Mexican Drug War kills 15,000 since December 2006 from Drug War Chronicle

Drug War Chronicle - world’s leading drug policy newsletter
Latin America: Mexico Drug War Update
from Drug War Chronicle, Issue #607, 11/6/09
by Bernd Debussman Jr.
Mexican drug trafficking organizations make billions each year trafficking illegal drugs into the United States, profiting enormously from the prohibitionist drug policies of the US government. Since Mexican president Felipe Calderon took office in December 2006 and called the armed forces into the fight against the so-called cartels, prohibition-related violence has killed over 12,000 people, with a death toll of over 5,800 so far in 2009. The increasing militarization of the drug war and the arrest of several high-profile drug traffickers have failed to stem the flow of drugs -- or the violence -- whatsoever. The Merida initiative, which provides $1.4 billion over three years for the US to assist the Mexican government with training, equipment and intelligence, has so far failed to make a difference. Here are a few of the latest developments in Mexico's drug war:
Ciuded Juárez (courtesy Daniel Schwen, Wikimedia)Thursday, October 29
In Guerrero, a body was found hanging from a highway overpass. The unidentified man had been shot in the head, and left with two notes with messages from "La Familia." In Ciudad Juárez, a high-ranking police intelligence official was killed when he was attacked by heavily armed gunmen as he ate in a restaurant. One policeman was killed, and the official and two bodyguards were wounded. A sign was later found taking responsibility for the attack, which was apparently ordered by "El Chapo" Guzman, the head of the Sinaloa Federation. Additionally, nine other murders were reported in Ciudad Juárez, four in Sinaloa, one in Tijuana, and four bodies found in the trunk bed of a truck in Michoacán.
Saturday, October 31
In Sonora, a well known union leader was killed along with 14 others, including four children. Margarita Montes Parra, 56, was ambushed by gunmen armed with AK-47's. It is unclear whether his death was ordered by drug traffickers or as a result of his union work. One of his sons, Adrian, was killed two years ago in what is thought to be a drug-related murder. Parra made headlines by publicly accusing the governor of Sonora of protecting his son's killers. He also accused the Veracruz state government of being complicit in drug trafficking.
Monday, November 2
Officials identified four bodies that had been found executed in an SUV in Mexico City. Three of the men had the word "kidnappers" handwritten on their body with marker, and a sign was found in the vehicle which read "for kidnapping, the boss of bosses". This is the nickname of Beltran-Levy cartel boss Arturo Beltran-Levy. There has been an increase of violence against kidnappers and petty criminals in recent months on the part of vigilantes working with drug traffickers and elements of the police. Additionally, in Tijuana, 13 suspected cartel gunmen were captured after a firefight that wounded one soldier and one gunman.
Tuesday, November 3
In the town of San Pedro Garza Garcia, near Monterrey, the mayor announced the death of a drug trafficker hours before the body was actually found. After being sworn in, Mayor Mauricio Fernandez was quoted as saying that "Black Saldana, who is apparently the one asking for my head, was found dead today in Mexico City." His announcement came 3 ½ hours before the blindfolded corpse of "Black Saldana" (otherwise identified only by his first name, Hector) was found. While at first he evaded questions about his prior knowledge of the incident, Fernandez later claimed that he had been tipped off by US officials that he was going to be targeted, and then found out about Black Saldana's death through unspecified means.
In Durango, a journalist who specialized in police matters was found dead after being kidnapped by armed men on his way to work. Alongside the body was found a note, whose contents were not revealed to the public. Vladimir Antenna Garcia, who wrote for El Tempo de Durango, is the third journalist killed in Durango this year, and the eighth journalist killed in Mexico.
In Chihuahua, 18 people were killed in a 48 hour period. Nine of these murders occurred in Ciudad Juárez. Among them was a municipal police officer who was gunned down in a hair salon where he was accompanying his wife. Additionally, in the state of Veracruz, a high-ranking member of the Zetas organization, nicknamed "El Gonzo" or "Z-20" was killed after being shot by Mexican naval personnel. Four people were arrested during the operation.
Wednesday, November 4
In the city of Chihuahua, police and soldiers shot dead a federal policeman who was driving one of three cars that failed to stop for them. The police and troops were on a joint patrol when they attempted to stop the suspicious vehicles. The three vehicles ignored orders to stop, sparking off a gun battle that left the federal agent and left another unidentified man wounded.
In Ciudad Juárez, six people were gunned down in a bar. Among them was off-duty US Air Force Staff Sgt. David Booher, who was based at Holloman Air Force base outside Alamogordo, New Mexico. The motive for the attack was unclear, but it bore all the hallmarks of a drug-related murder in Ciudad Juárez. The incident brings the number of deaths in Ciudad Juárez to 30 over the last four days. Additionally, in Garcia, Nuevo Leon, a recently appointed police chief was killed along with four of his bodyguards when they were ambushed by an unknown known of heavily armed gunmen.
Body count for the week: 111Body count for the year: 6,286Body count since December 2006: 15,000+
Read the last Mexico Drug War Update here.

