Friday, May 18, 2012

Mexico's Drug War: 50,000 Dead in 6 Years

Mexico's Drug War: 50,000 Dead in 6 Years


Mexico's Drug War: 50,000 Dead in 6 Years

May 17, 2012 | 133
Since Mexico's President Felipe Calderón began an all-out assault on drug cartels in 2006, more than 50,000 people have lost their lives across the country in a nearly-continuous string of shootouts, bombings, and ever-bloodier murders. Just last weekend, 49 decapitated bodies were reportedly discovered on a highway in northern Mexico. The New York Times reports on an increasing numbness and apathy among Mexicans after years of worsening carnage, about which they've been able to do virtually nothing. Gathered here is a collection of recent photographs from Mexico's drug war and the people so horribly affected by it. [44 photos]

Warning: All images in this entry are shown in full. There are many dead bodies; the photographs are graphic and stark. This is the reality of the situation in Mexico right now.
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A masked Mexican soldier patrols the streets of Veracruz, on October 10, 2011. Soldiers of the Army, Navy and members of Federal Police patrol the streets of the city as part of "Veracruz Safe Operation" after a rising tide of violence plaguing this tourist city. (Yuri Cortez/AFP/Getty Images)
2
A police officer stands near evidence markers at a crime scene in Ajijic on the outskirts of Guadalajara, on April 9, 2012. Gunmen shot dead three who were sitting in two different cars outside their homes, according to local media. (Reuters/Alejandro Acosta) #
3
The body of a man lies behind the wheel inside a car in Acapulco, on February 10, 2012. Two men were shot by gunmen, one was killed and the other seriously injured, according to local media. (Reuters/Jacob Garcia) #
4
Poet and peace activist Javier Sicilia (center) embraces family members and relatives of his 24-year-old son Juan Francisco Sicilia and his friends at their flower wreath, during Juan's death anniversary in Temixco near Cuernavaca, on March 28, 2012. The bodies of Juan and his friends were discovered on March 28, 2011, in a car in Cuernavaca by the police along with a menacing message from drug cartels. (Reuters/Margarito Perez Retana) #
5
Morgue workers place a coffin holding an unidentified body into a grave at San Rafael cemetery on the outskirts of the border city of Ciudad Juarez, on December 27, 2011. The bodies of 36 unidentified people, killed in drug-related incidents, were buried after being held in the city morgue for several months without being claimed by relatives. (Reuters/Jose Luis Gonzalez) #
6
A forensic technician points his flashlight at the shoes of a man at a crime scene in Mazatlan, on February 13, 2012. The man was shot dead by gunmen while he was walking on the street, according to local media. (Reuters/Stringer) #
7
Baseball players belonging to the Saraperos de Saltillo team take cover during an intense shootout that broke out during a game in the parking lot of the stadium in the city of Saltillo, northern Mexico, on March 13, 2012. According to a state police spokesman, three gunmen were killed and another was injured and captured after the gunmen battled with a special tactics unit of the state police. (AP Photo) #
8
Thousands of guns are destroyed in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua State, on February 16, 2012. At least 6,000 rifles and pistols seized from drugs cartels were destroyed by members of the Mexican Army. (Jesus Alcazar/AFP/Getty Images) #
9
Jose Lopez Tapia, 8, rests in hospital after he and his mother were attacked on February 6 in Ciudad Juarez, on February 8, 2012. Sonia Tapia and her son were attacked by members of the Municipal Police, she was accused of carrying weapons and arrested for 36 hours. (Jesus Alcazar/AFP/Getty Images) #
10
Mexican marines escort Marcos Jesus Hernandez Rodriguez, aka "El Chilango", alleged leader of assassins and member of the Los Zetas drug cartel, in Veracruz state, during his presentation for the press in Mexico City, on May 11, 2012. Rodriguez was arrested last May 9, during a military operation in the city of Xalapa, Veracruz state, a navy spokesman said. (Yuri Cortez/AFP/Getty Images) #
11
A young man lies dead next to a skateboard and a bicycle after unknown gunmen opened fire in the eastern part of Saltillo, Mexico, on December 7, 2011. According to the state attorney general, three young men were killed in the attack. (AP Photo/Alberto Puente) #
12
Soldiers put the final touches on a giant "No More Weapons" billboard composed of crushed firearms, placed near the U.S. border in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, on February 17, 2012. President Felipe Calderon unveiled the billboard Thursday and urged the United States to stop the flow of weapons into Mexico. (AP Photo/Raymundo Ruiz) #
13
Firefighters remove the body of a man hanging from a bridge in Ciudad Juarez, on March 3, 2012. The body was found hanging from its neck on a bridge late Saturday, local media reported. The body showed signs of torture and the head was covered with duct tape. (Reuters/Jose Luis Gonzalez) #
14
Mexican soldiers burn marijuana plants in a field, in Los Algodones community, Culiacan, Sinaloa State, on on January 30, 2012. Mexican soldiers found the marijuana field and incinerated the drug as part of the Culiacan-Navolato operation. (Alfredo Estrella/AFP/Getty Images) #
15
Pictures of victims of violence are hung on the facades and walls of houses in the neighborhood of Cerro Gordo in Ecatepec, outside Mexico City, on March 7, 2012. The Murrieta Foundation opened an exhibition called "Giving face to the victims in Ecatepec" with 15 giant photographs placed on houses as part a campaign against violence (rape of women, kidnappings, murders and robberies) in Ecatepec. (Reuters/Henry Romero) #
16
The body of a dead man, a rifle next to him, lies in a field after a shootout with police on the outskirts of Monterrey, on February 28, 2012. According to local media, 11 people were killed in different violent incidents in the city. (Reuters/Daniel Becerril) #
17
A soldier stands guard inside a clandestine chemical drug processing laboratory discovered in Tlajomulco de Zuniga, on the outskirts of Guadalajara, Jalisco State, on February 9, 2012. (Hector Guerrero/AFP/Getty Images) #
18
An abandoned neighborhood in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua state, on March 30, 2012. Violence in Ciudad Juarez has changed the lives of its residents, where many have fled. Among those who remain, anxious mothers look for missing daughters, families cross the border daily to sleep in neighboring Texas, and men live alone among abandoned houses. (Jesus Alcazar/AFP/Getty Images) #
19
Blood flows near the arm of a killed boy, on the pavement in Acapulco, Mexico, on August 15, 2011. (Pedro Pardo/AFP/Getty Images) #
20
An unidentified woman weeps for her relatives at the scene where gunmen attacked a tow truck business in the resort city of Acapulco, on July 8, 2011. Two men and a woman died after unknown gunmen opened fire at the tow truck business. (AP Photo/Bernandino Hernandez) #
21
Cuban citizen Joel Rodriguez Barrero, after being detained in Xochitepec in this April 6, 2012 photograph. Rodriguez Barrero 'El Cubano', was detained on April 6 by soldiers and policemen during a patrol and found to be in possession of drugs and weapons. Barrero is responsible for the recent murder and dismemberment of four minors and drug trafficking, according to the State Attorney's Office. (Reuters/State of Morelos Attorney's General Office) #
