From the Independent (UK):

And drug-related bribery is gnawing deep into US institutions, as Calderon has long alleged. Thomas Frost of the US Department of Homeland Security says that last year the department accused 839 of its own agents of corruption. In evidence to a US Senate committee this month, Kevin Perkins of the division of the FBI charged with fighting corruption within the US government said his – presumably honest – staff had deployed some 120 agents along the border. They dug up more than 400 public corruption cases that resulted in well over 100 arrests and more than 130 state and federal prosecutions.

A multiplicity of US government agencies, some of them deeply infiltrated by narcos with their deep pockets, are falling over themselves in efforts to bring order to a chaotic situation: the Department of Customs and Border Protection, the Transportation Security Administration, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

...

Down the Rio Grande, in Matamoros and Reynosa, the drug cartels are taking over the prerogatives of the state. Cars of the local Gulf drug cartel cruise with darkened windows and no number plates, displaying transfers with the letters CDG, standing for Cartel del Golfo. According to the Mexico City daily El Universal, the drivers collect protection money from businessmen and shopkeepers, and fine other drivers for speeding or running through a red light.

When a state loses its monopoly on violence, its other prerogatives are soon to follow. And unlike the drug cartels, Mexico is running out of its biggest revenue producer:

Mexico had proven hydrocarbon reserves at the start of 2010 of 13.99 billion barrels of oil equivalent, which represents 10.2 years of output at the current level, state-owned Petroleos Mexicanos said.

More on the big confab between senior U.S. and Mexican officials in the wake of the murder of U.S. consulate employees in Juarez last week in the full entry.

From the Laredo Sun:

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton leads a high-level delegation to Mexico on Tuesday, a week after US consulate-linked killings galvanized attention on Mexico's surging violence.

The top US officials, including Defense Secretary Robert Gates, and their Mexican counterparts will assess a multi-million dollar package to help tackle Mexico's drug gangs, and were expected to focus on border cooperation around the country's most violent city of Ciudad Juarez.

That article also includes this staggering bit of analysis:

In an effort to restore confidence, the Mexican leader has presented a new plan to boost spending on social programs such as health and education in the city.

"Calderon is beginning to recognize that the war on the cartels cannot be won on a purely military basis, but instead needs to be part of a broader effort to reduce the incentives for engaging in illegal activities," Dan Erikson, a senior associate at the Inter-American Dialogue think-tank in Washington told AFP.

That's right, Mexican President Calderon is beginning to recognize that the military alone can't win. Good God. What he's been doing -- sending the Mexican Army in to occupy cities isn't working, and there's no plan B:

Meanwhile Calderon's temporarily replacement of notoriously corrupt police officers with soliders was under increasing scrutiny as the violence continued, not just in border areas but also near the famous Pacific beach resort of Acapulco, and other pockets around the country.
The army's record has also suffered from complaints of its sometimes brutal treatment of suspects.

Amid small efforts to train up new police, it was unclear whether a new strategy would be employed.

"The army has no interest in staying on the streets. But what is the alternative, practically speaking?" Antonio Mazzitelli, regional representative for the UN Office on Drugs and Crime for Mexico, said to AFP.

"This is the current situation and the army has to breach this time. Nobody else can breach it ... unless the territory is left to organized crime."

Equally disheartening, the Texas Governor's race shows that the Republicans are solely interested in using the situation in Juarez to indulge in racist fear mongering while the Democrats are assuming their usual supine "see no evil" position:

Responding last week to the slaying of a U.S. Consulate worker and two others in Juarez, (Republican Texas Governor Rick) Perry ramped up law enforcement operations along the border by activating a year-old contingency plan to deal with spillover violence. Several border-area mayors said Perry took the action without consulting them, and White suggested that Perry may be overstating the dangers for political gain.

"Exaggerating border violence can undermine economic development efforts of border communities, and that hurts Texas," (Democratic Gubernatorial Nominee Bill) White, a former three-term mayor of Houston, said in criticizing Perry's "secret" contingency plan.

But Perry said his action was necessary because the federal government has resisted his calls to strengthen border security.

"How many Americans will have to die before our federal government takes serious action along the Texas-Mexico border?" Perry asked in activating the plan.

Unfortunately, Perry's border plans are inevitably a hodge podge of boondoggle, race baiting and open invitations for Texas law enforcement to abuse their power and local citizens.