After student disappearances, Mexico city tries to turn page

AP: The previous elected mayor is in jail, and the new one wants to "turn the page" on the ugliest chapter in the history of this southern Mexican city.

Fifteen months ago, when 43 rural college students disappeared at the hands of local police and cartel thugs, Iguala became the symbol of Mexico's narco-brutality. Now, federal police are in charge of security, the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party controls city hall — and Mayor Esteban Albarran Mendoza wants to move forward. Read more.

Doctors from Cuba and Costa Rica Examine Comatose Mexican Student

Latin American Herald Tribune: Two foreign neurologists have examined Aldo Gutierrez, an education student who has been in a coma since he and several classmates were shot in Iguala, a city in the southern Mexican state of Guerrero, in September 2014, the Executive Commission for Assisting Victims, or CEAV, said Tuesday.

Calixto Machado, of the Cuban Neurology and Neurosurgery Institute, and Costa Rican neurologist Mauricio Chinchilla examined the comatose student last Friday, the CEAV said. Read more.

Mexican Judge Orders Release of Four Soldiers Accused of Killing Civilians

Latin American Herald Tribune: A Mexican judge ordered the release of four soldiers accused of killing 22 civilians in Tlatlaya in the central Mexico state on Jun. 30, 2014, court officials told EFE on Monday.

The judge said there was enough evidence to revoke the arrest warrant against the four, issued last November, as the Federal Public Ministry, or MPF, was unable to explain the circumstances during the hearing, which led to the accusations. Read more.

Violence haunts Mexico's election campaign

AFP: One murdered candidate, others threatened, bodyguards assigned to gubernatorial wannabes and calls for a boycott: The June election campaign in Mexico's Wild West is off to a rough start.

The June 7 mid-term vote for federal and state seats will be the first major ballot test for President Enrique Pena Nieto, almost half-way through his six-year term. Read more.

Gunmen hit army chopper in Mexico, three troops dead

AFP: Gunmen forced down a military helicopter in western Mexico, killing three troops as violence escalated across Jalisco state during a new operation against a powerful drug cartel.

Seven people were killed across Jalisco, including the three soldiers and a state police officer, while 19 people were wounded, officials said. Three gang suspects were killed in the fighting, authorities said. Read more. 

Soldiers killed in the war on drugs

News Week Español (Translated by Americas Program):  Since former President Felipe Calderon launched the war against drug cartels, 209 soldiers have died in armed clashes, and 1,760--from privates to corporals, second and first sergeants, lieutenants and colonels-- have been wounded in shootings. In some cases, they have been discharged from the the Mexican Army due to the severity of injuries.

From January 11, 2007-just 41 days after Calderon of the PAN  took control of the country from Vicente Fox--to October 2, 2014, there have been 3,520 clashes with members of criminal organizations involved in drug trafficking , extortion, kidnapping and exploitation for sexual and labor purposes.

In just the first 10 months of this year, according to information from the Secretariat of National Defense (Sedena), 234 battles left   15 military elements dead. The latest was a death in San Martín Hidalgo, Jalisco, on September 24, when a convoy of armed men opened fire and in the exchange of fire also killed four of the attackers. Another occurred in Mier, Tamaulipas, where there is dispute over control of the plaza (trafficking route) between the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas, Sept. 17. Two incidents took place in Tepehuanes, Durango, when an ambush and subsequent confrontation occurred between military and probable drug traffickers in the Guanaceví neighborhood.

Tamaulipas: Mexico's black hole gets even more dangerous

The English-language press has given an unusual amount of attention to Tamaulipas lately, soon after the federa government declared it the crisis state in turn and launched a federal offensive against organized crime there.

Tamaulipas is, indeed, on fire again, as is Ciudad Juarez. The specific reasons are different, but one thing is clear: that calling in the Army will not solve the problem. We have only to look back at Operation Chihuahua to see that.

A recent piece in InSight Crime titled "How Federal Security Deployments in Mexico Are Set Up to Fail" also argues that the federal efforts will not succeed. InSight Crime analyses are often not very deep and this one isn't an exception. However, they often gather interesting facts in one place and address current issues.

