Mexico, January 12: Mexico has chalked up what could be its most dubious distinction yet in the three-year battle against drug trafficking – 69 murders in one day.
And two weeks into 2010, gang bloodshed is becoming more grotesque as drug lords ramp up their attempts at intimidation.
Last week a victim’s face was sewn onto a soccer ball.
The country resembled a grim, statistical dart board on Saturday as law enforcement and media reported the deaths from various regions, including 26 in the border city of Ciudad Juarez, 13 in and around Mexico City and 10 in the northern city of Chihuahua.
More than 6500 drug-related killings made 2009 the bloodiest year since President Felipe Calderon declared war on the cartels in late 2006 and deployed 45,000 soldiers, according to death tallies by San Diego’s Trans-Border Institute.
On Monday, prosecutors in Culiacan identified the remains of a 41-year-old former police officer divided into two ice chests.
“You wonder how this will end, and it seems impossible,” said Daniel Vega, an architect in the northern city of Monterrey. “I doubt Mexico can override drug use, especially since demand for the drugs, as well as all the money and weapons, comes from the US.”
Using their so-called Narcobarometer, researchers at the University of San Diego’s Trans-Border Institute track and analyse murders in Mexico, hoping to find ways to quell the violence. Their tally? More than 20,000 murders since 2001 – more than half in the past two years.
“It does appear that the violence has grown exponentially, but it’s not clear that it’s necessarily a slippery downward slope from here,” institute director David Shirk said, noting that government operations, including a December raid that killed cartel boss Arturo Beltran Leyva, have hit seven of Mexico’s eight major cartels.
Mr Shirk said the remaining, mostly unscathed Sinaloa cartel, headed by billionaire gang boss Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, may now become dominant, reducing the deadly power struggles.
—Agencies