Violence-plagued Mexican city reaches 1,000 drug-related killings

MEXICO CITY, Mexico (CNN) -- Ciudad Juarez set a record this weekend when its toll of drug-related homicides for the year topped 1,000, a distinction the Mexican city did not reach last year until September.

At this point last year, the violence-plagued city across the border from El Paso, Texas, had tallied 596 killings, El Universal newspaper said Tuesday, citing figures from the Chihuahua state attorney general's office.

The city did not reach 1,000 slayings in 2008 until September 16.

Between 1994 and 2006, the death toll never exceeded 300.

According to the state attorney general's office, the death toll this year is: 136 in January, 240 in February, 73 in March, 90 in April, 125 in May, 247 in June and 104 so far in July.

Juarez is not alone. An unprecedented wave of violence has washed over Mexico since President Felipe Calderon declared war on the drug cartels shortly after coming into office in December 2006. More than 10,000 people have died in that time span, about 1,000 of them police.

The past few days have been particularly bloody.

Two federal police officers were killed in an ambush early Tuesday in Michoacan, the state where coordinated attacks in eight cities over the weekend left three federal police officers and two soldiers dead.

Four police were wounded in Tuesday's ambush, the state-run Notimex news agency reported.

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A federal police station in the Michoacan city of Maravatio was attacked Tuesday morning, news reports said. It was not immediately known whether there were any casualties.

Hours earlier, the bodies of 11 men and one woman were found dumped in a pile on a nearby road. They showed signs of torture and had been executed with a shot to the head, officials said.

Two of the bodies had grenades tied to their hands, a news report said.

Another attack against police in Michoacan occurred late Monday in the city center of Lazaro Cardenas, where gunmen launched three grenades and fired high-caliber weapons at the Sol del PacĂ*fico Hotel. The hotel serves as headquarters for federal police participating in the Operativo Michoacan drug sweep.

A corporal was wounded but no guests were injured, El Universal said.

Sixteen police were wounded in the weekend attacks.

At least 32 people have been killed in Michoacan drug violence in recent days, El Cambio de Michoacan newspaper reported Tuesday.

Nine bodies were found last week on the same road where the corpses were discovered Monday, the newspaper said, and four bodies showing signs of torture were dumped there last month.

Michoacan is in west central Mexico, on the Pacific Coast. Violence also broke out Monday on the other side of Mexico, in Veracruz, on the Gulf of Mexico.

A confrontation in the city's tourist district left two drug cartel suspects dead and another wounded, the federal Secretariat for National Security reported. Three police and a taxi driver were wounded.

The drug suspects died when a grenade they were about to throw at police blew up inside their armor-plated vehicle.

A 10-minute shootout started when police tried to stop the BMW in which the men were riding. At least 10 vehicles, several businesses and the Cristo del Buen Viaje Catholic church suffered damage, El Universal newspaper reported.

An unprecedented wave of violence has washed over Mexico since President Felipe Calderon declared war on the drug cartels shortly after coming into office in December 2006. More than 10,000 people have died in that time span, about 1,000 of them police.

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