Sunday, September 28, 2008

Mexico drug crackdown breeds more violence from the cartels It was Mexican Independence Day and the square in this colonial city was packed with revelers. Suddenly, something flew over the head of Angelica Bucio, struck a man in front of her and rolled to a stop on the ground. A second later, the grenade exploded, slamming Bucio against a fountain. Her arms and legs burned with white-hot shrapnel. Smoke and screaming and blood were everywhere. For residents of this city, last week's attack that killed seven people and injured 108 was yet another sign that President Felipe Calderón's nationwide war on drugs, which began in Morelia nearly two years ago, is going poorly. Instead of subsiding, drug-related murders are rising and becoming more gruesome. Once-quiet border towns have become battlegrounds. Police-on-police clashes have left citizens wondering who the good guys are. And the Morelia grenade attack, which the Mexican Attorney General's Office blamed on drug traffickers, has raised fears that smugglers are moving into outright terrorism. The turmoil is in stark contrast to the U.S. side of the border, where Calderón's crackdown looks like a success. The White House has credited Mexico's efforts for a drop in the drug supply. Since 2006, the U.S. has seen an 84 percent jump in methamphetamine prices and a 21 percent increase in cocaine prices. Meth use has dropped 50 percent and cocaine use has decreased 19 percent, according to the Office of National Drug Control Policy....

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