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Messico: 387 drug killings in October
More than 300 have been killed as Mexico's security forces have intensified their war against drug traffickers during the past two weeks, media say. The death toll hit 387 people in the first two weeks of October with more than 3,800 deaths already recorded since the start of the year, Mexican newspapers reported Saturday. The government has announced a massive crackdown on drug cartels, trafficking and related violence by criminal networks in January 2007 and it has dispatched tens of thousands of soldiers across the country to do battle with heavily armed drug gangs. This month the government has adopted a new measure of leniency in the war against drugs as President Felipe Calderon has sent a proposal to Congress that would decriminalize possession of small amounts of illegal substances. Mexican officials have said they are going to ease up on pressure for users and increase facilities for the treatment of drug addicts instead of simply sending them to jail. These measures would help free human and financial resources to go after higher-level drug criminals. Mexico's drug war stretches back over more than two decades now but saw a startling uptick in August concentrated in the northern border regions, where cartels are fighting over key smuggling routes into the United States. Posted by: Fred 2008-10-19 |
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