Mexico's government sends 10,000 more soldiers to border city

Mexico seeks tighter lockdown in drug war city

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico, April 16 (Reuters) - Mexico's government is hiring more police and sending federal agents to the bloody border city of Ciudad Juarez, where it already has thousands of troops trying to quell drug violence.

President Felipe Calderon, who has made crushing drug gangs a central goal of his government, sent 10,000 soldiers and federal police into Ciudad Juarez in March.

His government says drug murders in the city have since dropped by 80 percent. But police corruption and complaints of rights abuses threaten to undermine early gains and the federal attorney general's office is sending more agents, recruiting more police and appointing a general as an aide to the city's mayor, the army said on Thursday.

"People are asking what will happen if the army leaves Ciudad Juarez. Well, the army's presence here is permanent, but we are also strengthening all areas of security," army spokesman Enrique Torres said.

So let me get this straight, Mexico has to bring in their army to police the streets permanently in Ciudad Juarez to reduce drug war violence in the city and President Obama is praising Mexico?

What  kind of solution is that? Based on this I guess Mexico and the United States are willing to become police states  before they would allow the legal market to regulate the sale and production of Marijuana. This will result in an unacceptable loss of freedoms and privacy for all citizens just to keep some people from using a plant that they prove

time and again they are going to use

anyways. 

We couldn't ask for a better illustration as to why working to end the war on drugs 

sooner, rather then later will make the transition easier for every sector of society to 

accommodate. The longer the drug war rages in either country the farther we could 

descend into a paramilitary police state designed to protect us from the same violence 

that was created by bad drug policy in the first place. I don't think the US or Mexico can 

afford to continue this path for long, it remains to be seen how long the Mexican cartels' 

can hold out.