The main argument is that local corruption will always undermine federal law enforcement efforts. The criticism I have is first, the data offered on the corruption of local and state officials is important and undoubtedly affects the effectiveness of federal intervention, but the implication is that federal troops and forces are not corrupt. This is not true. Yet there is no mention of the collusion with crime and corruption that occur among federal forces.

Secondly, he report starts with teh premise that Tamaulipas was a success story last year with a significantly lower homicide rate. I was suspicious of the low 2013 homicide figure and in any case would not accept these government figures at face value. The government practice last year was to under-report violence, including through suppression of the press.

But actually the problem with the report is even worse. When I checked the citation, the number of homicides reported for Tamaulipas in 2013 is actually 1,043--twice what the author states. I requested an explanation from InSight Crime but have not heard back. Another lesson in being wary of reported data. Not only are government sources vastly under-reported (these are only homicides reported to the Public Ministry in a nation and state where few people choose to report crimes), but reporters and researchers make mistakes or manipulate data.

This year, the SNSP--a system of the Ministry of the Interior (Gobernación)--reports 553 murders in Tamaulipas through April, putting it on track to become a record year for violence there under the Peña Nieto administration that promised that public safety rather than the drug war would be its major priority.

In other reports, Washington Post reporter Joshua Partlow has been in Tamaulipas and offers some rare glimpses into daily life there. Most of what he describes has been common for years, although the shoot-outs have stepped up. He interviews residents accustomed to extortion and people who have to go to extraordinary measures to carry out their ordinary activities.

This June 2 piece by the Guardian also tells an interesting story of the death of Tampico over the years.  An earlier article signaled the renewed violence. This article quotes a Mexican government agent reaffirming what was already clear--that in fact the Peña nieto government is bent on fighting Calderon and the U.S. government's drug war no matter what the results are for the population:

The state government spokesman Guillermo Martínez said this week that the resurgence of violence in Tamaulipas was the result of government successes in "squeezing" the criminal groups. "The important thing is that we are facing the problem head on," he said.

I'll be writing more extensively on Tamaulipas within the next couple of months. It is probably among the most difficult places to envision solutions to the fatal combination of governmental corruption and organized crime because the situation is exacerbated by the breakdown and fear among civil society. As the articles note, many have fled across the border an the rest have mostly learned to adapt the an extreme situation.

Tamaulipas has always been the black hole of Mexico--a place where people are unwilling to go into for fear of not coming out, a place where rule of law is practically non-existent and information is scarce.

- Laura Carlsen

Tamaulipas: A Death Trap for Mexico's Military

Vanguardia - Source: 24 Horas
Translated by un vato for Borderland Beat
June 2, 2014

Sixty soldiers have died in operations against drug trafficking in the past 18 months; the Gulf and the Nueva Generacion (Jalisco's New Generation cartel) are the main aggressors.

REYNOSA.- A total of 60 Mexican Army soldiers have died in the first 18 months of this presidential term while taking part in operations implemented against organized crime and drug trafficking. One in three has lost his life in Tamaulipas.

Jalisco and Michoacan are states that have also seen soldiers fall, six in each case from December, 2012, until now. Next are Durango and Chihuahua with five (deaths) each,  Sinaloa with four, and the rest in seven other states.

Two attacks have resulted in the greatest number of deaths for the military. In both cases, the criminals had an advantage because they were ambushes, not direct confrontations.

One of them took place just this past May 13, at kilometer marker 70 on the Ameca-Mascota highway, right at the arches at the entrance to the municipality of Guachinango. A convoy of six soldiers with the 32nd Infantry Battalion were sent to obtain a sample from an illegal fuel tap. When the military transport was traveling through the area, a pickup truck blocked the road and triggered the ambush. More than 20 gunmen with the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion) fired several volleys with their AK-47 assault rifles from the east side of the road, from about 40 meters away. The criminals also used fragmentation grenades.

Event TODAY in New York City: The Drug War-Policing and US Militarism at Home and Abroad

The CIP Americas Program is proud to be a co-sponsor of this event, which brings together the repressive nature of the the U.S. drug war within its borders and in countries like here in Mexico. I hope readers in the New York City area will attend and tell us about it. There is also a livestream for those outside the area (see below).

The U.S. Drug War has fueled mass incarceration and discriminatory policing practices in the U.S. as well as violence and militarization throughout Latin America. This panel will bring together organizers and scholars on both sides of the border to talk about the domestic and international impacts of the Drug War and their strategies to resist this racist, ineffective, and devastating “war.”

