b'increasing level of success was achieved interceptingels ever seen in the Western Hemisphere after the Mex- Inthe2010s,increasedeffortstosqueezethe seaborne shipments on fast boats and semi-submers- ican cartels went to war against each other. The gov- smugglers,especiallytheinterdictionofmulti-ton, ibles. For Mexican society, however, the price has ex- ernments divide-and-conquer strategy to combat theseaborne shipments of cocaine coming from the Pacific ceeded over 120,000 human lives in the 13 years since,cartels backfired on the Mexican people as the war bledcoast of Colombia, were having the same effect on Mex-mostly poor young people recruited into the cartels, at- into the streets of major cities throughout the country ico that similar efforts had on the U.S. as an entry point, tracted by fast money and adventure and to whom fewespecially those that serve as main transport hubs on30 years before. When 20 tons of cocaine is seized or opportunities are available to live better than a peasantthe route from southern to northern Mexico, and thendumped at sea on its way from Colombia to Mexico, farmer. Hundreds of thousands of these young peopleon to the border cities. Tijuana, Jaurez, Nuevo Laredo,or anywhere for that matter, the cost is to the shipper, have become intentional fodder for violence, used byand Matamoros saw the killing spree start first, by ear- so to speak. Smuggling via sea or air works only if the cartelbossestohaultheirdrugsanddotheirdirtyly 2007bodies were displayed hanging from bridgesdestination country allows it or lacks the assets to stop workand to pay the price of failure with their lives. and lampposts, strewn in ditches along highways, andit. Costa Rica and Panama do not allow it, and Mexico Mexicohasalwaysbeenaviolentcountryitsvideos were routinely shot of executions by handgun,no longer does eitherso the alternate entry points are homicide rate generally two to three-time that of theassault rifle and decapitationboth victims and assail- now in the Northern Triangle countries, and just like in U.S.but violence throughout the country exceeded lev- ants often teenagers or young adults. Mexico, the violence and gang activity have followed.Above/LeftCongressional delegation of Democrats visiting the controversial Clint, Texas, detention facility southeast of El Paso. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is pictured speaking, alongside former San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro, who is running for president; Above/RightAsylum seekers from Central America pictured at a border detention facility in El Paso; Below/Left to RightA couple approaching a river bank on the Mexico-Guatemala border; a migrant teenager recovering from heat and exhaustion, sitting in the back of a Border Patrol vehicle; an elderly woman and infant child being escorted by Mexican Federales; a young boy waits while he parents are questioned by Border Patrol agents in the Rio Grande Valley.TheCoastalBend.com THE COASTAL BEND MAGAZINEFall 2019 27'