In a sad indicator that Mexico’s drug violence has reached a new level, 72 bodies were found on a ranch near Monterrey, about 100 miles south of the U.S. border. The 58 men, 14 women were believed to be illegal immigrants, crossing through Mexico from Brazil, Ecuador, El Salvador, and Honduras. The lone survivor, who is receiving death threats in the hospital, told the police that a drug gang tried to extort money from them. When the migrants resisted, the narcos opened fire. The wounded survivor fled to a nearby military checkpoint, leading government forces back to the ranch. There a firefight ensued between the Mexican military and the narcos, leaving one marine and three suspects dead.

This is the largest mass grave so far discovered in Mexico’s drug war. It bodes ill in a number of ways. Violence against civilians is rising. The “pockets of violence,” cities and regions where drug violence riddles life, are swelling. And it gives further confirmation that Mexico drug routes are overtaking the land routes that migrants use to make their way to the United States.

At a conference on Wednesday, President Calderón asked prosecutors and judges turned the tables on those used to asking the questions. Why were so few of those arrested for violent crimes in Mexico being punished? Documents obtained by the Associated Press indicate that only about 15 percent of those arrested between December 2006 and September 2009 were either convicted or acquitted. Guillermo Ortiz, the chief justice of Mexico’s Supreme Court, gives a conflicting account. He says while some cases have been dismissed for lack of evidence, 85% of those “formally” held over for crimes were convicted of charges.

Calderón has called for a series of panels and conferences in Mexico to come up with crime fighting strategies. In recent weeks two inklings point to a reassessment of the Mexican government’s strategy against drug trafficking. High-profile killings of members of the Sinaloa gang in fire fights with law enforcement points toward the relative lack of progress made against Mexico’s most powerful drug syndicate. A second problem has been the paltry rate of judicial prosecutions in Mexico. To me, this new willingness to reassess and re-target the government’s efforts to combat drug-related crime in Mexico holds promise. Time will tell how much.

Rodrigo Camarena, over at the Brazil blog, has published a briefing on the cooperation between Mexico’s PAN and PRD in state elections. The awkward coalition pairs the relatively stoic process for internal disputes and leadership changes in the PAN, and the squabbles that saw the PRD’s rapid fall from grace after the 2006 presidential election. Camarena writes:

As the current mayor of Mexico City and the PRD’s most prominent politician, Marcelo Ebrard would normally be the clear candidate to lead the leftist coalition into 2012, but he has agreed to let an “open process” decide whether he or López Obrador will be the coalition’s 2012 candidate. Judging by López Obrador’s response to his 2006 upset, it is clear that he will not take defeat easily. Yet it is also clear that the PRD’s moderate wing is intent on nominating Ebrard in 2012. Given the combined appeal of both candidates, no member of the PRD’s coalition wants a divisive or distracting contest.

Nevertheless, divisions between the two have already become public. López Obrador has repeatedly criticized any suggestion that the PAN and PRD ally in the 2011 gubernatorial race for Mexico state, Peña Nieto’s base. By contrast, Ebrard has accepted such an alliance as a given. Political strategists believe that a PAN-PRD victory in Mexico state a year before the presidential elections would deliver a crippling blow to Peña Nieto’s presidential aspirations and drastically improve both the PAN and PRD’s chances in 2012.

Although the likelihood of a PAN-PRD ticket come Mexico’s next presidential election seems, for now, to be an appetizing thought to those concerned about the PRI’s strength, the likelihood of the PRD fracturing in the intervening months should temper enthusiasms.

Ignacio Coronel Villarreal is described as one of the Sinaloa’s drug syndicates top three. Villarreal, known as “Nacho,” was believed to oversee the Siñaloa group’s operations in the western states of Colima, Nayarit, and Jalisco. He was killed after opening fire on law enforcement, closing in on his hideout in an upscale neighborhood of Guadalajara.

Beyond his prominence, Villarreal’s death may help blunt criticism that President Felipe Calderón’s “war on drugs” avoids cracking down on the Sinaloa cartel.

The elimination of Villarreal may headline Thursday’s news out of Mexico, but the arrest raid that resulted in his death also involved the arrest of 56 corrupt law enforcement officers in other parts of the country.

The recent car bomb set off in Juarez marked an escalation in Mexico’s drug wars. After police and medical workers were lured to the car’s location, the bomb was detonated using a cell phone, killing three innocent men. Similar tactics denoted Colombia and Iraq’s spiral into anarchy, but this was the first time a car bomb exploded in Mexico. It indicates not just a new tactic used by the drug syndicates, but also greater sophistication; as one US law enforcement official told WaPo: Someone knows what they’re doing.” Detonating a car bomb is much more involved than exploding, say, a pipe bomb. As reported by Global Post’s Ioan Grillo today, the explosives used in the July 15^th bomb were likely stolen from a Texan company’s facilities in Mexico in February 2009.

Graffiti promises more car bombings, a particularly worrying prospect because car bombs victimize innocent civilians, not gang rivals.

