Ready to fight back? Sign up for Take Action Now and get three actions in your inbox every week. You will receive occasional promotional offers for programs that support The Nation’s journalism. You can read our Privacy Policy here. Sign up for Take Action Now and get three actions in your inbox every week.

Thank you for signing up. For more from The Nation, check out our latest issue

Subscribe now for as little as $2 a month!

Support Progressive Journalism The Nation is reader supported: Chip in $10 or more to help us continue to write about the issues that matter. The Nation is reader supported: Chip in $10 or more to help us continue to write about the issues that matter.

Fight Back! Sign up for Take Action Now and we’ll send you three meaningful actions you can take each week. You will receive occasional promotional offers for programs that support The Nation’s journalism. You can read our Privacy Policy here. Sign up for Take Action Now and we’ll send you three meaningful actions you can take each week.

Thank you for signing up. For more from The Nation, check out our latest issue

Travel With The Nation Be the first to hear about Nation Travels destinations, and explore the world with kindred spirits. Be the first to hear about Nation Travels destinations, and explore the world with kindred spirits.

Sign up for our Wine Club today. Did you know you can support The Nation by drinking wine?

As drug-related violence steadily increases in Mexico, it has reached parts of the country it hadn’t before—affluent, formerly stable cities like Monterrey. In the past, local politicians would broker deals with drug cartels in order to keep a lid on the violence. This system has since ruptured, and in response the government has sent in the military to clamp down on the violence. The Nation’s Nik Steinberg joined WNYC’s Leonard Lopate Show to talk about his latest piece on the monster that has manifested from this decision and the military abuses that have followed in its wake. Ad Policy

The US’s role is multifaceted. Seven years ago the US ban on assault weapons expired, fostering a steady cross-border weapons trade. The Mexican government says that in the past four years it has recovered some 60,000 guns traceable to dealers in the US.

“Both the supply of heavy weapons coming from the US and the demand for the drugs going to the US is a key element in the drug war in Mexico,” Steinberg says. “Without either of those elements, it’s hard to imagine Mexico as violent as it is now.”

—Sara Jerving