Mexico is country at war and the toll is staggering. As many as 40,000 have died as ruthless drug cartels fight for turf and trade, the government aggressively and uncompromisingly targets the traffickers and innocent bystanders get caught in the crossfire.

Wedged between the drugs hot spots of Central and South America and the enormous marketplace in the United States, Mexico is the conduit for a trade estimated at an incredible $40 billion. It’s no wonder its traffickers are at each others’ throats for a bigger slice of the action.

Sociopaths like El Chapo or Shorty. When Osama Bin Laden was shot and killed, Joaquin Guzman immediately took his place as the world’s most wanted fiend. A billionaire, his cartel is muscling up on a number of new fronts, including the region of Guerrero which envelopes Acapulco.

Guzman is accused of ordering the killing of a rival a few years ago that started the drugs war spiral but Mexico’s President Filipe Calderon is also under fire for instructing his troops to take on the drug cartels.

“I think he is responsible for the policies that led to the deaths of many of the 40,000 who died. There are easily 10,000 to 15,000 of those 40,000 who were either innocent bystanders or victims of abuses by the army.” JORGE CASTAÑEDA Former Foreign Minister

North America correspondent Michael Brissenden charts Mexico’s ugly, gruesome descent that’s made many parts of the country among the most dangerous on the planet.

But he’s also sensed a potent groundswell of discontent among many Mexicans who’ve embraced the declaration Hasta La Madre. They’re saying enough is enough and are rallying around figures like poet Javier Sicilia who lost his student son in the maelstrom of drug trade violence. 24 year old Juan Francisco Sicilia was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time when he was kidnapped along with 6 others, tortured and murdered.

"This stupid and badly planned war that is being fought amidst the corruption of our institutions, it’s become a war against our people where we have become victims of fear.” JAVIER SICILIA Poet and father of drugs war victim

Acapulco general views

Music

00:00

BRISSENDEN: It was once so beautiful, so exotic

00:14

Music

00:18

BRISSENDEN: There are signs – here and there – of its former glorious life, of the way things once were, but now it looks like a developer’s folly - or an abandoned set for a Hollywood film about a star-filled, fun-filled glamorous get away.

00:22

Archival. Acapulco hedonism

Only it really was a hip destination, the playground of the stars.

00:46

Music

00:51

BRISSENDEN:  In the 1960s and ‘70s, Acapulco was a golden stretch of hi-ball hedonism. Celebrities flocked to famous hotels like Los Flamingos and the Mirador.

01:02

Music

01:13

FRANCISCO ALBA: “Stars like Engelbert Humperdinck, like I used to see Tom Jones walking by the beach, you know, like

01:18

Cisco

Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton - Johnny Weissmuller, of course he was Tarzan, you know he died and he lived here for many years”.

01:25

Acapulco beachfront high-rise

Music

01:37

Cisco photos.

01:44

BRISSENDEN: Cisco Alba came here as, well a kid. He became an Acapulco crooner and back in the day he was a fixture alongside the big names.

01:49

FRANCISCO ALBA: “I came here in 1969. The nightlife was beautiful, you know? I was playing in the Hyatt Regency for that times with my big band.

02:01

Cisco. Super:
Francisco Alba, Singer

Ah, a lot of chichas... a lot of senoritas, a lot of everything, you know. I really enjoyed it”.

02:13

Tourist boats

BRISSENDEN: And with the A-list came the tourists. Acapulco was front and centre in Mexico’s biggest economic money spinner – tourism.

02:23

That, as they say, was then – this, is now.

02:34

Cisco

FRANCISCO ALBA: “I love Mexico. I love my country and it’s sad for me to see it.

02:39

If you see in the Costerra, the main avenue, many places are closed. They just rent..... for rent, for rent, for rent, for rent.

02:46

So we are in problems, you know, economic problems”.

02:56

Man diving/Tourists on boat

BRISSENDEN: Once 90% of the tourist crowds here were foreigners, mostly Americans and Europeans. Now they account for 5% of the business and that’s because Mexico is at war –

03:06

Montage:  Bullet holes/Bodies/Men in balaclavas

Sirens/Gunshots

03:22

BRISSENDEN:  -- a very brutal, bloody and dangerous drugs war and places like Acapulco are right in the firing line.

03:26

JORGE CASTAÑEDA: “You’re here reporting on the war. You’re not here reporting on the beautiful Mexican beaches and asking Australian tourists to come here.

