Since the Mexican government initiated a military offensive
against its country's powerful drug cartels in December 2006, some
50,000 people have perished and the drugs continue to flow. The
growing violence has created concerns that Mexico could become a
failed state, and U.S. political leaders also worry that the
corruption and violence is seeping across the border into the
United States.
In his compelling new book, Ted Galen Carpenter details the
growing horror overtaking Mexico and explains how the current
U.S.-backed strategies for trying to stem Mexico's drug violence
have been a disaster. Boldly conveyed in The Fire Next
Door, the only effective strategy is to defund the Mexican
drug cartels by abandoning the failed drug prohibition policy,
thereby eliminating the lucrative black-market premium and greatly
reducing the financial resources of the drug cartels.
