As one studies Mexico’s cartel war, it is not uncommon to hear Mexican politicians — and some people in the United States — claim that Mexico’s problems of violence and corruption stem largely from the country’s proximity to the United States. According to this narrative, the United States is the world’s largest illicit narcotics market, and the inexorable force of economic demand means that the countries supplying the demand, and those that are positioned between the source countries and the huge U.S. market, are trapped in a very bad position. Because of this market and the illicit trade it creates, billions of dollars worth of drugs flow northward through Mexico (or are produced there) and billions of dollars in cash flow back southward into Mexico.
You'd think that if proximity to America was the cause of Mexico's problems that Canada would be a corrupt narco-state. Yes, part of the argument is that Mexico lies between drug sources to the south and America; but still, you'd think that Canada would just have a smaller version of Mexico's problems, wouldn't you?
