Op-ed: Adding Absurdity to Tragedy

By Carlos Puig, The New York Times, 3/8/2013

It’s one of the trendiest, most expensive and nicest pieces of land around. It’s in Polanco, the city’s most expensive neighborhood, and on a corner of Paseo de la Reforma, the capital’s most important avenue. Less than two kilometers away from the president’s residence and just five blocks from Masaryk Street, our own Park Avenue. It occupies 1,500 square meters of Chapultepec, the park in the middle of Mexico City.

And it is this piece of prime real estate that last year, under heavy pressure from human rights organizations, the government designated for a memorial to honor the victims of drug-related violence.

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Op-ed: Illegal Drugs, The Great Experiment

The Economist, 2/22/2013

Until recently it seemed that nothing would disturb the international consensus that the best way to deal with narcotic and psychotropic drugs is to ban them. Codified in a United Nations convention, this policy has proved impervious to decades of failure. Drug consumption has not, in most parts of the world, fallen. Prohibition inflicts appalling damage, through the spread of organized crime, the needless deaths of addicts exposed to adulterated drugs and the mass incarceration of young men.

Now a whiff of change is in the air. Officials in two American states, Colorado and Washington, are pondering how to implement their voters’ decisions in referendums last November to legalize marijuana (cannabis). A dozen countries in Europe and the Americas have deemed the possession of some drugs no longer to be a criminal offense. A few Latin American presidents want a rethink of the “war” on the supply and trafficking of drugs.

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Mexico unveils new strategy in war on drugs and for preventing crime

The Guardian, 2/13/2013

Mexico’s new administration has offered the first details of its new strategy in the country’s war on drugs, saying the government will spend $9.2bn (£5.9bn) this year on social programmes to keep young people from joining criminal organisations in the 251 most violent towns and neighbourhoods across the country.

The government will flood those areas with spending on programmes ranging from road building to increasing school hours, President Enrique Peña Nieto and Miguel Ángel Osorio Chong, the interior secretary, told an audience in the central state of Aguascalientes.

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Mexico’s Future Shrouded by Ongoing Drug War: Will Nieto’s Strategy Prevail?

The International, 2/11/2013

As drug wars continue to ravage Mexico, President Enrique Peña Nieto signed The General Victims Act on January 9, 2013 that will trace and compensate innocent victims of the “War on Drugs”. The bill was approved by Congress in April 2012 under the Calderón administration, though implementation was delayed due to objections by former president Felipe Calderón that the bill was too vague, presenting the possibility of it being unconstitutional and difficult to implement.

Calderón’s veto registered criticism from human rights activists who rallied for victim recognitions and reparations. The bill, which remains unchanged, was signed by Nieto with assurances that the contents would be specified to remove vagueness before implementation, but Nieto insisted that putting the law on the books was imperative.

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The comback of the Beltran-Leyva and Gulf Cartels (Spanish)

Animal Politico, 2/5/2013

Dos de los grandes cárteles de la droga que se creían al borde de la extinción, los Beltrán Leyva y el cártel del Golfo, han dado señales de vida en diversos territorios de México durante lo que va del presente año.

Analistas independientes y de la fuerza pública consultados por la agencia de seguridad InSight Crime destacaron que ambos cárteles – que se pensaba tambaleaban debido a luchas internas, la presión de las autoridades y ataques constantes de sus rivales – parecen estar resurgiendo.

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Vigilantes tackle Mexico’s drug gangs

BBC, 1/21/2013

Authorities in Mexico have arrested 14 people accused of belonging to the Zetas drug cartel in the northern city of Monterrey.  The gang has become the largest in the country, making its money by trafficking drugs and carrying out kidnappings and assassinations.

But some Mexicans in rural areas have become frustrated by what they see as a lack of response by the authorities to the drugs violence and have formed their own vigilante groups.

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Pentagon Helps Train Mexican Military

Animal Politio, 1/18/2013

El Pentágono aumentará la ayuda que presta a México en la sangrienta lucha contra el narcotráfico, mediante el establecimiento de un nuevo cuartel de operaciones especiales en Estados Unidos, en el cual podrán entrenarse los efectivos mexicanos para enfrentar a los cárteles de la droga de la misma forma en que las fuerzas estadounidenses combaten a Al-Qaeda, dijeron funcionarios en Washington.

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Mexico: Majority of Federal Inmates Imprisoned on Drug Charges

Fox News Latino, 1/16/2013

Mexico’s first survey of its federal criminal justice system confirmed what many  have assumed for years: The country’s prisons are packed with inmates imprisoned  on drug charges and there is widespread corruption throughout the entire system.

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Thirteen killed in Mexico ‘gang shootout’

Al-Jazeera, 12/24/2012

Thirteen people have been killed and six others gravely wounded following numerous shootouts in the Mexican state of Jalisco, officials said. Bullet riddled vehicles and buildings showed the amount of firepower used by unnamed assailants who battled with
police on Sunday. Police information points to two groups who may be responsible for the violence, the Templar Gentlemen and the
New Generation Cartel of Jalisco. In total, more than 60,000 people have died in drug-related violence and more than 5,000 disappeared in Mexico since December 2006.

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Mexico’s Drug War Made Crisis Worse, Pena Nieto Administration Says

Fox News Latino, 12/19/2012

While the approach was praised by some, it’s a far cry from the 80,000-member  corps he promoted on the campaign trail, said Eric Olson, a México analyst at  the Woodrow Wilson Center.

“It reflects that reality is setting in that they don’t have people sitting  idly to join these forces,” he added.

Despite his promises of reform, some human rights experts worry that Peña  Nieto has not been transparent enough with his plans and needs to reveal more  details of his new strategy

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