drug war

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<strong>New America Media</strong></p>
<p><strong>MERIDA, Mexico</strong> — In the wake of Mexico’s presidential election Sunday, analysts are expecting Mexico to launch a major “blitzkrieg surge” against the drug cartels during current president Felipe Calderon’s lame duck period.</p>
<p>President-elect Enrique Peña Nieto won’t take office until Dec. 1, leaving a five-month period during which Mexico is expected to intensify its drive against the drug cartels.</p>

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<strong>New America Media</strong></p>

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<p>The starting bell rang for the Mexican presidential campaigns on March 30, and the candidates are out of the gates. As the nation faces an unprecedented crisis in levels of violence and lawlessness, one of the big issues is who will have to take the blame for the disastrous war on drugs.</p>

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<p align="justify">There are many kinds of war. The classic image of a uniformed soldier kissing mom good-bye to risk his life on the battlefield has changed dramatically. In today’s wars, it’s more likely that mom will be the one killed.</p>
<p align="justify">UNIFEM states that by the mid-1990s, 90% of war casualties were civilians– mostly women and children.<br>

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<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; El aire en el salón es húmedo y enrarecido, bajo las lozas color durazno se levanta una jaula cuadrada subida por un motor hidráulico que rechina un poco.</p>
<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; EL General Gilberto Landeros, jefe de la Segunda Zona Militar, cree que el elevador se trababa seguido en el trasiego de droga hasta la frontera. Para operarlo, ahora son tres soldados los que lo guían por medio de una gruesa cuerda roja para ayudar al motor.</p>

<p><strong>Fronter NorteSur</strong></p>
<p>&nbsp;&nbsp; A friend and I were having a conversation when he raised the issue of why the US never seems to detain its own big drug lords. I held that control of the US drug market was more diffuse, less centralized than in places like Mexico, where big traffickers come to dominate entire regions and even compete with state power. Occasionally, though, some dealers do get quite big on this side of the border and a few can even have profound impacts on politics and society.</p>