Mexico Under Siege
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Observers fear the deployment will hurt democracy and civil institutions, but they see no alternative.
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President Felipe Calderon says the violence is one measure of success: It shows that the cartels have been hurt badly and are now lashing out at the government and one another.
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As violence has soared, more than 30 reporters have died or disappeared in Mexico since 2000, the group Reporters Without Borders says.
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The grisly manner of the deaths suggests the victims were slain in drug-related violence, authorities say.
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In daylight near the center of Sinaloa’s capital, gunmen kill nine at a shop and three pursuing officers.
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At least 21 people are killed in five days as turf wars between splintered gangs appear to heat up.
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Drug-related killings have taken thousands of lives, but now those uninvolved in the cartel battles are falling victim, even children.
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As drug-related violence escalates, Tijuana is losing its taste for songs that glorify gangsters.
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Many are afraid to contact authorities about abductions, fearing officers could be involved. The problem is an awkward one for President Felipe Calderon’s drug war.
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Licensed weapons dealers abound at the border. ‘Straw buyers’ aid traffickers, and the ATF is stretched
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The victims include two top commanders in Michoacan, a senior investigator in Chihuahua and a deputy chief in Quintana Roo.
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The men are believed to have aided drug smugglers in Sinaloa state, officials say.
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Officers and others wounded across the border are increasingly being transferred to an El Paso hospital.
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Chihuahua leader asks federal authorities to reform their strategy after 13 people are killed in a shooting.
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President Calderon proposes new anti-kidnapping squads, special prisons, cellphone tracking and aid for local forces.
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The discovery is the first sign of a major outbreak of drug cartel violence in Yucatan.
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The heap of 11 decapitated bodies found in Yucatan shows that the battle to control the multibillion-dollar drug trade knows no boundaries.
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‘Enough’ they say as they blame officials for failing to curb the rising violence caused by drug gangs.
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The number is rising, and the rich are not the only ones targeted. Criminals sometimes want as little as $500.
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A new law allows President Felipe Calderon to give his state of the nation report without having to appear before Congress, a move that avoids disturbances.
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Juan Jose Soriano, deputy commander of the Tecate Police Department, helped U.S. authorities find a drug-smuggling tunnel. The next morning, gunmen shot him 45 times in his bedroom.
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Daniel LaPorte went to Mexico and never came back. His parents didn’t know of his drug involvement.
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‘I was hiding it in my hands and it made me shudder,’ Juan Carlos Castro Galeana tells an interrogator in a videotaped session about the deadly attack in Mexico. ‘I was desperate to get rid of it.’
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Though an attack on civilians in Morelia has tested the public’s stomach for the increasingly savage conflict, the president has little room to pull back from his crackdown.
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With dozens of bodies found in the last week, some in law enforcement see ‘the tail end’ of the organization. But others warn that elements of the ruthless cartel remain very much alive.
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The slaying of a rising political star is ascribed to his refusal to have any contact with drug traffickers.
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Long a corridor for narcotics headed for the U.S., Mexico is now contending with its own addiction problem, as U.S. border controls push traffickers to look elsewhere.
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The suspects, a police commander and a security firm owner, are detained in connection with the discovery last month of bodies piled in a park near Mexico City.
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The Mexican government’s crackdown on drug traffickers has sent the big players underground, along with all their free-flowing dollars.
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Jesus Zambada Garcia is captured after a gun battle in Mexico City. He commanded one of four branches of the Sinaloa cartel, officials say.
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Youths are increasingly exposed to the grisly violence that pervades the city.
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Eduardo Arellano Felix, an original member of a notorious cartel, is nabbed after a shootout in Tijuana.
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At least 35 officials and agents from an elite unit have been fired or arrested following tips from an informant involving the so-called Beltran Leyva cartel.
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A recent raid in Mexico City turns up a menagerie filled with big cats and a monkey, another case of an alleged cartel boss collecting rare exotic species.
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Sightings, real or not, of Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman are reported often, and the kingpin always manages to stay one step ahead of Mexican and U.S. law officials.
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One of the killings occurs in Mexico state, where 12 officers have been killed in five days, apparently by gangs seeking a foothold in areas near the capital.
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The government sees nothing nefarious in the crash that killed Interior Minister Juan Camilo Mouriño and 13 others, but Mexicans are convinced foul play was involved. The investigation continues.
