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The Mexican federal government can’t rely on local or state police for, well, anything. In areas where they operate, the drugs cartels have co-opted, cowed or killed them all. And so the federales have sent thousands of soldiers to “pacify” cartel controlled areas. Nope. Not working. Next? Calderon’s mob are training a new force: the Fuerza Civil or Civil Guard. Click here for the Civil Guard’s web page and YouTube recruiting video. The Fuerza’s offering better pay than the local po-po. They get to play with full-auto American ARs (your tax money hard at work). And there’s anti-corruption training! Setting aside concerns about the death of local democracy, good luck to the newbie crime fighters. Policing within the framework of the Mexican/American “War on Drugs”—a policy that allows some cartels to do biz while targeting others—can’t be easy. In fact, the new police force is little more than window dressing before the Mexican general elections, and brings to mind the expression “lambs to the slaughter.”