Mexico: Narco Wars Video

Daily headlines— Mexico at War—can become commonplace, routine— “Well, no surprise there.” Watching this Narco Wars video helped me to see the actual violence (not just words in a paper or lines read verbatim by a news anchor describing the violence) going on beneath our border.

As of this week, there are 50,000 troops positioned along the Mexico-U.S. border to combat the ongoing drug trafficking war. Over 10,100 people have been killed since December 2006. Violence is worsening as President Felipe Calderón declared war on the drug cartels and is digging deeper into the system—I think of it as going for the root in order to kill the entire cartel plant.

“If you don’t fight the cartels frontally, you have less violence but you have a lot of corruption,” said Political Analyst Jorge Chabat. “If you fight them like they’re doing right now, you have a lot of violence… So, the choice is not easy.”

Felipe is aggressively following through on his plan- "like no other administration in Mexico's history"- to stop the cartels. They're “structured like global terrorist organizations,” making them hard to break down— especially when police and political officials are being bribed with drug money.

“It’s one of the few countries where if you see a policeman, instead of feeling safe you feel threatened,” said an interviewee.

And as our Freedom House speaker mentioned, times of war and violence tend to suppress press freedom, making the Mexican journalists’ jobs even more dangerous now.

-- Amy Eichenlaub, Mexico

Mexico: Son of Cartel Leader Detained

According to the LA Times, son of Ismael Zambada, a prominent Mexican drug lord and head of the Sinaloa cartel, Vincente Zambada was arrested Wednesday. Authorities Zambada had become high-level operator of a powerful trafficking group in the northwestern state of Sinaloa. He was taken in during an operation by the army and federal agents. Authorities described the arrest as an important blow against the alliance of Sinaloa-based traffickers headed by Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman Loera, who is Mexico's most-wanted fugitive.

They claim that this arrest is an "important blow to the organizations ability to operate and move drugs." Vincente Zambada is the latest member of the family captured during President Felipe Calderon's 2- year crackdown on drug trafficking. The arrest proves to be a small yet, important step in the right direction for the governments stance on drug cartels.

-Ashley Mickelwaite(Mexico)