SINALOA ROCKED BY SOARING DRUG VIOLENCE

At least 21 people are killed in five days as turf wars between
splintered gangs appear to heat up.

MEXICO CITY -- At least 21 people, including a 12-year-old girl and
other ordinary citizens, have been killed by warring drug gangs since
Thursday in the western state of Sinaloa, in one of the worst spasms
of violence in memory in a region long conditioned to
narcotics-related savagery.

The wave of deadly mayhem began with the audacious daytime shooting
of a dozen people in the capital, Culiacan, and continued during the
weekend and into Monday. The deaths of innocents, including the young
girl, who had just left a party, have terrified the public and left
many questioning the effectiveness of the federal government's
ongoing crackdown on drug trafficking.

"Sinaloa Bloodbath" read a headline from El Sol de Sinaloa, a daily
newspaper. The article Monday on its website was accompanied by a
photo of corpses slumped in the back of a bullet-riddled pickup
truck. An editorial in Monday's national daily El Universal
questioned President Felipe Calderon's decision to aggressively
pursue the nation's drug kingpins, a strategy the United States has
encouraged and backed with millions of dollars in assistance.

"Direct confrontation has only escalated the violence," the newspaper
said. "The worst thing that can happen is for us to become accustomed
to the dramatic daily count of deaths and kidnappings caused by
narcotics assassins."

Authorities were still sorting through the carnage in Sinaloa as the
body count continued to rise Monday. But law enforcement and Mexican
media accounts provided a picture of the relentless violence:

* On Thursday, gunmen in Culiacan shot dead six people inside an auto
repair shop and three more outside. The victims included a
61-year-old university professor and his son, 37, also a professor.
Later confrontations between the gunmen and authorities left three
police officers dead.

* Early Saturday in Culiacan, rival traffickers engaged in a
shoot-out, using automatic weapons and bazookas in a neighborhood in
the northern part of the city. Police reported no deaths or injuries
in that 15-minute clash, but photos of the scene show the pavement
littered with heavy-caliber shell casings and homes scarred with
bullet holes.

* On Saturday evening in the beach resort of Mazatlan, gunmen shot to
death a high-ranking police official, then stormed a restaurant in a
popular shopping mall, where they held patrons hostage before
escaping. No customers were killed or injured. Photos from local
newspapers show terrified shoppers running from the mall.

* Early Sunday morning in the city of Guamuchil, eight people leaving
a quinceanera party were shot to death in their vehicles while they
waited at a stoplight. Among the dead were several teenagers and the
12-year-old girl. The guest of honor -- 15-year-old Maribel Lopez
Marquez -- was also injured in the attack, according to police.

* Early Monday, suspected rival drug gangs clashed again in a
residential neighborhood in Culiacan. Assailants attacked a home with
Molotov cocktails, burned vehicles and opened fire with high-powered
weapons. No injuries or deaths were reported. But there were
unconfirmed reports of two more drug-related shooting deaths in Mazatlan.

The state, home to the so-called Sinaloa cartel, headed by Joaquin
"Shorty" Guzman, has become a battleground for traffickers feuding
for control of the drug trade. Calderon has sent 3,500 army troops
and federal police to the region as part of a nationwide offensive
that observers say has both helped and hurt the situation.

The effort has resulted in high-profile arrests as well as the
seizures of large caches of drugs and weapons. But the removal of top
leaders has set off a power struggle among underlings eager to use
violence to establish authority.

"The old drug lords often acted as mediators" to keep the peace, said
Jorge Chabat, a Mexico City-based security analyst. "The new, young
guys are not disposed to negotiate."

Mexico's drug war remains extremely fluid. Across the nation,
established trafficking alliances are fracturing and new ones
forming. On any given day, even veteran observers have difficulty
figuring out who is fighting whom.

Still, experts say some of the violence in Sinaloa stems from bad
blood between cartel leader Guzman and the Beltran Leyva brothers --
Hector Alfredo, Carlos Alberto and Marcos Arturo. Known as "The Three
Gentlemen," the siblings for years were confidants of Guzman.

The rumored power struggle burst into public this year with the
arrest of Hector Alfredo. Nicknamed "El Mochomo," for a desert ant
with a vicious sting, he is alleged to be involved in money
laundering and payoffs to corrupt officials. He reportedly was
carrying $90,000 in cash and a cache of pricey wristwatches when he
was seized in Sinaloa by elite military forces in January.

According to a popular law enforcement theory, the Beltran Leyvas
believe that Guzman ratted out their brother and have retaliated with
a vengeance. Unidentified assassins shot and killed Guzman's son
Edgar, 22, and two friends in a Culiacan parking lot in May. Other
Guzman relatives and associates have been captured by authorities,
ostensibly with the help of tips provided by the Beltran Leyva brothers.

"Factions of the Sinaloa cartel are fighting each other," Chabat
said. "That's why we're seeing all this violence."

Chabat said the cartels might be violating a long-standing custom to
avoid civilian casualties in order to put pressure on Calderon to
back off. Although polls have shown that the president's tough stance
has largely been popular with the public, recent events may be
changing minds.

"The situation is out of control," said Gerardo Contreras, manager of
a shoe store in the mall were people were taken hostage. "The people
of Sinaloa ask the president to stop this violence. The killing of
innocent people can't continue."