Miguel Alemán, on Mexico's northeastern border with the United States, on March 19, 2009. (AP Photo/Alexandre Meneghini) #

Shoes used to smuggle marijuana, at the Museum of Drugs at the headquarters of the Ministry of Defense in Mexico City, March 9, 2009. The museum exhibits many exhibits: sniper rifles, mobile and cordless phones encrusted with gold and diamonds, clandestine drug laboratories and many other items. that once belonged to drug dealers. (REUTERS/Jorge Dan Lopez)

President of Texas Armoring Corp. Trent Kimball inspects bulletproof glass made by his company, which was left with bullet holes from the day before. San Antonio, Feb. 26, 2009 - Due to increased skirmishes with drug traffickers in northern Mexico, American companies are more likely to order armored skin, bulletproof glass along with armored skin, bulletproof glass and such security gadgets, electronic door handles and triggered by pressing smoke screens. (AP Photo / Eric Gay)

Sunrise over a canal near El Centro, California. March 12, 2009. El Centro recorded the most high level unemployment in the US: 22.6%. This is the same high figure that was recorded during the Great Depression. Especially now it is hard for Latinos. People living in the Imperial Valley, in the desert north of the US-Mexico border and east of San Diego, are now suffering not only from the effects of the global financial crisis, but also from drought. (David McNew/Getty Images)

Military migrants released from Central America who were held hostage by members of a Mexican gang in Reynosa, Mexico March 17, 2009. According to the Mexican army, more than 50 migrants are currently held captive by a gang that is engaged in kidnapping for ransom. (AP Photo / Alejandro Meneghini)

Forensic investigators remove one of nine bodies found near the border town of Ciudad Juarez on March 14, 2009. According to local media, an anonymous person called the police and reported that at least nine bodies were found in a shallow grave. (REUTERS / Alejandro Bringas)

A man arrested by the military at a house where the gang was holding Central American migrants hostage. Reynosa, Mexico, March 17, 2009. (AP Photo / Alexandre Meneghini) #

The forensic investigator examines the vertebrae and other bone fragments. This is all that remains of the human body, which was burned in a barrel of acid. The murder fits the "handwriting" of "El Teo", one of Tijuana's most wanted necrobarons. (Los Angeles Times photo by Don Bartletti)

A border patrol car levels the sand so that traces of potential border violators can be seen. New prefabricated stair railings have been installed on the Mexican border between Yuma, Arizona, and Calexico, California. March 14, 2009. (David McNew/Getty Images)

Newly built fence on the US-Mexico border. Photo taken at dawn on March 14, 2009 between Yuma, Arizona and Calexico, California. A new 15-foot (4.5-meter) high fence has been installed on top of the sand dunes so that it can be lifted and repositioned when the migrating dunes begin to fill it up. Nearly seven miles (11 km) of the fence were installed, at a cost of $6 million per mile. (David McNew/Getty Images)

Numbered boxes of evidence collected from multiple autopsies. Mortuary in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. February 18, 2009. (AP Photo / Eduardo Verdugo)

Corpses in a morgue refrigerator in the border town of Ciudad Juarez. Mexico, February 18, 2009. (AP Photo / Eduardo Verdugo)

In the foreground is a .50 caliber rifle. In the background - a meeting is being held on issues on the Mexican border. The meeting is attended by representatives of the US Department of Homeland Security and the subcommittee on foreign affairs. Thursday, March 12, 2009, Capitol Hill, Washington, DC. (AP Photo / Alex Brandon)

Soldiers escort drug lord Hector Huerta Rios to an air force base in Salinas Victoria, on the outskirts of Monterrey, northern Mexico. March 24, 2009. Hector, head of the Beltran Leyva drug cartel, was captured by the military on Tuesday. He is accused of killing the head of the Monterrey police force. Huerta Rios was captured along with five of his entourage. The detainees were found with money and weapons. (REUTERS/Tomas Bravo)

Shot in the head by unknown assailants in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico on March 11, 2009. (AP Photo/Miguel Tovar) #

A police officer inspects the field after the shootout in search of weapons. Tijuana, Mexico. Monday, March 9, 2009. (AP Photo / Guillermo Arias)

In 2016, Mexico ranked second in the world in terms of the number of violent deaths, second only to Syria and ahead of other leaders - Iraq and Afghanistan - in this kind of anti-rating. Such data are given in published by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS). IISS General Director John Chipman drew attention to an important circumstance: “The Mexican conflict is characterized by the absence of artillery, tanks and combat aircraft. Almost all the victims died from small arms or bladed weapons.” I understood the reasons for the surge of violence in this country.

