Margaret Warner reports from Mexico:
The pressing economic debate here right now is how to make that next leap forward — the sort of debate any “normal” country might have in a campaign year.
But sadly, Mexico is not a “normal” country. It’s a nation stalked by organized crime and shocking drug-fueled violence, more than 50,000 lives taken in the last five-plus years, ever since President Felipe Calderon decided to use the military to take on the drug cartels. Children’s birthday parties have been shot up by gunmen; other children have been kidnapped for ransom. Cemeteries in the border city of Juarez are filling up fast with the thousands slain each year. Just last month, outside the gleaming city of Monterrey, 49 headless, limb-less bodies were dumped by the side of the road, an act barbarically videotaped in the dead of night and posted online by the Zetas drug cartel. Over the dark screen, one hears the chilling banter: “How many are left? How many are left?”
The Most Important Presidential Race You Haven’t Heard About
(Photo by MARIO VAZQUEZ/AFP/Getty Images)
