Mexican police were trying to determine on Friday who hung several banners in a colonial city blaming Gulf cartel hit men for a grenade attack that killed seven people in an Independence Day crowd.
Michoacan state prosecutor Miguel Garcia said officials removed the seven banners allegedly signed by the powerful La Familia drug gang and hung overnight from pedestrian bridges. Investigators were trying to determine whether they are authentic.
Federal investigators suspect a gang known as La Familia was behind Monday’s attack, in which two fragmentation grenades killed seven people and wounded 108 in the Michoacan state capital of Morelia.
Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora announced a 10 million peso (US$940,000) reward for anyone who provides information leading to the capture of those behind the attack. Details of the offer will be advertised in newspapers.
“We hope to get a response in the next hours to this offer,” Medina Mora said.
The banners blamed the Zetas, a notorious band of Gulf cartel hit men. A similar message was sent to the cellphones of reporters and residents earlier this week.
“Coward is the word for those who attack the country’s peace and tranquility,” read one of the signs. “Mexico and Michoacan are not alone. Thanks for your cowardly acts, Zetas. Sincerely, F.M.” — the Spanish initials for “Michoacan Family.”
The text messages and the banners raised doubts about a supposed alliance between La Familia and the Gulf cartel.
It remains unclear why drug traffickers would turn from killing their enemies to carrying out attacks against the general public, something unheard of in Mexico. Governments around the globe have condemned it.
Mexican President Felipe Calderon, who promised an immediate military response, said he would send Congress a security package on Friday calling for better training and better equipment for police, among other measures.
The government also announced rewards of 1,000 pesos to 5,000 pesos for citizens who provide information leading to the arrest of any criminals.
Authorities were still searching for suspects in the Morelia attack and have released a composite sketch of one, based on descriptions from witnesses who saw a tall man lob a grenade into the crowd, beg for forgiveness and then slip away.
Federal investigators determined two men detained by the army on Thursday in the northern state of Zacatecas were not involved.
Officials said they received a threat against Michoacan’s military parade on Tuesday, but not Monday night’s celebrations.
Excelsior newspaper obtained a copy of the call, made a week before the attacks. In it, a man who said he belonged to La Familia warned that the gang was planning to lob grenades at soldiers marching in the traditional Sept. 16 military parade, and he asked officials to keep schoolchildren at a distance.
“Our problem is with the military, not civilians,” the caller was quoted as saying.
Mexico’s relentless violence continued on Friday with a shootout between police and armed men in the central state of Guanajuato.
Mexican media said several officers and gunmen were wounded.
Twelve suspects were arrested, Medina Mora told a news conference. In an earlier interview with Radio Formula, he said members of La Familia may have been involved.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
RSS