See this article in the National Post of Canada which describes a apparent assassination of the Interior Secretary of Mexico, as well as other key drug enforcement officials. They were passengers in a Lear jet that crashed without warning into a Mexico City rush hour.
The Interior Secretary is described as "the second-highest official in the Mexican government." The author believes, with good reason, that the drug cartel situation in Mexico is reaching a critical stage. In the U.S. we were so obsessed with presidential politics that the story got little coverage.
The same news cycle brought this Associated Press story of over-the-top bloodshed and murder in Ciudad Juarez, a border town. Once again the perpetrators were thought to be drug cartel enforcers. Stories like this one have become so common as to be taken for granted in the U.S.
The U.S. should take the drug lord situation in Mexico more seriously. Think of it this way: suppose the owners of the house next door to yours turned it into a crack house. Would you shrug it off? Conclude it was their affair and none of your business? Ignore the occasional bullet that came your way?
Mexico is our next door neighbor, what happens there affects our neighborhood. That makes it, to some degree, our business too.