22
Two men with their hands tied behind their back and with their faces covered with duct tape lie by the side of the road as police secure the area in the city of Veracruz, Mexico, on December 6, 2011. A total of 4 men were found killed in separate incidents in the Gulf port city, which has recently suffered growing violence as drug gangs battle for control of the region. (AP Photo/Felix Marquez) #
23
A truck burns on the road in Guadalajara, Mexico, on March 9, 2012. Drug criminals set 25 city buses and other vehicles on fire in 16 different places, spreading fear throughout Mexico's second-largest city after an army operation, according to officials. (AP Photo / Bruno González) #
24
Police stand next to the body of a dead colleague in Ixtapaluca, on the outskirts of Mexico City, on January 23, 2012. Municipal police were transferring two detainees when they were ambushed by gunmen, who shot dead all five police officers and one of the detainees, according to local media. (Reuters/Stringer) #
25
Children lie on the ground among silhouettes representing people allegedly killed by soldiers during Mexico's drug war, during a protest organized by the National Regeneration Movement, MORENA, at the Zocalo central square in Mexico City, on March 4, 2012. Mexico's Defense Secretary Guillermo Galvan recently conceded that the military has committed errors in the fight against organized crime and drug traffickers, such as torture, homicide and drug-trafficking but said those responsible have been punished. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte) #
26
Students at the University of Ciudad Juarez and participants of the "Illuminate Juarez" event prepare to release lanterns in Samalayuca, Ciudad Juarez, on May 28, 2011. According to the organizers, the event was held to seek the return of peace to the city, which is considered one of the most violent in the world as a result of drug trafficking, and to promote tourism. (Reuters/Gael Gonzalez) #
27
A forensic technician holds the head of a woman at a crime scene in San Pedro on the outskirts of Monterrey May 15, 2012. The decapitated body of a woman and her head were found early Tuesday on the foot of a hill next to a low-income neighborhood, according to local media. (Reuters/Daniel Becerril) #
28
Pallbearers carry the coffin of Regina Martinez, a journalist and correspondent for the Mexican magazine Proceso, as friends and family members attend her funeral in Xalapa, on April 30, 2012. Martinez, from Veracruz, was found dead in the bathroom of her house on Saturday with signs of violence, according to local media. (Reuters/Stringer) #
29
Photojournalists place their cameras on the floor during a demonstration condemning the alleged murder of fellow journalist Regina Martinez in Mexico City, on April 29, 2012. The Mexican government's human rights commission said Sunday that it will investigate the apparent slaying of Martinez, who often wrote about drug trafficking. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte) #
30
The body of a man, covered by a cloth in a restaurant after he was shot by unknown assailants in Acapulco, Mexico, on July 30, 2011. Once a glamorous beach mecca for international tourism, Acapulco's image has steadily deteriorated as a fierce turf war continues between rival drug gangs. (AP Photo/Bernandino Hernandez) #
31
Relatives of Elmer Constantino Castro Andres, a Guatemalan immigrant whose body was found in a mass grave in Tamaulipas in northern Mexico, mourn over his coffin at the air force base of Guatemala City, on March 21, 2012. The bodies of 11 Guatemalans, who were among a group of 193 immigrants believed to be killed by members of the Zetas drug gang and whose bodies were found in a mass grave in Tamaulipas in April 2011, were repatriated to Guatemala on Wednesday after DNA tests confirmed their identities. (Reuters/Jorge Dan Lopez) #
32
Fliers for missing people hang on the door of the city morgue in Acapulco, Mexico, on March 1, 2012. Drug violence surged in the coastal resort last year, making Acapulco the second most deadly city in Mexico after Juarez. (John Moore/Getty Images) #
33
A skeletal corpse lies in Betania neighborhood, Acapulco, on March 27, 2012. During a recent wave of violence lived in Acapulco, eight people were killed, three of them found decomposed in the outskirts of the City. (Pedro PARDO/AFP/Getty Images) #
34
Working on a scarf, a woman embroiders the account of a murder in a park in Mexico City, on November 13, 2011. The "Red Fountains" civil movement proposes the "Embroidery for Peace, a scarf, a victim" action for each of the victims of violence in Mexico. (Omar Torres/AFP/Getty Images) #
35
The body of a young man who was shot several times, reflected in a mirror next to an image of the Virgin of Guadalupe inside a bus in Acapulco, on August 1, 2011. (AP Photo/Bernandino Hernandez) #
36
Demonstrators march to protest against violence in Mexico City, on August 14, 2011. The continuing tide of drug-related killings in Mexico has drawn thousands of protesters to march against violence. The sign reads in Spanish: "Stop the war. No to the National Security Law". (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo) #
37
The body of a man killed in a suspected drug-related execution lies along the path where he was shot on March 1, 2012 in Acapulco. (John Moore/Getty Images) #
38
Medical workers stand next to the bodies of 10 men and one woman, discovered in a pile near a well in Valle de Chalco, Mexico, on July 8, 2011. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo, file) #
39
A woman rests prior to a protest against violence as part of the campaign "March of National Dignity - Mothers searching for their children and justice" at the Revolution Monument in Mexico City, on May 9, 2012. (AP Photo/Alexandre Meneghini) #
40
Colleagues, relatives and friends of murdered journalists place candles and pictures on an altar erected at the Independence Angel monument in Mexico City, on May 5, 2012, during a vigil to protest against violence towards the press. Days earlier, Mexican security forces found the dismembered bodies of missing news photographers Guillermo Luna Varela and Gabriel Huge and two other people in bags dumped in a canal in the eastern state of Veracruz. The bodies of the photographers, who worked for the Veracruz news photo agency, also showed signs of torture. (Yuri Cortez/AFP/GettyImages) #
41
A suspected drug-related execution victim lies on Acapulco's famous Caleta Beach in Acapulco, on March 4, 2012. (John Moore/Getty Images) #
42
Locals look at the screening of names of 10,000 victims of violence in the border city of Ciudad Juarez, on the facade of Annunciation House, a shelter for immigrants and indigent people in the US city of El Paso on April 23, 2012. Annunciation House organized a mournful tribute called Voice of the Voiceless in which more than 10,000 names were screened on the facade of the building. (Jesus Alcazar/AFP/Getty Images) #
43
A woman covers her daughter with a towel as they walk past a crime scene in the municipality of San Nicolas de los Garza, neighboring Monterrey, on September 14, 2011. Six men were gunned down by unknown assailants in separate incidents in this municipality, local media reported. (Reuters/Tomas Bravo) #
44
A forensic technician sweeps blood off a street at a crime scene in Monterrey, on February 8, 2012. A taxi driver was shot dead by gunmen as another group of hitmen attacked three taxi drivers in a different neighborhood, killing two and injuring one, according to local media. (Reuters/Daniel Becerril) #

