MEXICO CITY-Hundreds of investigative police, prosecutors and forensics experts and other staff from Mexico's Attorney General's Office are being investigated amid suspicion of links to organized crime, the latest corruption scandal to hit Mexico's government. Mexican Attorney General Marisela Morales said late Tuesday that the agency was in the process of firing 424 officials, the majority for failing to pass lie-detector tests aimed at rooting out corruption. "We are strengthening our vigilance to make sure that our own officials abide by the law," Ms. Morales said in a speech. [continues 451 words]
Mexican soldiers discovered one of the largest marijuana plantations ever found in the country, just 200 miles south of San Diego, Calif., the Mexican Defense Ministry said. Mexican officials said on Thursday that the plantation, in Baja California, stretched as far as the eye could see-totaling some 120 hectares (296 acres). The crop would yield about 120 metric tons and be worth an estimated $160 million, the Defense Ministry said in a statement. Video of the plantation showed a sophisticated system of piped-in irrigation to support the plants, some of which were several feet tall, according to the Associated Press. The plantation was shielded by a black screen. [continues 468 words]
MEXICO CITY-Federal police captured the chief of Mexico's La Familia drug cartel Tuesday, dealing another blow to a gang that lost its founding leader just months ago and is now torn by a bloody internal feud in its home state of Michoacan. Police captured Jose de Jesus Mendez, known by his alias "El Chango," or the Monkey, in the central Mexican state of Aguascalientes without firing any shots, Alejandro Poire, Mexico's national security spokesman, said in a statement. [continues 458 words]
MEXICO CITY-Three days of raging gun battles this week between rival drug gangs in Michoacan state killed an unknown number of people, forced hundreds to flee their homes and raised fresh fears that another major Mexican state has become all but ungovernable. Fighting broke out Monday and lasted for three days. But news of the conflict was slow to get out because local media in states like Michoacan have largely stopped covering the carnage on orders from drug gangs. On Tuesday, a helicopter belonging to the Federal Police was forced to make a hard landing after being shot at by gunmen from a drug cartel, the Federal Investigative Agency, an arm of the Attorney General's Office, said Tuesday. Three federal police were injured. [continues 758 words]
TORREON, Mexico-His grandfather was the cross-eyed cousin of Mexico's legendary revolutionary Francisco "Pancho" Villa. Like his famous ancestor, Carlos Villa is a hard-charging general who is charismatic, foulmouthed and not afraid to use his gun. And some say he is just what Mexico needs as it wrestles with the corruption and violence spawned by the country's powerful gangs of drug traffickers. Retired Gen. Villa is the 61-year-old police chief in Torreon, an industrial city in Mexico's violent northern badlands-a central drug-running route currently being fought over by two of Mexico's biggest cartels. [continues 2077 words]
MEXICO CITY-Mexican troops arrested a 14-year-old U.S. citizen suspected of being a hit man for a drug cartel and beheading his victims, the latest shocking development in Mexico's war on drug-trafficking gangs. Edgar Jimenez was captured late Thursday at an airport in Cuernavaca, a tourist destination about an hour south of Mexico City, as he attempted to board a flight to Tijuana, the Mexican army said in a statement. The teenager-short and slight with curly black hair-was allegedly trying to make his way back to San Diego, where he has lived previously and where his stepmother is believed to live, officials said. [continues 504 words]
MEXICO CITY - A taped telephone conversation between a person believed to be a federal congressman and a drug lord has raised new questions about the extent to which Mexican drug gangs have bought off politicians and whether the politicians, if exposed, can even be punished. Julio Cesar Godoy, a newly elected lawmaker from the leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution, failed to turn up at Mexico's Congress on Friday, a day after a radio station broadcast what it said was a conversation between the congressman and Servando Gomez, a top official in the La Familia drug cartel. [continues 576 words]
In Monterrey, Mexico, Cement Giant Plays Role in Battle Against Narcotics Cartels MONTERREY, Mexico-One of this city's leading companies, cement giant Cementos Mexicanos SAB, is lending a hand in an effort to rescue Monterrey, Mexico's northern business capital, from the drug-related violence that has engulfed it. Like many of Monterrey's four million residents, executives at Cemex, one of the world's biggest cement makers, have watched in horror as the violence roiling much of Mexico's north has taken hold here with dizzying speed. [continues 1013 words]
MEXICO CITY - Two Honduran diplomats were briefly kidnapped in Mexico this past weekend by a presumed drug gang, prompting Honduras to warn Mexico on Monday that it might close several consulates here if Mexico can't provide adequate security for diplomats. Honduras's vice consul in Mexico's Veracruz state, Joel Aguilar, was seized along with another consular officer by gunmen as the pair traveled in a car in the state capital on Saturday, according to a statement by Honduras's foreign ministry. [continues 325 words]
MONTERREY, Mexico - A surge of violence by drug gangs in this industrial hub is leading to an exodus of wealthy Mexicans as well as scores of U.S. and foreign expatriates, dealing a blow to what has long been one of Latin America's richest and safest cities. The security situation is so alarming in Monterrey, known as the "Sultan of the North" for its industrial power, that the mayor has sent his family to live in Dallas, according to people familiar with the matter. The mayor's office didn't respond to requests for comment. [continues 1313 words]
MEXICO CITY-Mexico's war on powerful drug cartels suffered a series of setbacks on Friday, including the disappearance of a prosecutor charged with investigating this week's massacre of 72 migrants, and twin explosions that suggested cartels are trying to become proficient in car bombs. On the same day, the U.S. State Department said it will pull out all children of its diplomatic personnel in Mexico's business capital of Monterrey. Coming after a gunbattle last week in front of an elite school that killed two private security guards, the move is a sign the U.S. believes the local government has lost control of the city to warring criminal forces. [continues 1027 words]
