I read a great blog post on Pura Vida that compares Mexico City with Gotham City. It has some startling statistics in it about the city we call home, and it references another article from the New York Times about crime in Mexico City (free registration required).

Some startling facts about Mexico

  • Since the end of 2006, the Calderón government has sent more than 25,000 soldiers and federal police on high-powered anti-drug “operations” to combat drug cartels.
  • This year is on pace to be the bloodiest on record for Mexico’s drug war, surpassing by almost 50 percent last year’s toll of more than 2,500 deaths.
  • The U.S. Congress has authorized $400 million worth of aid to Mexico for next year, including equipment and technical support for García Luna’s police.
  • In a national poll taken earlier this year in Mexico, 56% of Mexicans think the cartels are more powerful than the government.
  • A powerful drug cartel left a “hit list” of police chiefs and mayors on a monument to fallen police officers in February of this year. Of the 22 names on the list, 18 were assassinated within three months.
  • Last year the largest confiscation of cocaine in history – 23 tons – happened in Mexico and the amount of $207 million dollars was seized all in one house (there were entire rooms filled with hundred dollar bills stacked from floor to ceiling).

Please continue to pray for Mexico. It is definitely a spiritual battle that is being waged. We know that our struggle is not against flesh and blood, and we know who ultimately wins.

Each of the statistics above represent many lives and families that are being destroyed. Mexico needs your prayers.

(Photo by: bdebaca on flickr)