"What we want is to find the disappeared. And we are reinforcing the institutions of the Mexican State to better prevent and respond to this tragic crime."

"We reaffirm our commitment. We will continue searching for all missing persons until we find them."

"Our obligation is to continue looking for everyone, for every person."

"And, at the same time, to eradicate this crime. There should be no more disappeared in Mexico."

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum

 

"The idea that forced disappearances don’t happen, or that most disappearances are related to voluntary absences, minimizes the responsibility of the state."

"Limiting the number of missing persons to 43,128 minimizes the magnitude of a crisis that has a human face and that won’t be solved through administrative searches."

Centro Prodh human rights group

 

"We are reverting once again to the idea that only those with case files at the public prosecutor’s office will be considered."

"There is deep mistrust of the prosecutors’ offices; there is significant collusion between these offices and criminal groups – that’s common knowledge."

Rosalva Aída Hernández Castillo, Mexican anthropologist 

Mothers gather outside Banorte Stadium before the Mexico v Portugal match in Monterrey on 28 March, asking for justice for their missing loved ones. Photograph: Franco Uriel Pérez Ramírez/NurPhoto/Shutterstock

 

Volunteer search teams last year discovered an abandoned ranch where inexplicably a multitude of shoes were found. To the search teams this was evidence of an extermination camp operated by a drug cartel. When charred human remains were found there as well, Mexican authorities went into denial mode, insisting that the Izaguirre ranch in Jalisco, western Mexico, was actually a training camp for new recruits of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, the most powerful of Mexico's many criminal groups.

 

Dissatisfied with the outcome of the investigation, volunteers returned to the site to continue searching for answers and another disturbing discovery was revealed. There, they found a septic pit stuffed with human teeth and bone fragments. Yet another discovery consolidating the inescapable reality of an ongoing grim chapter in Mexico. Over 133,000 people have vanished across the country and Mexican authorities have gone out of their way fruitlessly to solve the situation, then resorted to minimizing it and finally denying its existence.

People hold pictures of missing persons in front of the National Palace during the commemoration of the International Day of the Disappeared in Mexico City, on 30 August 2019. Photograph: Rodrigo Arangua/AFP/Getty Images

 

The fact that Mexicans have been struggling with, in an ongoing effort to stem the tide of the disappeared -- or at the very least comprehend how and why it is occurring -- hoping for a clue that might direct them toward prevention focuses on the reality that tens of thousands of people have disappeared in the past several decades, and the suspects causing these sudden absences in civil society are organized crime, aided and abetted by colluding government officials. 

 

President Claudia Sheinbaum has sworn to pursue justice until such time as the mystery of these wholesale disappearances has been brought to a conclusion. The rate at which the government has moved in an effort to solve the frighteningly deadly situation has been glacial and ineffective in the opinion of government critics. Societal condemnation of government has placed new pressure on the president for the urgent need of greater progress.

 

According to government statistics, homicides have dropped by 41 percent under this administration, while the number of missing persons has more than doubled since 2015. Prosecutors have been mandated by the president to open an investigation once a disappearance report has been received. A nationwide emergency alert system was launched to respond to missing person reports. Nonetheless controversy has followed these initiatives.

 

A person runs along the Sunday bike route in front of a section of the metal guardrail at the so-called “Roundabout of the Disappeared,” plastered with photographs of missing persons, in Mexico City.

(Yuri Cortez/AFP via Getty Images)

 

An audit to review the national disappearance registry was ordered in the wake of the Izaguirre ranch discovery, with a goal to ensure accurate data collection. Created in 2018, the registry merged lists from state prosecutors, search commissions and volunteers, an assimilation difficult to analyze. "There were no standards, no methodology", stated security official overseeing the effort, Marcela Figueroa. The total of 130,000 entries were divided into three groups by Ms. Figueroa's research team. Given the lack of information, argued the government, searching for one set of the missing would be impossible.

 

One third of the entries were categorized as individuals who had been reported missing, but who had been found to have married, filed taxes or received vaccinations. Of the remaining 43,600 people of whom nothing had been heard from after being reported missing, sufficient information exists to enable continued searches. This conclusion drew mixed reactions from the concerned public with some researchers claiming government failed to make its data public and as such, verifying the audit's accuracy was not possible.  

"I want to give a vote of confidence."

"The problem is they can show whatever figures they want, but if there's no evidence to back them up, it's going to be really hard to defend what they're doing." 

Fernando Escobar, researcher, Common Cause, Mexico 

Forestry workers scrape soil looking for evidence of human remains during a massive, multi-agency search through Cumbres del Ajusco National Park, which sits south of Mexico City. (Jorge Barrera/CBC)

"[Havana] aligns itself -- and provides support to numerous hostile countries, transnational terrorist groups and malign actors adverse to the United States [including Russia, China and Iran]."

