Guadalajara -
Seven persons were kidnapped early this morning in the municipality of El Rosario, 50 kilometers southeast of the Pacific coast resort city of Mazatlán.
All were later found shot to death near the town of Ojo de Agua. Four of the victims were municipal police officers in Rosario. Mayor Edgar González Satarain confirmed their deaths.
The Spanish language website Nota Roja reported that the assailants fled in the officers' police cars, which have not yet been located. The news service said that although Rosario is a quiet community, it's proximity to Mazatlán has placed it at greater risk for narco violence in recent years.
Sinaloa state is home turf of the drug cartel of the same name (The Chicago Connection: Sinaloa Cartel moves cocaine from Windy City to Australia), and has been a seedbed of drug war violence. On Feb. 14 the Chicago Crime Commission named its boss, El Chapo Guzmán, "Public Enemy # 1."
In November, Miss Sinaloa 2012 was killed during a gun battle between presumed members of the cartel and federal troops patrolling the region.
On Feb. 10 Mexican marines arrested the chief executioner for Guzmán in Costa Rica, Sinaloa, just up the coast from Rosario.
Mexico's entire Pacific coast has been the scene of organized crime violence in recent months, much of it directed against law enforcement officials. Preventivos - street cops - have often been the targets. They carry less fire power than military units, and can be easily overcome at odd hours and locations.
On Feb. 11 a police officer was executed in a town near the resort of Manzanillo.
On Feb. 5 gunmen ambushed a rural police patrol in Guerrero state, northeast of Acapulco, leaving nine officers dead.
On Oct. 15 a commando squad armed with machine guns and hand grenades attacked an armored vehicle carrying the police chief of Puerto Vallarta and his two escorts in the heart of Old Town, just blocks from the main tourist strip. All three survived, but the chief resigned and left town a week later. Tourism in the area has suffered, and potential visitors from the U.S. have become wary of the resort.
In the first three months of the new administration of president Enrique Peña Nieto, drug traffickers and organized crime elements killed 100 Mexican police officers and soldiers nationwide, more than one every day.
Mar. 1 - Mexican drug traffickers murder two Guatemalan National Police agents near Chiapas border
Feb. 21 - Enrique Peña Nieto: "I'm not able to confirm the death of El Chapo Guzmán"
Feb. 19 - NY Times figures out, in Mexican drug war Enrique Peña Nieto = Felipe Calderón Hinojosa
Feb. 1 - HRW's latest condemnation of Mexican drug war reveals little understanding of the conflict
Nov. 21, 2011 - The L.A. Times just doesn't get it
© MGRR 2013. All rights reserved. This article may be cited or briefly quoted with proper attribution or a hyperlink, but not reproduced without permission.
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