A little closer to home

In an increasingly lawless Mexico that some have warned may be close to a failed state, a truce has been called between competing drug lords in the infamous Sinaloa region.

The marked decrease in violence in the area after the truce would signal how closely tied the violence is to drug trafficking disputes—it would seem the drug lords have figured out that these constant killings and kidnappings are bad for business. But I’m sure President Felipe Calderon would love to attribute the positive change to his efforts in clamping down on crime—he has sent 45,000 troops around the country, pushed for legislation to decrease the number of readily available weapons and attempted to overhaul a slow and somewhat corrupt judiciary.

I commend Calderon on his courageous efforts to bring his country out of bedlam amid a global recession that Mexico is feeling, badly. But it seems odd that drug lords would just suddenly decide that random violence and kidnappings is rather counter-productive. Maybe the narco-trafficking kings are indeed reacting to Calderon’s crackdown. Let’s just hope they aren’t calling a truce to unite together against governmental forces. And if that really is the cause for the truce, let’s just hope that their compadres in Juarez or Tijuana don’t get similar ideas.

Other news from Mexico:

--Crimes are getting more gruesome: “el Pozolero”

--Still no word from the ironic kidnapping of the year: Felix Batista