Organized crime in Mexico today did not form itself in a vacuum, its structure originates from the police and security forces of the Mexican State. That is why this drug war is so bloody and extends to all levels of government and society.
The last 30 years of the PRI regime incubated the virus of organized crime by training hundreds of policemen in their dirty war against political enemies, systematically using torture, abduction and disappearances and murder, and enriching the participants in these crimes.
But then some of the police decided to go into business for themselves, making money for themselves via drugs, kidnapping, whatever. In one particularly egregious case, an elite US-trained squad of police went rogue and became the Zetas.
That is why in this drug war there is no front line or trust. The police are not an army fighting crime but factions fighting against each other.
Today the use of force without any strategy against the violence and insecurity reveals the decomposition of the Mexican state at all levels and institutions. Hence the public perception that the security forces and criminals are equally dangerous, as they are one and the same.
It’s difficult to see how the ruling elites of Mexico could not be involved in this.
As I recall Calderon was Bush’s Butt Boy who’s election is as questionable as either of W’s.
There’s something going on “down there” bigger than the drug, or even human traffic, trade.
That’s precisely what Borderland Beat has been hinting at too. Maybe the drug wars are proxies for a war among the elites?