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The mayor still pushes his seaside city as a cut-rate paradise. ‘Tourists are not targeted,’ he says. But violence linked to the drug war has made it a harder sell.
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Few regions of the U.S. are immune to drug-trafficking organizations that have left a trail of death, kidnappings and other crimes.
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Mexican federal agents and army troops are dispatched in a bid to rid the Tijuana police department of cops suspected of having links to drug traffickers.
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Five federal and state police agents are killed in an ambush in Culiacan as drug gangs try to fight off a government crackdown. The day’s toll is 10.
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Former Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo, who helped supervise the Brookings Institution study, says Washington needs to focus on consumption in addition to targeting traffickers.
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The new posture on extradition signals President Felipe Calderon’s determination to combat violent smuggling groups through closer collaboration with U.S. authorities, officials and analysts say.
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The increase in slayings and kidnappings related to the nation’s war on drug traffickers has created a climate of fear. Legal experts see too many obstacles to restoring capital punishment.
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When four people in a Monterrey jewelry store were killed by gunmen who took nothing, few doubted that it was a message.
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Mexican President Felipe Calderon says his government has made strides in combating graft. But police corruption remains a big problem in the battle against drug trafficking.
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Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora says 5,376 people have been killed so far in 2008, more than twice the toll for the first 11 months of 2007.
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The National Drug Threat Assessment cites increased drug seizures on smuggling routes and Mexico’s war on organized crime.
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Teodoro Garcia Simental is believed to run a network of hide-outs where kidnap victims are caged. And he is said to be behind most of Tijuana’s gang war bloodshed.
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Two journalists visiting Ciudad Juarez for three days find that death is always just around the corner. Killings in 2008: 1,350, and counting.
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The heads and bodies are found at separate places in Guerrero state, a hot spot in the country’s drug war. Governor says eight of the victims were soldiers and one was a former state police commander.
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In many cases, the network that turns ill-gotten gains into legal tender, crucial to operations and lavish lifestyles, continues to spin unhindered.
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A reigning Mexican beauty queen from the drug-plagued state of Sinaloa was arrested with suspected gang members in a truck filled guns and ammunition, police say.
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‘Narcos’ have made their way into government, business and culture in this Pacific state, where kids want to grow up to be traffickers.
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Experts and public figures in the U.S. and Latin America offer a range of views, from stepped-up policing to legalization.
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The U.S. and Mexico agree that cartels have morphed into crime syndicates that pose an urgent security threat to the region. But working together has not been easy.
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After two Mexican federal agents and two others were arrested in July on drug-related charges, little has emerged about the case and residents are puzzled.
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Washington releases an additional $99 million as part of an aid package to help security forces in their battle with drug cartels.
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Mexico has captured one of the founders of the Gulf drug cartel’s brutal “Zetas” squad of hitmen that is behind much of the country’s bloodshed, the attorney general’s office said Thursday.
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The president-elect expresses assurance that U.S. ties with Mexico will grow even stronger.
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The Vatican’s No. 2 official, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, calls for a ‘harsh deterrent’ to the drug violence that left more than 5,000 dead last year.
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The LaPortes’ search for their son ends when Mexican officials confirm the remains found in Rosarito are of their son Daniel. They also learn that he was apparently smuggling marijuana.
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The man arrested in Baja California is said to have dissolved hundreds of bodies as part of Tijuana’s drug turf war.
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Two recent U.S. reports paint a dire picture of Mexico as its battle against drug crime grows more bloody, but Mexican officials say that though some cities are in trouble, the state itself is strong.
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According to news reports, trafficking chiefs in the state of Sinaloa agreed last month to curb their bloody rivalry. Killings there have declined sharply.
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Closed-door, written trials give way to U.S.-style proceedings in Chihuahua. The overhaul could help fight corruption and organized crime, analysts say.
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Santiago Meza Lopez, known as El Pozolero (the Stew Maker), says he stuffed bodies into barrels of lye for drug cartels. He may be a good source of information about missing loved ones.
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Juan Francisco Perez-Torres was abducted last month in front of his home and ransom demanded. Hundreds of such incidents occur each year in Phoenix, and Mexican drug-smuggling is usually involved.
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Gunmen hit the homes of Carlos Reyes Lopez and extended family; a 2-year-old nephew and five other children are among the dead. Reyes Lopez was a member of an elite force.
