Ten years after Mexico declared a war on drugs, the offensive has left some major drug cartels splintered and many old-line kingpins such as Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman in jail, but done little to reduce crime or violence in the nation’s roughest regions.
Some say the war has been a crucial, but flawed, effort. Others argue the offensive begun by then-President Felipe Calderon on Dec. 11, 2006, unleashed an unnecessary tragedy with more than 100,000 people dead and about 30,000 missing, a toll comparable to the Central American civil wars of the 1980s.
