Government Tries to Put a New Spin on Mexico Drug War by Softening Language Associated Press
go to original April 16, 2013

MEXICO CITY — The Mexican government is trying to put a new linguistic spin on the country’s drug war, in part by trying to convince the public that it’s not a drug war. Government spokesmen have been told they should avoid using drug gang slang that has crept into public discourse.

“If we want to recover the streets, we first have to recover the words,” said energy department spokesman Víctor Aviles Castro.

“The drug cartels have managed to impose their terminology in the media,” he said, pointing to now commonplace terms like “picked up,” which is used for cartel kidnappings, and “blanketed” and “trunked,” which describe how a body is left — wrapped in a blanket or dumped in a car trunk.

The move drew mixed reactions Monday, a day after top Interior Department officials announced the changes at a conference of state and federal security public relations specialists over the weekend in the Pacific coast resort of Acapulco, which itself has been hit by a wave of drug-related killings.

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