Mexican President Willing to Discuss Legalizing Drugs

Staff / Truthdig Aug 6, 2010 Mexican President Felipe Calderon, who has conducted a deadly war with drug cartels since 2006, said he is open to debating the legalization of drugs, although his office maintains that he opposes the idea. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

American Guns Stopped at the Border

Staff / Truthdig Jun 3, 2010 Much has been made about Mexico's deadly drug war and the potential for violence to spill across the border, but it is less often reported that American guns make that war go. Over the weekend, police in Laredo, Texas, seized 147 AK-47 rifles and 10,000 rounds of ammunition en route to Mexico. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Latest Violence in Mexico: Just in Time for Spring Break

Staff / Truthdig Mar 17, 2010 America's college kids are keeping it classy once again, taking recent reports about violence in Mexico as their cue to perform keg stands in other sunny locales for this year's spring break festivities. Florida, you've been warned. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Drug Kingpin Sentenced

Staff / Truthdig Feb 26, 2010 The head of the Gulf Cartel, the leading drug cartel in northern Mexico and southern Texas, has been sentenced to 25 years in prison after cooperating with the U.S. federal government and pleading guilty to five counts that included attempted murder and money laundering. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Secret Weapon in the War on Drugs

Staff / Truthdig Dec 29, 2009 This satirical Onion headline says it all: DEA Recruits Lil Wayne to Use Up All Drugs in Mexico. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Is the ‘War on Drugs’ Ending?

Staff / Truthdig Sep 6, 2009 Mexico and Argentina's recent decisions to decriminalize the personal use of drugs mark a growing trend across Latin America to reject the now-40-year-old, U.S.-led, Nixon-founded "war on drugs" as both harmful and ineffective. Dig deeper ( 2 Min. Read )

Mexico’s Murder Woes

Staff / Truthdig Aug 22, 2009 Mexico's murder rate is bad, but it's not 1990s bad. In a weird use of statistics on homicide rates, Mexico's Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora argues that despite the ongoing drug war that has killed 11,000 and deaths being tallied by one newspaper in an "Execute-o-meter," the country is still better off than it was last decade. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Latin Leaders Unhappy With U.S. Move Into Colombia

BLANK Aug 11, 2009 The U.S. plans to move its anti-drug operations from Ecuador to Colombia, which is just a little too close for Hugo Chavez, who said "the winds of war were beginning to blow." Luis Inacio Lula da Silva added, "As president of Brazil, this climate of unease disturbs me." Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

A New Type of Surge

Staff / Truthdig Jul 20, 2009 U.S. government officials are conducting a new kind of "surge." The DEA has started dispatching agents to Afghanistan to target opium trafficking networks that are believed to be funding the Taliban insurgency, a change from the Bush-era policy of poppy crop destruction. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

A Next Step in Mexico’s Drug War

Staff / Truthdig Jul 17, 2009 In the next step of the continuing battle between the Mexican government and the country's powerful drug cartels, 5,500 police and military personnel are being sent to the state of Michoacan, where recent drug-related violence has killed 20 government security agents. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

U.S., Britain Part Company in the Poppy Fields

Staff / Truthdig Jun 29, 2009 The U.S. has decided to stop funding poppy field eradication in Afghanistan, declaring the policy a failure and a waste of money. Since 2003, opium production has gone up 40-fold in Afghanistan, making it the producer of 90 percent of the world's heroin. But Britain, backed by the Afghan government, will continue destroying poppy fields as a way to stem the drug trade. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Mexican Mayors Arrested

Staff / Truthdig May 27, 2009 Twenty-seven politicians in the western Mexican state of Michoacan were arrested by police in the largest operation to target mayors and other officials in Mexico's drug war. The politicians are suspected of collaborating with the state's powerful narco-syndicates. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )