A Mexico massacre in unfamiliar place: the capital

MEXICO CITY - Armed men rumbled into a gritty neighborhood of the Mexican capital Thursday and gunned down six men hanging around a convenience store, fueling fears that one of the world's largest cities is falling prey to the cartel-style violence that has long terrorized other parts of the country.

More than 50 people have been killed in the past week in five apparently unrelated massacres, including four shot Thursday near the border city of Ciudad Juarez. But the Mexico City shooting has raised alarm among residents about a drug war that has long seemed distant.

"Massacres have arrived" in Mexico City, El Universal newspaper declared. But Mexico City Attorney General Miguel Angel Mancera said he did not know if drug gangs were involved in the middle-of-the night shooting in Tepito, a working-class neighborhood just north of the colonial center.

Drug dealing is rampant in Tepito, but Mancera said there also have been problems with disputes among carjacking gangs.

Gunmen in a white SUV drove up just after midnight to a street of drab apartment buildings, corner grocery stores and auto repair shops, witnesses said. They jumped out of the car and gunned down six men in their 20s and 30s who had just gathered in front of a tiny convenience store. A seventh man was wounded.

People were still out on the streets when the shooting occurred. Drug dealing and robberies have been on the rise in the neighborhood but store owners still feel safe enough to keep their businesses open late. That in itself contrasts with border cities like Ciudad Juarez, where streets empty and many business close in the early afternoon for fear of drug-gang violence.

Several Tepito residents said they assumed the gunfire was fireworks for St. Judas Tadeo Day, commemorated with processions and street festivals across the city. As word spread, they slowly emerged from their apartments, shocked to find bodies face down in pools of blood.

"I've never seen anything so horrific happen. I go around at 2 or 3 in the morning and nothing has ever happened to me," said Guadalupe Ramirez, a 53-year-old grandmother walking past the site of the shooting. She said her 15-year-old grandchild had just returned from buying milk when the gunfire erupted.

The gunmen exchanged angry words with the young men before shooting, Mancera told the Televisa network. Bullet casings of two different calibers - 9 mm and .223 mm - were found at the scene, Mancera said, suggesting there were at least two gunmen.

Police were interviewing relatives and witnesses to determine the background of the victims and a possible motive. At least two of the victims had criminal records for robbery, Mancera later told reporters without elaborating.

"We would like to reassure the population that we are going to find those responsible," Mancera said.

Neighbors said they didn't know if the six young men belonged to a criminal gang but that they routinely hung around on the street, drinking beer and using drugs.

"I'm thinking of never coming back because every day things get worse," said Juan Fernandez, 60, who travels more than an hour to Tepito to get to the only job he's been able to find — as a clerk at the convenience store nearest to the shooting.

"You could come around at 11 or 12 at night and see how they come out, all these boys, drinking and smoking marijuana."

Carmen Vasquez, an unemployed 35-year-old, pulled her four children quickly past the shooting site on her way to a charity kitchen where she gets free meals every day.

"We walk with our children in fear. Because we never know where these criminals are going to come from," Vasquez said as her kids looked over their shoulders at candles that mourners had placed at the site. "I'm only coming here because I have to."

Trucks of Mexico City federal police circled the block periodically. By the afternoon the street was bustling again with people shopping and repairing cars, and giggling children playing pinball machines outside the convenience stores.

While crime is a major problem in Mexico City, cartel-style violence has been less common. Still, shootings between cartel gunmen and security forces have occasionally erupted during operations to arrest kingpins in the Mexico City area, one of the world's largest metropolises with an estimated 20 million people.

The epicenter of Mexico's long-running drug war is Ciudad Juarez, across the border from El Paso, Texas. More than 6,500 people have been killed in the city since a turf war erupted nearly three years ago between the Juarez and the Sinaloa cartels. Thousands more have died in many areas of Mexico as drug gangs have fought a government crackdown and each other.

Three women and a man were killed outside Ciudad Juarez and more than two dozen were wounded, many of them seriously, when armed men in several vehicles attacked buses carrying factory workers home early Thursday morning, said Arturo Sandoval, a spokesman for the Chihuahua state attorney general's office.

