Mexico in shock after 52 killed in torched casino
MONTERREY—Mexicans were in shocked mourning on Friday after a suspected drug gang torched a crowded casino, trapping scores of people in the smoke-filled building and killing 52.
President Felipe Calderon condemned the “abhorrent and barbaric” assault and called for three days of national mourning, while US President Barack Obama vowed to help combat Mexico’s increasingly vicious crime networks.
The particularly callous attack on Thursday evening shocked a nation already used to grim murders and high tolls in a drug war that has claimed more than 41,000 lives since Calderon launched a military crackdown in 2006.
Armed men, believed to be from either the Zetas or Gulf cartel, emptied tanks full of flammable liquid and set fire to the Casino Royale in the northeastern city of Monterrey, a new flashpoint in their brutal turf war.
Trapped as the vast building went up in flames, victims hid in bathrooms and offices instead of heading to the emergency exits. Many died of smoke inhalation in the ensuing panic, unable to escape the raging inferno.
“It is evident that we are not faced with ordinary delinquents but by actual terrorists who know no boundaries,” said Calderon, who convened a special meeting of his security cabinet before heading to Monterrey.
The Mexican leader also declared three days of national mourning for what he said was “the most serious attack against the innocent civilian population the country has seen for a long time.”
Mexico’s national security spokesman Alejandro Poire said: “An unacceptable act of terror has been committed that will not go unpunished.”
Obama condemned the “barbaric and reprehensible attack” in a written statement issued from Massachusetts, where he was on vacation.
He also hailed Mexico’s efforts to combat the drug trade, which is largely dependent on lucrative US markets. Many of the bloodiest turf wars are being waged over trade routes to the north and control of key ports.
“The people of Mexico and their government are engaged in a brave fight to disrupt violent transnational criminal organizations that threaten both Mexico and the United States,” Obama said.
“The United States is and will remain a partner in this fight.”
Monterrey, until recently a relatively peaceful industrial city, has become the epicenter of a battle between the Zetas and the Gulf cartel as they vie for control of lucrative drug-smuggling routes to the United States.
Casinos have been targeted as some owners refuse to pay protection money demanded by criminal gangs linked to the country’s booming drugs trade.
Footage from security cameras shows eight or nine armed men arriving in several cars at around 4:00 pm (2100 GMT) and carrying cans of liquid. They can be seen rushing out and speeding away a few minutes later.
They entered the casino “and screamed ‘everyone hit the floor,'” a witness told local media, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“I don’t know if there was a weapon that makes such a noise, but an impressive explosion followed — I never want to go through something like that again,” said the witness, who escaped with a friend to the rooftop.
Firefighters had to knock large holes in the building’s walls to reach the second floor as they took four hours to extinguish the blaze.
Interior Minister Francisco Blake has gone to Monterrey to head up the government’s probe into the attack, and the justice ministry has offered a $2.4 million reward for information leading to the perpetrators.
Only a few years ago, Monterrey had been seen as one of Mexico’s safest cities.
But Nuevo Leon state and its capital, which is home to four million people, have seen an increasing amount of drug-related violence, with more than 70 people killed in Monterrey last month alone.
Nearly 850 people were killed in the state in the first half of the year, compared to 278 murder victims for all of 2010, according to a tally by the national newspaper Reforma.
The Zetas are believed to have come into existence in the 1990s, founded by deserters from the Mexican special forces hired as hitmen for the powerful Gulf cartel.
They later split from the Gulf cartel, sparking increasingly violent turf wars as they set up their own trafficking operations.
