Drug Cartel, Central America | featured news

Going after the cartel kingpins made the problem worse, say aides to Mexico's new president. But killing it would jeopardize significant U.S. funding.

The Mexican press, as evidenced in recent attacks on two newspaper offices, grapples with decisions about how — and whether — to cover the drug war in ways that won't endanger lives.

In meetings, President Felipe Calderon has been telling guests that he and his family are likely to leave Mexico to live abroad after his term expires in December. It will be too dangerous to remain, he warns in private conversation, because powerful drug mafias might come after him.

The political watchers are now calling it the Yarrington Affair, and it is beginning to read just like a Robert Ludlum thriller, alive with conspiracy theories and hidden motives. There are drug cartels, luxury condos and the highest political stakes. But so far, there’s no Jason Bourne, no lone hero.

Police found the decapitated and dismembered bodies of 18 people near Mexico's second-largest city, Guadalajara, on Wednesday, in what appeared to be the latest atrocity by the country's most brutal drug cartel.

Two decapitated bodies were found at the entrance to one of Mexico's most luxurious shopping malls on Wednesday and prosecutors announced that more than 47,000 people have been killed in drug violence in the five years since President Felipe Calderon launched a military crackdown against drug cartels.

Mexico's hyperviolent Zetas drug cartel appears to be launching what may be one of the first campaigns by an organized crime group to silence commentary on the Internet....

Five years after President Felipe Calderon launched an offensive against Mexico's five main drug cartels, the nation is now dominated by two powerful organizations that appear poised for a one-on-one battle to control drug markets and trafficking routes....

It’s not the subplot to a Jerry Bruckheimer movie: drug dealers in Mexico really are kidnapping computer whizzes and forcing them to hack into bank systems and program credit card fraud scams in order to acquire additional funds on top of what they haul in from selling drugs.

Police say they have arrested 25 drug cartel members or collaborators in central Mexico, including a police chief, two commanding officers and seven agents suspected of aiding traffickers.