Al Jazeera English: VIDEO: Kids caught in Mexico's drug war

[SealLion]

Here's a decent story on AJE.

It's about kids, and those kids could be anywhere in the world where there is constant exposure to gunfights, killings, and other violent behavior, that those kids are seeing on a daily basis.

Seeing gun fights as just a regular part of your day.....think about that for a moment, folks.

And think on the long-term psychological aspects that it may very well have on yourself if you were a young boy or girl who is constantly exposed to such actions.

You'd probably wind up in jail later on as an adult as you figure that this is the normal way of doing things when you want revenge on someone, or because of the constant exposure to violence you had when you were a youth, you abuse your wife on a regular basis for what-ever reason.

Or because some of the things you've been exposed to when you were a youth, were drug gangs and drive -by-shootings.....and equally as bad......you join the local drug gang as you mature in age.

Ready for jail, yet??

You may also experience depression, anxiety, a shortened life span due to constant stress, illness, and a host of other medical ailments.

....just some of the things that can and do happen to people who've been exposed to violence in one form or another.

Remember all those things that you heard before that if someone is sexually abused when they were young, they abuse when they become an adult??.......probably not much different with exposure to violence, I'd say.

So here's an short news video from AJE on just such things:

Mexico's escalating war on drugs is supposed to be targeting the violent gangs running the trade, but in the city of Ciudad Juarez it is the children who are increasingly being caught up in the conflict.

Drug violence has spilled into the city's schools, playgrounds and streets.

Here's a few things that are related to that city's crime and how the population there copes with such activities:

,,,,,, The population of Ciudad Juárez had to change their daily routine and many try to stay home in the evening hours. Public life is almost paralyzed out of fear of being kidnapped or hit by a stray bullet

That's very similar to how the population in Gaza City cope and what they have to deal with. Stray bullets and getting hit by either your own side or by the Israeli soldiers. Who, IMO, have become much like WW II Nazis.

I do believe that I did speak of at one point how the population there has to deal with these same things too. Except that it more or less involves the annihilation and deliberate destruction of an ethnic group all over Palestine.

There in Ciudad Juarez, according to the above report, it's kids and their families that apparently are afraid of being kidnapped.

there's more of course on this city in which the population, apparently have to deal with:

......"Mexican authorities report that more than 1,800 people have been killed in the city since January 2008."...... severed heads were discovered in ice boxes, along with notes to rivals in the drug-wars. Beheadings, attacks on the police and shootings are common in some regions

So now think again on the psychological effects on kids as they mature.

I really don't think that kids grow up normal as they would elsewhere in the world where kids can grow up without seeing the kind of violence that must be experienced there.

Or anywhere else for that matter where violence is a common occurrence.

Now here's something that is an interesting note:

In September 2009, 18 patients at a drug rehabilitation clinic ..... were massacred in a turf battle.......The authorities had no immediate suspects or information on the victims

I can't say for sure, but I'm going to make a guess here.
Since Mexico is known for it's corruption, as anywhere else where drugs are a common commodity and the trade of drugs rivaled for between gangs, do you think that the cops in Ciudad Juarez were bribed or were corrupted in some way by the gangs to be quiet on the issue??

The possibility is open, you know.

Plagued by corruption and the assassination of many of its officers, the government is struggling to maintain Ciudad Juárez's police force

LIke I say...the possibility is wide open.


Here's the link to the above quotes:

Ciudad Juárez - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Pretty sad overall, I'd say.

In the video, there apparantly is some education for kids by some teachers in how to avoid being caught up in the gun fights.
Education for appropriate environment, obviously.
that's a good thing.
But it would not be necessary if such gang related activities and drug activities were'nt present.
Unfortunately, they are so it is at least a good thing to see this kind of education for the kids.

In the video, it also briefly mentions of kids being recruited by the gang members. That's sad, isn't it??

Here's the video:



[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3ndHWiSi0w"]Kids caught in Mexico's drug war[/ame]



And here's the news link to AJE:

ENJOY

Al Jazeera English - Americas - Kids caught in Mexico's drug war

[slikrapid]

It's about kids, and those kids could be anywhere in the world where there is constant exposure to gunfights, killings, and other violent behavior, that those kids are seeing on a daily basis.

these questions are related to the tip of the iceberg, but in order to resolve the problem it is necessary to find out how it all started and who the protagonists were when the drug problem started rearing its ugly head and naturally, to objectively expose those who directly or indirectly profit from the situation

due to the fact that many leading members of the society have their fingers involved in pushing the drug trade it is probably illusory to believe that the government will seriously consider combating the problem - the same could be said for any kind of serious research, either by journalists or universities - new generations of officials are also being filtered and those who are 'team players' picked out to further the agenda, its a similar situation throughout the world

imo the only thing that may improve the situation is to create a substantial citizen awareness and build up a nation-wide demand to actively combat drug trafficking in every part of the country, which may cause the trade to loosen its grip and it may be forced to relocate just to certain areas of the country, thus being more isolated and vulnerable to detection/surveillance/raids - the citizen groups need to be active and firm when stating their demands and monitoring the progress being made by the government, (politically) punishing every member/political party that avoids addressing their needs in a proper way

its a simple premise, the government is nothing more than a serving apparatus, one that should serve its citizens, as its power derives from the citizen votes, thus being obligated to act according to citizen wishes/demands - imo this fact is often being misinterpreted, so the government thinks of itself (and spreads this fallacy in the open) as some kind of a ruling entity, conveniently forgetting their officially stated purpose, using all kinds of methods to put up a nice smokescreen and/or continuously dumbing down the population and/or keeping them busy with other problems in order to avoid detection of the real agenda thats going on the background - only actively involved, aware & careful citizens can create a change, the government is much more concerned about keeping their positions and enjoying the ruling status - until some progress is made in this basic area, we may expect no significant change in the (corrupt) system

