Whack-a-mole drug war: Mexico needs more defense spending to fight cartels

Oh, no! More bad news, along with U.S. senators announcing today that we need to beef up the drug war. Here PRI, the party most likely to win the Mexican presidency next year, is talking about incresing military spending to fight the cartels.

Analysis: Mexico needs more defense spending to fight cartels | Reuters: "Mexico's hopes of crushing the country's drug cartels through sheer military force appear doomed unless it ramps up defense spending, currently one of the weakest in Latin America.

"It's a total embarrassment what we're spending on the army with the problems it's got right now," said opposition politician Rogelio Cerda, (member of PRI, the Institutional Revolutionary Party) who chairs the defense committee in the lower house of Congress.  "The army definitely needs additional resources."

... security analysts say the defense ministry, which did not respond to requests for an interview, must beef up its ability to track and intercept traffickers with helicopters and patrol boats to have any chance of success.

Cerda's Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) leads the PAN in opinion polls, which also show security is a growing concern in Mexico. The PRI already dominates the lower house, and Cerda said its deputies firmly backed higher spending."