| | |  Editorials | Issues | February 2009 
Massacre Raises Concerns that Mexico Drug War is Out of Control
 Adam Thomson - Financial Times
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| | A view of the area where 12 people are killed in Monte Largo, Mexico's state of Tabasco February 15, 2009. Suspected drug hitmen killed 12 people, including six children, in the southern state of Tabasco, which until now had escaped the spiraling violence of Mexico's drug war. A group of armed men fired large-caliber guns at three homes in the town of Macuspana, some 20 miles (30 km) from the capital of Villahermosa, killing six children and six adults late on Saturday. (Reuters/Luis Lopez) | |
Mexico City - Twelve people were gunned down in southern Mexico over the weekend in a massacre that brought the number of drugs-related murders so far this year to more than 800.
Authorities believe that the latest attack in the state of Tabasco was a revenge killing after police detained a group of local drug dealers last week. Among the victims were a policeman, six children and four women.
The massacre, the bloodiest incident in Tabasco in recent years, is further evidence that the violence stemming from Mexico's all-out war against organised crime appears to know no limits. Last year roughly 6,000 people were victims of drugs-related murders - almost three times the number for 2007. Those numbers have sparked international concern that Mexico's drugs war might be getting out of hand.
A report compiled by the US army's high command that came to light last month stated that "two large and important states bear consideration for rapid and sudden collapse: Pakistan and Mexico".
Another recent report, written by General Barry McCaffrey, former head of the US army's southern command and now adjunct professor at Westpoint, said that the drugs cartels had "subverted state and municipal authorities and present a mortal threat to the rule of law across Mexico".
The centre-right administration of Felipe Calderón, president, has rejected such claims, and has even argued that its push to combat the drugs cartels has met with considerable success.
Patricia Espinosa, the government's foreign secretary, recently said that seizures of drugs, firearms and cash established new records last year. The price of cocaine on US streets had meanwhile risen sharply, she said, a sign that the war was taking its toll on the cartels' day-to-day operations.
Yet violence across Mexico continues to rage. In one of the latest incidents, two policemen were injured in the central state of Michoacan on Friday after suspected drug traffickers fired grenades at a patrol car. The attack was the third of its type in less than a week.
Members of Mexico's armed forces also clashed with suspected drugs traffickers in the northern border state of Chihuahua three times last week, leaving 24 dead, including a soldier.
Authorities confirmed that the suspected drugs traffickers were armed with AK-47 assault rifles as well as heavier 50mm calibre weapons, which in Mexico over the past two years have come to be known as "policeman killers". |
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