México's war on drugs is in the news today - top of the fold in the New York Times.

Mazatlán is in Sinaloa State, the home of the Sinaloa Cartel. Culiacán seems to be a center of violence as pressure by the police has incited the cartel to retaliate. Every day we read the newspaper and the drug deaths reported are an almost daily occurrence. Culiacán is about 90 miles from Mázatlan.

During Semana Santa we did see more large black Hummers and Suburbans with tinted windows. These are driven by drug cartel people and their families. As a counterpoint you also see the Federal Police and the Army also driving around. We are lucky here in that the drug people who come here are vacationing and so the tendency to violence is less.

México's President Calderon is saying that he won't back down. The US Congress has scaled back President Bush's drug plan. The US demand for drugs is what drives the cartels here in México, so it only seems logical to me that the US should participate fully in helping get the trade under control.

I wanted to bring the NY Times article to your attention - our heads are not in the sand here in México but here in Mazatlán the violence feels pretty removed.