17 people lined up and shot “execution style” inside drug rehab in Juarez, Mexico

“They tried to make me go to rehab, I said no, no, no…”

(Comcast) CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico — Gunmen broke into a drug rehabilitation center, lined people against a wall and shot 17 dead in a particularly bloody day in Mexico’s relentless drug war. The brazen attack followed the killing of the No. 2 security official in President Felipe Calderon’s home state.

The attackers on Wednesday broke down the door of El Aliviane center in Ciudad Juarez, lined up their victims against a wall and opened fire, said Arturo Sandoval, a spokesman for the regional prosecutors’ office. At least five people were injured.

Authorities had no immediate suspects or information on the victims. Ciudad Juarez, across the border from El Paso, Texas, is Mexico’s most violent city, with at least 1,400 people killed this year alone.

I can’t quite figure out the motivation for gunning down people in rehab.  Usually these cartels are targeting police, federal officials, and rival cartels.  Maybe some of the people in the rehab were formerly involved with the cartels and trying to “go straight”.  It’s a shame – “duck and cover” isn’t usually covered in the Twelve Steps.

Gunmen killed the No. 2 security official and three other people in Calderon’s home state of Michoacan, where the government is locked in an intensifying battle with the ruthless La Familia cartel, blamed for a string of assassinations of police and soldiers.

Jose Manuel Revuelta, who was promoted less than two weeks ago to state deputy public safety director, is the highest-ranking government official killed in the wave of assassinations sweeping Michoacan, the cradle of La Familia drug cartel.

Attackers drove up alongside Revuelta as he headed home and opened fire, state Attorney General Jesus Montejano said.

Revuelta tried to speed away, but only made it a few blocks before he was intercepted by two vehicles. Six gunmen got out and sprayed Revuelta’s car with bullets, killing him, two bodyguards and a truck driver caught in the crossfire, Montejano said.

Sounds like a scene from a Hollywood movie, but this is the reality many Mexicans live with every day.  Just like Chicagoans in the 1920s.

Calderon first launched his crackdown against drug cartels in Michoacan, sending thousands of federal police and soldiers to his home state after taking office in late 2006. Tens of thousands more have since been deployed to drug hotspots across Mexico.

Drug gang violence has since surged, claiming more than 13,500 lives, including more than 1,000 police officers.

Calderon defended his battle against drug trafficking in a speech to Congress on Wednesday. He said the government has taken on the cartels as no previous Mexican administration has dared to do.

“As never before, we have weakened the logistical and financial structure of crime,” the president told legislators.

You might say we’ve “turned a corner” in battling the cartels and that the insurgency is in “its last throes”, huh, Mr. Cheney… er, Calderon?  That’s the problem with putting a medical issue in the hands of warriors – war is their justification, not public health.  Is the violence subsiding or are there fewer people using drugs?  Great, that means the Drug War is working, let’s keep at it.  Is the violence increasing or are there more people using drugs?  That must mean we’re not fighting the Drug War hard enough, let’s redouble our efforts.  Never can it be uttered that perhaps the Drug War itself is the problem, for it is always drugs that are the problem and war is the only solution.