LKL: "According to the mayor of Juarez itself...'We can't beat them. All we can hope is that they pack up and move somewhere else.' "


Length: 2:26

LARGE (34.0 MB) ----- SMALL (3.0 MB)


Larry King asks Michael what the battle is all about -- turf, power, and drug routes.



LARRY KING: Anderson Cooper remains with us in El Paso.

Joining us now in New York is Michael Ware, CNN correspondent. He just returned from reporting on the situation.

You have covered violence, if that's the correct term, all over the world.

How does this compare?

MICHAEL WARE: Well, violence, frankly, Larry, is violence. I mean, this is barbarous, what's going on. I mean, there is literally butchering happening. And it's capturing the entire communities that are involved here. And that's the real measure, because this so-called drug war primarily is being fought between the cartels. But it's also targeting police officers, government officials. And, invariably, the innocent are so often caught in the middle.

So what's at stake here is the hearts and minds of the population. If you can secure the people, for example, of this city of Juarez, then they will be able to operate their lives and to help the authorities target the cartel so much better. But for now, the way this war is being fought, it can't be won. So the cartels will remain in control of those streets -- Larry.

KING: Michael, what are they fighting about?

WARE: They're fighting about turf, power, and drug routes. Now, in the last two years, the president of Mexico -- within two weeks of him coming into office in 2006, he launched a massive offensive against the cartels. Now, he can't trust the local police because they're either terrified or corrupt. He can't trust his federal police because they're either terrified or they're corrupt.

So he had to turn to the military. He has more than 45,000 Mexican soldiers out fighting in Mexico to target the cartels. But the military's abilities are extremely limited.

So it's very hard to see how this dynamic is going to change. The best that they can hope for, according to the mayor of Juarez itself -- which right now is the epicenter of the drug war -- he said is, "we can't beat them. All we can hope is that they pack up and move somewhere else." That's not the sound of a war that's going to end anytime soon, mate.