MEXICO: A TOXIC DRUGS COCKTAIL IN A 'FAILING STATE'

Forget Afghanistan: America is waking up to the fact that it is about
to become embroiled with its own neighbour's drugs war. Mexico may be
the US's second-biggest trading partner but according to a report by
the US Joint Forces Command it sits alongside Pakistan as being most
likely to become a failed state, crushed by cartel violence.

More than 10,000 people have died since President Calderon of Mexico
committed troops to tackle the six main cartels in December 2006.
Beheadings have become a common way of enforcing discipline within
the cartels. Earlier this year Santiago Meza, aka "the Stew Maker",
confessed to having dissolved more than 300 gangland execution victims in acid.

In part, Mr Calderon's assault on the cartels has stoked the violence
as the larger gangs fragment. Most of the killings have occurred in
only 3 of Mexico's 32 states - the most contested battlegrounds
between rival cartels - and four fifths of the victims are gang members.

Some of Mr Calderon's supporters interpret these statistics as a form
of success. Yet the cartels have advantages that are likely to
sustain them. Their proximity to the US cocaine market, where they
have taken over distribution in many cities, offers them strength
even above that of their Colombian counterparts. The availability of
US weapons, including .50 calibre sniper rifles, assault rifles and
machineguns, further bolsters their capabilities.

Mexico's decentralised political system has contributed to the
crisis. Historically, each of the state governors were left to deal
with the cartels as they thought best. Most sought to contain rather
than contest them. A few found common allegiance. Until Mr Calderon's
challenge to the cartels, most gangs had quietly flourished.

America's new strategy to counter the crisis appears ambitious and
wideranging. The Mexican Government has offered rewards of $2 million
for informers who help to arrest the country's 24 leading cartel chiefs.

Yet so long as the West's appetite for cocaine remains, so too will
Mexico's cartels.