June 2, 2007:
The Mexican government has asked the U.S. provide more aid and
assistance as Mexico wages its counter-drug war. In the past Mexico has not
asked the U.S. for financial aid, but in this case Mexico is interested in
American help with surveillance and
intelligence, to include the use of UAVs like the Predator. Mexican President
Felipe Calderon has also said that he wants the U.S. to help Mexico stop arms
smugglers from shipping weapons from the U.S. to Mexico.
May 31, 2007: Members of a Mexican teachers union
fought with riot police in Mexico City. The protestors were demonstrating
against government decisions to privatize part of the Mexican state workers
social services institute.
May 25, 2006: Some 30,000 soldiers and sailors are
involved in counter-drug gang operations throughout Mexico.
May 18, 2007: Investigators have revealed that the May 16 murder of four Mexican policeman
in Sonora state involved up to 40 gunmen, who began their marauding attacks
when they struck a a police station in the town of Cuitaca (Sonora state),
about fifty miles south of the Arizona border. In Cuitaca they beat up two
policemen. The gang then drove their vehicles to the town of Cananea. They took
five policemen hostage; the next morning four of the police officers were found
slain. State police and Mexican Army soldiers fought a pitched battle in the
mountains outside the town and claimed to have killed 12 of the gunmen. The
attack is a terrorist and insurgent tactic designed to kill local cops who
oppose the gangs and cow the local populace. The police and military
counter-attack recalls Mexican government assaults on gangs and rebels in the
latter stages of the Mexican Civil War a century ago. The American West
featured "range wars" and this is something like a range war with automatic
weapons, hand grenades, and rocket-propelled grenades.
