Murder, corruption, and political instability have been the most visible results of the campaign launched by President Vincente Fox; among the victims are more than 200 Mexican soldiers and police officers. Meanwhile, in the U.S., the street price for cocaine has actually gone down, according to the United Nations drug office.

"The Americans pressure us to carry out a head-on drug war, and when the situation starts to get out of control, the Americans complain that there is violence on the border," said Jose Antonio Crespo, a Mexican political commentator. "If the United States is not going to legalize drugs, then Mexico has to come to terms with the narcos. There were agreements in the past to let 80 percent of the drugs through, to allow some seizures for the Americans and for the media, and there was a lot less violence."

But Fox said that the future of Mexico's youth is at stake in the battle, and the White House drug-policy office said it was in Mexico's self-interest to defeat the cartels.

"If drugs transit through your country and you think, 'Well it's just for those norteamericanos. The money comes to us, the drugs to them. What's the problem?', they soon discover drugs are left behind as payment in kind for services provided.  And local traffickers soon become drug dealers.  And to whom do they sell? To local kids," said Dave Murray, a spokesperson for the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. "The problems will become worse and worse as narcotraffickers corrode the system ... and you will find them growing into a power within the nation that can actually threaten the legitimacy and viability of democratic governments."

Others contend that such destabilization is happening now because of the anti-narcotics war; the Mexican public is increasingly jittery about security. "The policy is working in part, in the sense that we are catching and arresting the drug lords," said Sigrid Arzt of the nonprofit group Democracy, Human Rights and Security. "The problem is that the policy has focused on beheading the cartels without additional strategies to deal with consumption and things the U.S. should do in its own territory, such as decreasing the market. There will always be someone in line to succeed these drug kingpins. I mean, this is a huge economic business."

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