Mexican Drug War

Last week's killing of the top drug lord in the Gulf Cartel marked the second takedown of a major capo in Mexico in a little over two months. Experts in Mexico and the United States say the strategy has a real downside.

The University of Texas-Brownsville/Texas Southmost College is planning an emergency text messaging system as part of its strategy to alert students and faculty to dangers amid the drug prohibition war raging across the Rio Grande. One recent intelligence alert had campus police knocking on dorm doors in the middle of the night to warn students to stay indoors.

Low attendance and a drop in donations have caused a financial crisis for the northeastern Mexican Diocese of Nuevo Laredo, which is located in an area plagued by drug prohibition violence. Weekly collections are no longer sufficient to pay for basic services, such as water and electricity.

Ford Motor Company is reporting sales of one of its truck models has dropped sharply in Mexico, and they say it's because of drug trafficking organizations.

It was another bloody weekend in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, where at least 20 people were killed in drug prohibition violence.

With killings and disappearances to assert their authority, Mexico's prohibition-created drug trafficking organizations are beginning to interfere with everyday government activities in pockets of the country, keeping workers off their turf and interrupting some of the most basic services. Not only do they maintain checkpoints and kill police or mayors to control territory, they now try to keep everyone from mid-level officials to delivery truck drivers and meter readers out of rural areas they use to transport drugs, stash weapons and kidnap victims, and hide from authorities. In the process, they are blocking deliveries of gasoline, pension checks, farm aid and other services to Mexicans.

Antonio Ezequiel Cardenas Guillen, also known as 'Tony Tormenta,' the highest-profile leader of a powerful drug trafficking organization, was gunned down by Mexican government forces this weekend, but signs that the death will lead to more violence and turf battles have terrified residents.

While some Mexicans expressed relief that California’s Proposition 19 was defeated in Tuesday’s election, others felt that the fight in Mexico was just beginning. The proposition, which essentially would have legalized marijuana in California, had a renewed sense of urgency south of the border, where the body count in the government’s crusade against drug trafficking organizations continues to rise.

Erika De La Garza, program director of the Latin American Initiative at the Baker Institute for Public Policy at Rice, and William Martin, the Harry and Hazel Chavanne Senior Fellow in Religion and Public Policy at the Baker Institute, opine on the general failures of drug prohibition and what direction Latin America should go.