(CNN) — Twelve bodies with signs of torture found on the side of a remote highway in the state of Michoacan were federal police officers, an official with Mexico’s national security council said at a news conference Tuesday.
The officers, 11 men and one woman, were “ambushed while they were off duty by an armed group,” said the security council’s Technical Secretary Monte Alejandro Rubido Garcia.
The bodies were found in a pile near the town of La Huacana in the southwest Mexican state, Garcia said.
Rubido said the slain officers had been doing “investigative work” in the city of Arteaga in Michoacan, one of the states most affected by the government’s offensive against drug cartels.
Rubido announced the arrest of Francisco Javier Frias Lara, known as “El Chivo,” in connection with the killings of the officers.
Frias is a member of La Familia Michoacana, one of the region’s most powerful drug cartels, Rubido said.
Federal police around the country will redouble security measures for its agents, Rubido said.
[More]
Related:
Drug-related killings in Mexico on course to top last year’s numbers
Mexican police, soldiers killed in multicity attacks by drug gang
And Brenda Martin wants to return to Mexico. Cheers to the govt for making visas mandatory. I wonder if that guy with gunshot wounds, getting on a plane and coming to Canada, had anything to do with that.
Mexican authorities have to avenge these killings. How? Pull out all the stops. Make their efforts to date look like child’s play. Go after these thugs so viciously that they’ll wish they had never been born. Take no prisoners.
My sympathy to their families and Mexico should thank them for their service.
And the CBC, at every opportunity today, was making a case for what a terrible thing this was and never once did they present an opposing view to the Anti-Conservative viewpoint, and that’s what they called it too!!
FIRE THEM ALL
My condolences to the families who have lost loved ones. The killing has to stop. This is not the WILD WILD west. The time to revisit the war on drugs and exactly how effective it has been is here. A meeting with government, cartel, DEA guys would go a long way in finding a way out of this mess. A firm plan with room for negotiation leading to legalization might be a way out. The USA must begin a program to reduce demand at the end user level. If they take the lead the rest of the world will follow.
Mexico has become a parasite on the host USA and the parasites will move north to us. The Mexican politicians cannot look after their citizens so they move illegally to the US and billions get wired back by Western Union and that is what is keeping Mexico from total collapse, which will happen eventually. Their political system is highly corrupt.
God help the poor Mexican people. Victor Davis Hanson has a good book Mexifornia , a quote :
“the undeserving beneficiaries are Mexico’s kleptocratic rulers, for whom an open (USA) border is a safety valve expelling the potential for democratic change.”
Although I appreciate the sentiment, the comment by beentheredonethat to the effect that the Mexican authorities have to “avenge” these killings is off point. Hamas, or Al Qaeda, or the Taliban and all of the other Islamofascists seek “vengeance” every time one of their terrorists is killed or captured. A state, particularly an ostensibly democratic state operating under the rule of law does not seek vengeance.
What the Mexican state must seek to do is restore order and the rule of law. It must recognize that there is an attack upon the state, its institutions and its structure. Organized crime has, effectively, declared war on the state. The only real question is what the state will do.
It has some choices. It can negotiate and appease. It can ignore the problem. It can hope the problem will go away. It can go on as it has, and allow corrupt politicians and police to protect the criminals that are rotting the state. It can go with half-measures…send troops into some areas temporarily and take them out when the publicity dies down. All of these will destroy the state, sooner or later. State institutions will be incapable of reacting, of controlling the territory of the state and will lose legitimacy among the people.
It seems to me that Mexico today is where Colombia was twenty years ago. At that time the drug cartels threatened the existence of the state. They had infiltrated the institutions of government, of the police, and the justice system. Even though there were a great number of fine people defending the state, they were intimidated (or killed) by the power of the drug cartels.
Colombia fought back. Colombian institutions, though imperfect, withstood the attack on them. The police and justice system, though committing even to this day many errors, re-established the power of the state over the cartels. Pre-Escobar, for example, a drug leader could expect maybe 10 years at the head of a cartel…his end would come at the hands of other criminals rather than police. Today, drug capos survive under two years…they are pursued relentlessly by elite police (and military…both military and police are under the Colombian defence ministry) and are captured. Even 5 years ago it was possible to name prominent drug lords in Colombia…today, they disappear as fast as they rise.
Why? Not vengeance, but strength. Strong leadership (incidentally, this pre-dates Uribe, the current president. I refer to people such as Gaviria and even Pastrana in addition to the current occupant of the office).
Mexico must face the fact that the state is under attack. If it decides to get serious about dealing with the problem, it could learn some valuable lessons from the Colombian experience.
Well said, Blaise and thanks. In defence of BTDT my gut reaction to this news was much the same as his but as you correctly point out such a path leads to anarchy. Much better is a well thought out response using the power a state possesses to round up the baddies and keep right on their backs until they go elsewhere.
“Free pizza in Venezuela, anyone?”
I haven’t had a chance to look at the media much, Jack. How is the situation in Honduras?
Excellent comments Blaise
And heck, in addition to Columbia the Mexicans could even learn from Trudeau who said this during the October Crisis of 1970 :
“There are a lot of bleeding hearts around who just don’t like to see people with helmets and guns. All I can say is go and bleed. It is more important to keep law and order in society than to be worried about weak-kneed people. Society must take every means at its disposal to defend itself against the emergence of a parallel power which defies the elected power.”
Re#9: “How is the situation in Honduras?”
About what you would expect, Mac. “Mel” is trying to start a revolution.
Heh…
Weren’t all of the other politicians elected through due process? The only “evidence” that they’re “usurpers” is the fact they punted Mel for trying to usurp the Honduran Constitution.
You say you want a revolution
Well, you know
We all want to change the world
You tell me that it’s evolution
Well, you know
We all want to change the world
But when you talk about destruction
Don’t you know that you can count me out
Don’t you know it’s gonna be all right
all right, all right
I had no idea you were a poet, Mac. You’re just full of surprises.
Not a Beatles fan, I take it? I’d love to claim their lyrics as my own poetry but I’m too honest…
In a way, I’m really glad to read the article you linked about Honduras, Jack. It confirms the character of Mel to be consistent with the assorted petty dictators. I’m still not sure the army did the right thing by punting Mel instead of tossing him in jail but it certainly shows they were justified in taking action.
” I’m still not sure the army did the right thing by punting Mel instead of tossing him in jail but it certainly shows they were justified in taking action.”
We all live and learn.
Regarding the Beatles. Nasty little bugs…eat everything in sight and they bite like hell if you get on the wrong side of them.
Regarding the human version…nope. Not one song in my collection of music. They sound like beatles in full flight and I hate bugs. I usually reach for a can of Raid when the opportunity presents.
Being that I spent 18 years in a province being ravaged by pine beetles, I should hate ‘em too!
I prefer the Beatles to the Rolling Stones but neither are a significant portion of my collection.