U.S. Surrenders In
International Drug War?
If So, Mex Drug War
May Soon Be Over

British Newspaper Says
America Admits 40-Year,
$40 Billion Drug War
Was UnSuccessful

Says U.S. Is Pulling DEA Agents Out of Many Nations

THE INDEPENDENT 1/18/2010 -- After 40 years of defeat and failure, America's "war on drugs" is being buried in the same fashion as it was born – amid bloodshed, confusion, corruption and scandal. US agents are being pulled from South America; Washington is putting its narcotics policy under review, and a newly confident region is no longer prepared to swallow its fatal Prohibition error. Indeed, after the expenditure of billions of dollars and the violent deaths of tens of thousands of people, a suitable epitaph for America's longest "war" may well be the plan, in Bolivia, for every family to be given the right to grow coca in its own backyard.

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Mexican President Says
Crime Now 3rd Priority

MEXICO CITY1/7/10 (AP) -- Mexican President Felipe Calderon said Wednesday that jobs and reducing poverty will be his top two priorities in 2010, while the fight against drug cartels that dominated the first half of his presidency placed third. Download

El Paso Could End Sister City Relationship with Ciudad Juarez

By ABC-7 Reporter Celina Avila

El Paso, Texas - For generations, El Paso and Juarez have been promoted together as sister cities.

But with no end in sight to the violence across the border, El Paso tourism is now focusing solely on the Sun City.. Download

29 killed, including two police,
in Mexico attacks

(AFP) – 1/6/2010 - CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico — A total of 29 people were killed in 24 hours in Mexico's northern state of Chihuahua, including two state police officers and six women, local authorities said.

Drug-linked violence has spiked in Mexico in the past three years, with more than 15,000 killed despite a government crackdown on organized crime involving some 50,000 security forces.
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From Cartel to Corporation:
Drug Trade Economics

By MARC LACEY New York Times 1/7/2010

Two prosperous business executives sat across a desk from each other a few months back in  Ciudad Juarez, a violence-wracked Mexican town not far from El Paso, engaging in an intense negotiation. The man proposed a price of 4,000 pesos. The woman insisted she could not afford that much. How about 2,500? Full Story

Border Militarization
Continues in 2010

Kent Paterson | January 6, 2010
Americas Program, Center for International Policy (CIP)

Whether active duty or retired, military men will continue playing a central role in Mexico's drug war in 2010. In the northern border state of Coahuila, incoming mayors recently ratified the continuation of former military officers to head police departments in the municipalities of Ciudad Acuna, Piedras Negras, Saltillo, Monclova and Torreon. Colonel Salvador Mendez Cachu, who served as public safety chief in Ciudad Acuna, will now assume the same position in Piedras Negras. Download

Mexican drug traffickers
killing lure of Sun Bowl

NormanTranscrpt.com 1/5/2010 - Many of the football fans who headed to El Paso to witness OU's Sun Bowl victory last week didn't cross the border into Mexico. In better times, that side trip would have been an obligatory tourist adventure.

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Five Canadians jailed in Mexico investigated by organized crime unit

Montreal Gazette 1/7/10 - The five Canadians arrested in Mexico on New Year’s Eve are being investigated by Mexico’s organized crime branch, according to EFE, a Spanish language news agency. The five Canadians are Eduardo Larenas, Daniel Jean, Erick Brochu, Daniele Ciampelletti and Martín Ciguere. Download

Drug Gang Kill Police Chief
Investigating Kidnap of Journalist

The Associated Press Jan. 1, 2010

MEXICO CITY -- Gunmen killed the chief police investigator in the northern Mexican state of Sinaloa hours after he started investigating the kidnapping of a local radio journalist, Mexican media reported Friday. Full Story

France protests torture of its citizen
in Mexico kidnap case

MEXICO CITY, Jan. 1 2010 (Xinhua) -- The French embassy in Mexico said Thursday it had lodged strong protests with Mexican authorities over the alleged torture of a French citizen by Mexican police. Full Story

'Tell Me More' Update: Prominent Kidnapping Underscores Mexico Drug War

NPR 12/30/09 - More than 15,000 people have been killed in Mexico's drug war during the last three years. But along with the killings have come many kidnappings, including the extraordinary case of Felix Batista, an American hostage release negotiator who was himself kidnapped, with still no word. Full Story
 

Relief pitcher Luis Ayala unharmed after kidnap attempt in Mexico

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS (CP) – 1/7/2010: CULIACAN, Mexico — Relief pitcher Luis Ayala was unharmed during an apparent attempted kidnapping by gunmen at his home in the northern Mexico state of Sinaloa.

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Mexico City Subway Director Says No 'Express Kidnappings' Here - Independent Group Charges Hundreds Occur

El Universal - Jan. 7, 2010 - Francisco Bojorquez, director of Mexico City ’s subway system, denied that in this transport system has been a major center of crimes such as “express kidnapping,”  a reference to the phenomenon of kidnapping middle and working class people for periods of several hours or days to take as much money out of their bank accounts with ATM cards as possible.

Criminal groups using fake or stolen taxi cabs have been the foremost exponents of this type of crime in Mexico , especially in the capital, over the past 10 years.

Bojorquez said that in the past three years, he has not seen a single report of such a crime in stations, platforms and walkways. 
He acknowledged that within the Metro does operate at 11:00 p.m., crime does go up in the Metro system, which he said were mostly robberies, including violent ones.

In 2009< Metro authorities caught, convicted and sent to prison 58 people that make up these criminal groups, plus you have located the modus operandi of the eleven o'clock bands thanks to video surveillance system that exists within the Metro.

El Universal on Jan. 6 published an article releasing data from the Council for Law and Human Rights, which warned of an increase in express kidnappings in the Metro Express, where according to that organization some 390 of these crimes occurred in the past 22 months. 
But the director of Metro dismissed the information, saying that such a phenomenon has not happened.. he added that that "data provided by the Council for Law and Human Rights comes every year and if you review each year, it gives the same numbers more or less each time, "the official said.

Bojorquez said they have already invested $ 60 million to increase security in Metro, including the installation of 3,000 cameras and new video vigilance through metal detectors at stations as Pantitlán Tepito and Balderas. 
He said the walk-through detectors only in the last month have led to the arrest of seven people carrying knives and three with drugs.