There were no known suspects or motive in the attack on a highway in the Valle de Juarez region, where a string of small towns have been under siege from drug gangs trying to control trafficking routes. Mayors and police chiefs have been killed in the area, and even churches have been attacked.

On Wednesday, gunmen killed 15 people at a car wash in Tepic, a city in the Pacific coast state of Nayarit. Over the weekend, gunmen massacred 14 young people at a birthday party in Ciudad Juarez, and 13 recovering addicts were killed in an attack on a drug rehab center in Tijuana.

-Associated Press

Ex-prosecutor's kidnapped brother shown on video

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico - A video posted online Monday shows the kidnapped brother of a former Mexican state attorney general saying at gunpoint that he and his sister worked for a drug gang.

In the border city of Tijuana meanwhile, gunmen burst into a drug rehab center and killed 13 recovering addicts, according to police in the city, which officials had been portraying as an example of success in the war against drug gang terror.

The video posted on Youtube was the boldest example yet of a tactic that has become increasingly common in Mexico's brutal drug war: cartels kidnapping police, officials and regular citizens and releasing video clips of the captives admitting to crimes, including government corruption. It is often impossible to verify the accuracy of the admissions made under extreme pressure.

The release of the clip also adds to drug gang pressure on public officials in Mexico, following a string of slayings of mayors, senior police officers and a gubernatorial candidate.

The video, which was removed from Youtube within hours, shows attorney Mario Gonzalez sitting in a chair, handcuffed and surrounded by five masked men pointing guns at him.

Gonzalez is the brother of Patricia Gonzalez, who stepped down Oct. 3 as attorney general of the border state of Chihuahua when a new governor took office. Mario Gonzalez was kidnapped Thursday from his office.

Chihuahua state government officials confirmed the man in the video was Mario Gonzalez, but they refused to comment on the credibility of the words he spoke at gunpoint - which included blaming his sister for several notorious killings in the state - and suggested the allegations might be investigated.

"We cannot give an opinion on the veracity or falseness of the information in the video," said Graciela Ortiz, the Chihuahua interior secretary.

"What's important," she added, "is that citizens can be sure the state will act objectively and impartially to apply the full weight of the law against anyone responsible for a crime, regardless if they are ex-officials or of the position that they held."

An aide to Patricia Gonzalez did not reply to several phone calls seeking comment, but in the past, she has denied rumors that she protected drug traffickers. She is not known to be under formal investigation for any crime.

In brief interview with El Diario de Juarez newspaper, Patricia Gonzalez lashed out at the news media for its coverage of the video.

"I think this is the worst injustice you could have done to me, the worst thing you could have done. How can you be saying these things about me?" she was quoted as saying in the newspaper's online edition.

The newspaper said Gonzalez hung up abruptly and then turned off her phone.

Gonzalez was attorney general during the most violent peacetime period in the history of Chihuahua state. A nearly three-year-old turf war between the Juarez and Sinaloa drug cartels has made Chihuahua the deadliest state in Mexico, and the border city of Ciudad Juarez one of the world's most dangerous cities.

In the video, Mario Gonzalez, answering questions posed by a man off camera, says his sister protected La Linea, a street gang tied to the Juarez cartel, and that he acted as the liaison between the gang and attorney general's office, collecting payoffs.

The questioner also prompted Mario Gonzalez into saying that his sister ordered several killings in Ciudad Juarez, where drug-gang violence has claimed more than 6,500 lives over the past three years. Among those, he said, was the 2008 killing of Armando Rodriguez, a crime reporter for El Diario de Juarez.

The 10-minute video ends without any word on Gonzalez's fate. No group has claimed responsibility for his kidnapping and officials said they have no word on his whereabouts.

The Juarez and Sinaloa cartels have each claimed - through videos, graffiti and messages left on bodies - that the other receives government protection. Generally, the Juarez cartel alleges that the Sinaloa gang is protected by the federal government, while the Sinaloa cartel says its rival is supported by local and state officials.

While police and other officials have been arrested for drug ties, both state and federal officials deny protecting any cartel and often point to the fact that members of all factions have been arrested.