Related links and information

Numb to Carnage, Mexicans Find Diversions, and Life Goes On - New York Times, May 15, 2012
Mexican drug cartel massacres have method in their brutal madness - The Guardian, May 14, 2012
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  • John Doe
    I thought my homeland Russia in 90th was the most brutal/crimed country. Now I'm not sure.

  • George Hollister
    Drug laws kill.

  • N3mrak_2
    Mi mexico. Que dificil es verte asi.

  • 0(o_o)0(-_-)(o...o)
    US sets the trend for the world. Decriminalize drugs (end the War on Drugs) and these violent cartels would go out of business over night. But that would drive the cost down and the CIA drug runners would lose billions into their black-budget coffers*. Prohibition of alcohol grew the mafia into a violent and lucrative enterprise in the US durring the 20's and 30's**.
    Ron Paul 2012
    *=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...
    **=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P...

  • Zachary Ryan Thibodeau
    Drugs kill.

  • Dann
    exelentes fotografias.
    lamentablemente esto es una realidad en la que a los ciudadanos comunes solo nos queda rezar antes de salir, pedir buena energia en el camino por los demas y al regresar dar gracias a dios.
    bendiciones para todos nosotros los mexicanos!!
    esperemos que despues de 12 años esto por fin pueda terminar.

  • Domingo Lozano
    this isn't 1% of the violence lived in mexico. if you want to see what we are living check this website.
    www.blogdelnarco.com
    hope you see the reality.

  • RodolfoLeonMartinez
    Six years ago, a illegal president took power in Mexico. Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador(AMLO) wasnt permited to win. AMLO was labeled a danger to Mexico. After seeing all these pictures. The Danger in Mexico is clear and present. The price paid for the betrayal of democracy. AMLO is running again. Lets hope hes allowed to win, so AMLO can help end the drug war, as he has promised.

