Mexico: Fox's Uphill Battle to Win the Drug War

Mexican President Vicente Fox recently deployed some 1,500 soldiers and federal police agents to Nuevo Laredo and seven other lawless cities in an operation that will be expanded in coming weeks to other parts of Mexico. However, the Fox government's "Operation Safe Mexico" will fail to dismantle Mexico's powerful drug cartels or contain escalating violence associated with rival drug-trafficking organizations' permanent efforts to rule Mexico's $50 billion-a-year illegal-drug industry. Moreover, an emerging crack-cocaine epidemic will drive Mexico's crime rates sharply higher in coming years.