IR/PS Alumni Association President Ben Bahney '06 featured in San Diego Union Tribune
"Assessing Mexico's narco-violence"
05/14/2009
Benjamin Bahney and Agnes Gereben Schaefer,
San Diego Union Tribune
"Drug-related violence in Mexico has more than doubled over the past 18 months, with a sharp increase in crimes that can only be understood as atrocities. The gruesome executions posted on YouTube, the assassinations of police officials and politicians, the more than 200 decapitations in the past year, and the use of high-powered weapons such as assault rifles and grenade launchers may all seem wanton and senseless.
After all, these are some of the same tactics used by al-Qaeda in Iraq. But this violence actually has a purpose. It is a strategic campaign by the cartels to terrorize the Mexican public and sap support for the government's campaign to tamp down cartel activity."
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