'EVERYBODY KNOWS WHO REALLY RUNS MEXICO'

Let's get to the question of who appears to be winning the war on
illegal drugs right off the top, shall we?

Criminals, that's who.

They include the big honchos in the Mexican cartels (and their
affiliates in the U.S., Canada and elsewhere) and politicians,
business people, police, the army and other well-placed citizens who,
under a veneer of respectability, empower the narco-empires.

"There's no doubt the cartels need them to stay in business," says
Victor Clark Alfaro, an expert on the drug trade from San Diego State
University. "Their war is invisible."

That makes them, for the most part, untouchable.

Sure, there are small victories. Senior U.S. administration officials
point to the grisly fallout from President Felipe Calderon's military
war on drugs - with 10,700 casualties over three years - as proof of
success.

But is it really success?

Drug arrests in Mexico are mostly small-time. Moreover, there is scant
proof of any serious investigation into the Mexican and international
financial system that facilitates the flow of laundered drug money, at
least according to anecdotal evidence.

"I would say Mexico is a state with a parallel power in its drug
cartels. It's not a narco state yet; we still have a government. But
they have true power, beginning with the right to tax (protection
money)," argues Clark." I would say we are in great danger (of
becoming a narco-state)."

His bleak view was overwhelmingly echoed during a month-long
investigation by the Toronto Star, that included about 60 interviews
in Mexico City, Acapulco, Tijuana, San Diego, Vancouver and Toronto.

"This is Mexico," groans a Mexico City accountant, throwing up her
hands. "It's hopeless. Everybody knows who really runs Mexico."

Few offer solutions, with an exception. It's one that evokes immediate
passion from entrenched sides: legalize drugs.

"Everything else has been tried," says Larry Birns, director of the
Council on Hemispheric Affairs in Washington. "This is an option
that's definitely worth exploring."

Dr. Antonio Munoz, coroner in the blood-soaked border city of Tijuana,
goes further: "You kill one (trafficker) and another takes his place.
I think we've got to legalize drugs. I don't think we're winning this
war, and we're not going to win. The police know they can't win, the
army knows. Everybody does."

A week earlier, he and colleagues autopsied the bodies of seven police
officers, the latest to be gunned down in shootouts with cartel gunmen in
the city. Adds Munoz: "There is no army, police force or government in the
world that can win the war on drugs ... No one."

Money poured into the war on drugs, Munoz argues, could be better
spent on health, education and public services. He envisions clean
injection sites throughout Mexico, just as he's seen in cities like
Madrid and heard about in Vancouver.

Not everyone agrees.

"The involvement of the Mexican military has been showing significant
results, including world-record seizures of narcotics, cash and
weapons, as well as unprecedented levels in the extradition of
criminals, sending more than 180 so far (to the U.S.)," insists
Mexican Ambassador Francisco Barrio Terrazas, in an email from Ottawa.

According to Barrio, the Mexican army seized 70 tonnes of cocaine and
31,000 weapons over the past two years, as well as arresting 58,000
people, among them, "several kingpins" from the cartels.

Birns says Calderon "probably deserves more credit than critics like
myself have given him. The militarization of the drug war has been
only moderately successful, but more importantly, he has shown the
magnitude of the corruption. ... It's not anecdotal, it's systemic."