ABSTRACT
Soon after winning elections by a modest margin in 2006, Mexico's new President, Felipe Calderón, declared drug trafficking organizations (DTOs) enemy number one. 1 He made the recovery of public security one of his three principal priorities — together with reducing extreme poverty and creating jobs. The administration launched an ambitious plan to combat DTOs and drug trafficking that combined military action against the cartels with a wide array of institutional reforms intended to strengthen the police, the justice system, and to fight corruption. In short, Mexico re-launched the war on drugs with the full backing of its powerful northern neighbor.
