Source: Agencies
Eight people have been gunned down by suspected drug gang hitmen in two incidents on the outskirts of Mexico City,
Armed men opened fire from a vehicle on a crowd of people in a street on Sunday morning, killing seven.
An hour later, police found a woman's naked body dumped on the side of a road - an apparent gunshot victim.
Despite its high crime rates and reputation for kidnappings, Mexico City has been seen as somewhat of a safe haven for small businesses fleeing even worse drug violence raging elsewhere in the country, especially near the US border.
The latest killings come one day after armed men opened fire and hurled a grenade into a crowded nightclub in the city of Guadalajara, killing six people and wounding at least 37.
It was the second grenade attack on a Guadalajara bar in less than a month, following an argument between gunmen and musicians on January 16 which ended in a blast that killed two people.
The latest attack in Guadalajara took place just hours after a shootout between soldiers and presumed cartel gunmen left eight people, including an innocent driver, dead in the northeastern city of Monterrey.
Monterrey is at the intersection of several highways - often used as drug smuggling routes - heading north into the US.
Two rival drug organisations, the Gulf cartel and their former allies, the Zetas, are battling for control of the area.
The incidents in Monterrey and Guadalajara brought the overall death toll of this weekend's drug-related violence to at least 38.
'Civilian death'
In Chihuahua state, 11 people were killed in several separate murders in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico's deadliest city, across from the US city of El Paso, Texas between late Friday and Saturday, authorities said.
Gunmen also shot dead five men together in an additional group killing on a highway between Chihuahua city, the state capital, and Ciudad Juarez, police said.
Separately, a special unit of soldiers and police known as the Immediate Reaction Group stopped two suspicious vehicles in a suburb of the industrial city of Monterrey, the secretariat of defence said.
The car's occupants responded by pulling out weapons and opening fire.
"Seven alleged aggressors lost their lives" in the shootout, the secretariat said in a statement, adding that the attackers "struck the side of a vehicle, resulting in a civilian death".
More than 34,600 people have died in drug trafficking related violence since December 2006, when the government of Felipe Calderon, the president, deployed soldiers and federal police in a widespread crackdown on the illegal cartels.
cnn reported eight people killed in Mexico city,the story is being repeated over and over in order to inflame the dull senses of the American public
ReplyDeletethe awareness of Mexico is being raised
these greedy dogs quarreling under the table are sowing the seeds of their own destruction
they think their cruelty will protect them
it has only served as an attractant to justify the attention of more deadly predators
their barbarity is being noticed and their status is soon to be elevated to the level of a world class threat
their perception is juvenile and short term
they have only been given the freedom to orchestrate their own doom
the ones coming will grind them into dust and profit from their stories for years to come
their edifices will crumble as their memories fade into obscurity
only to be trotted out from time to time to reinforce the legitimacy of their destroyers
@February 14, 2011 7:42 AM
ReplyDeleteThis wasn't in Mexico City it was in the State of Mexico, A STATE, bordering the Capital, where the LFM and Zetas have been fighting for a while nothing new here, old news if you ask me. But these eight killing are more then likely low level drug dealers what I have read so far.