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This is the New World Report. I'm John Batchett with Professor Emanellus of the US Army

War College Strategic Studies Institute. Three outbreaks of violence, some ongoing political,

some surprising throughout the region. Bolivia, Peru, and we begin with Mexico because it

is presented as a Mexican prison break, a shootout, very large shootout. The BBC characterized

it as deadly. The fog of war descends, but I'm most interested in the driver for this.

Mexico is a very large and important economy in the world, not just in the region. And

President Amlo is extremely powerful and popular. So, this prison break, what drives

it, Professor? The Army gets involved. The shootout is obvious. There's damage to morale

everywhere in the region. Is this the drug lords or is this a breakdown in the government?

John, this is principally about the control of the border and the strategic crossings

of the border into the United States by the drug organizations. So, in this particular area

of Chihuahua, what you had is you had a group, actually, a US, largely a US-based gang involved

in distributing drugs on the US side, but with ties in Mexico, Los Mexicales, who were

affiliated with one of the big groups, San Aloa and the Cartel de Caburca. At the same

time, you have that area being contested by smaller cartels like Quarra's and LaLinia.

But it's also a story of the just horrible situation of control in many Mexican prisons,

...