The news arrives with disturbing regularity: 72 bodies found, a
federal policeman killed, 4 men decapitated and hung from a bridge, 19
corpses found, 33 men executed, a massacre at a La Quinta Inn, Girl
Assassin Squad Discovered.
This isn't news from Baghdad, it's a single week of headlines from Blog Del Narco,
Mexico's rawest source of news on the ultraviolence engulfing the
country. Until recently, the factional chaos was mostly confined to
"Lost Cities" like Cuidad Juarez and Tijuana. Now, entire states are
spiraling out of control.
Monterrey is Mexico's wealthiest city, its third largest, and
until a few years ago, one of its safest. But in the last six months the
metropolis has been turned upside-down. Drug gangs have set up scores
of
roadblocks on major highways,
murdered the mayor of a prominent suburb,
intimidated the media,
and taken control of many neighborhoods. The military, federal police,
and local police are everywhere but are almost as feared as the gangs.
Systematic police and mayoral assassinations are causing
entire towns to go dark. Nearly every day,
newspaper editorials beg the government to save the city. All of this is happening just a two-hour drive south of the US border.