Understandably the drug violence in Mexico is making some people rethink the way that nation is fighting the drug war. But not offering an alternative is unacceptable. Plus, the U.S. still has to do more to help — particularly considering the most lucrative market for drugs is in the U.S. There have been more than 12,000 drug related deaths in Mexico in the past 2 1/2 years.
By William Booth and Steve Fainaru
Washington Post Foreign Service
MEXICO CITY — President Felipe Calderón is under growing pressure to overhaul a U.S.-backed anti-narcotics strategy that many political leaders and analysts said is failing amid spectacular drug cartel assaults against the government.
There are now sustained calls in Mexico for a change in tactics, even from allies within Calderón’s political party, who say the deployment of 45,000 soldiers to fight the cartels is a flawed plan that relies too heavily on the blunt force of the military to stem soaring violence and lawlessness.
“The people of Mexico are losing hope, and it is urgent that Congress, the political parties and the president reconsider this strategy,” said Ramón Galindo, a senator and Calderón supporter who is a former mayor of Ciudad Juarez, a border city where more than 1,100 people have been killed this year.
