Essay Example on El Chapo Trial: Mexico's Drug War Spectacle

The article El Chapo and Mexico's Drug War spectacle by Correa and Weiss is primarily centered on drug trafficking. It begins with an introduction of a conviction case of the most wanted American Joaquin Loera famously known as El Chapo. The criminal charges placed against him include his conspiracy to commit murder, traffic drugs as well as continually running criminal enterprises within and beyond Mexico. Such charges are derived from a trial that had been highly publicized in the New York City; a trial session which was characterized by heavy security protection for the jury and a cost of millions of dollars (Correa-Cabrera and Weiss, 2019). Despite the idea that El Chapo's case had triggered both political and legal concerns within Mexico; the article notes several benefits that the case had come along with especially for the film producers and mass media coverage that earn profits through the sales of cartel wars and corruption scandals among others.

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The charges against the drug dealer could lead him to a court sentence of life imprisonment. The fact that the spectacle reveals the cartels that El Chapo had led for several years alongside a vast network of drug traffickers, high-level politicians and various entrepreneurs within Mexico, multiple media houses refer to the case as the 'trial of the century.' According to the article, the witnesses, as well as high-level narcos within Mexico who had closely worked with him, exposed even the most unknown elements of El Chapo's inner workings as well as his continued involvement with the Mexican authorities and their allies.

Most importantly, the conviction of the powerful drug dealer within Mexico could go along in sending warning messages to the several cartels involved in impunity and illicit acts within the state. This method of conviction depicted a continuation of the kingpin strategy that included the involved prosecution of the individual cartels rather than the structures of power that orchestrate violence within Mexico and the Americas. Such kind of the US-funded war on drugs strategy has seriously resulted in the low-level cartel leaders vying for power within Mexico thus igniting violence and suffering within the country. Over the decades, America and Mexico have been cooperating in the conviction of the people involved in drug trafficking even though they fail to address causes of such vices such as the support from the prominent political leaders within the two nations (Correa-Cabrera and Weiss, 2019).

The article proceeds to explain the numerous lives that had been lost and the number of people displaced within Mexico since the beginning of this war against Drugs by the then president of Mexico Felipe Calderon. About 200000 lives have been lost, and 35000 people displaced (Correa-Cabrera and Weiss, 2019). As a result, the United States become affected by the case as a result of their tendency of massive consumption of the illicit drugs as well as the neoliberal policies that it has proffered over the over other Mexican working class.

Thus, the United States is keener on the case to identify the role of its antinarcotic policies and corporations in the country. Furthermore, the article presents the case of a drug dealer who supplies drugs in the United States, thus capable of massive killing of US drug consumers. Moreover, the media coverage of the El Chapo reveals operations of the cartels and the drug trafficking business and their subsequent networks within Mexico. This gives the US law enforcement agencies the vital and strategic information about the significant Mexican businesspersons and politicians who are involved in drug trafficking thus enabling them exert direct pressures on the New Mexican government.

Through this, the United States would soon put pressure on Mexico to strengthen its anti-narcotic policies and strategy because of the heavy presence of the US enforcers of the law in Mexico. In my opinion, however, the conviction and life imprisonment of the great American drug dealer El Chapo would send a warning message to the leaders and politicians who take advantage of the positions that they have in the society to engage in illegal businesses within and beyond America.

However, the conviction of El Chapo would also raise security concerns for the witnesses and the American jury who preside over the hearing of the criminal case. For instance, the enormous political base and the influential business cartel that El Chapo has within America would pose a lot of threat to the lawyers, witnesses and the judges listening to El Chapo's case. Moreover, the most interesting bit of the life imprisonment sentence is that Mr. Guzman had been involved in breaking out of prison for the third time in 2015, which had brought him great fame thus; doing it again would raise critical feasibility and security questions within America (Correa-Cabrera and Weiss, 2019).

The case also becomes more attractive because the United States is deeply concerned with the outcomes of the hearing. This is due to the basic idea that they had implemented the kingpin strategy of dealing with cartels within their country; thus the conviction and sentence of El Chapo would be a reflection of their strategy in dealing with cartels and drug dealers within and beyond the United States. In the recent past, attention had always been placed on the charismatic and the influencing nature of El Chapo rather than the political power that orchestrate vices and such as violence and drug dealing within the United States and Mexico.

Thus, it would be significant if both the El Chapo and the perpetrators of these vices were convicted of sending a warning to both the perpetrators of crime such as the political elites as well as the actual executors of crime such as El Chapo (Correa-Cabrera and Weiss, 2019). Therefore, it follows that the conviction of criminals while leaving out their perpetrators would not play significant roles in uprooting criminal offenses such as drug smuggling in both the United States of America and Mexico.

Furthermore, the article reveals the extent to which the United States is a military country- declaring war on almost everything, including poverty, terrorism, communism, among others. The irony in the case of El Chapo is that although the United States and Mexico have been great allies especially when it comes to chasing down the drug lords, a percentage of the illicit drug consumers originate from the United States.

However, over the decades, their joint corporations in dealing with narcotics have failed despite the numerous convictions of the drug traffickers such as El Chapo. To obtain the desired outcomes, United States and Mexico could also join in dealing with the political class who support drug trafficking. The media and movie production firms such as Netflix who further the idea that individual narcos are the primary enemies of the society would continue misleading the spectators and as such causing bleeding within Mexico.

References

Correa-Cabrera G., and Weiss L. (March 4, 2019) "El Chapo and Mexico's Drug War," NACLA Report on the Americas website