  • ENavarCh
    What would AMLO have done? Joyfully he would have done the same thing Calderon has done.
    But the problem is not between us Mexicans, it's because people in U.S. are consuming drugs, that's not our problem. The U.S. market needs this drugs so anybody that traffics with them will make a profit of it. That is the problem!
    If the U.S. legalizes drugs, Mexico might live in peace? I don't think so, everybody inside the business will start kidnaping, robbing, charging businesses "Floor Right" (derecho de piso). Maybe, and I say maybe, the U.S. wants a drug war, because prices go higher: more profit. In a war, the need weapons, so they supply them: more profit. The only ones loosing in this war is us, Mexico.So, a crazy idea: leave the cartels pass all the drug they want to the U.S. through mexican territory, the only problem for them is to smuggle  it into the U.S. territory. The price goes down, but not that much.Drug cartels will have more profit because their logistics cost will go down in Mexico, even if the final price goes down. The only condition, is that the cartels, can't leave a gram, an ounce of drug in Mexican territory, thats the catch. The only loosing profits will be the ones from the CIA, as 0(o_o)0(-_-)(o...o) says in his comment, for drug and for weapons.
    AMLO, Calderón, Vázquez Mota, Quadri have nothing to do with this. EPN I'm not so sure  but don't know either.
    Mexico is much more than politics, drug cartels and we can be even better if we start looking at the problems how they really are.

  • Rickzams
    AMLO, es un chavista estariamos mucho peor con este tipo de personajes. Y por parte de muchos Mexicanos el no va a llegar a la presidencia y menos la bola de rateros que tiene en su grupo. La unica forma que el ayudaria seria negociando por que el esta metido en eso.

  • J_berg15
    Lets all squeeze a tear out.  That way we can all pretend we care about humans and their poor plight...unfortunately its beyond the control of anyone willing to write a 40 word rebuttal on this sad little blog.  "legalize it you hippies say...shut up hippies, you republicans say".  Truth be told you are all to lazy to do anything, weather it be donate a dollar to children of Africa, or donate a dollar to a country connected to your own pathetic country causing all the problems.  The real problem is you.  The real problem is me.  The real problem is that generations of people, your parents and mine, have been ignoring this for long enough that we think its OK to ignore it too.   Everyone has and everyone will.  That is the flaw in human nature and it  is un-cureable.  MONEY rules you, ME, and everyone you know.  Go ahead and pretend it doesn't you fool.  Go ahead and join your false religious crusade to save the world that doesn't want to be saved.  GO AHEAD AND FAIL LIKE THE GENERATIONS BEFORE YOU.  It is the same gods.  It is the same failure.  It is the same lack of human compassion for our brothers and sisters that has brought us to this failure of human existence that   everyone readily blames on America.  America's freedom brought you here.  To the cold core of humanity.  And it is the same freedom that will actually, in truth that lacks religion, that can actually  set you free from the real plight of human existence.  The fact that, weather you believe it or not, we are all animals driven by our wants and needs.   And the fact that people DIE for us to achieve these wants and needs have no effect on us.  FAMILIES.  BROTHERHOODS.  RELIGIONS. POLITICIANS, ANYTHING THAT YOU CAN POSSIBLY THINK TO ORGANIZE...will never be enough.  Humans will be humans.  Centuries of murder, slavery, rape, etc, will never change.  Why?  Why you ask?!  Because the best we can do (everyone reading and typing is guilty) is sit on this fucking blog, on your waste of space over privileged ASS.   You and me are both guilty.  War in the middle east?  You fools.  War is beneath us in the Mexicans and you supply it and ignore it...You easily get distracted across the globe and ignore your neighbors in their darkest hour.  An hour so significantly detestable by your own making that you resist to claim in as your own folly.  Well played detestable children of America, and others that reap the benefits of the forgotten that pay the price of your luxuries.  Well played, you people that claim your thoughts and prayers for the suffering in the name of your gods, when you refuse to act and sit idle amongst your thoughtful prayers.  Only to spread your religions for the sake of your own ticket to heaven.  Well played shameful humans.  Your lack of action will only breed more lack of action.   But thank god you breed, for your own existence is your curse.  Unfortunately this curse will never set you free. Because the human plight belongs to us all.  And everyone who lives as a human is accountable for the actions of humans.  And no one is truly free.
    LOL!! j/k! j/k!  I only kidding America! We waff out woud!!  Everyone know coke off hookers ass is the best if you scrape in bump instead of line, less irritation!!!  I told you americans care!!   

  • The Chinonomist, Black Belt in Chin-itsu, Certified ISO Chin-Thousand, Lousy at Golf, Founder of the Awesome Science of Chinonomics
    Brutally, depressingly honest on your part. But I disagree.  Humanity has touched low points before, and we have bounced back. Remember China's opium wars? Remember The Catholic Schism? World Wars?
    (Edited by a moderator)

  • Lopezferrer
    JAJA... Venezuela's Narco-Regime: 150,000 dead in 10 years

  • N3mrak_2
    I dont think its a competition

  • Morgan Harris
    There will always be demand for drugs. We have to balance what's right with what's pragmatic. Like Marco Arment's story with the waste-paper-basket in the toilet - sure, it might be morally right to stop people from destroying their lives with drugs, but they're going to do it regardless of whether it's legal. So the pragmatic thing to do is take the control out of the hands of the drug cartels and put it in the hands of someone who's going to deal with it more responsibly.