You may also experience depression, anxiety, a shortened life span due to constant stress, illness, and a host of other medical ailments.

interestingly, this also applies to ordinary working citizens as a result of their working conditions and unsatisfactory relationship to the system's instances/departments

Remember all those things that you heard before that if someone is sexually abused when they were young, they abuse when they become an adult??.......probably not much different with exposure to violence, I'd say.

i'm somewhat skeptical concerning the actual outcome, as there are many examples of people who (after encountering such an abuse themselves) actually became strongly opposed to it, 'vowing' that they would never allow something similar to happen to their children (or to persons they care for), or people who became timid and isolated, without aggressiveness, so i would say that it depends on the individual (among others), concerning how he will react or act, regarding such an experience

In the video, there apparantly is some education for kids by some teachers in how to avoid being caught up in the gun fights.
Education for appropriate environment, obviously.
that's a good thing.

what they are being taught is to avoid, to escape..., which may be good as a temporary solution or in a life-threatening situation, but generally speaking, no problem will be solved by avoiding or escaping it

[SealLion]

I have just one thing to add here, slik and that is when there is a citizen's group that is being formed and let's say, they run down to the cop-shop and demand better enforcement of anti-drug related activities against such-and-such drug gang when that same police force ( in this case, in Mexico) has covert affiliations with the drug gangs b/c they were bought out. I would say that it would make it pretty difficult to have anything done to offset anything.

Additionally, with all the gang- related be-headings that were reported in Ciudad Juárez. I would tend to think that even some of the citizenry are afraid to report.
I would be.
Even as the kids in the video grow up into adult-hood, they'll probably still have those same fears.

You know, it's really unfortunate to see so many victims of these events.
It's not just the kids who'll suffer psychologically in some way or another, but it's also the parents of these kids.
Would a parent want to risk his or her life for the sake of their kids??
I can't answer that last question but from my perspective, I would be.
I wouldn't want to risk my kid's safety, if I reported to the local cop-shop about this or that drug gang. My kids would be left without parents.
Then what??

Sure. It's true that any governing body is supposed to serve the people. But that's only applicable when your in a citizen's utopia.

However, there are such things enacted into some country's laws such as a 'recall' law in which, let's say some member of parliament has in some way not done his or her parliamentary job very well or gone against the wishes of his voter's desire and has been 'recalled' out of office from his legislative seat. He therefore no longer holds any legislative position with the government. In essence, that former parliamentarian has been voted out of office.

With the things going on in Ciudad Juárez and the government struggling to stop or curb the apparent corruption in that city, I wouldn't be surprised myself to know that some of the people in office themselves are corrupt.

Corruption is like a virus.
It's everywhere.
It's not just confined to Mexico or Ciudad Juárez.
It's global.

IDK...maybe if Blocker drops by, perhaps he can give us some insight as he's from that region.

But I do agree with you with respect to what the purpose of any governing body is to it's voters. But sadly, it's not always that simple.

People in office at least some do not all, have a way of seeing things their own way and eventually succumb to one form or another of corruption.

[Blocker]

IDK...maybe if Blocker drops by, perhaps he can give us some insight as he's from that region.

This is a really interesting AJE story.

I live in the center part of Mexico by the way I often read and watch news about Ciudad Juarez.It's an important city for Mexico and also for the US, if you take a look at the Wikipedia info about Ciudad Juarez you can see that is the most violent city in the world where theres's no a declared war.

El Paso and Ciudad Juárez comprise one of the largest bi-national metropolitan areas in the world with a combined population of 2.4 million people. In fact, Ciudad Juárez is one of the fastest growing cities in the world in spite of the fact that it is "the most violent zone in the world outside of declared war zones."

The problem at Ciudad Juarez and a lot of north cities in my country is the drug trafficking and the violence.The problem is really complex.

Theres many inmigrants that state a this city in a temporary way an then cross the border for working at United States.

Let's take a look what wikipedia said:

Crime and safety

Criminal activity in the domestic metropolitan area of Juárez has increased dramatically since the rise of maquiladoras and especially following the establishment of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1994, two factors which attracted both international commerce and many younger women and their families to Juárez in search of better economic opportunities. Violence towards women in the municipality has increased dramatically in the past twenty years;since the early nineties there have been approximately 600 femicides and at least 3000 missing women. Escalating turf wars between the rival Juárez and Sinaloa Cartels have led to increasingly brutal violence in the city since the mid-2000s.