Big redistribution

The report notes that states that have become "key battlegrounds for rival and increasingly fragmented drug cartels" have suffered the most casualties. Gangs are trying to take away rival-controlled areas and territories in order to monopolize drug trafficking routes to the United States.

A striking example of such clashes is the conflict between two groups of the most powerful local cartel -. After the head of this syndicate, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzmán (Shorty) was behind bars in January 2016, his closest associate Damaso "Lawyer" Lopez tried to "squeeze" the business from the sons of authority that fell into the hands of the police. However, the heirs of Shorty - Jesus Alfredo and Ivan Archivaldo - were not going to give up the family business without a fight.

As a result, an internecine war began, in which about 500 people died on both sides this year alone. And although on May 2 Lawyer was seized by the police, law enforcement officers are sure that this will not stop the war. Firstly, the Guzman brothers will take revenge on the traitors who have gone over to Lopez's side. Secondly, the sons of El Chapo are forced to fight off attacks on the cartel weakened by civil strife from competitors and allies of the Lawyer.

Now it was embarrassing

The IISS report caused such a wide response that even the President of the United States reacted to it. IN Twitter he posted a link to a material that discussed the document.

The Mexican authorities were seriously offended by the authors of the study and issued a joint statement and. It indicates that, according to the data, the number of murders in Mexico (16 per 100,000 inhabitants) is much lower than in some other countries of Latin America: in Brazil, for example, this figure is 25, in Venezuela - 54, and in Honduras, in general, an outrageous 90 violent deaths per 100,000 inhabitants.

Another counterargument given by the Mexicans: many regions of the country are not affected by the showdowns of drug dealers and the tourist flow increased by nine percent last year. Therefore, comparing Mexico with Syria is absolutely incorrect.

“This report is dubious work and sensationalism. Comparing the violence caused by the illegal drug trade with civil war unreasonably. Mexico, like many other countries in Latin America, is facing real problems with homicides,” says a professor at the Center for Research and Teaching in Economics (Tom Long). - These estimates are questionable. Half of the murders committed in Mexico do not appear to be related to the illegal drug trade.”

One way or another, but in the ten years that have passed since the Mexican authorities declared war on organized crime, about 200 thousand citizens of the country have died, another 30 thousand people have gone missing.

American Recognition

“We Americans must realize that our country is the only market for this product. If not for us, there would not be such a serious problem with organized crime in Mexico. We should understand that we are responsible for this,” the US Secretary of State acknowledged at a joint press conference with Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray. “We must be above shifting responsibility on each other and exchanging reproaches. It must be understood that every demand creates supply and every supply creates demand. If the governments of the United States and Mexico spend time arguing about who is to blame, whose mistake it is, organized crime, which kills people on both sides of the border, will only win,” the Mexican minister said.

According to US Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly, first of all, it is necessary to put an end to what lies at the root of the problem - the demand for drugs in the United States. “If Americans realize that drug use for pleasure causes death in Mexico, Colombia or Central America, murders of journalists, policemen, military, judges, then the profit of this criminal business will be significantly reduced,” he said.

Kelly argues that everyone will be involved in the drug demand reduction program in the US: Hollywood, governors, mayors, families, priests. In his opinion, this can significantly reduce the income of drug cartels. “Until we do this, there will be a desperate struggle on the border,” he stated.

People are dying for gasoline

According to official figures, about half of all violent deaths in Mexico are due to drug cartels. Regions through which oil and gasoline pipelines pass have become a new arena for clashes between various groups. Criminals make tie-ins in them and drain the fuel. The cost of stolen fuel on the black market is two times lower than at legal gas stations.

The underground trade in gasoline and other petroleum products has flourished since last year's decision by the authorities to raise fuel prices by almost 20 percent. According to the national oil company Pemex, if in 2006 213 illegal tie-ins were detected, then last year this figure rose to seven thousand. The turnover of the stolen fuel market exceeded $16 billion.

The battle for such a jackpot could not do without casualties. For example, in the state of Puebla, 185 homicides were committed during the first three months of this year, twice as many as in the same period in 2011, which saw the previous peak of violent crimes.

