Mostly Harmless

The brutal shootings in Mexico continue after another top Mexican police official is murdered just one day after the head of the national anti-narcotics effort was shot dead.  Esteban Robles headed the anti-kidnapping unit of the Mexico City police department. He was shot several times outside his home today.  Mr Robles was flown to a nearby hospital, but died shortly afterwards.  The news reached Mexico’s president who was attending a memoral service dedicated to three other senior police officers killed recently.

President Felipe Calderon said these latest attacks would not deter his efforts to continue his government’s campaign against the drugs trafficking cartels operating in the country:

“We have to come together to confront this evil, we Mexicans have to definitively and categorically say ‘That’s enough!’,” he said.

“We can’t accept this situation, we have to take back our streets,” he added.

Mr Robles was the fourth top policemen to have been killed in Mexico City in the past 10 days.  He was ambushed by four gunmen in a truck and shot as he was driving out of his house in Mexico City.  Edgar Millan Gomez, the official who died on Thursday, was in charge of co-ordinating national police operations against drugs traffickers.  He was shot nine times outside his home and died in hospital. Police are investigating whether the attack was drug-related.

The US is keen to contribute to the war on drugs, again calling on Congress  to pass legislation that would allow more than $1bn of aid to be used against Mexico’s drug cartels.  Mexico has seen a surge in drug-related killings recently. Last year, 2,500 people were killed; so far this year, 1,100 people have been killed.

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