Monday, August 23

Mexico Watch: Cuernavaca falls to drug lords

Update 5:15 PM
Here is the map I was looking for.


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What we need is a map of Mexico showing all the regions now under control of the drug lords. But I guess that would be too much to ask of the U.S. Department of State. Oswald Alonso reports for AP:
CUERNAVACA, Mexico (Aug. 22) -- The decapitated bodies of four men were hung from a bridge Sunday in this central Mexican city besieged by fighting between two drug lords. A gang led by kingpin Hector Beltran Leyva took responsibility for the killings in a message left with the bodies, the attorney general's office of Morelos state said in a statement. The beheaded and mutilated bodies were hung by their feet early Sunday from the bridge in Cuernavaca, a popular weekend getaway for Mexico City residents.

Cuernavaca has become a battleground for control of the Beltran Leyva cartel since its leader, Arturo Beltran Leyva, was killed there in a December shootout with marines. Mexican authorities say the cartel split between a faction led by Hector Beltran Leyva, brother of Arturo, and another led by Edgar Valdez Villarreal, a U.S.-born kingpin known as "the Barbie."

The message left with the bodies threatened: "This is what will happen to all those who support the traitor Edgar Valdez Villarreal." ...
See also August 20 Pundita post, Mexico: If it walks like an insurgency and quacks like an insurgency, is it an insurgency?

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