What: The Drug War: Policing and U.S. Militarism at Home and Abroad

Where: Unitarian Church of All Souls, New York, NY

When: Thursday, February 20th at 6:30 pm (EST)

RSVP at: http://bit.ly/1bp7DsQ

Watch the Livestream:
http://new.livestream.com/ccrjustice/thedrugwar

Featuring: Alfredo Carrasquillo, VOCAL-NY Civil Rights Organizer; David Vivar, scholar on US drug war in Latin America and activist in the Honduran resistance movement. Moderated by Moderated by Jaisal Noor, host and producer for The Real News Network. Introduction by Vincent Warren, Executive Director of the Center for Constitutional Rights.

Co-sponsored by: VOCAL-NY, Organización Fraternal Negra Hondureña (OFRANEH), Drug Policy Alliance, NY Harm Reduction, Latino Justice PRLDEF, SOA Watch, Justice Committee, Center for NuLeadership, Sisters of Mercy-Institute Justice Team, Make the Road-NY, Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, Iraq Veterans Against the War, Picture the Homeless, War Resisters League, CIP Americas Program

Drug war rages on the edge of Mexico City

Global Post
By Dudley Althaus
January 26, 2013

MEXICO CITY, Mexico — For all the murderous mayhem that has haunted Mexico in recent years, its capital city has remained essentially untouched.

Large cities like Monterrey and Ciudad Juarez have become synonymous with brutal drug war killings, while Mexico City's nearly 9 million residents have been largely spared.

But recent carnage in Mexico state, enveloping the capital like a folded tortilla, has many worried that's about to change.

Gangland slaughter on the fringes of Mexico's capital has claimed some 60 lives in 10 days, mocking President Enrique Pena Nieto's promise to reduce violence with better local law enforcement.

In response, federal and state officials have beefed up army patrols in the state's largest cities, hard on the capital's borders — and people are taking note.  Read more.

Obama and Guns: 'Yes, You Must' (El Universal, Mexico)

Mexico - El Universal - Original Article (Spanish) By Dr. Arnoldo Kraus

Translated By Halszka Czarnocka for World Meets US

January 9, 2013

Choosing the appropriate slogan isn't easy. It requires imagination, creativity and following the maxim "less is more," as the message must say a lot with the fewest possible words. The slogan of Barack Obama's first presidential campaign, "Yes, we can," synthesized the desire for change and the need to come together. Now with the beginning of his second term, Obama will no longer need to invent apt and resonant phrases. He'll have to look back.

During his first term, civilian-on-civilian killings have left running rivers of blood and ink. Due to the innocence of the victims and heroism of teachers who gave their lives to protect their students, the massacre of children and adults at a school in Newtown hurts in another way. This mass killing should mark a new presidential commitment. This time, the slogan written on the part of the dead, is society's exhortation for Obama: "Yes, yes, you must." Read more. 

U.S. Shifts Mexico Drug Fight

On Tuesday, the U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met with the Mexican Chancellor Patricia Espinosa in the fourth meeting of the High-Level Consultative Group on the Merida Initiative. The meeting was used to endorse the relationship between the two countries, and recommend the new Mexican  presidency to continue the strategy against transnational organized crime. This article below, published before their meeting, highlights changes in this U.S.-Mexico strategy over time, however, toward strengthening institutions of justice. 

Wall Street Journal. Sept. 17, 2012. By Nicholas Casey. MEXICO CITY—Secretary of State Hillary Clinton meets her Mexican counterparts at a security summit in Washington Tuesday to discuss the next phase in the drug war: how to train the judges and prosecutors that will be trying suspected drug lords.

The Merida Initiative, the U.S.'s $1.9 billion assistance program to Mexico, began mostly as a means to buy military hardware like Black Hawk helicopters for Mexico. But over the past two years, it has entered a new phase, in which purchases for the Mexican military are taking a back seat to measures to mend the branches of Mexico's civilian government.

The former director of Colorado's penitentiary system has trained more than 5,000 Mexican prison officials in recent years. Mexican jurists are running mock trials with visiting American judges to prepare for a transition to oral hearings that will replace Mexico's enigmatic closed-door meetings where sentences are handed down.

