Thursday
Apr162009
Global Post: 10 Facts on Mexico's "Lightning War"
Thursday, April 16, 2009 at 9:17
Related Post: The “Lightning War” and US-Mexico Relations
More Global Post coverage of Mexico....
1 A recent U.S. government report suggests that “Two large and important states bear consideration for a rapid and sudden collapse: Pakistan and Mexico.”
2 Mexico has one of the highest kidnapping rates in the world: An average of 70 people are abducted each month.
3 More than 1,100 guns found discarded at Mexico shooting scenes or confiscated from cartel gangsters were traced to Texas gun merchants in 2007.
4 One of Mexico’s most notorious drug kingpins, Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman, escaped a maximum security prison in 2001 by driving out in a laundry truck.
5 This year Forbes magazine included Joaquin Guzman, a Mexican drug lord, on its annual billionaires’ list.
6 A drug cartel hood named “The Cook” reportedly dissolved the bodies of 300 victims in acid as part of the grisly work he committed for crime bosses.
7 The FBI has reported 75 open cases of Americans kidnapped in Mexico.
8 In a poll by the daily newspaper La Reforma, Mexico City residents ranked public insecurity as a worse crisis than the economy by a 5-to-1 margin. In the past year, 20 percent were crime victims.
9 In the past year, Mexico's civil drug war has claimed some 6,300 lives.
10 Grammy-nominated singer Sergio Gomez was kidnapped and his genitals were burned with a blowtorch in December 2007, presumably for singing narco corridos, or “drug ballads.”
More Global Post coverage of Mexico....
1 A recent U.S. government report suggests that “Two large and important states bear consideration for a rapid and sudden collapse: Pakistan and Mexico.”2 Mexico has one of the highest kidnapping rates in the world: An average of 70 people are abducted each month.
3 More than 1,100 guns found discarded at Mexico shooting scenes or confiscated from cartel gangsters were traced to Texas gun merchants in 2007.
4 One of Mexico’s most notorious drug kingpins, Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman, escaped a maximum security prison in 2001 by driving out in a laundry truck.
5 This year Forbes magazine included Joaquin Guzman, a Mexican drug lord, on its annual billionaires’ list.
6 A drug cartel hood named “The Cook” reportedly dissolved the bodies of 300 victims in acid as part of the grisly work he committed for crime bosses.
7 The FBI has reported 75 open cases of Americans kidnapped in Mexico.
8 In a poll by the daily newspaper La Reforma, Mexico City residents ranked public insecurity as a worse crisis than the economy by a 5-to-1 margin. In the past year, 20 percent were crime victims.
9 In the past year, Mexico's civil drug war has claimed some 6,300 lives.
10 Grammy-nominated singer Sergio Gomez was kidnapped and his genitals were burned with a blowtorch in December 2007, presumably for singing narco corridos, or “drug ballads.”