Progress in Mexico drug war is drenched in blood

[AlphaCentauri]

Source: KilgoreNewsHerald

While the headline-grabbing chaos creates the appearance of a drug trade escalating out of control, evidence suggests Mexico's cartels are increasingly desperate due to a cross-border crackdown and a shift in the cocaine market from the U.S. to Europe.

Those pressures are forcing Mexico's criminal networks, once accustomed to shipping drugs quietly and with impunity, to wage ever more violent battles over scraps and diversify into other criminal enterprises, including extortion and kidnapping for ransom on both sides of the U.S. border.

"This is not reflecting the power of these groups," Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora told The Associated Press in an interview. "This is reflecting how they are melting down in terms of capabilities, how they are losing the ability to produce income."

As evidence of that pressure, the U.S. government says the amount of cocaine seized on U.S. soil dropped by 41 percent between early 2007 and mid-2008. Reduced supply is said to have raised street prices by nearly a third to about $125 a gram in the U.S. and lowered purity by more than 15 percent. Both the U.S. and Canadian governments are even seeing prolonged shortages of cocaine.



Read more: http://www.kilgorenewsherald.com/news/2009/0313/news/015.html

[blueberrypickn]

1. Let's not pretend that American 'interests' didn't cause this...

why is the 'DrugWar' an issue?

because the CIA, DEA, FBI, ATF & their corporate cronies are hip-deep in black ops funding (can you say, Merida Initiative? Plan Mexico? ...how about Iran-Contra?), the MIC & militarizing a private trade in millennially old herbal remedies.

BigPharma
Tobacco
Alcohol
Cotton
BigOil
AgriBiz

they all take their bite out of the arses of the World's Peoples...

& the US Congress pays for it...

come on.

If this is ugly, its because the US Congress wills it so.

[bemildred]

2. Bullshit.

Progress my ass. This is the same bullshit they used to trot out in the 1970s when the heat was on to end this stupidity.

[Javaman]

3. the "war on drugs" is nothing more than a cottage industry for law enforcement.

it's all bullshit. ever since this crap has started, it's only gotten worse and the weapons in the arsenal of both the drug dealer and the law have only gotten more and more deadly.

I'm waiting for the day, when rocket launchers become the norm and not the exception. It will happen at the rate we are going.

legalized pot, control the sale of all plant based drugs. Chemn based pharma drugs: eliminate or make it really hard for the components to be bought. It worked with quaaludes.

[Skink]

4. Europe probably will start buying less. Eastern Europe especially.

[notesdev]

5. prohibition policy is worthless

and you can interpret this phrase in a number of ways: "Both the U.S. and Canadian governments are even seeing prolonged shortages of cocaine. "

Now why is it that, in the event of cocaine shortages, the two governments might be so acutely aware of it?

[saigon68]

6. U. S. Headed to have millions of sponsored Militarized Thugs and Goons

A/K/A Your Friendly Protectors of "Freedom"

[totodeinhere]

7. Even if that's true, that doesn't excuse all of the violence going on between the drug gangs.

And when this violence spills over the border, we have to try to stop it. Or would you tell innocent Americans who are caught in the crossfire between the gangs that it's the fault of the US Congress, therefore it's OK for them to be shot at?

Edit- That was supposed to have been a reply to Blueberrypickn's post.

[Peace Patriot]

8. The Bush Junta has been in charge of the US "war on drugs" for eight years.

What should we expect of that "war" except increased mayhem, violence, corruption, more drug and weapons trafficking, lying, more lying, and gross malfeasance in high and low places?

I mean, look at their record. Have they ever done otherwise?

So, take these corpo/fascist 'news' stories (and the Miami Herald is one of the worst) on Mexico, or Colombia, with a grain of salt. Usually, whatever they say, the opposite is true. That's a pretty good rule of thumb. Just don't take it as real news. Read between the lines. Consider that the reverse might well be true. Try to peer into the black holes of missing and dis- information. Ask, who benefits? Follow the money. Like that. The "war on drugs" is one of the biggest Mob/government scams, ever--in my opinion. It has probably been that from the beginning. But add Bushwhacks, and, well, think about it.