Mexico

[yellowwoodII]

I admit to knowing very little about our relations with Mexico. But this is what I don't understand:
I perceive that the United States does a lot of trade with Mexico.
I understand that drug traffic from the United States contributes to their problems.
I have read that life there is unbearable for many people because of corruption, drug wars, gangs, etc.

That saying, I wonder why the United States doesn't apply sanctions against Mexico in an effort to get them to clean up the crime and corruption and provide a better life for their people? We apply sanctions to other countries, such as Cuba, when we don't like the way they the way they govern.

I would be interested in seeing a discussion about this.

[bravenak]

1. Because much of this is our fault.

[Zorra]

2. Destabilization is good for disaster capitalism. nt

[jwirr]

10. Absolutely. And as long as someone in the US can make money we do not care.

[Brother Buzz]

3. To Hell with sanctions, we should simply send in a punitive expedition force to squash the cartels

[UglyGreed]

4. Where would we

get our cheap labor to exploit???

[UglyGreed]

6. Special Report: Employers Turn Their Backs on Undocumented Workers Injured on the Job

In New York and 27 other states, court challenges have established that undocumented workers are entitled to workers’ compensation – typically the reimbursement of medical expenses and a cash benefit covering a percentage of lost wages – just as any other workers are entitled to such compensation.

Many immigrant workers are unaware of these protections and advocacy groups have worked assiduously to inform them of their rights. Nonetheless, despite education campaigns, undocumented workers who are injured on the job are reluctant to confront their employers and press their claims. Fausta and others like him who have fought for compensation and won are in a distinct minority.



http://www.voicesofny.org/2013/04/employers-turn-their-backs-on-injured-undocumented-workers-2/

[LeftInTX]

5. Mexico is an ally

Sure there is a criminal element involved, but it isn't worth killing our relationship with a close ally.

There is more positive than negative with our relationship with Mexico. The negative gets plastered all over the media.

It would hurt Mexico. We don't need more trouble than we already have.

[GummyBearz]

12. You lost me at the title...

"Mexico is an ally" hahaha... yea, their government is a great ally to our greedy corporations by providing cheap labor via NAFTA. Other than that they are just an adjacent country, who happens to have 15% of their citizens living in the US (with 5 of those 15% illegally living in the US). I'm getting tired of all the corruption in their government, and it spills over into southern california, which affects my personal life. I've been to mexico and had to bribe a mexican cop with $40 to release me from a poll that he handcuffed me to because I was "walking while american" in mexico. Its stupid and it needs to get cleaned up.

Who needs enemies with allies like them? Getting rid of NAFTA and some light sanctions as the OP suggested might be a good start.

[UTUSN]

7. If the U.S. didn't ask for drugs, the drugs wouldn't be supplied. Supply and demand.

Instead of war-on-drugs, if the U.S. abandoned Rethug policies of aggression and would address the root problem HERE through social services, rehabilitation, consciousness-raising about chemical abuse (an Awakening), there wouldn't be problems with Supplier countries.

It's plain old Capitalism's Supply and Demand.

"Sanctions against Mexico" is something like pushing somebody in front of an oncoming subway train.

The same applies to the wingnuts' never-shutting-up about "securing the border". Along with our other wars, we are shoveling cash with ever-increasing hiring of border agents, their palatial headquarters, river boats, horses, dune buggies, drones, electronics, magnificent vehicles, fences, and we don't even know what else. A sensible answer would be a visiting worker program plus economic aid for fixing their internal problems.

[hunter]

8. U.S. national and multi-national institutions are raking in fortunes from Mexican corruption.

Everyone from money-laundering banks to drug warriors.

The U.S.A. is, in many ways, as corrupt as Mexico.

We're just better at hiding the more overt and violent expressions of it.

Aside from the occasional gang-on-gang street violence here, the victims of corruption here in the U.S.A. die quietly and invisibly in utter despair. Gangland "executions" and mass murders are frowned upon in this gated community.

That's what the U.S.A. has become... a gated community where the residents are generally protected from the horrors they've provoked outside the gates.

[Cleita]

9. Mexico is not communist like Cuba. That's why we don't apply sanctions

on them. Also we give them money to help them fix their problems that their corrupt officials put directly into their personal fortunes. But we like it that way. We prop up corrupt officials who dance to our tune all over Latin America but when a populist comes along who tries to clean up the system and redistribute the wealth, we do everything we can to bring them down.

[Sunlei]

11. could turn over to mexicos gov all the USA buyers of all the guns that ended up in mexico.

[KamaAina]

13. Powerful Photos Capture the Growing Crisis in Mexico the U.S. Is Ignoring

http://mic.com/articles/104370/powerful-photos-capture-the-growing-crisis-in-mexico-the-u-s-is-ignoring

Thousands of Mexicans have taken to the streets around the country to demand justice for the 43 missing students abducted and brutally executed by corrupt police officers and gang members in September. While angry students and teachers have poured into the streets over the past several weeks, the revelation of the students' final fate last week has pushed tensions to a boiling point.

The New York Times reports that thousands of demonstrators, primarily students, have flooded the streets of Mexico City and neighborhoods across the country, blocking major intercity highways and setting fires to government buildings.

While Mexicans have been demanding justice for the 43 missing students for weeks, the demonstrations have taken a violent turn. In Chilpancingo, the capital of the students' home state of Guerrero, members of a teachers union set fire to the session hall in the state assembly building while also torching several cars outside, Reuters reports. Violent demonstrations rocked several other states outside of Guerrero, where protesters blocked an airport and damaged the local office of President Enrique Peña Nieto's ruling party.

"The roots of the protests predate the horror in Iguala and the Peña Nieto administration. They are, in a sense, the latest phase of the historic struggle between Mexico's student left and the federal government, one that has been brewing for years if not decades," writes Foreign Policy's Laura Carlsen. "But this time the fury has moved out of the left-wing teachers' colleges and restive southern states and into the rest of the country."

[cbayer]

14. The US feeds off of Mexico and can't afford to impose sanctions.

Cheap labor provides manufacturing facilities for major american companies who would not tolerate sanctions.

The drug issue has to to with the US demand for drugs that either come from Mexico or come through Mexico. While the US policies about drugs contribute to this problem, it wouldn't go away if more drugs were legalized.

The problems with corruption run deep. Mexico's strict ban on weapons have left normal citizens defenseless in the face of extremely violent drug related gangs.

But, imho, Mexico doesn't need the US to make this right. The Mexican people are going to demand it.

Today is a big holiday celebrating the last revolution. Thursday there is a call for a general strike and I predict that there will be massive protests across the country. This may even lead to the resignation of the current president.

What Mexico needs from the US is attention. Keep Mexico high on the news agenda. Pay attention. Support the people in any way you can. Come for a visit and invest in the economy if you can.

There will be protests in the US in support of the one's in Mexico on the 20th. If there is one near you, join in.

I believe that it will not be pretty, but big change is about to come.