Whack- a.mole Drug War: Mexicans are uneasy about America's outsourced war on drugs

Good review of the contradictions involved in U.S. support and promotion of the drug war in Mexico

Mexicans are uneasy about America's outsourced war on drugs | Luis Hernández Navarro | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk: "Cipriana Jurado is the first human rights defender to receive political asylum for being persecuted by the Mexican army – the same army the United States is supporting to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars in the war against drugs.

Her asylum sets a precedent. It also illustrates the complex relations between Mexico and the United States in the war on drugs. This complexity, according to President Felipe Calderón, revolves around 'the fact that we live next to the biggest consumer of drugs in the world and everybody wants to sell drugs through our door or our window and additionally this same friend [the United States] sells weapons to all the criminals'.

Many Mexicans are convinced that Calderón's drug war has been imposed by Washington, which aims to get Mexicans to resolve a US problem. Instead of fighting drug trafficking in the territory of the United States, Washington has persuaded or pressured the Mexican government to do it within their country – 'outsourcing' the fight against drugs."