A Failing State?

With a handicap of not reading Spanish, one might think it difficult to find news of government and politics in Mexico. However, when looking at recent headlines from reports in the Los Angeles Times, there's a pattern that does not bode well for either government or politics in Mexico. (Even with the media tendency to report on conflict and violence before other things.)

Mexico City an unlikely draw for those fleeing drug war violence
Calderon replaces Mexico attorney general
Ciudad Juarez's top police official accused of rights abuses
Thousands across Mexico protest drug violence
Mexican officials find 59 bodies in mass graves
13 more bodies found in Mexico mass graves

The BBC reports:

The discovery of at least 116 bodies in mass graves in the north-eastern Mexican state of Tamaulipas has become the most gruesome incident in the country's four-year war against drug cartels.

The city of San Fernando, about 150km (93 miles) from the border with Texas, has previously been hit by drug-related violence on a massive scale and efforts to control the situation there appear futile.

Last August the bodies of 72 Central and South American migrants were found on the outskirts of the city.

The migrants, making their way to the border, were killed by drug gang members after they refused to work for them.'Haven for traffickers'
The federal government deployed hundreds more troops in the area and promised to improve the security situation.

But less than eight months later an even deadlier massacre has taken place in the same spot, allegedly after passengers on long distance buses were kidnapped by the Zetas, one of Mexico's most violent drug cartels.

Criminal groups are more effective at collecting 'taxes' than Tamaulipas' own government”End Quote Alberto Islas Security analyst, Mexico City. These tragedies, along with the targeted killings of top officials and members of the security forces, are fuelling thoughts of Tamaulipas as a possible "failed state" within Mexico - a haven for drug traffickers, people smugglers and criminals of all kinds.

The federal government strongly rejects this view.

But state governor Egidio Torre Cantu recently said the violence was not only a threat to the people of Tamaulipas, but also "a situation that affects Mexico's internal security."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-13061452