Mexican Election Could Mean Drug War Strategy Shift

The Telegraph ^ | 6/26/2012 | Kion Hudson

[bruinbirdman]

~snip~

Announcing a crackdown on cartels and sending troops into the streets to help fight the battle were among the first major moves by President Felipe Calderon after he took office in December 2006.

The United States voiced its support and offered $1.6 billion to aid in the fight. U.S. officials have praised growing cooperation with the Mexican government as a key weapon in the war on drugs. " But on the campaign trail in Mexico this year, the three leading candidates have stressed the need to shift strategies.

Is Mexico's drug war strategy working?

Leftist candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador of the opposition Democratic Revolution Party has summed up his security policy as "abrazos, no balazos" (hugs, not bullets).

He started his campaign with a pledge to pull back troops from Mexico's streets, but he said last month that the military would remain deployed until there is a "trained, skilled and moralized" police force.

Josefina Vazquez Mota of the ruling National Action Party has apparently tried to distance herself from Calderon's policies with a simple slogan: "Josefina Diferente" (Different Josefina).

"The results will be measured not just by criminals captured, but by how stable and secure communities are," her campaign website says.

Mexico drug war: Bodies for billions

Enrique Pena Nieto of the opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) has pledged to focus more on reducing violence, less on catching cartel leaders and blocking drugs from reaching the United States.

He told CNNMexico that federal, state and local authorities would coordinate better security plan on his watch.

"I propose adjusting the strategy and making a national front that involves the three levels of the government, focused on diminishing the violence in the country," he said.

Some political opponents of Pena Nieto, whose party governed Mexico for more than 70 years

[Blood of Tyrants]

So their plan is to quit fighting the cartels and just let them murder anyone they want? This can mean only one thing, that all the main candidates have been bought by the cartels.

[null and void]

Good thing nothing like that would happen here, eh?

[Jonty30]

That’s what sounds like to me.

Calderon tried, but he’s had one hand tied behind his back having to use a bought military and police.

[vette6387]

“Calderon tried, but he’s had one hand tied behind his back having to use a bought military and police.”

Calderon is a worthless dick! To think we let that little effer into our Congress to dress us down. Mexico isn’t worth any American lives or treasure. Let’s let them twist on their own swords. Calderon’s slogan is an affront to us. “Wherever there is a Mexican, there is Mexico” And it’s funny that the border states in Mexico are complaining that their own citizens are coming home and they don’t know what they are going to do with them. TS Mexico, practice some birth control for a change!