Yearly Narco Death Record Broken

Narco Death Record Broken

In Durango, Chihuahua and Sinaloa, war between cartels.

This article appeared in El Ágora de Chihuahua on May 21, 2008. This translation is rendered as closely as possible to the original wording. (See the orginal article here).

No Location Provided – May 21, 2008 – Yesterday the country experienced 34 executions, the most violent day of 2008, starring the narcotraffickers.

Chihuahua and Sinaloa, the entities with the greatest number of assassinations of the year, registered

together 14 executions; meanwhile Tamaulipas and Guerrero reported two assassinations in each state.

The nine assassinations in Chihuahua placed the state at 400 victims of organized crime. In Juarez, on the U.S. Border, there were six murders.

The violent acts were combined with a gunfight in Durango that left at least 16 fatalities, according to mayors, and one wounded, which brought the total to 1,356 executions in 141 days.

The North, especially, is the scene of a bloody war between the drug cartels. Chihuahua, Sinaloa and Durango have been converted in recent hours into the operations of a battle for control of territories.

These three states, together with Baja California, Coahuila, Nuevo León, Zacatecas, and San Luis Potosí accounted for 980 of the 1,356 victims so far this year.

The federal government maintains that the blows to the financial and operational structures of the cartels have forced the reshuffling of the same, which has generated violence and even executions of relatives of the leaders themselves.

For the Solicitor Justice of the state of Sinaloa, Luis Cardenas Fonseca, his state is experiencing a rise in executions and explains that this is due to two causes: one that responds to the reaction of criminal groups operating in the running in tandem the Federation and the states, and one that has to do with the rearranging of the cartels.

Given this scenario the government restructured its local commanders and police and put career military leaders at the head of the three major police organizations. In Ciudad Juarez a retired military officer assumed leadership of public security, after his predecessor was assassinated nine days ago.