  • Max
    This guy gets it.
    Also:
    -Lower America's absurd incarceration rate that not only affects families, but also the tax payer for funding non-violent offendor prison cells
    -Legalizing the drug would make it harder for kids to get them. Ask any kid in high school, I guarantee they could get you a couple grams of anything within a couple hours. It's that easy. Drug dealers don't card minors, but legally-operated businesses will.
    -The government has no fucking right to tell other people what to do with their own bodies. Don't agree with me? Then why does the government let people get fat as shit with McDonalds, BurgerKing, Taco Bell, etc? Both issues are health problems, and neither should be criminalized.

  • Bob
    BS.  Mexico has been soft on drug lords for years, largely because they are in control of much of the corrupt government.  Nobody knows who can be trusted, and there is no accountability for being a violent criminal in Mexico.  There is no death penalty, and your buddies will break into the jail and get you out in a few months anyway.  It's a free for all, and it's a cop out to say that the US is to blame.  These guys aren't fighting drug agents - they are fighting each other for a larger piece of a country that is out of control.  If the US is to blame, it is only because we tolerate drugs too much here.
    As for your fast food comparison to drugs - wow, did you come up with that yourself?  When was the last time you heard of someone who robbed a convenience store so they could buy just one more Big Mac?  Have you ever been so Whoppered up that you couldn't drive a car?  Know anybody who ate so much pizza that they passed out and drowned in their own puke?
    And if you become a hazard to other people because you are out of your fucking mind on drugs, then yes - the government has every right to tell you what you can do with your own body.  You don't need another legal way to become a menace to society.

  • willcall
    I don't use.  My conscience is clear.
    If you use, you deserve to be laying on the side of the road more than most of the people shown here.  Party on.  I hope the karma comes around.

  • Jack
     You're a sanctimonious idiot.

  • Remotevoice1
    Pretty selfish attitude to simply say "my conscience is clear", Those who choose to take drugs do not have blood on their hands. It is the politicians who refuse to accept the war on drugs is lost and that decriminalisation and control is the way forward.

  • Max
    Do you drink alcohol? Do you smoke? Do you take prescriptions? Do you drink coffee? Are you overweight?
    Guess what? All of those thing are addictive and WOULD be contributing to a criminal organization if any of them were illegal.
    You can judge people all you like, but there will ALWAYS be people addicted to substances.
    End the war on drugs. Take the money from criminals and put it into the hands of hard-working people who can run their own business responsibly.
    All of the atrocities committed in the War on Drugs? The exact same bullshit happened with alcohol prohibition in the early 1900s. Prohibition doesn't work, and neither does your disgusting unsympathetic judgment.

  • N3mrak_2
    Seriously?

  • Grow up, Max.
     I drink alcohol; I'm not addicted. I don't smoke. I don't take prescriptions. I drink coffee; it's not addictive. Caffeine is. I'm not addicted to caffeine (I drink decaf coffee). I'm not overweight. (And yes, I eat McDonald's quite often.)
    The answer isn't as easy as decriminalize it. That's a cop-out.

  • guest
     Shoot, you drink coffee? You do realize that coffee is one of the main sources of destruction in the world's rainforests, right? And that rainforest destruction is also leading to deaths and violence (perhaps not to the same extent as drugs, but over time the effects will be as bad or worse).
    You sound like me except you're on a high horse, so get off it. The world is in a rough place and "having a clear conscience" shouldn't be a measure of personal success.

  • JT
    You approve of wholesale aslaughter, what a nice person you are.

  • Guest
    If you think the drugs should be illegal, you deserve to be lying on the side of the road for creating a black market.

  • 12mm4f
    Incredibly ignorant comment.

  • J_berg15
    Your kids will probably use because you are ignorant...there might be some "karma" there if it were real.  But its not real..."Ignore the problems of the many so you may flourish fool, for thy children will more than likely do blow because you suck."
    --Uh, Cancun?

  • Dad
    you sure have had fun.

  • guest
    the gangsters are the cops.

  • Benet Langston
    ... you think that making tougher laws, mexico will stop the drug war, by thinking this you think people in higher power aren't involved..... hurpa durr"i tink they to poor we should just printe money foer them":.....  "corruption" main problem and then possibly some stronger protection on the borders... i srsly feel for the victims in this war.... these cartels need to be stopped.

  • Dave
    Kind of annoying seeing that the most liked comments are ones saying drugs should be legalized, liked probably by American junkies who just want to get their drugs without risk of punishment.

  • Seb
    Kind of annoying seeing that the most part of this slaughter is the direct counter part of USA drug market. And even more when you realize that a big part of the weapon used to do this are sold by american dealers.
    When will USA take its responsability ?

  • Max
    I don't use at all. The war on drugs is clearly a failure and anyone with half a brain should realize this.
    Junkies aren't in favor of ending the war on drugs usually, because it take away from their profits as drug dealers. It's an economic issue with plenty of revenue for the state from taxing and regulating drugs, it would remove tax-payer funded prisons, the DEA, etc. It's also a moral issue. What gives the government the right to tell you what to do with your self? Take your head out of your ass and realize that there's much more to it than just a bunch of potheads. Did you even look at this article?

