Eideard

Daylife/Reuters Pictures used by permission

Drug gangs have forced open a bloody new front in Mexico’s drugs war, extending their battles over smuggling routes into a formerly quiet northwestern state and further stretching the army.

A fight for control of the mountainous state of Durango has killed some 235 people this year, a jump in violence that poses a new challenge to troops already struggling to contain bloodshed along the U.S. border. With only a few hundred soldiers in Durango, drug hitmen from eastern Mexico are taking over towns, kidnapping police, shooting up local government offices and slaughtering rivals.

It poses a fresh threat to President Felipe Calderon, who has staked his reputation on pushing back the cartels, and could fuel U.S. concerns that violence is overwhelming its southern neighbor…

The outbreak of violence in Durango also marks a new challenge to top drug fugitive Joaquin “Shorty” Guzman on a formerly quiet patch of his home turf in northwestern Mexico.

Officials and analysts say Guzman, who has long been battling rivals in other parts of the country, is being attacked in Durango by the Gulf cartel and its brutal “Zetas” armed wing as they fan out from their base in northeastern Mexico, near Texas…

But the killings in Durango may be a sign of how hard it is to crush drug gangs as military pressure in one region drives organized crime into less guarded areas. Durango’s Oliveria Reza calls it “the cockroach effect.”

Before retiring I occasionally worked with a few terrific young guys, brothers, from Durango. Hard-working, honest, you could count on them for any job. Every holiday they would car pool with friends and head back to Durango for a short stay – because, after all, that was home. They loved Durango.

I’m not certain a reference from someone who’s spent so much of his life opposing reactionary U.S. politics is useful – but, of course, I agreed. He would be a positive addition to any country.