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why do'nt we just invade Mexico and wipe them out???????????????????????/
Bishop José Raúl Vera López of Mexico has never shied away from controversy, defending unpopular minorities ranging from illegal migrants to prostitutes. Now, as violence between Mexican drug traffickers and security forces pushes the drug war's five-year death toll over 45,000, the Roman Catholic bishop is taking on the government. He claims that corrupt officials are allying with criminals to skim drug profits and using the military to murder criminals who might reveal any collusion. "The use of the army was the worst mistake of [President Felipe Calderón]," Bishop Vera says in a recent interview at his diocese in Saltillo, set in the desert mountains of northern Mexico. "This strategy is covering the corrupt people in government, the people washing the money. Organized crime is growing. The destruction of the criminals is impossible if you don't put the justice of the people first."
It is a stinging rebuke from a cleric in the Catholic church, whose collective stance has been more ambiguous. The church hierarchy initially remained largely silent on the gore that has thrust Mexico's drug war into the international spotlight. While it is now increasingly condemning drug-gang violence and more vocally supporting Mr. Calderón's military-led strategy, the church's stance remains less clear when it comes to innocent victims of the drug-war crackdown by the military. The ambiguity is driving a wedge between priests and human rights activists within the church and the Catholic hierarchy a divide likely to grow leading up to Pope Benedict XVI's planned visit in March.
Tensions over human rights
Roderic Ai Camp, an expert on Mexican institutions, says the church's lack of clarity comes from leaders' desire to shore up government institutions in a young democracy, even when they might be abusing their authority. "The church is trying to pursue a fine line between condemning violence generally, while not delegitimizing the security institutions by condemning these human rights violations," says Dr. Camp, a professor at Claremont McKenna College in California. From 2006, when Calderón began his efforts against drug trafficking, through 2010, Mexico's National Human Rights Commission has received more than 5,300 complaints of human rights abuses committed by the army.
According to a Human Rights Watch report from November, Mexican security forces may have participated in more than 170 cases of torture, as well as disappearances and extrajudicial killings. Not speaking out for these victims could ultimately undermine the church, say some scholars. "If the church is not providing adequate attention to the violence issues and they haven't demonstrated to people that, 'You matter as a Catholic,' I think that could be a factor [in maintaining influence]," says Joseph Palacios, a sociology professor and Catholic priest at Georgetown University.
MORE
Drug-related murder in Mexico shot up by 11 percent between 2010 and last year, with 12,903 killed in the first nine months of 2011, according to official figures released Wednesday. But the government calls this good news. It's the first year that the homicide rate increase has been significantly lower compared to previous years, Mexico's attorney generals office said in a statement. They do have a point. From 2009 to 2010 killings in the same time period increased by 70 percent. The year before the increase was 63 percent. And from 2007 to 2008 it was a dizzying 110 percent.
With the new death count, the official number of those killed in five years under Mexican President Felipe Calderons military strategy against organized crime is more than 47,000. Not great statistics as the Calderon administration heads into an election in July. So the government sought to underline another point Wednesday: that the majority of killings between rival traffickers took place in a quarter of Mexicos states, meaning that a large swath of Mexico is safe. One of the oases of safety from the drug war has been the otherwise dangerous capital, Mexico City. But security analysts are questioning if the capital will become another battled turf.
Right before the numbers were released, two decapitated bodies were found in a burning SUV outside a high-end shopping mall in an exclusive enclave of Mexico City, popular with foreigners and wealthy Mexicans. The next time the government publishes drug-related homicide figures, this kind of violence might produce numbers that shows greater geographical spread.
That is, if the government publishes new figures at all. The latest numbers were apparently only made public under pressure from groups utilizing Mexicos freedom of information law not as part of a routine data release. Before Wednesdays release, the Mexican news site Animal Politico had said the government has been refusing to give over the homicide data. Guest blogger Patrick Corcoran at Insight Crime has more details about it here. In its statement on the figures, the attorney general's office did not mention that battle but noted it was releasing the updated data in the name of transparency.
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why do'nt we just invade Mexico and wipe them out???????????????????????/
A drug cartel, much like a bootlegger mob during alcohol Prohibition, is a situation rather than just a group of people. While armed force can eliminate the people who are marketing illegal drugs it cannot eliminate the situation -- which is highly profitable enterprise. In other words, if you sweep the pot dealer from a street corner today there will be a replacement there tomorrow, and the next day, and the next day, and so on indeflinitely.why do'nt we just invade Mexico and wipe them out???????????????????????/
Why invade Mexico? Why not just secure the borders belonging to America?
Why invade Mexico? Why not just secure the borders belonging to America?
Why not, considering it's much easier, doesn't involve invading another country, and the real estate in question actually belongs to US? That's the most intelligent suggestion in this thread so far. It won't happen, though; that would be too much like...well, common sense, and we can't have any of THAT!
You are quite right!The drug cartels could be hurt by legalization. Prohibition is their best friend.
Never going to happen.
There is a stigma against drugs unlike booze during Prohibition.
Perhaps the alcoholic beverage companies are behind much of the propaganda.
If you go into the most run-down neighborhood and arrest every street corner dealer you see, come back tomorrow and every one of them will have been replaced. Do the same thing and the same thing will happen. Again and again and again. And that is exactly what has been happening ever since Ronald Reagan escalated the phony, wholly counterproductive War on Drugs.why do'nt we just invade Mexico and wipe them out???????????????????????/
