Disappeared in Mexico

There’s still a tendency to treat Mexico as just another country with established institutions in routine communication with their counterparts in the U.S. In fact, Mexico has been overtaken – some would say mastered – by the extraordinarily violent drug cartels that have randomly killed some 200,000 Mexicans in the last ten years with no sign of slowing down. They supply the United States with almost all its illicit drugs and opiates, leading to drug wars in major American cities with a steep rise in crime. The cartel chiefs have even honored this country with their presence in upscale communities from where they can direct their extensive traffic. Continue reading “Disappeared in Mexico”

Cartels Face the Wall

We’re not sure yet what the wall on the Mexican border will look like – something new and forbidding or, sensibly, an extension of the adequate steel-bar fence that already exists along parts of the border. Whatever it is, it will challenge the ingenuity of the drug cartels determined to keep their billion-dollar business going no matter what. And to be sure, there are many Americans just as anxious for the drugs and the drug money that can be put to illicit uses. Continue reading “Cartels Face the Wall”

Why Kill?

Ever since he arrived on earth, man has killed and has also tried to explain why he kills – to little avail. Killing continues unabated. With due deference to the great minds that have wrestled with this conundrum, two contemporary women writers, while acknowledging that women, too, can kill, offer as persuasive an explanation as we are likely to get. Continue reading “Why Kill?”