Mexico under siege

[Elano]

mexico is a war zone 


Family members of one of the slain state policemen console each other after seeing the pockmarked pickup the officers had been riding in when they were attacked in central Culiacan. The assailants, most likely cartel hitmen, escaped. At least 10 people died in 24 hours ending Wednesday night in Culiacan, in Sinaloa state, which has become a hub of violence since the federal government launched a crackdown against drug gangs.

Five federal and state police agents are killed in an ambush in Culiacan as drug gangs try to fight off a government crackdown. The day's toll is 10.

Reporting from Culiacan, Mexico -- The fourth corpse pulled from the bullet-shattered pickup truck didn't have the benefit of a body bag. Only the face was covered (with a useless bulletproof vest). The victim's red shirt was even redder, soaked with blood. His bare arm hung limply from a gurney as he was lifted to a wagon from the morgue, the toes of his boots pointed skyward, at odd angles.

He was one of five federal and state police agents killed in a brazen shootout Wednesday night on the city's prominent Emiliano Zapata Boulevard. The officers were ambushed by gunmen in three vehicles who opened fire at an intersection outside an enormous casino called Play.

The shooters escaped. Police, emergency workers and soldiers converged on the scene, as the casino's blue and purple neon lights blinked garishly over the dead men slumped in the cab and bed of the pocked pickup. In all, 10 people were killed in Sinaloa state during a 24-hour period ended Wednesday night, a deadly slice of the burgeoning Mexican drug war. Nationwide, more than 4,000 people have been killed this year, according to Mexican media reports, many of them law enforcement agents doing battle with powerful drug gangs.

Sinaloa, a fertile state on the Pacific coast, has long been at the center of Mexico's drug trade. It has become a hub of violence since President Felipe Calderon dispatched an army of soldiers and federal police to take on some of the biggest drug lords.

The alarming level of violence -- shootouts and kidnappings almost every day -- has sown panic and fear among a normally resilient citizenry.


"To live in Culiacan is a risk," said Javier Valdez, a journalist and writer who hours before the killings addressed university students about the dangers of working here. "There is a psychosis -- you breathe it, live it, smell it, sweat it."

This week, grenades were hurled at the offices of Culiacan's largest-circulation newspaper, El Debate. Although no one was hurt, the act was widely seen as a message of intimidation.

The slain police agents (seven have been killed here in seven days) were part of a unit dedicated to cracking down on the rampant streets sales of cocaine, marijuana and other narcotics. They were ambushed a couple of blocks from their headquarters, shortly after they dropped off a suspect. Two other federal police officers with the agents were seriously injured.

After the bodies were taken away and investigators from a variety of agencies (some mistrustful of each other) did their work, a tow truck operator began the task of hauling away the agents' vehicle, riddled by scores of high-caliber bullets, its tires flattened.

Suddenly, a white Honda Civic sped up, wheels screeching to a stop after somehow managing to penetrate police cordons. Three women and two men jumped out. They were relatives of one of the agents.

"Mi hijo! Mi hijo!" screamed one woman. "My son, my son!"

They cried and flailed their arms; one of the men, a brother perhaps, beat the hood of his car with his fists. "Oh, no, no, no," he moaned.

"Silence!" an officer in charge commanded. "Ladies, calm yourselves."

"You don't understand," one of the younger women cried back.

"Yes, ma'am, I do," he said.

Behind them, the tow truck cranked and wheezed as it heaved the pickup onto its flatbed.

Inconsolable, the family left for the morgue, one of dozens that have sprung up here and do brisk business.

The tow truck left as well, taking away its own casualty. At the ambush site, the air smelled of spilled gasoline. Three investigators in rubber gloves picked up spent shells, scattered for many feet, filling several plastic bags.

[virtuoso]

Yep the texas border is a war zone to but do you see the federal government declaring war on los zetos nope!

[Mr. O]

not usa problem.

[Þŕiņçë]

Wow....thats a lot of shots right through the window where a person would have been sitting.

[.:DaYg0sTyLz:.]

not usa problem.

yes it is. Im not sure where u are homie. But this shit is pretty close to home. Im in San Diego, Tijuana is completely fucked. The cartels are warring for control of the city (the busiest border crossing in the world). That shits happenin less then 5 miles from San Diego.  You think it cant (and doesnt) spill over into this country?

[Javier]

That shooting was only 10 blocks away from my friend's grandmother's house.  People don't even go out over there anymore.

