Mexico saw the most killings in decades last year. Among them –at least ten journalists. The record violence is the third consecutive annual increase under President Enrique Pena Nieto.

CGTN’s Alasdair Baverstock reports that while other factors contributed to the bloodshed, the key component is, quite simply, drugs.

To discuss:

• Eric Olson is  a senior adviser to the Wilson Center’s Mexico Institute and deputy director of its Latin American Program.
• David Shirk heads the Justice in Mexico Project at the University of San Diego, where he teaches political science and international relations.
• Juan Carlos Hidalgo is a Latin America policy analyst at the Cato Institute here in Washington, D.C.
• Alejandro Madrazo is a Mexican law professor and currently a visiting Human Rights fellow at Yale Law School in New Haven, Connecticut.

For more:

https://twitter.com/baztand/status/955292977055723521

Reuters – Mexico to send troops to stem violence after record 25,000 murders https://t.co/0KxAF3ufsO

— Small Wars Journal (@smallwars) January 28, 2018