Mexican governor candidate killed, cartels blamed

Caption: Army soldiers stand next to a campaign vehicle of the candidate for governor of the state of Tamaulipas, Rodolfo Torre, after he was ambushed by unidentified gunmen near the city of Ciudad Victoria, Mexico, Monday June 28, 2010. Gunmen assassinated the front-running candidate and several of his aides in what Mexico's President Felipe Calderon called an attempt by drug gangs to sway local and state elections this weekend.

MEXICO CITY - Gunmen assassinated the front-running candidate for governor of a Mexican border state Monday in what President Felipe Calderon called an attempt by drug gangs to sway local and state elections this weekend.

The assailants ambushed Rodolfo Torre's vehicle as he headed to the airport in Ciudad Victoria, capital of Tamaulipas, a state torn by a turf battle between two rival drug cartels. At least four other people traveling with him were killed.

"Today has proven that organized crime is a permanent threat and that we should close ranks to confront it and avoid more actions like the cowardly assassination that today has shaken the country," Calderon said in a televised speech. "We cannot and should not permit crime to impose its will or its perverse rules."

He warned that organized crime "wants to interfere in the decisions of citizens and in electoral processes."

Torre, of Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, is the first gubernatorial candidate assassinated in Mexico in recent memory. He is the highest-ranking candidate killed since Luis Donaldo Colosio, also for the PRI, was gunned down while running for president in 1994.

The attack was the biggest setback yet for Sunday's elections in 12 states. Corruption scandals, threats and attacks on politicians have raised fears for months that Mexico's powerful drug cartels are buying off candidates they support and intimidating those they oppose.

Last month, gunmen killed Jose Guajardo Varela, a candidate for mayor of the Tamaulipas town of Valle Hermoso. Guajardo, of Calderon's National Action Party, or PAN, had received warnings to drop his campaign.

Several parties, including the PAN, had said they could not find anyone to run for mayor in some towns in Tamaulipas and other border states because of drug gang intimidation.

In the worst corruption scandal of the election, Cancun mayor Gregorio Sanchez was arrested last month for alleged drug trafficking ties, forcing him to drop his campaign for governor of Quintana Roo state. Sanchez was charged with protecting two of Mexico's most brutal drug gangs, allegations he has dismissed as politically motivated.

Calderon's government did not say which gang was suspected in Torre's assassination or why he would be targeted.

Tamaulipas, which borders Texas, has become a battleground between the Gulf cartel and its former ally, the Zetas gang of hit men. Gangs have staged bold attacks on security forces, ambushing army patrols and setting up blockades near army garrisons.

Tamaulipas state election authorities met to decide whether to suspend the vote.

The PAN and the leftist Democratic Revolution Part, or PRD, said they would suspend campaigning by their own gubernatorial candidates in Tamaulipas, but PAN party leader Cesar Nava said he hoped the vote would go forward.

PRI national leader Beatriz Paredes also indicated she wanted the elections to take place, urging supporters to go the polls. "Nothing is going to intimidate us," she said in a statement.

Torre, 46, was heading to the airport to fly to the border city of Matamoros, where he planned to attend the closing campaign events of the PRI's mayoral candidate, said Tamaulipas state Gov. Eugenio Hernandez. Four people were wounded in the attack, including Torres's personal secretary, Hernandez told Radio Formula.

Television footage from the scene showed several vehicles and sheet-covered bodies along the side of the highway.

Torre, 46, held a significant lead in polls as candidate for a coalition comprising two small parties and the PRI, which has long governed Tamaulipas.

George Grayson, a Mexico expert at the College of William & Mary in Virginia, said the assassination would almost certainly keep many voters home, but he expected the situation would only benefit the PRI.

"The execution and the ... climate of fear will dampen voter turnout on Sunday, which will help the PRI because they have the best political machine," he said.

The PRI, which ruled Mexico for 71 years before losing the presidency in 2000, is hoping that a strong showing in Sunday's elections will put it on the path to regain the presidency in 2012.

The conservative PAN has formed uncomfortable alliances with the PRD to oust the PRI from several states, though not in Tamaulipas. PAN and PRD politicians have insinuated that PRI politicians in Tamaulipas and other states have ties to drug gangs, allegations the PRI dismisses as tired campaign tactics.

Drug gang violence has rocketed since Calderon deployed thousands of troops and federal police across the country in 2006 to wage an all-out battle against cartels. Some 23,000 people have been killed in drug-related violence.

Torre, a physician, had served as the state's health secretary from 2005 to 2009. He was married and had three teenage children.

-Associated Press

Mexico nabs alleged Sinaloa cartel leader

TIJUANA, Mexico - Police in the border city of Mexicali have arrested a purported top figure in Mexico's powerful Sinaloa drug cartel, authorities said Friday.

Baja California state police arrested Manuel Garibay on Thursday while he was driving in Mexicali, across from Calexico, Calif., the state public security department said in a statement.

