SLAYING OF DRUG WAR HERO'S FAMILY SHOCKS MEXICO

Assailants on Tuesday gunned down the mother, aunt and siblings of a
marine killed in a raid that took out one of Mexico's most powerful
cartel leaders - sending a chilling message to troops battling the
drug war: You go after us, we wipe out your families.

The brazen pre-dawn slayings came just hours after the navy honored
Melquisedet Angulo as a national hero at a memorial service.

"The message is very clear: It's to intimidate not only the government
but its flesh and blood," said Jorge Chabat, a Mexican expert on drug
cartels. "It's to intimidate those in the armed forces so they fear
not only for their own lives, but the lives of their families."

Federal officials had warned last week's killing of drug lord Arturo
Beltran Leyva, known as the "boss of bosses," could provoke a violent
backlash from smugglers, who have gone after federal police in the
past following the arrest of high-ranking cartel members.

Beltran Leyva was among the most-wanted drug lords in Mexico and the
United States, and was the biggest trafficker taken down by President
Felipe Calderon's administration so far. U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration officials blamed his cartel for much of the bloodshed
across Mexico.

Even so, the country was shocked by the brutal slayings of Angulo's
family at their home just hours after the fallen marine's mother, Irma
Cordova, 55, attended his memorial service in Mexico City, where she
received the Mexican flag covering his coffin.

His brother, Benito Angulo, 28, his sister, Jolidabey Angulo, 22, and
aunt, Josefa Angulo, 46, also were killed shortly after midnight when
gunmen wielding assault rifles broke down the door of their home. His
sister, Miraldeyi Angulo, 24, was reported in serious condition at a
hospital.

The family's home in southern Tabasco state was littered with more
than two dozen bullet casings.

Hit men linked to Beltran Leyva's cartel have a strong presence in
Tabasco, a Gulf state bordering Guatemala, and were suspected of being
behind the attack. State and federal forces searching for the
assailants set up roadblocks across the state Tuesday.

The navy did not say whether it was taking special measures to protect
marine families, including Angulo's two children, ages 3 years and 16
months. Authorities did not say where they or their mother were when
their relatives were slain.

Calderon called the attack "a cowardly act" and vowed to press forward
in his war involving more than 45,000 troops.

"We will not be intimidated by criminals without scruples like those
who committed this barbarity," he said Tuesday. "Those who act like
this deserve the unanimous repudiation of society and they must pay
for their crime."

While the armed forces have led Calderon's crackdown against organized
crime that has seen more than 15,000 people killed by drug violence
since it began in 2006, direct attacks by cartels on troops are rare,
especially for marines who only recently started playing a major role
in the drug war.

Most of the killings have been among rival smugglers, according to the
federal government. Hundreds of local, state and federal police also
have been slain, but only a handful of soldiers have died at the hands
of traffickers.

Angulo, 30, was the only marine killed in the Dec. 16 raid that
sparked a nearly two-hour shootout at an apartment complex in the
colonial city of Cuernavaca, south of Mexico City. Two other marines
were wounded.