World | Other World Stories
Officials silent after deadly gang shootout
Following one of the bloodiest days in Tijuana's history, authorities held no news conferences on Sunday.
- Los Angeles Times-Washington Post
- Published: 23:59 April 28, 2008
Mexico City: Following one of the bloodiest days in Tijuana's history, authorities held no news conferences on Sunday. The death toll in the gangland-style shootings early on Saturday between rival drug traffickers increased from 13 to 15, after two men died of their wounds. But not even the names of the dead were publicly released.
Instead, speculation, rumour and scattered news leaks filled the information vacuum surrounding yet another battle in Mexico's drug wars.
And there were only tentative answers to the larger questions that worry many here: Is all this violence between drug dealers actually a sign that the Mexican government is winning? Or is it just another symptom of a country slipping deeper into an abyss of lawlessness?
Official silence is common in Mexico, where thousands have been killed in drug-related violence since President Felipe Calderon took office in December 2006.
But many analysts believe that Cald-eron's decision to crack down on the drug trade by sending thousands of army troops to Baja California, Veracruz, Michoacan and other Mexican states is reaping a type of dividend.
The government's efforts have disrupted agreements between trafficking organisations and corrupt officials, setting off turf wars between weakened organisations, according to analysts and government officials.
"We wouldn't see so much bloodshed if the Mexican government were more complicit with these [criminal] organisations and just letting them have their way," said David Shirk, director of the Trans-Border Institute at the University of San Diego.
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