Mexico
-
Last month, the Mexican government announced an initiative to “legalize” vigilante self-defense groups that have sprung up in response to drug-war related violence. The groups, known as “autodefensas” or “Rural Defense Units” have actually had some success in battling the cartels and the government has been moving from leniency to outright cooperation with them over the…
-
Note: The following was adapted from an essay I wrote for a class on US-Latin American relations. The original text can be found here along with a bibliography (pdf). The roots of the current “drug war” can be found in the 1909 anti-opium conference held in Shanghai, which was marked by the first of many US efforts to…
Mike LaSusa 