Drug violence becomes terrorist violence

At least seven people were killed in a grenade attack on an independence day crowd. NTX photo







On Aug. 30, an estimated 1 million people marched in solidarity in Mexico City against the wave of violence and kidnappings in the country.

Editorialists joined the call for the ineffective police and courts to do something. A series of high-profile arrests followed, and now it appears organized crime is fighting back.

In a highly symbolic act of violence, two fragmentation grenades were tossed into a crowd watching Independence Day celebrations in a square in Morelia on Monday, seven people died and more than 100 were injured.

A video on El Universal´s website captured the moment when one of the grenades exploded immediately after the governor of Michoacan delivered the traditional Cry of Freedom and three cheers of “Viva Mexico”. The message to President Felipe Calderon and other federal authorities from organized crime seems clear: We are the power and we will not be intimidated by law enforcement. The site of the attack is the president´s hometown.

Virtually every opinion column in today´s papers touched on the violence, which previously touched mainly the police and those involved in the drug trade. This was the first time civilians have been directly attacked in the drug war.

Several editorialists -- Ciro Gomez, Joaquin Lopez-Doriga, Hector Aguilar -- commented on the new higher level of violence and intimidation that this terrorist act represented.

The timing of the attack on Independence Day and the audacity of the attack on innocent people has shaken the nation.

270 police assassinations in Mexico this year

Yesterday I read in El Publico, a local daily, that so far this year 270 police and drug enforcement officials have been assassinated by organized crime figures. Many are tortured before they are killed.


The head of the bank police in Oaxaca was assassinated by a group of gunmen one morning in January while he was walking in a park. (Notimex photo)

The death toll is more than one a day, and it is highest in the state of Chihuahua, which borders Texas. Particularly dangerous is the city of Ciudad Juarez, right across the border from El Paso, Texas.

Second-most dangerous state is Sinaloa, which is on the Pacific Coast, about halfway between Mexico City and the U.S. border.

Being a drug enforcement officer in Mexico must be like being a police officer in Iraq. You sign up because...why? You believe in the mission? There are no other jobs? The money is pretty good?

Druggies in the U.S. provide the money to finance organized crime here. The money flows are staggering in their size and impact on Mexican life. The money is used to bribe local officials, start popular community programs and buy heavy weaponry to take out the police and army. By comparison, the police and the army are poorly paid and poorly armed.

(Update: On Aug. 16, El Universal published a story saying that murders by organized crime in Mexico totaled 2,682 so far in 2008, more than all of 2007.)

The kidnapping industry
There has also been a great outcry lately after some high-profile kidnapping cases in which the criminals were led by police from the kidnapping units.

The tendency here has been to pay the ransom, which of course has encouraged more kidnappings. President Felipe Calderón recently proposed life sentences for kidnappers, and the issue is being hotly debated.

The kidnappers have targeted business owners and their families, as well as conspicuous consumers. Memo: Sell that Hummer.