What Will Happen to Mormons in Mexico? w/Ed Calderon | Joe Rogan

What's going on with the Mormons now? Are they moving out of there now? Are they going to go back to Utah and just take one wife? That's what it all started out with, right? Yeah, of all the fundamentalist group and they went down there and kind of proceeded with their customs. I'm in contact with a few of the members of that family. I was in contact before, but when I went on here, they kind of like one of them reached out like, hey, what's going on? Help us out. What do we need to do? Yeah. It was like a friendly hello from them, from past interactions, and then this happened. I kind of advised a little bit, but it's a mess. A lot of them are leaving the communities down there. There's a lot of them down there, a lot of communities in Sonora, Coahuila, and they're leaving the area. It's just too dangerous. Yeah. It only makes sense. I mean, they just don't have the arms, they don't have the tactics, manpower. They're also in the middle of one of the most important regions in Mexico right now for a lot of reasons. The main thing, there's two things that are really happening in that region. One, the trafficking of fentanyl and heroin and all these drugs through one of the main drug routes up into the US. There's a few factions fighting over that region, Los Salazar, which are a small cartel faction that has allegiance to Sinaloa Cartel, and Alina Cartel, which is historically being in control of Sila Du Juarez. So they're both kind of buying for control of the area. A few hours before the massacre actually took place, there were a bunch of firefights between these two factions in the area. So one of the main theories is that this group of Mormons basically were case of mistaken identity, kind of driving into some of the areas where they're being protected by some of these people. It's one theory. The other thing that people kind of need to think about is that the largest mineable deposits of lithium on the planet right now are a few hours away from where that massacre took place. Really? Yes. And that is not conspiracy theorizing here, but it's a pretty important thing in that region. And there's a lot of interest in that space and control for that space. And they're not mining it currently? There's a bunch of projects in play right now. So they've identified the deposits? Yeah. People can look up the numbers, but it's the largest mineable deposit of lithium on the planet. And there was some sort of deal in the past where a Canadian mining agency was going to have rights to it. And the mining agency was bought by a Chinese company. So again, after that massacre, a lot of things happened. A lot of the negotiations happened. That deal was one of the things that got killed after that situation. Oh, no. So it's an interesting area. There's a lot of things happening there. That's got to put a tremendous amount of pressure on the cartels in some way, right? Well, historically, any sort of mining operation usually has industry around it, which is perfect for the cartels. Extortion, protection, rackets, feeding the drug use in the area from the workers. Is there any way that you could see in the future the cartels being extracted from the positions of power that they're in now? I mean, is this something that people in Mexico are going to have to live with forever? And I guess people in the United States as well. Or is this something that could be fixed? You've talked about before in some of your podcasts, and I listen to them a lot. It's a great podcast. Thank you. Great when you're on, too. Thank you. But you talk about legalization and how that would help. That definitely is part of the solution. And it is. It is definitely part of the solution legalizing some drugs. Not all drugs are made the same. Maybe not fentanyl. But that would help out some things. There's multiple things that could be done to guide us towards a place where things could stabilize down there. And a lot of it is not going to be able to be done in Mexico. It's going to have to be done up here. Basically, the US has to take care of the drug market up here, the illegal drug market. And certain things that have happened, like legalization of marijuana and some places up here, have changed the dynamics of what happens down there. Some for the better, some for some bad things have happened. Talking to my friend John Norris, who was on here as well, comparing notes, seeing how a lot of the drug growth that are up here, the illegal pot growth that are up here, exactly like the ones that I found in Baja six, seven years ago. And how some of that drug money made from those fields is staying in the US. It's not being sent back. So that means you have an active growing cartel presence in the US. So I think that one of the problems that people have as perception is that that's a Mexican problem. It's a US-Mexico problem. You have a border there. But the problem has two root causes, right? Social, economic inequality, and destabilization and corrupt government down there, and a thriving illegal drug market up here. And those two have to be solved. Just set me in a combined way.