  • Louis
    "What gives the government the right to tell you what to do with your self?"
    The government requires I wear a helmet when riding a motorcycle. The government requires I wear a seatbelt when driving a motor vehicle. The government requires I get vaccinations before attending a state school. The government requires I don't drink and drive. The government requires I don't text and drive.
    How dare they protect people?!

  • Agibbs6
    its too bad you need the government to protect you from yourself.
    by creating a black market they are purposefully going out of their way to not protect anyone.

  • GigoloGalen
    All the studies show prohibition isn't just correlated with crime and violence, it CAUSES them.

  • BB
    Which of " all of the studies" best proves your hypothesis that prohibition causes crime and violence?

  • 12mm4f
    You don't see the likes of Al Capone terrorizing the streets anymore do you?

  • Really
    Are you really that stupid? Isn't it completely obvious at this point that the war on drugs is a complete failure, waste of time, and if anything benefits these guys? Give me a break.

  • Agibbs6
    the war on drugs directly causes the increase in violence. hellooooo Operation:Fast and Furious

  • Huhhyu
    Get rid of these drugs and what do you believe these criminals will do instead? Sit on their butts? Get legal jobs? This war goes beyond drugs.

  • POQbum
    If drugs were legalized, there would not be these killings. So yea.. makes sense.

  • Doomtime
    These cartels and drug runners would move on to other things, the violence with drugs is just an excuse for irrational violent uncontrolled people to act out. So if pot is legalized, great. They'll find another thing to illegally move into. It never ends until the government can stabilize it

  • pantherhare
    I think you're mistaken in assuming that these gangs are irrational.  My understanding is that they're driven by profit.  If you were to legalize their product and take away that profit motivation, theoretically they would have to do something else.  Some may continue to be violent criminals, but the violence wouldn't be on the same scale as the stakes (profits) would no longer be so great.

  • Morgan Harris
    Or, perhaps, by people who want to see senseless violence like this curtailed. The War on Drugs enables this kind of thing to happen. If there was no market for black-market drugs, then drug supplies wouldn't rest in the hand of thugs and murderers.

  • Brian Doyle
     Or just people who realize that having drugs illegal doesn't prevent drug use and creates more violence.

  • J_berg15
    Drug use = drug abuse.  Because its fun to be bad.  America fucked up in the preliminary stages and it is paying the price.  And so are their neighbors.  Simple question, simple answer.  Thats why you did it, same as your dad.  Truth = Truth. That is all.

  • Russell Bishop
     You're a fucking idiot. Let's go from the top:
    "Drug use = Drug Abuse"
    Drug: A substance that has a physiological effect when ingested or otherwise introduced into the body, in particular.
    Abuse: Use (something) to bad effect or for a bad purpose; misuse.
    So you're telling me that by using any substance with a physiological affect: i.e. any kind of pharmaceutical, that it HAS a bad effect or a bad purpose?
    We'll class that statement as nonsense then.
    Thanks for playing though, J_berg15

  • Hendra Subrata Liu
    Never stop and never give up to fight the gangsters...

  • Sasha Shepherd
    We've just got to make the laws and penalties tougher all around, that will solve everything.

  • SC
    I can't tell if you're being sarcastic...

  • J_berg15
    Tried that, that is why commercial prisons are here.  That is also why they don't work.  If you commercialize it they will come....Simple economics.  Simple capitalism. 

  • RK
    Love the cluelessness of people commenting. Legalization won't solve this problem. Drug cartels aren't going to disappear magically because you legalized it. If you think they'll actually disappear and let "legal" entities take over, think again. Mexico, with its next to 0 control over its security policy, will have 0 control when they legalize it. If you think Los Zetas, ex special forces, will sit idly by while some legit company takes over production of any drugs, think again.
    To fix Mexico, drug isn't the problem. You have to fix a culture, and corruption. The people needs to unite behind a no tolerance policy, and as a united front force the government to seriously act and eradicate these cartels. You think the Mexican government doesn't have all the intel they need to act? Haha just like how we didn't know where Bin Ladin was for 10 years? ROFLMAO give me a break. They can, they just won't because they benefit more in a corrupt system.I'll end by saying this: 99% of the dollars come from US because of our pathetically lax control because of retarded lobbyists and far left idiots fighting for the "rights" of the idiots to smoke drugs while encumbering us with retarded costs of maintaining a prison system that doesn't work. You want to get people to stop using drugs, simple, make it a living pain as a punishment. Instead of putting them in 4 star accommodations we call prisons where you can apply for a freaking sex change paid for by the tax payers, put them all in tent cities, make their lives freaking miserable. Drug dealers have no rights, and should be treated as such, and give repeated offenders of drug use the same treatment. Allowing them freaking comforts of state/federal subsidized housing, and letting them take control of our prisons with their gangs such as the trini in NY, are you freaking kidding me?Wake up people. America is so soft its not even funny. Many people in our legislation constantly works counter to our enforcement policies. INS/Border patrol works with hands tied behind their backs. You park 1st division Marines on the border, and let the devil dogs loose on the drug cartels, and you'll see drug flow simply disappear. But will our congress do this, heck no.Yeah, one word, PATHETIC.

  • Daniel Jacobo
    You aren't serious are you? Because it would be really pathetic if you were.

