13 Students Slain in Mexico Drug Attack

(AP)  Armed men stormed a party in a violent Mexican border city, killing 13 high school and college students in what witnesses thought was an attack prompted by false information.

The deaths in Ciudad Juarez were part of a total of 24 people killed across Mexico since Saturday in violence caused by ongoing turf battles between powerful drug cartels.

About two dozen teens and young adults were hospitalized following the late Saturday assault in Ciudad Juarez, one of the deadliest cities in the world located across the border from El Paso, Texas.

Grieving witnesses and family members told The Associated Press on Sunday they thought the victims, mostly residents of the housing complex where the attack occurred, had no ties to drug traffickers.

"It must have been a huge mistake," said Martha Lujan, who lives at the housing complex.

The young adults had gathered to watch a boxing match, Lujan said, when two trucks pulled up loaded with armed men who opened fire.

Ten people were killed at the scene and other three died at local hospitals, Chihuahua State Attorney Patricia Gonzales said.

The bodies of the victims, whose ages ranged from 15 to 20, lay scattered around the house where the attack happened.

A witness said he was just outside when the gunfire broke out. Hector, who only gave his first name because he feared retaliation, said the party was an innocuous gathering of friends who must have been targeted incorrectly.

"I think there was some confusion," he said. "We're seeking justice."

Ciudad Juarez, a city of 1.3 million people, is home to several drug cartel bosses who are battling for turf as thousands of troops and federal police try to stop them. More than 2,250 people were killed there last year alone.

On Sunday morning in the border town of Nogales, just south of Arizona, state police found three bodies burned inside an abandoned vehicle in what appeared to be an execution, officials said.

Also early Sunday, three women and two men, all identified as Mexican citizens, were murdered while driving in their van with California license plates near the western Mexican city of Navolato.

The bodies of the five victims, including a 16-year-old girl, were found riddled with bullets, said Martin Gastelum, attorney general for the state of Sinaloa, where Navolato is located.

Violence also rocked the oceanside Mexican community of Lazaro Cardenas overnight. Police in the southwestern city said that just after midnight Saturday, about 20 heavily armed gunmen riding in trucks with tinted windows attacked a police station with grenades and assault rifles, killing a police officer and two civilians - a mother and her son who had come to pay a fine.

More than 15,000 people have been killed in Mexico in the past three years in cartel-related violence.

[dragon8me]

Remember alcohol prohibition? Al Capone?

"Prohibition... goes beyond the bounds of reason in that it attempts to control a man's appetite by legislation and makes a crime out of things that are not crimes. A prohibition law strikes a blow at the very principles upon which our government was founded." -- Abraham Lincoln December, 1840

[geneonlbk]

Has anyone thought of hiring our own "hit men" and constantly assassinating the Mexican drug lords as they appear? Better yet how about looking at very costly failed illogical drug laws that make a few very rich, yet do not make a dent in the drug supply. We put hamless pot smokers in jail for life and give billions to Wall Street fat-cats who have harmed hundreds of millions. This make no cents :).

[bigoldic]

Those hitmen do exist. Their known as the C.I.A.
They in fact do alot of execution type hits. The difference is they work
in constant cover so they dont claim responsibility for their hits.

[decotoguy]

If anyone out there has wonder why some people are risking their
lives to get to America is because in America it is more likely
to live longer,safer and freer..
On the otherhand, if America would grow their own DRUGS,or STOP
useing drugs all-together, Central America will be a whole lot
SAFER, and they'll be less likely to migrate across the border.
Americans should Quit COLD-TURKEY or LEGALIZE DRUGS via PRESCRIPTIONS.

[ffoulkes-2009]

I vote quit cold turkey.

[cidaia]

What makes you think legalizing drugs would be bad for drug cartels?

[differnet]

Every time an American purchases drugs they are an accessory to murder, prostitution, extorition and host of other crimes. And by the way, prohibition worked. The per person consumption of alcohol declined by 2/3. Before the Harrison Narcotic Act, there was a larger percentage of Americans addicted to drugs than there are today. Mokkie57, you might try to educate yourself on the history of how we got here today before you shoot your mouth off. Read a few diarys and life stories of children raised by addicts. I believe in both rehab and prison. Prison for sellers and rehavb for users. Once you climb the food chain to become one of the sellers in the drug industry, you are like a vampire and need to go to jail.

[dragon8me]

It's the prohibitionist who are quilty of murder. These criminals would not have anything to fight about if it wasn't for the war on drugs, or should I say the war on the American people.

[ddaryl1]

prohibition did not work it created more black markets and more crime...

you need to revisist history

[Mokkie57]

Coming to a national park near you.
Herger: Feds Must Take On Larger Role in Drug Eradication Efforts

American Chronicle | 1/31/2010 | Congressional Desk

We can keep throwing money at a failed drug war. And risk a bloody war in the national parks or make it legal and use the whole plant for food. fuel, Clothing, paper, We cant afford to take any more money from education.

[cidaia]

It's the jail time that is bad (about the drug war).

If we want to get rid of drugs, we need to get rid of the idea that ordinary drug users go to jail. Instead we need to change the penalties to emphasize fines, community service, social stigma, and/or court ordered addiction programs or cognitive behavioral therapy.