Mexico is a country of contrasts. There is the Mexico with its beautiful beaches and charming colonial cities. The Mexico with its unique architecture and cuisine, the Mexico famous for the richness of its art and culture.

On the other side is the Mexico that is poor, with a broken judicial system where inefficiency, impunity and corruption reign.

There is the Mexico that for the past several years has been held hostage to a wave of violence that has put the country at the top of some of the most infamous lists in the world: the country with the most kidnappings, the most violent crimes, the most journalists killed in the Western Hemisphere.

One recent series of murders made headlines around the world. Fifty people were found dead in a one-week period in the border city of Tijuana. But that is nothing when you start counting the number of bodies in different parts of the country found decapitated, bound, shot in the head execution-style or with signs of torture, the majority of which are considered to be drug-related.

The numbers are staggering. So far this year, 3,200 people have been killed by organized crime. That is up from 2,675 in 2007 and 1,410 in 2006. The increase has Mexicans perplexed because of the intensity with which the Mexican government is waging its war against crime.

When President Felipe Calderón took office two years ago, he declared war on the drug cartels and made the fight against crime his No. 1 priority. He sent the army first to his home state of Michoacán, then to the states of Monterrey, Sinaloa and several cities along the U.S. border. Virtually militarizing the country, however, has not brought about the expected results.

José Reveles, an investigative journalist with the Mexican newspaper El Financiero, claims the Calderón government has lost control of the situation. "The delinquents are organized, and the government is disorganized," he says. "Organized crime is challenging the government, and its only response is to react."

Reveles believes the fight against the drug cartels has been ineffective because of a lack of intelligence-gathering. "The army and federal agents are attacking the narcos on the streets; they are not identifying them and going after them with warrants or attacking their financial structure."

Mexican citizens are fed up. Last month, hundreds of thousands dressed in white and marched along the streets of the Mexican capital and other cities around the country to protest the wave of murders and kidnappings. Statistics on kidnappings are hard to pinpoint because many go unreported and they are not considered a federal crime, but it is estimated that between 2004 and 2007, kidnappings increased 40 percent.

In an unprecedented move, President Calderón held an emergency summit with Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard and several governors to organize a joint effort to fight crime. But since then, violence has gotten worse.

During the traditional Independence Day festivities on Sept. 15 in Calderón's home town of Morelia, Michoacán, two grenades were thrown into the crowd, killing eight and leaving more than 100 wounded. That is the clearest sign that drug cartels are no longer just fighting among themselves for control of territories and routes but also are targeting innocent people.

Mexican citizens should not be prisoners in their own homes. They deserve to feel free to enjoy those beautiful beaches and to walk the streets of their cities with their families without the fear of being kidnapped or caught in the line of fire in the raging drug wars. Their monuments should be used as symbols of pride, not as stages for protests demanding protection from their government. It's time to rethink the strategy, because this one is not working.

Maria Elena Salinas can be reached through her Web site, www.mariaesalinas.com.