December 11,2008: Mexico has a terrorism problem, largely the result of gangs in the north (who move drugs into the U.S.) battling each other, and the police. This year, over 5,000 people have died from the violence, about twice as many killed last year. A major problem is the incompetence and corruption found in the local police. The drug gangs try to bribe the cops, and often succeed. When they don't, they start killing the clean cops, and that often terrorizes the police into ineffectiveness.

In response, the federal government has sent 20,000 soldiers and federal police north. In addition, the feds attempted to upgrade the local police. They have a lot of work to do. In addition to dirty cops, they found many of them unfit for police work. Existing police were given aptitude tests, and about half of them failed. In some areas, like Tijuana (south of California), 90 percent failed. It's not like there aren't enough qualified recruits, given the high unemployment rate, but that the jobs are often sold to those willing to pay. Many qualified recruits stay away because of the corruption. Now the feds want to try and get these potentially clean and capable men into uniform.

The military has been through this before, and know that corruption, not bullets, is their biggest danger. The gangs try, and often succeed, in bribing military commanders. The last thing the generals want is a lot of corrupted officers. So the military wants to crush the gangs as quickly as possible, and get their troops back to soldiering.