The Houston Chronicle, 7/7/2011
The Mexican government is refocusing its drug-war strategy to take down the Zetas paramilitary cartel, a significant shift in approach that is likely to be met with increased violence, according to U.S. and Mexican officials familiar with the plan.
Underscoring the shift is a series of bloody confrontations in the past several weeks pitting the Zetas against Mexican marines. The targets of those clashes were “senior Zetas leaders,” said a U.S. law enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity. The battles led to dozens of cartel members being killed or arrested, helping to weaken what many consider to be the most violent cartel group and the one that poses the biggest threat to Mexico’s national security.
A security expert applauded the move.
“Given the extreme levels of violence attributed to the Zetas, it would make sense for the government to focus its attention and resources on this particular group,” said Eric Olson, security expert at the Woodrow Wilson Center’s Mexico Institute, which recently completed a weeklong fact-finding mission in Mexico City that included meetings with key U.S. and Mexican officials. “They may not be the most powerful or richest of the cartels, but they are amongst the bloodiest and are extending their reach from their base in the north and along the entire Mexican Gulf and into Central America.”
Mexico Institute 