24 bodies found near Mexico City

The drug-related violence continued in Mexico this weekend, with the biggest mass killing since the country's relentless drug war exploded two years ago. The Times' Tracy Wilkinson reports:

"Gagged and bound, the bodies were dumped on a grassy roadside littered with trash. Most had been shot in the head, probably on the spot, judging from the spent shell casings. Some were carted there, already dead, authorities believe.

"In what appears to be the largest single mass killing since Mexico's vicious drug war exploded nearly two years ago, the bodies of 24 men were discovered late Friday about 30 miles from this capital. The execution-style slayings probably were the latest battle between rival drug gangs, officials said Saturday."

There appears to be no let-up in sight to the killings, which analysts say are designed to frighten the public and erode faith in President Felipe Calderon's war against the country's powerful drug cartels.

Earlier this week, Mexican Foreign Relations Secretary Patricia Espinosa urged the United States government to release the $400 million promised to Calderon's government as part of a bill called the Merida Initiative. Approved in June, the money was pledged in order to help Mexico in its fights against its drug lords and organized crime networks, but the funds have yet to be released.

The Merida Initiative has proved controversial with activists on both sides of the political spectrum in the United States. Some who worry that the funds will go into the hands of a police force and legal branch in Mexico with a long history of corruption. See the bill discussed here.

Read more about the Merida Initiative here and more about Mexico here.

For our special report on Mexico's drug wars, go to our Mexico Under Siege page.

-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City

Photo: A police officer guards the area of La Marquesa park where the bodies of 24 men were found about 30 miles from Mexico City. The dead ranged in age from 20 to 35, and all had been shot in the head, the attorney general’s office said. Credit: Dario Lopez-MIlls / Associated Press

Mexico urges U.S. to release Merida Initiative money

Mexico is urging the United States to release the $400 million of first-year funding that it promised President Felipe Calderon to help him fight the country's powerful drug cartels and organized crime networks.

The money was pledged back in June by the U.S. Congress as part of a controversial bill called the Merida Initiative. But as the Associated Press and local media report, the financial aid has yet to be handed over. According to the Associated Press:

Mexican Foreign Relations Secretary Patricia Espinosa says the U.S. Congress is still analyzing supporting documents that were requested of Mexico.

But Espinosa says Mexico needs the aircraft, inspection equipment and other aid as soon as possible.

Espinosa told reporters on Tuesday that "we are insisting that we need the equipment," and "we hope it will come very soon."

The aid package includes equipment and training to help Mexico combat powerful drug cartels operating in the country.

Calderon has unleashed the nation's army against the "narcos" and the last year has seen drug-related violence within the country escalate. The discovery of headless bodies and written warnings from drug cartels operating across the country have become increasingly common.

Unofficial tallies by Mexican news outlets put the death toll from drug violence this year at more than 2,700. By some counts, it has already exceeded the total for 2007, which set a record, reported Ken Ellingwood last month.

Earlier this year, two experts discussed the pros and cons of the Merida Initiative. Critics of the aid package say it focuses on armed forces, which has a history of human rights abuses, and a weak and corrupt legal system.

Read more about the Merida Initiative here.

For full coverage of Mexico's drug wars, go to our Mexico Under Siege page.

— Deborah Bonello in Mexico City

Photo: A forensic expert lifts a human head from the scene where two decapitated heads were found in the city of Ciudad Juarez, in northern Mexico, on June 2. Credit: David Cruz / Associated Press

More arrests made in connection with murdered 14-year-old

The bullet-riddled, decomposing body of 14-year-old Fernando Marti was discovered in the trunk of a stolen Chevy in early August. The boy -- the son of the owner of a chain of sports shops in Mexico -- had been kidnapped in June. Despite the fact that his parents reportedly paid a hefty ransom for his safe return, the teenager became another victim of the increasing number of fatal kidnappings sweeping the nation.

Three men -- two of them policeman -- were arrested in August on suspicion of involvement with Fernando's kidnapping. Now more arrests have been made in connection with the boy's case, which shocked and outraged the nation.

"Mexico City police said they have detained five suspects in the kidnapping and killing of a 14-year-old boy, a crime that prompted protests across the nation.

"Officials said kidnappers dressed as police and set up a fake checkpoint on a busy street to snare victim Fernando Marti, revealing the complexity and sophistication of Mexico's organized crime gangs.

"City prosecutor Miguel Mancera said the suspected ringleader, Sergio Ortiz, posed as a well-heeled society type to move among the wealthy and collect information on potential victims. Mancera said Ortiz was a former agent of a now-disbanded city detective force," according to Times wire reports this morning.

