Misleading Headline

Excélsior tells us today, "Mexicans fear drug trafficking more than the crisis". That contradicts the consistent findings of the more reliable polls in Mexico (pretty much all of them except Pew show that the economic problems weigh on Mexicans more heavily than security), so it grabbed my attention. As it turned out, the poll was whether drug traffickers or the financial crisis represented a greater "national security" threat, a phrasing that of course tilts the playing field toward the former problem. Between drug trafficking, the arms trade, public insecurity, and kidnapping, 96 percent of Mexicans say that crime-related activities represent the greatest national-security threat to the nation. (Although if you add up all of the percentages offered, it slightly exceeds 100 percent, so perhaps we should take the article with a grain of salt.)

Other findings: schools are the most trusted institutions in Mexico, with 80 percent of Mexicans believing in the nation's educational institutions. This is followed by the Church (75 percent) and the army (74 percent). At the bottom of the list were the unions (30 percent), the police (29 percent) and the deputies (28 percent).