Police found the beheaded and tortured bodies tied up in the city of Chilpancingo, about an hour north of Acapulco, during the weekend. The heads were stuffed in a black plastic bag and tossed outside a shopping center with a note saying, "For every one of us you kill, we are going to kill 10," Mexican media reported. An ex-police commander, also without a head, was found with the soldiers. The gruesome attack was the worst against the army since Mr Calderon deployed some 45,000 troops to take on drug gangs after coming to office in 2006. "We are committed to this fight with all of its consequences," Mr Calderon said at an event honoring a military hero. "We will not stand down and there will be no truce with enemies of the state," he said. Mr Calderon's assault against drug gangs has netted several major smugglers wanted in the United States, but violence in Mexico has worsened. More than 5,300 people have died this year, over twice as many as in 2007, as traffickers fight each other and the government over drug smuggling routes. Washington, which has promised Mexico hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to buy equipment and provide security training, now sees Mexican cartels as its No. 1 drug threat. It was not clear which faction was behind the beheadings. The main drug gangs are the Gulf cartel from northeastern Mexico and a federation of smugglers run out of the northwestern state of Sinaloa by Mexico's most wanted man, Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman.Eight Mexican soldiers decapitated by drug lords
Mexican President Felipe Calderon has vowed not to back down from the fight against powerful drug cartels who decapitated eight soldiers in the most serious blow to the army in a two-year-old offensive.
Tuesday, 23 December 2008
Posts
