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Thursday, August 5, 2010

Nearly 30,000 Dead in Mexican Drug War

According to a report presented by the Center for Intelligence and National Security, nearly 30,000 people have died in incidents blamed on organized crime groups, mainly drug traffickers, in Mexico since late 2006, when President Felipe Calderon declared war on the country’s cartels.
Nearly 30,000 people have died in incidents blamed on organized crime groups, mainly drug traffickers, in Mexico since late 2006, when President Felipe Calderon declared war on the country’s cartels, the Center for Intelligence and National Security, or Cisen, said in a report.

Some 28,000 violent deaths have occurred in Mexico in the past four years, Cisen director Guillermo Valdes said.

Valdes presented the report Tuesday to Calderon, academics, journalists and security experts at the Dialogue for Security forum.

The federal Attorney General’s Office said in mid-July that 24,826 people had died in drug-related violence since Calderon took office, with the death toll for this year at 7,048.

Calderon has deployed 50,000 soldiers and 20,000 Federal Police officers in several states, especially along the northern border with the United States, to combat drug cartels and other criminal organizations.

The president has started to change his rhetoric, if not his strategy, shifting from calling his policy a “war against organized crime” to a “struggle against crime.”

Calderon said Monday he was willing to take another look at his crime-fighting strategy.

He acknowledged at a meeting with grassroots groups on Monday that Mexico was experiencing “a new stage in the phenomenon of crime” and that there had been “an escalation in criminal violence” that threatened the safety of Mexicans.

A total of 963 clashes between gang members and the security forces have occurred since late 2006, Valdes said.

Mexico’s most powerful drug trafficking organizations, according to experts, are the Sinaloa, Tijuana, Gulf, Juarez, Los Zetas and Beltran Leyva cartels, and La Familia Michoacana.

3 comments:

  1. I actually feel kinda bad for Mr. Calderon. I have criticized him in the past as many others have but only he truly knows what he's up against. There is no way for us to know if his fight is noble one or just a waste of time and lives. One thing I'm sure about is he can't do it all by himself. With poverty levels at an all time high on both sides many people turn to crime. And you can see the hopelessness in people's faces. You don't have to go far take a drive and just pay attention. Its here, its there. And this nightmare seems to never end...

    ReplyDelete
  2. But you have to be optimistic, because pessimism and cynicism gets you nowhere.

    Personally, I think everyone has played the blame game, but the violence in Juarez and in other cities in Mexico did not transpire over night.

    And by the blame game, I mean the following:

    The citizens blame the drug cartels and the government, the government blames the drug cartels and the drug cartels blame each other and the Zetas.

    It's a vicious cycle and nothing gets resolved.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Valentina,
    You are absolutly right. The blame game will get us no where.

    This didnt happen over night. The narcos didn't just appear and began slaughtering. For decades Mexico has been watching this, somehow (at least for the common citizen) we just didn't make the connections in time to fully comprehend where our actions, or 'inactions', were taking us.

    The indifference and apathetic behaviour towards crime, corruption, and social disorder (as long as it doesn't affect me or mine mentality) has now turned to cynicism, pessimism, and rage.

    This is a time when Mexico must set aside differences: political, social, economic, etc. and unite as one.

    ReplyDelete

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