Several Mexican cartels have released chilling videos of forced confessions, although none had targeted officials as high-ranking as Patricia Gonzalez.

In July, a video showed masked members of the Zetas drug gang interrogating a police officer who said that inmates in a prison in northern Durango state allied with the Sinaloa cartel were given guns and cars and allowed out of jail to commit murders. At the end of the video the officer was shot to death.

The prison director was arrested after it appeared.

In Ciudad Juarez last week, a video circulated of a woman in her 20s confessing at gunpoint to extorting several businesses on behalf of La Linea. The woman had been found shot to death on a Ciudad Juarez street two weeks before the video emerged, a flower placed on her back.

In Tijuana, meanwhile, prosecutors said they were investigating whether the massacre Sunday night of 13 recovering addicts at a drug rehab center was related to authorities' seizure last week of nearly 135 metric tons of marijuana.

Shortly after the attack, a voice was heard over a police radio frequency threatening that there would be as many as 135 killings in Tijuana - a possible reference to the record marijuana seizure.

Baja California state Attorney General Rommel Moreno said attack on the rehab center also might have stemmed from a dispute between rival drug-dealing gangs but that investigators were looking into a possible connection with the seizure.

The attack on the ramshackle, privately run center in Tijuana is the first such mass killing at a rehab center in the city.

Several such attacks have killed dozens of recovering addicts in Ciudad Juarez, and the voice on the police radio frequency was also heard saying "this is a taste of Juarez."

Just two weeks ago, President Felipe Calderon touted Tijuana as a success story in his nearly four-year-old drug war, noting during a festival to promote the city's industries that homicides are down from a peak in 2008.

Since his visit, drug gangs have resumed gruesome tactics not seen in the Tijuana for months, beheading rivals and hanging bodies from bridges. Some residents have expressed fear that the cartels are deliberating intensifying the violence to undermine Calderon's message.

-Associated Press

Official: Honduran helped massacre survivor flee

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras - A Honduran who survived the massacre of 72 migrants in Mexico helped untie the only other survivor - a wounded Ecuadorean - and the two fled together, an official said Friday.

In an interview with El Heraldo newspaper, Honduran Deputy Foreign Minister Alden Rivera revealed details for the first time about the escape.

Mexican officials had previously said there was only one survivor of the massacre — the Ecuadorean who stumbled wounded to a military checkpoint and alerted marines. The Mexicans said when they learned that a Honduran also survived, they kept it a secret to protect him. But Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa revealed the information earlier this week.

Investigators believe the Zetas drug gang kidnapped the migrants and gunned them down after they refused to work for the cartel.

Marines found the bound, blindfolded bodies slumped against a wall last week after raiding the ranch in the northern state of Tamaulipas, which has been embroiled in a vicious turf battle between the Zetas and their former employer, the Gulf Cartel.

Mexican officials say cartels have increasingly been recruiting vulnerable migrants to smuggle drugs.

After the shooting stopped, the Honduran survivor managed to untie himself, then helped free the Ecuadorean, who had been shot in the neck, Rivera said.

Rivera did not say whether the Honduran was hurt but the Ecuadorean survivor, Luis Freddy Lala Pomavilla, told state-run television in Ecuador on Thursday that the Honduran somehow managed to avoid being shot.

Lala, 18, was flown home to Ecuador on Sunday after recovering from his wounds at a Mexican hospital. He is now under a witness protection program in Ecuador. The Honduran is under the protection of Mexican security forces.

Rivera said the two migrants fled the ranch together but when they heard gunshots behind them, they separated.

Lala said he approached two groups of people who refused to help him until he finally reached the marine checkpoint.

The Honduran, Rivera said, walked for a long time until he found a migrant shelter. Rivera revealed no other details about the migrant's escape, but said he was in good health and had been in contact with his family in Honduras.

Lala told Ecuadorean television that a total of 76 migrants were traveling together - Hondurans, Ecuadoreans, Guatemalans and at least one Brazilian.

But a spokesman for Mexico's Attorney General's Office, Ricardo Najera, said Friday that 77 people were in the group: the 72 killed, the two survivors and three Mexicans whose whereabouts were unknown.

