Mexico City  - The year 2008 showed terrible violence from Latin American drug gangs, with over 5,500 dead in Mexico alone as drug traffickers fought each other for control and challenged the power of governments as far south as Argentina.

This was the year that the United States approved the Merida Initiative to assist Mexico and Central America, mainly, in the fight against drug gangs. The US supplied equipment and logistics worth 465 million dollars.

And it was also the year that Bolivia expelled from its territory the staff of the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), accusing them of an alleged conspiracy against the Bolivian government.

Mexican drug cartels, which have now replaced Colombian gangs at the head of the business, increased their presence in Central America, particularly in Guatemala, expanded their interests in the southern tip of the Americas and are blamed for an unprecedented attack on people celebrating Mexico's Independence Day in September that left eight civilians dead and a further 106 injured.

According to Antonio Maria Costa, executive director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), no other region in the world is facing a "more pressing" problem than Latin America as regards the trafficking, consumption and production of drugs, as well as drug- related violence.

Throughout the region, the power of drug gangs was apparent in major confiscations of weapons, drugs, cash and luxury homes, in the number of murders committed in broad daylight and in the arrest of government officials who were on the cartels' payrolls.

Colombia, Peru and Bolivia are the world's largest producers of cocaine. Mexican drug gangs then take charge of getting it to the United States and, increasingly, to Europe through routes in South America.

Mexican drug gangs "want to take over the whole country," complained Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom.

"If you attack them, they counterattack. They are violent, they are not innocent children," Colom noted.

Costa Rica has felt the pressure too.

"For a long time what we feared was the entrance of Colombians. Over the past 12 months we have been feeling the presence of Mexican drug traffickers in the country," said Interior Minister Janina del Vecchio.

In 2008, Mexico had more than double the number of drug-related killings as the previous year, a record, despite the near- militarization of large areas in the country and despite several severe blows on drug-trafficking structures.

One of these blows was the arrest of drug lord Alfredo Beltran Leyva, which led to a violent break-up within the Sinaloa Cartel.

Also arrested were Eduardo Arellano Felix, the last historic leader left in the Tijuana Cartel; the Sinaloa drug boss Jesus Zambada; and Jaime Gonzalez Duran, known as "The Hummer" and founder of the group of hired killers, Los Zetas.

There were many innocent victims of drug violence, including babies and children, who were caught in crossfire.

Mexico shivered over scores of beheadings and mass killings like that of 13 people at a party in the northern town of Creel or that of 24 construction workers who had allegedly built a tunnel under the US border for the drug gangs.

The authorities insist that they will win that war, but the arms of organized crime seem to be getting ever longer, both in their capacity to corrupt officials and in their territorial expansion.

Mexico and Colombia saw the arrests of several officials charged with working for drug cartels, like the head of Mexico's Interpol office Ricardo Gutierrez, former Mexican anti-drug czar Noe Ramirez and Colombian Police colonel Juan Carlos Martinez.

Argentina was shaken by the murders of three young businessmen, in an incident that unveiled the activities of Mexican cartels on the southern tip of Latin America. Because ephedrine is illegal in Mexico, Argentina, with its sophisticated pharmaceutical industry, has become a source for the substance that is used by Mexican cartels in making devastating, addictive methamphetamines.

Ephedrine is legally imported into Argentina mainly from India and China for use in manufacturing over-the-counter drugs for colds, but controls are lacking in its distribution. Argenina is starting to address the problem and clamp down on imports and sales of products containing ephedrine, as have many other countries including the United States.

Alleged Mexican drug trafficker Jesus Martinez Espinoza, who was linked to ephedrine cases in Argentina, was arrested in Paraguay, which produces marijuana and lies on the cocaine route.

Other countries, like Cuba, Venezuela, Haiti and the Dominican Republic, also lie on drug trafficking routes. In the cases of Cuba and Venezuela, the United States has complained that their attitude is passive, and close to connivance.

In Guatemala, where Mexican drug gangs seek refuge for their activities, there were three mass killings this year, and estate owners near the Mexican border have reported pressures from the Gulf Cartel to force them to sell their land.

"I will be drug trafficking's worst nightmare," Mexican President Felipe Calderon said in January 2006, when he was still a presidential candidate.

Three years on, according to Mexican Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora, the state is winning the battle, but the war will be "long, costly and difficult." (dpa)