A story in today’s Boston Globe starts off by contrasting the glory of today’s Bogota, Colombia with the dark times before the U.S. anti-drug dollars really started flowing:

But it is a remarkably different setting for Colombia’s capital than a few years ago, when many people rarely left their homes after dark for fear of bombings, homicides, and kidnappings by drug cartels, criminal gangs, and guerrilla fighters.

With billions of dollars in military and development aid from the United States, Colombia’s image as one of the most dangerous destinations is fading.  And now, the Obama administration is hoping to transfer key elements of Colombia’s strategy to other nations in the region struggling with drug violence, lawlessness, and crushing poverty.

Then there’s a lot more about how great everything is turning out.

Until the very last paragraph where one observer’s concerns are compressed into a single sentence:

“The government has taken strong action,” he said.  But it has had consequences.  Millions of Colombians have been displaced in recent years by government action against the cartels and insurgents, he said, while there remains strong evidence, corroborated by a recent United Nations investigation, of extrajudicial killings by government forces.

What’s a little extrajudicial killing? Nightlife is back in Bogata.

The Los Angeles Times is citing new death toll figures in the Mexican drug war, suggesting 22,000 dead in three years. That’s up from previous estimates of 18,000.

Supporters of the Mexican government’s enhanced drug war have said increased violence is a natural outcome of the crackdown, a sign that the cartels are being broken up. Instead of looking at the phenomena as failure, they see it as a sign of success.

Whether the citizens of Mexico can endure much more success is another question.