Thread: Violence escalates in Mexico's drug wars

Violence escalates in Mexico's drug wars

By Chris Hawley, USA TODAY

MORELIA, Mexico — Angelica Bucio knows firsthand the mounting problems of President Felipe Calderón's nationwide war on drugs. She was among the thousands of revelers packed into this colonial city to celebrate Mexican Independence Day when two grenades exploded.
The blast slammed Bucio against a fountain. Her arms and legs burned with white-hot shrapnel. Smoke and screaming and blood were everywhere.

The Sept. 15th attack, which killed eight people and injured 108, demonstrates that Calderón's battle against drug cartels is still a struggle after nearly two years.

Instead of subsiding, drug-related murders are rising. Once-quiet border towns have become battlegrounds. Police-on-police clashes have left citizens wondering who the good guys are.

And the Morelia grenade attack, which the Mexican attorney general's office blamed on drug traffickers, raised fears that smugglers are moving into outright terrorism.

"They have crossed a line from recklessly endangering civilians in their attacks on law-enforcement officials and rival gangs, to deliberately targeting innocent men, women, and children," U.S. Ambassador Tony Garza says.

The turmoil is in stark contrast to the U.S. side of the border, where Calderón's crackdown looks like a success. The White House credits Mexico's efforts for a drop in the drug supply. Since 2006, methamphetamine use in the U.S. dropped 50%, and cocaine use decreased 19%, according to the Office of National Drug Control Policy.

Mass killings commonplace

But in Mexico, many people wonder if the crackdown on cartels is worth the loss of life. Marches and rallies are multiplying as Mexicans vent their frustration.

"I don't think the government is winning," Bucio says from her hospital bed. "The violence is getting worse."

Drug-related murders are soaring — 3,004 this year as of Sept. 3, compared to 2,673 in all of 2007, according to a tally by El Universal newspaper. In 2006 there were 1,410 drug-related killings.

And mass killings are commonplace. Twelve decapitated bodies were found Aug. 28 outside the Yucatán Peninsula city of Mérida. Police found 24 bodies bound and shot in a rural area outside Mexico City on Sept. 13. And on Aug. 16, gunmen shot and killed 13 people, including a baby, at a party in the northern town of Creel.

Many Mexicans fear that Calderón's battle is turning into a quagmire, says Francisco GarcÃ*a Cordero, editor of Criminalia, a criminal-justice journal. When the crackdown began, 53% of Mexicans approved of Calderón's anti-crime efforts, according to a poll commissioned by the Reforma newspaper. By Sept. 1, only 34% approved.

Calderón's offensive began in December 2006, just days after he took office. Prompted by a series of murders, the former economist surprised the country by dispatching 10,000 troops to patrol the streets of Morelia and other cities in his home state of Michoacán — a major producer of crystal meth, marijuana and heroin.

Within weeks, troops were also sent to Tijuana, Juárez, Nuevo Laredo, Monterrey and other drug-trafficking corridors. Stunned police officers were forced to hand over their weapons to the soldiers. Residents saw convoys of Humvees rolling past their houses.

Thousands of suspects were arrested in raids and at highway checkpoints. Dozens were extradited to the U.S. Calderón also asked the United States for help, a historic move in a country that is especially sensitive about U.S. meddling. The Bush administration pledged $1.1 billion in police and military aid.

Back in Morelia, at the Miguel Silva General Hospital, medical director MarÃ*a Soledad Castro says doctors now treat about 15 gunshot victims a month. "Before this all started, we rarely got even one gunshot a month," she says.

But the grenade explosions in downtown Morelia were shocking, because using explosives against a crowd of civilians is nearly unheard of in Mexico.

Cartels put on pressure

No one has claimed responsibility, but the office of Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora says investigators had evidence pointing to drug traffickers. The attorney general's office says the cartels are trying to demoralize the public and create pressure on the government to stop the battle.

Calderón, in at least five speeches after the Morelia attack, urged Mexicans to stand strong.

"Mexico is living through difficult times," he said. "This is a fundamental moment for the entire country to be united in the fight against crime."

Morelia resident Ernesto Guevara still believes the crackdown was a good idea, but he says both politicians and regular Mexicans underestimated how hard the fight would be.

"Michoacán has always been famous for having narcos, but they've always been quiet," he says at an outdoor cafe across from where the attack took place. "Now they're divided and fighting. I don't think the Mexican government was prepared for this."

Hawley is Latin America correspondent for USA TODAY and The Arizona Republic
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Most of these drugs are headed for the US.

It would seem closing the border would solve Mexico's problem as well as ours.

If we used that 1.1B to put troops - at arm's length - on our border with orders to use whatever force necessary - it would solve so very many of our problems.