MEXICAN DRUG GANG MASSACRES FAMILY OF HERO IN REVENGE FOR BOSS'S DEATH

Mexicans have become hardened to the brutality of the country's drugs
gangs but the latest mass murder of an entire family has stunned the
country. In a revenge attack for the killing last week of the drug
kingpin Arturo Beltran Leyva, gunmen killed the family of a Mexican
Marine who died in the assault.

Several hours after Ensign Melquisedet Angulo Cordova was buried on
Tuesday gunmen went to his small family home in Paraiso and shot
members of his family while they slept. His mother Irma and sister
Yolidabey, 22, died instantly. His aunt Josefa died on the way to
hospital and his brother Benito died in hospital. Miraldeyi, his
24-year-old sister, has been injured severely.

Mr Cordova was the only member of the armed forces to die in the
operation on December 16, which was hailed as one of the biggest
successes of Felipe Calderon's three-year war on drugs. In a
manoeuvre marked by its efficiency elite navy forces surrounded and
evacuated Leyva's luxury hideout in Cuernavaca, a holiday town south
of Mexico City in the state of Morelos. In the ensuing gunbattle
Leyva, nicknamed the Boss of Bosses, and six of his henchmen were killed.

Mr Cordova was pronounced a hero by President Calderon. He was given
a state funeral in which the Secretary of the Navy presented his
mother with the flag that covered the coffin. Navy officials
accompanied Mr Cordova's body to his home state.

President Calderon may have inadvertently contributed to the tragedy
because he revealed the Marine's identity -- Mexican troops usually
wear black ski masks to avoid being recognised and to guard against
attack. Revenge of this scale against the family of a dead Marine is
unheard of and the Government, which is eager to celebrate the
success of the operation, was uncharacteristically open about the event.

Forces in Morelos had been on alert for reprisals but nobody expected
an attack on innocent people who were hundreds of miles to the south,
in the state of Tabasco. The killing of Mr Cordova's family marks a
new low for the drug cartels and highlights that nobody is beyond their reach.

Four people who are believed to be informants and aides for the Zeta
gang -- former military commandos who became criminal hitmen -- have
been arrested over the killings, Rafael Gonzalez, the Tabasco state
Attorney-General, said yesterday. The Zetas have been allied with the
Beltran Leyva cartel in recent years.

The Beltran Leyva cartel also has links with corrupt police in
Tabasco and it has been alleged that they were paid to look the other
way while hitmen murdered the family.

Two Marines were injured in the gunbattle that killed Leyva. Their
identity remains unknown but plans are under way to move them to
another hospital to increase their protection.

Despite the attack President Calderon insisted that he would press on
with his war against the drugs cartels. "We will not be intimidated
by criminals without scruples like those who committed this
barbarity," he said. "Those who act like this deserve the unanimous
repudiation of society and they must pay for their crime."

However, the success of the drug cartels outstrips the success of the
Government and the revenge attack highlights the latter's weakness.
The naivety of President Calderon in naming Mr Cordova exemplifies
the Government's underestimation of the cartels, even after deploying
45,000 troops to fight them.

"It's not even the beginning of the war . . . you've made the
terrible mistake of messing with THE business," read a sign that was
put up by members of the Beltran Leyva cartel in Cuernavaca.

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COST OF CARTELS' WAR

$10 billion cartels' annual earnings from US drug sales

150,000 people employed by the cartels

11,000 lives lost in the three-year war on the drugs cartels --
including 917 police officers, soldiers, prosecutors and political leaders

5,300 drug-related deaths in Mexico in 2008, up from 2,500 reported
deaths in 2007

Sources: UN World Drugs Report 2009, Times database