By Tom Ashbrook.

Mexico’s raging drug war came to Acapulco last week. Gunmen disguised as soldiers stormed two police stations with automatic weapons and video cameras.

They killed seven police and staff – and taped the whole thing. The Acapulco killings were just one more deadly skirmish in a suddenly white hot war between Mexico’s central government and the drug kingpins and cartels that feed the U.S. market for illegal drugs.

Since taking office in December, president Felipe Calderon has ordered thousands of federal troops into the fray, disarmed whole corrupt police forces, extradited drug lords to American prisons and vowed “no truce and no quarter”.

This hour On Point: inside Mexico’s complex war on the drug trade.

Guests:

Sam Enriquez, Mexico City correspondent for the Los Angeles Times

Joy Olson, Executive Director, Washington Office on Latin America, which promotes human rights in Latin American and tracks drug trafficking cartels

Arturo Alvarado, Research professor at El Colegio de Mexico.
He is currently a visiting professor at the Watson Institute at Brown University

Santiago Vaconcelos, Deputy Attorney General, Mexico

D’Wayne Jernigan, Sheriff, Val Verde County, which is on the border with Mexico