"[The communist government provides] defense, intelligence and security assistance to adversaries in the Western Hemisphere [while violating the human rights of its citizens]."

"[Cuba] will be failing pretty soon. They got their oil from Venezuela. They're not getting that anymore."

"[I will impose tariffs on any country that] directly or indirectly provides oil to Cuba."  

U.S. President Donald J. Trump 

 

"We did not touch on the topic of Cuba [during their 40-minute telephone conversation], and in the evening then this [executive order] came out."

"The imposition of tariffs on countries that provide oil to Cuba could create a far-reaching humanitarian crisis [severely impacting the operations of hospitals, the electrical grid and the food supply]." 

"[Cuba is currently] going through a difficult moment [but Mexico cannot be put] at risk in terms of the tariffs."  

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum  

A drone view shows the Pajaritos terminal of Mexico's state-owned oil company Pemex, in Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz state. (Angel Hernandez/Reuters)

 

An executive order was signed on Thursday by U.S. President Donald Trump when he declared Cuba represented an "unusual and extraordinary threat" to U.S. national security for which tariffs would be imposed on all U.S. imports from any country supplying Cuba with oil. In the wake of the lightning military raid on Caracas in mid-January that took Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro into U.S. custody for trucking with drug cartels, Mr. Trump turned his attention directly on Cuba.

 

Subsequent to the raid, the Trump administration now controls Venezuela's oil exports and took the occasion to block deliveries of oil to Cuba, long reliant on its regional ally in Venezuela to supply it with petroleum. Mexico, under critical trade duress found it necessary to cancel its latest scheduled delivery for the month to Cuba, taking into account the looming renegotiation of Mexico's free-trade pact with the United States and Canada.

 

Under these constraining issues, the sobering 'sovereign decision' was made to temporarily halt Mexican oil shipments to Cuba. Earlier in the day following the Trump order appearing on the White House website, the Cuban government attempted to rally Latin American and Caribbean neighbours to its rescue. "The peace, security and stability of Our America are in danger", Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez stated in a social media post, denouncing the U.S. for imposing "peace through force".

 

In an appearance before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee the day before, Secretary of State Marco Rubio -- of Cuban descent -- was asked whether he would rule out forcing "regime change" in Cuba. "I think we would like to see that regime change", responded Mr. Rubio. "That doesn't mean that we're going to make a change, but we would love to see a change. There's no doubt about the fact that it would be of great benefit to the United States if Cuba was no longer governed by an autocratic regime". 

 

Long dependent on Venezuelan supplies of oil which it trades for security and medical personnel with Venezuela under Maduro and previously Hugh Chavez, Cuba produces little oil of its own. Imports averaged 37,000 barrels daily, the bulk of which arrived from Venezuela in 2025. Cuba is now left with a mere 15 to 20 days of oil, according to the Financial Times. Island-wide blackouts are common and frequent, impacting basic human services like drinking water.

 

Preparing dinner during a blackout in Havana on Wednesday, as Cubans from all walks of life hunker into survival mode, navigating seemingly interminable blackouts and soaring prices for food, fuel and transport as the U.S. increases pressure on the communist‑run nation. (Reuters)

 

Signing a new defence co-operation pact with Havana last fall, Moscow pledged $1 billion in investment over the next five years in efforts to retain a hemispheric foothold. Diplomatic support has emanated to Cuba by both China and Russia. The determination of the U.S. to direct oil supplies away from Cuba along with a fleet of navy and coast guard ships in the Caribbean for operations against Venezuela tasked to stop drug smuggling, the oil blockade of Cuba was next on the agenda.

 

Seven sanctioned oil tankers carrying Venezuelan crude have been seized by the U.S. to date -- blockading legitimate shipments to Cuba risks global criticism of violating international law, according to maritime experts. In response to questions in the immediate aftermath of the Caracas raid, the U.S. president responded that he felt no additional actions were required against Cuba, since lacking oil from Venezuela, "Cuba looks like it's ready to fall". 

 

 

Over to You, Donald J. Trump!

"[New data on fentanyl seizures] largely reinforce previous understanding that most IMF [illegally manufactured fentanyl] enters the U.S. from the south. These data call into question tariffs and other policies and policy justifications that treat the threat from the northern border as comparably severe."

"Counties along the Mexican border account for only 2.35 percent of the U.S. population; but in 2023-24, they hosted about 40 percent of the nation-wide quantity of fentanyl appearing in large seizures, for both powder and pills."

