# France offers Mexico police aid as drug war worsens there



## CougarKing (12 Mar 2009)

I wonder just how effective any outside help will be at this point in the continuing, worsening drug war there?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7934889.stm



> *France offers Mexico police aid *
> French President Nicolas Sarkozy has pledged to help Mexico in its battle against organised crime during an official visit to the country.
> 
> *Mr Sarkozy offered his Mexican counterpart Felipe Calderon help with police training and technology for gathering intelligence. *
> ...


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## Yrys (15 Mar 2009)

Bodies exhumed near Mexican city(Ciudad Juarez), Sunday, 15 March 2009







Mexican police have found at least seven bodies on the outskirts of Ciudad Juarez, 
near the US border. The bodies were partially buried in a desert area south of the 
city. Police are working to identify the victims.

Ciudad Juarez is Mexico's most violent city. Fighting between drug gangs has led 
the government to send thousands of troops to patrol its streets. About 1,600 
people were killed in the city last year as criminals fight to control drug routes 
into the US.

More than 1,000 people across Mexico have been killed already in 2009, about 
one-third of them in Ciudad Juarez.





The bodies were found in the desert
outside Ciudad Juarez

*Success or failure?*

Beheadings, attacks on police, and shootings in clubs and restaurants are a daily 
occurrence in some regions. Five severed heads were found in ice coolers by the 
side of a road in the central state of Jalisco on Tuesday, with notes addressed to 
rivals of the killers, who were assumed to be involved in the drug war.

Some police forces across the country have been corrupted by the rich drug cartels 
and journalists who report on cartel activities have been targeted.

Since December 2006 the Mexican government has deployed a total of about 
40,000 troops and police to fight the country's drug cartels.

The Mexican government holds that the violence wracking the country is a reflection 
of its success in tackling the drug gangs, which have been rendered leaderless and 
reduced to fighting for fewer spoils. Others argue that the cartels have become so 
powerful that they effectively control some parts of the country, and the violence 
is evidence of their gang law.


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