03:38

Castañeda. Super:
Jorge Castañeda, Former Foreign Minister

Well this doesn’t do a country whose main industry is tourism, a whole lot of good.

03:49

Montage:  Bullet holes/Bodies/

Sirens/Gunshots

03:55

JORGE CASTAÑEDA:  If our main industry were smokestacks or sheep or whatever, who cares what people think about us? Our main industry that gives more jobs to more people than anything else in Mexico was tourism.

03:59

Men with guns/Bodies on street

Well that’s not great. You can’t invite people, you know why don’t you come and visit or spend your weekends here, we’re a country at war, but we’re winning the war! Who wants to go and visit a country at war?”

04:08

Acapulco

Music

04:24

Filleting fish

BRISSENDEN: In Acapulco last year rivalry between competing drug cartels saw 370 people murdered and they can be gruesome - beheadings, mass killings. This year 50 people have died violently here.

04:34

News footage. Drug killing

Music

04:49

BRISSENDEN:  Mexico’s drug busts, killings and reprisals fill local TV bulletins and take their place in network news across the border and around the world. The image for would-be visitors is no longer fun-filled, but rather blood soaked and they’re staying away in droves.

04:56

Mexico. General views. People.

Mexico is sandwiched between some of the biggest drug producers in the world and the world’s biggest drug market. It’s been an important part of the international drug trade for decades, but the decision to go to war against the powerful drug cartels has changed everything and while the violence is often concentrated in small pockets of the country, it’s paralysing the nation.

05:22

Aerials.

Music

05:44

President Calderon makes speech

BRISSENDEN:   When Mexico’s President, Felipe Calderon, scraped into office six years ago, it was one of his first and certainly one of his most contentious decisions.

05:51

PRESIDENT FELIPE CALDERON: [Translation of speech] “The Federal Government under my charge listens and shares the concerns of Mexicans.

06:00

News footage. Car pile up

That’s why we’re working each day to take on and stop these criminals”.

06:06

Car riddled with bullets

BRISSENDEN: Mexico was no longer going to turn a blind eye to the rivers of narcotics coursing south to north through the country. Government forces were directed to crack the cartels. But he’d picked a fight with a sleeping giant and in the fury that’s raged since, forty thousand lives have been lost and tens of billions of dollars expended.

06:16

JORGE CASTAÑEDA: “He kicked the beehive without any protection,

06:38

Castañeda

without any anti-bee disinfectant and he really created an enormous mess which is now very difficult to get out of”.

06:41

BRISSENDEN: Jorge Castañeda was Mexico’s foreign minister under the previous president, Vicente Fox. These days he’s a fierce critic of the crackdown.

JORGE CASTAÑEDA: “This is all unnecessary.

06:50

If the Americans want to stop drugs in the United States, let them do it. We don’t have a drug problem in Mexico. It’s not true. We don’t have a serious, we didn’t have a serious crime problem. We now have one, but we didn’t have one before and there was no logic in what he did”.

07:01

Music

07:18

BRISSENDEN: One figure casting a shadow over Acapulco is

07:26

Photos. Joaquin Guzman

El Chapo or Shorty. Joaquin Guzman, leader of the Sinaloa cartel, Mexico’s biggest.

07:29

Guerrero

It’s fighting others for control of key centres of Guerrero, the region enveloping Acapulco. When Osama Bin Laden was rubbed from the FBI and Interpol’s Most Wanted list, El Chapo went straight to the top. He’s a billionaire dealing mainly in cocaine by the tonne.

07:36

Drug bust

He’s accused of ordering the killing of a rival that started the cycle of reprisals which in turn led to Calderon’s declaration of war.

“Would you say President Calderon directly has blood on his hands?”

 08:00

Castañeda. Super: 
Jorge Castañeda, Former Foreign Minister

CASTAÑEDA: “I do think that he is responsible for the deaths, for the policies that led to the deaths of many of the people of those forty thousand who died.

08:19

There are easily ten to fifteen thousand of those forty who were either innocent bystanders or victims, or victims of abuses by the army, by an army that’s not used to doing this”.

08:28

Street newspaper vendor

Music

08:39

Covers of newspapers

BRISSENDEN: How much of this staggering death toll is down to inter-gang showdowns or government intervention is almost impossible to discern, but the grief and heartbreak it’s generating is undeniable and you’ll find it in every corner of the country.

08:49

Memorials to those killed

Music

09:02

JAVIER SICILIA (translation) “He was a lovely boy, very naïve and friendly.

