Armed men block roads in Mexico

• Drug cartels trying to derail security forces, says mayor

MONTERREY, Mexico,
Saturday

Armed men likely linked to drug gangs blocked highways with trucks and buses in the northern Mexican city of Monterrey on Saturday in an apparent attempt to hamper army operations near the US border.

Gunmen pulled truck and bus drivers out of their vehicles in the wealthy business city and used them to set up blockades on major four-lane highways, sometimes slashing tires to make it harder to tow them away, police and motorists said.

Monterrey mayor Fernando Larrazabal suggested drug trafficking cartels were setting up the roadblocks as a way to derail anti-drug operations by security forces.

“The blockades ... could be actions by people linked to organised crime to block avenues and delay federal, state or municipal forces in some operations,” he told the Milenio TV network.

Groups of mainly young men wielding pistols and sticks began blocking roads on Thursday afternoon, parking trailers and SUVs across highways, smashing windows and setting some on fire. Police said no one had been and they made only two arrests because the gunmen fled after setting up the roadblocks.

“Those arrested look like gang members,” said Luis Carlos Trevino, police chief of Nuevo Leon State, of which Monterrey is the capital.

He said they may be directly linked to a drug cartel but gave no details.

Police used tow trucks to unblock all roads by Friday evening, easing traffic jams.

Drug violence has exploded across Mexico since President Felipe Calderon came to power in late 2006 and set the army on smuggling gangs. Turf wars between rival cartels and security forces have killed nearly 19,000 people in three years.

Trevino said there had been 31 blockades in and around Monterrey in 24 hours.

Alarming

Considered one of Latin America’s premier business cities, Monterrey has been increasingly engulfed by violent crime, alarming Washington, foreign investors and tourists.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Secretary of Defence Robert Gates are due in Mexico City on Tuesday to discuss escalating violence with Calderon following the killing of three people linked to the US consulate in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico’s most violent drug war city. (Reuters)