"By contrast, counties in the lower 48 states that border Canada account for 3.1 percent of the U.S. population but only 1.2 percent of the powder and just 0.5 percent of the pills obtained in large seizures." 

Manhattan Institute report 

 

"The basic punch line of this study is that seizures of fentanyl in the United States are disproportionately at borders; no surprise. It's mostly produced internationally and then shipped in."

"But the vast majority of that is on the borders of Mexico, not on the borders with Canada." 

"It's what I expected [to see]."

Jon Caulkins, report co-author. H. Guyford Stever University professor of operations research and public policy, Carnegie Mellon University Heinz College, Pittsburgh 

 

 

A new report published by the Manhattan Institute verifies a fact already known to Canadian authorities. A fact that U.S. border and customs officials have long had knowledge of. That the claims of the Canadian border representing a threat to the United States through the smuggling of large amounts of fentanyl across the border are quite simply false. It is, in fact, the border between Mexico and the United States where the vast bulk of fentanyl emanates from.

 

U.S. President Donald Trump's repeated assertions accusing Canada equally with Mexico of threatening the lives of Americans by channeling the drug fentanyl into the United States largely forms the basis of his punishing tariffs imposed on Mexican and Canadian exports to the United States. Mr. Trump has tied the imposition of steep tariffs to the grievance of fentanyl flooding across its North American borders to threaten the United States.

 

President Donald Trump answers questions while departing the White House with first lady Melania Trump on July 11, 2025 in Washington, DC. Photo by Win McNamee /Getty Images

 

Such concerns, according to the report's authors, Jon Caulkins and Bishu Giri, are completely unfounded, at least in the case of Canada. They could as well, they posit, undermine the ability of the US. to prioritize tightening the country's border with Mexico. The report focused on "large" seizures of fentanyl, defined as over a kilogram of power, or more than 1,00 pills -- that would reflect wholesale trafficking as opposed to smuggling for personal use.

 

Their finding was that officials made more large seizures in U.S. counties along the northern and southern borders when compared to the rest of the country, pointing out that it was in the south that far more seizures were made. Cross-border drug flows, according to Mr. Caulkins, often mirror where seizures occur, and data point to an uncontroversial finding; "not terribly complicated or subtle". 

 

On the other hand the report found that some counties in Alaska could be portals from Canada to the broader Alaska market "although those quantities are much too small to be of consequence beyond Alaska". Of the 26 seizures in Alaska bordering Canada "triple what would be expected based on those counties' population", yet small in comparison to the rest of the Alaska market.  

"Maybe Alaska does get its fentanyl from Canada, because there's not necessarily a large presence of Mexican drug trafficking organizations in Alaska, and you can't easily drive from Mexico to Alaska without crossing several international borders."

"I didn't know that was coming, and by all means, maybe U.S. and Canadian authorities can put a few more inspectors on those ferries or whatever."

"But that's not going to move the needle for the country, but it might be useful, right locally."

Jon Caulkins former drug police researcher 

As far as President Trump is concerned, having frequently cited the 9,000-kilometre U.S.-Canada border as a threat to national security and a vulnerability that cartels and smugglers exploit, the way he sees it is that Canada is entirely culpable. That belief is his cudgel to justify  the imposition of high tariffs on Canadian goods entering the United States. For its part, the Manhattan Institute report suggested it might be more useful for the U.S. to direct a more intense focus to the southern border should it wish to reduce the fentanyl flow.

 

Fentanyl is extremely potent and incredibly dangerous. Just 2 milligrams – the size of a few grains of sand – can lead to an overdose. CBP is committed to stopping the flow of fentanyl and the devastation it is wreaking on American lives and communities.  U.S. Customs and Border Protection

 

"Counties along the Canadian border are not an important part of this story."

"Whatever the merits or drawbacks of tariffs on imports -- such actions cannot be justified as part of a pragmatic and data-informed response to the threat of fentanyl to the United States."

Manhattan Institute report 

U.S. President Donald Trump's Trade War With Canada

"All gloves are off."

"Canada is being hit hard from its historically strongest ally, and it may be politically expedient to target individuals like Musk who garner outsized influence over the U.S. administration."

James Hinton, senior fellow, Centre for International Governance Innovation

 

"Provinces would need to heavily subsidize new infrastructure to replace Starlink, which could take years to implement."

"Legally, targeting Musk's companies could be seen as overreach and Musk could sue in Canadian or U.S. courts to challenge such measures."

"[A bull's-eye on Musk's back also] risks looking like a personal vendetta rather than a rational economic response."