According to a statement from Mexico City's attorney general, one of those in detention is Marco Antonio Moreno Jiménez, who was one of the three original arrests made in August. The four other people are new suspects in the case.

Mexico is currently in the grip of a crime wave that prompted people of all classes and ages to hit the streets in protest in cities across the country on August 30th demanding action from the government of Mexican President Felipe Calderon (see video below).

The combination of high levels of kidnapping and increasingly gruesome violence meted out by the country's violent drug cartels has people living in fear.

The U.S. Congress approved a cash injection of $400 million in June -- in a bill called the Merida Initiative -- to help Calderon in his fight against the country's organized crime networks and drug cartels. We're yet to see any results.

You can read more about the kidnap and murder of Fernando Marti here.

This report from Ken Ellingwood details Mexico's kidnapping wave and how it is affecting people of all classes.

Click here for more about Mexico, and here for more about the Merida Initiative.

For our special report on Mexico Under Siege, click here.

-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City

In Mexico, a police victory against smuggling brings deadly revenge

Juan Jose Soriano, deputy commander of the Tecate Police Department in Mexico helped U.S. authorities find a drug-smuggling tunnel. The next morning, gunmen shot him 45 times in his bedroom, writes Richard Marosi.

The veteran officer told only a few trusted aides about the tunnel. Later that day, the officers went into the U.S. and traversed the length of the passageway to an empty building, where they found computers, ledgers and other key evidence.

For U.S. authorities, it was an encouraging example of cross-border cooperation in the drug war. For Mexico's crime bosses, it was a police victory that could not go unpunished.

That night last December, while Soriano slept with his wife and baby daughter, two heavily armed men broke into his house and shot him 45 times. The 35-year-old father of three young daughters died in his bedroom. He had lasted two days as the second-in-command of the department.

The death of a police officer is generally greeted in Mexico with a knowing smirk. All too often, it is assumed the cop in question was playing for both sides in the raging drug war that has claimed at least 2,000 lives in Mexico this year.

But all indications, from U.S. and Mexican sources, suggest that Soriano was among the good ones, poorly paid but somehow immune to the lure of big money and the threat of deadly firepower from Mexico's violent drug gangs.

Read more of Marosi's report on Juan Jose Soriano and Mexico's drug wars here.

For complete coverage of Mexico's drug wars, go to our Mexico Under Siege page.

And click here for more on Mexico.

Image: Amid vendors and musicians in the tree-lined central plaza, police in Tecate, Mexico, handcuff a man on unspecified charges. Last December, deputy commander Juan Jose Soriano was assassinated after he reported a cross-border smuggling tunnel. Some suspect the police force has been corrupted by drug lords. Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times

12 decapitated bodies found in Mexico's Yucatan peninsula

The recent violence in Mexico, much of it drug-related, is showing no signs of letting up.

A grisly discovery Thursday on the Yucatan peninsula -- one of the country's most popular tourist destinations -- saw the violence spread to a state that, until now, largely has been spared the problems seen in other parts of Mexico. Although the Yucatan has seen scattered violence, it had not been a scene of severe fighting between drug-trafficking groups.

Ken Ellingwood reports: "In a sign of the spreading violence in Mexico, 11 decapitated bodies were found late Thursday near the colonial city of Merida on the Yucatan peninsula, officials said."

"The bodies bore signs of torture and some were unclothed. Yucatan state officials said a 12th decapitated body was found later about 120 miles south of Merida, a city that is often used as a tourist gateway to the famed Maya ruins at Chichen Itza."

Warring drug gangs have routinely decapitated rivals during the last two years as they battle for coveted routes for smuggling drugs into the United States.

Four decapitated bodies were found in Tijuana earlier this week in a incident likely linked to drug trafficking.

Drug-related violence in Mexico has grown more savage amid a crackdown on traffickers by the government of President Felipe Calderon, says Ellingwood, and more than 2,500 people have died in drug violence, according to unofficial tallies by Mexican news organizations.

Go here for our special report on the drug-related violence in Mexico, Mexico Under Siege.

Click here for more on Mexico and here for more on the drug trade across Latin America.

-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City

Photo: Mexican soldiers march in last year's Independence Day parade in Mexico City. President Felipe Calderon has deployed 40,000 soldiers and 5,000 federal police officers to try to secure large swaths of the country against entrenched drug traffickers. Credit: Deborah Bonello / Los Angeles Times

More bodies discovered in Tijuana

The gruesome discoveries this week of five bodies in Tijuana, four of them decapitated, have shattered a period of relative calm and revived concerns that organized crime groups are escalating their battle for control of this border city.

