the drug war's invisible victims

[xchrom]

http://www.nationofchange.org/drug-war-s-invisible-victims-1327760884

There are many kinds of war. The clas­sic image of a uni­formed sol­dier kiss­ing mom good-bye to risk his life on the bat­tle­field has changed dra­mat­i­cally. In today’s wars, it’s more likely that mom will be the one killed.

UNIFEM states that by the mid-1990s, 90% of war ca­su­al­ties were civil­ians-- mostly women and chil­dren.

Mex­ico’s drug war is a good ex­am­ple of the new wars on civil­ian pop­u­la­tions that blur the lines be­tween com­bat­ants and place en­tire so­ci­eties in the line of fire. Of the more than 50,000 peo­ple killed in drug war-re­lated vi­o­lence, the vast ma­jor­ity are civil­ians. Pres­i­dent Fe­lipe Calderón claims that 90% of the vic­tims were linked to drug car­tels. But how does he know? In a coun­try where only 2% of crimes are in­ves­ti­gated, tried, and sen­tenced, the gov­ern­ment pulled this fig­ure out of its sleeve.

There is no of­fi­cial in­for­ma­tion on why these thou­sands were killed. When their bod­ies are found in un­marked mass graves, no one even knows who they were. With vi­o­lence the norm, ex­e­cu­tions can—and do--tar­get grass­roots lead­ers, human rights de­fend­ers, in­dige­nous peo­ples, and re­bel­lious youth under the cloak of the drug war.

Not Just Homi­cide

[Uncle Joe]

1. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, xchrom.

[bemildred]

2. "El Narco" -- Ioan Grillo (2011)

Lays it all out, good read, if you really want to know just how bad it is ...
(Yes, the name is spelled correctly.)

Kind of makes me think of drug-resistant bacteria or BT-compatible insects or Roundup-ready weeds, etc., an own-goal in every sense.