Drug War Collateral Damage: Freedom Gone South

Freedom Gone South - By Joshua E. Keating | Foreign Policy: "In a year that saw an overall rollback in democracy and human rights in the world, the most shocking decline may have taken place just south of the U.S. border, according to the most widely cited index of global freedom. Freedom House's annual Freedom in the World index, released on Thursday, shows overall global freedom declining for the fifth year in a row -- the longest period of continuous decline in the index's nearly 40-year history....

But the decline of Mexico, which 10 years ago emerged from decades of one-party rule following the election of Vicente Fox, may be the biggest surprise on the list. Mexico's fall is all the more unusual because it results not from repressive measures by the government, but from the state's failure to "protect ordinary citizens, journalists, and elected officials from organized crime," as the report puts it. Freedom House's director of research, Arch Puddington, described the decline in freedom due to Mexico's drug violence as nearly unprecedented." Jan. 13, 2011