Several large gangs are fighting over the section of the "gasoline pie". They not only fight among themselves, but also conduct real battles with federal forces. At the end of April, as a result of a special operation of the Mexican security forces in the city of Reynosa, one of the leaders of the underworld of the state of Tamaulipas, Lois Salinas, nicknamed Comandante Bull, was killed. Previously, his group specialized in drugs, but recently it has diversified its activities and is actively engaged in the development of an underground fuel business.

The response of the bandits was not long in coming. According to the local police, the criminals blocked the roads with cars and set them on fire. At the same time, several shops were burned down. The Ministry of the Interior asked citizens not to visit Reynosa due to the sharp aggravation of the situation after the liquidation of Loysa.

Already on May 3, there was a new skirmish between the bandits and the military. Ten people were killed, including four soldiers. “Today we are faced with a problem that is out of control,” said Rep. Carlos Ignacio Mier Banuelos of that state. The authorities responded to the new challenge in the traditional way: additional army units were introduced into the state to strengthen the protection of fuel lines. However, this only indicates that the state does not have a well-developed program of confrontation new form criminal business. “The army operates in a straightforward manner, without a strategy. The military uses only forceful methods,” Mier explained. According to him, as soon as the soldiers leave the region, the battle for gasoline will resume with renewed vigor.

According to experts, the underground fuel business cannot yet be compared with the drug trade in terms of profitability, but local organized crime groups are considered the most promising and fastest growing type of criminal profit. This means that the fights between the gangs will continue and claim thousands of lives. As one of the Mexican experts said on this occasion, "violence feeds on itself: murder entails an inevitable response in the form of the same murder."

Low level life of a significant part of the local population contributes to the emergence of numerous criminogenic elements in the country. Therefore, crime in Mexico is not only the drug mafia and corrupt officials, but also petty thieves, swindlers, kidnappers, blackmailers, etc. The degree of safety largely depends on the specific region of the country or area of ​​the city, however, precautions should always be remembered.

The most dangerous regions of the country and disadvantaged areas of cities

The most dangerous states are Chihuahua, Sinaloa, Durango, Guerrero, Baja California, Michoacan, Tamaulipas, Veracruz. These are mainly northern territories, with the exception of Guerrero, Michoacán and Veracruz. Rampant crime here is associated with two factors: drug trafficking and illegal migration across the Mexican-American border. Together with the corrupt police, the situation certainly leaves much to be desired.

The high level of crime in the southern and eastern states is associated with the low standard of living of the population, for which the drug trade sometimes becomes the only means of survival.

The authorities strongly discourage tourists from traveling through dangerous areas, especially alone. Here you run the risk of being robbed, kidnapped or killed simply because you have gold jewelry, some cash, an expensive camera or a nice car. The low standard of living and the high concentration of unreliable citizens make even a simple walk through the streets dangerous in these areas. It does not matter at all whether you are connected with criminal organizations or not.

Criminogenic and disadvantaged areas of Mexico City

Despite the relatively high standard of living and Good work police dangerous places there is in the capital of Mexico. The city is a "patchwork quilt" on which rich and poor quarters are grouped around the tourist center.

Tepito is a metropolitan area chosen by buyers of stolen goods, pimps, and drug dealers. It is located literally 15 minutes walk from the Parliament. Business card Tepito - disassembly of local groups, invariably accompanied by stabbing and gunfights. Tourists often disappear here. Not surprisingly, even local taxi drivers will not take you into the interior of the area.

And, finally, the most interesting thing is the restriction of travel abroad for debtors. It is about the status of the debtor that it is easiest to “forget” when going on another vacation abroad. The reason may be overdue loans, unpaid utility bills, alimony or fines from the traffic police. Any of these debts may threaten to restrict travel abroad in 2018, we recommend that you find out information about the presence of debt using a proven service not to fly.rf

Such areas of Mexico City as Ciudad Azteca, Guerrero, Peraviya, Iztapalapa, La Paz, Iztapaluca, Nezavalcoyotl also enjoy a bad reputation.

Cuidad de Basura (Trash City) is an area that is not on the map. And yet, it has its own transport, garbage processing business, canteens and merchants. Extremely dangerous for tourists.

In addition, crime in Mexico City thrives in the slums, where the urban poor barely survive. Any lanes and territories with the same type of low-rise buildings are potentially dangerous. So be vigilant!

