Mexico Under Siege

DRUG GANGS TAKE AIM AT ARMY

Cartels Ratche Up the War by Attacking Two Military Bases in Northern Mexico

Drug traffickers fighting to control northern Mexico have turned
their guns and grenades on the Mexican army, authorities said, in an
apparent escalation of warfare that played out across multiple cities
in two border states.

In coordinated attacks, gunmen in armored cars and equipped with
grenade launchers fought army troops this week and attempted to trap
some of them in two military bases by cutting off access and blocking
highways, a new tactic by Mexico's organized criminals.

In taking such aggressive action, the traffickers have shown that
they are not reluctant to challenge the army head-on and that they
possess good intelligence on where the army is, how it moves and when
it operates.

At least 18 alleged attackers were killed and one soldier wounded in
the fighting that erupted Tuesday in half a dozen towns and cities in
the states of Tamaulipas and Nuevo Leon, the army said, topping off
one of the deadliest months yet in a drug war that has raged for
nearly 3 1/2 years.

The U.S. Consulate in Monterrey issued a warning to Americans who
might be traveling in northern Mexico for the Easter break, citing
the sudden outbreaks of gun battles in Nuevo Leon and neighboring states.

Traffickers previously have fought with army patrols, but the attempt
to blockade garrisons came after weeks of an intense, bloody power
struggle between two rival organizations, the Gulf cartel and its
erstwhile paramilitary allies, the Zetas, to control the region
bordering South Texas.

Part of the strategy of Tuesday's assaults may have been to prevent
the army from patrolling, to give the drug gangs a freer hand in
their fight against each other.

"This really speaks to the incredible organization and firepower that
the drug-trafficking organizations have managed to muster," said Tony
Payan, a border expert at the University of Texas at El Paso. "These
are organizations that are flexible, supple and quick to react and
adapt. They no doubt represent a challenge to the Mexican state."

In Reynosa, one of the scenes of Tuesday's fighting, the local
government put out alerts Thursday for residents to avoid parts of
the city. Residents said they heard gunfire and saw military armored
personnel carriers moving through neighborhoods. One person was
reported killed.

"People hear gunfire and get scared," said Jaime Aguirre, a radio
talk show host. "But it's better to keep quiet and not hear anything
so as not to risk reprisals."

Reynosa resident Yenni Gandiaga was driving to the gas station
Tuesday morning when she heard gunfire getting closer and louder.
Then she saw the troops and the gunmen. She turned down a side street
to hide, crashing into two other cars in the process.

"People ran about screaming, picking up their children," she said.
She hid in a stranger's house. When she emerged after the combatants
moved on, the windows of storefronts and cars were shattered.

The Mexican Defense Ministry in Mexico City put out a blow-by-blow
account of Tuesday's events. Taking a page from a manual on urban
guerrilla warfare, gunmen struck at the same time Tuesday morning,
and then again in the afternoon.

In Reynosa, a city in Tamaulipas state across the border from
McAllen, Texas, gunmen positioned trucks, cars and trailers on a
highway to block Campo Militar, an army base, about 11 a.m. At almost
the same time, they blocked a garrison in the city of Matamoros,
about 60 miles to the east. In Rio Bravo, between the two cities,
traffickers battled with army patrols.

Later in the day, troops and traffickers clashed in other Tamaulipas
towns and in neighboring Nuevo Leon state.

The army said it confiscated armored cars, grenade launchers, about
100 military-grade grenades, explosive devices and about 13,000
rounds of ammunition. Seven men were captured.

"The actions by these criminal organizations are a desperate reaction
to the advances made by federal authorities in coordination with
state and municipal security forces," Gen. Edgar Luis Villegas said.

It was not clear whether the fighting the army reported was with the
Zetas or the stronger Gulf cartel. Most of the violence has been
cartel against cartel, with some bystanders getting caught in the
cross-fire. The gangs have also attacked police stations in many areas.

The Zetas, founded as a group of mercenary former soldiers working
for the Gulf group, split away in a bid to take over part of the
lucrative drug trade. They are fighting to seize territory from the
Gulf network in Tamaulipas and Nuevo Leon, amid reports that other
strong cartels, such as the one based in Sinaloa, may be uniting with
the Gulf traffickers to wipe out the Zetas.

Dozens of people, primarily traffickers, have been killed in recent
weeks as the two groups clashed in the broad triangle along the
border from Nuevo Laredo to Monterrey to Reynosa and Matamoros.
Traffickers have flexed their muscle by repeatedly setting up
roadblocks, closing highways and tying up traffic even in Monterrey,
a major city.

"It is a risky tactic because it has the potential of angering
society, but it is a very effective show of power," said Martin
Barron, a researcher at a Mexico City think tank.

The increased agility of the drug gangs seen in Tuesday's violence
indicates good intelligence, experts here and abroad said. Some of
that intelligence comes from taxi drivers, street vendors and scores
of other people on the traffickers' payroll who serve as lookouts for
drug runners and their henchmen. But Payan and others suggested that
some of the precise, street-level intelligence may come from
soldiers, adding substance to fear that as the army is increasingly
dragged into the drug war it is becoming susceptible to the same
cartel-financed corruption that has long corroded police departments
and many political structures.

In Ciudad Juarez, Mexico's deadliest city and where the army has been
deployed in greatest force, federal police are to begin taking over
security duties this month as the army is gradually withdrawn, the
government said. The army has been criticized for rights abuses,
including the disappearance of detainees and illegal searches.

By one newspaper's count, the drug war's death toll in March was the
highest yet, more than 1,000.