By Silja J.A. Talvi, AlterNet. Posted October 14, 2008.The U.S.-financed War on Drugs has had savage results in Mexico, and now its president wants to decriminalize pot, cocaine and heroin possession.
Even on his most homicidal of days, Al Pacino's character in Scarface couldn't even approach the level of drug trafficking-related brutality bleeding down Mexico's streets. It is no longer unusual for the Mexican news media to report on yet another, freshly decapitated head stuck atop a fencepost or a metal spike, or a garbage bag filled with body parts, usually with a hand-scrawled note or placard attached.
That amounts to a cartel's calling card, and it's usually delivered in the form of a warning to a rival cartel, or for the Mexican authorities to stay away and stop seizing their drugs. Other times, it's just a chilling placard intended to strike terror into the hearts of the people who come across the gory scene and the text: "Ha Ha Ha." To be sure that their message is heard, cartels are known to send regular text messages to newspaper reporters, place newspaper advertisements, or to even upload their own killing videos (sometimes accompanied by narco-corridos as background music) to YouTube. 
Mexican drug cartels are, rather effectively, fighting the government's War on Drugs with their own War of Terror, often swelling their ranks (and combat/terror tactics) with former members of law enforcement. The Zetas, for instance, are members of former Mexican counter-narcotics squads (some with U.S.-assisted training under their belts), who have become the self-proclaimed and much-feared hit men of the Gulf cartel.
http://www.alternet.org/drugreporter/102857/as_the_violence_soars2C_mexico_signals_it%27s_had_enough_of_america%27s_stupid_war_on_drugs/
12 months ago: Packages of cocaine seized during an operation are displayed at the 15th Infantry Battalion camp in the port of Tampico, northern Mexico, October 6, 2007. Mexican soldiers seized at least 10 tons of cocaine after a gunbattle with drug smugglers at a northern port town on Friday, the army said. The shootout happened during an anti-drugs operation in Tampico in Tamaulipas state, territory of the Gulf Cartel, one of the two most powerful Mexican drug gangs.
12 months ago: Packages of cocaine seized during an operation are displayed at the 15th Infantry Battalion camp in the port of Tampico, northern Mexico, October 6, 2007. Mexican soldiers seized at least 10 tons of cocaine after a gunbattle with drug smugglers at a northern port town on Friday, the army said. The shootout happened during an anti-drugs operation in Tampico in Tamaulipas state, territory of the Gulf Cartel, one of the two most powerful Mexican drug gangs.
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