Mexico: Drug Violence Kills More Than 47,000 People

MEXICO CITY (AP) - More than 47,000 people have been killed in drug violence in the five years since President Felipe Calderon launched a military crackdown against drug cartels, federal prosecutors said Wednesday.

The Attorney General's Office said in a statement that 47,515 drug-related killings occurred from December 2006, when Calderon deployed thousands of troops to drug hot spots, through September 2011.

Drug-related killings went up 11 percent in the first nine months of 2011 when 12,903 people were killed, compared to 11,583 in the same period of 2010, the office said.

The office found one small consolation: "It's the first year (since 2006) that the homicide rate increase has been lower compared to the previous years."

There had been a 70 percent increase in drug-related killings in the same period a year earlier, when death rose from a nine-month total of 6,815 for 2009.

Prosecutors said a large majority of the killings last year happened in eight of Mexico's 32 states.

The Mexican government had been periodically releasing the number of drug war dead but it stopped a year ago when they reached nearly 35,000.

Mexico's freedom of information agency had said it would ask for an investigation if prosecutors didn't release the data requested by several journalists by Wednesday.

The Attorney General's Office said that more than releasing the number of dead, what's important "it's to guarantee that each killings is investigated." Records show few of the killings have been investigated.

Also on HuffPost:

Comments

[Kenz300]

11:22 AM on 01/17/2012

The Mexican people are the only ones that can change their country. Until now they have been more eager to leave their country than change it.

[MoneyMike]

08:38 AM on 01/13/2012

More people do coke in Europe than in the US right now....And the profit is greater there too.

[trron9]

08:08 PM on 01/12/2012

A Nation of drug addicts!

[Carl Hungus III]

02:07 AM on 01/13/2012

If you are referring to the US, then you are correct. Drug violence in Mexico is simply a method to assure control over drug routes from Mexico and Central/South America to the US, where the demand originates. Control over the routes = lots of American dollars.

[Limpbaugh]

06:28 AM on 01/13/2012

I lived in Mexico for a while and drug use was pretty rare there. It reminded me of what the 50's were probably like here.

[Llib Noswad]

01:02 PM on 01/12/2012

Look on the bright side, that's 47,000 fewer that will be invading the U.S.

[Arturo Ramrez]

02:16 PM on 01/12/2012

That's 47,000 people that were brutally killed, that's what it is, no euphemisms.

[horhay]

02:48 PM on 01/12/2012

There isn't a bright side, but your xenophobic comments really do show the heart of darkness within our own nation.

[westcoastsc]

11:37 AM on 01/12/2012

I have given a list of links from trusted websites that are often featured here that detail corruption in the U.S. government. I have been long waiting for it to post. Thank you.

[westcoastsc]

11:15 AM on 01/12/2012

You can't understand the whole story without reading these stories.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/61685859/August-5-2011-The-Federal-Crimes-Watch-Daily
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/09/19/whistleblowers-drug-cartels-throw-fundraisers-for-u-s-officials/
http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_18924755
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/12/12/420107/-CIA-Torture-Jet-wrecks-with-4-Tons-of-COCAINE

[westcoastsc]

11:03 AM on 02/08/2012

The first link that I put here has been changed. It was from Michael Madsen and I am no longer able to find it on the internet. It was entitled "The CIA can't survive without their drug and child trafficking" that details their mayhem they have caused in Mexico.

[westcoastsc]

10:44 AM on 01/12/2012

The criminals behind this live here in the U.S.A. and have positions in our government.

[Marty Susman]

10:38 AM on 01/12/2012

The Mexican's need to tell the U.S. that unless they make pot legal & treat drugs as an illness & not a crime then they will help another 20,000,000 or 40,000,000 of their people come across our borders & will stop all efforts to curb the drug guys...

This would NOT be happening if not for the U.S. Taliban that is stopping the drugs from being treated the way they should be treated, the religious lunatics in the U.S have this control of Congress & they are the people sho are responsable for the tens of thousands of deaths....

[LaFemmeSASE]

10:42 AM on 01/12/2012

legalising is not the answer as the dealers would now have to pay taxes on their product when shipping it. Taxes would cut into profits, so the answer to that would be to traffick illegally which they are doing now. The trafficking is where the most risk is taken and the money is being made.

[360Dunk]

12:16 PM on 01/12/2012

You're missing the point on legalization. The traffickers' supply would be in less demand. Most people would rather pay taxes on something that is both tested and regulated than buy it illegally from an unknown source. Court systems would also be less congested. The only ones to suffer from legalization are the traffickers and they don't count.

[TKDietz]

01:51 PM on 01/13/2012

Your talking about products that cost several times what they cost to make by the time they hit the street. The cost is hugely inflated due to prohibition. I'm not for legalizing any drugs except marijuana, so I'll only use that as an example. Right now pot is easy to find anywhere and usually cheaper than beer on a per use basis. Commercial grade Mexican pot tends to cost hundreds a pound, while high grade stuff grown here is thousands a pound. Prices for retail amounts vary depending on where you are and what you buy, but that few hundred dollar pound of Mexican is going to go for more than $1,500 broken into retail amounts and the primo stuff wil likelt go for more than five or six grand in retail amounts. This is a plant. Tobacco costs something like three bucks a pound in bulk wholesale purchases. They can get around 1,000 of bud per acre of land. Farmers tend to make a few hundred per acre of normal crops. Think legal pot farmers will make hundreds of thousands an acre? They'll get production costs down to a few bucks a pound and there will be all sorts of room for massive taxes and regulatory costs before the product gets too expensive for people to buy from legal shops. Black market pot would have to be so cheap it wouldn't be worth it to sell.

