NAFTA and Drug War Violence in Mexico

An excellent video from the RealNews Network on the background of the Drug War violence that has recently been spinning out of control in Mexico as framed through an interview with journalist Bruce Livesey. Livesey reveals the role of the NAFTA trade agreements in the rise of the drug trade in Mexico, then leading to the violence that has been making international news over the last few years. According to Livesey, NAFTA policies had the effect of stoping the flow of drugs through Florida from Colombia. This forced cartels to shift to Mexico, which resulted in a large increase in truck flow through the US border - and included shipments of a much more diverse product line in cocaine, marijuana, heroin and crystal meth. This resulted in making the drug cartels wealthier than ever before, allowing them to confront Mexican law enforcement and military.

Another interesting result of NAFTA is that it allowed US produce into Mexican market, which effectively wiped out much of Mexican agricultural sector, and pushed workers off of their land and to factories near the US border. With rise of China and India in production, poor displaced workers were in Mexico were suddenly out of work, turning to the cartels and the drug trade as their only option. Livesey provides an interesting argument, and brings to light why neoliberal policies like NAFTA have not been kind to the workers and the poor. Check out the video here:

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  1. I found your site on BlogCatalog and would love to include it on



    Eric Castelli

  2. Mikal9:54 PM

    Good on you for posting news from the Real News Network... helping to get the word out that there is an alternative to the drivel normally broadcast to us from the powers that be.

    One thing though, you've misquoted a little bit from Livesey, where it says, "According to Livesey, NAFTA policies had the effect of stopping the flow of drugs through Florida from Colombia." this is not what he says... instead the Americans (whoever that my be) stopped this trade flow into Florida before NAFTA came into effect, then NAFTA came into effect (increasing cross border traffic) and this is when the Colombian drug lords moved operations to Mexico to take advantage.

