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Mexico Spiraling Out of Control

Country is losing ground to drug cartels, Reuters columnist writes

By Nick McMaster,  Newser Staff

Posted Jan 16, 2008 5:56 PM CST
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(Newser) – The violent conflict between drug cartels and Mexico's government has the country perilously close to spinning out of control, writes Reuters' Bernd Debusmann. The battle for control of the drug trade that delivers the majority of the US’ cocaine and marijuana has produced a culture in which there is “widespread acceptance of insecurity as a way of life,” Debusmann says.

He cites the cartel’s use of “rent-a-crowds,” whole protests bought for $50-200 a head, for political purposes, as a symptom of the “corrosive effect of torrents of drug money” on state control. And the problem is spilling out of Mexico: Scores of US officials have been revealed to be taking cartel money to look the other way.

A group of boys gather on the Tijuana side of the primary fence separating the United States and Mexico in a neighborhood known as Colonia Libertad. The neighborhood is where there has allegedly been a significant increase in violence directed toward the United States Border Patrol, Wednesday, Dec. 12, 2007....
A group of boys gather on the Tijuana side of the primary fence separating the United States and Mexico in a neighborhood known as Colonia Libertad. The neighborhood is where there has allegedly been...   (Associated Press)
Police officers look over a body found near the town of Charo, in the central state of Michoacan, Mexico, Monday, Jan. 7, 2008. Five decomposing bodies with their hands and feet tied were found buried near each other on a plot of land in the drug-violence-plagued Michoacan state, officials confirmed...
Police officers look over a body found near the town of Charo, in the central state of Michoacan, Mexico, Monday, Jan. 7, 2008. Five decomposing bodies with their hands and feet tied were found buried...   (Associated Press)
Border Patrol agent Albert Deleon checks the banks of the Rio Grande, at the U.S.-Mexico border in Laredo, Texas, an area often used by smugglers, in this June 1, 2007 file photo. Escalating violence by drug cartels and deteriorating security in Mexico will make this the most deadly...
Border Patrol agent Albert Deleon checks the banks of the Rio Grande, at the U.S.-Mexico border in Laredo, Texas, an area often used by smugglers, in this June 1, 2007 file photo. Escalating violence...   (Associated Press)
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World • Health • US

 
Mexico • Felipe Calderon • marijuana • Mexican drug war

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