Pubdate: Wed, 15 Jul 2009
Source: Wall Street Journal (US)
Copyright: 2009 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.wsj.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/487
Author: David Luhnow
Note: Paul Kiernan and John Lyons contributed to this article.
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topic/Mexico
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/people/Felipe+Calderon

MEXICO POLICE AGENTS ARE KILLED IN ALLEGED RETRIBUTION

MEXICO CITY -- Twelve undercover federal police agents were captured, 
tortured, and executed by a relatively new and dangerous Mexican 
cartel calling itself La Familia, or The Family, officials said Tuesday.

The killings are a major psychological blow to President Felipe 
Calderon's war on drugs. The bodies of 11 men and one woman were 
found by locals on the side of a highway in Mr. CalderA'n's home 
state of Michoacan on Monday. The victims had their hands and feet 
tied, showed signs of torture, and had all been shot in the head at 
close range.

The agents had been in Michoacan to gather intelligence on the 
cartel, said Federal Police spokesman Juan Carlos Buenrostro. 
Officials said they believed the killings were connected to the 
weekend capture of Arnoldo Rueda Medina, one of the cartel's major operators.

Since the Saturday arrest, gunmen believed to be working for the 
cartel have gone on a rampage, attacking police stations, army 
patrols and hotels in several different cities in Michoacan with 
grenades and high-caliber weapons like AK-47s and AR-15 semiautomatic 
rifles. The attacks killed two soldiers and six other federal police 
agents, and wounded a further 18 agents.

Together with the executions, the toll from three days of violence 
climbed to 18 federal police agents killed, as well as the two 
soldiers -- not including about a dozen other civilian victims, 
police said. That would mark one of the bloodiest single episodes 
against federal forces since Mr. Calderon launched a crackdown on 
drug cartels shortly after taking power in December 2006.

The violence highlights the increasing power, brazenness, and 
operational capability of Mexican cartels like La Familia. Within a 
day of Mr. Rueda's arrest, gunmen attacked a hotel where police were 
staying in Apatzingn, federal police barracks in the tourist town of 
Ptzcuaro, a police base in Huetamo, and a police convoy on a rural 
road -- all in different parts of the state.

Since Mr. Calderon took power, more than 12,000 people have died in 
Mexico in drug-related killings.

The killings could raise political pressure on Mr. Calderon to 
retreat in the battle against drug lords. While the war on drugs is 
popular, many opposition politicians say it is only stirring up 
trouble and causing more violence. On Monday, leftist senator Carlos 
Navarrete called on Mr. Calderon to scale back the war on drugs, 
partly because traffickers could target senior law-enforcement and 
government officials.

The killings are also a major blow to the Federal Police. Mr. 
Calderon's government has invested millions in training, technology 
and arms for the agency, essentially a two-year-old institution being 
fashioned after the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation. It has been 
part of a national effort to clean up police agencies that have 
traditionally been corrupted by drug cartels.

Federal police have been dispatched across Mexico in joint operations 
with the military to take on drug organizations in areas where the 
local and state police are suspect. The officers work in two-to 
three-month shifts before being sent to a new hot spot. The reasoning 
is that if they are there any longer, the risk that the officers 
might succumb to offers of money or threats by the drug gangs becomes 
too great.

Responding to the violence, Mr. Calderon said that the cartels were 
increasingly desperate due to the crackdown by the federal 
government, which has included sending 45,000 troops to patrol 
cities. "In these cowardly attacks, brave members of our federal 
forces have lost their lives," Mr. Calderon said Tuesday. "They have 
fallen thinking it is possible to construct a safer Mexico. They have 
fallen fighting for the safety of all of us." A new poll by Mexican 
pollster GCE, however, showed that 51% of Mexicans believe the 
cartels have the upper hand in the drug war, while only 29% think the 
government is winning.

Of Mexico's major drug cartels, perhaps none is as dangerous as La 
Familia, a relatively obscure trafficking organization that has 
gained notoriety in the past year. Founded in part by a charismatic 
leader who preaches family values, the cartel first gained attention 
in 2006 in grisly fashion: By rolling the severed heads of five men 
onto a dance floor at a Michoacan disco, along with a hand-scrawled 
note warning off rival traffickers.

La Familia has tried to cast itself as a Robin Hood-type cartel, a 
quasi-legitimate business that gives back money to the poor, abides 
by a code of ethics such as not selling certain drugs like 
methamphetamines in Michoacan, and metes out justice to its enemies 
only when it is double-crossed. Experts say it recruits heavily among 
recovering drug and alcohol addicts. It has published manifestoes in 
local newspapers. One golden rule: "family" members of traffickers 
should be off-limits to both other traffickers and the federal government.

"It's a bit like a cult, a mixture of evangelicals with new-age 
self-help that gives members a sense of belonging and creates a very 
disciplined organization," says Alberto Islas, a security consultant 
based in Mexico City.

Federal officials say the cartel has infiltrated the state government 
to a shocking degree. Soldiers arrested 10 mayors in MichoacA n, as 
well as 17 police chiefs, in May.
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