Dangerous areas of Cancun

Cancun is a favorite holiday destination for thousands of tourists. It is one of the most peaceful cities in Mexico. But here, too, dangers can lie in wait for you, you just have to move a little away from the hotels and deviate from popular routes.

Conventionally, the city is divided into two parts: Zona Hotelera (Hotel Zone) and Downtown (Downtown). Downtown (Downtown) - these are residential areas familiar to us. And although the crime rate in Cancun is well below the national average, it is recommended to walk and live here in fenced areas with round-the-clock security at the entry points.

Sona Rural is a rural area six kilometers from the city center, which until the 90s had a bad reputation due to the large number of slums and gangs operating there. Later it was landscaped, but the contingent in it remained the same. Here live ordinary Mexicans with a low level of income. And if you don't want trouble, avoid walking in the area if possible.

The outskirts of the city, an hour's drive from the beaches, are undeveloped slums with cesspools in the yards, local authorities and beggars. And the highest risk of becoming a victim of robbers.

Fraud in Mexico: how to avoid being scammed

Fraud has become a way of survival in Mexico for a huge number of poorly educated and poor citizens.

For example, fake police officers - they can be found even in busy tourist areas. Therefore, if you were suddenly approached and demanded to pay a fine, do not hesitate to ask and check the documents of a law enforcement officer. And be sure to get accurate information about what you decided to fine.

Dishonest boat guides are another category of citizens who inflate prices for their services and profit from inattentive vacationers. Inviting you to the boat, they tell you one price for a trip to dolphins or turtles, and at the end of the voyage - another, much higher than the original one. And to leave the boat, you have no choice but to pay. Therefore, negotiate the full cost of the trip in advance - this way you will save your money.

Remember that tankers in Mexico do not have an official salary. Their bread is tips. So if you give an employee a large bill, you may not wait for change. That is why you should calculate in advance how much you will refuel, and prepare bills for payment and tips.

Card readers with video cameras in street ATMs are a modern way of robbery. They allow scammers to get your magnetic stripe data and your card pin. Therefore, in order not to lose funds, use ATMs in bank branches or located in shopping centers. And give preference not to credit cards with a large limit, but to debit cards with a limited amount of funds on them.

Sellers of exotic goods and animals are another category of citizens with whom it is better not to deal with in Mexico. The fact that you were sold a product made of jaguar skin, tortoise shell or quetzal bird feathers does not at all guarantee the legality of the transaction. Checking things and finding such goods in them when leaving the territory of some states can result in confiscation, a serious fine, and even imprisonment.

Kidnappings in Mexico for ransom

In 2020, Mexico set a sad record: the country ranked first in the world in the number of kidnappings. At the same time, the number of such crimes is still very significant. So, in the first half of 2020, 867 people were abducted in the country.

The average ransom for a representative of a wealthy family is about $200,000. Relatives of the kidnapped are given no more than a month to collect the required amount. For a simple tourist, they can ask $3000-$5000. But even after paying the necessary amount, the kidnapped people are often killed.

Currently, the crime rate in Mexico is so high that absolutely everyone is at risk - from wealthy tourists to relatives of gang leaders.

To avoid the fate of being kidnapped, the following simple recommendations help:

• use the services of official taxis;
• do not meet in social networks and don't go on blind dates;
• do not show expensive things or jewelry that indicates your well-being;
• avoid slums;
• do not hitchhike;
• try to walk in the company of familiar people or accompanied by a guide.

In the northern and central states of Mexico, the number of abductions of girls aged 15-17 years old is steadily increasing with the aim of their subsequent sale to brothels. So do not attract undue attention to yourself with revealing clothes and uninhibited behavior.

Organized crime groups in Mexico

The area of ​​activity of Mexican organized crime groups is illegal transportation and drug trafficking. The damage done to the country as a result of the division of spheres of influence by them is so great that in 2020 one of the local companies even offered to arrange insurance against organized crime for everyone. In addition, organized crime in Mexico is closely intertwined with government agencies and the police.

Drug cartels - criminal organizations of various sizes and levels of influence, literally divided the country among themselves, like a pie. Their confrontation leads to massive armed conflicts, causes kidnappings and major robberies.

In addition to drug cartels, a lot of small gangs are also operating in the country.

Changes in Organized Crime in Mexico

Organized crime in Mexico dates back to the 1980s. However, in early XXI century organized criminal gangs have undergone major changes across the country. Their result was a significant expansion of the spheres of activity of cartels due to the theft of software, the supply of live goods to brothels, smuggling and illegal import of weapons.

