Young Mexicans caught in bitter drug war
Rachel Levin is an award-winning producer and correspondent who has been at Al Jazeera since 2006.
The first time I covered the drug war in Monterrey was in 2007, when the uptick in the violence was just beginning to be felt. I travelled there as a producer and we recorded a chilling story about how the war between rival cartels was effecting everyday Mexicans. A little more than 200 people were killed that year - including politicians and high-level police officers.
But nothing prepared me for my week-long reporting trip in August 2012. At least three people were killed each day we spent in the city. The murders were gruesome, involving teenagers caught in the crossfire, drug dealers shot down by police and victims hanged from bridges in broad daylight. The number of murders in the past year alone exceeded 1,600.
The upsurge in violence reflected a national trend over the past six years - since President Felipe Calderon declared war on the drug cartels. Monterrey is the second largest city in Mexico, and an industrial powerhouse. Home to dozens of major companies and factories, the city contributes more than 7.5 per cent of the gross national product. People here have a saying: "If Monterrey goes, then so does the entire country."
Three major cartels are all at war in this city of more than four million people. The Sinaloa Cartel (allegedly controlled by Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman), the Gulf Cartel and the infamous Zetas Cartel (reportedly started by former members of the military) are all killing each other over control of the lucrative drug routes that run through this city. The top prize is getting drugs across the border to the United States, the billion-dollar market as it is understood to be home to the largest number of drug consumers in the world.
One of the most moving stories we have reported was about the thousands of dead bodies that turn up, or are discovered, but never claimed. More than 16,000 corpses throughout the country remain nameless. Some of them are so mutilated that only fragments remain.
--Rachel Levin, Al-Jazeera
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...
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Photo Credit: Egyptian Presidency via AP
--KAREEM FAHIM and MAYY EL SHEIKH, nytimes
:: ::
Le Figaro, France
After Aurora, It’s Business as Usual
By Jean-Sébastien Stehli
Translated By Tabitha Middleton
During dramatic events, we sometimes discover strange things. Recently, we discovered that National Rifle Association members read The New Yorker. As soon as Adam Gopnik gave his opinions about the Aurora massacre on his blog, 207 comments defending the right to possess firearms, even assault weapons if desired, were posted.
So, nothing is going to change. Especially not the ritual that accompanies each massacre.
As with any ritual, this one is always the same: We hear speeches full of good feelings and compassion for the families, but certainly not a word on the essential issue of firearms. No one has mentioned again that the murderer was able to buy, among other things, 6,000 bullets. On the campaign in Florida, Obama asked for a moment of silence for the victims and their families and cancelled the rest of his campaign events, asking that flags fly at half-mast. But nothing was said about the right to possess not just a firearm, but an arsenal. Absolute silence. The Democrats, who blame Al Gore’s defeat in 2000 on his anti-gun position, learned their lesson. Talking about guns doesn’t pay off politically. Let the massacres continue, but protect the campaign.
Mitt Romney himself is a friend of the NRA. On Apr. 13, he spoke before the members of the lobby to defend the right of each person to possess weapons.