Behind the Troop Surge at the U.S.-Mexico Border

Time, 2/28/2009
he ebbing stretch of Rio Grande that divides the Texas city of El Paso from the Mexican city of Juarez may soon become one of the world’s most militarized borders. This week, as Texas Governor Rick Perry went to El Paso to announce that has asked Washington for 1,000 more “boots on the ground” [...]

Op-Ed: The war we gave Mexico

Op-Ed, Los Angeles Times, 2/28/2009
merica’s political decisions to treat drug addiction as a crime rather than a public health problem, and to legalize AK-47s but not pot, fuel an incipient civil war in Mexico.
If Americans really are concerned about the horrific toll inflicted by Mexico’s narco-gangsters, we need to ask some tough questions about our [...]

Mexico applauds U.S. vow to enforce long-ignored weapons ban

Associated Press, 2/28/2009
President Felipe Calderón said that his police and soldiers are dangerously outgunned because U.S. authorities are failing to stop the smuggling of high-powered weapons into Mexico. His attorney general called for more aggressive prosecutions of gun smugglers, saying that the U.S. constitutional right to bear arms doesn’t protect them.
President Barack Obama’s administration is [...]

Lone Star baby boomers thinking of Mexico for retirement home

Dallas Morning News, 2/28/2009
With 78 million American baby boomers racing toward retirement, Mexican and American investors are betting that in the coming years tens of thousands of them will look at Mexico as a potential home. Mexico’s ambassador to the U.S., Arturo Sarukhan, expects the trend to continue.
You’ll see that more and more of these [...]

Reverse Migration Rocks Mexico

Foreign Policy, February 2009
The economic crisis in the United States is already hitting migrant workers, many of whom work in tanking industries such as construction and manufacturing. Unemployment among Mexican immigrants was 9.7 percent in January, up from 4.5 percent in March of last year, and higher than the 7.6 percent for the United States [...]

With Force, Mexican Drug Cartels Get Their Way

New York Times, 2/28/2009
With Ciudad Juárez and the surrounding state of Chihuahua under siege by heavily armed drug lords, the federal government last week ordered the deployment of 5,000 soldiers to take over the Juárez Police Department. With the embattled mayor’s full support, the country’s defense secretary will pick the next chief.
Chihuahua, which already has [...]

Daimler opens Mexico truck plant despite crisis

Reuters, 2/27/2009
Daimler AG, the world’s biggest truckmaker, opened a new truck plant in Mexico on Friday, switching some output from Canada and the United States and positioning itself for a recovery in sales.
Chris Patterson, president and CEO of Daimler Trucks North America, said the plant in the northern city of Saltillo had cost $274 million [...]

Editorial: The Drug Cartels’ Right to Bear Arms

The New York Times, 2/27/2009
The hypocrisy grows all too gruesome: The Justice Department pronounced the Mexican drug cartels “a national security threat” this week, even as American gun dealers along the border were busily arming the cartels’ murderous gangs. Mexico complains that American dealers supplied most of the 20,000 weapons seized last year in drug [...]

Corruption in Mexico affects the war on drugs, warns U.S. (in Spanish)

El Universal, 2/27/2009
Today the United States recognized “the courage and valor” demonstrated by the Mexican government in the merciless fight against the drug cartels, but warned that “the corruption and impunity” continue to be the principle obstacles in a war in which society is “paying the highest price”.
“Corruption throughout the public institutions of Mexico continues [...]

U.S. says Mexico makes progress against drug cartels

Reuters, 2/27/2009
Mexico has made headway in its struggle against the country’s powerful drug cartels, but the crackdown has led to more violence as criminal gangs battle for diminishing profits, the United States said on Friday.
The State Department’s annual International Narcotics Control Strategy Report also said Afghanistan slashed opium poppy cultivation by 19 percent in 2008 after [...]