| | |  News Around the Republic of Mexico | October 2008 
Drug Cartel Bloodbath on Mexican Border Claims 50 Lives
 Jo Tuckman - The Guardian
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| | The badge of a Mexican police officer, covered with a piece of black tape as a sign of mourning for two police officers who were killed in a shooting in Tijuana, Mexico. (Guillermo Arias/AP) | | |
Two headless corpses wrapped in blankets, five beaten and bound men asphyxiated in a car, and the mayor of a sizeable town riddled with bullets. Mexico's spiral of drugs-related violence swept on through the weekend, defying the government's biggest ever effort to rein in the cartels.
Much of the latest bloodbath occurred in Tijuana, across the frontier from California, where nearly 50 people - including 12 found next to a primary school - were killed in the past week.
The violence is being blamed on a battle between two factions of the Arrellano Felix cartel, one of which has allied with the Sinaloa cartel led by Mexico's most notorious trafficker, Joaquín Guzmán Loera (known as el Chapo, or Shorty).
On Saturday the mayor of Ixtapan de la Sal, a spa town south-west of Mexico City, died after hooded hitmen shot at his car. Newspapers blamed Sergio Vergara's death on Los Zetas, another of the main gangs in the bewildering assortment of Mexican trafficking organisations fighting each other across the country.
Newspapers claim the drug wars have led to the deaths of about 3,500 so far this year, already a tally 40% up on 2007's record total. A military-led anti-cartel offensive began in December 2006. The crackdown of Mexico's president, Felipe Calderón, was very popular to begin with, but a poll published in El Universal newspaper on Friday showed that 40% of Mexicans now feel less secure, with only 25% thinking themselves safer. About half in the poll believed things would calm down in the next three years if the fight-back continued. Calderón has repeatedly backed the strategy. "We need to rescue our liberty and our security so our young people can develop to their full potential," he said on Friday. "We will continue our frontal battle against organised crime."
Attacks have flared up in various areas for a few months, then moved on. Ciudad Juárez, in Chihuahua state, over the Texas border, has been the worst affected this year, with about 1,000 people killed.
Until last week, Tijuana had been fairly calm since a bout of shootouts in the spring. But few areas remain untouched. Even the tranquil reputation of Merida was shattered in August when 12 decapitated bodies were found. Most of the victims were gang members, with about 10% belonging to the security forces, often assumed to have links with traffickers.
In recent months the growing number of civilians becoming victims has triggered fears that full-blown narco-terrorism could be just around the corner.
The starkest event was the lobbing of two grenades into last month's Independence Day celebrations in Morelia. Eight died and dozens were injured.
After the Morelia attack a local trafficking gang known as La Familia hung banners in the town blaming the Zetas. A week later officials paraded three Zetas for the cameras with bruises on their faces and a notable readiness to confess. This weekend Zeta banners appeared, blaming La Familia for the grenade attack and offering a reward of $5m for the capture of its leaders. "We are people who keep our word," one banner said. |
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