The Washington's Office of Latin America's September report Abused and Afraid in Ciudad Juarez (direct download here), while not containing any new and groundbreaking information, is a highly recommended read for those new to the new dilemmas of the massive militarization of Mexico's "war" against the drug gangs, and the explosion of human rights abuses in its wake.
It is particularly timely given that national defense commission in the Mexican Chamber of Deputies just endorsed a budget jump for the armed forces of 13.3 billion pesos, or around 1.1 billion dollars, in order to cover the cost of recruiting, training, and arming 10,000 more personnel.
The total defense budget will be around 65 billion pesos, around 5.3 billion. To put this is perspective: This is more than double of what was authorized to be spent on the armed forces when Calderón first came to power.
One should not be surprised to down the road learn of massive jumps in human rights abuses from the military either, one major criticism of Calderón's war that the president more often than not has chosen to ignore than to address seriously. I understand fully well that some of these drug gangs are so vicious and well armed that only military-grade forces can possibly take them on. Yet the thought of simply throwing 10,000 more troops in there profoundly worries me, for reasons the WOLA report expounds upon quite well.
