Pubdate: Wed, 05 Jul 2017
Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)
Copyright: 2017 Los Angeles Times
Contact:  http://www.latimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/248
Author: Mario Rivera Alvarado, Associated Press

26 PEOPLE KILLED IN NORTHERN MEXICO GUNFIGHT AS DRUG CARTEL
VIOLENCE CONTINUES TO RISE

Mexican police guard a crime scene near the beach resort of Mazatlan,
where 19 suspected drug cartel members died in clashes with police on
July 1. On Wednesday, cartel violence claimed 26 more lives in
neighboring Chihuahua state.

Mexican police guard a crime scene near the beach resort of Mazatlan,
where 19 suspected drug cartel members died in clashes with police on
July 1. On Wednesday, cartel violence claimed 26 more lives in
neighboring Chihuahua state. (Mario Rivera Alvarado / Associated Press)

Authorities said at least 26 people were killed Wednesday in northern
Mexico during a predawn gun battle between warring crime gangs, part
of an escalation of deadly violence across the country.

In an interview with Milenio television, Chihuahua state prosecutor's
spokesman Felix Gonzalez said the confrontation between armed groups
broke out in the town of Las Varas around 5 a.m. For the next two
hours, members of the La Linea gang squared off with a faction of the
Sinaloa cartel, leaving more than two dozen people dead and several
others wounded, he said.

The violence in Las Varas, nearly 185 miles southwest of the border
city of Ciudad Juarez, comes days after a similar burst of bloodshed
in neighboring Sinaloa state. Authorities said at least 30 people were
killed there over the weekend; a firefight with police officers near
the resort town of Mazatlan left 19 suspected cartel members dead.

Violence in Mexico has surged to record levels this year. There were
2,186 homicide investigations opened in May, more than in any month
since the government began publishing homicide statistics in the 1990s.

Isai Lara Bermudez had just started lunch at a Tijuana barbecue joint
when a stranger approached his table.

"Watch out," she warned him. "He's after you."

Lara, an investigative reporter, had written a series of stories in
February showing evidence that the police chief of a neighboring city
had...

Isai Lara Bermudez had just started lunch at a Tijuana barbecue joint
when a stranger approached his table.

"Watch out," she warned him. "He's after you."

Lara, an investigative reporter, had written a series of stories in
February showing evidence that the police chief of a neighboring city
had... (Kate Linthicum)

Analysts say violence is swelling as members of splintered drug
cartels battle for territory. A power vacuum emerged after this year's
extradition to the U.S. of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, the former
leader of the powerful Sinaloa cartel, and now his sons are battling
for control with the sons of one of Guzman's top lieutenants.
Meanwhile, a new criminal group, the Jalisco New Generation cartel,
has been trying to assert control in bloody turf battles.

The fight against transnational criminal groups and regional security
was the subject of a meeting Wednesday between President Enrique Pena
Nieto and U.S. Homeland Security Secretary John F. Kelly, who is in
Mexico for three days of talks.

Although Kelly, like his boss, President Trump, has pushed for more
border security in an effort to stop the flow of drugs and migrants
into the U.S., Mexico has repeatedly said that the U.S. should be
focused on reducing its demand for drugs.

"Illicit drug trade is indeed the most important cause of violence in
Mexico, and drug trafficking is costing thousands of lives both in
Mexico and the U.S.," Mexico's Foreign Ministry said last week after
Trump incorrectly tweeted last month that Mexico is the
second-deadliest country after Syria.

The president was referring to a controversial recent study that
ranked Mexico as the world's second most-dangerous conflict zone after
Syria.

Mexico has disputed the premise of the annual Armed Conflict Survey,
released this year by the International Institute for Strategic
Studies, saying it wrongly points to the existence of an armed
conflict in Mexico.

"The existence of criminal groups is not sufficient criteria to speak
of a non-international armed conflict," said a joint statement issued
by Mexico's secretaries of governance and foreign relations.

Some blame Pena Nieto, whose single, six-year term ends next year, for
not doing enough to stop the violence.

Some experts have criticized Pena Nieto's drug war strategy, adopted
from his predecessor, Felipe Calderon, which puts an emphasis on
capturing or killing top cartel leaders instead of training police
officers and creating more economic opportunities for young people
susceptible to joining criminal groups.

They also point to Mexico's recent overhaul of its criminal justice
system, which mandates that law enforcement officials must gather more
evidence in crimes than was previously required. The change was
designed to make the system more fair for defendants, but analysts say
many local police and prosecutors simply don't have enough training
and, in some cases, are in the pocket of the drug cartels and
unwilling to cooperate.

Although the violence has been especially bad in certain parts of the
country, including in Chihuahua and Sinaloa, homicides have increased
in a majority of Mexican states.
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