Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Mexican Gunmen Kill 10 Police As 28 Die In Jail Riot

June 14 (Bloomberg) -- Mexican gunmen killed 10 police officers and injured several more in Michoacan state while 28 prisoners were killed in a jail in Sinaloa state.

Federal police forces are conducting ground and air searches for the perpetrators of the attack on the officers in the city of Zitacuaro, the Public Security Ministry said in a statement. The police were traveling from Michoacan state toward Mexico City when their convoy was ambushed, it said.

Hours after that incident, 28 inmates were killed in a prison riot in the city of Mazatlan, said Martin Gastelum, spokesman for the attorney general’s office in Sinaloa state. Two police officers were wounded, he said.

Violence in the region is reaching new highs, causing residents of cities such as Ciudad Juarez, which borders El Paso, to abandon their homes and their cities, said Tony Payan, a political science professor at the University of Texas at El Paso. About 25 percent of homes in Ciudad Juarez are abandoned, Payan said today in a telephone interview.

“This is on pace to be the most violent month in the Calderon administration,” said Payan, who also teaches at the Autonomous University of Ciudad Juarez. “This is one of the bloodiest periods in Mexican history.”...

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