Cartels and Cadavers

I've been putting off writing about this, because it's so obviously a huge part of my life at the moment, and I just can't figure out how to put it in words. The fact is, there's a war going on right now. It's not overseas in Iran/Iraq/Afghanistan and it's not between the Canada VS United States Gold Medal hockey debate. This war is happening beneath your radar, and if you hadn't heard it from me now, you probably wouldn't hear of it until something insanely horrible happens.

I've lived in a border town all my life, and right up until now, I never really considered it anything remotely bad. I get to speak two languages fluently, thrive in the bold Latin culture, and eat Mexican food daily without worrying about its effect on my health. This past week brought out a whole lot of ugly from the other side of the border.

It all started with a gang. You see there used to be these big top head gang guys that would keep all the little gangs in check. They owned everything, and considered themselves the unofficial "police" of cities. But then the Mexican government stuck in their little foot and took all the big bad gang guys to jail, where they've stayed ever since. Things went pretty well after that. Drug trafficking was still going on, but it never affected any innocent citizens, just like it is here in the United States. Then the fight began.

See, all these little gangs realized that the big bad gang guys weren't around to keep them in check anymore, and they all scrambled to try and take the top spot. Around Tuesday or Wednesday this past week, there were gunshots and shootings, killing dozens of innocent bystanders in cities that I've gone to many times in my life. Drug cartels killed doctors that serviced in cities to keep any drugs under their watch, killed American citizens in the deeper end of border cities, and stole any vehicle that they deemed too high class for their region.

People that I know have gotten emails from people in Mexico pleading for help and many of my relatives over there are confined to their homes to escape getting killed. Passageway between major cities isn't attempted for fear to get ambushed by one of the two major gangs. My dad told me that there was a a truck-full of cadavers seen near a canal, just dumping the bodies in the water. There's no way to know for sure who is dead or not because none of the news are reporting it, not even local news around here.

The situation is bad, and almost everyone is terrified of going to Mexico right now. I doubt I'll be going anytime soon. On a good note, I hardly have school this week because underclassmen are testing. Boy, is it good to be a senior.

xoxo
Janet

Awesome: Overweight hedgehogs that eat dog food and run on a treadmill.