Katie Orlinsky (USA): Innocence Assassinated: Living in Mexico’s Drug War
In 2006, newly elected Mexican President Felipe Calderon declared war on the drug cartels. His intension was to take a stand against the violence, corruption and drug trafficking that had been increasing since 2000. Seven decades of one-party rule in Mexico ended and shifted the balance of power amongst drug cartels and corrupt officials. But Calderon’s war on drug cartels has only made the situation worse.
Mexico’s drug war is more than an armed conflict. It is a humanitarian crisis that has changed the lives of countless innocent people. The total drug war death toll has now reached over 30,000 people, and behind every murdered victim there is a family left to live with the consequences.
The feminization of Mexico’s drug war has become an undeniable reality. Women are becoming widows at alarming rates, left to fend for themselves in a shattered economy and easily lured into criminal activity such as drug trafficking and kidnapping: the only financial options available to support their families. Ciudad Juarez, the “front-line” of Mexico’s drug war, is the most extreme example of the many cities throughout Northern Mexico currently plagued by drug war violence and crime. And in the women’s prison of Ciudad Juarez, the country’s most dangerous city, … read more