Collateral Damage: Mexicans mourn mayor, government vows crackdown, business leaders plead for military help

"The growing violence in Monterrey, long one of Mexico's most modern and safe cities, is a sign that the country's war against drug gangs is spreading ever further from poorer battlegrounds along the border and into the country's wealthiest enclaves." 


This quote, from the second story below, states in a nut shell how, with each passing day, the Mexican drug war - precipitated by U.S. drug prohibition and supported by the U.S. government - is further and further undermining the stability of Mexican society. The U.S. Ambassador to Mexico, Carlos Pascual, agrees on the danger, but the Obama administration proposes no real change. (See Ambassador Pascual´s speech from the cited conference. Keynote address by U.S. Ambassador Carlos Pascual at Border Security Conference ) 

Mexicans mourn mayor, government vows crackdown: "Fear is growing in Monterrey, once a model city known for its close U.S. business ties and gleaming office towers. Now, it is being pulled toward the center of the drug war. Cartels have begun to target higher profile public figures, as they did in June in Tamaulipas state when a popular gubernatorial candidate was gunned down ahead of state polls. Such attacks may aim to ensure local politicians like Cavazos, a 38-year-old, U.S.-educated mayor who had been working to clean up police corruption, don't go after drug capos or the corrupt officials working with them. " August 19, 2010, Reuters

Business Heads Plead as Drug Gangs Terrorize Wealthy City MONTERREY, Mexico—A surge of drug violence in Mexico's business capital and richest city has prompted an outcry from business leaders who on Wednesday took out full-page ads asking President Felipe Calderón to send in more soldiers to stem the violence. The growing violence in Monterrey, long one of Mexico's most modern and safe cities, is a sign that the country's war against drug gangs is spreading ever further from poorer battlegrounds along the border and into the country's wealthiest enclaves. ... "The security environment in Monterrey has turned, in just a few months, from seeming benevolence to extreme violence," U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Carlos Pascual said at a recent conference on drug trafficking in El Paso, Texas.August 19, 2010, Wall Street Journal