Mexican citizens still support military's fight against drug cartels, poll says

August 29, 2010 10:52 PM
Jazmine Ulloa
The Brownsville Herald

Most Mexicans continue to endorse President Felipe Calderón’s war against the drug cartels, even as violence has wracked their country since he launched the offensive in 2006, according to a recently released study.

Fully 80 percent of Mexicans said they back the use of the army to fight drug traffickers — compared with 83 percent in 2009, according to a survey conducted by the Global Attitudes Project of the Pew Research Center. Opposition to Calderón’s use of the army increased slightly from last year, from 12 percent to 17 percent.

A little more than half of Mexican citizens, 55 percent, say they believe the Mexican military is making progress against the cartels, while 22 percent said they think it is losing ground, the report states.

The approval ratings, though down from last year, show that a majority of Mexican nationals believe in Calderón’s tactics, said Richard Wike, associate director of the Pew project.

“I think what we see in this survey and some of the research we have done in Mexico is that people are very concerned about (the drug) issue,â€