Mexican Drug Wars

[Sylar]

I had thought there was a previous thread on here about the ongoing drug problems in Mexico, but can't find it, so pardon a duplicate:

It's been well publicised how difficult the times are in Mexico just now. When I was on vacation there earlier this year, there were 18 people massacred at a party in the North of the country, not too far from the USA border.

The problems had been mostly limited to the more impoverished areas of Mexico, but following yesterday, this appears to have spread to the popular tourist area of Cancun and the Riviera Maya, after 8 people were killed in a bar when a drug cartel threw Molotov cocktails through the windows and opened fire on anyone who tried to run.

Scary business!

[Sylar]

27 Drug runners gunned down in North East Mexico in clashes with the military yesterday:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-11173279

[Jay]

your always a wee ray of sunshine eh? :greengrin

[RyeSloan]

While i admire Calderon's attempt to win his country back I think this shows the inevitable futility of the 'war on drugs'....it cannot be won in a conventional sense and any escalation simply brings escalation. Or in Columbia where some victories might be credited to the government there is very strong evience that it has simply lead to increased production elsewhere. Unfortunately for Mexico they can't shift their border with the US onto any of their neighbours so escalation was the only outcome there.

Will also be very interesting to see what happens if California essentailly legalises Cannabis...as around 40 - 60% of these Mexican cartels profits come from the weed then their income stream (and it is assumed their influence) would be significantly diminished. It would also be a strange situation where Mexico was still fighting a war against a drug when over the border (where most of it was destined to go originally) had made the growing and trading of it legal.....