Garibay, 52, was the Sinaloa cartel's link to Colombian cocaine suppliers since last year's arrest of Vicente "El Vicentillo" Zambada, the department said.

Zambada's father, Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada, is one of the leaders of the Sinaloa cartel together with Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, according to authorities.

Garibay was being sought by authorities for trafficking cocaine from Colombia to Mexico, and for being involved in several kidnappings and killings, it said.

Garibay allegedly led a cell of at least 28 cartel members including his brother, Jose Luis Garibay, who was arrested in Mexicali in 2005.

Meanwhile, in the border state of Tamaulipas, at least 11 gunmen died in three separate clashes with Mexican navy and army troops.

The navy said in a statement that six gunmen died Thursday in two shootouts in Matamoros, across from Brownsville, Texas.

Another five gunmen died after clashing with soldiers late Thursday in Ciudad Mier, which is also in Tamaulipas, the Mexican army said in a separate statement.

Also Friday, the government rejected conclusions of the National Human Rights Commission that soldiers altered the crime scene after an April 3 shootout in Tamaulipas that killed two young children.

In a statement, Interior Secretary Fernando Gomez Mont denied that the scene was altered.

The government says the children, 5 and 9 years old, were caught with their family in the crossfire between soldiers and drug traffickers while driving on a highway. The commission investigation said soldiers fired directly into the car, then changed the configuration of the scene to make it appear the vehicle was hit by crossfire. The commission also said Mexico's defense department should compensate the family of the children.

In the northern state of Coahuila, meanwhile, gunmen shot at a television state Friday but nobody was hurt.

Local Televisa network news director Felipe Perez confirmed the attack in a phone interview with The Associated Press. There were no arrests.

It was the second attack on the news media this week in the city of Torreon. On Tuesday, a pregnant woman was wounded when armed men shot at the offices of Noticias de El Sol de la Laguna newspaper.

More than 23,000 people have been killed by drug violence since late 2006, when President Felipe Calderon began deploying thousands of troops and federal police to drug hot spots.

Mexican officials attribute much of the bloodshed to turf battles between drug cartels, but the gangs are increasingly turning to attacks on police and prosecutors.

-Associated Press

Gunmen fire on Mexican town hall; kill 3 police

MEXICO CITY - Authorities in northern Mexico say assailants sprayed a town hall with gunfire, killing at least three police officers.

The Nuevo Leon state attorney general's office says police found 200 shell casings from assault and semiautomatic rifles outside the Los Herreras municipal office, which also houses the town's police force.

Such weapons are often used by drug cartel hitmen. Prosecutors said Tuesday a vehicle found at the scene had "Z-40" and "Z'' painted on its windows — apparent references to the Zetas drug gang.

Authorities blame fighting between the Gulf cartel and the Zetas for a recent surge in violence in Nuevo Leon, which is close to Mexico's border with Texas.

The attack happened around midnight Monday.

-Associated Press

Catholic Church warns of cartel control in Mexico

MEXICO CITY - Mexico's Roman Catholic Church says drug cartels now control parts of some cities and warns that the gangs may be trying to influence this year's state elections.

The Archdiocese of Mexico says in an editorial that organized crime groups may try "to impose candidates" in the July 4 elections that will decide 12 of Mexico's 31 governorships.

It says cartels may also try to impede voters from going to the polls.

The editorial posted Sunday on the archdiocese's website says drug gangs are intimidating governments in some states and "control entire neighborhoods in some cities."

More than 22,700 people have died in drug-related violence since Mexico launched an anti-drug offensive in late 2006.

Cancun police find 12 decomposing inside caverns

Caption: Mexican Army soldiers secure a dirt road after bodies were found nearby in several sinkholes in the resort city of Cancun, Mexico Friday June 18. Police in Cancun have found 12 decomposing bodies in four sinkholes and were searching for more, authorities said, adding that they were led to the clandestine graves by nine alleged hit men detained last Tuesday.

CANCUN, Mexico - Police in Cancun found 12 decomposing bodies in four caverns and were searching for more cadavers in violence blamed on drug gangs in the popular resort city, officials said Friday.

Earlier this month, police discovered six other bodies, three of them cut open and their hearts removed, in a similar cavern near the Mexican resort. Three of the bodies had the letter "Z'' carved on their abdomens - a possible reference to the Zeta drug gang.

Police say detained gunmen have led them to all the clandestine graves — dried up sinkhole caves, known as cenotes.

Quintana Roo state Attorney General Francisco Alor said Friday that nine alleged hit men detained three days earlier led police to the 12 bodies.

Alor said three of the sinkholes are in an area covered with scrub vegetation near a residential area and the fourth on the outskirts of Cancun along a highway leading to Merida. None of the bodies have been identified.

Quintana Roo state, where Cancun is located, is a transshipment point for cocaine being smuggled from Colombia to the United States.

In 2009, prosecutors arrested Cancun's police chief, Francisco Velasco, to investigate whether he protected the Zetas drug gang. A former governor of the state was sentenced to 36 years for money laundering and helping a cartel smuggle narcotics.

