Expert: Drug gangs control half of Mexico

latino.foxnews.com ^ | 8-26-11 | EFE (?)

[dynachrome]

Mexico City – Violent crime has become a problem of national security in Mexico, where half of the territory is outside of state control and "we're in the hands of the narcos," an intelligence expert and author of a new book on Mexico's public safety woes, said.

Jorge Carrillo Olea, founder of Mexico's leading intelligence center, said the "state has lost territorial control, and therefore governability," over roughly 50 percent of the country.

The government has been incapable of fully enforcing the law and ensuring justice is upheld, said Carrillo, who spoke to Efe while in Mexico City to promote his new book, "Mexico en riesgo; una vision personal sobre un Estado a la defensive" (Mexico at Risk: A Personal Vision of a State on the Defensive), published this year by Grijalbo.

Carrillo, who in 1989 founded the Center for Research and National Security, or Cisen, a civil entity overseen by the interior ministry, said Mexico's crime and public safety problems will last for decades because the society has "reached a point of no return."

[RMFC]

“The best war on drugs: Legalize them through

prescriptions.” Not true. Most already are. Our

military/industrial complex needs an enemy. ergo this war.

With the murder index 50 miles south of the border to say 10 miles this side being so high we should also be asking where are these illegal immigrant numbers coming from? There might be the real conspiracy

[RMFC]

Wasn’t NAFTA supposed to stop this human/drug trafficking and the potential terrorist issue? I seem to remember all the support for NAFTA included this component.

[dynachrome]

“The best war on drugs: Legalize them through
prescriptions.”

Not my line and we are alrady trying pot thru the prescription process. (funny aside. A pot dispensary got robbed. They only took the cash and left the pot!)

[dragnet2]

Liquor stores get robbed everyday, and generally only take the cash...

[dynachrome]

“generally only take the cash”

Semi-professional, anyway.

Druggies take both.

[dragnet2]

You might be surprised but druggies rob liquor stores too, for you know, the cash.

[Nachoman]

Mexico should ask NATO to perform some pre-emptive air strikes on the drug cartels. I bet there’s a better than even chance NATO would say yes.

[count-your-change]

The other half lives in the U.S.

[dragnet2]

Expert: Drug gangs control half of Mexico

Not to mention, a good percentage of U.S. politicians are likely on their payrolls.

[NavyCanDo]

I keep telling my in-laws to sell their time share in Puerto Vallarta while they can still get something for it. But do they listen? I hear the same line everytime, “oh that stuff happens in other parts of Mexico, not here”. The only way things are going to change in Mexico is when the resorts sit empty and the cruise ships stop coming.

[Ken H]

1. Suppose drugs were taxed and regulated like alcohol. Would you agree that the black market would be small, like it is for alcohol?

2. The feds have not taxed tobacco or alcohol enough to create a thriving black market, so what makes you assume they would do so with a regulated drug market?