Gunmen kill 10 Mexican federal police in ambush near high school in drug-plagued western state

Gunmen ambush Mexican police, killing 10 officers

MEXICO CITY — Gunmen killed 10 federal police officers Monday in an ambush near a high school in western Mexico, staging one of the deadliest attacks on security forces since the government stepped up its fight with drug cartels.

The latest in a series of mass slayings came as President Felipe Calderon defended his crackdown on traffickers in an essay on his office’s website. He vowed he won’t back down despite criticism that violence has only surged since he deployed thousands of troops and federal police in late 2006 seeking to crush the cartels.

“I’m clearly convinced that we would be in a much worse situation if we hadn’t decided to fight criminals,” Calderon wrote in the 5,000-word essay, which was published by several newspapers.

“If we remain with our arms crossed, we will remain in the hands of organized crime, we will always live in fear,” the president said in the essay, which also blames Mexico’s violence on the United States’ voracious appetitive for illegal drugs.

In the Monday ambush in Calderon’s home state of Michoacan, officers were returning from a patrol when they came under fire in the city of Zitacuaro, the federal Public Safety Department said in a statement.

An unspecified number of officers were wounded and were taken to hospitals in Mexico City and the Michoacan state capital, Morelia, the statement said. It said several assailants were also killed or wounded, but officials did not provide a number.

Brutal drug-gang violence has swept Michoacan, a state known for its picturesque colonial capital, beaches and Monarch butterfly sanctuary, and as the place where Calderon first launched his crackdown. The state is a stronghold of La Familia, a cartel known for beheading its rivals and making bold attacks on government security forces.

Among attacks on law enforcement, the bloodied and tortured bodies of 12 federal agents were found last year dumped along a highway in Michoacan.

Police did not immediately identify attackers involved in Monday’s ambush or indicate whether they were suspected of being gunmen for La Familia. But the Public Safety Department did say the assailants picked up their wounded and dead and fled with them, a tactic often used by drug cartels.

The U.S. State Department has issued a travel warning urging U.S. citizens “to exercise extreme caution when traveling in Michoacan.”

Nationwide, more than 22,700 people have been killed in drug violence since Calderon ordered the government offensive against cartels when he took office in December 2006.