Military Aid on the Rio Grande

Published in die Presse
(Austria) on 27 May 2010
by Thomas Seifert (link to originallink to original)
Translated from by Ron Argentati. Edited by Alex Brewer.
Arizona is Obama’s Burgenland, and he’s sending troops to the border.* But he has an even worse problem: the Tex-Mex drug Mafia.


Who remembers the TV crime series “Miami Vice?” Sonny Burnett and Ricardo Cooper tracked down drug couriers and money launderers in Miami. The downtown area was a dangerous hotspot and the warehouses that serve today as galleries and chic nightclubs were then centers for the drug cartels and the Narco-Mafia.

The real-life Miami Vice characters were successful: They put enough pressure on the cocaine smuggling route that ran via the Caribbean that it eventually shifted to run across Mexico. Whoever is looking for a suitable current TV series based on the new route should take a look at “Breaking Bad,” available here only on DVD. The series is set in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Fear reigns north of the Rio Grande. Fear of narcotics gangs mixes in the United States of America with the fear of illegal immigrants. And now President Obama is sending in National Guard troops. But, as it was with Burgenland, the gesture is only a placebo.

Meanwhile, Americans completely forget that both problems — the drug wars and illegal immigration — are of the homegrown variety. Who’s snorting all that coke and crystal meth, anyway? And who’s letting all the illegal immigrants work in the orange groves and strawberry fields for starvation wages? Finding the answers to those questions would be a lot more helpful than sending in the National Guard.


*Translator’s Note: Burgenland is a border province of Austria with Slovakia, Hungary and Slovenia as neighbors. It is traditionally considered a bridge between the eastern and western parts of Central Europe.


Assistenzeinsatz am Rio Grande
THOMAS SEIFERT (Die Presse)

Arizona ist Obamas Burgenland: Er schickt die Armee an die Grenze. Doch er hat ein schlimmeres Problem: die Tex-Mex-Drogenmafia.

Wer erinnert sich noch an die Krimiserie „Miami Vice“? Sonny Burnett und Ricardo Cooper waren in Miami den Drogenkurieren und Geldwäschern auf der Spur. Downtown Miami war brandgefährlich, die Lagerhäuser, in denen heute Galerien und schicke Clubs untergebracht sind, waren die Umschlagplätze des Kartells und der Narko-Mafia.

Die echten Kollegen vom „Miami Vice“ waren erfolgreich: Die Kokainschmuggelroute über die Karibik kam unter Druck und so verschob das Drogenkartell seine Schmuggelrouten. Diese laufen nun quer durch Mexiko. Wer eine passende aktuelle US-Fernsehserie zum Thema sucht, dem sei „Breaking Bad“ empfohlen (gibt's nur auf DVD). Die Serie spielt in Albuquerque, New Mexiko.

Nördlich des Rio Grande herrscht Angst. Die Furcht vor der Drogenmafia vermischt sich dort, in den Estados Unidos de América, mit Angst vor illegaler Einwanderung. Nun schickt US-Präsident Barack Obama die Nationalgarde: Doch wie im Grenz-Assistenzeinsatz im Burgenland ist das nichts weiter als ein Placebo.

Dabei vergessen die Amerikaner, dass beide Probleme – Drogenkrieg & illegale Einwanderung – hausgemacht sind. Wer schnupft denn nun all das Kokain und Crystal-Meth? Und wer lässt all die Mexikaner auf Orangenhainen und Erdbeerfeldern zum Hungerlohn schuften? Darauf eine Antwort zu finden wäre wirkungsvoller, als die Nationalgarde zu schicken.


thomas.seifert@diepresse.com

("Die Presse", Print-Ausgabe, 27.05.2010)
This post appeared on the front page as a direct link to the original article with the above link .

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