Mexican Drug Violence Escalates

Mexico’s northeastern region has seen a persistence of the violence spike that began earlier this year, evidenced in the hotel abduction of at least 6 people in one of the region’s premier business cities, Monterrey, a feat that occurred this Wednesday.

At 3 a.m., attackers entered the hotel with a hostage and began looking through rooms, abducting individuals and in some cases laptops. In the regions surrounding the U.S.-Mexico border, Mexican authorities and cartel attackers engage in elaborate skirmishes which alter the Mexican population into a state of anxiety and leave the drug related death toll at 3,000 less than halfway through the year.

Mexican authorities have advised American citizens not to use highways that connect the U.S. to places like Monterrey, where American economic interests are lodged.

Directing trucks to block traffic, where stalled cars are sometimes vandalized, abducting businessmen and women from hotels, as well as attacking local journalists and beheading policemen – all are measures that have been taken up by the drug cartels, retaliating each other and against the crackdown the government initiated in 2006.

Monterrey in particular was once considered a hub for blooming investment and entrepeneurship, a status the city is at threat of losing because of the recent violence and corruption.

In addition to the raid on two hotels, two students were killed last week in the city when a shootout between cartels broke out in front of a private university.

With basic institutions such as transport, lodging and education threatened, Mexico seems far from improvement.