http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIscirFz49k
Mexico’s president blames the US appetite for cocaine and meth for their current wave of drug cartel violence in his country. Hundreds of tons of cocaine are moved up from Columbia through Mexico and destined for the United States. Trying to stop the flow of drugs is next to impossible when there is so much demand in the US. The ordinary, every day American users of cocaine and methamphetamine are a serious problem for Mexico and at the same time many of our states have done away with criminal penalties for drug abusers in order to lower prison populations. The cost of that decision has been paid in blood by Mexicans caught up in the unrelenting violence and now that violence is reaching across the border.
“In Mexico, the “war on drugs” isn’t just an expression people use. Half an hour drive from San Diego in frontier towns like Tijuana, it’s a war zone.
Federal police officers stand on guard in a street of Tijuana, Mexico, on Tuesday, Aug. 12, 2008. Inspectors have raided 15 pharmacies in downtown Tijuana in a search of counterfeit and illegal drugs.
Authorities are fighting a bloody battle against the drug lords. Since the beginning of the year, more than 1,500 people have been killed, a third of them members of the military and police officers.
“This is a war, and in a war, you have tragedies,” Tijuana Police Chief Alberto Capella said. “And we are not finished paying the costs.”
Capella had a near miss, himself, when drug lords showed up at his home in November. He said 20 gunmen laid siege to his house in the middle of the night, firing 250 shots.
“The noise is incredible, incredible noise,” he said. “They start shooting, and when I saw my room, it [was] illuminated from the bullets.”
Capella shot back at them and survived, earning the nickname “Tijuana’s Rambo” for his bravery.
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