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Gov. Jose Reyes Baeza Terrazas says gunmen who fired on his convoy weren’t aiming at him.
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In the state of Zacatecas, residents of Villanueva demanded that the military take over. The soldiers came, but drug war violence got worse.
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The increase would triple the law enforcement presence in the border city, which has been racked by drug violence. Its police chief quit recently and its mayor has received threats.
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The killing of a newly-hired security official and two others raises questions about the drug trade’s impact on the popular resort, especially with suspicions falling on the ex-police chief.
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The government is deploying 1,000 more federal police officers as part of a wider effort to restore order in the nation’s most violent city. Thousands of soldiers are also being sent.
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The Justice Department’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has taken the unusual step of urging college students to avoid parts of northern Mexico during spring break.
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Business owners, law enforcement officers, journalists and other professionals are among those seeking asylum in the U.S. -- even when it means sitting in jail.
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It takes security forces nearly three hours to contain the unrest among members of three gangs. All of the dead are gang members, authorities say.
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Mexico’s rampant drug violence has put the issue of safety front and center for would-be vacationers, and put the country’s publicity-sensitive tourism promoters on the defensive.
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A former Chula Vista resident is identified as one of three men who were found decapitated this week in Tijuana.
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U.S. tourists who enjoy escaping to this seaside city are continuing to do so despite the recent travel warnings. ‘Drug people are fighting the drug people,’ goes the thinking.
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In a major army-led operation, a top crime boss’ alleged lieutenant is caught, and 8 state police agents are among those arrested and accused of links to organized crime.
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As traffickers recruit among the poor, their networks are being woven into the social fabric of the country.
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Narcotics traffickers are acquiring firepower more appropriate to an army -- including grenade launchers and antitank rockets -- and the police are feeling outgunned.
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The arrest of Vicente Zambada, son of Ismael Zambada, deals a significant blow to drug traffickers, officials say. He allegedly oversaw operations, logistics and security for the Sinaloa cartel.
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On the streets, drug gangs are fighting a war. But inside a modest cafe, the drama is make-believe and accompanied by sweet music.
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Since President Calderon’s deployment of troops in the war against drug trafficking, allegations of illegal searches and arrests, rape and torture have risen, rights groups say.
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Exploitation of illegal immigrants has become worse, officials say, and the failure of U.S. agencies to work together has hindered efforts to stop the organizations.
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The rewards are for information leading to the capture of the 24 most-wanted, including Joaquin ‘Shorty’ Guzman and Ismael Zambada, leaders of the so-called Sinaloa cartel.
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Police arrest 48 suspects, members of a Oaxacan Indian clan, who allegedly brought the drugs in from Mexico, selling 15 to 20 pounds a week to gangs in East Los Angeles.
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Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, on a two-day visit to Mexico, accepts that the U.S. market for narcotics and a cross-border trade in U.S. guns contribute to Mexico’s drug violence.
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In a hearing in El Paso, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee is told that U.S. troops are not necessary. Experts support more aid to Mexico to combat drug cartels.
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The secretary of Homeland Security says an additional 24 agents will work to intercept Mexico-bound vehicles carrying weapons and drug profits.
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Vicente Carrillo Leyva, son of the late kingpin Amado Carrillo Fuentes, is arrested in Mexico City.
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Mayors say they are the ones personally confronting the toll of drug violence on the streets. Yet they lack any meaningful role in the federal government’s battle against organized crime.
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Gen. Alfonso Duarte Mugica is held up as a model in the army effort to stem drug violence and take on the cartels. He says there’s nothing personal in his hunt for one of Mexico’s most wanted.
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In one case, Archbishop Hector Gonzalez calls attention to a drug trafficker in his neighborhood and accuses the government of ignoring the situation. The prelate later apologizes for his comments.
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The bold assaults by heavily armed gunmen are said to have been aimed at intimidating the force.
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Report lists 17 allegations of serious human rights abuse by the Mexican army, including torture and murder.
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Authorities say Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman, the reputed leader of the Mexican cartel, has given his associates the OK, if necessary, to open fire across the border.
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The museum, which is used to educate soldiers and is closed to the public, offers powerful testimony to the inventiveness and huge resources that traffickers continue bringing to the fight.