Massacre of 72 at Remote Ranch Reveals Dangers Many Central and South Americans Face During Their Journeys to U.S. MEXICO CITY-This week's massacre of 72 Central and South American migrants in Mexico highlights a paradox the government here doesn't like to talk about: While it complains about the treatment of its own undocumented workers in the U.S., Mexico can be a far worse place to be an illegal migrant. Mexican soldiers on Thursday fanned out near a remote ranch about 90 miles from the U.S. border where 58 men and 14 women from Honduras, El Salvador, Ecuador and Brazil were bound, blindfolded, lined up against a wall and executed. [continues 957 words]
MEXICO CITY-Gunmen from a drug cartel appear to have massacred 72 migrants from Central and South America who were on their way to the U.S., a grisly event that marks the single biggest killing in Mexico's war on organized crime. Mexican marines discovered the 72 bodies-58 men and 14 women -on Tuesday after the lone survivor of the massacre, a wounded migrant from Ecuador, stumbled into a Navy checkpoint the previous day and told of being shot on Monday at a nearby ranch, Mexican officials said on Wednesday. [continues 834 words]
MEXICO CITY-A leading Mexican gubernatorial candidate was killed early Monday in a state bordering Texas, in the highest-level assassination of a politician here since President Felipe Calderon declared war on drug cartels in 2006. The killing of Rodolfo Torre, who was seen as a shoo-in for governor in Tamaulipas, represents an escalation of the drug traffickers' war against the Mexican state. "This is an attack not only against one citizen, but against all society; an attack not just on one politician, but against all politicians and our political institutions," Mr. Calderon said in a televised address. [continues 1052 words]
MEXICO CITY-Ten days after taking power following a hotly contested election in 2006, Felipe Calderon sat in the gilded presidential chair and signed a decree that would shape his presidency: an order to deploy 6,000 army troops to his home state of Michoacan to take on drug gangs. Like many, the president believed the army might have trouble with the drug lords, but would at least force them out of city plazas and back into the shadows. It hasn't worked out that way. Some three years later, more than 23,000 people have been killed in drug-related violence across Mexico, according to government figures. The bloodshed keeps rising despite the presence of an estimated 45,000 to 60,000 soldiers-roughly a fourth of Mexico's army-in nine states. [continues 1905 words]
MEXICO CITY - Mexico's drug war is spreading uncomfortably close to the capital at a time when drug-related violence is spiraling out of control throughout the country. Over the weekend, panic gripped the central city of Cuernavaca after alleged drug traffickers imposed a nighttime curfew on the city, which sits just an hour south of the capital. Cuernavaca, a city of one million, is a popular weekend retreat for Mexico City residents and is also well-known to Americans as a retirement spot and a place to learn Spanish. On Friday, an e-mail from a purported drug gang warned residents to stay indoors past 8 p.m. "We recommend you not go out to restaurants, bars, etc. because we might confuse you with our enemies," said the e-mail, a copy of which was seen by The Wall Street Journal. [continues 341 words]
MEXICO CITY - The U.S. and Mexican governments on Tuesday unveiled a "guns and butter" strategy for cracking down on Mexico's violent drug cartels, promising to use not only military force, but social and economic strategies as well. During a high-profile visit by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and a number of senior Obama administration officials, both sides agreed to expand cooperation under the $1.3 billion Merida Initiative, a program begun in 2008 aimed at helping Mexico quell rising drug-related violence that has killed some 18,000 people in the past three years. [continues 510 words]
Merida Initiative Offers $1.3 Billion for Equipment, Training, 'Smart' Border Enforcement and Institutional Reform MEXICO CITY-U.S. and Mexican officials are expected to finalize a new strategy on Tuesday on how to use some $1.3 billion in U.S. aid under the so-called Merida Initiative to try to control growing drug-related violence in Mexico. Officials hope the plan, which mixes military aid such as Black Hawk helicopters with "softer" money such as investments in local communities, can have the same success in turning around Mexico's troubles as Plan Colombia, another U.S. antidrug aid package, did for that country. Officials caution that solving Mexico's problems could be a tougher battle than helping Colombia, where U.S. aid helped the government beat back insurgencies tied to the drugs trade. [continues 788 words]
Calderon's Strategy of Using Army Patrols Draws Fire as Juarez, a Centerpiece of the Push, Turns Into a Murder Capital CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico--The gangland-style murders of three people with ties to the U.S. consulate in this border city have confirmed for many people what residents here already knew: President Felipe Calderon's strategy of sending in the troops to corral drug gangs has failed. The gritty working-class city of 1.5 million has become a litmus test for Mr. Calderon's antidrug strategy and, by extension, his presidency. The conservative leader took power vowing to bring cartels to heel, and chose Mexico's army rather than local police to do the job, sending 45,000 troops to various hot spots, including 7,000 to Juarez. [continues 723 words]
To Weaken the Cartels, Some Argue the U.S. Should Legalize Marijuana, Let Cocaine Pass Through the Caribbean and Take the Profit Motive Out of the Drug Trade In the 40 years since U.S. President Richard Nixon declared a "war on drugs," the supply and use of drugs has not changed in any fundamental way. The only difference: a taxpayer bill of more than $1 trillion. A senior Mexican official who has spent more than two decades helping fight the government's war on drugs summed up recently what he's learned from his long career: "This war is not winnable." [continues 1892 words]
