Wednesday, March 25, 2009



Boston.com's Big Picture runs some very powerful images documenting the massive violence in Northern Mexico tied to its drug trade.

From Boston.com:
In December of 2006, Mexico's new President Felipe Calderón declared war on the drug cartels, reversing earlier government passiveness. Since then, the government has made some gains, but at a heavy price - gun battles, assasinations, kidnappings, fights between rival cartels, and reprisals have resulted in over 9,500 deaths since December 2006 - over 5,300 killed last year alone. President Barack Obama recently announced extra agents were being deployed to the border and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton heads to Mexico today to pursue a broad diplomatic agenda - overshadowed now by spiraling drug violence and fears of greater cross-border spillover. Officials on both sides of the border are committed to stopping the violence, and stemming the flow of drugs heading north and guns and cash heading south.

There is a lot we can do with our craft. As visual communicators where does this responsibility begin and end? These questions have been on my mind more than ever lately.

-Jon Snyder

Above: A body lies on a stainless steel table waiting for an autopsy at the morgue in Tijuana, Mexico, Monday, Jan. 19, 2009. (AP Photo/Guillermo Arias)

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