"Different things have come to the fore at different times, but strengthening the rule of law in Mexico is the area that's crucial right now," says Roberta Jacobson, the Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs.

Officials in both countries increasingly believe the root of Mexico's problem lies in creating an honest police force, professional judges and a prison system comparable with that in the U.S. Read more.

Pena Nieto's opposing coalition threatened with his security policy

Borderland Beat: By Chris Covert


Throughout last spring's campaign Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) presidential candidate Enrique Pena Nieto, as with his rivals travelled in Mexico with the message of a frontrunner, that of unity and national pride.  Pena Nieto could afford to act as above the fray because from the start he had maintained a solid 20 plus percentage point lead.

One of the issues that Pena Nieto spoke about with caution was security policy.  His rival Partido Accion National (PAN) candidate also tread lightly on the issue after having suffered years of attacks from the Mexican mainstream left over president Felipe Calderon Hinojosa's war on the cartels.

But once the election was over, Pena Nieto rolled out his newest advisor of security policy, heralding that he would deal with Mexico's powerful cartels with a new strategy.

Retired Colombian police chief General Oscar Adolfo Naranjo Trujillo was presented as having ideas on how to shift the current strategy to one which is supposed to reduce the violence which has marked much of Calderon's presidency.

General Naranjo Trujillo has been credited with reducing the violence in Colombia during the 1980s and 1990s.  His tenure was marked with an emphasis on security for the legal and security structure in Colombia, plus an active record of drug arrests.  Other Spanish language sources suggested General Naranjo Trujillo gained the upper hand in Colombia through the use of targeted killings. Read more. 

Laura's Blog: Gag order on shooting of Embassy personnel?

A week after a van with diplomatic plates was ambushed by Mexican Federal Police members, wounding two CIA agents, neither the U.S. or Mexican governments have much to say about the incident.

State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland treated a question on the attack like the political hot potato it is. She seemed to plead for the next question, and the lack of diligence by the reporter made for an easy dodge.

QUESTION: Additionally, there’s been an increasing controversy in Mexico over the incident with the U.S. diplomatic convoy, particularly the firing on the U.S. diplomatic van. The Embassy in Mexico initially classified it as an ambush. The Mexican Government says it was an accident. Which is it? And then can you confirm some of the – what were these two individuals (inaudible) link – to what U.S. agency were they linked?
MS. NULAND: As you know, the Mexican Government is investigating this incident. Our Embassy is cooperating in that investigation and trying to assist it in any way that we can. I’m not going to get ahead of the investigation – I think we’re going to wait and see what that concludes – nor am I going to get into speculating on any of the specifics until we see what the investigation leads to.
Please.
QUESTION: Just a follow-up: Have you taken any extra steps to protect U.S. borders in Mexico after this incident?
MS. NULAND: Well, we --
QUESTION: Are you worried about this?
MS. NULAND: We always are in a strong security posture around the world as necessary, but we don’t speak about any of the details of that.
Anything else? Please.

It seems both the U.S. and Mexican governments have handed down a gag order on the strange incident. On the U.S. side the DEA came out with a statement denying that any of their agents were involved. On Tuesday, the New York Times reported what the Mexican paper La Jornada had reported earlier:

The two Americans who were wounded when gunmen fired on an American Embassy vehicle last week were Central Intelligence Agency employees sent as part of a multiagency effort to bolster Mexican efforts to fight drug traffickers, officials said on Tuesday.

What do we know and not know about the ambush?

1. The van was taking the two CIA agents to train new Navy recruits at a firing range outside Mexico City. It was clearly identified and well-known to people in the area. The U.S. government has often cited its preference for the Navy and mistrust of the Army in Mexico, so Navy war games having nothing to do with water are common in this drug war.
2. A green Chrysler drove up and blocked the way of the Toyota van. The driver immediately threw the car into reverse to escape. (First question: If this were indeed a case of mistaken identity, how did the driver immediately know this was an attack?)
3. A second car cut off passage from behind. Shots were fired but the Toyota was armored.
4,. The Toyota again tried to escape and manage to proceed to a gas station where it continued to be fired on, with some bullets penetrating the protective shields and injuring the passengers.
5. The assailants fled when police and Navy vehicles arrived on the scene. They were later captured. 6. Twelve Federal Police agents have been arrested.

