Mexico Under Siege

12 SLAIN IN MEXICO WERE FEDERAL POLICE OFFICERS

Eleven men and one woman were found tortured and fatally shot Monday
in Michoacan state. The drug cartel La Familia is blamed for the
attack and several others in recent days.

By Ken Ellingwood, Reporting from Mexico City

Marking a gruesome new setback in the war on drug gangs, Mexican
authorities said Tuesday that 12 people found tortured and fatally
shot in the western state of Michoacan a night earlier were federal
police officers.

Officials said the slayings were the work of La Familia, a
Michoacan-based trafficking group that has carried out at least 10
attacks against federal police in the state since Saturday, when
authorities captured an alleged leader of the group.

Monte Alejandro Rubido, a senior federal security official, said the
11 men and one woman were off duty when they were ambushed.

He said the killers left a message with the heap of bodies that
threatened federal police.

Elsewhere, he said, authorities came upon two posters warning that
police faced death if "they didn't leave or line up" with La Familia,
a cult-like gang that U.S. officials say has fast become one of
Mexico's strongest trafficking groups.

"The La Familia Michoacan cartel is known for its violence," Rubido
said at a news conference.

"We shouldn't be surprised by this type of reaction," he said.

The officers' killings represent the government's worst loss of life
in a single event since President Felipe Calderon declared an
army-led crackdown against drug traffickers soon after taking office
in December 2006. Eight federal police officers died in a shootout in
the northwestern state of Sinaloa in May 2008.

Eight soldiers were found decapitated in Guerrero state, adjacent to
Michoacan, in December.

The influence of drug gangs has seeped into politics in Michoacan, a
scenic belt of forested mountains and coastline that is Calderon's
home state. Federal authorities arrested 30 state and local officials
for suspected drug ties in May.

Rubido alleged that the same La Familia cell involved in the attacks
on the officers includes a newly elected congressman who is the half
brother of Leonel Godoy, the leftist Michoacan governor, and another
man who ran as a Green Party candidate for Congress.

Mexico's attorney general, Eduardo Medina Mora, met with Gov. Godoy
on Tuesday in what was described as a work session.

The violence in Michoacan erupted after the arrest Saturday of
Arnoldo Rueda Medina, who authorities say is a ranking operative in
La Familia and a close aide to its founder, Nazario Moreno Gonzalez.

Gunmen carried out half a dozen attacks against federal forces around
the state Saturday, killing five officers.

A federal officer also was killed Monday night when gunmen fired on a
convoy of federal police heading toward the port city of Lazaro
Cardenas. At least six officers were wounded, according to Mexican
media reports.

Calderon says government pressure has pushed drug trafficking groups
to lash out at authorities and one another. More than 11,000 people
have died since the crackdown began.

"We cannot, we should not, we will not take one step backward in this
matter," Calderon said Tuesday.

Mexicans seem skeptical. In a new poll, more than half of respondents
said they believe the government is losing the war. Only 28% said it
is winning, according to the survey, published Tuesday in the daily
Milenio newspaper.