Briefing+Book

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=**Summary of Articles**=

There have been mass killings of people found in Peten. Officials believe that the drug gang "Zetas" and responsible for the killings. At a cattle ranch, 27 farm labourers were found dead, and there were 3 that survived from all 30 of them. A woman and her young daughter were not killed because they were screaming for their lives, so they let them go. Another man, 23 years old, survivied, but was stabbed in the stomch. His attacker was distracted by workers trying to escape and ran after them so he was able to flea the scene. There is another drug gang known as "Z 200" and they are believed to be responsible for other attacks in parts of Mexico. The Zetas are accused for killing of the brother of a slain Guatemalan drug. Investigators are looking for ties between the ranch owne, Otto Salguero, and drug trafficking. But none of the victims had ties to the drug cartels. The Zetas are blamed for two recent mass killings in Mexico as well, 183 bodies found in a mass graves last month and a massacre of 72 migrants last August, both in the state of Tamaulipas bordering Texas.
 * Massacre work of Mexico drug gang Zetas**

**Mexixo: Cracking Down**
Over the last four years, Mexicans have learnt that waging a war against organised crime not only takes a toll on human life at home, but also impacts on the complex and sometimes ambivalent relationship with their northern neighbour. There have been promises to work together against the drug traffickers, triggered by fears inWashingtonthat the violence will spill over intoUnited States(US) territory, and an acknowledgement by both countries that they share responsibility for the problem. The battle against the drug gangs inMexicohas come to dominate the bilateral relationship. In December 2006, Mexican PresidentFelipe Calderon, who had just been inaugurated after a tightly contested presidential election, launched a head-on crack down on the drug traffickers who useMexicoto get illegal narcotics into the US. More than four years on, nearly 35,000 people have been killed in drug related violence and an increasing number of Mexican states - many of them along the border with the US - have been engulfed in the conflict. Meanwhile, there is little evidence that the flow of drugs into America has slowed or that the cartels inMexicoare weakening. With 15,273 people killed in 2010 alone - the bloodiest year of the offensive - many sectors of Mexican society are calling for a change in the government's strategy.

The headlines from Mexico are alarming: Former presidential candidate kidnapped; U.S. consular official gunned down in broad daylight;Arizonarancher murdered by Mexican drug smugglers.Mexicois in the midst of a battle against powerful drug cartels, the outcome of which will determine who controls the country's law enforcement, judicial, and political institutions. In the last two decades, Mexican drug cartels have acquired unprecedented power to corrupt and intimidate. Three factors account for their rise: preexisting corruption, the inability of weak law enforcement institutions to counter them, and the demand for illegal drugs inthe United States. Drug trafficking and cross-border smuggling certainly existed inMexicobefore the 1980s, but then the trade was chiefly confined to marijuana and small quantities of heroin. In 1984, in response tothe United States'increasingly successful interdiction strategy in theCaribbean, the Colombian cartels forged a connection with major Mexican trafficking organizations. Within just a few years, 80-90 percent of the cocaine being smuggled intothe United Stateswas flowing throughMexico.
 * The New Cocaine Cowboys**

Everything that could possibly go wrong seems to be going wrong for Mexico, Latin America's worst performing economy this year. But a new government idea could put this country back on the road to prosperity for decades to come -- if government officials really are serious about it. Right now, things look pretty bad in this country: The economy is projected to fall by nearly 7 percent this year because of a dramatic decline in exports tothe United States, world oil prices are down, a swine flu outbreak has crippled the tourism industry and an unprecedented wave of drug-related violence that left more than 6,000 dead last year is scaring away domestic and foreign investors. But Mexico's biggest problem is that President Felipe Calderón's government has its hands tied and can do very little to solve these problems. Because of an outdated political system, Mexico has a weak president who can't pass meaningful reforms throughCongress. Calderón, who won the 2006 elections with only 35 percent of the vote, only 0.6 percent more than the runner-up, faces a solid opposition majority inCongress. In legislative elections earlier this year, hisNational Action Partywon only 29 percent of the seats inCongress.
 * Politics Not Economics Sinking Mexico**

Brazen assassinations, kidnappings, and intimidation by drug lords conjure up images of Colombia in the early 1990s. Yet today it is Mexico that is engulfed by escalating violence. The U.S. media breathlessly proclaims that Mexico is "on the brink." But this rising hysteria clouds the real issues for Mexico and for the United States. The question is not whether the Mexican state will fail. It will not. The actual risk of the violence today is that it will undermine democracy tomorrow. Mexico's escalating violence is in part an unintended side effect of democratization and economic globalization. Ties between Mexico's long-ruling political party, the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), and drug traffickers solidified by the end of World War II. Patron-client relationships led by the government limited violence against public officials, top traffickers, and civilians; made sure that court investigations never reached the upper ranks of cartels; and defined the rules of the game for traffickers.
 * The Real War in Mexico**