Police chief killed in Mexico amid wave of violence

Apr 23, 2007, 19:07 GMT

Mexico City - A police chief in the Mexican town of Cardenas was killed Monday, taking some 40 shots to the head in the latest of a wave of murders that have shaken Mexico in recent days, authorities said.

Jorge Alberto Gonzalez, general coordinator at the Public Security Department in Cardenas, died immediately, according to officials in the south-eastern state of Tabasco.

In another attack Monday, a local public security director escaped unharmed in the north-western city of Culiacan. But Octavo Lopez Valenzuela's 7-year-old son was injured and a bodyguard suffered serious wounds.

In the first four months of 2007, there have been about 700 violent deaths, despite anti-drug gang operations launched by President Felipe Calderon.

The violence is starting to spread to Mexican regions which had until now been free of organized crime, like the states of Veracruz or Queretaro.

On Saturday, a 10-person commando tried to kill the police chief of Guadalupe, in the state of Nuevo Leon, prompting eight of the city's officers to be arrested for ties to organized crime on Monday. The number of officers arrested in Nuevo Leon in less than a week is now 152.

Federal authorities also announced Monday the arrest of one of the Gulf Cartel's main killers and kidnappers, Eleazar Medina Rojas, along with nine other people in the north-eastern city of Nuevo Laredo.

Medina Rojas, also known as El Chelelo, was identified as a member of the group Zetas, an armed organization which works for the Gulf Cartel led by Osiel Cardenas Guillen, who was extradited to the United States in January.

El Chelelo operated in the state of Nuevo Leon, where the activities of organized crime gangs have increased in recent months.