The Mexicans were two drivers and an assistant, he said, adding the information came from the testimony of the Honduran and the Ecuadorean migrants.

In a statement that Lala gave to Mexican investigators, he said one migrant agreed to work with the Zetas, but did not reveal what happened to that person. The Associated Press has access to that statement last week.

During a meeting in Guatemala, meanwhile, Central American foreign ministers urged Mexico to find the killers and take steps to avoid more atrocities.

"We call on Mexican authorities to take measures as soon as possible to avoid events like the one that occurred in Tamaulipas," said Honduran Foreign Minister Mario Canahuati.

-Associated Press

Mexico: Soldiers kill 30 in troubled border state

MONTERREY, Mexico - Mexican soldiers killed at least 30 suspected cartel members in two shootouts near the U.S. border in a region that has become one of biggest battlegrounds in the country's drug war, authorities said Friday.

Twenty-five of the suspects were killed Thursday during a raid on a building in Ciudad Mier in Tamaulipas state. The other five were killed Friday in neighboring Nuevo Leon state, during a shootout on a highway leading to the border, the Mexican Defense Department said in a statement.

All 30 gunmen were believed to belong to the Zetas gang - the group suspected of killing 72 migrants nearly two weeks ago in what could be Mexico's biggest cartel massacre to date.

Violence along Mexico's northeastern border with Texas has reached warlike proportions amid fighting between security forces and two feuding drug gangs - the Zetas and the Gulf cartel, former allies who split this year and started a vicious battle for trafficking routes in the area.

One of two survivors of the massacre last month - an Ecuadorean - said the killers identified themselves as Zetas and gunned down the migrants because they refused to work for the gang.

A military aircraft flying over Ciudad Mier on Thursday spotted several gunmen in front of a building, the Defense Department statement said. When ground troops moved in, gunmen opened fire, starting a gunbattle in which 25 suspected cartel members died and two soldiers were wounded.

Authorities rescued three people believed to be kidnapping victims in the raid, according to the statement. The military said troops seized 25 rifles, four grenades, 4,200 rounds of ammunition and 23 vehicles.

Earlier, a military spokesman said the gunmen were believed to be on a property controlled by the Zetas.

The second shootout erupted Friday morning outside the town of Juarez in Nuevo Leon, on a highway leading to McAllen.

Soldiers went to the area after receiving an anonymous tip that armed men were circulating in a black SUV, according to a military spokesman. He provided the information on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to reveal his name. The spokesman said the armed men opened fire, provoking the shootout that killed five gunmen, all of whom were believed to be Zetas.

Drug violence has claimed more than 28,000 lives since President Felipe Calderon intensified a crackdown on cartels after taking office in late 2006.

-Associated Press

Mexico captures reported drug lord 'La Barbie'

MEXICO CITY - A former Texas high school football player and petty street dealer who allegedly rose to become one of Mexico's most savage assassins became the third major drug lord brought down by Mexico in less than a year, and could provide intelligence on even bigger kingpins.

Edgar Valdez Villarreal, known as "La Barbie" for his fair complexion and green eyes, grinned broadly Tuesday as police described a life of luxury and violence that made a battleground of central Mexico, where he waged a war for control against his slain boss's brother.

The 37-year-old Valdez faces charges in three U.S. states for trucking in tons of cocaine. As a U.S. citizen living illegally in Mexico, Valdez could be deported to the United States if Mexico agrees, or he could face prosecution in Mexico for drug-related crimes. Mexican authorities say he could be responsible for dozens of murders.

The arrest was portrayed by the Mexican and U.S. governments as a victory for President Felipe Calderon, who is trying to recover public support for his war on organized crime in the face of escalating violence.

Valdez's capture Monday on a ranch outside Mexico City was the culmination of a yearlong pursuit after police made some key arrests at XXXoticas, an Acapulco tourist bar owned by Valdez, who passed himself off there as an entrepreneur.

Mexican police said they chased Valdez across five Mexican states for a year, a pursuit that intensified in recent months as they raided home after home owned by the drug lord, missing him but nabbing several of his allies. Among those taken into custody was his girlfriend and her mother, Valdez's U.S. lawyer said.