Andreas Schotter, professor of International business, University of Western Ontario Ivey School of Business

Starlink satellite antennas are seen at the Internationale Funkausstellung (IFA), the international trade show for consumer electronics and home appliances, on August 31, 2023. Photo by ODD ANDERSEN /Getty

As it begins to appear more and more inevitable that Donald Trump is prepared to launch another painful trade war with Canada, Mexico, China and the European Union in his determination to, in his opinion, put a stop to other countries' reliance on America's generosity, helping them to fund their own economic advance to the detriment of that of the United States, former allies and trade partners are mulling their options in an effort to stop the roller-coaster destruction of the global economy.

 

Economists everywhere agree that a substantial trade war such as what Mr. Trump is gearing up for will have the end effect of harming the world's economy, as it plays havoc in targeted nations' economies, bringing many to the point of inflationary stress, certain to impact heavily on national populations' quality of life. There is also the recognition that the United States itself will not come away free from the impact of such a draconian move as Mr. Trump contemplates.

 

In Canada, government authorities at every level are making plans and consulting with one another in a combined effort to produce a protective shield as much as possible to avoid the harm certain to arise when a commanding country whose industries are enmeshed with those of the very countries being targeted will produce harmful effects that will bring economies to their knees. In Ontario, Canada's wealthiest province, a plan is afoot to target Elon Musk in recognition of his influence with the Trump White House. 

Ontario Premier Doug Ford announced his intention to begin the process by "ripping up" the province's $100 million contract with Starlink, Elon Musk's satellite internet provide operated by aerospace company Space Exploration Technologies Corp. Signed last November, the deal  was on tap to provide internet access for Canadians resident in rural communities. "Ontario won't do business with people hellbent on destroying our economy", blustered Premier Ford, leading other premiers to scrutinize their own Starlink contracts.

 

Ontario Progressive Conservative Leader Doug Ford holds a news conference in Etobicoke on Feb. 3, 2025. Later Ford said, with the U.S. pausing tariffs, Ontario will also pause its retaliatory measures. (Evan Mitsui/CBC)

 

A situation that elicited a shrug from Mr. Musk who responded to the Premier's X warning statement with a two-word "Oh well". This type of criticism will be no surprise to a man who has aligned himself so intimately with the Trump administration, taking on the role of efficiency czar to a President whose unexpected turn against his U.S. allies has drawn surprise and resentment from his international colleagues. 

 

Emmett Macfarlane, political science professor at University of Waterloo in Ontario, approved of the move to send a powerful message to Musk. "Appeasement does little to stop a bully. We should exercise our powers to punch the bully (metaphorically) in the nose", he said in support of the Starlink cancellation threat. 

Aside from the Starlink contract, there is the issue of Musk companies in operation across Canada; Tesla alone operates 32 stores, Canada's most popular electric vehicle brand. Should a 100 percent tariff be slapped on Tesla vehicles the purchase price would be pushed from its current $56,000 tab into a sphere most electric vehicle buyers would consider hands-off. 

Doug Ford, right, says Ontario is ending its contract with Starlink, the satellite company controlled by Elon Musk, left. Photo by Getty Images/The Canadian Press

"A $100 million contract when he's worth [over] $400 billion -- this is just a flea on his side."

"If we want to truly irritate the Americans, we need to move beyond thinking about what kind of ketchup we buy and think of ways of hitting their [digital] service providers without unduly harming Canadian consumers."

Daniel Trefler, trade economist, Canada research chair in competitiveness and prosperity, Rotman School of Management at University of Toronto 

"A 10 percent tariff passed through to the consumer will raise gasoline and diesel prices about 15 cents per gallon [for American consumers]."

"The extent to which the consumer is affected depends on where the consumer lives."

"Prices could spike well over 30 cents a gallon [if Canadian oil producers divert supplies from the Midwest and create localized shortages in response to the Trump Administration's threats of a 10 percent levy on Canadian oil and gas]."

Andy Lipow, Lipow Oil Associates 

"95 percent of the heating oil used by most Mainers to hear their  homes comes from refineries in Canada."

"The Air National Guard Base in Bangor depends completely on jet fuel and diesel from Canada."

Maine Republican Senator Susan Collins

 

"Under 25 percent tariffs ... the loss of U.S. GDP would increase to up to 0.9 percent, and  up to 5.6 percent in Canada with full retaliation, or 3.8 percent without."

Scotiabank November analysis

 

"The automobile industry is one of the most  highly integrated in North America, with parts sometimes crossing a border half a dozen times before final assembly of a vehicle."

Toronto Dominion Bank Economics

 

"The rule of thumb is that it takes three to four weeks between an oil price movement and a corresponding change in prices at the pump."

"That means drivers should notice it toward the end of February."

Pavel Molchanov, Raymond James, Houston 

Wisconsin Refinery

 

In U.S. regions more reliant on Canadian oil supply, retail prices could begin to spike sooner. Maine, for example, is where the majority of fuel retailers buy their product on spot markets priced at the New York Harbour. Once tariffs raise pricing on that critical pricing hub, gas stations would swiftly pass the cost on to consumers. 

And then, there is this to consider: crude oil is an import lacking an immediate alternative since many U.S. refineries are specifically configured to refine the heavier oil arriving from Alberta. The United States buys Alberta oil at a discount; it represents some of the cheapest oil available anywhere. These refineries  would be incapable of switching immediately to processing domestic oil if crude oil from Canada was  hit with a 25 percent premium.

 

Fuel prices may rise suddenly by some 15 cents a gallon in response to President Trump's threat to carry through with a 10 percent tariff on Canadian oil and gas; basic commodities he has boasted that America doesn't need from Canada. His threat to hit both Canada and Mexico with punitive taxes in the form of tariffs will also have a profound, albeit not ruinous effect on American consumers.

 

About four million barrels a day of Canadian crude is imported into American refining and fuel markets. A last-minute delay of the threatened tariffs meant to be imposed by February 1st has seen the imminent imposition put off for 30 days. Whether there will be another extension, or whether the axe will fall in thirty days' time is anyone's guess. 

On the U.S. West coast where fuel is already the most expensive market in the U.S., prices could rise 20 cents per gallon. Western Pennsylvania, Montana and Washington state are reliant on Canadian crude oil supplies, while Massachusetts, Vermont and New Hampshire rely on Canadian gasoline and diesel imports. New Brunswick-based Irving Oil Ltd. informed customers in New Hampshire that propane prices will be raised in reflection of Trump's tariffs.

 

Diesel was $3.70 a gallon last weekend, while gasoline prices average d $3.10 a gallon at U.S. pumps, according to data derived from the American Automobile Association. Canada/Mexico tariffs once imposed could drop U.S. GDP by 0.3 percent and conceivably could have the effect of 286,000 job losses, raising per-household costs by roughly US$670 annually.

 

Marathon Galveston Bay Refinery

 

"Unfortunately for Midwest refineries, heavy oil cannot easily be substituted with the light oil that makes up most of U.S. shale oil production. StanChart has pointed out that such a switch would create a significant loss of optimization in the highly expensive cracking units that require feed from vacuum distillation of the heavy residual obtained by simple distillation."

"Canada has supplied 99.89% of all heavy imports into Midwest refineries over the past decade; the low substitutability of this flow implies that a tariff would largely feed through to local retail prices. Refiners will also have to cut runs due to the loss of refinery optimization."

 

"A 10 percent tariff passed through to the consumer will raise gasoline and diesel prices about 15 cents per gallon [for American consumers]."

"The extent to which the consumer is affected depends on where the consumer lives."

"Prices could spike well over 30 cents a gallon [if Canadian oil producers divert supplies from the Midwest and create localized shortages in response to the Trump Administration's threats of a 10 percent levy on Canadian oil and gas]."

Andy Lipow, Lipow Oil Associates 

"95 percent of the heating oil used by most Mainers to hear their  homes comes from refineries in Canada."

"The Air National Guard Base in Bangor depends completely on jet fuel and diesel from Canada."

Maine Republican Senator Susan Collins

 

"Under 25 percent tariffs ... the loss of U.S. GDP would increase to up to 0.9 percent, and  up to 5.6 percent in Canada with full retaliation, or 3.8 percent without."

Scotiabank November analysis

 

"The automobile industry is one of the most  highly integrated in North America, with parts sometimes crossing a border half a dozen times before final assembly of a vehicle."

Toronto Dominion Bank Economics

 

"The rule of thumb is that it takes three to four weeks between an oil price movement and a corresponding change in prices at the pump."

"That means drivers should notice it toward the end of February."

Pavel Molchanov, Raymond James, Houston 

Wisconsin Refinery

 

In U.S. regions more reliant on Canadian oil supply, retail prices could begin to spike sooner. Maine, for example, is where the majority of fuel retailers buy their product on spot markets priced at the New York Harbour. Once tariffs raise pricing on that critical pricing hub, gas stations would swiftly pass the cost on to consumers. 

And then, there is this to consider: crude oil is an import lacking an immediate alternative since many U.S. refineries are specifically configured to refine the heavier oil arriving from Alberta. The United States buys Alberta oil at a discount; it represents some of the cheapest oil available anywhere. These refineries  would be incapable of switching immediately to processing domestic oil if crude oil from Canada was  hit with a 25 percent premium.

