A shootout between suspected drug gang hitmen and Mexican security forces killed at least 12 people today, a day after a ruling party candidate in upcoming congressional elections was shot at.
Hitmen opened fire on federal police and soldiers and threw grenades after officers tried to arrest them in the town of Apaseo el Alto in the normally tranquil central state of Guanajuato, the local attorney general's office said.
The shootout started after a raid on a suspected drug gang safe house. Officials could not immediately confirm the death toll but local media said a dozen people died in the broad daylight clash, mainly cartel gunmen.
Rival gangs have taken their fight over Mexico's $40 billion-a-year drug trade inland from the US border as they battle for cocaine smuggling routes running up from Central America into the world's top drug consumer, the United States.
President Felipe Calderon has sent thousands of troops across Mexico to try and rein in the cartel turf wars, but violence has surged and killed 12,300 people since he took office in December 2006.
The drug war is a major concern for voters -- who mainly support Calderon's efforts -- and also for investors and Washington as the government struggles to cleanse the country's police forces of corrupt officers working for drug gangs.
Federal police rounded up 91 police officers and a local police chief in the central state of Hidalgo yesterday on suspicion they are working on the side for the powerful Gulf cartel and its brutal "Zetas" armed wing.
Critics worry Mr Calderon has started a battle he cannot win by taking on the powerful cartels, whose rampant killings scare foreign investors and tourists and worry Washington.
In another sign of their brazen violence, hitmen also attacked a candidate running for Congress, killing two of his assistants in an assault in the northern state of Sonora just days before the July 5th mid-term election.
Gunmen shot at a vehicle carrying the three men from Mexico's ruling National Action Party, or PAN, in the town of Benito Juarez on Thursday night, the state attorney general's office said.
After a day of campaigning by PAN candidate Ernesto Cornejo, the hitmen followed him to a taco stand and shot at him and his assistants as they boarded two vehicles carrying election posters of Mr Cornejo, according to local media.
Mr Cornejo was unharmed in the attack.
Despite the gruesome cartel slayings, public support for Mr Calderon's drug war is expected to cushion his expected defeat in the July 5th election, as many voters punish the PAN for a painful economic downturn.
Mexico will elect candidates to all 500 seats in the lower house on July 5th, along with six state governors and hundreds of mayors. Authorities in northern states are mounting major security operations to prevent any attacks at voting booths.
Reuters