Drug War Politics: Mexico Sours on Drug War

A look at shifts in support by Mexican political leaders for the war on the drug cartels, by Ted Galen Carpenter, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute. His latest book, The Fire Next Door: Mexico’s Drug Violence and the Danger to America is forthcoming in 2012. 

However, while some Mexican politicians, especially former president, Vicente Fox, have shifted their position, the Mexican public still overwhelmingly supports the Calderon war, while at the same time, fewer than half think it is being won (Pew Center poll, August 2011). 


The National Interest: "At least forty-four thousand—and according to at least one estimate, perhaps as many as fifty-two thousand—people have perished in the upsurge of violence (in Mexico) over the past five years. That unpleasant reality has gradually caused major segments of Mexico’s population and, perhaps even more important, key Mexican political leaders to become disenchanted with the drug war." read more