2012 and the Mexican Drug War - 38,000 Killed and Counting

2012 and the Mexican Drug War - 38,000 Killed and Counting

3Jan12, freelance reporter Larry Kaplow noted the following points in his piece for The Daily Beast, "2012 Will Be a Decisive Year in Mexico's Deadly Drug War".

* Mexican newspaper "Reforma <http://www.reforma.com/> " has a graphic on their site that records the casualty numbers for the Drug War. The graphic is called the "Executionmeter" or "Ejecutometro". The year 2011 ended with 12,359 killings; an increase of almost 7% from the previous year. Beheadings rose from just under 400 to just fewer than 600. Unspecified sources also purport drug related organizations influence governance is over "71% of the country's municipalities." Reforma claimed the total death toll as a result of the drug war to be about 38,000, while other unnamed sources claim the death toll is higher.

* The article did note some parts of Mexico did clean up, but also noted cartel activity did spread to other areas...so no real change.

* Many Mexicans still support the use of military force and other security related activities to disrupt narco-cartel influence, but about "a third" want to "negotiate with the cartels or legalize drugs". Only 18% of Mexicans reportedly believe the government is winning the war against the cartels.

* Cartels retain the ability to leverage corrupt political and police officials.

* The government is taking several approaches to mitigate the cartel's grip on the population on multiple levels from addressing social conditions that may contribute to cartel growth and development such as poverty, education, disrupting police and political corruption at the local community levels.

Full Article: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/01/03/2012-will-be-a-decisive-year-in-mexico-s-deadly-drug-war.html