New Spike in Violence Punctuates
Mexico's Drug War
October 5, 2010 - PBS

Mexican
police at a crime scene in Ciudad Juarez.
Clashes between rival gangs in Mexico left 34 people dead over the
weekend, and the beating death of a mayor is the fifth killing of a
city leader in six weeks, the latest fallout from the country's deadly
drug war.
Much of the violence occurred in northern Mexico along the U.S.
border, where drug gangs are engaged in turf battles. Here are some of
the latest grim numbers:
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Fourteen people died in San Jose de la Cruz
in the northern state of Durango over the weekend in what appeared to
be fighting between the local Sinaloa cartel and rival drug gangs.
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Another 20 people were killed in the same
timeframe in Chihuahua state near the Texas border, where the Juarez
cartel is active.
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At least 11 mayors have been killed this year
across Mexico, the Washington Post reports,
in "communities where rival mafias fight for control of local drug
sales, marijuana and poppy fields, methamphetamine labs and
billion-dollar smuggling routes to the United States." The latest was
Monday's discovery of Tancitaro Mayor Gustavo Sanchez found beaten to
death.
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More than 29,000 people have died in
drug-related violence since late 2006 when Mexican President Felipe
Calderon took office and launched a military crackdown on drug gangs,
according to Reuters, which keeps a weekly
tally of incidents.
Some criminal activity appears to be motivated by a general
lawlessness in certain areas of Mexico, such as kidnappings for ransoms.
At least one town took matters into its own hands when its residents
felt authorities weren't doing enough to protect them and prosecute
suspects, according to a report
by Jose Luis Sierra, an editor for New America Media.
He writes about the kidnapping of a 17-year-old waitress at the end
of September in Ascension, Mexico. Three of the five perpetrators were
nabbed by police and brought to Ciudad Juarez for trial. The other two
were beaten to death by an angry mob. Sierra writes:
"For the bands of kidnappers operating in this part
of Mexico, it's an almost routine operation: pick a victim, point guns
at whoever happens to be nearby, and force the target to board a
waiting vehicle, usually a stolen one. Speed away and call the family
to ask for ransom.
... According to the accounts of
Ascension residents, the kidnappers who snatched a teenage girl two
weeks ago were not narcos, and after this particular job, they didn't
get very far."
Reaction seems to be mixed on whether President Calderon's tactics
are working. Peter Hakim, president emeritus of the Inter-American
Dialogue, said some consider it a failure while others believe the
number of deaths shows progress.
"I don't think we really know," he continued. There's a show of
force, but there doesn't appear to be a clear sense of what needs to
get done and what a victory would look like, or even benchmarks for
making gains, Hakim said.
Some say the war needs to be stopped, he added, while others say
since the Pandora's Box is open, the government must continue to see it
through to the end.