MURDEROUS MEXICAN STANDOFF

Oblivious Canadians Romp on the Beach As Thousands Executed in Vile
Drug War

What conflict has resulted in more than four times the deaths of
allied casualties of Iraq and Afghanistan combined?

Would it help to know it's a country where more than one million
Canadians vacation every year? Would you be surprised to know it's
right here in North America?

It's Mexico.

As we contentedly sip margaritas on the beach from behind protected
resort walls, more than 28,000 Mexicans have lost their lives in a
vicious drug war.

Mexican President Felipe Calderon came to power with a promise to rid
Mexico of the unpopular but deeply powerful drug cartels that were
exploiting them and undermining their democracy.

He faces a daunting task as narco-traffickers enjoy more control than
the government in 17 out of 32 Mexican states. Cartels have
infiltrated nearly every aspect of governance making it extremely
difficult to execute a consistent strategy against them. They control
people through kidnappings, bribes, extortion and intimidation all
the way from local police officers paid to act as execution squads to
politicians, prosecutors, the judiciary, not to mention two Mexican
drug czars who were tasked with eliminating the cartels.

Calderon has tackled the cartels with more than 45,000 military
troops and federal police as well as anti-corruption reforms (of
which more are needed).

He has seen some success but it comes with difficulty and at a
significant cost as violence escalates and spreads, symptoms of the
cartels fighting each other for control of diminishing territory and
a shrinking drug supply.

The cartels have sunk to new lows in a bid to ease their financial
losses on the drug front. Increasingly innocent people find
themselves in the crosshairs of violence that used to be contained
between cartels and, occasionally, security forces.

Kidnappings and extortion schemes of ordinary business people are
becoming increasingly common as a means to increase revenues.

Some cartels, like the particularly vicious Los Zetas, have expanded
operations into the soulless but profitable and strategic industry of
human trafficking.

At $2,000 to $10,000 a head, a free source of labour and forced drug
mules - plus alliances with criminal networks in other countries
which promises favoured access to drugs entering Mexico - other
cartels may soon drop the "prestige" element currently keeping them
out of this business in favour of the cash.

Last week, the Zetas sent a powerful message to those who would defy
them - mass executing 72 migrants simply because they refused to work
for the cartel. This week 17 more have been kidnapped.

Then the Mexican army killed 25 drug cartel gunmen near Monterrey.

Murdering politicians who try to root out corruption or journalists
who ask pesky questions is also popular, as is hanging their corpses
off bridges to intimidate the population.

Mexicans are afraid to go to the authorities because they are unsure
of who really works for whom. This past week alone, the president
fired 3,200 federal police officers, or 10% of the force, for corruption.

Helping to solve the situation in Mexico is in Canadian interests.
Not having a semi-narco state in North America and NAFTA is certainly
in Canadian national interests - and not simply because we like to
vacation there and spreading violence puts tourists at risk of being
in the wrong place at the wrong time.

In spite of the drug war and a previous mayor of Cancun - our
favourite destination - being arrested for drug trafficking, Canadian
tourism doubled over the past year.

Mexican cartels' drugs poison Canadian bodies and bring violence to
our streets. More than 90% of the cocaine entering Canada comes
through Mexico. By mid-2009 in Vancouver alone more than 30 shootings
were directly linked to Mexican cartels and police reported an
escalation in tactics - execution-style murders, public shootouts and
the targeting of gang members' families - including a young mother
shot with her toddler in the back seat of her car.

Helping our Mexican neighbours to develop long-term judicial and
police reforms to defeat vile cartels that prey on human misery and
suffering is a win for everyone.