Uncovering Mexico
Jeremy Schwartz is the Mexico correspondent for Cox Newspapers. He is based in Mexico City.What's on this page?
All the entries posted on December 17, 2007.
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Monday, December 17, 2007
Drug seizures lead to ruthless retribution
If anything vividly demonstrates the uphill battle Mexico faces in battling the drug cartels, it’s the gruesome payback the frontline drug war fighters are receiving.
On Friday, customs agents at Mexico City’s international airport seized half a ton of pure cocaine on a plane coming from Colombia. Two days later, authorities found the decapitated heads of two customs workers. Officials haven’t declared the cases connected, but most observers believe there may be a link.
Such direct retribution is becoming a disturbing trend. Last week, two soldiers who manned a highway checkpoint near Monterrey were found executed, days after the seizure of seven tons of marijuana from the back of a tractor-trailer. 
What can be done about these apparent retribution killings, which are sure to have a chilling effect on customs agents, soldiers and cops? Will they all have to wear ski masks to hide their identity? In discussing the case with one longtime foreign correspondent here, it seemed clear that even such extreme measures probably wouldn’t work. In the Monterrey case, the killers likely knew the names and addresses of the murdered soldiers, and that would require the work of an inside snitch.