Pubdate: Tue, 02 May 2006
Source: Bradenton Herald (FL)
Copyright: 2006 Bradenton Herald
Contact:  http://www.bradenton.com/mld/bradenton/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/58
Author: Manuel Roig-Franzia, The Washington Post

DRUG VIOLENCE SOARS THROUGHOUT MEXICO

MEXICO CITY - Sixteen months ago, Mexican President Vicente Fox 
declared "the mother of all battles" against drug trafficking.

But he got more than a battle - he got a war.

Almost every week another assault by drug gangs, one more audacious 
than the next, generates headlines. Grenades have been launched at 
law enforcement offices. Four undercover drug agents were shot to 
death last month in Nuevo Laredo. Two police officers were 
decapitated 10 days ago in the resort city of Acapulco, not long 
after taking part in an operation against a drug gang. Their heads 
were dumped beneath a sign warning: "So that you learn to respect."

The escalating conflict has claimed more than 1,500 lives - including 
police, rival drug traffickers and civilians - in the past year, more 
than double the number in the previous year, according to Mexican 
researchers. The death toll has risen despite increased enforcement 
efforts in Mexico and by U.S. authorities across the border. The 
police killings, in particular, are believed to be retribution for a 
crackdown on cartels in Mexico undertaken at the urging of U.S. 
officials, said Jorge Chabat, an expert in Mexican criminal justice.

Failing Justice System

The violence also coincides with the remarkable growth of Mexican 
cartels, which have seized a greater share of the drug market as some 
of Colombia's drug kingpins have been arrested.

"Mexico is becoming the second Colombia," said Rep. Henry Cuellar, D- 
Texas, whose district includes Laredo, across the border from Nuevo 
Laredo. "This is a serious and a ruthless situation."

Mexico's drug cartels have grown bolder as their profits have grown 
larger, Chabat said. Mexican drug traffickers generate as much as $10 
billion a year by funneling South American cocaine into the United 
States, as well as by producing methamphetamines, heroin and 
marijuana, he said.

Mexico has had some success in combating cartels. In the past five 
years, the leaders of the powerful Sinaloa and Gulf cartels have been 
arrested. But those victories have been muted by the failings of the 
Mexican justice system, Chabat said. The leader of the Sinaloa 
cartel, Joaquin "Chapo" Guzman, escaped from prison in 2001, and the 
leader of the Gulf cartel, Osiel Cardenas, is suspected of running 
his criminal organization from the prison cell he has occupied since 
his arrest in 2003.

"The Mexican government has been very effective in making arrests, 
but the rest of the criminal justice system - the prisons and the 
judiciary - is very inefficient and very corrupt," Chabat said.

Persisting Violence

The imprisonment of Cardenas set off a struggle between the Gulf and 
Sinaloa cartels for "la plaza" - Mexican slang for drug turf. Each 
cartel is suspected of co-opting law enforcement officials - and 
killing or intimidating those who don't go along - to achieve their 
goal of controlling lucrative smuggling routes. But with Cardenas in 
prison, the Gulf cartel is at a disadvantage.

Cuellar applauds Mexico for responding with forceful measures, such 
as sending troops last year to quell drug violence in Nuevo Laredo. 
But with the violence persisting, he accuses Mexico of not being 
receptive enough to recent U.S. offers to help train police and prosecutors.

There have been signs that the two nations are collaborating more 
closely. Last month, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff 
flew to Brownsville, Texas, on the Mexican border, to announce a plan 
to increase cooperation with Mexican drug authorities.

Just two weeks later, the four undercover drug agents in Nuevo Laredo 
were killed. The killings were seen here as a setback for Mexican 
drug authorities. But they were soon eclipsed by the shock of the 
beheadings in Acapulco.

Police Baffled

The heads were discovered April 20 outside a government building not 
far from the beaches that draw tens of thousands of U.S. tourists 
each year. The killings, coupled with grenade attacks on police 
stations in neighboring cities, were graphic reminders that drug 
violence has spread beyond the border and into the port and beach 
towns where drugs enter the country before being funneled north.

"We can't believe this is happening," said Mario Nunez Magana, 
spokesman for the Acapulco police. "This used to happen just up at 
the border. Here, we were only about tourism."

The slain officers, whose bodies were found wrapped in plastic miles 
away from their heads, had participated several months earlier in a 
shootout that left four suspected drug gang members dead. On Tuesday, 
less than a week after the gruesome discoveries, the Mexico City 
newspaper Excelsior posted a video on its Web site that it said 
showed one of the officers killing a gang member execution-style 
during that shootout.
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman