San Diego's Campaign Against Drugs
A war unseen
By Jordan Wells
By Jordan Wells
It was June of 2007, and the ranchers were dead. On what had just been a normal day, two members of a brutal, breakaway gang named Los Palillos, based in Tijuana and dealing in drugs, broke into the home of two ranch owners, holding them for ransom in the master bedroom. After an extended negotiation, the gang members, frustrated with the lack of progress and unsatisfied with the amount of money they were to receive, decided to end it as they dragged the two men downstairs into the living room and proceeded to strangle them. Upon killing them they took their bodies outside and dissolved them in vats of acid to destroy evidence. This gang would go on to continue their reign of terror all throughout San Diego resulting in nine deaths, three public shootings and three kidnappings. The cause of this violence; drugs.
This culture of death and violence has bared its fangs at the people of San Diego, setting the stage for a long and drawn-out struggle. A battle that many of us have seen in the news since it is broadcast about many of us that have actually seen this with our own eyes. This is the story of America. For much of our history we have been a nation that hears of these horrors and while many of us have not faced them personally , or yet, they do happen all around us. While I know that we who live in San Diego are surrounded by this way of life, a place quickly becoming a hotspot for gang and drug violence, I choose not to see it. Sometimes, though, it is unavoidable.
The U.S.-Mexico border has become well known to the world as the epicenter for the war on drugs, a place where drug use has spiraled out of control, gangs run rampant, and cartels have more power than U.S. and Mexican government appears to wield. All of this is happening most predominantly on the part of the border nearest to San Diego. The cartels closely resemble businesses, and the number one goal of a business is to make a profit. If a profit is being made they will angle toward making an even greater profit. This makes it completely natural for them to set their sights on the U.S. which has a larger population than Mexico, has a much higher demand for drugs and is one of the richest countries in the world. Not only one, but a lot of different cartels are willing to fight each other on U.S. soil in order to have more influence than the other. Not only are these wars between cartels bad, but the casualties inflicted on civilians in order to intimidate them and their rivals can be even worse. In terms of the most brutal gangs in the U.S., Los Palillos is a major contender for being the most violent. They are a breakaway faction of the Tijuana Cartel and are causing a lot of problems in the San Diego area. Of the six people arrested, they were charged with nine killings, three public shootings, (one of which resulted in a police officer being shot) and three kidnappings, the last of which resulted in their capture by the San Diego Police Department. In the most recent case they kidnapped a wealthy businessman who, at some point, managed to contact the police. Two of the people who were captured and were responsible for the murders of the two ranchers pleaded guilty, receiving life in prison without a chance for parole. This shows that even though much of the organizations and gangs are established in and are from other countries, we can still be caught in the crossfire. It is mainly due to this that San Diego's cultural DNA is changing. From what I have read, it appears that cultural DNA can change based on the environment that it is in and that something else near it can alter it as well. This is a known reaction in nature as well. Organisms have to evolve to exist in their habitat, and it is without question that our city will evolve in order to combat this threat. It’s just the speed at which we do so that is the question.
A nation's culture is not always simply something unique and specific to that group.It is possible to pass on and merge with other cultures in order to create hybrids. Many examples of this truth show in that nations are constantly gaining new land in which the native culture is forced to change and merge with the beliefs and culture of the dominant force. American culture is slowly changing to one of gangs and drug violence as the assassination of Cardinal Juan Jesús Posadas Ocampo displays. The Mexican drug cartel did not agree with the Catholic Cardinals anti-drug and gang policies and decided to take him out. The cartels response to hearing that the Cardinal would be visiting the city of Guadalajara decided to enlist the help of the Logan Heights Gang, established in the 1960s. On May 24 of 1993, at the international airport in Guadalajara Ocampa, the Cardinal, along with six other associates, was murdered by the Logan Heights Gang in a shootout. This act shows how much influence the cartel has in America, since they were able to influence and finance this gang all the way from San Diego to the location where the Cardinal was to be killed. This also displays how our own culture is changing because of the events that are taking place in other countries. A nation's culture is shaped by the events of its time, thus time is a major factor in the development of ones culture. This claim is one that rests on the trends that can be seen by studying different times in a person’s or our nation’s history. Various trends appear to decrease and increase based on the times. This also happens to be completely based on the events that are happening in the environment or world at that time. Drug abuse is an example of this in San Diego County. By comparing publishing dates of newspaper articles regarding drug use of the time, you can get a really good idea of how many more or less drugs were used. There are three major things in particular that have resulted in the increased usage of drugs. First was during the Vietnam war. Second was during the rise of Mexican drug cartels and harsher rules on drug use in the U.S. From research it would seem that one event can affect a lot of different things. The articles that were published during the Vietnam war were all from the early 1970s when people were very angry about the U.S. losing in the war. In regards to more recent times, one cannot help but notice the drug cartels in Mexico. The drug cartels have long held a monopoly on drugs in South America and aim to extend their control of the drug trade to as many areas as possible. Notable places are Colombia and Mexico along with much of Central America. Due to America having such a large population with a high demand for drugs as well as a culture based on many liberties, this country is a prime place for the drug cartels to move their drugs. The third thing is the law itself. One of the biggest reasons behind an increase in drug abuse is due to American mentality. The core of American ideology stems from the American Revolution. Especially the ideals of revolution and of resistance. America is a strong believer and follower of freedom and anything associated with it. With these ideals at our core, upon the U.S.. government attempting to place restrictions on which drugs can or cannot be used, people in America are naturally going to rebel as that is a natural part of the way Americans are. That is not to say everyone reacts similarly, but in general Americans are more likely to protest against certain laws or rules than other countries. When the government decided to put major restrictions on drugs it subconsciously makes people want to do it more. There were similar events like this during prohibition in the 1930s when alcohol was outlawed. It a very interesting point about American mentality that is not immediately apparent. America, arguably the most powerful country in the world, is well known for its violence. However, sometimes it is not so easy to see that violence, and it was a very interesting experience for me to research and find all this information about the city in which I have lived most of my life. One hears stories of massive tunnels from Mexico to America built for bringing drugs across the border. Drug busts happen often at schools, and yet I have never really seen the impact of this. Drugs are a major part of San Diegan society and unfortunately they are major leaders contributing to the American culture of violence with which we are so familiar. |