Thread: Mexico to widen new crackdown on drug crime

It would be great if he really did this. Probably just wishful thinking.


Mexico to widen new crackdown on drug crime
Tue Jan 2, 2007 9:38pm ET
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican President Felipe Calderon is extending an army crackdown on drug gangs in western Mexico across the country, in an attempt to halt gang violence in which 9,000 people have been killed in six years.

Calderon, who was sworn in on December 1 and immediately sent 7,000 troops to round up drug smugglers in his home state of Michoacan, has now sent another 3,300 soldiers to the crime-ridden northern border city of Tijuana.

"We are going to intensify our head-on fight against crime and drug trafficking," Calderon said in a New Year's message on Tuesday.

Some 2,000 people died in Mexico in 2006 in violence related to rival drug cartels' battles over lucrative routes to smuggle cocaine, marijuana and methamphetamines to the United States.

Much South American cocaine passes through Mexico on its way to the lucrative U.S. drug market. The country also produces marijuana, methamphetamines and heroin.

On the last weekend of the year, masked gunmen sprayed bullets at a wedding in southern Mexico, killing seven guests, and police separately discovered five other dead bodies bearing the hallmarks of crime gang killings.

"We will not allow any state to be a hostage to drug trafficking, organized crime or common crime," Interior Minister Francisco Ramirez Acuna said.

Once limited mainly to northern border cities like Tijuana, the violence surged and spread south after former president Vicente Fox launched a war on drug gangs in early 2005, intensifying the battle for turf between the Gulf Cartel from northeastern Mexico and an alliance of smugglers from the western state of Sinaloa.

In some of the grisliest incidents last year, five severed heads were tossed onto the dance floor of a nightclub in Michoacan and another was dumped in the Pacific coast resort of Acapulco.

Calderon has announced the creation of an elite force made up of thousands of soldiers and federal police to chase down drug cartels, kidnappers and other organized crime.

Mexico's municipal and state police, poorly paid and badly equipped, are widely perceived as inept and highly corrupt.

Mexican daily Milenio reported during the weekend that 51 percent of all federal crimes reported last year were linked to drug trafficking.

http://today.reuters.com/news/articlene ... ticlePage2


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It's hard for me to believe this new president is serious about cracking down on the drug cartels given his statements during his campaign. He was frequently quoted as saying the reason the drug cartels thrive in the Northern Mexican states is due to the demand in the United States not because these drug runners are inherently criminals. Calderon has also been quoted as saying illegal aliens in the US are heros. Perhaps instead of encouraging illegal behavior Calderon should concentrate on reforming the Mexican social support system so mexicans will stay in mexico.

Hawkeye wrote:

Perhaps instead of encouraging illegal behavior Calderon should concentrate on reforming the Mexican social support system so mexicans will stay in mexico.

Excellent point!

Some 2,000 people died in Mexico in 2006 in violence related to rival drug cartels' battles over lucrative routes to smuggle cocaine, marijuana and methamphetamines to the United States.

He might be getting some pressure from his own people because so many people are dying due to drug cartels, however, probably like all politicians he is telling them what they want to hear and than turning a blind eye.