The Mexican drug war is a long and complicated conflict that has only been worsened by most attempts to fix it. The origins of the conflict are in the drug trade and the struggle of power between the different cartels that have fragmented over time, causing ever more bloodshed. The smuggling began in earnest during the long reign of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, but it was just that – smuggling. Most of the drugs coming through Mexico were actually from Columbia, Peru, and other more southern countries. However, more recently, since the US broke up cocaine smuggling networks in the Caribbean in the 1980s, Mexican cartels have taken on a much larger role in the production, movement, and distribution of illicit drugs. During this time,
