Mexican Drug Violence Echoes Widow's Plea to President Obama: Wake Up and Smell the Border

The escalation of drug cartel violence near and even inside the Mexican-American border has incited a young Texas widow to call for stronger border security.

Tiffany Hartley has issued a plea to President Obama to strengthen border regulations and patrols. She and her husband David Hartley were jet skiing on Falcon Lake in late September. The lake shares the Texas/Mexican border, and Hartley was apparently mistaken as a target by two suspected Mexican drug cartel pirates.

The Hartleys were chased down. David was shot in the head. When shots continued, Tiffany had to abandon her efforts to help her husband. She contacted police when she arrived back on shore.

Body and jet ski missing - Leading investigator found decapitated

Hartley's body and the jet ski are still missing. On Oct. 12, the lead Mexican investigator on the case, Rolando Flores, was found decapitated. Mexican authorities have taken this as a threat to drop the investigation.

The Hartleys, who resided in McAllen, Texas, had grown sick of border terror. They were already packed up to move back to their home state, Colorado, when they took their jet ski trip to the lake.

The deceased Hartley's sister told CBS News that America needs more border patrol, and U.S. citizens need more education as to what's going on.

Current border violence is at its highest in recent years

Within this month, a Mexican drug cartel killed 13 people and wounded 15 others at a house birthday party in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez, next to El Paso, Texas. Members of another cartel appeared hooded in an Al Qaeda-style video, holding the brother of a former Mexican state attorney hostage at gunpoint.

Here is an original analysis which may account for the quickly escalating violence:

-Mexican President Calderon is a staunch vocal opponent to stricter U.S. illegal immigration laws from Mexico. At the same time, he's strengthened similar laws in his own country. This could be one reason why the drug cartels are so emboldened to increased violence around the border cities.

-However, Mexican authorities also accuse American demands for illegal drugs, and the money spent by Americans, as one cause of escalated activity by drug lords to protect their business. A Daily Mail UK report states that Mexican drug traffickers are already deeply and numerously well-established on the American side, and this is known to DEA officials such as David Gaddis, chief of DEA global enforcement.

-Mexican drug cartels may feel that Western governments seem relatively incapable of punishing Al Qaeda activity. This is due to the current trend of political correctness that treads softly on Islamic terrorism for fear of offending good and decent Muslims.

-The Mexican drug dealers also see the lackadaisical, even contrary, attitude about Mexican-American border control from U.S. government officials. The criminals are looking forward to amnesty for all illegals.

Sources:

"Tiffany Hartley Calls for More Border Control," CBS News, as found on Yahoo! News, 10/26/10.

"The war next door: Horrific brutality of Mexican drug cartels 'makes al Qaeda look tame'," Daily Mail UK, 10/25/10.

"Man Killed by Mexican Pirates on Texas Lake," Kevin Dolak, ABC News, 10/2/10.