5 Die in Wave of Violence in Southern Mexico

[Jeff Dunsavage]

At least five people were killed and two others wounded in a wave of violence in Acapulco, a resort city in the southern Mexican state of Guerrero, where gunmen engaged soldiers and police in a shootout, and set fire to a crafts market.
The 30-minute shootout occurred Monday in the Pacific resort city's Emiliano Zapata neighborhood, where two gunmen and a soldier died, the Guerrero state Attorney General's Office said, adding that another soldier and a police officer were wounded. Read full article.

A total of 15,270 people died in drug-related violence in Mexico last year, and more than 35,000 people have died since President Felipe Calderon declared war on the country's cartels shortly after taking office in December 2006.