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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | April 2007 
Three Die in Mexican Drug Shootout on US Border
 Reuters
| | Mexican soldiers take up position after a gunfight at Tijuana's general hospital that left three people dead April 18, 2007. (Reuters/Tomas Bravo) |
Tijuana, Mexico - Police battled an armed group of drug traffickers in this northern border city on Wednesday in a series of shootouts that left two policemen and one drug gang member dead, witnesses and authorities said.
A first gunfight started at the main Tijuana bus station when police stopped three vehicles as part of a drug clampdown and traffickers aboard open fire.
The criminals fled but one was injured in the hail of bullets and police took him to a hospital for treatment. The drug traffickers later stormed the hospital to try and retrieve the injured gunman and another shootout started.
TV images showed scenes of chaos at the hospital with dozens of armed police hunting down traffickers inside the building. Frightened patients tried to flee but were forced to lie on the ground to avoid any of the escaping criminals.
After a tense stand-off, five of the armed gunmen were arrested. No patients in the hospital were injured.
"I can confirm the death of two policemen and one of the criminals at the scene of the first gunfight," Tijuana police chief Jaime Niebla told reporters..
Mexico has seen a wave of drug-related violence recently and President Felipe Calderon has sent thousands of troops onto the streets of many cities to wage war against drug cartels.
Much of the violence is between rival cartels seeking to grab control of drug routes to the United States. To date this year, drug-related deaths number more than 600.
Separately, an unknown assailant tossed a grenade into the offices of a northern Mexican newspaper a day after gunmen snatched a reporter from a nearby city, part of a campaign against the media by drug gangs.
The grenade exploded inside the offices of Cambio newspaper in the northern city of Hermosillo on Tuesday night, breaking windows and startling reporters. Nobody was injured, newspaper director Roberto Gutierrez told Reuters.
The attack came a day after gunmen in the border city of Agua Prieta, like Hermosillo in the state of Sonora, snatched a crime reporter investigating the country's bloody war between rival drug cartels.
Mexican journalists reporting on drug gangs are often targeted by traffickers, but attacks on the media appeared to mount after Calderon launched his crackdown.
Gunmen shot dead a reporter from Mexican television network Televisa earlier this month in the Pacific resort of Acapulco, which has become a major battleground for gangs.
More than 2,000 people were killed last year as Mexico's notorious Gulf Cartel battled over production, routes and markets with an alliance of traffickers from the state of Sinaloa, which borders Sonora to the south.
(Additional reporting by Greg Brosnan)
Mexico Drugs Hitmen Kill Rival and His Dog
Reuters
Mexican drug gunmen tortured and murdered a rival then shot dead his dog and dumped it on top of his corpse in one of the most brutal killings of a three-year-old war between cartels.
The killers apparently drove the man's truck over his head before leaving his body in a street in the state of Michoacan with a menacing note to his relatives nailed to his chest.
The viciousness of the attack surprised even Michoacan residents hardened to daily bloodshed.
"To kill someone's dog is pretty rare," local journalist Sergio Cortes said on Wednesday. "They took him from his truck and it seems his dog tried to defend him."
The victim's hands and feet were tied, his face disfigured by bullet wounds and his body showed signs of torture, the local prosecutor's office said. The dog, an off-white mongrel, was shot in the neck.
Dumped at dawn in the town of Buenavista Tomatlan, the man's body was one of four found on Tuesday in Mexico, where violence between warring cartels has forced President Felipe Calderon to launch an army crackdown on drug gangs.
Mexican media said the dead man was related to members of the local Valencia gang which is caught up in a fight between Mexico's main drug smuggling groups: the Gulf Cartel and an alliance of traffickers headed by Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman.
Killers tossed five severed heads onto the dance floor of a seedy nightclub in Michoacan last September. |
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