Sobering Video: 40 Mexican Gunmen Invade Town

[The Red Fox]

I'm sure many of you have been keeping track over the last couple of years or so of the reports coming out of Mexico as to the horrors the "War on Drugs" has been perpetuating over there. A rather sobering video emerged recently showing a group of around forty armed men entering a small town in Mexico and moving with complete impunity, terrorising the local inhabitants. They were captured on film by local police who could do nothing to stop them.

http://www.talkingdrugs.org/undercover- ... ising-town

This is by no means the worst thing to happen in Mexico over the "War on Drugs", but it is non-the-less shocking. It's almost like seeing the bandits ride into town in the old westerns, or like a more modern day Hollywood action film, only it's real and 7 people are now dead as a result.

Because of the current election there will be no media coverage when it comes to the drug war and how badly it's failing, but it makes me wonder why something like this isn't considered news worthy? Is it because it makes the current policies look bad, or because it happened to Mexicans and nobody gives a damn about what happens in non-English speaking countries? I'm angry I've had to dig this up, if this would have happened in Western Europe or America it would be front page news.

I'm not sure which I find more shocking, the blatant disregard by our media of foreign calamities or the story itself in which 7 people are dead because our politicians are spineless hypocrites.

[charlou]

What a mess that place is.

[Bella Fortuna]

I couldn't agree more with your sentiments, Red Fox.

[The Red Fox]

Well at least The Guardian has finally picked up on the story: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/ap ... o-drug-war

Some choice cuts:

President Felipe Calderón launched an offensive against the main trafficking groups in December 2006. Since then the official death toll has risen above 22,700, with 3,365 killed in the first three months of this year alone.

Further north in the same state of Chihuahua lies the border city of Ciudad Juárez where eight drug-related murders is considered a relatively quiet day.

State prosecutors, meanwhile, have seemed more concerned with tracking down whoever leaked the video to the media.

And all because various governments decided they had the right to determine whidh drugs were right and wrong to consume. What a mess.

[owtth]

I just got back from Mexico, nowhere near this thankfully, the level of poverty is a big enough problem without this shit to deal with too.

[maiforpeace]

I just got back from Mexico, nowhere near this thankfully, the level of poverty is a big enough problem without this shit to deal with too.

I know - that's the first thing I think of too. As if the travel and hospitality industry hasn't been affected enough already because of the recession, the drug wars has severely affected that industry for Mexico, which only exacerbates the poverty. This deeply angers and saddens me as it's such a beautiful place with such beautiful people.