Collateral Damage: Book of kids' drawings chronicles Mexico drug war

Book of kids' drawings chronicles Mexico drug war: "Children in a western Mexico state besieged by drug violence have helped produce a book that is full of images of shootouts, kidnappings, robberies and grenade attacks that kids are increasingly being exposed to.

The book, 'The Mexico I Live,' was released Tuesday by the Michoacan state Human Rights Commission and a local university. It contains 45 drawings, most of them of bloody scenes and shootouts taking place outside supermarkets or parks. ...

The drawings were selected from a 2010 competition that had called on children between the ages of 7 and 12 to draw pictures alluding to Mexico's 200 years since the start of its battle for independence from Spain. Instead, children drew about their experiences with drug violence.

The pictures "show explicit images of a society devoted to drug trafficking, violence and of abuses against minors," said university professor Araceli Colin, who was part of the selection committee. ..

The nonprofit group Network for the Rights of Children in Mexico estimates 994 children and youths under 18 were killed in drug violence between late 2006 and late 2010 across the country, and says the number has risen since then."