Mexico Failed State?

[withahip]

Pakistan and Mexico are listed as the two nations closest to becoming a failed state at the moment.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123518102536038463.html

[black francis]

It's pretty much time for the U.S. to take over Mexico. Those people can't count on their government, military or police to protect them and it's spilling into the border states.

Either that or make drugs legal and let the government make some money off of that.

[withahip]

The article is - frightening. Even if drugs were made legal, those gangs/cartels have enough power to continue.

Some suspect they have their claws into parts of California and Nevada government already.

Like the Godfather.

[JackT]

I've often wondered about this failed-state phenomenon.

Up until a few hundred years ago, I don't think there was any such thing as a failed state, as any state that fell below a certain viability or robustness was just subsumed (conquered) by a stronger neighbor.

In our modern age of the internationally-protected supremecy of state sovereignty, non-viable states just degenerate into lawless cesspools until, eventually, enough trouble spills from them forcing another state to do what would have been done anyway--take control.

[black francis]

We could use the oil that's for sure.

[withahip]

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/01/world ... ml?_r=1&hp

It was drug traffickers who decided that Chief Roberto Orduña Cruz, a retired army major who had been on the job since May, should go. To make clear their insistence, they vowed to kill a police officer every 48 hours until he resigned.

They first killed Mr. Orduña’s deputy, Operations Director Sacramento Pérez Serrano, together with three of his men. Then another police officer and a prison guard turned up dead. As the body count grew, Mr. Orduña eventually did as the traffickers had demanded, resigning his post on Feb. 20 and fleeing the city.

Replacing Mr. Orduña will also fall outside the mayor’s purview, although this time the criminals will not have a say. With Ciudad Juárez and the surrounding state of Chihuahua under siege by heavily armed drug lords, the federal government last week ordered the deployment of 5,000 soldiers to take over the Juárez Police Department. With the embattled mayor’s full support, the country’s defense secretary will pick the next chief.

[Dr Evil]

I've often wondered about this failed-state phenomenon.

Up until a few hundred years ago, I don't think there was any such thing as a failed state, as any state that fell below a certain viability or robustness was just subsumed (conquered) by a stronger neighbor.

In our modern age of the internationally-protected supremecy of state sovereignty, non-viable states just degenerate into lawless cesspools until, eventually, enough trouble spills from them forcing another state to do what would have been done anyway--take control.

That is the most intelligent post I have seen yet. A bit of social justice might give the poor in Mexico a different option to organized crime.
As for Pakistan, the problem is orders of magnitude worse-a form of collective insanity, with the possible regression of human evolution.

[Frank The Bunny]

Looks like Guinea-Bissau isn't doing that well either:

Soldiers assassinate Guinea-Bissau president
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/art ... wD96LU4AO0

[Dr Evil]

If someone killed Mugabe, would it make things better or worse?

[black francis]

That is the most intelligent post I have seen yet. A bit of social justice might give the poor in Mexico a different option to organized crime.
As for Pakistan, the problem is orders of magnitude worse-a form of collective insanity, with the possible regression of human evolution.

Feel better about Chris Adams now Jack?

[JackT]

Feel better about Chris Adams now Jack?

Nope.

[withahip]

This made it to 60 Minutes.

It is like Keep On The Borderlands from the D&D Basic Set.

[black francis]

Nope.

Yeah it was pretty awesome when Chris Adams said "you're black francis?" then followed with "you're funny"

I wouldn't be over it either.

[black francis]

This made it to 60 Minutes.

It is like Keep On The Borderlands from the D&D Basic Set.

It's getting harder and harder to ignore when little kids are being shot weekly.

But hey the Democrats are increasing their potential voting base and Republicans get cheap labor for their donors so what's the big deal?

[withahip]

A reward of $2m (£1.37m) each will be paid to informers who help arrest Mexico's 24 most-wanted drug gang chiefs, the attorney general has said.

Correspondents say the most-wanted list is a public challenge to the cartels.

Some 8,000 people have died in the past two years, as drug gangs fight for territory amid government crackdowns.

US and Mexican agencies are increasing their co-operation as the gang violence spills over the border, where kidnaps and killings are on the rise.

The reward offer comes two days before a trip to Mexico by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and a month before President Barack Obama is due to visit.