Jordan's Queen Noor says that Mexico needs a "political will and a civil society uprising" and to defeat organized crime. (I'm not sure if she knows a great deal about the situation or not, but she was rumored to be having an affair with Carlos Slim last year. Which really isn't particularly relevant, but gossip is fun. Also, Michael Douglas was among those appearing at the forum where Noor spoke.) I imagine she was speaking in English, so maybe the translation makes it more hysterical (the article used the word levantamiento, which is ordinarily translated as uprising, but maybe she phrased it differently). But assuming she did say uprising, I wonder if she couldn't have picked a less inflammatory label for what Mexico needs. Any calls for uprising of any kind in 2010 are probably best done in private.
Furthermore, there are aspects in which the Mexican public could be a more constructive force, but I don't think it's fair to say that public uprising (or public outrage or more public involvement) is the missing element from a successful anti-drug policy. (More on blaming the public here.) Any discussion of what Mexico needs to defeat drug gangs must start from the understanding that as long as prohibition exists, entirely wiping them out is impossible, and even knocking them down a few pegs so that they are more like the less violent and more defensive gangs in Italy or the US is something that will require an almost superhuman effort sustained over the course of many years. There's not one or two or even six magic bullets that will make this go away.
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