Mexican drug gang kidnaps, kills 6 in Chihuahua

Fifteen more die in gunbattles with Mexican soldiers

ASSOCIATED PRESS and REUTERS
2:00 a.m. February 11, 2009

Developments
3 prisoners killed, 9 freed: Armed men forced their way into a prison in Torreon on Monday night, then killed three prisoners by beating them and setting them on fire in a bathroom. The group of eight assailants also freed nine inmates before escaping, state prosecutors said yesterday. Aztec holdouts? Archaeologists digging in a ruined pyramid at the Tlatelolco square in Mexico City said yesterday that they had found a mass grave that may hold the skeletal remains of Aztec holdouts who fought Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés in 1521. CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico — A drug gang kidnapped and killed six people in Chihuahua state yesterday, prompting a series of gunbattles with soldiers that left 15 others dead. The violence started when gunmen kidnapped nine alleged members of a rival drug gang in Villa Ahumada and executed six of them at a ranch along the Pan American highway outside the town, officials said. Enrique Torres, spokesman for a joint military-police operation in Chihuahua state, said the assailants apparently released three of the men. Heavily armed soldiers later burst into the ranch and shot dead several of the hitmen, later chasing another group by helicopter before killing them, too, Torres said. One soldier was killed. Mexico has been besieged by drug violence amid a two-year government crackdown. President Felipe Calderón said Monday that more than 6,000 people have died in drug-related violence. Interior Minister Fernando Gómez Mont told the Televisa TV network yesterday that the army will keep fighting organized crime until police forces have rooted out corruption and can handle criminal violence on their own. Gómez Mont's comments come after criticism from the United Nations and human rights organizations, which have urged Mexico to stop using soldiers for police work, saying it leads to abuses. Villa Ahumada, a town of 1,500 people about 80 miles south of Ciudad Juarez, was virtually taken over by drug gangs last year when gangs killed two consecutive police chiefs and two other police officers. The rest of the 20-member force resigned in fear, forcing the military to take over for months until the town was able to recruit new officers. The town's mayor, Fidel Chávez, fled to the state capital, Chihuahua City, for his safety. Residents of Villa Ahumada said yesterday that they saw a convoy of SUVs ride through the snow-covered cattle ranching town before dawn and that several people were abducted from their homes. Some people later heard shots in the countryside. The presence of more than 3,000 troops and federal police in Chihuahua state appears to have done little to contain the violence. Ciudad Juarez, a manufacturing city in the desert across from El Paso, Texas, has seen beheadings, daily shootouts and a surge in kidnappings and extortion. Mexico's army and drug trade analysts say the country's most-wanted man, JoaquÃ*n “Shortyâ€