There are many factories at Ciudad Juarez due to the fact US companies get cheap laboral force at Mexico.After NAFTA the population of Juarez increased dramatically because of laboral opportunities.

The maquiladoras(assembly plants) are really popular there and they represent one of the major economic activities

The Ciudad Juárez-El Paso area is a major manufacturing center. Electrolux, Bosch, Foxconn, Flextronics, Lexmark, Delphi, Visteon, Johnson Controls, Lear, Boeing, Cardinal Health, Yazaki, Sumitomo, and Siemens are some of the foreign companies that have chosen Ciudad Juárez for their business operation.

The Juárez police department had a force of approximately 800 officers in September 2008, following the removal of a third of its human resources for various reasons. Recruitment goals set by the department called for the force to more than double.Juárez Citizens Command threatened to take action to attempt to put a stop to all the perpetrators of violence while government officials expressed concern that such vigilantism would contribute to further instability and violence.In response to the increasing violence in the city the military and Federal Police's presence had been increased almost twofold. As of March 2009 at least 4500 soldiers and federal police were in the city attempting to curtail mostly drug cartel related violence.By August 2009 there were more than 7500 federal troops augmented by an expanded and highly restaffed municipal force.In the year leading up to August 2009 Juárez's murder rate was the highest reported in the world, exceeding the holders of the second and third highest rates, Caracas and New Orleans respectively, by more than 25%. The rate of 130 murders per 100,000 inhabitants is the same as Caracas' 2008 statistic for same period.Journalist Charles Bowden, in an August 2008 GQ article, wrote that multiple factors, including drug violence, government corruption and poverty have led to a dispirited and disorderly atmosphere that now permeates the city.

Altough the federal government has increased the number of cops many of them get corrputed from drug cartels .In the last years Juarez citizen has been dissapointed because even there are more cops and in addition federal troops ,the violence cannot be reduced.Many people criticized the current president strategies owing to the fact he is using federal troops instead of cops ,because that is a good proof the corruption of the police is really spread and the federal troops need to make another kind of activities instead of taking care of the citizens.That point makes Ciudad Juarez police useless for the city

Drug cartel violence

The body count in Mexico stood at 5,400 slayings in 2008, more than double the 2,477 reported in 2007, officials said, with over 1400 in Ciudad Juárez alone.The population of Ciudad Juárez had to change their daily routine and many try to stay home in the evening hours. Public life is almost paralyzed out of fear of being kidnapped or hit by a stray bullet. On 20 February 2009, the U.S. State Department announced in an updated travel alert that "Mexican authorities report that more than 1,800 people have been killed in the city since January 2008." On 12 March 2009, police found "at least seven" partially buried bodies in the outskirts of the city, close to the US-Mexican border. Five severed heads were discovered in ice boxes, along with notes to rivals in the drug-wars. Beheadings, attacks on the police and shootings are common in some regions.In September 2009, 18 patients at a drug rehabilitation clinic called El Aliviane were massacred in a turf battle.Patients were lined up in the corridor and gunned down in the early evening. On September 3, 2009 the Associated Press reported that the day before gunmen broke down the door of the El Aliviane drug rehabilitation center and lined their victims up to a wall shooting 17 dead. The authorities had no immediate suspects or information on the victims. Plagued by corruption and the assassination of many of its officers, the government is struggling to maintain Ciudad Juárez's police force. Other police have quit the force out of fear of being targeted. In late 2008 one murder victim was found near a school hanging from a fence with a pig's mask on his face and another one was found beheaded hanging from a bridge in one of the busier streets of the city.

The drugs problem is really big and mexicans know that is the core problem of Ciudad Juarez owing to the fact is a US-Mexican border city and US is the biggest consumer of drugs of the world.The narcotraffic is a big problem that is spread in many cities not only at Juarez.

Few days ago one of Mexico's most famous reputed drug lords said drug war will never end because there allways will be people leading this great businees

Magazine interview: Reputed druglord fears jail - AOL Noticias Beta

It sad to know a lot of mexicans see drug capo's as a heroes because they help economically their communities in excange the people keep quiet and they do not talk about them to the authorities.It is a shame for Mexico that Forbes Billionaires List includes one drug lord #937 Joaquin Guzman Loera - Forbes.com

Joaquín Guzmán Loera - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Musician also compose music about drug lords and there is in some cities or towns a real subculture about this not legal activity.

I think children are really disturbed by this kind of situation.Like you said the constant violence represent their way of live and even tough the goverment and social movements are trying to kill this virus on the city the screen looks not so positive.Some of this kids will be part of drug cartels and the will continue this illegal activity . IMO the federal government need new types of strategies due to the fact in the last years the narcotraffic has not been reduced and many innocent people is dying right now.A great part of this problem is that USA government is not working on reduce the consumption of drugs of their citizen and like I said this country is the biggest consumer of drugs in the world. In the past Mexico was just a producer of drugs but now it is a strategic country for the narcotraffic because now it imports drugs from other countries like Colombia or Asia and then trade it to US.In the last two decades the consumption of drugs in Mexico dramatically has increased too.So the domestic market is also growing.