Destroy the Mexican drug cartels

The tragic killing of two U.S. citizens last week in the border town of Matamoros, Mexico, should, in a just world, refocus American attention on the glaring problem of transnational drug cartels’ de facto control of large swaths of our perilously porous southern border.

That the two Americans killed may have been mistaken by warring cartel clans for Haitian drug smugglers, as The Dallas Morning News reported, hardly ameliorates the awful situation or lessens our imperative to recalibrate attention away from faraway proxy wars of dubious national interest, and toward the very monsters in our own backyard, who run the Western hemisphere’s worst human trafficking rings and flood the U.S. interior with the most lethal drugs known to man.

It is not an exaggeration to say that the U.S.-Mexico border, at this point, is one of the most chaotic, over-trafficked and outright dangerous borders in the world. Vicious cartels, such as Sinaloa and Jalisco, engage in gang shootouts in outlaw fashion, with nary a Mexican law enforcement agent in sight — and even those in sight are more likely than not to be bribed, and in the cartels’ pockets. Human trafficking rings, often working hand in hand with the cartels and opportunistic “coyotes” who promise to smuggle vulnerable migrants into the U.S., parade hordes of Central American and Caribbean migrants through the Mexican interior and right up to the border. The humanitarian conditions on these migrant “caravans” are typically abysmal. Drugs are rampant, children are exploited and far too many women are raped.

Drugs flow across the border like never before. The U.S. drug overdose crisis, which is primarily a fentanyl crisis, is nearly exclusively a phenomenon of the cartels. Drug overdose deaths in America last year reached an unconscionable 106,000-plus or more than 290 daily. That is the functional equivalent of a mid-size commercial airliner falling out of the sky each day. And here, as is the case with fentanyl, those proverbial airliners falling out of the sky would be predominantly packed with those under the age of 35. This tragedy is America’s single greatest humanitarian failing, at the present time.

It is also de facto chemical warfare waged against the United States by the criminal drug cartels that operate on our southern border. And the Mexican government, which especially in the northern part of the country nearest the border resembles a failed and deeply corrupt narcostate, is both unwilling and powerless to put a stop to it.

The situation at the border, overall, is nothing less than deplorable. Ranchers in southern Arizona can hear gunshots and spot cartel thugs strategically perched in the desert hills a few hundred yards away. Hospitals as far apart as Brownsville, Texas, and Yuma, Ariz., are completely overwhelmed and unable to provide medical care for the law-abiding U.S. citizens who live there. And as we were reminded last week, American citizens are being killed.

It is a disaster. And such a disaster — especially one in our own backyard — requires a clear, unambiguous response from the putative greatest nation on Earth.

As this column noted recently, one straightforward and potentially highly effective policy the Biden administration should announce would be to designate the leading drug cartels as State Department-recognized Foreign Terrorist Organizations. Doing this would allow the U.S. government to use various means to financially suffocate the cartels and deprive them of their funding sources. It would also aid law enforcement.

Democrats’ typical response is that such a formal designation would complicate diplomatic relations with Mexico, but that barely passes the laugh test.

Mexico has just as much — if not more — of an interest in cracking down on the cartels as the U.S., but it cannot publicly say so, let alone act upon that interest, due to the cartels’ successful bribery and corruption of the all-too-venal Mexican government.

Crucially, a formal Foreign Terrorist Organization designation for the leading cartels, such as Sinaloa and Jalisco, would also permit the U.S. to go even further.

Consider the fact that, as

When you were sworn into office, and even sooner during your limited periods of public appearances, you promised you’d bring the country together. I’m wondering, do you think you accomplished that campaign promise? After all, there were another 73 million who didn’t vote for you. They had no choice but to hold you to your word and give you that chance to close the divide. Do you think you united the nation? The word on the street is that we’re more divided than ever.

I’m also curious if you’re aware how badly you have jeopardized the security of the nation you had sworn to protect. Actually, it’s about the only thing required of your job.

Are you aware the people in your administration did away with the southern border right after you were elected? Has anyone filled you in on that fact? Have they told you that since you took office, hundreds of thousands of American citizens under your watch have died of fentanyl as a direct result of the open border?

Last year you paid a cursory visit to El Paso to see for yourself. Sadly, you were robbed of the true picture since the town was sterilized before your arrival, and you were led to a spot on the border with no activity. If you want to see the real picture, I’ll be happy to drive you down there, but you have to pay for the gas.

Your own son is a victim of drug and alcohol abuse. I would think you would have a great deal of compassion for those families dealing with the same serious problem and want to help prevent more deaths from occurring. Those on your side of the fence love to blame the user. Do you blame your son?

A poor woman lost her two sons on the same day to fentanyl. Your retort was to blame former President Donald Trump. Real leaders man up, and it’s not toxic masculinity. It’s called being a man.

Are you aware that your massive spending made everything cost tons more and people are barely getting by because of it? I understand you were surprised one time how much a hamburger cost. And that was two years ago.

Under your leadership because you put the kibosh on oil, the cost of gas soared to heights never seen before.

Next time you get in the “Beast,” stop at a station and fill it up yourself. The prices are now down from the highs, but you’ll still get a first-hand understanding how much fuel cuts into the cost of living for the average American.

If you really want to see how bad, fill up in California.

One of those massive spending programs you gave your John Hancock to was supposed to fix the roads, but did you know it wasn’t going to do that at all? You stood at a podium and were pleased how the money was going to really improve our infrastructure.