Gang guns down Mexico police chief
Posted: Sun May 06, 2007 8:04 am
Gang guns down Mexico police chief
Armed men, thought to be part of a drugs gang, have killed a police chief in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas, casting doubt on the effectiveness of the authorities' latest crackdown on gang violence.
Manuel Cordova, the state police chief, was shot as he traveled in a truck in the city of Tapachula on Saturday, state authorities said.
Felipe Calderon, the Mexican president, said on Saturday that the fight against organised crime would continue.
"We will double our offensive against the enemy because more energy should be the response to greater violence," he said in a speech commemorating Cinco de Mayo holiday.
Calderon has sent thousands of troops to states on the US border and other areas in the country where drugs cartels operate.
But despite the campaign, violent attacks and execution-style killings have continued.
Funded by money from the drugs trade, gangs are known to have bribed poorly paid police officers and regularly out-gun local police by using assault rifles and grenade launchers.
Drug-related violence has lead to 700 deaths in Mexico so far this year.
On Thursday, gunmen attacked the police chief of Cancun, killing one of his bodyguards although the police chief himself escaped unharmed.
Earlier in the week, masked gunmen killed five soldiers in a shootout in the western state of Michoacan.
Local police officers have occasionally been assassinated by gangs, although it can be unclear whether they are targeted because of their own involvement with organised criminals or in retribution for trying to catch them.
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/ ... F1816D.htm
Armed men, thought to be part of a drugs gang, have killed a police chief in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas, casting doubt on the effectiveness of the authorities' latest crackdown on gang violence.
Manuel Cordova, the state police chief, was shot as he traveled in a truck in the city of Tapachula on Saturday, state authorities said.
Felipe Calderon, the Mexican president, said on Saturday that the fight against organised crime would continue.
"We will double our offensive against the enemy because more energy should be the response to greater violence," he said in a speech commemorating Cinco de Mayo holiday.
Calderon has sent thousands of troops to states on the US border and other areas in the country where drugs cartels operate.
But despite the campaign, violent attacks and execution-style killings have continued.
Funded by money from the drugs trade, gangs are known to have bribed poorly paid police officers and regularly out-gun local police by using assault rifles and grenade launchers.
Drug-related violence has lead to 700 deaths in Mexico so far this year.
On Thursday, gunmen attacked the police chief of Cancun, killing one of his bodyguards although the police chief himself escaped unharmed.
Earlier in the week, masked gunmen killed five soldiers in a shootout in the western state of Michoacan.
Local police officers have occasionally been assassinated by gangs, although it can be unclear whether they are targeted because of their own involvement with organised criminals or in retribution for trying to catch them.
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/ ... F1816D.htm