Collateral Damage: Four years on, drug war bleeds Mexican heartland

The drug war in the state of Michoacán. This article makes it appear as if the entire state is in flames. The violence is actually concentrated in the port city of Lázaro Cárdenas, where the methampehtamine ingredients arrive from Asia, and some other cities.  The important, underlying fact - as a Nov. 23 post described - is that Mexican and U.S. efforts to shut down the methampehtamine supply chain have failed.

Four years on, drug war bleeds Mexican heartland | Reuters: "A four-year army crackdown in Mexico's methamphetamine-producing heartland has provoked a dizzying increase in violence, fueling fears that the country is losing its battle against organized crime.

Grisly assassinations and gang extortion are terrifying Mexicans in the western state of Michoacan, where President Felipe Calderon launched his war on drug cartels, sending in about 5,000 soldiers in December 2006 following a narrow election victory.

Despite heavily armed patrols, hundreds of drug lab busts and thousands of arrests, locals say gangs in the president's home state wield huge power, ramping up drug output while using terror and bribes to control towns mired in poverty."Nov. 29, 2010