Q & AThe Americas

Mexico’s Growing Frustration With U.S.-Backed Drug War

Major protests in Mexico this month highlighted mounting frustration among many Mexicans toward violence that has claimed some 36,000 lives in the country since President Felipe Calderón declared war on drug cartels five years ago.

Some are now questioning the implications such public dissatisfaction may carry for the United States, which for the past several years has pursued a policy of supporting Calderón's fight against the cartels.

"The big question is what will happen in Mexico's 2012 presidential election," says Hal Brands, a historian at Duke University's Sanford School of Public Policy and a World Politics Review contributor.

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