Gunmen Kill Police Investigator, 8 Others in Mexico Attacks
 Agence France-Presse
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| | File photo shows a member of the Federal Investigative Agency taking part in an anti-narcotic operation in Mexico City. Nine people, including a senior police investigator, died in suspected drug-related violence in the past 24 hours in northern Mexico, local authorities said. (AFP/Alfredo Estrella) | | |
Ciudad Juarez, Mexico - Nine people, including a senior police investigator, died in suspected drug-related violence in the past 24 hours in northern Mexico, local authorities said.
Mexican drug turf wars have claimed the lives of more than 2,700 people so far this year, despite a crackdown by authorities on drug trafficking and related violence.
An armed man entered the home of police commander Jose Ramon Escamilla in northern Durango State and shot him three times, wounding him fatally in the neck, the local prosecutor's office told journalists.
"The 40-year-old had been in the police service for 18 years," it added.
In the northern state of Chihuahua, the country's most violent, eight people were assassinated, including three in the volatile border town of Ciudad Juarez, three in state capital Chihuahua, one in the town of Delicias and another in Aldama.
Meanwhile, a city hall official, Maribel Martinez, was kidnapped in the city of Uruapan, in the western state of Michoacan.
"Several people took her away as she was leaving a work meeting Sunday night," an official from the Michoacan prosecutor's office told AFP.
Violence and kidnappings have escalated throughout Mexico since President Felipe Calderon, who took office at the end of 2006, launched a crackdown on drug trafficking that included deploying more than 36,000 soldiers across the country.
In reaction to growing public anger, Mexican leaders signed a national security pact last week.
Meanwhile rights groups and kidnap victims have called for mass protests against insecurity and kidnappings this Saturday. |
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News Around the Republic of Mexico | August 2008 
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