 

Fuel prices may rise suddenly by some 15 cents a gallon in response to President Trump's threat to carry through with a 10 percent tariff on Canadian oil and gas; basic commodities he has boasted that America doesn't need from Canada. His threat to hit both Canada and Mexico with punitive taxes in the form of tariffs will also have a profound, albeit not ruinous effect on American consumers.

 

About four million barrels a day of Canadian crude is imported into American refining and fuel markets. A last-minute delay of the threatened tariffs meant to be imposed by February 1st has seen the imminent imposition put off for 30 days. Whether there will be another extension, or whether the axe will fall in thirty days' time is anyone's guess. 

On the U.S. West coast where fuel is already the most expensive market in the U.S., prices could rise 20 cents per gallon. Western Pennsylvania, Montana and Washington state are reliant on Canadian crude oil supplies, while Massachusetts, Vermont and New Hampshire rely on Canadian gasoline and diesel imports. New Brunswick-based Irving Oil Ltd. informed customers in New Hampshire that propane prices will be raised in reflection of Trump's tariffs.

 

Diesel was $3.70 a gallon last weekend, while gasoline prices average d $3.10 a gallon at U.S. pumps, according to data derived from the American Automobile Association. Canada/Mexico tariffs once imposed could drop U.S. GDP by 0.3 percent and conceivably could have the effect of 286,000 job losses, raising per-household costs by roughly US$670 annually.

 

Marathon Galveston Bay Refinery

 

"Unfortunately for Midwest refineries, heavy oil cannot easily be substituted with the light oil that makes up most of U.S. shale oil production. StanChart has pointed out that such a switch would create a significant loss of optimization in the highly expensive cracking units that require feed from vacuum distillation of the heavy residual obtained by simple distillation."

"Canada has supplied 99.89% of all heavy imports into Midwest refineries over the past decade; the low substitutability of this flow implies that a tariff would largely feed through to local retail prices. Refiners will also have to cut runs due to the loss of refinery optimization."

"One Dies and Ten More Addicts are Born ... We Don't Worry About Them"

"You inject this into a hen, and if it takes between a minute and a minute and a half to die, that means it came out really good."

"If it doesn't die or takes too long to die, we'll add xylazine."

Fentanyl cook 

"The illicit market gets much more benefit from its substances by cutting them with different things such as xylazine."

"You enhance it and therefore need less product, and you get more profit."

Alexiz Bojorge Estrada, deputy director, Mexico mental health and addiction commission

Mexico’s government on Dec. 3 announced the largest-ever seizure of fentanyl in Sinaloa state. The Sinaloa Cartel has been split by warring factions, but production continues. Omar H. Garcia Harfuch/Handout  via REUTERS

 

Cartel laboratories in Mexico are where the synthetic opioids that reach North American markets derive from. Those who are called 'cooks' mix chemicals to the point where they are felt to be acceptable for the street market; precision is not a prime consideration, whereas the cartel knows that the products that provide a big hit are; dangerous but totally effective, as far as the end-users are concerned and this is where their profits lie. 

Those who spend their time mixing chemicals in rudimentary cook sites, by default expose themselves to toxic substances, so much so that on occasion some cooks end up retching, then they pass out and occasionally die. University chemistry students are being recruited by the cartels to work as cooks. One of these students spoke to an undercover investigator revealing that drug users living on the street are sometimes brought in to test their formulas.

 

New York Times

 

Injecting them as guinea pigs with the synthetic opioid. "We've had people convulse, or start foaming at the mouth", the student said. No one has yet died in her experience she said, but bad batches have been responsible for bad outcomes. 

In Culiacan, Mexico, cartel operatives visit  homeless encampments, bringing with them syringes filled with the latest fentanyl formula, offering to pay those living at such camps up to $30, to those agreeable to allowing the experimental batches to be injected into them. There are times the operatives visit daily to watch as the drugs take effect; snapping photos and filming reactions to the drugs.

"When it's really strong, it knocks you out or kills you. The people here died", explained one of the homeless men who had volunteered himself repeatedly. The chemicals required to produce the opioid have become more difficult to access as a result of efforts to crack down on the synthetic opioid. Originally sourced from China, exports of the raw ingredients have now been restricted, leading the cartels to these risky new methods of maintaining production of fentanyl.

 

A member of the Mexican navy and a canine sentry patrol Mexico’s Port of Manzanillo last year. REUTERS/Daniel Becerril

 

This type of experimentation involves the drug being combined with a wide range of additives -- including animal sedatives and other anesthetics that can be dangerous. Testing the results they come up with involves injecting these mixtures into animals like rabbits and chickens, as well as human subjects willing to lend themselves as guinea pigs. According to a number of cooks, should the rabbits survive beyond 90 seconds, the drug is considered to be too mild for the American market. 

