ABSTRACT
In Mexico, the War on Drugs has become a true war. Between 2006 and 2010, there were 977 gunfights between cartels/gangs and Mexican security forces, compared to just 309 between rival cartels/gangs. According to the National Public Radio (NPR), drug trafficking and organized crime had infiltrated the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) in Mexico for decades, through bribery and corruption. The PRI had a monopoly on power and controlled the media, oil fields, politics, and the drug trade. With the end of the PRI's one-party rule in Mexico has come the need to run expensive election campaigns, which the drug cartels are reported to be funding. Murders and street gun battles are only part of a more entrenched problem that includes corrupt police forces and inefficient judiciary. Little progress will be made until Mexico's local and state-level police and judiciary are reformed.
