There is a civil war going on in mexico, that's the only way to describe it. Armed insurrection against the government with a force of over a hundred thousand soldiers, and so far the death toll has been in the range of ten thousand civilians a year or more.

And yet you probably haven't seen as much news coverage of what's going on there as you have of, say, goings on in Syria.

It's a peculiar civil war though because one side doesn't care about ruling or controlling territory per se, they just care about being able to operate their business.

Yes, nearly 50,000 people have died in Mexico since Zedillo essentially declared armed war on the cartels in 2006.

Almost 10,000 people per year.

Given the scale of the violence, you'd expect more news coverage in the USA. I didn't learn of this until I traveled in Mexico for a while last summer.

I think you mean Calderón.

You're right - it was Felipe Calderon who declared war on the narcos in 2006.

"one side doesn't care about ruling or controlling territory per se,"

For now.

It kind of looks like it may have peaked last year, though I suspect that's just data noise as opposed to some fundamental improvements.