Plan Merida Kills from Agence France Presse

22 killed in surging wave of violence in Mexico
Tue Jan 27, 9:06 pm ET
MONTERREY, Mexico (AFP) – Twenty-two people were found shot dead late Monday and Tuesday in northern Mexico, including four found on property belonging to the state-run oil giant Pemex, police said.
The killings are likely the result of the ongoing war between powerful drug cartels for control of lucrative access corridors to the United States, officials said.
Petroleos de Mexico workers found the bodies of the four men, some half-dressed and with tape over their eyes, piled up in a well on company property some 150 kilometers (93 miles) northeast of Monterrey, on the US-Mexican border.
The men had all been shot in the head, police in this prosperous and heavily industrialized city told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Meanwhile to the west in the state of Chihuahua, a state also bordering the United States, police found 18 bodies.
Among the dead were three men were found Tuesday afternoon in the state capital Chihuahua with their hands and feet tied. Police said that witnesses saw how the victims were forced out of a vehicle and riddled with bullets on the spot.
Other bodies were found in different state cities, including five in Ciudad Juarez, the epicenter of a war between the Juarez and Sinaloa drug cartels. Already 116 people have been killed in drug violence in Juarez in 2009.
In 2008 some 2,400 people were murdered in Chihuahua state, 1,600 of them in Ciudad Juarez, according to government figures.
The Mexican government has deployed some 36,000 soldiers across the country to battle organized crime.
Across the country, 5,300 people were murdered in 2008, the government said.
Copyright © 2009 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AFP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Agence France Presse.

Plan Merida Border Drug War Claims 4,200 in 18 Months

Mexico's death toll from Plan Merida, the Drug war crackdown, reached 4,200 over the Memorial Day weekend, 450 of them law enforcement and judiciary personnel. President Felipe Calderon seems proud of his success, suggesting that the remainder of the dead are all drug traffic gangsters. No one in the media is asking how many of the dead are collateral casualties, innocent bystanders or innocent family members and neighbors of the "evil doers." Nor is anyone bothering to ask whether toppling drug cartels is a good thing. Calderon claims the gigantic numbers of dead have resulted from a process of the cartels trying to realign themselves after cash seizures and the killing of top drug lords by Mexico. Has anyone wondered whether it is desirable to destabilize the cartels? After all, the demand for cocaine and marijuana and heroin lies across the border in the US. Demand isn't going to go away. The cartels or their successors will still provide the drugs to meet the demand - we call it Capitalism here - so they are just throwing more lives into the meat grinder of the War on Drugs. Then when this body of cartel leaders is destabilized a few years from now we can expect another similar round of killings. It makes you wonder what was it they were trying to prevent in the first place. Left alone what is the worst that would have happened? Maybe a few people would OD. Maybe some local drug deals would go bad, exacerbated by DEA and local law enforcement heavy handedness. Once again we see that the War on Drugs kills more people than drugs. And for this Calderon is being praised. What kind of monsters gauge progress by boasting of thousands killed? The same people who want to put a teenage kid smoking a joint in prison where his or her life will be ruined by violence, corruption, sexual abuse and disenfranchisement after release. Also, out of sympathy with law enforcement, do you believe the 450 Mexican cops and judges and prosecutors willingly gave their lives for anti-drug ideology? Do you think they believed drugs were worse than rape and murder as priorities for cops on the streets? This recent bloodshed shows the role police and government have in drug violence. They create the violence through their ignorance of the drug issue, and then blame the deaths on drugs. 30,000 Mexican troops on the border will never solve the problems of addiction, social injustice and poverty that fuel the demand for drugs in the US. It is telling they will spend 1.4 Billion dollars to kill people, but they won't spend a fraction of that for drug education, rehab, poverty programs and legal reform that would fix this problem. Drugs will never go away, ever. The problem right now isn't kids doing dope - it's 4,200 dead in Mexico. The problem is the War on Drugs.
read more: http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/534/plan_merida_sinaloa_drug_forum