Wahington Post
Nearly half the Mexican public considers President Felipe Calderon's offensive against drug cartels a failure, a poll suggested Tuesday for the first time since the conservative leader launched the deadly crackdown in 2006.
The survey shows 49 percent of respondents consider the crackdown has failed, compared with just 33 percent who think it has succeeded. Last time the Mitofsky polling agency conducted the same survey, in March, the results were almost the opposite, with 47 percent of those polled considering the drug war a success, while 36 percent thought it a failure.
Observers say the turnaround in opinion is a reflection of the public's growing impatience with the crackdown, which has seen more than 28,000 people killed since December 2006.
"This is precisely because (people) aren't seeing insecurity go down," said Eduardo Gallo, whose association, Mexico United Against Violence, sponsored the survey.
The polling numbers bear out Gallo's hypothesis, with 83 percent of respondents saying Mexico is more dangerous now than a year ago, compared with 15 percent saying it was less dangerous.
Calderon defended the government's record, saying in a speech Tuesday that the violence plaguing certain regions of the country is the responsibility of the cartels and not a result of government actions.
"There are those who think that it would have been better not to combat the criminal actions," Calderon said during a visit to the state of Colima, where the former governor was slain over the week. "Those people are wrong."
Tuesday's survey was carried out via face-to-face interviews with 1,000 people from Oct. 28-31 by the Mitofsky polling agency for Mexico United Against Violence. The poll had with a margin of error of fewer than 3.1 percentage points.
More like 99 percent, Calderon really messed things up for Mexico in my eyes.
ReplyDeleteNo matter what Felipe Calderon is a Mexican President or a Mexican't President, but he was doing his best for the country.
ReplyDeleteit was nesesary to do something, calderon need to step up and bring more mexican marines to kill them all
ReplyDeleteReally Capo? Calderon "really messed things up for Mexico"?
ReplyDeleteThis is the viewpoint of many who want a return to the "nicer" days of the PRI. Yes, the nicer days when your politicians sold off franchises or plazas to the cartels, lined their own pockets, and ignored any and all crimes as long as they were not visible.
Calderon inherited a system that was so corrupted from decades of PRI rule, that he faces little or no chance of succeeding. But it was the ones before him that "really messed things up for Mexico" by doing nothing and protecting the cartels are they built their networks and their strength.
It is ignorant, uneducated, misinformed and self-serving attitudes such as yours that perpetuates Mexico's Third World status. Only out for yourself, when there is a greater issue at stake.
The government should have taken on the cartels at the beginning. But it is Calderon with the courage to do the right thing, even when it is not popular. That is the mark of a true leader.
The solution is so very simple, legalize all narcoyics now, tomorrow! In both the U.S and Mexico.
ReplyDeleteHaving done this, get busy hunting down all the killers and bastards that are currently killing for the cartels.
Furthermore, now that cocaine and heroin distribution is totally owned by Merck, Pfizer and Bayer et al, fight the cartels much more effectively as they steadily weaken due to lack of funds and new recruitment (who wants to risk death and life imprisonment for pennies?)..
You'd have them mostly whipped within a couple years if the drugs were simply legalized.
Fuck the CARTELS BUNCH OF FUKN COWARDS
ReplyDelete