Dramatic Political Divides in Mexico: Are They in a Civil War?

Extreme political divides are a huge part of the shaping of world history. Never, though, did most of us think that it would connect not only in America but also down in Mexico where the divide over their Presidency and battle over drug cartels is at an alarming stage now. Mexico now has a similar situation that almost took America to the brink of a new civil war--though ended up as a war of words (and TV/radio talk shows) for the last eight years. Consider Mexico's President Felipe Calderon to be the equivalent of President George W. Bush at the moment. Calderon won't be acknowledged by half of the government in Mexico for almost identical reasons that plagued America in the 2000 election. But he also has one problem that at least America isn't facing yet: Organized crime overriding the government, killing law enforcement daily...and attempting to get back at the government for trying to bring them down.

The similarities in governmental unrest are still strikingly similar to America's, though. When Andres Manual Lopez Obrador lost in their last election in 2006, Obrador's camp called foul and thought the electoral process was corrupt. And there's plenty of evidence it was, though no one did anything about it, not even their highest courts as we ultimately had here. Instead, Mexico accepted Calderon who's decidedly more conservative. All of this when Mexico likely looked at America astonishingly in 2000 and wondered how in the world we ended up so evenly divided in deciding a President. Now Mexico is proving that those eerie 50/50 political splits are going global. Or, in Mexico's case, it may be a 33/33/33 split if you include the powerful pull of organized crime there.