From the other link on the front page about this subject [1]:

> Illegal cattle smuggling, long considered one of the most efficient money-laundering routes for the drug cartels which terrorised San Pedro Sula, is regarded as the main reason for the accelerating advance. Up to 800,000 cattle a year are illicitly raised in nature reserves, such as the UNESCO-protected Rio Platano Biosphere in Honduras, and then smuggled by boat and truck up to Mexico. The flies, of course, travel with the livestock, embedded in cattle hides, accelerating their advance.

> “Everything indicates that illegal cattle routes from Central America are the arteries through which the screw worm is circulating again toward Mexico,” wrote Jeremy Radachowsky, director for Mesoamerican and the Western Caribbean at the Wildlife Conservation Society, in a recent paper.

So for those who keep trying to make the connection, it has little, if anything, to do with US politics. Meanwhile, I had no idea that cattle smuggling was a money-laundering route for drug cartels. TIL!

[1] https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-diseas...

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fc417fc802 6 days ago | parent | next [-]

> So for those who keep trying to make the connection, it has little, if anything, to do with US politics.

I follow your intended meaning (USAID & etc cuts). But taken literally it's US policies and propaganda that enable the drug cartels. Our dysfunctions are still ultimately the root of the problem.

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timr 6 days ago | parent | next [-]

OK, so let me be even more explicit: for those who continue to want to connect this to recent changes in the US political system, the relationship is tenuous, at best.

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0xDEAFBEAD 6 days ago | parent | prev [-]

The world is complex and interdependent. The US, being a powerful and influential country, has direct or indirect involvement in pretty much everything. That doesn't mean we are to blame for everything.

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fc417fc802 6 days ago | parent [-]

I agree. We certainly aren't at fault for the existence of organized crime in general. However our aggressively exported drug policy is very obviously the root that props up the Mexican and South American drug cartels (among others). There's decades of academic literature and economic analysis on this point.

When a parasite is spreading due to a large scale money laundering tactic by a large scale criminal enterprise whose scale is only enabled by our policy I class that as yet another own goal of the war on drugs.

These downstream effects are somewhat non obvious so I think it's worthwhile to point them out when they come up.

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wonderwonder 6 days ago | parent [-]

Good thing we are considering approving military force against the cartels. Optimally those large scale criminal enterprises will soon find themselves to be of much smaller scale after we start drone striking them. The cartels are already being hurt by the increased security along our southern borders as well as the large crackdown from Mexican authorities as they seek to appease Trump.

Incredible that we could have been doing this the whole time, we just chose not to. We just chose to allow the cartels to act in whatever way they saw fit and to cross our border with their poison and violence whenever they wanted.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/02/world/americas/mexico-car...

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Teever 6 days ago | parent | next [-]

Are you concerned about the possibility that the cartels can strike back with their own drones?

If they do so, what do you feel should be the correct response?

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wonderwonder 5 days ago | parent [-]

Absolute overwhelming force where what happened serves as a cautionary tale for generations

	▲	fc417fc802 5 days ago \| parent \| next [-]
		So in other words adopt a policy by which we shoot ourselves in the foot (several times over) and disrupt our neighbors. Double down on said policy by burning lots of cash to provide military assistance to our destabilized neighbor in the form of bombs (we sure do seem to love those). In the event this has negative consequences (ie our own citizens are killed) burn even more cash bombing the perpetrators into the ground (surely this won't result in any collateral damage or ill will). To me that reads as a convenient step by step guide to undermining our own freedoms while destabilizing our neighbors. Perhaps in turn you'll propose the solution of occupying Mexico to "maintain security"?
	▲	Teever 2 days ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Does America have the economic, social, and industrial resources to wage such warfare with the cartels? America has spent trillions on two failed wars in the past 25 years, and lacks the economic capability to produce artillery shells to aid Ukraine. At the same time it needs to build up industrial capacity to defend against an impending war in the pacific and it doesn't seem to be able to do that. It is unlikely that engaging in all out war with the cartels is a viable path at this time.

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Hikikomori 6 days ago | parent | prev [-]

Is there a problem America can't solve with guns?

	▲	wonderwonder 6 days ago \| parent [-]
		I mean taken to its furthest extreme, not really. America owes its dominance to two things: Guns and Money And the second is very much dependent on the first.

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bloomingeek 6 days ago | parent | prev [-]

> So for those who keep trying to make the connection, it has little, if anything, to do with US politics.

Right now, as the world turns, we have the greatest number of appointees in positions of governmental influence on policies, that have no idea what they are doing because of a lack of expertise. Almost all these vital positions are politically appointed by the current administration. Need an example: soon the policies of JFK jr., God help us, are going to, unfortunately, prove my point.

	▲	macintux 6 days ago \| parent [-]
		Yeah, the way we’re turning our backs on one of the most important medical miracles in recent years is horrifying. I hope COVID or something worse doesn’t cause too much carnage.