"This has been going on for quite a while," attorney Kent Schaffer told The Associated Press. "So you figure it's just a matter of time."

The arrest also yielded computers, telephones and other equipment authorities said would likely provide more information about his group.

-Associated Press

Police arrested in northern Mexico mayor's killing

MONTERREY, Mexico - Six city police officers were arrested Friday in the killing of a mayor in northern Mexico, as the country's escalating drug violence targets more public officials.

The suspects included the officer who guarded the house where Santiago Mayor Edelmiro Cavazos was seized on Sunday. The officer had said he was kidnapped with the mayor and later freed unharmed.

Adrian de la Garza, head of the police investigations agency in Nuevo Leon state, told a news conference that the police officers received 6,000 pesos ($700) per month to cooperate with criminals "in different ways and different affairs," with some allegedly acting as lookouts.

"They were employees" of a criminal gang, De la Garza said at a news conference where he displayed security-camera footage from Cavazo's house, showing armed kidnappers arriving at the home on Sunday night in five SUVs.

The grainy video showed the vehicles turn on flashing lights, apparently to simulate police patrol vehicles, as armed men get out without any apparent resistance from the officer guarding the home.

Cavazos is seen being lead out of his home and forced into a vehicle at gunpoint.

The guard is then also seen getting into the front cabin of another SUV, contrary to his earlier statement claiming he had been bundled into the trunk of one of the vehicles and later dumped unharmed by the side of the road.

Nuevo Leon state Attorney General Alejandro Garza y Garza said the officers confessed to being involved in the Cavazos' killing, though some declared their innocence while being presented to the press.

"We are still looking for others who were involved as well," Garza y Garza said.

The body of the 38-year-old mayor was found handcuffed and gagged Wednesday outside of his town, a popular weekend getaway for residents of the industrial city of Monterrey.

Cavazos' death comes amid increasing violence in the northeast of the country attributed to a dispute the Gulf cartel and its former allies, the Zetas. Authorities refused to say which cartel is believed to be responsible for Cavazos' killing.

Meanwhile, a federal judge presiding over the case of former Cancun mayor facing drug-related charges survived an attack Thursday in the west coast state of Nayarit, according to a federal police report. The assault killed one of two bodyguards for Judge Carlos Alberto Elorza.

President Felipe Calderon is proposing that Mexico consider appointing anonymous judges for drug-trafficking trials, a change that would contradict the effort he promoted to build a more open judicial system.

Elorza is the judge in the case of Gregorio Sanchez, a former Cancun mayor who was forced out of the Quintana Roo gubernatorial campaign when he was charged with drug trafficking and money laundering. Federal police minister Wilfrido Robledo told reporters that Elorza had received threats, so his security detail was increased. He rode in an armored SUV when he came under attack.

The federal Judiciary Council, which oversees Mexico's courts, said in a statement that it "rejects violence that represents an attack on the rule of law and the country's institution."

Cavazo's killing has prompted authorities to call for more patrols by both the army and federal police in Nuevo Leon, where shootings are commonplace.

On Friday, four alleged cartel gunmen were arrested in Santiago, but De la Garza said they were not linked to the mayor's killing.

The Army said the four suspects were detained at a ranch where soldiers found 9 assault rifles, 5 grenades and what appeared to be a grenade or rocket launcher.

And in another Monterrey suburb, Santa Catarina, three security guards from the FEMSA bottling company were wounded in a shootout outside a school. FEMSA spokesman Carlos Velazquez said the guards were performing standard patrols in the area when the gunmen opened fire on their vehicles.

"We energetically condemn the atmosphere of danger that prevails in the greater Monterrey area and which puts residents lives at risk," the company said in a statement.

Mauricio Fernandez, mayor of the San Pedro Garza Garcia, another town on the outskirts of Monterrey, said Cavazos had received death threats from gangs warning him to stay out of their way and had sought advice on how to handle the threats.

Officials at the state attorney general's office said Cavazos had never informed authorities about any threats. Gen. Guillermo Moreno, who commands troops in Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas states, said the army did not received complains from the mayor or requests for protection.

