Mexico's notorious drug cartels are ratcheting up the violence in their war against authorities, taking dead aim at elected officials and high-ranking police officials.
Nearly 23,000 people have been killed since Mexico initiated a crackdown on drug cartels in December 2006, reports The Washington Post. Most have been rival gangsters, or police officers and soldiers. But now the drug kingpins are targeting politicians and police commanders.
"In the last few weeks, the dynamics of the violence have changed," Interior Minister Fernando Gómez-Mont told the Post. "The criminals have decided to directly confront and attack the authorities."
According to the Post, scores of officials have been attacked recetnly across Mexico.
"I believe that the number of attacks has increased, and now they are more selective attacks, on command centers, and the most obvious reason is they are trying to intimidate those leaders who try to combat organized crime and also to frighten the rank and file so they don't act," José Luis Piñeyro, a professor at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, told the Post.
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