Mexico’s drug war protests as death toll grows

Democracy Now!:

A march against the U.S.-backed war on drugs drew 20,000 people into the streets of Mexico City on Sunday, calling attention to the country’s gruesome drug war-related violence that has claimed more than 38,000 lives since Mexican President Felipe Calderón launched the campaign against drug traffickers and cartels in 2006. Congress has appropriated $1.5 billion for Mexico’s drug war since 2008. The march began in the central Mexican state of Morelos, led by the Mexican poet Javier Sicilia, whose 24-year-old son was killed by gunmen earlier this year. We speak with Molly Molloy, an expert on the drug war and U.S.-Mexican border issues, and co-editor of the new book El Sicario: The Autobiography of a Mexican Assassin. "I believe it’s a war on the Mexican people, carried out by the Mexican government," Molloy says.