Mexican Drug War

The University of Texas-El Paso Border Security Conference saw a shift announced in Plan Merida priorities and a lot of happy talk about defeating the cartels, but little discussion of ending the drug war.

CIA agents and US mercenaries stationed at a military base in northern Mexico are helping fight the drug cartels. And the killing continues...

You know things are messed up when the federal police are shooting at the head of the Ciudad Juarez police. Oh, and 216 more people were killed there in the drug wars last month.

The violence rages unabated in Mexico...

Weak Central American states are hard-pressed to go up against the Mexican cartels, and now, Guatemala's president wants to build a NATO-style regional military force to go up against them. And for the US to pay for it.

The drug czar has released the 2011 National Drug Control Strategy, and there's little new there but a renewed attack on medical marijuana and legalization. Otherwise, it's pretty much business as usual.

At an absolute minimum, at least 74 people were killed in prohibition-related violence in Mexico in the last week. Sad to say, there's nothing unusual about the death toll.

The Mexican government appears to be going after the Zetas, which must please the cartel's rivals.

Mexico's president feels "misunderstood" about his bloody drug war, but the killings continue despite his hurt feelings.

Last Wednesday was a bloody day in Nuevo Leon, and last weekend was a bloody one in Michoacan. And those are just the high-lights.