For a border perspective that comes from Tucson, I always recommend our amazing Tim Vanderpool, but not all border issues, especially those on the U.S.'s failed war on drugs, are best viewed from a Tucson lens. For a wider perspective, there are none better than Narco News' Bill Conroy. He's been prolific as of late, and I've had to play some catch-up. It's worth your time. His latest is an investigative piece that serves as a warning of what to expect from the administration of Peña Nieto, Mexico's newly elected president.

Not to start backwards, but Conroy ends with his heart:

Why would human nature be any different in Mexico, where some 120,000 human beings have been murdered and/or disappeared since late 2006 — all in the name of a drug war that seems incapable of stopping either the flow of drugs, money or blood?

You can read the entire post here.

Snippet:

Baruch Vega, a long-time CIA operative, has raised a red flag over the incoming president of Mexico’s decision to employ the former head of the Colombian National Police, Gen. Oscar Naranjo, as his security advisor in the war on drugs.

“I do not think Naranjo will be running a war against drugs,” Vega contends. “He will be running a war to protect Mexican drug traffickers.”

Vega contends there is a real danger that Mexican president-elect Enrique Peña Nieto is on a path to recreate a similar corrupt alliance between government security forces and major narco-traffickers — many shadowed in the trappings of legitimate business interests — as existed in the early to mid-2000s in Colombia during Naranjo’s rise to power in the Colombia National Police (CNP) while he also allegedly was assisting elements of the infamous North Valley Cartel.

In addition to the role Naranjo will play in helping to cultivate Mexico’s drug-war strategy for Peña Nieto, the president-elect has already made public his plans to stand up a paramilitary force, composed of ex-soldiers, that would be some 40,000 strong. Peña Nieto also hopes to created a single, consolidated national police force. With these tools, he says, the Mexican military can be replaced as the primary enforcer of security in the drug war in Mexico and the battle can be refocused from hunting down the top narco-capos to stemming street violence and other crimes against the community, such as extortion and kidnappings.