Pubdate: Fri, 26 Oct 2012
Source: Colorado Statesman, The (CO)
Copyright: 2012 The Colorado Statesman
Contact: http://www.coloradostatesman.com/contact
Website: http://www.coloradostatesman.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/5387
Author: Morgan Smith
Note: Morgan Smith is a former state representative and Commissioner
of Agriculture.

AS LONG AS THERE'S A MARKET HERE IN THE U.S., THE DRUG WAR CANNOT BE WON

Smith: Coloradans Should Pass Amendment 64

What do Hector and Yeira Beltran, Enrique and Bethsaida Cisneros, and
Ivan and Claudia Vasquez have in common?

They are victims of our drug war. They live on the Mexican side of the
U.S. border in the pathway of the billions of dollars in drugs that
come northward to meet the demand in this country. In all the debates
about legalization - marijuana and Amendment 64 in Colorado - their
story is the one you never hear, the story of those who have to
survive in countries that we have destabilized by our desire for drugs.

Hector (15) and his sister, Yeira (14) live in a shack on the west
edge of Juarez with their grandmother, Elvira Romero. She now has a
job cooking for one hundred mental patients in a nearby asylum. Before
that, they survived by selling scrap metal along the highway. These
kids want to graduate and work in the medical field.

Enrique (10) and Bethsaida (5) live with their grandmother, Reina
Cisneros in Palomas, Mexico, some sixty miles west of Juarez. Enrique
is first in his class and Bethsaida can recite poetry.

Ivan (13) and Claudia (10) are part of a small colonia of Mixteca
Indians who migrated northward from the state of Oaxaca hoping to find
a decent living. Ivan wants to be a science teacher and Claudia a
Spanish teacher. Their mother, Cecilia Vazquez sells sombreros,
crosses with Jesus on them and various trinkets to people waiting in
their cars at the Santa Teresa border crossing west of Juarez.

Until this year, Juarez was the most dangerous city in the world. In
2010, there were more murders in Juarez than the combined total for
New York City, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, New Orleans, Detroit,
Baltimore and Philadelphia. The killings soared after the election of
President Felipe Calderon and his decision to take on the drug
cartels; many observers believe that this has resulted in over 100,000
murders nationwide. Some are narcos fighting each other, some innocent
bystanders or cases of mistaken identity, some are victims of police
or Army "cleansing."

Both Juarez and Palomas are drug crossing points. That means that
these six kids are in the epicenter of enormous violence. You wouldn't
know it from talking to them, however, because they are still full of
an enthusiasm that would be the envy of most American students who are
much more privileged. Pretty soon, however, the older ones like Hector
will earn their high school degrees. Then what? What kinds of jobs
will be available? In Palomas, you can see young men selling CDs and
dark glasses at the border crossing. For a few dollars, they'll be
glad to wash your car. Cecilia Vasquez, the mother of Ivan and Claudia
is lucky if she makes three or four dollars a day selling her
trinkets. The minimum wage in Mexico is $4.30 a day and most of the
maquila or assembly plants don't pay any more than that. In both
Palomas and Juarez, the tourism industries have completely tanked,
Americans are no longer crossing the border to have their teeth fixed
or to buy their prescriptions and many other businesses are closed.

So the future really boils down to drugs and the violent offshoots of
the drug business - car jackings, assassinations, extortion, kidnapping.

These six kids aren't what are called "ni-nis." "Ni educacion, ni
trabajo," the phrase used to describe kids who have neither education
nor work and end up joining gangs. They're not what Pastor Galvan, the
founder of the asylum where Elvira cooks, calls "Ninos de odio" or
children of hatred who want revenge because of the murder of a parent
or family member. Not yet anyway.

Several years ago, I had the opportunity to participate in a briefing
by Drug Enforcement Agency officials in Cartagena, Colombia. What I
remember most was the officer in charge telling us that, although they
were having success in Colombia, "Drugs were like a balloon. You push
down here and they pop up somewhere else." Enforcement efforts in
Colombia have pushed business to Mexico; now Calderon's efforts,
although not noticeably successful, have pushed it to Honduras and
Guatemala, countries with even weaker governments.

In other words, you can push drugs from one producing country to
another but as long as you have a market like the United States, this
will be a war that cannot be won. For the sake of those who become
victims in the process - kids like these six in Palomas and Juarez - I
hope that Coloradans pass Amendment 64 and begin bringing sanity to
this issue.
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MAP posted-by: Matt