[music5151]

10:33 AM on 01/12/2012

GREAT !!!!! Once they kill most of the people the government will launch an all out military assault on these devils and then all the Illegals will be able to go back home and feel safe. NOT!!!! WILLIAM BENNETT'S drug triffickers assault to get rid of them worked great didn't it?? ANOTHER GOP WASTE OF AMERICAN MONEY. WHERE DID ALL THE MONEY GO ????

[SONNYSIDE]

10:30 AM on 01/12/2012

good thats 47000 less illegals that will cross our border to screw up america.who cares,oh thats right the priests in america wont get any of that money for their collection to support ,their child abusers,poor babies

[Arturo Ramrez]

12:06 PM on 01/12/2012

That's 47000 people that died violently and you don't have the least bit of empathy for any of them. That makes sense...

[horhay]

01:54 PM on 01/12/2012

It's probably not worth mentioning, but there are people that cross the border legally. Regardless, many of those that do cross the border do a lot of the cultivation & harvesting of crops that we all expect to see at the market. The do the grunt work and drudgery that most Americans won't do.

Besides making such a callous comment, it is also an ignorant one. They were killed in Mexico so calling them illegals is specious and insular.

[Europlan]

10:19 AM on 01/12/2012

Do Americans who care about "life" realize how our drug poicies have contributed the deaths of so many people in an adjoining country! They have also contributed to deaths and injuries here our own country and to enormous deficts here in America. Our prison popualtion has gone throught he roof! A higher percent of our people are in tax payer supported public and now privitized jails than in Communist China or in semi totalitarian Russia. Many of the Mexiacn deaths are occurring at the US border. Why? because they are illegally streaming drugs into the US where pot smoking is under "prohibition". This is like the days of alcohol prohibition and Al Capone. Same thing really. It is ironic that while the politicians scream about deficits, many are willing to entertain yet another war in Iran and housing such a large population in jails. We should decriminalize pot, control it as to where it can be sold and tax it at a higher level than we tax tobacco! The jail population would drop accordingly. The number of our high school and college kids who use it would decline to the levels of the student population in Holland, and elders and million sof boomers who have ben toking since the late 60's could do it legally and contribute tax funds to deficit reduction

[westcoastsc]

10:46 AM on 01/12/2012

As Hillary Clinton said, and I am sure many people in our government agree, "There is too much money in it."

Never forget Mena, Arkansas.

[bluestarrlry]

11:35 AM on 01/12/2012

it was because the people making the policies were clueless about what they were doing and making the policies about

[Kenz300]

10:12 AM on 01/12/2012

The dysfunctional Mexican government can not provide safety, jobs and services for its people.

The apathetic Mexican people allowed political and police corruption to go unchallenged for decades and now it is ingrained in society at all levels.

Nothing will change until the Mexican people get fed up and demand an end to the violence and corruption that plagues the society. The corrupt police, politicians and the elites that control most of the wealth of society need to be brought to justice.

[westcoastsc]

10:50 AM on 01/12/2012

Kenz300, with the long history of drug smuggling and laundering in our own government which is clearly stronger than the Mexican government and with greater influence, how can you squarely put this on the feet of the Mexican people. It was recently revealed that FBI and DEA agents have been involved with the cartels. Agents have been caught escorting weapons to drug cartel leaders who then throw parties for them when they arrive. The same planes that have taken prisoners to Guantanamo have crashed in Mexico with tons of cocaine in them. Things won't get better here or there until people here, the real people running things, are brought to justice.

[Kenz300]

11:31 AM on 01/12/2012

If the Mexican people are waiting for someone else to solve their problems for them they will wait a long time and continue to suffer.

The problems in Mexico will be solved or NOT solved by the Mexican people.

[Llib Noswad]

01:07 PM on 01/12/2012

It sounds as though we should just kill everybody and let God sort it out.

[jerry40]

01:32 PM on 01/12/2012

sounds like the u.s.a

[REDSTATEREFUGEE]

10:07 AM on 01/12/2012

I mourn for a beautiful land that has become a narcostate...

[westcoastsc]

10:51 AM on 01/12/2012

You could help them greatly if you could get the narco people here out of our government.

[REDSTATEREFUGEE]

02:49 PM on 01/12/2012

Please clarify....thanks....

[msd7733]

10:05 AM on 01/12/2012

Electric bleachers for drug pushers would cut down on it all.

[westcoastsc]

10:52 AM on 01/12/2012

Start with the CIA and GHWB.

[inthedesert]

10:03 AM on 01/12/2012

There is a much more detailed article in the LA Times this morning about this. Also, how the Mexican government attempted to whithold the actual number of deaths until forced to release the information. As always, on HP we only get part of the story usually and always when it is on the latinovioces page.

[westcoastsc]

11:19 AM on 01/12/2012

Perhaps you would like this article.

http://rt.com/usa/news/drug-cartels-fbi-dutton-979/