If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
The Blog
While it's often hard to blame Americans for overlooking the bloodshed below the border, we can't continue to ignore the 50,000 plus lives that our neighbor to the south has lost in just five years as a result of our destructive drug laws.
After decades of being brutalized by the U.S. government's failed prohibitionist drug policies, Latin American leaders, including not just distinguished former presidents but also current presidents, are saying "enough is enough."
Just a few steps south of the U.S.-Mexico border, President Calderón unveiled a towering billboard last week wielding a message written in plain English.
It's been two years since the dramatic killing of drug kingpin Arturo Beltran Leyva. But if removing critical targets proves to accomplish nothing when it comes to interrupting the flow of narcotics -- what will it take for the violence to subside?
American drug policy, and our gutless, unreasoned refusal to change it, has caused the epic violence south of the border.
Surprisingly, the Oscar shortlist didn't include the official entry from Mexico, Miss Bala, an outstanding film that deals with one of the most important issues confronting our country today -- the failed war on drugs.
I got this crazy idea to try and build a demilitarized zone out of basketball courts, which youth and their families could be sure drug violence could not penetrate. Lofty, but what the hell is anyone else doing in Juarez?
2011 has been a watershed year for the movement working to end our county's disastrous war on drugs.
When prominent Mexican poet Javier Sicilia lost his 24-year-old son to drug-related violence this past March, he took to his pen.
Just like we need trust in our government, we need trust in our drug scheduling policies. So where is the independent task force to reconsider how drugs are scheduled?
It strikes me that there is a correlation between attitudes toward marijuana and attitudes toward "counter insurgency." This goes back to the '60s. Peaceniks were in the vanguard of the pot culture. Alcoholics were gung-ho for the war.
A secret operation to run guns across the border to Mexican drug cartels -- overseen by U.S. government agents -- threatens to become a major scandal for the Obama administration.
While frustration with the Mexican government's failure to stem the violence has been building for some time, Mexican author Javier Sicilia's grief proved to be a catalyst for unified action.
The poverty and human rights violations we see are in fact a result of years of our collective and repeated lack of respect for human dignity. We need to change our ways, before they kill us.
Mexico will elect a new president in 2012. Facing mounting pressure to change course, Calderon's successor may choose scale back the anti-drug offensive return the country to its pre-2006 days. But that would be a mistake.
Curbing organized violence involves thorny issues that will not be resolved overnight. For the U.S., it means tackling drug treatment and prevention, and halting the flow of guns and cash.
