Mexico’s president called for an end to a culture of “impunity and tolerance” of crime on Wednesday after suspected drug traffickers killed seven people in a grenade attack during independence day celebrations.
Two almost simultaneous grenade attacks ripped through the crowded center of the colonial town of Morelia on Monday night during a national holiday. Authorities pinned the blame on powerful and increasingly violent drug cartels.
“If they were aiming to intimidate us or hold us back, they made a mistake. The blood that has been spilled on this plaza ... is a powerful reason for us to stand strong,” said President Felipe Calderon at the scene of the explosion.
PHOTO: AFP
The president laid a memorial wreath of flowers in Morelia’s central square — patrolled by heavily armed soldiers — and visited some of the dozens of wounded people, including several children, who remained hospitalized with burns and fractures.
Authorities revised the death toll from the explosion to seven, from eight previously.
“This is the moment to put a full stop to the culture of tolerance, to complicity and impunity for crimes. I hope that every Mexican joins the struggle against these enemies of the state,” Calderon said in an earlier speech.
“It is a mistake to assume that tolerating them we can live in peace,” he said before heading to Morelia.
The governor of the western state Michoacan blamed drug gangs for the attack. But state prosecutors said it was too early to know who was responsible.
Calderon, originally from Michoacan, deployed the first of thousands of troops to the state at the beginning of his term in 2006 to fight drug traffickers.
But his efforts have been stifled by widespread corruption in Mexico’s security forces. Policemen are often arrested for links to cartels or kidnapping rings.
Meanwhile, police searched on Wednesday for a tall, heavyset man, using a composite sketch provided by witnesses who saw him lob a grenade into an Independence Day crowd, then beg for forgiveness before slipping away.
Witnesses said a man in his late 20s dressed in black threw a grenade, then begged for forgiveness as another grenade exploded nearby.
They provided enough details for a composite sketch, which was distributed to police agencies in surrounding states, Michoacan Attorney General Miguel Garcia said.
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