many great posts on this subject, even not in agreement many different points are taken well, and that shows the complexity of the drug problem.
a crash down of mexico i would see as a very big danger for the DR, because then less moves over that land connected border than more needs to look for a alternative route, by sea, and one of those routes, even by far not the only one, is def the DR.
amounts of kidnappings and killings in case of drugwar ocassions can hardly be compared between Mexico and the DR, just look on the difference of size, specially the quantity of citizens.
Mexico has more citizens living down on the lowest and fully desperated level where they would do anything, absolutely anything to be on the road of dreams to get "rich" than the DR has citizens over all.
for a 'just throu traffic' and storage location i would name the drug related incidents here on the island very high, Bani is by far not any kind of exception, such happens here once in a while, not just once.
legalize it???
you're kidding me and also everybody who sent his boy over there in those 'drugwars' to make the big guys richer.
in the article shown on the link provided by the OP one of the 'phrases' stated that the growing dangerous situations in the US vacation paradise Mexico are or maybe become the biggest danger/challenge for the US even over Iraq/Afghanistan/Pakistan aso.
heck, now that sounds just like a real joke to me, or just somebody wanna move the public's focus from the real dangers towards something else.
just in case that this vaca paradise falls into hell, hey, close that border and spend your vacation in the DR, on Jamaica, fly to the Bahamas or visit Europe, the Virgin islands are not that bad neither.
all those drugs are entering the US because there are powers who allow them to enter the country, or at least they do by far not all in their power to stop such. the gubmin wanna change that? o.k., stop your incredible huge payments for the production of those incredibly expensive missiles/bombs to be dropped and used for useless killings somewhere aso and just use that money to stock up and train your border control to stop that anything not wanted enters your country. but of course there are so many interests involved making billions of greenbucks out of it every year, who the heck wanna stop that?
corruption?
i don't like that word much, it sounds to weak to me for the effects of it's existance.
somebody, anybody, independent of his position within a gubmin or what ever institution, who get caught for involvement in such should get punished as a top enemy of it's people and not just named "corrupt", but hey, to do so we would need the big guys to agree to such, right? would they kick their own a$$es?
no country can replace it's whole staff at once.
and who we would assign to do so?
where we would get the people from to be the replacement, other than the same we wanna replace?
we are talking about "drugwars", kidnappings and assasinations in Mexico related to a thing/stuff/snow consumed in every class/level/society part of the US(it is not just the US and i don't want to offend americans here, but the thread is about Mexico and it's influence for the US).
i bet the white house or the pentagon with all their families are not an exception on that customer's listing.
and as long as they kill each others in an other country to get that snow to fall down over DC ....
just my simple 2cents
Mike