Drug Wars

I'm looking around for more info on Felipe Calderon's recent about face in the war on narcotics trafficking. Not finding a whole lot, actually, but I did see this picture over at The Mex Files. Something's working, or at least that's what the feds want us to think.

In the meantime, I'm stumped. I'm having a tough time getting current--as in this month, or even this year, for crying out loud--results when I google "felipe calderon, narcotrafficking"; "felipe calderon, war on drugs"; and "mexico, narcotrafficking". I did see plavwriter at least once in those search results, though. That was encouraging, though the whole point was to find the people who know more on this than me.

More soon, I hope.

Changing Course on Narcotrafficking

I missed this note yesterday over at Mexico Today:

And in an a major announcement, President Felipe Calderón said he is backtracking in his use of the armed forces in the fight against narcotics trafficking.

The president announced a change of strategy and that army troops would gradually be pulled out of the battle against drug trafficking as bad officers are cleared out of police corporations.

Wow. That is, to my reckoning, a 180 degree turnabout in the war on narcotrafficking. Why?

More thoughts on this later.

And in Mexico Today . . .

Two items of note in today's news summary, courtesy of Mexico Today. First:

President Felipe Calderón said México has a strong economy and won’t be affected by the problems in the United States.

Wait--there are problems in the United States?

And second:

In other news, former president Vicente Fox said in an interview broadcast in Spain, that U.S. president George W. Bush and former secretary of State, Colin Powell, could testify in his favor to prove that he did not accrue illicit wealth during his term… According to Fox, Bush and Powell could testify that the San Cristóbal ranch has undergone no change since 2001, when they visited…

And George Bush's word is good enough for me, so it ought to be good enough for the Mexican people, dammit.