The War in México: The Victims

Part 5: The Victims

Last year, an estimated 6,290 people were killed in México due to drug-related violence. That's double compared to 2007 and four times the amount of people killed in 2006. In only the first two months of 2009, over one thousand people were killed.

Anyone can be a victim: drug cartel associates, police officers, journalists, politicians and innocent bystanders. In one gruesome case, a man dubbed "El Pozolero" is accused of dissolving the bodies of at least 300 people in acid. The violence is slowly trickling north across the border: Arizona is now considered the kidnapping capital of the U.S. as Mexican drug cartels kidnap and extort immigrants to raise funds.

The violence is taking its toll on millions more in indirect ways. Tourism in the city of Tijuana, just across from San Diego, California, has dropped by 90 percent in the last three years. Ciudad Juárez, now considered the epicenter of drug violence in México, experienced a 20 percent drop in tourism last year. As remittances dry up, México is even more reliant on tourism to cities like Cancún and Acapulco. A few weeks ago, the U.S. State Department warned American college students not to celebrate Spring Break in Mexico.

A report from the Pentagon singled out Pakistan and México as two countries that could be in danger of a "rapid and sudden collapse. President Felipe Calderón, who added an extra $6.5 billion to México's public security budget to combat drug trafficking, has taken exception with claims his country is collapsing: "To say that México is a failed state is absolutely false. I have not lost any part — any single part — of Mexican territory."