Thread: Mexico's drug killings 'soaring'

Page last updated at 00:26 GMT, Sunday, 17 August 2008 01:26 UK

Mexico's drug killings 'soaring'

Drug-related murders in Mexico have already exceeded last year's total despite the deployment of 30,000 troops to tackle the issue, media reports say.

The Mexican newspaper, El Universal, said 2,682 people across Mexico had been killed since the start of this year, compared to 2,673 in 2007.

The northern state of Chihuahua on the US border was by far the worst hit.

President Felipe Calderon pledged to curb drug-related killings when he came to power in December 2006.

Troops deployed

According to El Universal, more than one-third of this year's drug-related killings occurred in Chihuahua, where one 20-day period saw 326 murders.




Tijuana: In the cartels' shadow
Police battle lethal drug gangs

The state has been hit by 1,026 deaths since January, including 780 in the border city of Ciudad Juarez, where local drug gangs are battling the powerful Sinaloa cartel.

On Wednesday night, gunmen killed eight patients and injured six others in an attack on a drug rehabilitation centre in the city.

About 40 people have been killed in drug-related violence in Ciudad Juarez in the past week.

In other states, drug-related violence killed 516 people in Sinaloa, 159 in Baja California, 134 in Guerrero and 117 in Michoacan, El Universal reported.

Mexican authorities have deployed more than 36,000 soldiers across the country since 2007, including 2,500 in Ciudad Juarez, in an effort to combat drug trafficking and drug-related violence.

Last week, the authorities launched an anti-kidnapping squad amid public anger over the abduction and killing of a prominent businessman's son.

The decomposed body of Fernando Marti, 14, who was kidnapped in June, was found in the boot of a car in Mexico City even though his family had reportedly paid a ransom.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7566077.stm

Page last updated at 06:59 GMT, Friday, 15 August 2008 07:59 UK

Mexican gunmen kill drug patients

By Duncan Kennedy
BBC News, Mexico city



Gunmen have killed eight patients and injured six others in a drug rehabilitation centre in Mexico.

The shootings are believed to be part of a drug gang feud in the northern border city of Ciudad Juarez.

The hooded gunmen, all wearing body armour, burst into the drug-and-alcohol rehabilitation centre, dragged the patients to the patio and shot them.

About 40 people have been killed in drug cartel-related violence in the city this week.

The gunmen stormed the centre on Wednesday night and ordered the patients onto the floor.

Several men were then picked out, taken to the back patio and shot.

One eyewitnesses said he ran out of the building with a three-year-old boy in his arms after the firing began.

Police say the attack is believed to be part of a drug-gang feud.

It takes the total number of deaths in Ciudad Juarez this year to 795 - making it the front line in Mexico's wars between drugs cartels.

About 2,000 people - including hundreds of police officers - have died this year as the cartels fight for control of the drugs trade with the US.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7562537.stm