More than 22,700 people have died nationwide in drug violence since late 2006, when President Felipe Calderon sent soldiers and federal police to battle the cartels.

Cartel hit men have been know to use mass dumping sites to dispose of their victims. In late May, police in the colonial tourist town of Taxco discovered 55 bodies in an abandoned silver mine.

Meanwhile, Mexican soldiers seized more than $1 million in cash from a house in a northern state that is the home base of the country's most powerful cartel, authorities said Friday.

Soldiers acting on an anonymous tip raided three houses Thursday in Culiacan, the capital of Sinaloa, the Defense Department said in a statement.

They found $1 million in cash, four guns and $80 in fake cash in the first house, the department said. In a second, they discovered $28,400, cocaine, a gun, expensive watches and other jewelry. Drugs were found in the third house.

The department did not say what cartel might have owned the money. There were no arrests.

Sinaloa state is a stronghold of the cartel with the same name, led by kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman.

In the northern border city of Ciudad Juarez, two 15-year-old girls were among 15 people killed in a 24-hour period, said Arturo Sandoval, a spokesman for the Chihuahua state Attorney General's Office.

The girls were riding in a car with three men Thursday night when assailants opened fire. The girls were killed inside the car, while the men tried to flee and were shot dead on the street, Sandoval said.

Police had no immediate suspects.

Ciudad Juarez, across from El Paso, Texas, is one of the deadliest cities in the world because of a turf war between the Sinaloa and Juarez cartels.

-Associated Press

Mexican army seizes $1 million in cash from house

MEXICO CITY - Mexican soldiers seized more than $1 million in cash from a house in a northern state that is the home base of the country's most powerful cartel, authorities said Friday.

Soldiers acting on an anonymous tip raided three houses Thursday in Culiacan, the capital of Sinaloa, the Defense Department said in a statement.

They found $1 million in cash, four guns and $80 in fake cash in the first house, the department said. In a second, they discovered $28,400, cocaine, a gun, expensive watches and other jewelry. Drugs were found in the third house.

The department did not say what cartel might have owned the money. There were no arrests.

Sinaloa state is a stronghold of the cartel with the same name, led by kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman.

In the northern border city of Ciudad Juarez, meanwhile, two 15-year-old girls were among 15 people killed in a 24-hour period, said Arturo Sandoval, a spokesman for the Chihuahua state Attorney General's Office.

The girls were riding in a car with three men Thursday night when assailants opened fire. The girls were killed inside the car, while the men tried to flee and were shot dead on the street, Sandoval said.

More than 20 bullet casings were found at the scene, some belonging to Kalashnikovs and AR-15 assault rifles.

Police had no immediate suspects.

Ciudad Juarez, across from El Paso, Texas, is one of the deadliest cities in the world. Daily homicide tolls in the double digits are common.

The city has been besieged by a turf war between the Sinaloa and Juarez cartels.

-Associated Press

Mexico arrests 2 in ambush that killed 12 police

Caption: Federal police guard suspects Alain Escutia Ramos, known as "El Leon," left, and Emilio Ovet Palacios, know as "El Mostro," alleged members of the Mexican drug cartel "La Familia Michoacana," during a presentation to the press in Mexico City, Thursday, June 17. According to federal police, both men were arrested in Michoacan, and are accused of participating in an ambush which killed 12 Mexican federal policemen earlier in the week.

MEXICO CITY - Two men were arrested for allegedly participating in an ambush that killed 12 federal police officers in one of the worst drug-cartel attacks on Mexican government security forces, authorities said Thursday.

The suspects, Alain Escutia, 20, and Emilio Palacios, 22, belong to La Familia, one of Mexico's newest and most brutal cartels, said Ramon Pequeno, chief of the Federal Police's anti-narcotics division.

He said the two confessed to participating in the ambush Monday in Zitacuaro, a town in the Pacific coast state of Michoacan, La Familia's home base.

Investigators believe reputed kingpin Nazario Moreno ordered the ambush in retaliation for recent arrests of La Familia members, Pequeno said.

He said a cartel lieutenant met Monday with 35 gunmen at a gas station. The gunmen divided into two groups and headed for two bridges where they waited for the federal police patrol to pass. Pequeno said the two suspects were among a group of 26 who took position on one of the bridges, armed with high-caliber assault rifles and grenades.

They fired at the police patrol for nearly 30 minutes, he said. The police fired back, killing one of the gunmen and wounding several others. The gang members fled before police reinforcements arrived.

Pequeno said police learned the details from several days of intelligence work, although he did not elaborate.

Escutia and Palacios were arrested Wednesday in the Michoacan state capital of Morelia. Pequeno said police arrested the pair because they had "a suspicious demeanor" and their clothes were dirty. He said they were carrying large backpacks in which police later found two assault rifles, a handgun and ammunition.

The suspects were paraded before the news media Thursday, a common practice of Mexican security forces that has been criticized by human rights groups.

-Associated Press