Those of you that say his capture doesn't mean anything because the next in line will step up either have little idea what you are talking about or somehow think El Chapo legendary status is bull****.

It is just like if a CEO of a major corporation dies. The next CEO isn't expected to be as good as the deceased CEO or the next CEO would have already been the CEO. The exception to this rule is if El Chapo was so ruthless (by druglord standards) that everyone was afraid to de-thrown him. From what I've heard it doesn't sound like this is the case. From what I've heard it sounds like he may be the GOAT Mexican drug lord. If that's the case the drug game will make less money & become less efficient which will lead to a decrease in power.

General Motors is a better example than GS considering they had the US President breaking the law in how he bailed them out, but comparing a US company like GS or GM to a drug cartel too much is a bit silly.

Since nobody is going to see mules w/ backpacks filled w/ drugs cross a border and not take a picture can you post some of the pictures you took of some of these mules w/ backpacks? It would help if there was some kind of indication that these are mules crossing the border and not just your pet mule hanging in your back yard after you slung your LL Bean backpack on his back. One picture of the drugs in the packs will suffice as well.

BonzoCuellar,

Do you think US involvement in capturing El Chapo is good for Mexico overall?

Meh, Zambada will take over and not much will change.

do people really honestly believe if we make drugs legal, the cartels would just "go away" ??

lol

Maybe they will go into legitimate businesses, they could call it "Seagrams" or something.

No.

lol

well that is actually the part that gave me faith... as i told you he's been captured a lot of times before and usually just escapes (more like they let them escape). USA involvment in the case makes it way more serious than other times imho.

Serious as far as their intent to keep El Chapo locked up for good this time, yes, but his question was whether or not you believe it will be good for Mexico overall? How much do you believe things will change with El Chapo locked up?

BonzoCuellar,

Why do I keep hearing (through the US media and my one friend that lives in Mexico) that a lot of Mexicans see el chapo as a robin hood type? Is this popular belief among Mexicans?

Mexico government is extremely corrupt. There are a lot of people who believe Pena Nieto, the current elected president, illegitimately won the election. There was a huge protest in Mexico City not soon after he was elected. The majority are suffering immensely, their natural resources being sold and taxes being hiked. Sales Tax just rose 2-3% recently. This kind of stuff just helps the rich and hurts the poor, who make up a large portion of the population.

And when you have the president's daughter tweeting this:



which roughly translates to, “Greetings to the bunch of *******s that form the proletariat and only complain about those who they envy!”, you know things are bad.

Yeah, rich people love when taxes go up.

el chapo is an OG

one of the greats fa sho

He will walk with the chosen

No one thinks legalization will make the cartels go away immediately. They would weaken and fade over a generation or two.

As opposed to....

NY Times has an article about his cartel today - they have deals with the Italian mafia, Canadian Hells Angels, corrupt African governments, Chinese gangs, and send weapons to the South.

I'd say U.S. legalization of certain types of drugs will have a fairly minimal impact on the organization.

Why do you all think that taking away a company's main source of income will have a minimal impact on the company? Sure the company can jump into other industries, but if those other industries were as profitable as the industry you take away they would already be in them.

And most of those deals are for the distribution of drugs.

Production and distribution need to be legal (done by companies like Phillip Morris/Big Pharma/or the gov't), not just consumption.

And like I said, it will take a while - probably a big effect on the upcoming generation.

Of course it hurts, but they are diversified enough where they can lose an income stream and still be highly profitable.

Even if legalized, I'm sure they can still find ways to do business in the U.S., in the same way there is an illegal gun trade.

Sure, but in proportion to demand for illegal guns, which is much smaller (and would be even smaller if criminals weren't fighting over the drug trade) than demand for illegal drugs.

Just because something isn't perfect doesn't mean it's not much better than the status quo.

Yeah, let the US government produce and distribute drugs since they are so efficient in all the other business ventures they are in.

I am sure if Apple was told they could no longer sell iPhones they could still be profitable (long-term) making iPads, laptops, and whatever they already do, but that would be a huge hit for them. A drug cartel isn't much different.

The obvious answer is that the cartels would control the legal drug trade as well.

I bet chapo is a good dude and was actually helping control the situation. Things will get much worse now

I don't see how that's obvious. Large corporations very easily returned to supplying alcohol after prohibition and while there are certainly historical remnants of organized crime in the gaming industry, it's completely dominated by large corporations.

Mexico may be so corrupt that organized crime essentially controls the government, but when Phillip Morris, Dow Chemical, and Johnson & Johnson are producing drugs and they are sold at CVS, Walgreens and Walmart, there won't be a place for drug lords from Mexico.

(of course, some Mexicans are legitimately concerned that this will take a lot of money and legal work out of their economy)

Get the Jeep ready boys, Chapo just escaped again.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/07/12/world/...ape/index.html