What does this bizarre incident indicate?

So far both governments seem to be preparing some version of a case of "mistaken identity". The NYT quotes anonymous US government officials as stating that "no evidence had emerged so far that the Americans were targeted because of their affiliation."

However, both Reforma and La Jornada gathered detailed interviews from local residents stating that anybody could see that the vehicle had diplomatic plates and that the agents' comings and goings are common knowledge in the area. The possibility that the Federal Police did not know who they were shooting at is extremely low.

The next obvious question is: why did the Mexican police shoot the CIA agents?

Speculation has emerged that these police were in cahoots with an organized crime group. That's pretty common here. Generally speaking, when organized crime shoots a U.S. agent, it's to send a message, not just to get rid of somebody. They know that the action will have binational ramifications.

In this scenario, it's hard to say what the potential message was. I´m not going to speculate on that until we know more.

The officers' families have offered explanations that it was a simple mistake and/or that their relatives were fired on first. They were quoted as fearing a frame-up to "stay on the United States' good side".

If history is any indication, we may never know what really happened. One certainly gets the impression that this incident is not something either drug-war ally wants to talk about. Compare the response of the U.S. government to the shooting of ICE agent Jaime Zapata on Feb. 15, 2011, when it immediately demanded justice and participated in the investigation. 

Incidentally, the Mexican government also called that a case of mistaken identity, and probably will continue to claim all such cases are mistaken identity, since admitting that US agents are targeted could jeopardize the many programs that send U.S. agents to Mexico

The ambush also shows once again that U.S. funding to the Mexican federal police force, which has run in the millions since the Merida Initiative began in 2008, is funding a force that attacks U.S. agents, not to mention the massive evidence of violation of Mexicans' human rights and attacks on their lives.

The NYT article notes the evident irony:

Through programs like the $1.6 billion Merida initiative, the United States has spent millions of dollars on training and equipping the federal police.

This incident further derails the Washington argument that the police force is an acceptable option for funding the drug war since it is being "reformed".

The conservative Wall Street Journal noted the "embarrassment" to the Mexican government of having its Federal Police Force go for the jugular of the hand that feeds it:

The incident has proved an embarrassment for the Mexican government, which receives millions of dollars annually in U.S. aid for its drug war and which has touted its federal police as the most professional force.

In addition to the embarrassment of Federal Police misbehavior, there is the issue of why CIA agents are training young Mexican Navy recruits to shoot their own people.

U.S. growing involvement in Mexico has raised the eyebrows and the ire of some members of Congress here in Mexico City. Since the ambush, they have called for a hearing and demanded that the Calderon administration give out information on the extent and the activities of U.S. agents.

This is a question that many of us have had for a long time now.

Top Colombian cop advising Mexico’s president-elect suggests elite counterdrug units

AP: BOGOTA, Colombia — The top security adviser for Mexico’s next president said Friday that he is recommending the creation of elite units of police and troops who will target not just major drug traffickers but also lower-level cartel hitmen as a way of swiftly reducing violence.

The proposal newly retired Colombian police director Gen. Oscar Naranjo explained in an interview with The Associated Press offers a glimpse of how President-elect Enrique Pena Nieto might fulfill his promise to slash the number of murders and kidnappings by 50 percent during his six years in office.

Similar to the approach that Naranjo employed against Colombian traffickers, the proposal raises the question of whether the widely respected general can reproduce his success in a very different country. Read more. 

Mexico's Calderon accused of blocking victims's rights law

President Felipe Calderon rejected a bill known as Victims' Law, which would require the government to guarantee assistance to victims of violence. Both houses of Congress had approved of the initiative. This legislation is, at best, delayed until Congress convenes in September. 

Fox News Latino: Poet turned peace activist Javier Sicilia accused Mexican President Felipe Calderon Thursday of breaking his word by effectively vetoing a measure to aid the thousands of innocent victims of the drug war.

"A man who doesn't keep his word is worthless," the leader of the Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity, or MPJD, said at a press conference.

Sicilia made his remarks after Calderon decided to return the so-called Victims' Law to Congress with objections. That bill requires the state to protect, assist and repair the harm caused to victims of crime and human rights abuses. Read more. 

