Jet Crash of Interior Minister huge blow in drug war
The plane crash carrying Mexico’s Interior Minister creates a huge setback for the government’s war on drug cartels.
Mexico’s battle against drug traffickers received a colossal setback Tuesday night, when two high-level officials leading the effort to stem narcotrafficking violence were killed in a plane crash.
The Learjet carrying Interior Minister Juan Camilo Mouriño and José Luis Santiago Vasconcelos, the former Deputy Attorney General, crashed in the middle of rush-hour traffic in an upscale neighborhood of Mexico City, killing all eight on board, many on the ground, and injuring dozens of others driving along the busy roadway.
Mexican transportation Secretary Luis Tellez said the crash appeared to be an accident. But the loss of Mr. Mouriño and Mr. Vasconcelos is a decisive blow to President Felipe Calderón’s antinarcotics apparatus.
