Dozens killed in numerous violent incidents in Mexico

[American Patriot]

Dozens killed in numerous violent incidents in Mexico


Published May 26, 2011
| EFE

Mexico City – A total of 28 men were killed and four others were wounded in a gun battle between members of rival gangs in the western Mexican town of Ruiz, the deadliest of several violent incidents in recent hours in different parts of the country.


The Attorney General's office in Nayarit state, where Ruiz is located, said in a statement that the clash took place Wednesday at an intersection.


Authorities arrived at the scene after learning of the turf battle and found 10 abandoned vehicles, 28 men lying dead and four others wounded, as well as high-caliber weapons.


Their investigation began after authorities received a call about a man having been kidnapped by individuals traveling in three vehicles.
That incident occurred in the town of Tuxpan but the kidnappers later fled toward Ruiz, where they became engaged in the gun battle with the members of the rival gang.



The Nayarit AG's office did not provide more details nor speculate about which gangs may have been involved in the clash.


Nayarit is believed to have a strong presence of the Sinaloa drug cartel, which is led by Joaquin "El Chapo" (Shorty) Guzman - Mexico's most-wanted fugitive - and is locked in turf battles with other criminal gangs.


Elsewhere, six suspected cartel gunmen were killed and four members of one family were injured Wednesday during a gun battle between criminals and soldiers in the metropolitan area of Monterrey, the largest city in northern Mexico, officials said.


Jorge Domene, security spokesman in Nuevo Leon state, said the clash between the gunmen and members of the military occurred on the streets of the Monterrey suburb of Guadalupe.


Domene added that the soldiers who were patrolling the area came across a group of armed men traveling in an SUV who fired at the soldiers while fleeing.


In their attempt to escape, they crashed into another vehicle carrying a couple with two young children, Domene said, adding that all four family members were injured but none seriously.


The pursuit of the suspects ended when their SUV crashed into a tree, killing all six men.


Hours earlier, members of organized crime left a woman's head in a taxi that was parked outside a garage that repairs police cars in Guadalupe.


It marked the third time in a week that dismembered bodies have been found with threatening messages directed at municipal authorities.


Meanwhile, four people were killed in recent hours in the northern Mexican state of Chihuahua, including a high-ranking Ciudad Juarez police officer, officials said Wednesday.


Lt. Jose Manuel Rivas, who had been named coordinator of the municipal police force's Benito Juarez station a week ago, was killed Wednesday by at least two suspected hit men inside his home.


Also in Ciudad Juarez, considered Mexico's most violent city, another man was killed when a group of assailants opened fire at him while he was taking English classes at a small school.


In Chihuahua, capital of the like-named state, a mother and daughter were killed by suspected cartel hit men who arrived at their home in two SUVs, police spokespersons said.


A dismembered body also was found outside a private university in that city, the state Attorney General's Office said in a press release.


Chihuahua is the state most affected by the wave of violence battering Mexico, accounting for 30 percent of the roughly 40,000 drug-related murders since December 2006, when President Felipe Calderon took office and militarized the struggle against organized crime.


In yet another violent incident in the past 36 hours, several armed men entered a hospital Tuesday night in the western town of Atotonilco, Jalisco state, and killed three people, including a woman who had just given birth.



Read more: http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/new...#ixzz1NToAYt93

[American Patriot]

Mexican drug battle leaves 28 dead

Police discover dead men on federal highway in Nayarit while scores of villagers flee their homes in Michoacán

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• Associated Press
• guardian.co.uk, Thursday 26 May 2011 11.59 BST
• Article history Mexican soldiers carry out an anti-drugs operation in Monclova, Mexico. Photograph: Semar/EPA
  
  Fierce fighting among apparent rival drug gangs in western Mexico has left 28 people dead on a highway, while in a nearby state more than 700 people fled villages that have become battlegrounds.
  The violence, which appeared to be unrelated, escalated on Wednesday in the western states of Nayarit and Michoacán, where drug cartels have been warring over territory.
  Police in Nayarit were initially responding to a complaint of a kidnapping by a group of armed men who escaped on a federal highway near the town of Ruiz, when they heard a report of a shootout, according to the state prosecutor's office.
  They found 28 men lying dead and four others wounded, as well as bullet casings from high-powered weapons and 10 abandoned vehicles.
  The statement released late on Wednesday by the attorney general's office gave no further details.
  Earlier in the day, an official in the nearby western state of Michoacán said drug cartel violence had prompted frightened villagers to flee hamlets and take refuge at shelters set up at a church hall, recreation centre and schools.
  It is at least the second time a large number of rural residents have been displaced by drug violence in Mexico. In November, about 400 people in the northern border town of Ciudad Mier took refuge in the neighbouring city of Ciudad Aleman following gun battles.
  The Michoacán state civil defence director, Carlos Mandujano, said about 700 people spent Tuesday night at a water park in the town of Buenavista Tomatlan, with most sleeping under open thatched-roof structures.
  Mandujano said state authorities were providing sleeping mats, blankets and food.
  Residents told local authorities that gun battles between rival drug cartels had made it too dangerous for them to stay in outlying hamlets. The latest reports said arsonists were burning avocado farms in the nearby town of Acahuato.
  The fighting in Michoacán is believed to involve rival factions of the La Familia drug cartel, some of whose members now call themselves "the Knights Templar".
  Drug violence has been on the rise in Nayarit, a Pacific coast state known for its surfing and beach towns. In October, gunmen killed 15 people at a car wash in the capital of Tepic, an attack that police said bore the characteristics of organised crime. The bodies of 12 murder victims, eight of them partially burned, were found on a dirt road in Nayarit last year. Officials have not identified the gangs fighting there.
  The Norway-based Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre estimates about 230,000 people in Mexico have been driven from their homes by the violence, often to stay with relatives or in the US.