Inside USA - Mexico's drug war  
 

This week Inside USA travels to Mexico to look at the country's drug war and to examine the role the US is playing in it.

The bodies are piling up - over 1,800 killings so far this year alone.

In the media it is usually portrayed as a campaign by Felipe Calderon, the Mexican president, to smash the power of Mexico's drug cartels. 

About 25,000 military troops and federal police have flooded into a number of cities.

The US is also wading into the fight with approximately a billion and a half dollars of direct military aid being pledged by George Bush.

Called the Merida initiative, or Plan Mexico, the move follows a similar blueprint to the widely criticised, and ultimately failed, Plan Colombia.  

Watch part two of this episode

This episode of Inside USA aired from Friday, July 18, 2008.

 
 

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