Mexico's Descent Into Chaos

From Homeland Security NewsWire:

Mexico: descent into chaos


Mexico violence hits new levels in scale, brutality in 2010

Published 6 January 2011



Mexico's drug violence in 2010 was striking not only for its scale but also for its brutality; more than 13,000 people were killed across the country in drug violence, up from an estimated 9,600 a year earlier; the number of people killed since the government launched its war on the drug cartels in December 2006 has reached 31,000; analysts say that the violence is the result of the collapse of the old political structure -- the 80-year one-party system ran by the PRI, which came to an end in 2000, when Vicente Fox came to power; the old system, with its unwritten rules and tacit understandings, is yet to be replaced by a new, consensual system; what has exacerbated the anarchical situation are two new elements: the rise of drug trafficking through Mexico, and the free flow of arms into the country, mostly from the United States



Headless victims of cartel brutality // Source: uncoverage.net

Mexico’s drug violence in 2010 was striking not only for its scale but also for its brutality.



In the northern city of Santiago, the mayor’s body was found with the eyes gouged out. In the picturesque town of Cuernavaca, four decapitated men were hanged from a bridge along a heavily traveled highway. In Ciudad Juárez this week, two university students were hunted through a maze of streets and killed with bullets to the head, their bodies set on fire.



In 2010 the levels of Mexican violence and the kind of extreme cruelty once reserved for Quentin Tarantino movies reached new heights, not just along the Texas-Mexico border, but in regions that were once spared such bloodshed. More than 13,000 people were killed across the country in drug violence, up from an estimated 9,600 a year earlier.



TheDallas Morning News quotes Harvard historian John Womack to say that “Mexico has a long history of violence, which is completely different from a culture of violence. This kind of violence, however, hasn’t been seen in Mexican modern history.”



Theories as to why such violence is surfacing now include Mexico’s difficult transition to democratic government after decades of authoritarian rule, when unwritten understandings — even among drug gangs — kept a lid on things.



The Mexican ambassador to the United States, Arturo Sarukhan, has said that the heart of President Felipe Calderón’s strategy is an effort to create a more democratic society with functioning governmental institutions that could help combat crime. The transition has been difficult, though. For much of its history, Mexico has been ruled by authoritarian leaders whose tools of power were cajoling, co-opting, or bludgeoning rather than governing by rule of law.



“We are what we are because we were what we were,” Sarukhan said in comments before the New York-based Council on Foreign Relations.



The violent year has left Mexicans shocked and perplexed, posing challenges for the government’s U.S.-backed strategy and particularly for Calderón, whose presidency slides into lame-duck status in 2011. The United States supports Mexico with the $1.2 billion Mérida Initiative, which aims to help build institutions and provide training and equipment, but U.S. officials wonder whether the strategy will continue beyond the Calderón administration.



“There’s always doubt on how much more Mexicans can tolerate,” said a senior U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity. “Building rule of law is not an overnight task. It’s taken Colombia more than a decade, and they’ve made some impressive