Pubdate: Fri, 30 Jul 2010
Source: Daily Telegraph (UK)
Copyright: 2010 Telegraph Media Group Limited
Contact:  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/114
Referenced: The Los Angeles Times webpage 
http://projects.latimes.com/mexico-drug-war/#/its-a-war

MEXICO'S WAR ON DRUGS: TIMELINE

Ignacio "Nacho" Coronel, a top Mexican drug trafficker, has been in a 
military operation that may prove to be a boon for President Felipe 
Calderon's struggling war against drug cartels.

Following is a timeline of key events in Mexico's drug war. More than 
26,000 people have died in drug violence in the past three and a half 
years. For a full interactive timeline, visit the Los Angeles Times.

2001 - Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman escapes from a Mexican prison in a 
laundry van. Mexico's most-wanted drug lord, he builds a coalition of 
drug gangs from the western state of Sinaloa and vows to take control 
of Mexico's vast drug trade.

2002 - Police weaken the Tijuana cartel by killing drug boss Ramon 
Arellano Felix and arresting one of his brothers.

2003 - Mexican soldiers capture Osiel Cardenas, leader of the Gulf 
cartel based in eastern Mexico, after a shootout between troops and 
gunmen in the border city of Matamoros.

2004 - Trying to take advantage of Cardenas' arrest, Guzman sends 
well-armed enforcers to border cities south of Texas to take over 
Gulf cartel smuggling routes. Heavy fighting breaks out before 
Guzman's fighters are eventually repelled.

2005 - Guzman seeks control of the border city of Tijuana and 
trafficking routes into California. Violence escalates across Mexico 
and about 1,500 people are killed over the year.

2006 - Killings spread to the resort of Acapulco, the industrial city 
of Monterrey and to Michoacan in western Mexico, the home state of 
Felipe Calderon, who takes office as president on Dec. 1 and 
immediately sends out troops and federal police to stem the violence. 
Drug gang killings rise to 2,300 and atrocities like beheadings and 
torture increase.

2007 - Calderon extradites Gulf cartel leader Cardenas to the United 
States and makes a historic 23-tonne cocaine seizure. US President 
George W. Bush pledges $1.4 billion in drug-fighting gear and 
training for Mexico and Central America. Violence escalates and more 
than 3,000 are killed in the year.

2008 - Guzman's hitmen take on the Juarez cartel in the northern 
border city of Ciudad Juarez, across from El Paso, Texas, and quickly 
becomes the drug war's bloodiest flashpoint. Drug violence kills 
around 6,300 people across Mexico in the year.

2009 - Calderon sends 10,000 more troops to Ciudad Juarez but 
killings continue. Violence spills over the border into Arizona. U.S. 
President Barack Obama visits Mexico and vows to clamp down on 
smuggled guns but the annual drug war death toll soars above 7,000. 
In December, an elite navy squad tracks down and kills drug lord 
Arturo Beltran Leyva, head of the cartel of the same name and one of 
Mexico's most-wanted traffickers. Six bodyguards also die in the raid 
on a luxury apartment in the city of Cuernavaca near the capital.

2010 - Police capture drug kingpin Teodoro "El Teo" Garcia Simental, 
known for having rivals tortured, killed and then dissolved in acid, 
in January. But drug gangs grow more brazen, killing three people 
linked to the U.S. consulate in Ciudad Juarez, murdering a 
gubernatorial election candidate in the increasingly lawless 
northeastern state of Tamaulipas and setting off a car bomb in Ciudad 
Juarez. Cartel murders soar to unprecedented levels, exceeding 5,000 
by mid-June, as mass killings at drug rehabilitation centers and 
parties become common. On July 29, top trafficker Ignacio "Nacho" 
Coronel, No. 3 in Guzman's Sinaloa cartel, dies as soldiers try to 
arrest him near Guadalajara, the first big win of the year for Calderon. 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake