Is The Mexican Military Out Of Control?

In a 2001 shootout in Yurécuaro, Mexican soldiers killed four men said to be members of a drug gang. A bystander was also killed, the local news media reported. Credit Leovigildo Gonzalez/Reuters

Reuters: Body Count Points to a Mexican Military Out of Control

MEXICO CITY — In the history of modern war, fighters are much more likely to injure their enemies than kill them.

But in Mexico, the opposite is true.

According to the government’s own figures, Mexico’s armed forces are exceptionally efficient killers — stacking up bodies at extraordinary rates.

The Mexican authorities say the nation’s soldiers are simply better trained and more skilled than the cartels they battle.

But experts who study the issue say Mexico’s kill rate is practically unheard-of, arguing that the numbers reveal something more ominous.

“They are summary executions,” said Paul Chevigny, a retired New York University professor who pioneered the study of lethality among armed forces.

In many forms of combat between armed groups, about four people are injured for each person killed, according to an assessment of wars since the late 1970s by the International Committee of the Red Cross. Sometimes, the number of wounded is even higher.

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WNU Editor: From covering the Mexican drug cartel war for years on this blog .... I can say without any reservation that the Mexican military has been brutal and uncompromising in its war against the drug cartels. But while it is easy to blame the Mexican army .... the real blame should be on their political masters .... they are the ones who writing the rules on how this war should be fought.