HIT MEN KILL MEXICAN HERO'S FAMILY

Attack on Family of Marine Who Died in Drug Raid Suggests Cartels
Turning to Terror

MEXICO CITY -- The brazen murder of several family members of a
Mexican Naval hero threatens to start a dangerous new chapter in the
country's drug war, in which cartels increasingly resort to terror
tactics to try to force the government to back off.

More than a dozen hit men carrying AK-47 and AR-15 assault rifles
burst into a house in eastern Mexico around midnight Monday, gunning
down several relatives of 3rd Petty Officer Melquisedet Angulo, the
30-year-old who was hailed as a national hero last week after being
killed in a battle that left drug lord Arturo Beltran Leyva dead.

Mr. Angulo's mother, aunt, a sister and a brother were killed in the
attack Tuesday.

Another sister was badly wounded and remained in critical condition,
according to Rafael Gonzalez, the attorney general of Tabasco, the
Gulf Coast state where the shootings took place. "We will not rest
until we find those responsible for these killings," Mr. Gonzalez said.

The shooting came just hours after the enlisted sailor was buried
with a military honor guard for his role last week in a Navy Special
Forces operation that killed Mr. Beltran Leyva, the highest-profile
drug lord taken down in Mexico since Osiel Cardenas, former head of
the Gulf Cartel, was arrested in 2003.

The death of Mr. Beltran Leyva was a big boost to President Felipe
Calderon, who has staked his presidency on an all-out assault against
drug gangs by deploying 45,000 troops to several Mexican states.

Mr. Calderon and the military had praised the sailor who died in the
raid as an example to all Mexicans for his courage.

The government's openness about his role was unusual. Normally the
identities of Mexican soldiers and sailors who take part in antidrug
operations are kept secret.

In a speech after Tuesday's killings, Mr. Calderon said, "These
attacks are cowardly and detestable. They are an example of the lack
of scruples of organized crime, going after the lives of innocents."

The conservative leader called on Mexicans not to lose heart in
attacking drug gangs, who are seen by many Mexicans as more powerful
than the government in parts of the country. About 15,000 people have
died in drug-related violence since Mr. Calderon took power in December 2006.

Ricardo Aleman, a leading columnist at the Mexico City newspaper El
Universal, said the killing of Mr. Angulo's family signals that the
government's campaign against drug trafficking is at a potentially
dangerous inflection point. "This has gone beyond cops and robbers
and has become terrorism. The way a criminal group reacted against
family like that, that's terrorism," he said in an interview.

Many Mexican analysts are worried that drug gangs will carry out
ever-bolder acts of terror, including killing civilians or
assassinating high-ranking officials.

In the past few years, drug gangs have resorted to increasingly
barbaric acts in an effort to intimidate rival traffickers or law
enforcement, using tactics adopted from Islamic terrorists such as
videotaped decapitations. But until now, family members of drug gangs
or the soldiers and police who fight them were largely considered off
limits. Tuesday's killings could mark a further change in the
unwritten rules of the Mexican drugs war.

Mexican gangs have started to target the families of rival drug
lords, but never on this scale. "This is the first time that any
thing like this has happened," said Raul Benitez, a professor at
Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico and an expert on Mexico's armed forces.

He added it was too soon to say whether the murders marked the
beginning of a sustained campaign against the families of
armed-forces personnel who take part in antinarcotics operations.

Mexican police officials say hit men executed and wounded several
family members of a navy sailor who died in last week's battle that
killed drug lord Arturo Beltran Leyva. WSJ's Mexico City Bureau Chief
David Luhnow joins the News Hub to discuss. Plus, Jerry Seib says 10
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decade ago.

The signs aren't encouraging. Last year, assailants believed to be
linked to another violent cartel threw grenades in a crowded plaza
during Independence Day celebrations in the colonial city of Morelia,
killing eight and injuring dozens.

The action was seen at the time as a warning to the government to
stop pressuring the gang.

In the past, many of the police and soldiers killed in the drugs war
haven't been widely mourned by ordinary Mexicans, who assume that
law-enforcement personnel are usually killed by drug gangs not
because they were doing their jobs, but because they were in the pay
of one side or another.

The murders of several members of the Angulo family are a rare case
in Mexico where there is a clear-cut line between the good guys and
the bad guys. Mothers hold an exalted place in Mexican society.

Even so, over the last two years, Mexicans have grown inured to the
explosion of violence suffered by the nation.
Mexico's War on Drugs

"I'm not surprised," said Patricia Mendoza, a beautician in Mexico
City. "The drug dealers told the president not to put the armed
forces in the middle of things. I thought they would go after the Navy."

"By killing the families, the drug gangs are challenging the
government," said Antonio Cruz, a messenger. "I think there will be
more families murdered. Let's see who will win."

The sailor's family joins a growing list of Mexican federal police,
army soldiers and government bureaucrats killed for having done their
jobs to fight drug cartels.

"This shows the state's incapacity to protect the people on the front
lines," said Mr. Aleman. He added that it had been a mistake for the
Navy to release the enlisted man's name.

Mr. Calderon's office had no immediate response to questions about
how the killers obtained the information about the man's family or
whether procedure on keeping names confidential would be changed.

High-profile revenge tactics can have a far-reaching effect on morale
and the ability of government agencies to attract new recruits to
crime-fighting efforts, government officials say.

Others worry that the armed forces, already facing growing
allegations of human rights abuses, could be tempted to carry out
extrajudicial killings in a similar cycle of revenge.

"The Navy is going to be very angry, I hope they are not provoked
into being paramilitaries," Mr. Benitez said.

Mr. Angulo was honored on Monday at a ceremony at the Navy's Mexico
City headquarters, attended by the Naval high command.

Adm. Francisco Saynez pledged the Navy's support to the dead sailor's family.

"There are no words that can ease the pain of his friends and family
. However, be certain that you count on the unconditional support
from the Secretary of the Navy in these difficult hours," Adm. Saynez
said during the ceremony.

Mr. Beltran Leyva's organization, originally from the western state
of Sinaloa, is a major drug trafficking gang and was well known for
its brutality.

Tuesday's killings suggest that the organization is functioning on
some level despite the death of its leader.

Underlining that point, a handwritten message scrawled on cardboard
by presumed drug traffickers turned up on Tuesday outside a nursery
school in Cuernavaca, the town where Mr. Beltran Leyva was killed.

It said Mr. Beltran Leyva's mafia was alive and well and urged
support for Edgar Valdez Villareal, a Texas-born member of the cartel
who officials say was the late Mr. Beltran Leyva's top enforcer.

Known as "La Barbie" for his sandy colored hair, Mr. Valdez is
considered to be a top contender to succeed Mr. Beltran Leyva as head
of the cartel.