O*NET OnLine. Colombia offers clues for solution to Mexico drug war. MedellÍn, Colombia; and Mexico City Medellín, once nearly synonymous with cocaine trafficking, used to be the epicenter of Colombia's decades-long drug war – and one of the most dangerous places in the world.
Skip to next paragraph Subscribe Today to the Monitor Click Here for your FREE 30 DAYS ofThe Christian Science MonitorWeekly Digital Edition But with increased military pressure on drug traffickers, urban planning heavily focused on social welfare, and an acknowledgment from Colombia and its major aid donor, the United States, that force alone does not work, Colombian cities such as Medellín have turned around dramatically.
Now the drug violence that made Colombia so notorious has migrated to Mexico, where the army's July 29 killing of drug lord Ignacio "Nacho" Coronel was emblematic of escalating violence. Jobs for ex-cons. For Tijuana children, drug war gore is part of their school day. Reporting from Tijuana— The schoolchildren bounded up the rickety steps and followed the path of shattered glass into the two-story house on Laguna Salada Street.
Two boys in neatly pressed gray pants flipped open their cellphones and took pictures of the pools of sticky blood. One teenager with a blue backpack pounced on a mangled bullet lying near a stained mattress. In the living room, someone slipped on a pile of human entrails. Downstairs, girls in blue skirts and white socks carefully avoided the blood dripping through the ceiling. The "Scarface" poster hanging on the pockmarked wall disappeared. The day before, a shootout between Mexican soldiers and drug cartel suspects had left three suspects and a soldier dead in the safe house at the end of a quiet cul-de-sac. "Look, intestines!
" "I think I'm going to be sick," said one boy, covering his mouth. "It's shocking," said Victor Rene, 14. Civic leaders are calling for a 9 p.m. curfew for children. Bodies have been hung from overpasses. Mexico fires 3,200 federal police officers. Federal police commissioner Facundo Rosas announces the firings at a news… (Mario Guzman / European…) Reporting from Mexico City — About 3,200 Mexican federal police officers, nearly a tenth of the force, have been fired this year under new rules designed to weed out crooked cops and modernize law enforcement, officials said Monday.
The housecleaning is part of President Felipe Calderon's crackdown on drug cartels, which includes overhauling the 34,500-strong federal police force. An additional 465 federal officers have been charged with breaking the law, and 1,020 others face disciplinary action after failing screening tests, officials said. Facundo Rosas, a senior federal police official, said in a radio interview that the 3,200 dismissed officers were removed for substandard performance. Refugees From Mexico Drug War Flee to US. The escalating war near America's southern border is driving embattled Mexicans to seek safety in the United States.
What if the tide of violence follows them? AP Images About the Author Andrew Becker Andrew Becker is a staff reporter with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a nonprofit news organization in... Mexican blog sheds grim light on drug war. By F.
Brinley Bruton, msnbc.com In a universe of diminishing sources of news on the escalating “war on drugs” in Mexico, one website has consistently chronicled the horror engulfing swathes of the country – the BlogdelNarco. The 6-month-old website – which regularly runs pictures and videos none of the formal news sources have – has created quite a following: Its Twitter feed has more than 14,000 followers and, according to its administrator, the site gets 3 million hits a week. (Warning to readers: The photos on BlogdelNarco can be extremely graphic).
The site, slick and complete with a chat room and a gruesome list of readers’ favorite stories, follows the Mexican government’s struggle to contain the murderous drug cartels transporting cocaine, marijuana, heroin and amphetamines into the United States. Jesus Alcazar/AFP/Getty Images Since then, an estimated 28,000 people have been killed. Mexico, drug war: Extreme violence causing widespread social problems, analysts say. Mexico's Drug War - Stories, Photos, Videos - Mexico Under Siege - World News - Los Angeles Times. Mexico Drug War. Police in Nogales, Sonora, perform a security sweep in a poor neighborhood looking for drug dealers and drug users.
PHOTO BY: David Rochkind Please support our site by enabling javascript to view ads. Full Frame features photo essays and conversations with photographers in the field. In the three-and-a-half years since Mexican President Felipe Calderon escalated the battle against the country’s drug cartels, more than 20,000 people have been killed and kidnappings have skyrocketed. The cartels are ruthless — heads roll into crowded discos and dismembered bodies are abandoned on busy streets. "Heavy Hand, Sunken Spirit" is an ongoing project about the societal costs and consequences of Mexico’s violent drug war. It is important not to reduce what is happening to a series of anonymous images of carnage.