More than 50 “drug subs” have been seized by law enforcement from Ecuador to Mexico over recent months. Many of these vessels are considered “semi submersibles,” capable of travelling 5-10 meters below the water’s surface and carrying hundreds or thousands of pounds of drugs. At this depth, they tend to leave a surface wake, allowing law enforcement to spot them.

However, this isn’t always the case. The most sophisticated sub, uncovered in Ecuadoran swamplands near the Colombian border a fortnight ago, measured 100 feet long, allowed for nine feet of standing (or stacking) room, was air conditioned, and had a periscope. Law enforcement believes it cost $4 million to build, and on its maiden voyage could have hauled 10 tons of cocaine.

These seizures not only hint at the craftiness of drug traffickers, but also the scope of the problem. Far from being a Columbian or Mexican problem, drug trafficking relies on a slew of transit countries along the route from the point of production, generally in the Andes with cocaine but Central America and Mexico in the case of marijuana and meth, to the US consumer. The DEA estimates that75% of cocaine in the US travels through Guatemala, with disturbing effect. The murder rate in Guatemala is twice as high as in Mexico, and the Guatemalan government is “being completely overrun” by Mexican drug syndicates. It is these transit countries, Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala, known as “the Northern Triangle,” that are really at risk of becoming failed states.

The irony here seems to be that as drug trafficking from the Andes has gradually shifted from the “sea route”—flying and shipping cocaine through the Caribbean—to the “land route”—transport through Central America and Mexico, the favored method of drug transport is semi submersible. Hopefully, the plight facing the Northern Triangle will not continue to navigate under the surface of Western policymaker’s attention. The high tide could be devastating.

Photo from CNN.com

Gang violence threatened voter turnout in last weekend’s state elections. A leading candidate in the state of Tamaulipas and a well-known musician were assassinated in the week before, campaign offices were bombed, and bodies were even hung from bridges on the morning of the election. But Mexico’s democracy endured: voter turnout was relatively high, “an inspiring message” reports the New York Times.

Despite widespread forecasts of a PRI sweep, the electoral results were mixed. The PRI picked up 9 of the 12 governorships, yielding a motley political landscape, with President Calderón’s center-right PAN, the PRI, and the center-left PRD all holding sway. “Perhaps the greatest takeaway from Sunday’s election is democracy is surprisingly healthy in Mexico,” noted Andrew Selee, director of the Mexico program at the Woodrow Wilson Center.

Though it’s likely that a candidate was elected on Sunday who is on the take from a drug syndicate, for the most part the message sent should inspire confidence. Democratic accountability is alive in Mexico.

Nazario Moreno, leader of La Familia, is known as El Mas Loco. He insists his followers do not use the meth they traffic through Mexico and the United States. For spiritual guidance, Moreno has authored a bible, Pensamientos, to guide the syndicate’s members, and he insists on prayer meetings before operations are launched.

El Mas Loco’s rise is chronicled in an interesting article in this week’s TIME. Readers of this blog are likely familiar with much of the background info, but insightful anecdotes are well blended into the recounting of severed heads. I was struck by mention of Moreno’s “flair for disguises.” Apparently, he once posed as a supermarket bag boy and carried his victim’s groceries to the parking lot, so he could get a closer shot.

Violent criminals, in general, strike me as a reflective lot. They appear to have some bearing on their role in society, and unlike many of us in the law abiding WASP camp, they witness firsthand the results of their “professional” actions. I see them as types that resign their fate with utterances like Paul Newman’s character in Road to Perdition: “This is the life we chose, the life we lead. And there is only one guarantee: none of us will ever see Heaven.” But then there are those that re-appropriate faith, as the members of La Familia are wont to do. Those operating with religious sanction, skewed as it may be, are unlikely to moderate their behavior…

I have not seen that before. In Mexico City on Sunday, Christian Hernandez, decked out in traditionally garish attire of gold and pink (!), didn’t like what he saw when the giant bull made its appearance. Sizing up the half ton of muscle trailing 13 inches behind the tip of two horns must have had a quick sobering effect. Hernandez did a hasty 360 spin then beat a quick retreat to the arena’s nearest wall. He has since confessed: “I didn’t have the balls—it’s not my thing.”

But his troubles didn’t end after he hopped the wall. Promoters had him arrested for breach of contract. After paying a fine, he was released.

Mexican media have been unforgiving; “coward” is littered throughout most news accounts. I’m not so sure. I think the behavior may be genetic: Mexico was a French colony for much of the 1860s. Is there a chance that Hernandez’ provenance can be traced to the introduction of French blood under Maximillian?

Bullfighting is a risky business, no doubt. That holds as true today as ever. Hernandez was gored in the leg just a month ago. In late April, Jose Tomas, one of the world’s most famous bullfighters, was gored in the groin in Mexico City, losing 17 pints of blood. There’s some reason to think the Mexican capital will be host to more bullfighting spectacles. In January, Spanish national TV opted not to include bullfighting in its line-up for next year. Barcelona’s last bullring reportedly loses tens of thousands of dollars each time it hosts a contest. Not so in Mexico.