17 March 2010

MEXICO: Calderon Makes Third Trip To Juarez Amidst Small Protest.

LATIMES/    Ciudad Juarez is the epicenter of Mexico's drug-war violence with the highest homicide and kidnapping rates. Dead bodies overwhelm the coroner's office. Houses are vacant and an estimated one fourth of the population has fled in the last two years. Thousands of businesses have closed rather than pay extortion. Canada is now warning its citizens against travel to parts of Mexico as President Calderon made yet another visit to the beleagured city while about 100 people protested. "The curious thing about this [consulate] case is that with one huge slap from [President] Obama, the entire Mexican state seems to have awakened and become determined to make the criminals pay," commentator Ricardo Aleman noted. "Never mind that those same criminals have killed thousands of young Mexicans, to whose families no authority ever promised justice."