MEXICO CITY – It was the boldest, most widespread coordinated offensive ever mounted by drug traffickers against the Mexican government.
Within minutes of the weekend arrest of the La Familia drug cartel's operations chief, the gang launched deadly attacks in President Felipe Calderon's home state. In the worst, 12 federal agents were killed execution-style, their tortured bodies piled along a roadside as a warning for all to see.
The attacks following the weekend capture of Arnoldo Rueda spread quickly to at least 10 cities, including towns in two neighboring states. Officers' hotels were shot up. Grenades were tossed at police posts.
At least 18 federal agents and two soldiers were killed in the attacks and ambushes. Nearly two dozen officers were wounded.
Near the bloodied bodies of the 12 agents dumped in a heap Monday off a mountain highway near La Huacana was a message: "Let's see if you try to arrest another one."
It was a blatant challenge to Calderon, who has deployed federal police and troops in an attempt to halt the country's escalating drug trade.
Calderon insists that the backlash to Rueda's arrest proves the cartel has been hurt.
"The arrests of dangerous leaders by the federal government in recent months is seriously affecting their operations and generating chaos in their ranks," Calderon said. "Thus the violent and desperate reaction that we've seen these days."
Government critics said the offensive revealed that federal forces are unprepared for the battle against heavily armed crime syndicates with extensive intelligence networks embedded within police forces.
They also said it undermines Calderon's repeated claims that violence shows the thugs are on the run.
A cartoon in the left-leaning La Jornada newspaper Wednesday depicted a bound and blindfolded policeman with a gun to his head. "Don't worry," says a tied-up colleague kneeling beside him. "It's just another desperate action by organized crime because they're cornered."
Mexico's national security spokesman, Monte Alejandro Rubido, said a La Familia suspect detained Monday told authorities gang leaders had sent an order to attack federal forces within minutes of Rueda's arrest in the Michoacan state capital of Morelia.
Dozens of gunmen carrying high-powered weapons and grenades attacked the station where Rueda was held. They failed to free him, but three federal agents were wounded by grenade fragments.
Convoys of other hit men fanned out across Michoacan and the neighboring states of Guerrero and Guanajuato.
Assailants gunned down two soldiers riding on a bicycle in their off hours outside their base in the town of Zamora. In Apatzingan, federal agents came under fire while sleeping at a hotel in a farming town ringed by mango orchards. Others were ambushed in patrol cars on lonesome highways. Three federal agents were fatally shot as they raced to a reported car accident, which turned out to be an ambush.
"This clearly shows federal forces are vulnerable," said Jorge Chabat, a Mexican drug expert. "The government needs to rethink its police protection scheme. If they don't, no one is going to want to be a police officer or soldier. There is not enough protection for them."
The government has not said whether federal agents are quitting out of fear, although several towns have seen local police leave in droves after feeling threatened.
"These attacks are demoralizing police and terrorizing the population into not helping officials," Pineyro said. "The government's war is flawed."
A South Korean woman struggles with her umbrella in Seoul. AFP/Jung Yeon-Je
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