I'm writing this from one of the world's most dangerous cities. Last night at 7:30 pm, a gunman sprayed bullets at a crowd, killing four and wounding at least five people. The initial belief is that it was drug-related, but investigators are pursuing all leads. An AK-47 may or may not have been used.
"All l I saw was bodies dropping," said one witness. "It was like Vietnam."
Welcome to Washington DC. According to Kevin Casas-Zamora of the Brookings Institute, Mexico had a homicide rate of 11.5 people per 100,000 in 2008. Washington DC, by comparison, had a rate of 31 per 100,000.
Andres Oppenheimer cited Casas-Zamora's research in a recent column, and quoted him saying the following: "In [Mexico] as a whole, [the homicide rate] doesn't come even close to Washington, D.C.'s.''
Of course, comparing a country with a city is like comparing apples and oranges, and most experts don't like to do that. But maybe they should: they're both fruits, and the homicide rate is calculated per capita, so it shouldn't really make all that much difference.
PS - Ciudad Juarez is still far more dangerous than DC. With about 130 homicides per 100,000, according to some calculations, it is definitely worse than Washington DC.
Good reporting, but why don't you investigate The Tijuana Cartel and I say Tijuana because The AFO is just something that las tres letras invented. El Chapo did try to move in to Tijuana, he used El Teo and Muletas promised them alot of crap. But in the end El Ingeniero managed to defend whats left of the Tijuana Cartel which I think is still strong. Thats why I'm amazed you haven't covered The Drug Wars that have been occurring in Tijuana. Alot of Deaths and Decapitations... El Inge is like his uncle Ramon Arellano, that hate will always be there... I would suggest to Read El Semenario Zeta they have an article very interesting on the Tijuana Cartel, a few months back, on how they have manged to penetrate distribution networks in Los Angeles, Nevava, Chicago, New York, Colorado etc. Gracias
ReplyDeleteI apologize on my spelling, I was typing fast. Las Vegas, NEVADA.
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