As Drug-Related Violence Escalates, Tijuana Is Losing Its Taste for Songs That Glorify Gangsters. TIJUANA -- The whiskey is flowing at La Cantina when Calor Nortena kicks out the accordion jams for a homage to gangster Arturo Villarreal, who rose from drug cartel protege to crime boss in a six-year reign of mayhem and murder. "The law calls me a dangerous [criminal] so don't dare take me on because I have bullets to spare," the band members sing, as beer-swilling youths shout and long-nailed women twirl on the dance floor. [continues 1192 words]
A Girl's Violent Death Strikes a Nerve in a Chaotic Border Town. CIUDAD JUAREZ, MEXICO -- Scooped up by gunmen as she walked near her home, 12-year-old Alexia Moreno hardly had a chance. The gangsters were driving straight into a shootout. Within minutes, she was dead, shot in the head as she cowered in the back seat. It was two weeks before her sixth-grade graduation. Alexia's death in a city so accustomed to death struck a nerve because she was, in this city tortured by killings, broad-daylight gun battles and rampant kidnappings, an innocent victim. [continues 1403 words]
At least 21 people are killed in five days as turf wars between splintered gangs appear to heat up. MEXICO CITY -- At least 21 people, including a 12-year-old girl and other ordinary citizens, have been killed by warring drug gangs since Thursday in the western state of Sinaloa, in one of the worst spasms of violence in memory in a region long conditioned to narcotics-related savagery. The wave of deadly mayhem began with the audacious daytime shooting of a dozen people in the capital, Culiacan, and continued during the weekend and into Monday. The deaths of innocents, including the young girl, who had just left a party, have terrified the public and left many questioning the effectiveness of the federal government's ongoing crackdown on drug trafficking. [continues 850 words]
12 SLAIN IN BRAZEN MEXICO ATTACK In Daylight Near the Center of Sinaloa's Capital, Gunmen Kill Nine at a Shop and Three Pursuing Officers. Mexico City -- Gunmen shot 12 people to death in broad daylight near the center of Culiacan on Thursday, marking one of the more bloody and brazen recent attacks in the capital of a state beset by drug trafficking and violence. The Sinaloa state prosecutor's office said armed men opened fire in an auto repair shop about 11:20 a.m., killing six people inside and three more just outside the doors. Fleeing in sport utility vehicles, the gunmen then traded fire with police officers who gave chase in a busy commercial area filled with stores and fast-food restaurants. [continues 351 words]
Six Are Found Monday Morning, Shot Execution-Style and Partially Burned in What Appears to Be Drug-Related Violence. TIJUANA -- Police discovered the tortured and burned bodies of six men in an empty lot Monday morning, ending a period of relative calm in this border city beset by drug war violence. Eleven bodies have been discovered since Saturday in violence believed to be drug-related, including the corpse of a woman found in a barrel, state and federal authorities said. [continues 357 words]
As Violence Has Soared, More Than 30 Reporters Have Died or Disappeared in Mexico Since 2000, the Group Reporters Without Borders Says. VILLAHERMOSA, MEXICO -- Rodolfo Rincon had reason to feel cheery when he left his newspaper office on a January evening last year. His report on drug dealing in coastal Tabasco state had made a splashy, two-page spread that day in the Tabasco Hoy. That night, Rincon, considered one of the best police reporters in the state, had put the finishing touches on a story about ATM thieves for the next day's edition. [continues 853 words]
In case decapitating their victims and dumping the heads in picnic coolers didn't make the point, the killers left a note. "This is a warning," it said, listing an alphabet soup of Mexican police agencies and the noms de guerre of several well-known drug figures. "You get what you deserve." The message, scrawled on a poster in black ink, accompanied four severed human heads that Mexican authorities recently found on a highway in the northern state of Durango. [continues 798 words]
Crime Wave Leads to an Exodus of Upper-Class Residents. The Plascencia family boasts the brand name for fine dining in Tijuana. Their showcase restaurant -- Villa Saverios -- is a foodie destination, its elegant dining room a gathering spot for the city's political and social elite. But the family's success has also drawn other attention. Three years ago, gunmen tried to kidnap chef Javier Plascencia's younger brother. A year later they tried again but, in a case of mistaken identity, snatched the wrong man. [continues 1512 words]
In the Year and a Half Since Calderon Began a Crackdown, 4,100 People Have Died. TIJUANA - Mexico is at war. Helmeted army troops steer Humvees past strip malls in the border city of Nuevo Laredo, some of the 40,000 soldiers and 5,000 federal police officers President Felipe Calderon has deployed to secure large swaths of the country against entrenched drug traffickers. The No. 2 police officer from Ciudad Juarez dies in a hail of bullets, and his boss resigns after receiving threats over the police force's own radio frequency. [continues 1580 words]
Observers Fear the Deployment Will Hurt Democracy and Civil Institutions, but They See No Alternative. Nuevo Laredo, Mexico -- Although the Mexican army has been able to quiet drug violence in some hot spots, political observers say the deployment of thousands of soldiers could undermine civilian institutions and jeopardize Mexico's evolving democracy. Critics say the military lacks the training and sensibilities for such work, and fear it will trample on the rights of ordinary Mexicans. [continues 577 words]
