The Mexican Drug War is not new; since the late '80s, rival drug cartels have been butchering each other, as well as civilians, police officers, soldiers and a lot of other people who fell into the line of fire. The violence, in all regards, continues to escalate, and there is no end in sight.

Last week in particular marks one of the bloodiest in recent history. At least 46 people were killed, reports the LA Times, beginning with two murders at the funeral of a 10 year old boy; the dead child happened to be the grandson of the founder of the Tijuana cartel. The killers scrawled Z's on the victims' backs, symbolizing Los Zetas, a "para-military criminal organization" that work with the rival Gulf cartel. What followed was retaliation from both sides.

By week's end, at least 46 more people would be dead in a dizzying variety of attacks across Mexico, including hand-grenade assaults and decapitations, mainly targeting police, federal agents and rival drug traffickers.

Decapitations seem to be the method of choice for "sending a message" amongst the cartels, but frequently the assassins will go to even more brutal lengths to make their point, including dissolving their victims in acid.

Compounding matters, are the crooked police officers who often protect certain groups of drug traffickers while targeting others. This leads to frequent attacks and confrontations between police and traffickers, says the LA Times.

On Wednesday, authorities discovered a decapitated body left with a message for state police in the Gulf of Mexico port city of Veracruz. The message accused police of protecting rival drug traffickers and said the decapitated man had been selling street drugs for a rival group.

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On Thursday, there were three grenade attacks on two police stations and an army barracks in the southern state of Guerrero. In all, seven people were killed in apparent drug-related attacks there, authorities said.

Another development over the past few years is that journalists have become targets of cartel assaults, forcing several newspapers to shut down, and keeping many remaining offices paralyzed with fear:

When gunmen hurled a grenade into a tiny newspaper office in this town on the U.S.-Mexican border _ an attack that left one reporter paralyzed for life _ the daily El Manana quickly put up a bulletproof wall outside the entrance. From then on they sent teams covering crime out in threes _ a reporter, a photographer, and an extra pair of eyes.

But the most significant change at the paper in Nuevo Laredo, the traditional epicenter of Mexico's increasingly violent drug wars, was a decision about how to cover the news itself: all local, drug-related news came off the front page and names of suspects came out altogether.

That particular attack happened last February as part of a struggle between the Gulf cartel and the Sinaloa Cartel, but since then reporters have tried to steer clear of the "narco-wars" as much as possible. However, the situation has made their jobs incredibly difficult in general.

"It is not just the narco-wars we can't cover," one reporter tells Media Life. "The problem is that drug trafficking affects all aspects of life, so we have to be careful when we cover the police, government, business-- everything. It doesn't matter if you work for TV, newspapers, or radio: we all practice self-censorship now. It is the only way to survive."

The climate of fear, oppressive hostility, and death is clearly intensifying as the Mexican Drug War wages onward. Mexican authorities have several initiatives under way to curb the violence, but so far, the tide of blood seems unlikely to subside anytime soon.

jason

USA

August 2002

JUN 14, 2007 10:48 PM

clearly these mind altering substances are not illegal enough.

Trahern

United Kingdom

March 2003

JUN 15, 2007 07:55 AM

Perhaps. Some people think legalizing things that are currently illegal, resulting in regulation by government agencies, would put the worst people involved out of business.

In Mexico's case, however, government and police are apparently so corrupt right now, it wouldn't make a difference.