With 60,000 dead, Mexicans wonder why drug war doesn't rate in presidential debate

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The Christian Science Monitor:

 

With 60,000 dead, Mexicans wonder why drug war doesn't rate in presidential debate

 

Much of Latin America was dismayed that they got only a glancing mention in Romney and Obama's final presidential debate.

By Sara Miller Llana, Staff writer / October 23, 2012

Mexico City

Mitt Romney’s single mention of Latin America last night, calling it a “huge opportunity" for the United States, generated immediate glee from Latin Americanists across Twitter – but the hemisphere got no nod from President Obama, and then both went silent on the topic.

Given that the final presidential debate Monday evening was dominated by the Middle East and terrorism, most of the world was left out by President Obama and Mr. Romney. That includes the whole of Europe and its debt crisis. India. South Africa. And not a single mention of any country in Latin America or the Caribbean: neither Cuba specifically, Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, nor Peru. (Read a transcript here.)

That means no candidate talked about the drug trade, despite historic violence playing out in Mexico, much of it along the 2,000-mile border that the US shares. They