 

The U.S. government places the blame on fueling a synthetic opioid on the Sinaloa Cartel. According to one cook's explanation, he began recently mixing fentanyl with an oral surgery anesthetic. Another cook using a cartel safe house in Sinaloa State explained that if the batch was too insipid, he would add xylazine, an animal tranquilizer.

According to cartel members, drug users and experts, many users in North America look to access a particularly deadly batch they know will get them high. "One dies, and ten more addicts are born", one operative for the cartel said: "We don't worry about them".

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum at the National Palace in Mexico City last month with a letter destined for Donald Trump. The U.S. president-elect has threatened steep tariffs if Mexico fails to stem a tide of drugs and migrants flowing north. Carlos Ramos Mamahua/Presidencia de Mexico/Handout via REUTERS

Looking for Peace, Opportunity, Future

"[We're waiting for] border patrol to come pick us up and give us protection."

"It doesn't matter if it's cold. There is peace here."

Sudanese migrant, Izzeddin, 32, migrant encampment, Sasabe, Arizona

"In terms of migrants per day, December 2023 has been larger than any average we have ever seen."

"Every official who is commenting on it, on all levels, says they're near or past the breaking point."

"If you move to a place that's super remote, there won't be a lot of agents on staff, and that increases your chances of being released into the U.S."

"There is nowhere to put people They can't hold you."

Adam Isacson, migration expert, Washington Office on Latin America

Women wait in a hallway Friday, Dec. 15, 2023, at a Border Patrol station in Ajo, Ariz. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

In a remote, cold and lonely place while awaiting the arrival of border guards, dozens of migrants huddle close to a hole in the border wall. They have been given coffee by aid group No More Deaths. Given blankets, food and emergency telephone calls should there be any there who sustained life-threatening injuries on their journey. Those hailing from Sudan have escaped another Darfur-like conflict, patiently waiting for their search for haven to end far from their homeland.

Among them are others, not only themselves fleeing war in Sudan, but those escaping from Central American violent gangs and Mexican cartels. All have crossed illegally into the United States, trekked over rugged terrain for tiring hours, to arrive near Sasabe, Arizona exhausted, hungry and cold. They wait to turn themselves over to authorities to be given the opportunity to ask for asylum; stranded in the Arizona desert, but hopeful.

Just as night time temperatures begin dropping, a convoy of American Border Patrol agents roll in. The men are loaded into a van where they're briefly processed. The van continues driving in its search for more people needing rescue. "We are not equipped to deal with this. It's a humanitarian disaster", comments Scott Carmon, a Border Patrol watch commander, of the crisis unfolding at the southern U.S. border.

 

A migrant walking along a road shadowed by the steel columns of the separation border between Mexico and Arizona. AP

 

Once again, migrant encounters reach toward record levels, testing the capacity of American law enforcement. Thousands of migrants arrive daily, on their way from Africa, Asia, the Middle East or South America. Relentless violence, desperation, fear and poverty drive them from their places of birth where they can no longer find a future.

There was a broad sigh of relief in the spring when crossings into the U.S. declined after the lifting of pandemic border restrictions. The anticipation was that the floodgates would burst, but they held. More lately, numbers have spiked. The number of apprehensions in a recent week soared to over 10,000 a day -- the Border Patrol found itself stretched beyond capacity. 

 

Small towns on both sides of the border were overwhelmed with people funneled through new routes by human smugglers, to evade capture.

American officials monitored a caravan moving north through Mexico comprised of over 2,000 migrants, heading toward the United States; unlikely to complete their journey according to experts, but drawing significant media notice to the migrant tide crossing the border. What has caused the recent swell is as yet unknown.

Theories include larger numbers of Mexicans fleeing from cartel turf battles; rumours of a key legal pathway ending; smugglers who push desperate people of all nationalities to attempt entry at increasingly remote parts of the vast border. Border officials in Arizona closed a key port of entry to legal crossings early in December to enable them to focus on the unlawful entries.

Migrants huddle around fires for warmth along the U.S.-Mexico border near Lukeville, Arizona. Camilo Montoya-Galvez/CBS News

Onward, Migrant Horde!

"We found that people had other destinations, but they were being compelled only to come to New York City, and we are assisting in interviewing those who seek to go somewhere else."

"Some want to go to Canada, some want to go to warmer states, and we are there for them as they continue to move on with their pursuit of this dream."

