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Mexico Institute in the News: Drug-Related Violence Soars in Mexico

Andrew Selee

Violence in Mexico continues to increase and spread as the drug war in Mexico continues.

The Wall Street Journal, January 12, 2012

…During the first nine months of 2011, some 12,903 people were killed in drug-related violence—11% more than the killings during the same period in 2010, according to a database released by the Attorney General's Office….

…Mr. Calderón, upon taking office in December 2006, sent in tens of thousands of troops across several states where traffickers were battling it out in broad daylight, hoping to at least push the traffickers back into the shadows where they had operated for decades with relative impunity.

The offensive has had some notable successes, including killing or capturing dozens of cartel leaders.  But it may have inadvertently added fuel to the fire by causing fresh power struggles within the cartels to replace the leaders.…

…Experts say Mexico has also moved too slowly in trying to clean up its dysfunctional law enforcement institutions, from corrupt local police forces to a judicial system that is broadly incapable of securing justice.

"The government is having some success in breaking up the cartels and moving this gradually from a national security crisis to a public security crisis,"

said Andrew Selee, director of the Mexico Institute at the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars.

"But that requires a broad public security strategy that we haven't seen yet: Not just arresting capos but building local police and prosecutors that can lock up the bad guys."…

Read the full article here.

About the Author

Andrew Selee

Andrew Selee

Former Executive Vice President and Senior Advisor to the Mexico Institute;
President, Migration Policy Institute
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Mexico Institute

The Mexico Institute seeks to improve understanding, communication, and cooperation between Mexico and the United States by promoting original research, encouraging public discussion, and proposing policy options for enhancing the bilateral relationship. A binational Advisory Board, chaired by Luis Téllez and Earl Anthony Wayne, oversees the work of the Mexico Institute.   Read more

Latin America Program

The Wilson Center’s prestigious Latin America Program provides non-partisan expertise to a broad community of decision makers in the United States and Latin America on critical policy issues facing the Hemisphere. The Program provides insightful and actionable research for policymakers, private sector leaders, journalists, and public intellectuals in the United States and Latin America. To bridge the gap between scholarship and policy action, it fosters new inquiry, sponsors high-level public and private meetings among multiple stakeholders, and explores policy options to improve outcomes for citizens throughout the Americas. Drawing on the Wilson Center’s strength as the nation’s key non-partisan policy forum, the Program serves as a trusted source of analysis and a vital point of contact between the worlds of scholarship and action.  Read more