Mexican police, soliders killed in multi-city attacks by drug gangs

MEXICO CITY, Mexico (CNN) -- Coordinated attacks in at least seven Mexican cities killed three federal police officers and two soldiers Saturday in what officials are calling an unprecedented onslaught by drug gangs.


The attacks were in retribution for the capture early Saturday of Arnoldo Rueda Medina, a high-ranking member of the drug gang known as La Familia Michoacana (The Michoacan Family), the state-run Notimex news agency reported.

Medina is known as chief of assassins within the organization and a close confidante of Nazario "El Chayo" Moreno, one of the group's two top leaders, the Mexican newspaper El Universal reported Saturday.

Men armed with high-powered [wtf?] rifles and grenades launched the attacks in the cities of Morelia, Zitacuaro, Zamora, Lazaro Cardenas, Apatzingan, La Piedad and Huetamo in Michoacan state, Notimex news said, citing federal police authorities.

The three officers were killed in Zitacuaro, police official Eduardo Moran told CNN en Espaņol, while six police officers were reported wounded in Morelia. Two soldiers were killed in Zamora, shot by men in a passing car as they walked to their headquarters.

Michoacan is in west-central Mexico, on the Pacific coast.

Saturday's attacks came just days after a drug gang in Tijuana declared they were at war with police, threatening to kill five officers every week until Police Chief Julian Leyzaola resigns.

The threat was made in a note found on the windshield of a slain officer's car, news reports said.

At least three Tijuana officers have been killed since Monday, reports said. Leyzaola, a former army colonel, replaced a police chief removed from office in December after receiving numerous threats.

"Leyzaola has become the poster boy for honest police work, which has put the drug gangs on notice," Vicente Calderon, a reporter for the Tijuana Press news agency, told CNN affiliate KUSI.

"They believe he is serious, that he means business and is trying to re-establish the rule of law that has been affecting the city and whole state for many years since organized crime established themselves in Baja [California]."

Tijuana, the westernmost city in Mexico, is across the border from San Diego, California. Sixteen police officers have died there in 2009, and officers are now patrolling the city in groups of six, KUSI reported.
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http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/americas/07/11/mexico.attack/index.html


Mobile airpower

"The enemy dies relaxed," observed a Lockheed Martin manager.

When I was young I used to pray for a bike, then I realized that God doesn't work that way, so I stole a bike and prayed for forgiveness.

Why there isn't martial law I don't know? Probably because half the military is corrupt.

"Why there isn't martial law I don't know? Probably because half the military is corrupt...."


Can't doubt that.


The Mexican military has trmendous power within the country and Mexican Generals are notoriously powerful concerning the districts of the country they cover. Many times it is Mexican Army vehicles that are seen near orossing the border illegally. A few years ago there was a shootout between Mexican Army vehicles crossing the Rio Grande into Texas and the local county deputies.


Some have suggested these might be imposters using Humvees and stolen army gear as a form of intimidation.