Mexican Drug War

The body of a murdered man found dumped on a main road into Acapulco Monday brought the four-day death toll in the once peaceful Pacific coast Mexican resort city to 31. With the weekend toll, Acapulco is facing the highest levels of drug prohibition violence since President Felipe Calderon declared war on drug trafficking organizations in 2006.

The fabled resort of Acapulco closed its bloodiest weekend ever due to drug prohibition. In less than a day 14 headless bodies and a 15th intact victim were found on a street in front a shopping mall frequented by locals. On Saturday, six people were shot dead and all their bodies stuffed in a taxi, two police officers were also killed and four others in another part of the city.

Prohibition-created drug trafficking organizations have opened a new front in South America's expanding drug prohibition war by seizing control of parts of northern Guatemala, prompting the government to suspend civil liberties and declare a state of siege in the area. The mayhem has deepened alarm that Mexico's drug prohibition war has spilled across southern neighbors and corrupted state institutions that are proving no match for the well-funded, ruthless traffickers.

La Familia leaders say they want the truce to demonstrate they are not responsible for the crimes they are accused in the media of committing. The Mexican Federal Police have been committing much of the recent violence in western and southern Mexico but blaming it on La Familia, the statement says. The police commit the attacks "without caring if it is women, children ... or adults," the La Familia statement said.

Conchita Sarnoff explores the cooperation, or lack there of, between Mexico and the U.S. in the drug prohibition war raging at our border and farther south.

Mexico's drug prohibition war continues to claim victims at an astounding rate, and there are no signs that the violence will ease any time soon. In 2010 alone, the death toll from the violence was more than double the number of U.S. soldiers killed in Afghanistan and Iraq during the past seven years. This NPR broadcast explores whether the situation might improve in 2011.

Found tottering alone in the desert with their ribs visible and their heads hung low, horses play a backbreaking, unappreciated role in the multibillion-dollar drug smuggling industry created by drug prohibition. Mexican traffickers strap heavy bales of marijuana or other illegal drugs to the horses’ backs and march them north through mountain passes and across rough desert terrain. With little food and water, some collapse under their heavy loads. Others are turned loose when the contraband gets far enough into Arizona to be loaded into vehicles with more horsepower.

Four years and 50,000 troops into President Felipe Calderon's drug prohibition war, the fighting has exposed severe limitations in the Mexican army's ability to wage unconventional warfare, tarnished its proud reputation and left the U.S. pointedly criticizing the force as "virtually blind" on the ground. A series of secret diplomatic cables leaked recently revealed the United States' profound unease over Mexico's efforts, despite public assurances to the contrary, with stinging language criticizing the army as stymied by well-protected fugitive drug lords. U.S. diplomats and Mexican intelligence officials say the Mexican military and police distrust each other, refuse to share intelligence and resist operating together, squandering important potential gains.