Two bodies were found Monday morning on a hillside, one with its head placed on its upper back, reports Richard Marosi.

Three more bodies were discovered Tuesday morning in an illegal dump.

Their heads, charred from gasoline burns, were placed at their feet, according to the Baja California state attorney general's office.

Authorities have not identified the victims.

To read the full report on the bodies found in Tijuana, click here.

For more on the drug trade across Latin America, click here.

For our special report on Mexico Under Siege, see here.

-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City

Colombia military atrocities prompt criticism of Plan Colombia

The number of civilians killed by Colombian armed forces has soared, activist groups allege, with many of the abuses committed by army units that had been vetted by the State Department. There were 329 so-called extra-judicial killings by the Colombian military and police last year, a coalition of Colombian rights groups asserts in a report, a 48% increase from the 223 reported in 2006, reports the L.A. Times' Chris Kraul.

According to this report, the continuing allegations against the Colombian military have led Congress to criticize U.S. military aid under Plan Colombia and have been an obstacle to approval of a binational free trade agreement.

Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, chairman of the Senate subcommittee on State Department and foreign operations and author of the 1996 law that makes foreign military aid conditional on human rights compliance, expressed dismay.

"While the secretary of State certifies sufficient progress on human rights in Colombia, multiple sources report that unlawful killings by the Colombian army are continuing despite efforts by the minister of defense to stop it," he said in an e-mailed statement. "After providing billions of dollars in training and equipment to the Colombian army, we should expect better, including vigorous investigations and prosecutions of these crimes."

The United States Congress just approved a similar injection of funding into Mexico under a bill called the Merida Initiative, under which $400 million will go toward helping President Felipe Calderon fight powerful drug cartels and organized crime networks. You can read Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont defending that bill here.

Read the whole dispatch on unlawful killings by the Colombian military here.

For more on Colombia, click here.

And click here for more on the Merida Initiative.

-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City

Photo: Forensic anthropologist Maira Martinez works in a shallow grave near Santa Marta, Colombia. Martinez is a member of a dozen exhumation teams that have fanned out across Colombia to dig up remains of thousands of victims of a decades-long conflict. Credit: Chris Kraul / Los Angeles Times

Following shooting of 13, Mexico governor calls for tougher crackdown on crime

The governor of violence-torn Chihuahua state on Monday urged President Felipe Calderon to revamp his anti-crime strategy after a weekend shooting there killed 13 people, including a baby, reports the L.A. Times' Ken Ellingwood.

Gunmen opened fire Saturday on a family gathering in the northern border state, which has become Mexico's most violent spot amid bloody feuding between drug gangs and a government crackdown on them.

Following the attack, Chihuahua Gov. Jose Reyes Baeza called on federal authorities to improve intelligence gathering, clean up corrupt police forces and review a government offensive that has deployed more than 3,000 troops and federal agents in Chihuahua.

Mexico drug war's costs and risks are being exported to U.S

Gunshot victims of drug violence in Mexico are being treated in the United States at  tax payers' expense, according to this report from the L.A. Times' Miguel Bustillo.

Using the wounding of deputy police chief Lorenzo de la Torre Torres as an example, Bustillo writes:

"The only hospital within a 280-mile radius to offer state-of-the-art trauma care, Thomason has become an unwilling treatment center of choice for law enforcement officials and others in the vicinity wounded in Mexico's drug turf battles. The violence has killed more than 2,000 people this year, and more than double that number in the 20 months since President Felipe Calderon began deploying 40,000 troops across the country to crack down on narcotics trafficking."

Meanwhile,  in Mexico City, Ken Ellingwood reports that anti-crime activists in Mexico say they have audio proof that the former attorney general of coastal Tabasco state was in league with drug traffickers while in office.

For more on our Mexico Under Siege series, click here.

Click here for more on the drug trade and here for Mexico.

— Deborah Bonello in Mexico City

Drug violence continues in Mexico's Ciudad Juarez

Drug and gang-related violence continued in Mexico this week. In the northern border town of Juarez, gunmen broke into a drug rehabilitation center on Wednesday night.

They shot and killed eight patients and injured six others, the BBC reports this morning.

The hooded gunmen, all wearing body armor, burst into the drug-and-alcohol rehabilitation center, dragged the patients to the patio and shot them.

About 40 people have been killed in drug cartel-related violence in the city this week.

In July, Tracy Wilkinson reported from Juarez on how drug-related killings have taken thousands of lives.

Ciudad Juarez has become a singular symbol of Mexico's drug war, a concentration of everything that can go wrong. About 3,000 troops of the Mexican army arrived here after President Felipe Calderon launched an all-out offensive against drug traffickers, yet the killings have soared.