LAT: Mexico's defense secretary acknowledges errors in drug war

[ellisonz]

February 13, 2012 | 7:53 pm
-- Daniel Hernandez

REPORTING FROM MEXICO CITY -- Mexico's defense secretary has conceded errors in the country's drug war, in one of the more frank assertions from the government as it wages a military-led campaign against violent traffickers.

Gen. Guillermo Galvan Galvan, speaking last week at a military event commemorating the March of Loyalty, also acknowledged that some regions of the country are not fully under government control, despite the deployment of tens of thousands of troops within the country's borders.

"Of course there have been errors. Recognizing it is loyalty," he said (link in Spanish). "In some regions of the country, organized crime has appropriated the institutions of the state[....] In these [areas] of the national territory, public security has been totally overtaken."

Galvan Galvan did not elaborate on specific regions, but independent security analysts in Mexico and the U.S. point to the vast footholds of the Sinaloa cartel in Mexico's west and the Zetas cartel in the northeast as proof that criminal groups have essentially claimed territory from the federal government.

More: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/world_now/2012/02/mexico-military-chief-drug-war-territory.html

Can the Drug War ever be won?

[DCKit]

1. "Can the Drug War ever be won?" Not until the profit motive is removed by legalization. nt