  • GigoloGalen
    All the statistical evidence doesn't just show a correlation between prohibition and crime/violence, but causation.  There are now hundreds of studies that prove it.  Do yourself a favor: Educate yourself before you spew hateful, ignorant trash.

  • 12mm4f
    I think you miss the point. You legalize it in the US so that our money stops fueling the cartels.

  • Dubbs
    You are clearly an American.

  • J_berg15
    Pathetic is actually the best word in your post.  Because from the sound of your post you  are implying you have givin up like the rest.  The first half of your post made sense, but when you hit "living punishment" you lost everyone that understood what is actually happening.  You mixed issues that do not belong in the same wasted rant.  Prison systems in America are not the same issue.  Even though they may be related to issues from the south.  Do not simply imply that you know what is going on because you know what a devil dog is.  Do not think you have answers because you served a tour in the military. Please for the sake of our children do no use the brain you are wasting to politically negotiate another waste of four years.  Educate and inform yourself of the issue that you want to be angry about before you speak.  Drug flow will never disappear. Even if it was fully legal you fool.  One word for you ill-informed post.  Pathetic.

  • snow
    Why would the USMC  be able to stop drugs when literally no other police force in the world has?  I don't think that's a job the Marines are interested in. These cartels are 100 times more organised and better funded then any outfit in Afghanistan or Iraq. It would just be a quagmire of dead Marines and Mexicans and at the end,  we would see a 10% decrease in drug supply. maybe.

  • Pruning
    Your attitude is why things haven't changed. Legalizing marijuana in the USA would have a huge change in the violence of bordering Mexico. But your country and your guns, stupid laws, insane politics and general ignorance is what stops progression. Look at the past prohibition of Alcohol. Do you see violence related to the sale of alcohol these days? No. Because its fucking everywhere. Does having a huge amount of people in gaol as is the case in America do anything for society? Fuck no.

  • J_berg15
    Goal?

  • think about it.
    Exactly...the legalization of marijuana, not everything.  Resources can then be shifted to monitoring the harder drugs including Meth within our own boarders.  What many don't understand about the cartels "magically going away" is that they will be crushed financially.  They can only fight this war because they can afford to, if their margins decrease 50%, 60%, 70% from legalized marijuana....how much longer can the war be fought?  The cartels will throw bodies at the enforcement agencies forever....as long as there is money to buy more and more low level soldiers....money is the key, cut off the head and the body will die.  Money is the head to the body of the cartels....not the thousands of soldiers trying to earn money to support a family or drug habit.  Canada has legalized marijuana with certain limitations....what 5, 6 years ago?  Last time I checked....their country had not slipped into anarchy.

  • Studentlover
    you are the definition of heartless ignorant bastard

  • Sgt TL
    I cannot believe how ignorant you are. The prison system fails because it's a FOR PROFIT system of caging humans. Some people do deserve to be in prisons, but the kid who just smoked a joint or the 18 year old who had sex with his 17 year old girlfriend DO NOT deserve to be stripped of their freedoms.
    Oh, and, 4 star hotel? Have you ever been to jail or in a prison? What four star hotel gives you a metal sheet to sleep on? What four star hotel have you had to fight for your life in? What four star hotel has had you locked in a tiny room for 23 hours out of the day? Even after one is out of prison, life is forever more difficult.
    If you want to live in a country that dictates every single move an adult can make, then please, DO NOT vote in my country. Our freedoms are being stripped because of people like you.

  • J_berg15
    Freedoms only get stripped when these types of people get their ignorant views passed.  So for the love of god stop them.
    On a different note, commercial prison systems are a product of federal prisons out sourced due to demand.  Demand drawn from the criminalization  of drugs and weapons.  Follow the rules, don't go to jail.  Epic failure because Americans hate rules as a general rule.  Love drugs because thats what freedom is about.  Love guns cuz thats what America is about.  Love cheeseburgers cuz thats what cheeseburgers are about?  Yeah well, it was going there anyway.

  • Emmanuel Cantú
    I'm Mexican
    Please stop using our pain and horror to construct and argument for legalization. Apply to humans the same conscience that makes you buy free-range chicken and dolphin-safe tuna. The money you give to drug cartels is killing us.

  • Lautaro
    Hey man, I'm Mexican too, and I think that you are wrong. These pictures reflect the hard reality we live on, and I think that legalization is a MUST to change things... and yes the policy  is killing us, and the ignorance and conservatory views of people like you...

  • M8R-5ig33b
    So nothing should change and these killings should go on?

  • DerTitan
    The policy is killing you.

  • J_berg15
    Old politics.  The money has always killed.  Think outside the box.

  • ThinkSkeptic
    Prohibition = people still want it, but it's not as available anymore > prices skyrocket (supply and demand) > black market develops > moral citizens become criminals > prison fill up with non-violent people >  potency increases to reduce risk by moving less merchandise and the risk of adulterated drugs increases > death and crime skyrockets > police and government become more corrupt > prohibition continues because it benefits those in government
    Freedom = prices decrease > black market dissipates >  drugs become a regulated consumer good like alcohol and addiction is treated as a medical condition.

