FoxNews.com | Associated Press
Published November 23, 2010
AP – Nov. 19: Mexican soldiers inspect a home as residents flee border towns up and down the Rio Grande valley.
MEXICO CITY – Nearly half the Mexican public considers President Felipe Calderon’s offensive against drug cartels a failure, a poll suggested Tuesday for the first time since the conservative leader launched the deadly crackdown in 2006.
The survey shows 49 percent of respondents consider the crackdown has failed, compared with just 33 percent who think it has succeeded. Last time the Mitofsky polling agency conducted the same survey, in March, the results were almost the opposite, with 47 percent of those polled considering the drug war a success, while 36 percent thought it a failure.
Observers say the turnaround in opinion is a reflection of the public’s growing impatience with the crackdown, which has seen more than 28,000 people killed since December 2006.
“This is precisely because (people) aren’t seeing insecurity go down,” said Eduardo Gallo, whose association, Mexico United Against Violence, sponsored the survey.