I live in Mexico and have for nearly two decades. I can tell you that blaming the United states on the violence in this country is a half-baked argument at best. Firearms availability to the cartels is only a part of a much wider, deeper problem of systemic corruption at all levels of government, causing widespread uselessness in the basic infrastructure of government doing its most fundamental job of providing public safety.
In Mexico, the state and its functionaries (very much including the police) at all levels are too inept, too corrupt and too indifferent to handle their investigative and protective duties as things stand. This is a major cause of insecurity and high crime. It's only a secondary factor that the cartels and their weapons (many of which are not even bought from the U.S but instead stolen or bought from the corrupt public security agencies, unless you think you can buy RPGs and mortars in an American gun store, for example). That these cartels dominate so much isn't specifically because they can buy U.S weapons, or use money from drug sales to the U.S. to corrupt institutions. Instead they dominate because they can do all these things in a landscape where the state either retreats persistently, doesn't seriously apply itself to public security or simply sells itself to their bidding.
Canada, to the north of the U.S also has plenty of drug demand, drug sales from the U.S and an even more open border, yet it remains a safe, well-run country. Why? Because unlike the government in Mexico, Canada's government takes its duties seriously and invests in applying them.
Yeah totally, I said one said “one reason”. :) I lived in Brazil for a while, and definitely saw that gangs can get plenty big and plenty violent with plenty of guns even just catering to the domestic drug market and without easy gun imports.
But I also remember reading about the US$100,000,000 bribe allegedly paid to Pena Nieto in 2012. Like, damn, it’s gotta be hard to fight corruption in a middle-income country when the criminals have that kind of cash to throw around.
In Mexico, the state and its functionaries (very much including the police) at all levels are too inept, too corrupt and too indifferent to handle their investigative and protective duties as things stand. This is a major cause of insecurity and high crime. It's only a secondary factor that the cartels and their weapons (many of which are not even bought from the U.S but instead stolen or bought from the corrupt public security agencies, unless you think you can buy RPGs and mortars in an American gun store, for example). That these cartels dominate so much isn't specifically because they can buy U.S weapons, or use money from drug sales to the U.S. to corrupt institutions. Instead they dominate because they can do all these things in a landscape where the state either retreats persistently, doesn't seriously apply itself to public security or simply sells itself to their bidding.
Canada, to the north of the U.S also has plenty of drug demand, drug sales from the U.S and an even more open border, yet it remains a safe, well-run country. Why? Because unlike the government in Mexico, Canada's government takes its duties seriously and invests in applying them.