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Mexican Drug War

Mexico's Ex-President Vicente Fox: Legalize Drugs

As Mexico drowns in drug prohibition related bloodshed — suffering almost 12,000 murders in 2010 — it is perhaps unsurprising that government critics turn up their screaming that the war on drugs isn't working. But it was a bit of a bombshell when former president Vicente Fox added his voice to the chorus. The cowboy-boot wearing leader, who ruled Mexico from 2000 to 2006, had once declared the "mother of all battles" against crime and rounded up drug kingpins.

British Columbia Man Shot After Being Caught in Mexican Drug Prohibition War Crossfire

A Penticton, B.C., man vacationing in Mexico is recovering in hospital from a gunshot wound after being caught in a bloody crossfire that left one man dead in yet another round of drug prohibition violence in the troubled country. The man, in his 60s, was leaving a Mazatlan pharmacy with his wife on Sunday when gunmen opened fire, spraying their intended target with bullets and striking the man in the leg below the knee, according to family members.

Guatemala Army No Match for Mexican Drug Trafficking Organizations

Guatemalan soldiers tasked with sweeping out Mexican drug trafficking organizations are finding they are outgunned and ill-equipped, raising fears of a power vacuum in parts of the country even after a 30-day military siege. "Organized crime is not just infiltrating us, it pains me to say it but drug traffickers have us cornered," Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom told Congress last week.

Kiwi Banker Reveals His Part in Mexico's Drug Prohibition War

A Kiwi-born banker has revealed chilling details of his undercover life working for vicious, prohibition-created South American drug trafficking organizations, including watching a hit squad execute and dismember a group of people in front of him. He claims he was approached by the US Drug Enforcement Agency after striking up friendships with Mexican cartel bankers while in jail for conspiring to defraud.

Trafficking Organization's Terror Felt Far from Drug Prohibition War on US Border

A priest who shelters stranded migrants needs police protection, a chopped-up body turns up with a threatening message, beheadings are on the rise, and the local press is too frightened to write about any of it. This is not northern Mexico, where traffickers created by drug prohibition fight for turf along the U.S. border and the Mexican government wages an open battle against them. This is the south, where the brutal Zetas organization is quietly spreading a reign of terror virtually unchallenged, all the way to the border with Guatemala — and across it.

Mexico's Drug Prohibition War Murders Mapped

The Mexican government has released a database it says covers all murders presumed to have a link to the country's drug prohibition war in which at least seven different drug trafficking organizations are fighting each other and federal forces deployed in a massive offensive against them launched in December 2006. The number of deaths has risen rapidly since then to total 34,612 up until the end of 2010, by far the most violent year so far with 15,273 people killed.