  • WonderWaldo
    People act like American legalization of weed will solve all the problems. Mexico is still the biggest importer of cocaine to the US. They're top importers for Meth and Heroin and opiates as well. Shall we legalize all those drugs?
    The weed that does come from Mexico is horrible and already dirt cheap compared to other stuff. Medicinal weed in CA sells for higher than Mexican brick weed does and IT IS ALREADY LEGAL.
    The taxes on legalized weed and manufacturing and regulation costs in the US will always keep Cartel drugs competitive.
    Mexico needs to make itself more secure and defeat these cartels. They kill so many people because they're afraid and need to intimidate, not because they're making bank. These aren't terrorists fighting because God told them too. They will buckle when they see only death and imprisonment awaits them.

  • scrypps
    Well put.

  • quickone
    The worst part...this photo essay is the Disney version.
    www.blogdelnarco.com
    Every single day there must be 20 posts, "3 killed in X", "4 beheaded in Y," "9 found in grave in Z."  They stopped showing the ultra-graphic violent pictures and videos several months ago, but even when the site is cleaned up it still isn't pretty.

  • J_berg15
     uh, all spanish bro...English for results please.

  • Adam Curry
    So the drug war has officially gone from being "a joke" to "downright horrible". When the enforcement is killing more people than the drugs themselves it's time to give it up.

  • joebobpublic
    "Killing more people than the drugs themselves..." Source? What math did you do on this?

  • DerTitan
     do you think 50,000 people have died because of drug overdose in Mexico over the last 6 years?

  • Morgan Harris
    Not even close. I count 157 drug-induced deaths all told (not including alcohol or tobacco, obviously). http://www.nationmaster.com/re...

  • Yfbvlica
    They should move the production into US.

  • PeterGriffin
    Why the hell would you want a drug cartel in American

  • J_berg15
     So we can tax it retard.  God Dam* it.

  • Guest0
    Then something would be done about it.  If congress isn't motivated by anything other reason then it would be the killing of innocent Americans that gets them irked.  That why we went to war in WWI and WWII (somewhat).  If this happened in the US, there would be so much ass covering in congress that you would see a bill to increase homeland defense and a terrible crackdown come almost immediately from every state.  Hell, we might even give the president emergency powers.  The US is the only superpower that exists in the Western hemisphere, if we had something this bad occur in the US then we'd crack down just to show everyone else that we've got our house in order cause I assure you that the minute that other countries see the US give up to a drug cartel then we've lost.

  • Hereswotithink
    It's time to put legalisation of drugs on the ballots in every state.
    Portugal has already proven that this works:
    http://healthland.time.com/201...
    The U.S.'s participation (via weapons sales and inexplicable silence) in the expansion and prolonging of the unconscionable butchery defies any humane emotion. If this is not stopped very soon, this plague will spread into this country and make the "war on terror" look like the pathetic joke that it is.

  • John
    Legalize weed in the U.S. That will end a large portion of these murders.

  • ignition
    No it wont. A majority of American smoked marijuana comes from the American west coast and Canada. Weed is the cheapest drug there is. These cartels aren't murdering people over weed, they are murdering people over Cocaine and Heroin which have a much higher profit margin and street value. You would have to decriminalize these harder substances and offer alternative treatments, funded by the taxes generated from legal weed sold at Walmart.... except on Sundays cause we are a Christian nation after all haha.

  • jossief
    I would change the headline to "U.S.'s Drug War in Mexico: 50,000 dead in 6 years"

  • Roncouples
    The real shame about this for Americans is what our government has done over the years to contribute to the carnage in Mexico, in the name of our own so-called war on drugs.
    The victory of excessive rightism over basic human common sense.

  • Mark
    @octopusmagnificens The majority of this violence was done by drug dealers such as the Los Zetas Cartel

  • frank r
    What do you expect? Big money ==> big violence. Wars are typically about money, after all. Eliminate the money, eliminate the violence. Legalize drugs. Let the Mexican department of Commerce do everything possible to help the drug traffickers improve their export power to the United States, in exchange for taxes. Doesn't the Mexican government help their other export industries?

  • Maclovio Hudson
    And this is going to be WORST...this is just the beginning.

  • octopusmagnificens
    This can be stopped tomorrow. Stop persecuting people who sell or buy drugs. Free market.

  • Cristina Garcia
    Sadly, that would not mean the end of the violence.  I am pro-legalization... I'm anti 'War on Drugs'..   But the economy is so screwed up, that people would turn to kidnapping.
    There is so much to this.  It breaks my heart to see my beloved country in such a horrible state.  Mexico has beautiful, hard working people, we have natural resources, we have the potential.  The government is allowing our nation to go down.

  • ThinkSkeptic
    How would that not end the violence?

  • Ensteor
    I live in Mexico, and it's not that simple. The most violent things is not the army or police fighting them, it's a fight between cartels. And when things in their "job" gets complicated they just turn to civilians and start kidnapping (in my city thers 20+ kidnaps per day).

  • Russell Bishop
     So if the cartels suddenly lost their drug business, then what..? They just kidnap and kill civilians?

  • octopusmagnificens
    The end of the prohibition of the alcohol in the United States, in 1933, is proof that your theory is incorrect. The legalization was the end of the crime associated with smuggling..

  • sad_mexican
    it is more complex than that; 80% ( maybe less) of these casualities are enemy cartels fighting for territorial control.

  • ThinkSkeptic
    And why are they willing to fight to the death? Because the price is high. It's not complex

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