New York City Mayor Eric Adams

 

"A lot of the Americans used drugs there. I feel like Canada will be safer. It is a much quieter country than America."

"It is very difficult to get papers in America. I need to work, so I am going to Canada."

Migrant Manuel Rodon, 26, Venezuelan

 

"The military gave me and my family free bus tickets"

" I am going to Canada for a better quality of life for my family."

Migrant Raymond Pena, Venezuelan

 

"Word has spread among the migrant community [that Canada - where Prime Minister Justin Trudeau touted the country's] proud and longstanding tradition of welcoming people seeking safety [is the place to go]."

“Mayor Eric Adams’s administration pays various companies that run programs for migrants that include ‘re-ticketing’ so they can travel to other cities, a City Hall source said."

New York Post

Recent immigrants to the United States talk to city officials in front of the Watson Hotel in New York, Monday, Jan. 30, 2023. The immigrants, mostly from Venezuela and other Latin American countries, had been living in the hotel until recently, when they were told to leave the temporary shelter. Photo by Seth Wenig /AP

 U.S. States adjacent the border with Mexico developed a strategy whereby they bus illegal migrants that enter their states, deep into the heart of the United States, to Democratic states that have been sanctimoniously condemnatory of their Republican brother-states unwilling to absorb the ongoing presence of increasing numbers of seemingly unstoppable illegal entrants to the United States. To solve their own problems partially and to stamp 'pay-back', bus loads of migrants have been arriving in New York City which now claims it has no space left to house and care for the migrants.

And while New York City is understandably enraged over the perfidy of Texas sending illegal migrants onward to become their problem, the city has discovered a nifty new way of alleviating their own problem. By doing precisely what Texas has been engaged in. Only they're not sending the migrants back to Texas, they're floating the benefits of entering Canada to claim asylum there where they can find a new prosperous and secure life in a country built on immigration.

Immigration, that is, not illegal entry of unauthorized migrants. The way to enter any country as a desired destination is and always has been legally. Applying for visas, applying to become an immigrant. Canada invests millions in accepting immigrants from all over the world. It has an economy dependent on a labour force, but an aging population, one that is not replacing itself by natural means, with a steadily falling birthrate. Immigration to Canada has been averaging a third of a million people annually. 

Asylum seekers talk to a police officer as they cross into Canada from the U.S. border near a checkpoint on Roxham Road near Hemmingford, Quebec, April 24, 2022. REUTERS/Christinne Muschi

 

 Canada has its own problems in absorption of such huge numbers. Settling them in is extremely costly on the social welfare system, the universal medicare system, and the fact that there is insufficient public housing for people as things stand now, and housing is scarce and prohibitively expensive. The health care system has taken a beating since the pandemic and is having problems catching up to the level of service considered minimal. Adding tens of thousands of unwanted people entering illegally to declare the need for haven comes at a rather awkward time, to say the least.

But those buses from New York taking passengers representing illegal migrants to the border with Canada keep coming. And only now is it being revealed that delivering passengers by cab companies who take over as the buses debus the passengers, to enable them to access illegal entry border areas, bypassing official entry points continues. To the sum of an average of 39,000 annual illegal entries to Quebec alone, in the past several years.

Taxi drivers wait for migrants at the Plattsburgh terminus with signs indicating they will drive to Roxham Road. (Romain Schué/Radio-Canada)

Reports have emerged that migrants resort to tearing up their American immigration documents as they travel from Plattsburgh, New York, to the Canadian border. Christine Frechette, Quebec's immigration minister, "surprised" to discover the plan hatched by New York City, turns to the federal government to reach a solution to the problem at Roxham Road, used as an unofficial border crossing south of Montreal, enabling tens of thousands to cross into Canada to claim asylum. These asylum-seekers are not turned away; by Canadian law they complete documents that will be assessed and either accepted or rejected. In the meanwhile, they are able to live in Canada, assisted by social services.

In cities like Toronto, temporary housing for the homeless is being compromised as are other levels of social services by illegal migrants requiring similar assistance. If New York City finds itself overwhelmed by the burden of caring for tens of thousands of migrants whose human needs cannot be ignored, it must realize that cities like Montreal and Toronto face the same dilemma; disingenuously Mayor Adams claims to be just 'helping' the migrants get on in life . The idea being, to pass on the problems rather than face them and strategize a solution.

 

Luggage from migrants fills a pathway at an illegal crossing point from Champlain, N.Y., to Saint-Bernard-de-Lacolle, Que.. Quebec's immigration minister says she's surprised by reports that the City of New York is helping to provide free bus tickets to migrants heading north to claim asylum in Canada. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP Photo/Charles Krupa