Friday, January 30, 2009

Drug War Collateral Damage: Mexico on the Verge of Collapse

Some scary news from Mexico as gang violence is taking over and the country is becoming virtually ungovernable. (article)

Mob murders doubled from 2007, taking more than 5,300 lives last year. Residents of the border cities of Juarez and Tijuana wake up each morning to find streets littered with mutilated, often headless bodies. Some victims are dumped outside schools. Most are just wrapped in a cheap blanket and tossed into an empty lot.

Many bodies go unclaimed because relatives are too afraid to come forward, meaning most killings go unsolved.

Warring cartels still control vast sections of Mexico, despite Mr. Calderon's two-year crackdown, and have spawned an all-pervasive culture of violence. No one is immune.


So what does the US do?

Still, the U.S. government is extremely supportive of the Mexican president. It recently handed over $400 million in anti-drug aid. Mr. Obama met briefly with Mr. Calderon in Washington last week and promised to fight the illegal flow of U.S. weapons that arm the Mexican cartels.

It looks like Mexico is going the way of Colombia into utter chaos. Is drug use in the US going down? You'd think a guy like Obama, who has admitted to smoking marijuana as a young man, might give some fresh eyes to this issue.

2 comments:

  1. Collapse from what? We are talking about Mexico.
    Mexico is third world corrupt S-hole. Getting shot and killed in Mexico is a positive option.

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  2. It was poor and corrupt, but at least somewhat civil. (Except for Mexico City.)But now it sounds like Iraq or Columbia.

    The silly drug war promotes gangsterism and it is making Mexico unlivable.

    I've had good times down there, so I see this as a shame.

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