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Show DAILY HERALD A10 vulses with daily violence that shows a new and disturbing ANG1S and geographic reach " The sick-- , viciousness. MEXICO CITY The bottom line is you've ening discovery of 11 headless got a major internecine battle, bodies, heaped like broken a kind of civil war among drug doQs near the colonial city of cartels, said Bruce Bagley. a Merida, underscored a bitter . lesson Friday for Mexico: The security and battle to control the expert at the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Fla. It has drug trade knows intensified because the stakes no boundaries. are high. There's a great deal The bodies are piling up nationwide, even in normally ' of money to be made." But traffickers are keenly tranquil and touristy spots aware of the psychological imsuch as Merida, not far from the Mayan ruins of Chichen pact on enemies and ordinary Itza. During a seven-da- y period Mexicans when they chop off rivals heads and leave threatending Friday, more than 130 ening notes with the remains. people died violently throughSome analysts say tactics out the country. Headless bodlike beheadings, once unheard ies turned up in four states, of in Mexico's drug under. including Baja California. The Yucatan peninsula, world, are akin to terrorism strategically close to the smug- because part of the goal is to scare civilians so that they will gling routes of Central America, tallied 12, after another depress the government to back capitated body was found later. off . Calderon has sent 40,000 Thursday about 80 miles from troops and 5,000 federal police into the streets as part of the the carnage near Merida. '.Mexicos drug wars used to campaign against, organized crime. play out mainly in smuggling You're sending a signal battlegrounds along the U.S. to the Calderon goverpment, border, such as the cities of to the police, that you mean Tijuana and Ciudad Juarez. But the nearly twoy ear-ol- d business, said Fred Burton, vice president for terrorism crackdown bundled by at Stratfor, an Austin, Texas-base- d President Felipe Calderon has exacerbated feuding among intelligence company. for control of This is the result when you don't play baU with us. ... smuggling routes. Last week, the Calderon As a result, the country con Copper Canyon region. i Hardly a day goes by withThe bottom line is out fresh accounts of violence. Unofficial tallies by Mexican you've got a major news outlets put the death toll internecine battle, a from drug violence this year at more than 2,600. By some kind of civil war among counts, it has exceeded the yearly total for 2007, which set drug cartels. It has a record for violence. Police intensified because the' cially brazeiotacks: have died at an alarming rate. p On Thunday, the day the .. The daily Milenio newspaper stakes are high. There's beiuBess hattyes were found reported Friday that 71 of- -. ficers have been slain nation-wid-e a great deal of money outside Merida, gunmen stormed a house in the Pacific in August the highest : to be made' . state of Guerrero, killing two monthly toll since Calderon women am) two girls, ages launched his crime offensive in Bruce Bagley 8 and 12, TwJ police officers ,. December 2006..' were ambushed and slain in a expert' Some of Mexico's more than gun battle as they raced to the 300,000 local and state police home. officers have been killed by I An armed group battled drug hit men while carrying ' I Mexican troops Wednesday in out their duties. But others government announced a . ' the central state of Guanajuato. have worked as hired gunmen broad new blueprint for fightFour gunmen died, and two for drug smugglers, and being crime, including tighter soldiers were wounded in the ' come targets when one gang coordination among federal and local authorities, new fedtakes on another. ensuing gunfight. eral prisons, better tracking of - I Four decapitated bodies The wave of violence has ... turned up Tuesday in Tijuana. left Mexicans increasingly cell phones and tougher steps Those killings appeared linked : unsettled They are unnerved against Calderon administration ofto a power struggle between by the steady stream of bloody ficials said Thursday night that drug traffickers who once cot news and pessimistic about the the Yucatan beheadings and labor at ed as part of the Arella-- , governments odds of winning, no Felix gang. Headless bodies polls show. Although many .qther spectacular displays of violence show that arrests and also were found in Sinaloa and Mexicans tend to view the the northern state of Durango. drug killings as largely a matdrug seizures have hurt the Earlier this month, a hit , ter among criminal gangs, the drug mafias, farcing them to lash out with increasing sav- squad killed 13 pepple, includ-- . violence is increasingly darnboy, at a ing a ing innocents and is showing gay. ; .They have to respond in family gathering in the north-- ' up iq new spots. a symbolic way that creates ern Mexican town of Orel, a Th Yucatan peninsula, : uncertainty in the public This tourist gateway to the scenic; akbough'pait of an important Ken Ellingwood TIMES LOS . . . g multibil-lion-doll- ar corridor for cocaine shipped from Golan- bia, has not traditionally been a place where drug traffickers have battled. But it has become an increasingly important transit route for narcotics relayed by land from neighboring Guatemala, That, and a growing local market for illegal drugs, have heightened competition for . control Bagley ; . . money-launderin- . . - . . : - Traffickers increasingly have resorted to decapitating rivals during the past two ' one notorious case five dumped heads onto the dance floor of a crowded dance hall in Michoa-ca-n state. In Thursdays incident, a young farmer came upon the heap of bodies, which according to some Mexican news ac-- : counts were covered with tattoos and bore signs of torture. Some of the accounts specu-kite- d that the killings might have been the work of the Zetas, a group of paramilitary-- . style hit men for the Gulf cartel who are known for extreme violence.. Yucatan authorities released few details about the case, Which they handed to federal authorities..' Gov. Ivonne Ortega Pacheco ' said in a television interview that anonymous callers had ' been demanding that authori-tie- s remove road checkpoints ' and let them work Ortega said the callers became more menacing about two weeks ago, threatening that bodies would start to turn up. But Ortega said the road- - '. blocks would remain in place. In a separate broadcast message, she sough to reassure ; Yucatans residents, v Yucatan is a peaceful .state, of hardworking people, she said in a broadcast message. We cant let any lawbreakers'affect our fami- lies tranquillity. As Ortega spoke, news reports were circulating of the ' discovery of four bodies, 1,500 miles away in the northern border state of Sonora. Three had been beheaded. !. . g. : . said. .. Kin , . . is what they have been doing during the last months, Attor-- ; ney General Eduardo Medina Mora said during an interview m Mexican television. Since Saturday, Mexico has tallied k least 132 killings across 16 onts 31 states, according to Mexican media accounts. They included espe- . . . Saturday. August 30, 2008 . . . . NEW PRICE REDUCTIONS STOREWIDE! Hurry in for the Best Selection! . ; Ladies Summer Casual Career Apparel & s, Entire Stock of Ladies v Summer Dresses ; Entire Stock of Ladies Juniors Swimwear J ' ; 1 V. - av Ladies Shorts, Crops S'. v ' . V a- - v 3 m - F . t I .. . ; ' & & P!yf, Capris S3, Ladies Summer Better Fashions I1 Ladies Selected Activewear Juniors Summer Dresses, Separates & Collections All A - r '..V . ' ; K- - s - , r w I .i t f -- Huge Assortment of Ladies i Summer Shoes Zt '.rs ; : tv Kids & Sandals Summer Non-Continui- ng Shoes & Young Mens Summer Knits Sandals ii : v Oft &Wovens ; . Young Mens Urban & Traditional Shorts ue,co ii! 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