Drug cartels and the Mexican army are fighting it out in a series of hours-long shootouts along the U.S./Mexico border (and further south): in Reynosa, in Ciudad Juarez, in Apatzingán.

These are full-scale battles that shut down cities—guys running around with semiautomatic weapons, riding in scores of heavily-armed trucks. But you won't read about it in local newspapers.

As the drug war scales new heights of savagery, one of the devastating byproducts of the carnage is the drug traffickers' chilling ability to co-opt underpaid and under-protected journalists — who are haunted by the knowledge that they are failing in their journalistic mission of informing society.

"You love journalism, you love the pursuit of truth, you love to perform a civic service and inform your community. But you love your life more," said an editor here in Reynosa, in Tamaulipas state, who, like most journalists interviewed, did not want to be named for fear of antagonizing the cartels.

"We don't like the silence. But it's survival."

So the shadowy Blog del Narco has stepped in to fill the void:

"People now demand information and if you don't publish it, they complain," the blogger told the AP. Little is known about the person behind Blog del Narco, apart from the fact that he is a male student living in Northern Mexico. And, given that he is sharing content that would threaten the life of a public reporter — a gory video of a decapitation, the execution of a double-crossing police officer, ravaged corpses—the anonymous blogger has chosen the correct major to pursue in school: computer security. He has maintained total anonymity, and when reached by the AP, he spoke from a disguised telephone number.

"For the scanty details that they (mass media) put on television, they get grenades thrown at them and their reporters kidnapped," the blogger said. "We publish everything. Imagine what they could do to us."

Blog del Narco is here (and has a translate button on the upper left-hand side). Stories up now: photos of eight executed men found in Oaxaca, a story about how cartels have recruited and trained "pretty women" as assassins (since they were less likely to be suspected), and a televised debate about "narco-censura."

And the commenters on Blog del Narco? Some of them make Slog trolls look like cherubs. One of my favorite threads:

de que me chingue una vieja bonita y buena a q me chingue un pinche vato prieto, panzon, feo, naco, indio, nopalero traga frijoles y tortillas, analfabestia, idiota, jodido, chaparro, corte cholo-militar, naco, bigote y barba estilo juan diego, apestosos, INDIO, bajadito del cerro a tamborazos,.... pues prefiero la vieja hermosa

Which sort of translates to:

that an old fuck me nice and good aq me dude fuck a fucking tight, big-bellied, ugly, naco, Indian, beans and tortillas down cactus, analfabestia, stupid, fucked up, squat, military court-cholo, naco, mustache and beard style juan diego, smelly, INDIO, Tamborazo bajadito the hill ,.... they prefer the beautiful old

And one of its answers:

Cockroaches came from Europe. They are not native to the Western Hemisphere. Europeans are also not native to the Western Hemisphere.

Anyway: Blog del Narco. Enjoy.

UPDATE

It should be obvious, but I suppose it bears saying anyway: Legalization and regulation is the fastest, cheapest, most foolproof way to end this. People have proven that they will not stop using drugs, even when they have to surmount great barriers and wage wars to keep their chains of supply open.

As for the specter of a crop of new addicts if we legalize? I'd rather see 51 new methadone clinics open in Seattle tomorrow than 51 people shot in the streets of Juarez. No matter how you slice it—tactically, morally, financially—it isn't even a question.