Tijuana (Mexico): Ongoing violence
between Mexico's drug cartels has killed at least 30 people in
the country's northern region along the border with the United
States, according to local authorities.
Between Sunday and Monday morning alone, police
recorded nine deaths in Tijuana, across the US border from San
Diego, California, including a man whose body was found hung
from a bridge with a threat stapled to his corpse.
In the neighbouring state of Chihuahua, police
counted 21 murders, including 10 in the town of Ciudad Juarez.
Elsewhere in the state, authorities found a
decapitated body in the area of Parral, and reported that two
children were burned alive in a blaze started by an
unidentified commando.
More than 2,500 people have been killed since the
beginning of the year in Ciudad Juarez alone, making the
border town the most violent in Mexico and one of the most
dangerous in the world.
Mexico's President Felipe Calderon has dispatched
some 50,000 troops to the city and said in November he
intended to keep the forces there in an effort to tackle the
ongoing violence.
The country's border region is home to a fierce
battle between drug cartels vying for control of lucrative
smuggling routes into the United States.
PTI
First Published: Tuesday, December 15, 2009, 19:37