"We face a defining moment," Mexican president Felipe Calderón said earlier this month in his third state of the union address. While he was talking about more than just the war on drugs, that is clearly the paramount security challenge facing Mexican authorities. Calderón has taken unprecedented actions against the drug cartels, starting with his decision, upon assuming office in December 2006, to battle the cartels with Mexican army units. Over the past three years, drug-related violence has claimed thousands of lives and turned cities such as Ciudad Juárez (which sits right across the border from El Paso, Texas) into bloody war zones.
But despite the continuing violence--in a particularly vicious attack on September 2, 18 people were killed execution style at a Juárez drug-rehabilitation center--Calderón's efforts have not been in vain. A new report from the U.S. State Department observes that "more than 43,000 individuals connected with the major cartels were arrested between December 2006 and February 2009," including senior members of the cartels. Mexican authorities confiscated 4,220 weapons in 2006 and 9,500 a year later; all told, they have seized "more than 27,000 since the beginning of 2008." Since January 2007, they have also confiscated some 65 metric tons of cocaine, nearly 1,250 kilos of methamphetamine, and roughly 4.2 million kilos of marijuana. These achievements are not insignificant.
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