2012 a year of headless bodies, a dead beauty queen and a new president as Mexico narco wars rage on, Houston Chronicle Blog, December 24, 2012
From the deaths and arrests of several top drug cartel players to the shooting of a beauty queen; attack on two CIA contractors and the Texas Department of Public Safety opening fire from a borderland helicopter, 2012 saw plenty of Narco Wars action.
Here are some of the more significant moments. They are not in any particular order:
1. Heriberto Lazcano Lazcano, head of the Zetas cartel is killed by Mexican sailors as part of a bizarre series of events in which his body was stolen from a funeral home and one of his deceased parents were later dug up to match DNA to clothing that had been removed from the body.
2. Jorge Eduardo “Costilla” Sanchez, a ranking leader of the Gulf Cartel, is arrested in Mexico and the U.S. seeks his extradition to face American justice.
3. At least 44 inmates killed — most apparently stabbed and beaten to death by their rivals, at a Nuevo Leon, Mexico prison.
4. Mexican President Felipe Calderon finishes his six years in office leaving a legacy that includes an organized crime war that left more than 50,000 people dead.
5. Enrique Peña Nieto is elected president of Mexico, says he’ll create a national police force to return rule of law.
Policemen gather as they clash with demonstrators outside the Congress in Mexico City before celebrations for the inauguration of Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto. He inherits a country beset by a brutal drug war. AFP PHOTO/Pedro PardoPedro PARDO/AFP/Getty Images
6. Texas Department of Public Safety pushes on with sending armored patrol boats to Rio Grande.
7. Officer on DPS helicopter shoots at truckload of immigrants sneaking into Texas
7. Despite tens of thousands of deaths and that portions of Mexico have no rule of law, the Mexican drug war not part of debate between top U.S. presidential candidates
8. Mexico beauty queen Susana Flores Maria Gamez killed in Sinaloa state shootout
9. Zetas blamed for 49 headless, handless bodies dumped along highway outside town of Cadereyta
10.Two American CIA operatives and a Mexican Navy captain in an armored embassy vehicle with diplomatic license plates were ambushed by dozens of Mexican federal police in unmarked civilian cars.