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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | May 2007 
Mexico Drug War Turns Historic Town Into Hot Spot
 Greg Brosnan - Reuters
| | A Mexican soldier takes part in a raid to search for traffickers in a poor neighborhood in the drug-violence plagued town of Apatzingan in Mexico's state of Michoacan, May 9, 2007. (Daniel Aguilar/Reuters) |
Nearly 200 years ago, high-minded Mexican independence leaders seeking to break away from Spain hid in the isolated town of Apatzingan to write one of Latin America's first constitutions.
Once a source of national pride, the town in the central drug-producing state of Michoacan is now flooded with guns and narcotics cash. Bringing it under control is one of the toughest challenges for President Felipe Calderon in his war against drug cartels.
Soldiers killed four drug gang suspects in Apatzingan last week after cartel gunmen killed five soldiers in an attack nearby, the heaviest single army loss since Calderon deployed thousands of troops to fight the traffickers late last year.
In the neighboring state of Guerrero, drug gang members killed an army captain and dumped his body on the highway on Sunday after kidnapping him on the weekend, authorities said.
With the green hills surrounding Apatzingan hiding methamphetamine labs and landing strips for planes moving cocaine to the United States, downtown streets are jammed with gleaming pickup trucks and pawn shops offering to buy gold. Bright signs urge locals to exchange their dollars.
"You only hear bad things about Apatzingan now; it's all about drug gangs, all about death," said Leopoldo Novoa, a musician who sings ballads in one of Apatzingan's few restaurants.
There is little sign the town played a pivotal role in Mexico's history when rebels on the run from Spanish troops gathered there in 1814 to draw up the constitution of Apatzingan, which outlined the future independent Mexican republic.
After its 19th-century moment of glory, Apatzingan languished as a peaceful backwater until a flood of drug cash arrived in recent years, first from marijuana and then from the methamphetamine trade.
THREE-WAY FIGHT
The trouble began when the local Milenio Cartel splintered and Mexico's two most violent drug gangs moved in to pick up the pieces.
The town became the center of a fight between local allies of the Gulf Cartel from northeastern Mexico and others backed by traffickers from western Sinaloa state headed by Mexico's most wanted man, Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman.
When the army moved in last year, violence exploded into a complicated three-way struggle.
"If I could leave, I would," said Novoa. "People were calmer before, they didn't race to take out their guns. Now they do."
While Calderon's militarization of the drug fight has drawn fire from critics such as the head of the human rights commission, many residents of Apatzingan are comforted by the army's presence.
"It's great," said Gerardo Barajas, 15, as soldiers backed by Humvee vehicles crept up a dirt street, their machine guns trained on a shuttered corner grocery store as they searched for traffickers. "I hope they finish them all off."
On Apatzingan's leafy main square, stalls do a brisk trade in pirate DVDs of Mexican drug mafia films with names like "Revenge of the Narcos" and "Land of Death."
Recent bloodshed has made reality just as violent, said Agustin Bernal, a star of many of the films and a former resident of Apatzingan, during a visit home.
"We're living it to an extreme now, and it's very painful."
(Additional reporting by Gerardo Torres in Guerrero state) |
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