SHOOTOUT IN CENTRAL MEXICO LEAVES 12 DEAD

Killings Come As Drug War Intensifies

MEXICO CITY -- State and federal security forces killed 12 presumed
gangsters Friday morning in a small Central Mexico village as the
government's crackdown on organized crime intensifies.

The battle in Apaseo El Alto, about 150 miles north of Mexico City
and an hour's drive from the popular resort town of San Miguel
Allende, began when gunmen tried to repel officers who came to arrest
them. Soldiers as well as federal and Guanajuato state police
returned fire, authorities said.

Three police officers were injured, one of them seriously, officials said.

Police had stepped up operations in the area after the recent arrests
of Apaseo El Alto's two top police officials on suspicion of working
for La Familia, a violent drug syndicate based in neighboring
Michoacan state, Guanajuato Gov. Juan Manuel Oliva said Friday.

With highways and rail lines running through it, Guanajuato serves as
a prime corridor for the trafficking of narcotics and Central
Americans hoping to slip illegally into the United States.

La Familia is fighting for control of the state with the Zetas, the
trafficking gang based in cities bordering South Texas, officials say.

Although peaceful compared with Mexico's more violence-battered
states, Guanajuato has seen its share of bloodshed recently.

Violence on the Rise

A running afternoon gunbattle between police and gangsters last
September that ended in the industrial city of Leon left 14 injured,
including gunmen, police and civilians.

Also last year, hitmen killed five people at a state prosecutors'
office in a town near Apaseo El Alto.

President Felipe Calderon has deployed as many as 45,000 soldiers and
federal police to bring the country's organized criminal networks to
heel, so far with only limited success.

Gang violence has killed some 11,000 people since the campaign began
after Calderon took office 31 months ago, including about 3,000 so
far this year.

While they easily best local and state police, underworld gunmen have
proved no match for federal security forces. A June 7 battle killed
16 gunmen and two soldiers in the Pacific beach resort of Acapulco.

Calderon said Wednesday that Mexico was at a "historic crossroads" of
a war for the future of democracy. He called on local and state
governments to do more.

"To turn one's head, to act as if you don't see the crime in front of
you, as some politicians want to do, is no option for Mexico,"
Calderon said at a public security conference in Mexico City.