http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/4811467.html Brazen raid in Mexico seen as change for worse Latest attack likened to drug violence of Colombia in '80s
MEXICO CITY - In an attack that drew comparisons to Colombia's drug violence, as many as 40 gunmen clad in black and wielding assault rifles swooped through two Sonora desert towns after midnight Wednesday, raiding a police station in one, intercepting police cars in another and kidnapping nine people. The bodies of four municipal police officers were later dumped near a highway, and two others were found beaten. Scores of state police and army troops, guided by helicopters, pursued the raiders into nearby mountains, where a prolonged gunbattle at a ranch left at least a dozen of the alleged criminals dead, state authorities reported late Wednesday. The Sonora newspaper El Imparcial reported that police had freed at least four of the nine kidnap victims after the shootout. Government casualties were not immediately disclosed by officials, although El Imparcial reported that at least five soldiers and police were killed. The raid in the area around Cananea, a town about 30 miles south of the Arizona border, was the latest in a series of increasingly brazen assaults by suspected drug traffickers on Mexican security forces. On Monday, assassins ambushed and killed Jose Lugo Felix, a top intelligence official in the federal Attorney General's Office as he drove through morning rush-hour traffic in the capital. Elsewhere the same day, four gunmen abducted the head of an anti-kidnapping squad from a restaurant in northern Coahuila state. The night before, a 10-man commando-type squad seized control of a discotheque in a town north of Monterrey, robbing and terrorizing the 200 customers for nearly an hour. And last Thursday, four bodyguards assigned to the children of the Mexico State governor, Enrique Pena Nieto, were shot and killed in the Gulf Coast port of Veracruz. Experts say the new tactics - which for the first time target high-ranking members of the country's security forces and, perhaps, their families - are partly the reaction by drug-trafficking cartels to a massive military show of force launched by President Felipe Calderon. The tactics also reflect the cartels' efforts to outmatch their rivals, who are warring for control of the domestic market and smuggling routes to the U.S. "We're seeing a transition from the gangsterism of traditional hitmen to paramilitary terrorism with guerrilla tactics," said Luis Astorga, one of the country's leading narcotics experts. Mexico, he said, is sliding into the horrendous violence that characterized Colombia in the 1980s. "All that's missing are the bomb blasts and the targeting of civilians," he said. "But we haven't seen the worst yet." Gangland-style killings have claimed about 1,000 lives so far this year, about 100 of them police and soldiers, according to newspaper reports. Many slayings have occurred in remote towns like Cananea, where federal forces are slow to arrive. 40 gunmen, 15 vehicles Gov. Eduardo Bours of Sonora state gave this account of the attack: As many as 40 gunmen in black fatigues pulled up to a police station in Cuitaca, a town 10 miles west of Cananea, just after midnight. They seized two police officers, beating them and then abandoning them on the side of the road. The convoy, made up of some 15 vehicles, then pulled into Cananea, where they intercepted two police cars and took five officers hostage. They later picked up the owner of a gas station and a local hotel employee. In the morning, the bodies of four of the officers were found along a highway leading to the border city of Agua Prieta. It wasn't clear what happened to the other officer. The civilians remained missing as of late Wednesday. Bours told a news conference that some of the town's police officers were under suspicion for having links to traffickers. Cananea Mayor Luis Carlos Cha said in a statement that "our municipality has become the victim of the violence that pervades our entire country. The events of this morning are beyond shocking." While the cartels previously recruited gunmen from civilian or police ranks, they are increasingly enlisting army deserters who are more efficient killing machines, said Astorga, the drug expert. He cited Mexican Defense Secretariat statistics showing that from 2000 to 2006, more than 100,000 soldiers abandoned the military, out of a total armed force of 180,000. Soldiers, police deployed In recent months, Calderon has deployed 30,000 soldiers and federal police to cities along the U.S. border, the Pacific resort of Acapulco and his home state of Michoacan. Following Monday's attack on the intelligence chief, legislators in the capital have asked for troops to be sent here, too. But while the offensive has broad public support, it has not resulted in the arrests of major traffickers nor has it curbed drug-related violence. Human rights groups are becoming more vocal in their criticisms. "The army should only act as support for the federal preventive police, because soldiers don't have the training to do police work," the head of the National Human Rights Commission, Jose Luis Soberanes, said. His office is investigating more than 50 complaints of human rights abuses by the military in Michoacan, including allegations that soldiers raped four teenage girls under detention. The complaints have fueled pressure on Calderon to find an exit strategy. "Is the war against organized crime really a war? And in that case, can it be won?" wrote Jorge Castaneda, the former foreign minister. He urged Calderon to follow the advice of former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell before any military engagement: "Before going in, know exactly how you're going to get out." 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