Friday, September 11, 2009
Mexico's drug war as tumultuous as ever
Mexico's former Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora resigned four days after gunmen shot to death 18 people at a drug treatment center. The assailants have suspected links to the drug cartels.
Medina Mora was criticized by political opponents who said the government's drug war strategy was failing. Mexico's War on Drugs spans well below and far above its borders. Around 90 percent of the cartels' firearms originate in the U.S., and many trafficked drugs are grown south in Latin America and travel through Mexico and into the U.S. Mexico is in the middle - drug gangs receive weapons and money from all directions. They use some to bribe police officers to look away. Almost 10,000 have been killed as result of the drug war since December 2006.
Medina Mora had a tough job, as do Mexicans on the drug cartels' path. Residents fear drug-related gang members could raid their town, like they did at Ciudad Juarez on Sep. 4. Some of the 45,000 deployed Mexican military troops and 5,000 police have also been blamed for harassing locals, with such cases as entering homes without cause and raping women.
The incoming attorney general, Arturo Chávez, is a former deputy interior minister and was Chihuahua's prosecutor from 1996 to 1998. Between these years, international human rights groups criticized Chávez for almost ignoring a string of killings and rapes of women in Ciudad Juarez, claiming that he "botched investigations" and arrested few suspects.
Sources:
Mexico's Attorney General is replaced
18 killed in Juarez clinic for addicts
Attorney General Leading War on Mexico Drug Cartels Resigns
Medina Mora was criticized by political opponents who said the government's drug war strategy was failing. Mexico's War on Drugs spans well below and far above its borders. Around 90 percent of the cartels' firearms originate in the U.S., and many trafficked drugs are grown south in Latin America and travel through Mexico and into the U.S. Mexico is in the middle - drug gangs receive weapons and money from all directions. They use some to bribe police officers to look away. Almost 10,000 have been killed as result of the drug war since December 2006.
Medina Mora had a tough job, as do Mexicans on the drug cartels' path. Residents fear drug-related gang members could raid their town, like they did at Ciudad Juarez on Sep. 4. Some of the 45,000 deployed Mexican military troops and 5,000 police have also been blamed for harassing locals, with such cases as entering homes without cause and raping women.
The incoming attorney general, Arturo Chávez, is a former deputy interior minister and was Chihuahua's prosecutor from 1996 to 1998. Between these years, international human rights groups criticized Chávez for almost ignoring a string of killings and rapes of women in Ciudad Juarez, claiming that he "botched investigations" and arrested few suspects.
Sources:
Mexico's Attorney General is replaced
18 killed in Juarez clinic for addicts
Attorney General Leading War on Mexico Drug Cartels Resigns
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