The leading candidate for governor in the state of Tamaulipas, which borders Nuevo Leon, was shot to death a week before the election. A mayoral candidate in Tamaulipas also was shot in May.

Drug violence has killed more than 28,000 people since December 2006, when Calderon started his crackdown on the cartels.

-Associated Press

Calderon: Mexico should consider anonymous judges

MEXICO CITY - President Felipe Calderon said Mexico should consider appointing anonymous judges for drug trafficking trials, an unexpected proposal that he acknowledged contradicts the country's efforts to build a more open judicial system.

Calderon, who raised the idea Thursday during meeting with senators on national security, said Mexico should at least consider the idea as drug cartels stage increasingly bold attacks on public official at all levels.

"I recognize that this goes against ... our legal tradition," Calderon said. "But in all honesty, gentlemen, I have found that citizens, police, judges, prosecutors are at risk, in the sense that they are completely exposed to criminal vengeance."

"We should consider whether this is valid or not, whether anonymous judges would work or not," Calderon said.

It was a surprise comment from the Mexican leader, who has touted an ongoing reform of Mexico's secretive, inquisitorial judicial system. That overhaul, backed by millions of dollars in U.S. aid, will create an accusatory system that puts the burden of proof on prosecutors and establish oral trials to replace proceedings now carried out almost entirely in writing.

A law approved by all 32 Mexican states in 2008 calls for the changeover to be completed by 2016.

Calderon, who gave no plan for carrying out the debate on anonymous judges, is facing mounting complaints from political opponents - and even some allies - that his national security strategy is failing. He has convoked a series of national meetings to address those concerns.

Even if Mexico decides against anonymous judges, Calderon said the country needs to find a way to protect judges, prosecutors and witnesses. He said some federal police have been gunned down just after testifying at trials.

Peru and Colombia have at times used anonymous or "faceless" judges in their wars against guerrilla groups and drug traffickers as a means to protect judges from reprisals for ruling against suspects. The use of such judges has been criticized by human rights groups.

Calderon also stepped up his criticism of the U.S. government for not doing enough about drug consumption and the smuggling of guns into Mexico. Mexican and U.S. law enforcement officials both say that many of the guns used by cartels are smuggled in from the U.S.

Calderon said Mexico should mount an international campaign to bring attention "again and again to the irresponsibility of the Americans, even if they get upset and even if it disturbs their (election) campaigns."

"It's unacceptable that the voracity of the weapons industry is fomenting the levels of violence we have here," Calderon said.

Mexico's drug gang violence has reached unprecedented levels since Calderon deployed thousands of troops and federal police to drug-trafficking hotspots in 2006.

More than 28,000 people have since died in Mexico's drug war, while gang attacks have become bolder and more gruesome.

On Wednesday, Mayor Edelmiro Cavazos of the northern Mexican town of Santiago was found dead three days after gunmen disguised as police kidnapped him from his home. Cavazos, who had been shot twice in the head, was found with his hands were bound and his head had been wrapped in tape, suggesting the work of Mexico's brutal cartels.

The region surrounding Santiago, a favorite getaway for residents of the industrial city of Monterrey, has become a battleground for turf between the Gulf cartel and its former allies, the Zetas gang of hit men.

Investigators have not determined a motive for Cavazos' assassination. The mayor, who belonged to Calderon's National Action Party, frequently spoke out against drug violence, but allies have said he had not taken any dramatic security measures that may have angered the cartels.

But Mauricio Fernandez, mayor of the San Pedro Garza Garcia, another town on the outskirts of Monterrey, said Cavazos had received death threats from gangs warning him to stay out of their way. Fernandez said Cavazos had come to him for advice on how to handle the threats.

"He was a little afraid and he was reaching out to people with experience in this sort of thing," Fernandez, an outspoken mayor who has also received threats and last year sent his family to the U.S. for their own safety, said in an interview with Multimedios on Wednesday night.

Officials at the Nuevo Leon state attorney general's office said Cavazos had never informed authorities about any threats. Gen. Guillermo Moreno, who commands troops in Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas states, told The Associated Press that the army also had never received complains from the mayor or requests for protection.

-Associated Press