Mexico's bloody drugs war on Monday reached new heights after 10 federal police officers were killed in a single attack and 28 inmates died following a clash of suspected rival drug gangs in a prison. In the western state of Michoacan, where the La Familia cartel has been waging a war to secure smuggling routes and local markets, unidentified gunmen ambushed a convoy of federal police officers just before noon. State authorities said that the gunmen blocked off a road in the municipality of Zitacuaro before opening fire on the group of police officers. A further 15 officers, and a still-unconfirmed number of gunmen were injured. [continues 239 words]
There is no curfew yet in Ciudad Juárez, a bleak and sprawling border city in Mexico's northern desert but the atmosphere is distinctly reminiscent of martial law. Masked federal police man roadblocks on the main streets. At the border crossings, soldiers with automatic rifles search cars entering from El Paso, Texas. The heavy military presence is the latest response of the administration of Felipe Calderón, the president, to a rise in drug-related violence that has turned Juárez into just about the most dangerous place on Earth. Last month, more civilians were murdered in the city of 1.6m people than in Baghdad. [continues 583 words]
Civil groups on Friday said that the approved version of a multimillion-dollar US aid package to help Mexico in its war against drugs was a valuable tool in efforts to combat human rights abuses. "We are pretty encouraged," said Jose Miguel Vivanco, Latin America director of Human Rights Watch in Washington. "We feel quite positive about the whole outcome." On Thursday, the US House of Representatives passed by an overwhelming majority the Merida Initiative that will give Mexico $400m in funds this year to help confront organised crime, particularly the flow of drugs through Mexico into the US. [continues 429 words]
The US should make a "bigger and more integral effort" in the fight against drugs, according to the Mexican government's highest-ranking law official. "There has to be a direct fight [against drugs] in the US, too, just like the one we are fighting," Daniel Cabeza de Vaca, the country's attorney-general, told the FT in an interview. "If they fought like we are fighting here, they would surely have a problem of violence much greater than the one we have." [continues 521 words]
