Decade-long drug war has left deep scars on Mexican society but brutal turf wars continue
Government has no events plans to commemorate the controversial military deployment by Felipe Calderon on December 11, 2006
A decade after Mexican troops were unleashed against drug cartels, the country will mark the anniversary without fanfare on Sunday, with murders rising again and the military eager to return to barracks.
President Enrique Pena Nieto, who inherited the drug war when he took office in December 2012, has promised his countrymen and women a “Mexico in peace”. His government has created a new federal police force and imprisoned or killed several drug kingpins, but Pena Nieto has kept troops on the ground despite allegations of abuses and criticism from human rights groups.
The war has become much more complex. The level of death has escalated
The administration has no events planned to commemorate the controversial deployment that was launched by his predecessor, Felipe Calderon, on December 11, 2006.
Only 10 days after taking office, Calderon deployed some 5,000 troops to his western home state of Michoacan – the start of a militarised campaign against drug trafficking. Calderon’s six-year term was marked by a surge in murders, rising from 10,253 in 2007 to a peak of 22,852 in 2011.
The figure dropped in the first two years of Pena Nieto’s presidency, only to rise again in 2015.
Although murders remain well under the worst years of Calderon’s presidency, there were 17,063 homicides in the first 10 months of 2016, already surpassing last year’s 12-month total of 17,034. Much of the bloodshed is blamed on ultra-violent turf wars between drug gangs.