#drug-cartels

#drug-cartels

What will stop them is when you blow them up, when you get rid of them,

Mexico's senate devolved into violence this week as two of the country's top politicians shoved, grabbed and shouted at each other after a heated discussion over the presence of foreign troops. Alejandro Alito Moreno, head of the opposition Institutional Revolutionary party (Pri), grabbed at Gerardo Fernandez Norona, the senate president from the ruling Morena party, after lawmakers finished singing the national anthem to mark the end of the day's session on Wednesday.

In his guilty plea, the veteran Mexican drug lord publicly acknowledged what was already widely known: that he bribed police officials, military personnel, and politicians to operate freely in the country. The allusion to that last group, elected representatives, has sent a chill through the entire Mexican political class. The statement is brief and general, so general that anyone could use it as a weapon, even at the risk of it coming back to haunt them.

The new policy against white-collar crime implies that Washington will demand stronger action from countries like Mexico against corrupt public officials and drug cartels.