2 Milestones in Mexico's Futile Drug War: 10,000 Deaths This Year, and 1st Drug War Refugee Camp

November 17, 2010 3:12 PM | 3 min read |
1.The death toll from Mexico's drug war passed the 10,000 mark in early November, reaching 10,035 killed since the start of the year.  At that pace (1,000 per month), there will be around 12,000 deaths in 2010 from the War on Drugs (including so far this year 52 soldiers, 637 police officers, 276 minors, 326 decapitated victims, almost 800 victims who were tortured before being executed, etc.), which could more accurately be called "The War on Innocent Mexican People Because of Insane Drug Laws."  One thousand drug-related murders per month would be more 33 killings every day, and more than one every hour of each day. 

The 12,000 drug-related murders in Mexico this year will bring the drug death toll in the last five years to about 30,000 (see chart above) as a result of drug laws in Mexico and the U.S.  In contrast, there have been "only" 4,561 combat-related American deaths in Afghanistan and Iraq combined since 2001.

2. As a Result of the War on Drugs, Mexico Has Its First Displaced-Persons Camp (source)

"When Hurricane Karl struck south-eastern Mexico in September, around 3,500 people left their homes to escape flooding. Last week, it was the north-east of the country that saw a displaced-persons camp sprout up. But the 400 people who are currently holed up in the event hall of the Lions Club, a charity group in the border city of Ciudad Miguel Alemán, were not relocated by act of God. Instead, they have fled from a man-made disaster: the fierce battle between the area's two warring drug gangs, the Zetas and the Gulf “cartel,” for control of trafficking and dealing in the nearby town of Mier.

The drug gangs have plundered the well; burned the city's police station, several businesses and dozens of vehicles; hung a dismembered corpse in a public park; and engaged in regular firefights.  Schools have closed, and even the local government has abandoned its offices in favour of safer quarters in Ciudad Miguel Alemán, 15km away. 

Many smaller municipalities along the border have also become virtual ghost towns this year. But the recent flare-up in Mier happened so quickly that some residents did not have time to arrange for a place to stay. In response, the town's government-in-exile established a shelter at the Lions Club, and offered the room to those with nowhere to go."

MP: Can there be any rational, logical solution to stop this insanity other than the obvious one - legalization?
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