Brutality in Mexico
Image via WikipediaFor most Americans it is hard to understand the level of brutality consuming many regions in Mexico now.There is much more including many pictures and graphics.
The level of violence between warring drug-trafficking cartels has been compared to terrorism, with one former DEA officer saying: 'I think they make al Qaeda look tame in terms of what they do.'
Vicious cartels fight with each other over turf and the authorities over smuggling routes to the U.S. and distribution rights in Mexican neighbourhoods.
The bulk of this murderous conflict occurs just south of the 2,000-mile-long U.S. border, so close-by that bullets from gunfire in Mexico have struck buildings on the American side of the fence.
In the nearly four years since Mexican President Felipe Calderon, firmly supported by the U.S. government, launched an unprecedented attack on Mexico's drug kingpins, nearly 30,000 people have been killed.
That averages at more than 20 a day.
Anthony Coulson, a retired DEA supervisor, said: 'I can't explain how someone loses their humanity and resorts to these things.'
The victims include thousands of police officers, soldiers, public officials, judges and journalists - as the traffickers fight back with powerful weapons, many of them purchased in the U.S.
Often Mexican police find themselves outmanned and outgunned by the criminals.
Terrified Mexican officials have fled across the border seeking political asylum and some Mexican villages have become ghost towns after traffickers killed or pushed out the residents to clear the way for their smuggling operations.
The Mexican trafficking organisations have also crossed deeply into the United States, peddling tons of marijuana, methamphetamine, heroin and cocaine to American drug users, who reward the cartels with an estimated $19bn to $39bn a year, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
Federal authorities say Mexican traffickers are now entrenched in at least 270 American cities, running sophisticated and disciplined networks that not only bring the drugs in, but also ship truckloads of cash back to Mexico.
David Gaddis, the DEA's chief for global enforcement operations, said: 'Mexico and its government are looking as transnational drug trafficking as a national security threat. We, too, have to look at it seriously in our country. It is our country's number one organised crime threat.'
A distinguishing feature of the Mexican drug war is the unspeakable violence played out daily on the streets and posted in graphic detail by newspapers and media websites.
Large-scale gun battles, mass executions, corpses strewn in public, beheadings, torture and grenade attacks have become commonplace.
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I have been reporting on the story of the criminal insurgency in Mexico longer than most of the major papers in this country. It is a tragedy what is happening to the people in Mexico and to the victims of the cartel on this side of the border too. We have an interest in who wins this war.
While we have sent Mexico money to help the government fight the insurgents we also need to help them learn counterinsurgency warfare. They have to be able to protect the people to get their cooperation in fighting the insurgency.
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