Increased Violence as a Drug War Metric

Via the BBC:  Hillary Clinton backs Mexico drug war comes the following:

The Mexican authorities argue that the rising violence shows that the gangs are being weakened and turning increasingly on each other, but critics argue the use of troops has only served to provoke increasingly gruesome murders.

Emphasis mine.

This is not an isolated notion (see here for another, more egregious, example).  Of course, if increased violence is to be considered a metric for success, perhaps we need to reassess our goals, yes?

Meanwhile, the violence in Mexico is, indeed, staggering in scope: “Last year was the bloodiest so far, with 15,273 drug-related killings, according to Mexican government figures.”

The trend in recent years is as follows:

FILED UNDER: Latin America, National Security, US Politics, World Politics, , , ,
Steven L. Taylor
About Steven L. Taylor
Steven L. Taylor is a retired Professor of Political Science and former College of Arts and Sciences Dean. His main areas of expertise include parties, elections, and the institutional design of democracies. His most recent book is the co-authored A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country Perspective. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. He has been blogging since 2003 (originally at the now defunct Poliblog). Follow Steven on Twitter

Comments

  1. mantis says:

    The Mexican authorities argue that the rising violence shows that the gangs are being weakened and turning increasingly on each other…

    When did Dick Cheney start working for the Mexican government?

  2. pfroehlich2004 says:

    I wonder if Hillary can give us an estimate on how many deaths will be necessary to achieve total victory.

  3. Duncan20903 says:

    Richard Nixon dropped bombs to make peace.