The “Drug War” drags on and on and on…

 

      

By Manuel Roig-Franzia

Washington Post Foreign Service 
Friday, May 9, 2008; Page A01

MEXICO CITY, May 8 — Gunmen assassinated Mexico’s national police chief Thursday, blasting him with nine bullets outside his home in the capital and dealing a significant setback to the government’s campaign against drug cartels.

Edgar Eusebio Millán Gómez, the public face of Mexico’s offensive against drug cartels, became the highest-ranking law enforcement official to be killed since the launch of the effort 17 months ago.

The assassination could give new confidence to drug cartels blamed for 6,000 killings in the past 2 1/2 years, and embolden other anti-government groups in this violence-plagued nation.

“This could have a snowball effect, even leading to the risk of ungovernability,”

Luís Astorga,

a Mexico City-based sociologist and drug expert,

said in an interview.

“It indicates terrible things,

a level of weakness in our institutions —

they can’t even protect themselves.”