la guerra fallida?

The US State Department's annual global drug trafficking report came out today, and the news is, well, pretty grim.

In 2005, the year before Calderon took office, Mexico cultivated 3,300 hectares of opium poppy. In 2006, it was 5,000 hectares. In 2007, it was 6,900 hectares. In 2008, it was 15,000 hectares. Figures aren't yet available for 2009, but you get the sense of where this is going.

It's the same story for marijuana: 5,600 hectares in 2005, 8,600 in 2006, 8,900 in 2007, and 12,000 in 2008.

And yet, the State Department manages to praise the Calderon administration. "Mexico’s aggressive campaign to combat drugs and confront major drug trafficking organizations (DTOs) continued at an ambitious pace in 2009."

Cute.