TSR: "Mexico is
essentially at war with itself."
Friday, February 27, 2009
Length: 3:10
LARGE (44.1 MB)
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SMALL (3.9 MB)
Wolf Blitzer talks to Michael about the Mexican
drug cartels' war with the police/Army there, and
Michael points out some unpleasant parallels to the
civil war he covered in Iraq.
WOLF
BLITZER: Some people hope it offers vacation
paradise, but for others, it's a nightmarish hell. In
parts of Mexico right now, violent gunmen are trading
bullets, and innocent people are being caught in
crossfires in a violent drug war.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MICHAEL WARE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is
the cartel war in Mexico, a conflict raging on
America's doorstep, a conflict in which Juarez police
officers like this one, under attack from a drug
gang, are fighting for their lives, while the drug
cartels are battling throughout the city for control
of a lucrative drug route into the United States.
Sixteen hundred people killed in this city last year.
That's three times more than the most murderous city
in America.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: That was CNN's Michael Ware.
Michael's joining us now. He has covered the drug war
violence unfolding in parts of Mexico.
Michael, all of our viewers know you have covered the
war in Iraq. But -- correct me if I'm wrong -- you
believe what's happening in this part of Mexico is
even more dangerous and deadly than what you have
seen in Iraq?
WARE: Well, it's different kinds of danger, but it
certainly shows no mercy whatsoever.
And the stakes, in some ways, perhaps are just as
high. We're not talking about global jihad or al
Qaeda, but we're talking about a real national
security threat to the United States. And let's bear
in mind, Mexico is essentially at war with itself.
And I don't mean that in a literary sense. I mean
that in reality, I mean, in one town alone, as we saw
there, 1,600 dead in one year, 400 already this year.
And we're seeing some harbingers of Iraq: beheadings,
paramilitaries essentially operating as militias,
intimidating populations, governments and police
forces.
And all of this is fueled by America's demand for
illicit drugs, and is being fought on both sides,
government and cartel, with American weapons.
So, yeah, this is a dangerous place. This is a
dangerous dynamic. And it's not just on America's
doorstep. It's inside your front yard -- Wolf.
BLITZER: So, where's the Mexican government and the
Mexican police? Have they lost control?
WARE: Well, that's if they ever had it.
Now, let's look at the police: either locals -- say,
in Juarez, -- or the national police, the federales.
They're so riddled with corruption. The cartel drug
money speaks volumes, much more than anything the
government can offer. Indeed, in Juarez, we saw they
had 1,600 police. They let 800 of them go because
they failed the polygraph or wouldn't take the
polygraph.
But the president of Mexico two years ago when he
came into office, declared war. And we now have
45,000 Mexican soldiers fighting the cartels -- Wolf.
BLITZER: Michael Ware reporting on this story --
thanks, Michael, very much.
A brutal, brutal situation.