The war in Mexico
In addition to Iraq and Afghanistan there is another war raging though you’re not hearing much about it yet A civil war is raging in Mexico between drug lords and the government. The Mexican government deployed 36,000 troops to fight this war in 2006, but the problem is getting worse.
America is spending more money on our efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan than it is in Mexico but the violence and the death toll are certainly comparable. There have been more kidnappings in Mexico than Iraq! 1,000 have been officially reported, but some human rights groups estimate the real number at 3,000. In 2008 there have been over 200 beheadings in Mexico - a tactic that the drug dealers use to frighten the populace and send a message to law enforcement. The heads are mpaled on fences or thrown in to crowds. Often they are filmed and the footage shown on TV. Recently the heads of nine soldiers were displayed. Despite high-profile arrests but the bloodshed has doubled from 2007 to 2008, with between 5,300 and 5,700 dead in the past year from attacks related to the drug trade. According to the LA Times the total as of today is 6,300! The city of Ciudad Juárez, just across the border from El Paso, Texas ended the year with 1,600 of those deaths and the violence shows signs of spilling over to our side of the border.
A couple of weeks ago a young city councilor from El Paso by the name of Beto O’Rourke introduced a resolution calling for the federal government in Washington DC to begin a dialogue on the idea of legalizing and regulating the currently illegal drugs. It passed but before it could be sent on to Washington the mayor vetoed it. Then the city councilors received letters from their congressman, Silvestre Reyes, an El Paso Democrat, threatening loss of funding for El Paso unless they voted down the resolution. So stifled, they agreed.
Bear in mind the resolution did not call for drug legalization… it only asked for discussion of the idea as a possible way to reduce the border violence threatening their city.
I hope that, over the next few years, President Obama will form such a “Blue-Ribbon Commission “to look into this idea. Not that we need such a study - they’ve been done many times before, most recently at the behest of then President Nixon, and they always come to the same conclusion; prohibition doesn’t work and we would be best served by some sort of legalization and regulation. We don’t need such a commission… but Obama would find it critically important to give him political cover.
Perhaps, if enough Beto O’Rourkes around the country speak up, the President may eventually find it safe enough to do what needs to be done.
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