12K drug murders in '11. It's why US truckers don't haul freight in Mexico

The Teamsters Union is suing the federal government to end its latest Mexican truck pilot program. We'll submit legal briefs in about three weeks. In the meantime, our prediction that the program would be a dismal failure appears to be accurate. After six months, two trucks and three drivers have made nine -- count 'em, nine -- trips into the U.S. beyond the border zone.

Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa argued today in The Huffington Post that Mexico's inability to control drug violence is a barrier to trade -- and therefore a violation of Nafta. Here's what he had to say:

The State Department recently warned Americans against taking unnecessary trips to vast, dangerous sections of Mexico. Nearly all the states along the border are awash in violence, and there is no safe road to Mexico City. 

Mexico's 5-year-old narco-war is only getting worse. More than 12,000 people were killed in drug-related violence last year, a 6 percent increase over the previous year. Reports of torture, beheadings and killing of women are up as well. 

Just two weeks ago, Mexican troops announced that they seized 15 tons of methamphetamine near Guadalajara - an amount equal to half the meth seized in 2009 in the entire world. 

That's why U.S. truck drivers don't haul freight south of the border.

Read the whole thing here.