[The-Leak (aka) kingwell (bka) JULES]

That's sad.  I hope the feds pursue and suffocate the cartels out of business..

[Mr. O]

not usa problem.

yes it is. Im not sure where u are homie. But this shit is pretty close to home. Im in San Diego, Tijuana is completely fucked. The cartels are warring for control of the city (the busiest border crossing in the world). That shits happenin less then 5 miles from San Diego.  You think it cant (and doesnt) spill over into this country?

Hmm..i'm in LA. What I'm saying is so what?  It's not like we don't war in Cali, ya know?  If any authorities are really concern about this, wouldn't they do something about it?  Instead, they just let them eat bullets.  Let them fight it out and take down the rest.

[Þŕiņçë]

Is english your 1st language?

[Mr. O]

Is english your 1st language?

Yup.  You shouldn't worry about that.  Is english your first language?  This is only internet.

[Þŕiņçë]

I am verry worrysomn

[Mr. O]

I am verry worrysomn

ok.

[.:DaYg0sTyLz:.]

not usa problem.

yes it is. Im not sure where u are homie. But this shit is pretty close to home. Im in San Diego, Tijuana is completely fucked. The cartels are warring for control of the city (the busiest border crossing in the world). That shits happenin less then 5 miles from San Diego.  You think it cant (and doesnt) spill over into this country?

Hmm..i'm in LA. What I'm saying is so what?  It's not like we don't war in Cali, ya know?  If any authorities are really concern about this, wouldn't they do something about it?  Instead, they just let them eat bullets.  Let them fight it out and take down the rest.

the Authorities (theres and ours) are probably too busy workin WITH these muthafuckas instead of against them lol

[The-Leak (aka) kingwell (bka) JULES]

not usa problem.

yes it is. Im not sure where u are homie. But this shit is pretty close to home. Im in San Diego, Tijuana is completely fucked. The cartels are warring for control of the city (the busiest border crossing in the world). That shits happenin less then 5 miles from San Diego.  You think it cant (and doesnt) spill over into this country?

Hmm..i'm in LA. What I'm saying is so what?  It's not like we don't war in Cali, ya know?  If any authorities are really concern about this, wouldn't they do something about it?  Instead, they just let them eat bullets.  Let them fight it out and take down the rest.

the Authorities (theres and ours) are probably too busy workin WITH these muthafuckas instead of against them lol

It's a damn shame...

[Elano]

Remains of 12 decapitated men found in Mexico

The heads and bodies are found at separate places in Guerrero state, a hot spot in the country's drug war. Governor says eight of the victims were soldiers and one was a former state police commander.

Reporting from Mexico City -- Twelve men were decapitated and dumped at separate sites in the southern Mexican state of Guerrero, authorities said Sunday.

Mexican news outlets quoted Guerrero Gov. Zeferino Torreblanca Galindo as saying that eight of the men were identified as Mexican soldiers and another as a former state police commander. Earlier, Mexican media had said that the victims' close-cropped hair indicated they were soldiers.

Nine of the heads and bodies were discovered Sunday in the city of Chilpancingo, the state capital. The heads were bundled in a plastic bag and dumped at a shopping center, and the bodies turned up in two other locations at opposite ends of the city, authorities said.

Local prosecutors said three more decapitated bodies were found in a village on the outskirts of the city, the Associated Press reported.

The find came two days after three gunmen were killed in a shootout with soldiers in Guerrero. Mexican media said the beheadings may have been intended as retribution.

The website of the daily El Universal newspaper, citing unnamed state law enforcement officials, reported that a message that accompanied the bag of heads warned: "For every one of mine you kill, I'm going to kill 10 of yours."

Beheadings have become increasingly common around Mexico amid rising drug-related violence that has killed more than 5,300 people this year.

President Felipe Calderon launched a crackdown against drug traffickers upon taking office two years ago, triggering clashes between security forces and gunmen and vicious feuding among rival drug gangs.

The coastal state of Guerrero, home to the Acapulco resort, has been one of the drug war's more violent corners. Nearly 500 people have been killed there since January 2007, a month after Calderon announced his anti-crime offensive, according to a tally by the University of San Diego's Trans-Border Institute.

As part of his crackdown, Calderon has sent 45,000 soldiers and 5,000 federal police into the streets across the country. The offensive has produced thousands of arrests and some major seizures of drugs, cash and weapons, though there is no sign that any of the main drug gangs have been dislodged.

Most of the killings have resulted from turf wars among drug-trafficking organizations, which battle for the most coveted routes for smuggling into the United States.