Low standard of living and inability to provide normal life legally leads to the fact that the smuggling or cultivation of marijuana becomes a source of income for large areas of Mexico. At the same time, entire states are involved in internecine wars, as a result of which thousands of people die.

Since the 2000s, due to political changes in the country and the loss of former loyalty on the part of the authorities, cartels have, in fact, challenged the state. All their forces were directed to protect the routes of transportation of drugs. And in this case, they did not shun any methods.

IN last years the appetites of the cartels began to spread to central regions Mexico. And it endangers national security countries.

The process of globalization in the Mexican drug business

Guatemala, Belize and Honduras are the countries that have become a zone of interest for Mexican drug cartels in the 21st century. Having extensive connections in Africa and Asia, Mexican groups have seriously strengthened their positions and achieved the unification of local criminal structures with Colombian ones. Using the patronage of the state authorities and police representatives, they formed stable groups, famous for their particular cruelty.

The experience of the mid-2000s showed that even after the defeat, such cartels do not disappear, but are reborn under new names and with new leaders at the head. At the same time, structures that control drug markets in the United States began to enjoy special influence.

The Consequences of Merging State and Criminal Structures

One of the reasons that make it difficult to fight organized crime in Mexico is the involvement of government officials and the police in its structures. Indicative in this regard is the arrest in 2008 of the head of the Mexican anti-drug agency, Noe Ramirez, who was convicted of having links with the criminal world and receiving bribes from the largest Sinaloa cartel. Reporting on planned police operations, for many years he nullified all efforts to combat drug trafficking in a particular region. And this is far from an isolated case. A wave of such revelations seriously undermined the public's confidence in the authorities.

Currently, the drug mafia in Mexico is not only flourishing, but partially absorbing the state: gang leaders often become heads of municipalities, and corrupt judges and policemen ensure their safety.

Corruption problems in Mexico

According to a study conducted in 2020 by Transparency International (TI), Mexican political parties turned out to be the most corrupt structures. One of the reasons for corruption in the country is the huge amount of bribes offered to officials.

The authorities never tire of reminding negative impact that corruption in Mexico has on the development of the country:

• disturbed public order;
• democratic institutions are weakened;
• damage to the economy.

At the same time, the problems of general prosecutorial supervision in Mexico are very acute - dishonest servants of Themis tritely turn a blind eye to existing violations of the laws. So, as a result of one of the personnel purges in the country, 1,200 police officers were fired.

Against this background, the creation in 2020 of a coordinating council, which includes the Ministry of Civil Service, the Federal Audit Service, the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office and the Supreme Administrative Justice Tribunal, looks natural.

Speaking about which anti-corruption body has been created in Mexico, it should be understood that this is not one organization, but a multifunctional structure consisting of several important sectors. The formation of a closed coordinating council will make it possible to avoid the penetration of criminal elements into the system of control and justice.

Social inequality in Mexico and related conflicts

According to research by Coneval (National Council for social policy), in 2020, 46.2% of the population was below the poverty line in Mexico. At the same time, 14 billionaires live in the country.

The highest percentage of the poor among the Indians - more than 70%. Geographically, these are the southern states of Mexico. A sign of belonging to the middle class in the country is the presence of a washing machine in the house.

Representatives of the country's white population predominate in leadership positions and among officials, which causes a negative reaction from the rest of the citizens.

Regressive taxes are one reason why Mexican society is so stratified: the rich pay proportionately less than the poor. And this only reinforces the existing contrasts.

A serious problem in Mexico has been the increase in the number of working women. Believing that they are taking away their jobs, many men have turned to active violence. And this is not only rape, but also murder. This phenomenon is called feminicide.

Punishments for various types of offenses in Mexico

Penalties for various types of offenses in Mexico are determined mainly by the Administrative Code of Mexico and the Federal Criminal Code of Mexico.

Despite the high crime rate in the country the death penalty almost completely abolished. She was replaced by life imprisonment for up to 70 years or more. Exceptions: treason during a war with foreign states, parricide, treacherous murder, arson, kidnapping, highway robbery, as well as piracy and serious military crimes.

Possession of more than 15 grams of drugs can result in a large fine and even imprisonment for up to 25 years.

For smoking in a public place, you can be fined $20-30. There are punishments in Mexico for kissing in public places - for this you can be sent to corrective labor or fined. A smile or wink at a girl you don't know can be considered an attempted rape.