The Kingpins: The fight for Guadalajara

The New Yorker: At the Guadalajara International Book Fair, Enrique Peña Nieto, who is forty-five, boyishly handsome, and generally expected to be the next President of Mexico, was asked to name three books that had influenced him. He mentioned the Bible, or, at least, “some parts” (unspecified), and “The Eagle’s Throne,” a Carlos Fuentes novel (though he named the historian Enrique Krauze as the author). And, for a few excruciating minutes, that was all he could come up with. The crowd laughed wickedly. Peña Nieto’s wife, a former soap-opera star, squirmed in the front row. His teen-age daughter didn’t help matters when, in a tweet, she scorned “all of the idiots who form part of the proletariat and only criticize those they envy.

That debacle was in December. It did nothing to slow Peña Nieto’s well-financed march toward the election, which will take place on July 1st, but it did provide a welcome distraction for Guadalajarans, who are justly proud of their annual book fair. It is the second largest in Latin America, drawing more than half a million visitors, nearly two thousand publishers, and hundreds of authors, including, over the years, Nadine Gordimer, William Styron, and Toni Morrison. Guadalajarans sometimes offer it up as Exhibit A for the case that the city is a civilized place where life goes on unmarked by the violence that disfigures large parts of Mexico. Read more.

Poll: Most Mexicans support army anti-drug battle

In a poll conducted by the Pew Research Center, most Mexicans support the military battle against drug traffickers launched in 2006, but also worry about the human rights violations by the military and police.

AP: MEXICO CITY - A new survey finds that eight of 10 Mexicans support the military crackdown against drug traffickers launched in 2006.

The poll released Wednesday by the Pew Research Center finds that 80 percent of those questioned support the army's active role in the fight. Read more.

In Mexico’s Drug War, Generals May Stand Down

Public opinion and now presidential candidates are leaning toward decreasing the military's role in the drug war. The military faces increasing distrust in light of rampant corruption and human rights abuses. 

Newsweek: Six years of mayhem have taken a toll on the Mexican army.

“Never did I make a pact. Never!” Gen. Rolando Eugenio Hidalgo Eddy slams his fist on the desk in his office in Aguascalientes, a city in central Mexico where he is acting police chief. For two years during Felipe Calderón’s presidency, General Eddy was in charge of antidrug operations in the northwestern state of Sinaloa—long a haven for Mexico’s drug producers. He was also in charge of the hunt for Joaquín “Chapo” Guzmán, the world’s most powerful drug trafficker and the head of the Sinaloa cartel. General Eddy failed to catch Guzmán, and allegations abound that a deal may have been made. He denies this, but he’s not so certain about his counterparts. “Others,” he says, quietly. “I don’t know.” Read more.

Candidates in Mexico Signal a New Tack in the Drug War

This article would be good if it were accurate. We at the Americas Program have been monitoring closely the views of the major candidates on the drug war and although it is easy to find a few comments regarding the need to devote more attention to the root causes of the violence (even the U.S. State Department--a staunch promoter of the drug war-- does this), both Peña Nieto and Vázquez Mota have repeatedly affirmed their commitment to toeing the line (what Peña Nieto might actually do in office is a different matter.) López Obrador presents the closest to a paradigm shift, stressing the need to address poverty and inequality, and offering to remove the army from the streets as soon as the police are adequately trained (not something we see happening in the short term, given the high levels of corruption and complicity). Nor is it correct to say that the US government is remaining neutral--Under-Secretary Brownfield and others have explicitly voiced their strong desire to see a new government continue with the present strategy and levels of military and police cooperation in counternarcotics efforts, despite the counterproductive impact so far.

The most interesting thing about this article is the comments section--be sure to take a look at the many informed and thoughtful comments, which weigh in overwhelmingly against the war on drugs model.

NYT The top three contenders for Mexico’s presidency have all promised a major shift in the country’s drug war strategy, placing a higher priority on reducing the violence in Mexico than on using arrests and seizures to block the flow of drugs to the United States.

The candidates, while vowing to continue to fight drug trafficking, say they intend to eventually withdraw the Mexican Army from the drug fight. They are concerned that it has proved unfit for police work and has contributed to the high death toll, which has exceeded 50,000 since the departing president, Felipe Calderón, made the military a cornerstone of his battle against drug traffickers more than five years ago.  Read more.