I felt this was an important article to share just a week after the US Department of Justice said that Mexican Drug Lords pose the largest organized crime threat to the United States. In light of that, what is happening across the street has much more potential to harm the average American than what is happening across the globe. More than 1300 US Citizens have died in Mexico during the past 6 years. That number is more than 25% of how many US soldiers have died in combat in Iraq. Startling. I predict that as the Mexican government proves innefectual in handling this threat we will see more and more US involvement across our southern border to defeat the largest organized crime threat to our society. We need to lend our support and therefore we need to get our own house in order so we can.
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican police on Sunday found nine decapitated bodies and the army identified eight soldiers who had died fighting powerful drug gangs and whose murders were seen as a brazen challenge to the government.
The bodies showed signs of torture. They were left on the side of a highway about an hour north of the tourist resort of Acapulco in the southern state of Guerrero, state police said.
Their heads were stuffed in a plastic bag and left outside a shopping center.
Mexico's President Feline Calderon has deployed tens of thousands of troops and police since 2006 to take on drug cartels. The defense ministry vowed not to back down despite its latest losses.
"They are trying to scare the military. Regardless, the ministry promises to continue fighting," it said in a statement.
The ministry released the names of eight decapitated soldiers but said one of them was recovered on December 9.
Drug killings throughout Mexico have more than doubled to over 5,300 this year, scaring off investment and tourists. The United States has sent hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to help its southern neighbor fight the cartels.
The Mexican army has made some prominent captures, but the cartels seem able to quickly replace their losses. Meanwhile, a growing number of police have been gruesomely murdered.
A note left with the severed heads warned of more decapitations, the state police said.
(Reporting by Jason Lange and Armando Tovar, editing by Alan Elsner)
Accessed at http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSTRE4BK1HO20081222 on December 22, 2008.
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican police on Sunday found nine decapitated bodies and the army identified eight soldiers who had died fighting powerful drug gangs and whose murders were seen as a brazen challenge to the government.The bodies showed signs of torture. They were left on the side of a highway about an hour north of the tourist resort of Acapulco in the southern state of Guerrero, state police said.
Their heads were stuffed in a plastic bag and left outside a shopping center.
Mexico's President Feline Calderon has deployed tens of thousands of troops and police since 2006 to take on drug cartels. The defense ministry vowed not to back down despite its latest losses.
"They are trying to scare the military. Regardless, the ministry promises to continue fighting," it said in a statement.
The ministry released the names of eight decapitated soldiers but said one of them was recovered on December 9.
Drug killings throughout Mexico have more than doubled to over 5,300 this year, scaring off investment and tourists. The United States has sent hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to help its southern neighbor fight the cartels.
The Mexican army has made some prominent captures, but the cartels seem able to quickly replace their losses. Meanwhile, a growing number of police have been gruesomely murdered.
A note left with the severed heads warned of more decapitations, the state police said.
(Reporting by Jason Lange and Armando Tovar, editing by Alan Elsner)
Accessed at http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSTRE4BK1HO20081222 on December 22, 2008.
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