MEXICO: Army's Outdated Techniques Against Narco Terrorists Alarms USA.

LATIMES/ Tracy Wilkinson and Ken Ellingwood /

     U.S. officials are reportedly disturbed by the Mexican army's inability to wage unconventional warfare against narco terrorists and call them "virtually blind" on the ground.
    "The army has never worked in urban operations against drug trafficking, in urban cells," said national security specialist Raul Benitez. "It's the first time it is engaged in urban warfare. It has to learn."
LAT:     "The army too often relies on numerical superiority over intelligence and has frequently fallen back on time-worn tactics, such as highway checkpoints, that are of limited use against drug traffickers, especially in cities."

MEXICO: Under Seige By The Narco Terrorists.

LATIMES/ Tracy Wilkinson and Ken Ellingwood/ Long Re-cap/
     Despite 80,000 troops and police, the government has failed to stop or even slow the drug flow since Calderon took office in 2006. The narco traffickers have shifted from acting as simple smugglers to actual drug producers using previously unthinkable methods like beheadings and dismemberments to instill fear and mete-out punishment. They have also added kidnappings and extortions to their repertoires with large areas of Mexico actually under their direct control.


How did Mexico end-up in this dire situation? SEE ALSO: The last of NPR reporter Jason Beaubien's five reports on Mexico's drug wars explains.(5 min 37 sec) With transcript.
BEAUBIEN: "Drug trafficking has long gone on in Mexico, and for many decades operated under the eye of the government, according to analysts. Mexico's changing politics has, in effect, changed the way drug cartels operate."
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129009629