Abc
6th September 2009, 07:06
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article6820051.ece
Gunmen stormed into a drug rehabilitation clinic in Mexico and shot dead 18 people, in the worst of a string of drug-related atrocities that killed 40 in the troubled states of Chihuahua and Michoacan yesterday.
The attackers broke down the door of El Aliviane centre in the Bellavista suburb of Ciudad Juarez, lined up their victims against a wall and opened fire, said Arturo Sandoval, a spokesman for the regional prosecutors’ office.
Five people were wounded in the massacre - a copycat incident to a similar attack last year that left eight dead. Masked police guarded the scene as dozens of weeping relatives flocked to see if their loved ones had survived. Police said that the death toll may rise.
The violence-torn city in the north-western state of Chihuahua is home to the Juarez drug cartel, which is battling other gangs for trafficking and territory. The police did not immediately name any suspects for the clinic killings, but recent violence in the city has been blamed on a feud between rival drug cartels in El Paso, Texas, a few miles away across the US border.
in another incident, a 20-year-old man was found decapitated and dismembered, his remains dumped outside a police station in Ciudad Juarez. Police found a threatening message near the body signed by La Linea, part of the Carrillo Fuentes drug cartel.
Separately, a woman was shot dead in broad daylight on the street in Ciudad Juarez, another two people were gunned down in a city restaurant and nine men were killed in other incidents, officials said. More violent deaths were reported in Nuevo Casas Grandes and in the state capital Ciudad Chihuahua.
Jose Manuel Revuelta, the deputy director of public safety for the southerly state of Michoacan, became the most high profile victim of the violence when he was gunned down along with his two bodyguards yesterday in the state capital Morelia, after barely two weeks in the job.
The assassination happened less than a mile from Mr Revuelta's office in the headquarters of the Department of Public Safety, when gunmen pulled up alongside his car and opened fire as he headed home.
Mr Revuelta tried to speed away, but only made it a few blocks before he was intercepted by two more vehicles. Six gunmen got out and sprayed his car with bullets, killing him, two bodyguards and a truck driver caught in the crossfire.
Morelia is a stronghold of the notoriously ruthless La Familia drug cartel, which made a dramatic appearance in 2006 when members rolled five decapitated heads onto a nightclub dance floor. La Familia works in tandem with the Los Zetas paramilitary force of former Mexican soldiers.
A spate of extreme violence has gripped Mexico for months, reaching a high in July after security officials managed to arrest Arnoldo Rueda, an alleged top agent of La Familia who was said to be in charge of manufacturing synthetic drugs and shipping marijuana to the US.
La Familia retaliated ruthlessly, kidnapping and torturing 12 federal police and dumping their bodies along a road in Michoacan later that month.
The government has since rounded up more La Familia suspects, including Luis Ricardo Magana, who is alleged to have controlled methamphetamine shipments to the US for the gang. Prosecutors also arrested the mother of Servando “La Tuta" Gomez, said to be the head of La Familia, braving his threats to retaliate if police bothered his family, but the woman was released after two days for lack of evidence.
Michoacan is the home state of Felipe Calderon, the Mexican President. He has deployed thousands of soldiers and federal police there since he took office in 2006, the initiative broadening into a nationwide crackdown involving 36,000 security officials trying to suppress drug cartel-driven violence - so far with little effect.
More than 9,600 people have died since 2008. In the first seven months of 2009, at least 1,161 murders took place in the city of Ciudad Juarez alone, according to police data. Hundreds of police are among the dead.
The government is struggling to revamp Ciudad Juarez’s police force, which is plagued by corruption and the killings of many of its officers. Other police have quit the force out of fear of being targeted.
Mr Calderon yesterday defended his battle against drug trafficking in a speech to Congress, saying that his government had taken on the cartels as no previous Mexican administration had dared to do.
“As never before, we have weakened the logistical and financial structure of crime,” he said.
The US State Department issued a warning last month for Americans to stay away from Michoacan because of the high risk of violence.
