The drug war raging across Mexico has seen three deliberately public mass executions in the past week, the two most recent of which were clearly directed at drug rehabilitation center clients.

On Wednesday, gunmen opened fire at a car wash in the central Pacific coast state of Nayarit, killing 15 people. Thirteen of those killed were clients at a nearby drug rehab center.

Drug conflict also re-ignited on the streets of Tijuana, just across the U.S. border from San Diego. On Sunday, fourteen individuals were murdered in a drug rehabilitation center in apparent retribution for the seizure and burning of 134 tons of marijuana.

The rehab clients were ordered onto the floor, at which point they were murdered execution-style by men using automatic weapons.

Both attacks were apparently orchestrated by professionals, according to investigation officials.

President Felipe Calderon said that “these are acts perpetrated by unscrupulous criminals who snatch life from innocent people, most of them young people with life ahead of them, young people struggling to build a future, to overcome addictions, to study,” according to the LATimes.

The signal being sent by targeting drug rehab centers is clear: you cannot leave the system.

While some drug rehab centers are fronts for drug deals, others are legitimate, and dozens of innocent patients are getting caught in the crossfire.

Tijuana had avoided the type of rampant, drug-related public killings that taint other border towns, most notably Ciudad Juarez, which has gained an international reputation for indiscriminate drug murders.

The tactic of attacking rehabilitation clinics has been used in the epicenter of drug violence, Juarez, but has typically not been seen in Tijuana.

The murders bring the death toll for 2010 in drug-related violence in Mexico to over 7,000. Nearly 30,000 people have been killed since Calderon’s war on drugs began in 2007.

The third attack in the past week was in Ciudad Juarez, where 14 were gunned down at a birthday party on Oct. 22.

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This week has also brought news that the brother of the former Attorney General of the state of Chihuahua — home of Ciudad Juarez — was captured. His captors have so far released two videos of him being interrogated by five masked and heavily armed gunmen, in which he states that his sister, Patricia Gonzalez, was complicit in the cartel wars, taking bribes and even ordering killings.

 

Patricia Gonzalez, who left her post a month ago, has denied the claims, saying that her brother was clearly being coerced to make the statements.

In a perfect example of the professionalism, rapidity, and deadliness of the war on drugs, some of those named in the video were killed within 24 hours of its release.

Fernando Ornelas, the former operations coordinator of CIPOL, was killed today along with his brother, a wrestler.

Much of the violence in Ciudad Juarez is the result of feuding between the Juarez cartel and the Sinaloa organization for control of the United States drug market.

28 Oct This entry was published on October 28, 2010 at 11:58 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.