09:09

Javier

He always had a smile on his face, always happy – he was like that with everyone – and he had a great desire to live, work for his country and have his own family”.

09:13

BRISSENDEN: Juan Francisco Sicilia was just one of the many cases of wrong place, wrong time.

09:31

Javier

JAVIER SICILIA (translation) “He received an e-mail from his friends telling him they were at a seafood bar, where they were eating - and he left to meet up with them. Obviously they were kidnapped from there. The next day they were found dead, killed in a very brutal and cruel way”.

09:37

BRISSENDEN: The 24 year old student was found dead along with six other young people one night late in March this year in Cuernavaca.

10:01

Cuernavaca

Music

10:08

This otherwise attractive colonial town, midway between Acapulco and Mexico City, is now hotly contested territory among the drug cartels and that of course makes it a very dangerous place.

10:19

Drugs war rally

Juan Francisco Sicilia's death has become a rallying point for those opposed to the drugs war. His father, Javier is leading the way.

10:35

Javier/ rally

JAVIER SICILIA: (translation) “Unfortunately, this stupid, badly designed and planned war that’s being fought amidst the corruption of our institutions, has become a war against our people where we have become victims of fear. The citizens have unified behind the pain of a father - my pain - and behind my son’s name. And through his death, the pain of a nation is being expressed. It’s a good start in the face of such serious trouble”.

10:45

BRISSENDEN: The celebrated poet has begun a journey that he hopes will force a change of policy. It starts here with an 80 kilometre march from Cuernavaca to the seat of power in Mexico City and hopefully a meeting with the President.

“What do you think is happening

11:36

Woman at rally

to Mexico, what is the violence doing to the country?”

WOMAN IN MARCH: “Oh it’s tearing it to pieces, yeah. We’re all wounded actually because the pain is awful and now we live, we live in terror.”

11:52

Second woman at rally

2nd WOMAN IN MARCH: “We’re too close to the States and too far from God”.

12:07

March reaches Mexico City

BRISSENDEN: The march gathers in numbers as it moves slowly toward the capital.

12:13

JAVIER SICILIA: (translation) “The country has many serious problems. It has problems with education, wages, agricultural problems, cultural problems - huge problems which have caused the destruction of civic life.

12:19

Javier

Now we are going to the streets to recover our public areas and our cities and fight the fear and terror that’s been instilled. Because nobody knows when they leave their homes if they will ever come back”.

12:37

Rally

BRISSENDEN: This citizens’ movement is getting attention but ahead lies one of the world’s most dramatic, complex and crowded cities.

12:58

Mexico City

Music

13:07

BRISSENDEN:  It’s going to be hard to be heard above the deafening clamour and competing interests of Mexico City. A multi-layered, sprawling metropolis that’s home to a staggering 23 million where it’s very easy to get lost, or worse, simply disappear.

13:19

Music

13:37

Photo. Adriana

BRISSENDEN:  “Do you think your daughter is a victim of the times?”

JAVIER MORLET: “Yes.

13:42

Morlet

I’m sure of that. I don’t know… we don’t know if my daughter was captured by drugs mafia… we don’t know. The problem is that there are many,  many cases of violence in Mexico, and the authorities don’t have the capacity to respond to that problem”.

13:45

Music

14:17

Photos. Adriana

BRISSENDEN: Twenty one year old Adriana Morlett had left the perils of her hometown Acapulco for the big city to study at the National University of Mexico. One evening last September, she left a friend’s apartment and hasn’t been seen since.

14:21

Morlet driving. Night

Her father Javier has been combing Mexico City, searching in vain.

14:37

JAVIER MORLET: “You can’t eat. You can’t sleep.

14:45

Javier. Super:
Javier Morlet, Father of Adriana

You cry, many times - especially in the nights. It’s very difficult to wake up in the morning and it’s very hard when you go to the street to see authorities and government and when you come back at night, arrive to my house with my hands empty of information. Empty about what happened with her. It’s very hard”.

14:51

Smog shrouded Mexico city

Music

15:26

BRISSENDEN: Kidnapping for human trafficking has become a lucrative side industry for the drug cartels.

15:32

Javier in high rise

Javier Morlet is convinced his daughter is still alive, possibly somewhere in Asia or Europe but he may never know for sure. In Mexico only 2% of violent crime ever reaches the courts.

15:41

Photo. Adriana

JAVIER MORLET: “They are not looking for her. That’s why I’m very angry.

