The message was clear when two explosions ripped through crowds of Independence Day revelers: Anyone anywhere is fair game when it comes to Mexico’s intensifying violence.
What wasn’t clear was who threw the two fragmentation grenades at a holiday celebration in the picturesque town of Morelia, killing seven people and injuring more than 100 others.
Michoacan Governor Leonel Godoy immediately pointed a finger at the state’s warring drug cartels.
PHOTO: AP
“Without a doubt, we believe this was done by organized crime,” he said, but offered little to back up his claim.
Following an emergency meeting with Godoy, Mexican President Felipe Calderon pledged an immediate military response, the federal government’s answer to drug violence.
“These illegal acts were clearly attacking our national security, committed by true traitors who have no respect for others or for the country,” Calderon said. “Those who believe they can use fear to hold our society hostage and immobilize us are mistaken.”
While drug gangs were the No. 1 suspect, the attack against what appeared to be innocent civilians was unusual, even for Mexico’s brutal cartels — making it clear that fewer and fewer places in the violence-wracked country are safe.
No one has been detained in the explosions, and officials declined to say if anyone had claimed responsibility. The federal Attorney General’s office immediately took the case from state investigators and refused to give any details.
The grenades rocked Morelia’s crowded central square around 11pm on Monday, just seconds after Godoy delivered the traditional “Viva, Mexico!” cry to thousands of revelers gathered for Independence Day fireworks, mariachi music and dancing.
Godoy, who was unhurt, said witnesses saw a heavyset man dressed in black throw one of the grenades and then beg forgiveness for what he had done before slipping away in the crowd. Godoy gave no other details.
As night fell on Tuesday, about 100 people gathered nearby for a candlelight vigil, chanting: “We want peace!”
It wouldn’t be the first time cartels have surprised Mexico’s increasingly jaded public. Beheadings, once unheard of, are commonplace, and a growing number of children are now being targeted or caught in the crossfire as drug gangs battle for territory and smuggling routes.
The increased brutality has even started a public debate between cartels, which hang banners blaming rival gangs for attacks and asking the public to turn against them.
One of the most violent regions in Mexico is Michoacan. The state’s capital Morelia is Calderon’s hometown — and the first area to be blanketed with soldiers after he took office in late 2006.
Two of Mexico’s main drug gangs are believed to be warring for control of lucrative drug routes that include Michoacan’s Lazaro Cardenas port, its remote Pacific coastline and its relatively unpopulated pine-covered mountains, where thousands of monarch butterflies flock every year to nest.
Drug violence isn’t the only crime on the rise in Mexico.
Carjackings, kidnappings and muggings have all increased in recent years, and both the poor and the rich are targeted. Shadowy rebel groups have also attacked oil and gas pipelines, banks and government offices, but have been careful never to kill anyone.
Most killings have been drug-related, prompting Calderon to send more than 25,000 soldiers to strongholds across the country.
Gangs have only responded with more violence: buying police protection, killing those who can’t be bought or forcing entire units to resign in fear.
Alfredo Sanchez, 53, was one of the revelers killed in the explosions on Monday as he waited near the plaza for his wife and kids to park the family car.
After searching hospitals to find him, his family learned he was dead when they saw television footage of the attack and noticed his lifeless body lying in the street in a pool of blood.
His sister Isabel Sanchez says she doesn’t care who launched the grenades, she just wants police to make streets safe again.
“We are tired of living like this,” she said at his wake. “I don’t understand why my brother died.”
Another sister, her eyes red from weeping, wondered what future havoc the attackers might wreak.
“What did they gain from doing this?” Maria Elena Sanchez cried hoarsely. “They just made things worse.”
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
SUPPORT: The Australian prime minister promised to back Kyiv against Russia’s invasion, saying: ‘That’s my government’s position. It was yesterday. It still is’ Left-leaning Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday basked in his landslide election win, promising a “disciplined, orderly” government to confront cost-of-living pain and tariff turmoil. People clapped as the 62-year-old and his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, who visited his old inner Sydney haunt, Cafe Italia, surrounded by a crowd of jostling photographers and journalists. Albanese’s Labor Party is on course to win at least 83 seats in the 150-member parliament, partial results showed. Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s conservative Liberal-National coalition had just 38 seats, and other parties 12. Another 17 seats were still in doubt. “We will be a disciplined, orderly
RSS