Four people 'executed' in Baja California
Pastor Dale Morgan
Four people 'executed' in Baja California*
* Story Highlights
* Four bodies found in a canyon 20 miles south of the U.S. border,
police say
* At least 1 victim is American, police say; car has California plates
* At least 40 deaths reported in 9 states in the past 3 days,
official says
* Northern Mexico has been scene of a struggle between government
and drug gangs
MEXICO CITY, Mexico (CNN) -- The bodies of four people, including at
least one American, were found in the Mexican state of Baja California
over the weekend, police said Monday, part of a wave of violence
sweeping the country.
Mexican President Felipe Calderon says of the government's battle with
drug traffickers: "It is a war."
The decomposed bodies of three men and one woman were found Sunday
evening near Rosarito, about 20 miles south of the U.S. border, Baja
California state police spokesman Rogelio Contreras said.
Two of the bodies were found in a car with California license plates,
and all the victims appear to have been "executed," he said.
A U.S. government official, who asked to remain anonymous, told CNN that
one of the four victims was an American. The nationality of a second
victim was unknown, while the others were either known or suspected to
be non-Americans, the official said.
Officials are investigating a possible drug link, assistant Baja
California state prosecutor Rafael Gonzalez told The Associated Press.
Mexico has seen at least 40 deaths in nine of the country's 31 states in
the past three days, a government official said Monday.
Eduardo Cano, in charge of communications for the federal secretary of
public security, said much of the killing appeared related to
narcotrafficking. The biggest single toll was in Chihuahua, where
confrontations with narcotraffickers in the city of Villa Ahumada left
12 police officers dead.
"This is a serious fight," said President Felipe Calderon. "It is a war
and it implies effectively that we must assume the consequences. The
question is whether we should persevere and continue forward or simply
remain in our offices and duck our heads."
Northern Mexico has been the scene of a struggle between Calderon's
government and drug gangs who have fought battles with rival
traffickers, police and Mexican troops. A U.S. State Department travel
alert warned in April that international visitors have fallen victim to
killings or kidnappings in the region.
Security forces have also left a mark. This weekend, they arrested
narcotrafficking suspects Zulema Iribe Sauceda and Julio Alberto Zazueta
Angulo, presumed collaborators with Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, accused
leader of the drug cartel in the northwestern state of Sinaloa.
In addition, in an operation that unfolded in the airport in Mexico
City, customs officials seized two tons of pseudoephedrine, a chemical
used to make methamphetamine.
In Tijuana, authorities seized two tons of marijuana from a narcotrafficker.
"The Mexican government has struck, in a key manner, the financial and
operations structure of several of them," Calderon said.
He said the seizures have forced a regrouping by the narcotraffickers,
who are struggling not only against public authorities, but also against
different factions of drug dealers.
Analysts say the so-called federation -- which includes the Sinaloa
cartel, the Gulf cartel and the brothers Beltran Leyva -- is seeking to
form a new group allied with "the Zetas," the band run by Osiel Cardenas
Guillen.
A number of authorities who have been threatened have quit, as did the
chief of police in the border city of Juarez and three high-level
government workers who recently sought political asylum in the United
States.