STEVE INSKEEP, host:
It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.
MADELEINE BRAND, host:
And I'm Madeleine Brand.
Last week, an assistant school principal from Southern California was in Mexico, where he was visiting family and friends. Augustin Roberto Salcedo was abducted and killed in the state of Durango. This case attracted attention because the victim was an American and was apparently just a visitor. NPR's Jason Beaubien joins us from Mexico City to talk about this case and the ongoing violence in Mexico.
And Jason, what do you know about Salcedo's murder? And really, how common is it for an American to be killed in Mexico?
JASON BEAUBIEN: It's really not that common for Americans to get caught up in this violence that's been sweeping Mexico. But what is sort of interesting is that the people who are getting caught up are people like Salcedo. He was born and raised in the Los Angeles area, son of Mexican immigrants, all- American success story, by all accounts.
And he was back, yes, as you said, visiting relatives. He was in a restaurant. Gunmen burst in, abducted him and five other men. The next day, they were all found shot to death. It's not that common for people visiting Mexico to get targeted.
But he was in Durango, which has become one of the hot spots in this drug war. And it's places like that, that people are getting caught up in this violence that's just been sweeping the nation.
BRAND: Well, you mentioned the drug war. The Mexican news media, they've been reporting that there were almost 8,000 violent homicides, that they're calling drug-related killings, last year in Mexico. That's amazing: 8,000.
BEAUBIEN: It's really a staggering number. And it's a number that just keeps going up. Mexican President Felipe Calderon launched his offensive against the drug cartels here when he came to power, which was in December of 2006. So his drug war really got going in 2007. And in that year, you had roughly 2,700 casualties that were considered drug-related killings - soldiers, police, cartel members, local politicians, people like that.
And then in 2008, it jumped up, almost doubled, to 5,600. And there was a lot of talk that the drug war was peaking. Well, then in 2009, we're hitting almost 8,000 killings. In some places in particular, Ciudad Juarez being the leader, the murder capital of Mexico, you went from having 320 drug-related killings in 2007, when this drug war got going, to 2,600 in 2009.
BRAND: So, as you say, if someone like Roberto Salcedo, who is down there for the holidays, or just someone visiting family in Mexico - if that person's not a typical victim in this drug war, who is?
BEAUBIEN: For the most part, this has been fighting within the cartels, fighting for control of these organizations as they have been getting attacked by the state. So you've had police, you've had soldiers, you've had gunmen within the cartels. But you've also had prosecutors. You've had journalists.
And then as this increasing pressure has been brought down on the drug cartels, they've been sort of expanding into kidnapping and extortion. And this is causing other people, just local businessmen, to also get killed.
BRAND: The Mexican government has deployed about 50,000 troops, and tens of thousands of federal police, to fight these drug cartels. Any success there?
BEAUBIEN: Just this weekend, they captured Carlos Beltran Leyva, which is -this is a huge victory for them, in part because the Mexican navy managed to kill the leader of the Beltran Leyva cartel two weeks ago. So now this cartel, which is really one of the largest in Mexico, is sort of leaderless at the moment.
But at the same time, the Mexican cartels, over the last decade, have gone from controlling about 50 percent of the cocaine that is getting smuggled into the United States, to now controlling 90 percent of the cocaine.
So you've got these organizations that are vying for control of smuggling routes that are worth of billions of dollars - tens of billions of dollars a year. So it seems like even if the Mexican government takes out one drug lord or one drug cartel, another one pops up to take its place.
BRAND: NPR's Jason Beaubien, in Mexico City. Thank you, Jason.
BEAUBIEN: You're welcome.