CIA funded cartels murder 17 civilians in northern Mexico

[Cogburn]

Suspected drug hitmen kill 17 at party in Mexico

MEXICO CITY — Suspected drug hitmen stormed a private party and killed 17 people in the northern Mexican city of Torreon Sunday in one of the deadliest attacks in Mexico's drug war, police said.
Gunmen in five SUVs drove up to the party in a walled patio and garden on the outskirts of the city in Coahuila state across from Texas, smashed down the door and opened fire on party-goers at about 1 a.m, Coahuila's prosecutor's office said.
"They came in, opened fire and shot against everything that moved," said an official at the prosecutor's office who declined to be identified.
Photos showed blood-stained floor tiles, overturned chairs and musical instruments by a beer tent abandoned as people fled.
The prosecutor's office said in a statement 18 people were injured in the attack and taken to hospitals. The party garden was strewn with more than 100 bullet casings. The assailants escaped after the attack and no arrests have been made, the statement said.
The early morning attack comes days after a drug gang detonated a car bomb in Ciudad Juarez late Thursday, killing four people in the first attack of its kind in Mexico's drug war.
Ciudad Juarez's main daily El Diario reported Sunday that agents from the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were in the city to investigate the car bomb attack. U.S and Mexican officials declined to comment.
Federal police blamed La Linea, the armed wing of the powerful Juarez cartel, for the car bomb and Mexico's security ministry said it was retaliation for the arrest this week of a cartel member.
In Torreon, it was not immediately clear who was responsible for the attack but the area, a key transit point along smuggling routes into the United States, is being fought over by the Sinaloa cartel led by Mexico's most-wanted man, Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman, and the Zetas gang from northeastern Mexico.
More than 26,000 people have been killed in drug violence across Mexico since President Felipe Calderon took office and started a crackdown on drug cartels in 2006. Escalating violence is worrying Washington and investors in the oil-producing country once known for its political stability next door to the United States.

[egg]

4 years and 26,000 dead due to drug dealing. Wow.

[Cogburn]

America's Most Under-Reported War: Northern Mexico.

No wonder those people come here in the thousands no matter what we thrown on the border, eh?

[egg]

America's Most Under-Reported War: Northern Mexico

I wonder what the break down is between police/soldiers, dealers and innocent bystanders. It's an astounding number, any way you slice it, though.

[Cogburn]

I thought this was interesting, though not what you're looking for.

I'll keep looking.


MEXICO CITY — More than 22,700 people have been killed in Mexico's drug war since a U.S.-backed military crackdown on cartels began more than three years ago, according to a government report.
The report said 2009 was the deadliest year in the drug war, with 9,635 people killed in violence tied to organized crime. That compares to 2,837 in 2007, the first year of President Felipe Calderon's military-led offensive.
Gang violence has continued surging this year, with 3,365 people killed between January and March, according to the confidential report sent to lawmakers Monday. The Associated Press had access to the report Tuesday.
In the latest violence, the bodies of six men were dumped on the side of a highway in Cuernavaca, a city near Mexico's capital where authorities say a battle has erupted for leadership of the Beltran Leyva cartel, whose leader was killed in a shootout with marines in December. Police said the six men were tortured, then each shot once in the head.
In northern state of Tamaulipas, which borders Texas, gunmen burst into a bar and killed eight people Monday night, the state government said. Five died inside the bar in the town of Los Guerra and three were chased down and killed as they tried to flee in car.
Tamaulipas has become the newest front in Mexico's drug war amid a split between the Gulf cartel and its former gang of hit men, the Zetas.
Has crackdown led to abuses?
Calderon's U.S.-backed deployment of more than 40,000 soldiers and federal police across the country has come under increasing criticism from opposition politicians and drug trade experts, who argue the crackdown has led to human rights abuses and done little to stem the flow of narcotics to the U.S.

