February
19, 2007: Mexico has increased military pay a whopping 46 percent, and made it
retroactive to January 1. Mexican President Felipe Calderon said that the
Mexican military is doing an outstanding job in the war against organized
crime. The pay raise is meant to encourage the troops to keep it up.
February
18, 2007: Mexico has sent 2,600 soldiers and police to the states of Tamaulipas
and Nuevo Leon, two states that border Texas. These forces will conduct
anti-drug operations. The navy will increase patrols off-shore. The "Gulf
Cartel" (drug gang) is headquartered in Tamaulipas. The city of Matamoros is a
key "node" in the cartel's operations. The move by the government is
another signal that President Calderon intends to continue the "counter-drug
and counter-terror" war. Mexican forces have attacked drug gangs in interior
Mexican states, and have had some initial success. The next target was
northwestern Mexico, including the border state of Baja California Norte and
the city of Tijuana. Now the government is going after the "northern gang"
(really, north-eastern gang). The government is telling the drug lords that no
area is "off limits." At the moment Mexican troops and federal police are
operating in the state of Durango, Michoacan, Guerrero, Sinaloa, Coahuila and
Baja California Norte. Some analysts regard the Sinaloa cartel as the "toughest
gang." The Sinaloa cartel (also known as the "Sinaloa consortium") is thought
to be behind the worst violence in Acapulco and Mazatlan (western Mexico).
