After reading Sarah's post on Africa and Iraqs monopoly of American media attention, I wanted to take a look at another section of the world falling by the wayside now that the gaze of the media has been averted; Latin America. For those who scarcely remember the day when the middle east was not the focal point of U.S. news outlets, it was once our neighbors to the south that dominated the airwaves in the same fashion that the Islamic world now does. One plight of South America in particular that has grown exponentially since 9/11 is the drug trade. American money follows American interests, and as more and more money is poured into military intervention and the information trade, there are more and more cracks for drug dealers and cartels to slip through. Most recently, failure of the U.S. to lend more major and steady support to both Mexican and Colombian anti-drug task forces has led to two major developments, a) the greater internationalization of drug smuggling and money laundering by Mexican cartels and b) greater fluidity and cooperation between Mexican smugglers and FARC, Colombian seperatists and large cocaine suppliers. In addition, recent U.S. restrictions on consumer purchase of psuedophedrine, the key ingredient of home methamphetamine production, has led Mexican cartels to claim production and distribution rights, and the massive profits that accompany it. I call upon the major media outlets to set aside their pursuit of only stories which grasps the publics most immediate thirst and broaden their perspectives in the name of bringing attention to problems on our own soil currently suffering at the hands of an Iraq hungry public.