The Trade and Use of Drugs in Latin America Essay

Films often depict the trade and use of drugs in Latin America as an extremely violent situation. Countries like Columbia or Mexico are usually where the drugs come from while the United States are the destination. More times than not, Latin America plays the role of an antagonist while the United States plays the protagonist. A film about Latin America, when pertaining to the United States, can fall into one of three categories: fully Latin American, a joint effort between Latin American countries and the United States, or a film by the United States. Gerado Naranjo’s Miss Bala (2011), is a Mexican film that is set in Tijuana, Mexico, and follows a young Mexican pageant girl as she becomes mixed up in the Mexican drug cartels. Maria Full†¦show more content†¦Main differences in these films are not in the depictions of the drug cartel, most likely because they are, in actuality, as bad as they seem on film. Differences arise in how the drugs relate to those using them or moving them, how they impact the characters, and the role the United States plays in relation to the characters and cartel. Drug cartels, in reality, are just as bad as they appear on film. Authorities estimate that between eighteen and thirty-nine billion dollars are brought in from drug sales to the United States each year (Keefe). It is also estimated that the war on drugs has caused over 50,000 deaths in Mexico alone since 2006 (Keefe). Deaths are often overlooked because they are not compiled by thousands at once, but gradually over a large area. Other illegal activity such as kidnapping and oil theft have came about from the cartel (Mexico’s Drug Trafficking Organizations: Source and Scope of the Violence). All three films, Miss Bala, Maria Full of Grace, and Traffic give similar accounts to the way the cartel takes people’s lives, only in different areas of the drug moving process. Miss Bala shows a firefight between the DEA (drug enforcement agency) and the Tijuana cartel. This firefight contains heavy weaponry and lots of gunshots, but few people. Less than twenty cartel members can be seen in this firefight while even fewer DEA agents are seen. A beautiful young woman, Laura Guerrero (Stephanie Sigman), is the mainShow MoreRelatedThe Impact Of Latin American Culture On Latin America1656 Words   |  7 Pagesactive war zone, living in Latin America would be much like that. The war being fought here is very different, instead of fighting another country, they are fighting drugs. Although war is generally a negative thing, this one is not. In this war there are negatives, but the positives far outweigh them. Latin American countries have witnessed the very noticeable benefits of the drug trade in many aspects of everyday life. 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