May 21, 2008 10:54AM 

# In Mexico, It’s a War 

By [Juan Carlos Hidalgo](https://www.cato.org/people/juan-carlos-hidalgo) 

---

<a class="js-popover-trigger cursor-pointer popover-trigger" data-bs-placement="bottom" data-bs-trigger="click" id="popover-trigger"> 

SHARE 

</a> 

“The war on drugs has never seemed less like a metaphor” [claims](http://www.economist.com/world/la/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11376335) *The Economist* this week, referring to Mexico’s drug violence. The British newspaper is right. Just yesterday, there [were 34 drug-related executions](http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/notas/508383.html) in that country. So far this year, there have been 1.356 similar killings in Mexico.

Cato’s Ted Galen Carpenter wrote a few years ago that [Mexico risked becoming the next Colombia](https://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=5149). It’s seems we’re already there.

##### Related Tags 

[General](https://www.cato.org/general) 

[![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) 
This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).