Mexico has always been a great place for me. Lots of friends all over the country and have stopped in 5+ times a year to catch up experience the sights and sounds. From the North to the gigantic, sprawling capital to the South. I haven't been for a few years, perhaps 2008, but the level of violence there since then has been simply astounding. It's a very different place and not one I am rushing to buy a ticket for just yet.

The question now is, what on earth can the government do against such brutal criminals with the funding, personal armies and ruthless acts of violence against anyone who stands in their way? Los Zetas and the Sinola cartel in particular have been up to things that make every single horror and/or gangster film seem like a Disney showcase. (Avoid googling images and videos of the above if you aren't at ease with brutal human behaviour).

I'd love to go back but it seems like the government and police are relatively powerless and things are getting wildly out of control. Mexico was always wild but it doesn't seem like there is an end to it all. Has anyone been there recently? Is life much the same or this madness affecting daily routine?

"In January 2012, the Mexican government reported that 47,515 people had been killed in drug-related violence since President Felipe Calderón began a military assault on criminal cartels soon after taking office in late 2006. The official tally, provided by the attorney general’s office, included data only through September 2011".

Very sad stuff as there are some wonderful people who are stuck with it over there.

http://edition.cnn.com/2012/05/21/world/americas/m...

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/c...

Mexico are in a unique position to perform an experiment:

Legalise all drugs and see what happens. After all it can't get much worse.

Mexico are in a unique position to perform an experiment:

Legalise all drugs and see what happens. After all it can't get much worse.

Ive been watching this for the last couple of years. Its despicable. US politicians dont even seem to care that this exceptional level of violence and depravity is the future reality for US border states. If anything they're the next to be bought off by the drugs cartel's. Runs right to the top of US politics with democratic attorney general Eric Holder.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Fast_and_Fu...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Holder#Controver...

Government (not all), military (not all) and police (more than a few!) can either do very little, have taken the "plato" over the far less attractive "plomo" option or are simply on the take with no remorse. This obviously undermines the efforts of the brave that dare to stand against the madness so what you are left with is a very sad state of affairs.

You have to wonder what the U.S are going to do as this is right on their doorstep and they are the biggest consumers of the product that everyone is, in part, being killed over. They seem quite happy to mobilise their armed forces to fly around the planet and bomb the pants off others who pose a "threat" to national safety, so why so little action in Mexico? Lots of innocent people being killed daily, including U.S citizens and most of it barely makes the news. You've got a man having his head chopped off with a chainsaw while his nephew is sitting next to him sharing a similar fate, all whilst being videoed and distributed online.. doesn't seem to get much of a mention on the main news outlets. Something very questionable must be going on behind the scenes as this is being very deliberately pushed from the mainstream news in favour of important things like which talentless wonder has a new reality show..

Very sobering reading (WARNING: graphic images contained in some of the stories).

http://www.borderlandbeat.com/

Mexico is not using our rules, they are using their own. Their enforcement is far more strict (and brutal) than what we do.