Mexican Marines at Checkpoint - From AFP
The official death toll in Mexico's drug war has already reached twelve and a half thousand in 2010, not counting deaths never reported to the government. Just like last year and the year before, this has been called the bloodiest year yet.
According to the L.A. Times: "Although the administration has contended that the vast majority of those killed are drug gang henchmen, the bloodletting has left many Mexicans convinced that the government has lost control of entire regions, such as the crime-ridden northern border state of Tamaulipas.
In a recent survey by the Mitofsky polling firm, 59% of respondents said organized-crime groups were winning the war against federal forces. In a separate poll, 4 in 5 respondents said the country was more violent than a year before."
Such feelings are not remarkable when you consider cities like Guadalupe, where the last remaining police officer after the rest of the force resigned has just gone missing. The deterioration is particularly problematic considering that, according to the Mexican Defense Secretary Gen. Guillermo Galvan, the drug war is expected to last another 7 to 10 years. This comes from a leaked cable that also explains that the military is operating in information access inferiority. They cannot trust law enforcement, which is corrupt and feeds information to the drug cartels, and requests U.S. assistance particularly in the real of intelligence, which Galvan believes to be the key to shortening and winning the conflict. Back in 2008 we noted that the cartels use informants and intelligence to stay ahead of the forces of order, and it seems that, two years later, the information gap has only expanded.
By Alex Olesker
Recent Comments