Word: mexicanization
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...Department of Homeland Security announced on Dec. 7 that it will expand its use of unmanned drones to patrol the nation's coasts. The remote-controlled aircraft, which are already used to monitor the Mexican and Canadian borders, will begin surveying for drug smugglers and illegal immigrants off Florida's coast...
There is little doubt that Beltrán Leyva was a bona fide kingpin and a genuine threat to the Mexican security services. Born in a rough-hewn village of the northern Sierra Madre, he was alleged to have been trafficking heroin and marijuana since the 1980s. As Mexican cartels grew in power, drug agents say, he forged a smuggling empire stretching from the jungles of Colombia to the avenues of New York City. He is alleged to have masterminded the killing of hundreds who stood in his way, including federal police chief Edgar Millan, who was shot dead...
However, some agents worry that the reins of this smuggling empire may now be taken over by Beltrán Leyva's feared chief of hit men, Edgar Valdez, 36, a Texas-born fugitive known as "The Barbie" because of his blond hair. Mexican officials allege that Valdez was behind the videotaped torture and killing of a rival gangster in Acapulco in 2005. Similar to an al-Qaeda propaganda film, the video triggered a wave of copycat movies posted on the Internet, raising the stakes in the Mexican drug war. Such a figure could unleash even more carnage...
There are also questions about how the nature of Beltrán Leyva's end will affect the drug war. Back in the 1980s and '90s, key Mexican kingpins were arrested peacefully by police officers. However, amid the militarization of the conflict under Calderón, the armed forces conduct most major detentions. In the operation to nab Beltrán Leyva, hundreds of marines swept on an apartment building in the spa city of Cuernavaca, an hour's drive from the capital. A two-hour battle ensued, involving grenades and mounted machine guns, before the drug lord, five...
Attorney General Arturo Chávez said Thursday that there is no shoot-to-kill policy but that troops have to fight fire with fire. "The Mexican government has never pursued criminals to kill them," he said at a news conference. "Obviously, if [soldiers] are met by bullets, they have to respond to the aggression. That is what happened in this case." The lesson may persuade others to surrender rather than risk death. But the gunning down of major capos could alternatively trigger even more ruthless responses from kingpins against both officials and the civilian population...