Now it's scary for everyone else - Part 2

The Minister for Security for the state of Michoacán, Minerva Bautista Gómez, was wounded in an ambush by narcos after she was leaving a public function. Two of her body-guards were killed as well as as a 60 year old man who happened to get caught in the crossfire and 9 others in her convoy were wounded. In a brazen act, the gunmen had stationed a stolen semi-trailer (stolen a few days prior) across the road, blocking the convoy's route. They then opened fire with AK 47s, AR15s, and at least one .50 Barret rifle, in a fight that left more than 500 shell casing scattered on the street. As well, the narco's threw fragmentation grenades that destroyed several vehicles. Five hours later, gunmen in at least two SUVs attacked a Michoacán police station as well, throwing grenades and firing off rounds that left buildings damaged but no one hurt.

In other parts of Mexico, the cartels orchrestrated 3 other attacks against federal forces, two in Nuevo León and the other in Guerrero as well attacking the international customs offices in Tamaulipas which caused six deaths. In the early hours of yesterday, gunmen attacked the customs office in Camargo, Tamaulipas (the border city next to Río Grande, Texas) causing US authorities to shut down the border crossing for a number of hours. In the city of San Nicolás, gunmen in attacked a military patrol with left one gunmen dead and two others detained. Two hours later, another group of gunmen, in a convoy of four vehicles, attacked a military vehicle which resulted in 5 gangsters killed while the rest escaped. Numerous grenades were tossed at a police station in the city of Unión, Guerrero, damaging the building and some vehicles.

All told there were 31 narco-deaths yesterday, including 3 dismembered bodies in Acapulco, 8 executions in Chihuahua, 4 in Michoacán, 3 in Tamaulipas, 2 in Tijuana, 2 in Nuevo León, and one each in SInaloa and Durango.

I imagine that the war against the drug gangs is nearly over, since according to Carlos Pascual, Fernando Francisco Gómez Mont, Filipe Calderón, the DEA etc, this coninuing violence on the part of the cartels is their swan-song, a measure of how desperate they are. So desperate, in fact, that they continue to successfully engage in strategic attacks against police (not just one or two officers but many at a time) and high level targets. Attacks that leave the victims dead and little or no casualties on the narco side, nor even successful investigations of the perpretrators. When an assassin is captured (and all too few of them) they are accused of killing 20, 30 or even 100 or 200 people...the police seem unable to stop then after they have only killed one or two.

It is nice to know that the government's forces are "winning".