Mexico's deadly drug violence claims hundreds of lives in past 5 days

[Scurrilous]

<snip>

"An explosion of drug violence in Mexico has killed hundreds of people in the past five days and prompted the country's president to issue a 5,000-word manifesto warning that the fight against organized crime must continue "or we will always live in fear."

As the latest spasm of killing has spread across the country, cartel assassins, local thugs and federal troops have died in running gun battles, highway ambushes and prison melees. On Tuesday, shooting broke out in the popular tourist town of Taxco, south of the Mexican capital. Mexican army troops, acting on a tip, raided a house and a firefight ensued, leaving 14 gunmen dead.

The string of grisly attacks since Thursday has included the execution-style killing of 19 drug addicts in a rehabilitation clinic and several assaults targeting police, including an ambush this week that killed 12 federal officers.

In an editorial printed in newspapers nationwide Monday, President Felipe Calderón defended his drug war as vital to the country's security. More than 23,000 people have died in drug-related violence since December 2006, when Calderón first sent the Mexican military into the streets, according to a government report.

The president directly blamed the United States.

"The origin of our violence problem begins with the fact that Mexico is located next to the country that has the highest levels of drug consumption in the world," Calderón wrote. "It is as if our neighbor were the biggest drug addict in the world."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/15/AR2010061503174.html


Civil War in Mexico

http://www.borderlandbeat.com/2010/06/civil-war-in-mexico.html

[Maru Kitteh]

1. K & R . Illicit drugs are Mexico's "blood diamonds"

The war on drugs may be a failure and our policies may suck but for those of you out there "indulging" without growing your own or knowing where it was made? - YOU have a hand in these deaths. YOU are supporting this horror whether you approve of it or not, and one would hope you do not.

Work to change the laws. Fine. Just don't contribute to misery and death for your own selfish entertainment in the meantime.

[Skidmore]

3. I agree wholeheartedly with your statement

and would also endorse immigration reform complete with sealing the borders. There should also be an expectation by the world community that Mexico get serious about the corruption within its government at all levels and its participation in the drug gangs.

[Hannah Bell]

4. what does "sealing the borders" even mean? you want to put up walls or something?

wrap them in baggies, what?

[Skidmore]

5. I think that the borders should be secured for a period of time

until we are able to sort out immigration reform and until Mexico can bring it's border region under control. If that means stopping the flow of people back and forth across the borders for a while, including tourists, it could be beneficial to both nations. Mexico has some responsibility for its internal problems, many of which contribute to people being forced to leave to earn a living. Mexico's role in this mess is always ignored.

[EFerrari]

7. Except for the part where Mexican people die.

[Skidmore]

8. What?

Mexican people are dying as a part of the fighting between gangs in Mexico. They suffer economic hardship because their government is corrupt and heavily weighted to the upper class. This is why they have immigrated here in such large numbers.

I have no idea what you mean since you didn't bother to offer further clarification.

[Fumesucker]

6. Oh bullshit..

This "war" is totally manufactured for political gain by the politicians.

This is not "drug violence" it's "black market violence" and there would be no black market if it were not for the actions of our top level politicians and their henchmen who are either the stupidest people on the planet or know exactly what they are doing.

Gil Kerlikowske is Obama's director of ONDCP..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gil_Kerlikowske

In a May 22, 2009 interview on KUOW radio, he said any drug 'legalization' would be "waving the white flag" and that "legalization is off the the charts when it comes to discussion, from my viewpoint" and that "legalization vocabulary doesn't exist for me and it was made clear that it doesn't exist in President Obama's vocabulary." Specifically about marijuana, he said, "It's a dangerous drug" and about the medical use of marijuana, he said, "we will wait for evidence on whether smoked marijuana has any medicinal benefits - those aren't in."


Edited to fix italics.

[frylock]

9. this..

right here.

[frylock]

10. fucking nonsense..

did pot smokers help fund 9-11 in your warped little view?

[Newest Reality]

2. Drug wars?

The war on some drugs. that is all.

How do they turn out? The same as Prohibition did way back when.

Some drugs are OK! That is, when they support those that control the mind and the physiology of the people that are under the magic spell of society in that bloodless war on freedom.

Other drugs are income-producing at higher levels, even though that is not common knowledge to the vast majority of the people who are being bamboozled with protection from said substances. In reality, they are being led to believe something that is not true. We have always been, and will always be, a species that has a strong tendency to use natural, (and now synthetic) substances to alter our complex neuro-chemical natures for the better or, sometimes and in uniformed cultures, the worse. Knowledge, as with anything, helps in that venture.

No, we will continue to finance black ops and keep the people in the dark about how nature provides many ways to experience reality. Only the sanctioned reality and the drugs that are known to help production of goods and reproduction of the mindset will be allowed.

We will send thousands, even millions, of our people off to do hard time and slave labor and easily say that this was a good lesson to them for getting high, (even if they commited no other crime or hurt a single soul or animal) and ignore the fact that being in prison for a federal offense will most certainly impact them and their families for many years to come, even unto future generations. Yup, we can do that easily because of our total ignorance and naivety that even allows us to take bottles of prescription drugs, (for corporate profit, not ours) that have potentially deleterious side effects and call that normalcy and righteous in every way. It is as if nobody cares about those inconvenient truths while they consider this an intelligent and advanced species. Sorry, but allowing this kind of behavior is neither intelligent or advanced, nor is it sane or truthful or righteous in any sensible way. it is just plain mass stupidity in a subservient jesture to profit and mass control.

We can teach and guide people about drugs and even create cultural taboos, but we should not compell them and destroy them for their choices if we are to be called anything that resembles a free society. There are risks in everything we do, and drugs are no exception. We don't forbid mountain climbers from ascending to the peak, though it is fraught with danger, we trust that they will learn what they need to know lest they face their ultimate demise. and yet, we allow our leaders to act as if we are all children that they must control for our own good when it comes to certain things.

WTF? Let's get beyond what is simply mind control and a way to funnel money. Let's get over the "for the children" justifications and realize that we are the children they are chastising and controlling with phrases like that.