The government attributes the increase in violence to gangs lashing back at security forces and infighting among cartels whose leadership has been shaken by the arrest of top kingpins.
More than 121,000 drug suspects have been detained since 2006, the report said. It gave no figure for how many of those had been convicted.
The report said more than half those arrested were from the Gulf and Sinaloa cartels, Mexico's two most powerful gangs. Some 27 percent were from the Gulf cartel or the Zetas, two groups that Mexican and U.S. authorities say recently split. About 24 percent were tied to the Sinaloa cartel, led by Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, Mexico's most-wanted drug lord.
Since Guzman escaped from prison 10 years ago, successive Mexican governments have faced accusations that his organization is not pursued as aggressively as other gangs. Calderon denies the charges.
Among the Sinaloa suspects arrested have been a son and nephew of Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada, who authorities say runs the cartel along with Guzman.
Gang bosses at large
But most of the gang's top leaders remain large, while several bosses of rival gangs have been brought down, including Arturo Beltran Leyva, the kingpin killed the December shootout in Cuernavaca.
U.S. officials say the Sinaloa cartel has grown to become the most powerful drug trafficking group in the world. Most recently, it is said to have won a two-year battle with the Juarez cartel for control of smuggling routes through Ciudad Juarez, a border city that has become one of the world's deadliest.
The government report said 4,324 people have been killed since 2006 in Ciudad Juarez, a city of 1.3 million people.
Chihuahua state, where Ciudad Juarez is, was Mexico's hardest-hit state, with 6,757 people killed in gang violence since 2006. Sinaloa, a stronghold of Guzman's cartel, followed with 3,136 deaths. Guerrero, home to the Pacific coast resort of Acapulco, was third with 1,826.
The report indicated security forces have been involved in most of the gunbattles of the past three years: 977 shootouts have been between gangs and security forces, compared to 309 between rival gangs.

[Cogburn]

A nice little documentary about border runners.

uX4X1YhW-sY

[egg]

Interesting.
Of course, after reading this
More than 22,700 people have been killed in Mexico's drug war since a U.S.-backed military crackdown on cartels began more than three years ago, according to a government report.
I really want to know the breakdown of who is killed. Would be a shame if its the citizens being hit the hardest.

[Cogburn]

Fucking Wikipedia has the numbers sourced.


Strength
Government
50,000 soldiers[4],20,000 Federal Police[4]
Cartels
5,000 to 10,000+

Casualties and losses
1,000+ Federal forces, police, and prosecutors killed[5]
208 Federal Police killed[6]
58 reporters killed.[7]
121,199 cartel members killed or detained[8]
Total killed: 22,801 (December 2006–July 2010)

62 killed in December 2006[8]
2,477 killed during 2007[9]
6,290 killed during 2008[10]
7,724 killed during 2009[11]
6,248 killed during 2010[12]

Notice that the civilian deaths are hidden in the figure for cartel deaths and arrests. Assuming the cartel total soldiers figure is accurate, that would tend to indicate that the majority of deaths are indeed civilian.

[egg]

Fucking Wikipedia has the numbers sourced.


Strength
Government
50,000 soldiers[4],20,000 Federal Police[4]
Cartels
5,000 to 10,000+

Casualties and losses
1,000+ Federal forces, police, and prosecutors killed[5]
208 Federal Police killed[6]
58 reporters killed.[7]
121,199 cartel members killed or detained[8]
Total killed: 22,801 (December 2006–July 2010)

62 killed in December 2006[8]
2,477 killed during 2007[9]
6,290 killed during 2008[10]
7,724 killed during 2009[11]
6,248 killed during 2010[12]

Notice that the civilian deaths are hidden in the figure for cartel deaths and arrests. Assuming the cartel total soldiers figure is accurate, that would tend to indicate that the majority of deaths are indeed civilian.

Yeah, I love how they mix cartel detainees in with cartel members killed. Good spin, there.
Thanks, Cog. It's a shame.

[Cogburn]

It's a shame crime against humanity and the perpetrators should be brought up on charges in the Hague.

Fixed for great justice.

[Eyeforalie]

Thanks. I knew it was fucked but good to see the numbers.

I'm not home ATM or I would look but can someone grab numbers for overdoses?

[skunk]

The cartels have way more than 5 or 10K troops.