15:57

Javier Morlet

(translation) The police have to look for her in dangerous neighbourhoods. They have to look to the mafia to find her. They have to tap phones of suspects and mafia leaders. They’re not able to do it. They don’t do it”.

16:01

Mexico City

LAURA CARRERA: (translation) “Fifteen years ago Mexico City was considered one of the most violent in the world - but now that is not the case. You can walk freely on the street with only a few precautions”.

16:19

Laura Carrera

Laura Carrera is on President Caulderon’s National Security Executive.

16:35

LAURA CARRERA: (translation) “I understand that the public and our critics want those problems solved immediately. But these problems were created long ago so we have to – as I said before – not just contain and repress but rebuild and restart the process as a whole”.

16:40

BRISSENDEN: It’s a tough job defending the drugs war but she’s used to the heat of the battle. That’s because

17:03

Shoot out in Juarez

Laura Carrera’s big job is here. She’s the Presidential representative in Juarez, one of the most dangerous places on earth. Pressed up against the border with the United States, Juarez is one, perhaps the primary transportation route for a drug trafficking business said to be worth up to forty billion dollars a year. The Calderon Government ordered in the army here. Three thousand people died last year alone.

17:11

LAURA CARRERA: (translation) “In Juarez, I saw people cheering the army in the streets –

17:52

Laura Carrera

but there are consequences. It’s not that the army arrives and everything calms down. It causes repression, violence and clashes. This is what people don’t understand”.

18:00

Police and army on Juarez streets

Music

18:17

BRISSENDEN: In Juarez, the army is what stands between law-abiding citizens and this man –

18:24

Overlay photo Fuentes

Vicente Carrillo Fuentes – El General – the leader of the Juarez cartel and the gatekeeper to the narcotics highway north. He’s a brutal enforcer. His henchmen often mutilate and decapitate anyone who gets in their way. Fuentes like so many of the cartel principals is still in business. The army’s not retreating and with an election year looming, President Calderon’s administration isn’t budging.

18:30

LAURA CARRERA: (translation) “It’s also true that Juarez’s murder rate

19:06

Laura Carrera

is three or four times higher than the Latin American average. Juarez now has 120 homicides per 100,000 residents.

19:08

Police checkpoints

When violence erupts it must be contained and repressed and that’s what is being done”.

JORGE CASTAÑEDA: “I think whoever is elected president will have to pull back, will have to design a different strategy which includes telling the Americans

19:23

Castañeda

look it’s your problem. We’re not telling you to reduce consumption, do whatever the hell you want, but do it on your side of the border.

19:38

Rally

The next guy’s going to have to do something like this. It’s not going to be easy to explain to the people why we went through this nightmare”.

19:45

Javier Sicilia and Javier Morlet at rally

BRISSENDEN: In Mexico City the march for peace, an end to the drugs war has brought two fathers together. Javier Morlet exasperated and without a clue about the fate of his daughter Adriana, joins Javier Sicilia who’s buried his son.

20:00

Javier Sicilia addresses crowd

JAVIER SICILIA: “We still believe that the nation can be reborn again out of its ruins. To show the Lords of Death that we are standing and did not relent in defending the lives of all the sons and daughters of this country who still believe it’s possible to rescue and rebuild the social fabric of our towns, our neighbourhoods and our cities”.

20:18

Javier Morlet

JAVIER MORLET: (translation) “I could see that everyone who was listening was agreeing with every word that Sicilia was saying. People were nodding their heads and saying, yes… yes. In other words, Sicilia was expressing exactly what people feel. He had become not a leader of people but rather a leader of conscience”.

20:42

Acapulco/ Cisco sings

Music

21:09

FRANCISCO ALBA: “They try to put Acapulco down you know? They offer Miami,

21:26

Cisco

they offer Hawaii, they offer Cayman Islands but Acapulco is always Acapulco.

21:29

Cisco sings

BRISSENDEN: And in Acapulco they’re wishing the future was a lot more like their past. Locals like Cisco Alba long for a return to the glory days when

21:42

Archival. Acapulco heyday

this was a fabulous global destination, a happy and safe holiday spot and not the gangster’s paradise it’s now become.

21:52

Cisco

FRANCISCO ALBA: “Please come to Mexico. We have a beautiful country, a beautiful country, really”.

22:00

Archival. Acapulco heyday

Music

22:06

Reporter: Michael Brissenden

Camera Louie Eroglu

Additional archive: Telemundo

Producer Vivien Altman

Research: Octavio Aguilar (AFAN)

Editor: Garth Thomas

22:17