Fear of violence after killing of drug lord in Mexico

As Mexican and US officials have hailed the killing of top drug lord (Marcos) Arturo Beltrán Leyva, many are fearing further violence in the struggle to replace him.
Arturo Beltran Leyva, nicknamed the “boss of bosses,” was killed in a shoot-out with the navy south of Mexico City late on [...]

Major Political Reforms Proposed in Mexico

In the most dramatic proposal for political reform in decades, Mexican President Felipe Calderón announced yesterday a 10-point plan aimed at revamping Mexico’s political system. Among the many reforms, the proposal would allow independent candidates to run for office and relax term-limit rules for legislators, allowing lawmakers and [...]

Mexicans in drug war city call on army to leave

Ciudad Juarez (Mexico): Thousands of people dressed in white demanded soldiers leave Mexico’s most violent city on Sunday, accusing troops of provoking a surge in drug-war killings and running protection rackets.
Around 5,000 people marched through Ciudad Juarez on the US border, many with white balloons and holding signs saying [...]

Let’s Eliminate Welfare for Terrorists

Of all the factors on the table in the current Afghan strategic review, the War on Drugs and its unintended consequences should be front and center. Our 95-year effort to create a Drug Free America by enforcing world-wide prohibition has twisted our foreign policy out of shape all over the globe and [...]

Mexico : Drug Decrim and the 10,000-Ton Monkey

Pot smoker in Mexico City. Mexicans consume an estimated 342 tons of marijuana a year. Photo by Castillo / AP.
Legalization is the only answer…
Mexico’s massive drug problem
As poet Juan Pablo Garcia posited long ago in his 1985 Pacheco (marijuana user) Manifesto: ‘drugs don’t make us criminals but laws against [...]

Latin America: Mexico Ex-President Fox Lashes Out at President Calderon Over Drug War

For years, former Mexican President Vicente Fox has suggested that drug legalization needs to be on the agenda when discussing how to resolve prohibition-related problems like the wave of violence plaguing Mexico. Now, he’s getting personal and political, as he attacks sitting President Felipe Calderon for what Fox is describing [...]

What happens to U.S. if Mexico legalizes illegal drugs?

Vicente Fox, the former president of Mexico, strode onto a St. Louis stage Tuesday night wearing a conservative business suit and pedestrian black loafers. The cowboy boots and “Fox” belt buckle that were his trademarks while in office until late 2006 were gone.
The serious attire gave hint to the serious [...]

Point man in Mexico’s war on drug cartels resigns

MEXICO CITY — Mexican President Felipe Calderon has accepted the resignation of the attorney general who was leading the battle against drug cartels, making the biggest shake-up yet in his offensive against organized crime.
Attorney General Eduardo Medina-Mora Icaza’s image was tarnished by charges that his top confidant was on [...]

Mexico Legalizes Drug Possession

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico enacted a controversial law on Thursday decriminalizing possession of small amounts of marijuana, cocaine, heroin and other drugs while encouraging government-financed treatment for drug dependency free of charge.
The law sets out maximum “personal use” amounts for drugs, also including LSD and methamphetamine. People detained [...]

Mexican Drug War: Soldiers vs. Soldiers

The most offensive casualties the Mexican Army has suffered in the war on drug trafficking aren’t the result of confrontations with hitmen.  Rather, they’re executions carried out by ex-brothers-in-arms, trained by the Mexican National Defense Ministry, who have joined the ranks of organized crime, or by cells protected by high-ranking [...]

Obama in Mexico

US President Obama today set foot in Mexico City today, and Narco News
publisher Al Giordano is there, reporting and following his steps:
“We will no doubt hear more of the same over-the-top statements of
support for President Calderon from his US counterpart, who recently
went so far as to compare Mexico’s illegitimate [...]

Legalization Key to Ending Drug Violence

You don’t have to be a Harvard economics professor like Jeffrey Miron to know that America’s war on drugs has been a lost cause for decades.  Now a bloody war between the Mexican government and vicious drug cartels is raging just across our southern border, killing thousands and threatening to [...]

Legal U.S. Arms Exports May Be Source of Narco Syndicates Rising Firepower

More Than $1 billion In Private-Sector Weapons Exports Approved For Mexico Since 2004
Mainstream media and Beltway pundits and politicians in recent months have unleashed a wave of panic in the nation linking the escalading violence in Mexico, and its projected spread into the U.S., to illegal weapons smuggling.
The smokescreen being [...]

US Prepares to Do to Mexico What it Has Done to Pakistan

Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Admiral Michael Mullen briefed President Barack Obama over the weekend on the so-called drug war in Mexico and the prospect of increased US military involvement in the conflict south of the border.
Mullen had just returned from a six-day tour of Latin America, which took him [...]

DEA’s Operation Xcellerator is Another Justice Department Dog and Pony Show

Despite the  “Largest and Hardest Hitting Operation to Ever Target” the Sinaloa Cartel, the DEA is Merely Treading Water in the War on Drugs
On February 25, the US Department of Justice (DoJ) held a press conference celebrating the culmination of Operation Xcellerator, which it says resulted in the arrests [...]

Anti-Drug War Marchers block Mexico-US border

Hundreds of people in Mexico have blocked key crossings into the US in protests against the deployment of the army to fight drug traffickers.
Traffic was brought to a halt on a number of bridges in several border towns in northern Mexico.
The protesters accused the army of abuse against civilians. Government officials [...]

EZLN Criticizes the Drug War

During the Festival of Dignified Rage in Chiapas, Subcomandante Marcos breaks the EZLN’s silence on the drug war
On the first day of the Zapatista National Liberation Army’s participation in the Festival of Dignified Rage, its spokesperson Subcomandante Marcos discussed the drug violence that has increasingly plagued Mexico.  Marcos’s speech marks [...]

Lourdes Cárdenas: Drug War Threatens Mexican Democracy

It has been more than a year since I wrote a column in this publication about my reasons for not being optimistic in regard to Mexican President Felipe Calderón’s strategy to crack down on criminal organizations and to stop the growing violence associated with drug trafficking.
Unfortunately, there is not yet any [...]

Mexico More Dangerous Than Iraq, Due to Drug War

The escalating drug war in Mexico has now made America’s southern neighbor a more dangerous place than Iraq, according to Strategy Page, a military affairs Web site.

Hell Freezes Over: White House Drug Czar Backs Decriminalization

October 27, 2008

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Marijuana Policy Project today congratulated White House “drug czar” John Walters for backing a Mexican government proposal that would remove criminal penalties for possession of small amounts of marijuana.
“I can’t believe I’m actually saying this, but John Walters is right,” said MPP executive director Rob Kampia. [...]