Title: Mexico and the Drug Cartels: A History of Fascination | Peace Palace Library
Headings: Mexico and the Drug Cartels: A History of Fascination
Mexico and the Drug Cartels: A History of Fascination
This blog was written in honor of the farewell of Mr. Van Hoogstraten, General-Director of the Carnegie Foundation and Treasurer of The Hague Academy of International Law.
Mexico in Hollywood
Mexico, Migration and Marijuana (1870-1970)
Cross-border Cooperation and Cocaine (1970 – 1980)
A New Millennium, A New Government (2000 – 2015)
The Life in Cartel Land

Content: Through the use of military power and the aerial distribution of herbicides to destroy plantations, Mexico’s share in the USA drug markets decreased dramatically. However, even though crime rates dropped, these combined operations had multiple side-effects, including multilevel human rights violations, extensive internal migration and health consequences related to the use of dangerous chemicals. Most of all, the operations caused uproar in the drug trafficking world: small drug businesses and traffickers were forced to end their operations, while the big organizations became more powerful and resorted increasingly to intimidation, corruption and violence - strongly affecting the Mexican law enforcement. The organizations restructured themselves and discovered a new market: cocaine, brought in from South America and smuggled from Mexico to the USA. It was around this time, at the end of the 1970s, that one of the most important cartels was founded - the Guadalajara Cartel. The founders of this cartel, which included a former police officer and bodyguard, were the only true drug lords in Mexico at the time. This cartel transported both heroin and marijuana to the USA and had close connections with Colombian drug trafficker Pablo Escobar. The 1980s witnessed a series of events which proved to be of decisive importance for the further development of Mexico’s drug cartels.