Now is not a good time

How exactly can a different country help lower violence and drug trafficking in Mexico? No idea. 

America has its own drug lords to worry about trafficking within our own country. If our country can’t stop it in its own territory, how the heck is it supposed to stop them in a different country? No idea. 

There was a constant theme running through my head while hundreds of students, faculty and supporters watched Mexican Consul General Carlos Gonzalez Gutierrez deliver his speech about the bi-centennial celebration of mexican independence and drug trafficking in Mexico.

While Gutierrez was explaining the problems about Mexico and how the United States should become involved, I couldn’t grasp how exactly we would be able to help as a country. This is me trying to be optimistic about it too.

America could send money over to help fund more law enforcement and military to stop these drug lords who are in charge of drug trafficking. Wait, our country is in a deficit. And even if we gave Mexico money for that purpose, would the money actually be used for stopping trafficking? 

The term narco-terrorism was brought up many times throughout the speech in regards to how the consul sees this problem in Mexico. During the presentation, Gutierrez said 10 murders occur for every 100,000 citizens in the country per year.

Mexico had a population of 106 million people in 2008. So just over 10,600 deaths happen from murder in results from drug trafficking. Just imagine how much money America would have to spend in order to get the 10,600 murders down to a reasonable level. Good luck getting that through the state or federal budget.

Another thing that was shocking was that the consul were more focused on cutting down the violence than the drug trafficking itself.

"I want to stress the need of cooperation from the United States and other countries in fighting drug trafficking,” Gutierrez said. “It is necessary to have participation of all those involved in the chain of drug trade, so that there is hope of significantly reducing the levels of violence."

This statement alone leads people to believe that violence is the bigger issue. So how is America going to help stop violence in Mexico when we can’t even keep murder rates down in our own country?

It seems like Mexico has to do a lot of the work themselves. Sure, America relies on other countries when a situation gets out of hand for us. But something tells me, asking a country that is trying to get itself out of a recession is not going to help a whole lot.

Gutierrez primarily focused on making California the target source for help. Currently, California is setting a record for the longest-delayed budget. California is also finding itself in a massive deficit--several years in a row. So how much help is California going to be?

Take a wild guess. We can't even fix our crisis in the UC/CSU system, let alone a whole new project of drug trafficking in Mexico.

The good hearts of Americans would love to help out a terrible problem in Mexico. Americans are all about giving back. We love the feeling of doing something good for people in need. 

But for lack of a better phrase: now is not a good time.