Cell phones in the country are allowed to use only from the age of 14.

Mexico officially prohibits torture, flogging, confiscation of property, branding, as well as punishments related to deprivation of body parts. At the same time, the country does not have, as such, a system of consumer protection at the legislative level.

Representatives of law enforcement agencies can detain you until the circumstances are clarified for a maximum of three days.

Features of the work of the Mexican police

The Federal Police of Mexico (abbreviated name PF) was created not so long ago - in 1998. It was based on such units as the financial and traffic police, as well as intelligence units of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and military police brigades. The main function of the Federal Police is the fight against drug trafficking in the country.

Due to the unfavorable situation, the police in Mexico are usually well armed. Their uniform is black or of blue color. In tourist areas, representatives of law enforcement agencies are quite sympathetic to visitors and provide all possible assistance to those who turn to them.

In 2020, the National Gendarmerie was formed, the main function of which was to ensure order in the border areas, in the territory of strategically important ports and airports, and oil centers.

In addition, community police and civil self-defence groups are active in the country.

Confrontation between the state and drug cartels in Mexico

Felipe Calderon is the leader of the Mexican state, who went down in history as the man who declared war on drug cartels. Its backbone was the army and navy. Information support was provided by the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

The result of numerous sweeps and arrests was the elimination of several large drug cartels. At the same time, the leaders of these formations, after their arrest, were extradited to the United States, where they could not be helped with the escape by corrupt courts and prison authorities, as in their homeland.

However, the cost of this war was more than 57 thousand dead civilians, which led to the formation of an anti-war movement, as a result of which Enrique Peña Nieto came to power.

The methods of the new government are devoid of a power component. First of all, the leader of the country showed his readiness to negotiate with the leaders of the drug cartels, which resulted in a slight decrease in the level of violence in the regions controlled by them. In addition, the country is focusing on the legalization of soft drugs, which deprives illegal traffickers of profits. For example, for a serving of up to 10 g, nothing threatens you.

The complexity of the fight against drug cartels is partly due to the fact that, despite their criminal activities, they never shunned charity, large donations to the church and invested in the improvement of the territories under their control. This still provides them with the support of the local population.

The government's response was the implementation of a national program for the social prevention of violence and crime, launched in 2020 and supporting the poorest segments of Mexican society. Thanks to this, the war on crime in Mexico received support from the local population. One example of the implementation of the program is the improvement of the streets in Gomez Palacio, Durango. Another example is the restoration of streets in the Nuevo Mexico area, the city of Torreon, in the state of Coahuila. And more and more positive results!

How to make traveling in Mexico safe: the main rules

Mexico is a country where you can easily be approached in broad daylight with a knife or a gun. Moreover, the criminals will really be ready to use their weapons to take away your wallet or phone.

Crime statistics in Mexico are depressing: according to a report by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), in 2020 the country ranked second in the number of violent murders. Over the past ten years, about 200,000 people have died in the country and about 30,000 have gone missing.

Despite this, if you follow a number of rules, traveling around Mexico will become not only interesting, but also safe.

1. Try to avoid purses full of cash and cards that protrude seductively from your pants pockets. After all, you do not want to attract the attention of robbers? Do not put all the available funds in one bag or pocket, so as not to lose everything at once. The best solution would be to store cash and cards in different places, moreover, so that they are not visible.
2. Do not take a laptop with you for a walk. It is better to keep the camera in a bag and pull it out only at the time of taking pictures. At the same time, it is better to give preference to an ordinary digital “soap box” than to expensive equipment - the chances of being robbed and losing a second one are much greater. Valuable property is generally recommended to be left in hotel safes - it should be borne in mind that in poor areas, local authorities can "confiscate" any valuables for walking around their territory.
3. It is not recommended to attract undue attention to yourself with too expensive or revealing clothes - be simple and try to blend in with the crowd outwardly.
4. It is preferable to carry bags in hands, as belts are very often cut off, stealing property.
5. Carry a photocopy of your passport with you, keeping the original document in a safe place.
6. It is recommended to call a taxi by phone and write down not only the car number, but also the taxi driver's license number. When traveling in your own or rented car, choose toll roads - they are the safest. Do not hitchhike.
7. Do not take photos without the permission of local residents, especially Indians - this can cause an extremely negative reaction.

Life in Mexico: Video