Gunmen stormed into a drug rehabilitation clinic in Mexico and shot dead 18 people, in the worst of a string of drug-related atrocities that killed 40 in the troubled states of Chihuahua and Michoacan yesterday.
The attackers broke down the door of El Aliviane centre in the Bellavista suburb of Ciudad Juarez, lined up their victims against a wall and opened fire, said Arturo Sandoval, a spokesman for the regional prosecutors’ office.
Five people were wounded in the massacre - a copycat incident to a similar attack last year that left eight dead. Masked police guarded the scene as dozens of weeping relatives flocked to see if their loved ones had survived. Police said that the death toll may rise.
The violence-torn city in the north-western state of Chihuahua is home to the Juarez drug cartel, which is battling other gangs for trafficking and territory. The police did not immediately name any suspects for the clinic killings, but recent violence in the city has been blamed on a feud between rival drug cartels in El Paso, Texas, a few miles away across the US border.
in another incident, a 20-year-old man was found decapitated and dismembered, his remains dumped outside a police station in Ciudad Juarez. Police found a threatening message near the body signed by La Linea, part of the Carrillo Fuentes drug cartel.
Separately, a woman was shot dead in broad daylight on the street in Ciudad Juarez, another two people were gunned down in a city restaurant and nine men were killed in other incidents, officials said. More violent deaths were reported in Nuevo Casas Grandes and in the state capital Ciudad Chihuahua.
Jose Manuel Revuelta, the deputy director of public safety for the southerly state of Michoacan, became the most high profile victim of the violence when he was gunned down along with his two bodyguards yesterday in the state capital Morelia, after barely two weeks in the job.
The assassination happened less than a mile from Mr Revuelta's office in the headquarters of the Department of Public Safety, when gunmen pulled up alongside his car and opened fire as he headed home.
Mr Revuelta tried to speed away, but only made it a few blocks before he was intercepted by two more vehicles. Six gunmen got out and sprayed his car with bullets, killing him, two bodyguards and a truck driver caught in the crossfire.
Morelia is a stronghold of the notoriously ruthless La Familia drug cartel, which made a dramatic appearance in 2006 when members rolled five decapitated heads onto a nightclub dance floor. La Familia works in tandem with the Los Zetas paramilitary force of former Mexican soldiers.
A spate of extreme violence has gripped Mexico for months, reaching a high in July after security officials managed to arrest Arnoldo Rueda, an alleged top agent of La Familia who was said to be in charge of manufacturing synthetic drugs and shipping marijuana to the US.
La Familia retaliated ruthlessly, kidnapping and torturing 12 federal police and dumping their bodies along a road in Michoacan later that month.
The government has since rounded up more La Familia suspects, including Luis Ricardo Magana, who is alleged to have controlled methamphetamine shipments to the US for the gang. Prosecutors also arrested the mother of Servando “La Tuta" Gomez, said to be the head of La Familia, braving his threats to retaliate if police bothered his family, but the woman was released after two days for lack of evidence.
Michoacan is the home state of Felipe Calderon, the Mexican President. He has deployed thousands of soldiers and federal police there since he took office in 2006, the initiative broadening into a nationwide crackdown involving 36,000 security officials trying to suppress drug cartel-driven violence - so far with little effect.
More than 9,600 people have died since 2008. In the first seven months of 2009, at least 1,161 murders took place in the city of Ciudad Juarez alone, according to police data. Hundreds of police are among the dead.
The government is struggling to revamp Ciudad Juarez’s police force, which is plagued by corruption and the killings of many of its officers. Other police have quit the force out of fear of being targeted.
Mr Calderon yesterday defended his battle against drug trafficking in a speech to Congress, saying that his government had taken on the cartels as no previous Mexican administration had dared to do.
“As never before, we have weakened the logistical and financial structure of crime,” he said.
The US State Department issued a warning last month for Americans to stay away from Michoacan because of the high risk of violence.