While we mess around in Iraq and Afghanistan . . .

Mexico is imploding on our doorstep.

The former governor of the Mexican Pacific coast state of Colima was gunned down in his home on Sunday morning, the latest attack on a politician in the country wracked by drug violence.

Jesus Silverio Cavazos, who left office in November 2009, died of his wounds in a hospital, Colima state prosecutor Arturo Diaz said in an interview on Mexico's Foro TV.

. . . Mexican politicians have been targeted by assassins in states that are home to drug gangs and major smuggling routes as rival gangs battle for control of the lucrative business.

Colima, a small western state, is home to the port of Manzanillo but has been relatively free of the spiraling drug-related violence that has ravaged some other Mexican regions, particularly those in the north of the country.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6AK1V320101121