TW: 250 people have been murdered in Juarez City (across the river from El Paso) this month. There are 1.6 MM folks in Juarez City, there are 2.8MM within Chicago's city limits. Imagine if an equivalent nearly 500 folks had been murdered in Chicago this month (there were 510 in 2008 total which was up from 450 in '07). The vast majority of the murders are drug related.
The Mexican federal government does not control the drug lords. Corruption is rife throughout federal, state and local governments. To think that our own governments are not also riddled with corruption related to the drug trade would be naive.
From Tom Rick's blog:
"The most interesting news story of the day is that the governor of Texas wants to deploy 1,000 National Guard troops to the Mexican border. I am not sure where this situation is going, but it is the kind of thing that can come out of left field and upset all our plans for our ongoing wars elsewhere.
Meanwhile, the Mexican government also says it is sending troops to the border area, apparently to re-take parts of the city of Juarez, where, according to Reuters, more than 250 people have been killed in drug violence this month. "We aren't going to give up an inch of the city," vowed Interior Minister Fernando Gomez Mont. Kind of reminds me of the recent comments of the Pakistani government about Swat. The difference, of course, is that Swat is near Afghanistan, while Juarez is across the river from the west Texas town of El Paso.
...There is a weird analogy between Pakistan and Mexico. In both places, American addictions -- to oil and to drugs -- have helped fund those who are destabilizing those countries. The Pakistan connection is generally less direct -- I am thinking of Saudi Arabian funding of extremists."
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