Post date: Jan 18, 2011 9:57:25 PM
Authorities find dozens of bodies around Monterrey - home to some of Mexico's biggest companies - where a drug cartel alliance wants to flush out the Zetas gang.
MONTERREY, NUEVO LEON, MEXICO (JANUARY 17, 2011) REUTERS - The wealthy Mexican city of Monterrey has been the scene of an unprecedented spate of killings over the past 24 hours which included a drive-by shooting of three brothers while they were eating tacos and an attack by gunmen on five men in a working class neighborhood on Monday January 17).
One woman died of a heart attack after witnessing that multiple homicide, and nine were killed in other shootings across Monterrey, police and media said.On Tuesday (January 18), police found five mutilated bodies outside Monterrey. The murders are part of a series of attacks over the past two days that killed 23 people in a region where violence is worsening.
The escalation of killings since the New Year are blamed on rival drug cartels, police said.
Drug violence in Monterrey -- once considered a model city where income per head is double Mexico's average -- soared to record levels last year and killings have further intensified in the first few weeks of 2011. That is alarming residents, local businesses and some foreign investors who have manufacturing plants that export to the United States, as authorities struggle to respond and contain the violence.
Mexican and U.S. officials say that in Monterrey, an alliance of three cartels is trying to rid the region of the Zetas gang, led by former elite soldiers who switched sides to join organized crime in the 1990s, and take control.
With some 4 million people just 140 miles (225 km) from the Texan border, Monterrey's slide into the drug war marks a dramatic unraveling of security in just over a year.
Home to global cement maker Cemex and foreign factories including General Electric, the region generates 8 percent of Mexico's gross domestic product with 4 percent of the country's population. It was known across Latin America as a haven of peace and prosperity.
More than 34,000 people have been killed in drug violence across Mexico since President Felipe Calderon sent the army to fight the cartels in 2006. The government says the bloodshed is a sign the gangs are weakening, but businesses and rights groups worry the strategy has backfired, sparking a relentless stream of killings that is spilling out across the country.