Collateral damage: Cartels cause carnage at Mexican festival

Today is, perhaps, the most sacred day in Mexico. The fiesta honors the Virgin of Guadalupe, who is seen as the Mother of Mexico, its patron saint. She represents Mexicans' identity as a people and a nation. A cartel attack at this fiesta strikes at the soul of the Mexican people. 


The article does not identify where Tecalitán is, but apparently it is a small city in the western state of  Jalisco. Jalisco's capital is Guadalajara., which is just north of Mexico's largest lake, Chapala. Tecalitán is south of Lake Chapala, about two-thirds of the way from Guadalajara to the Pacific coast and the port of Manzanillo, in the state of Colima. Thus, Tecalitán is on  a productive drug trafficking route from the Pacific port to Guadalajara, then on to the U.S. 

Cartels cause carnage at Mexican festival | euronews, world news: "Eleven people have been killed after suspected rival drug gang members opened fire on one another at a religious festival in Mexico.

Five thousand people had gathered to honour the Virgin of Guadalupe in Tecalitlan when the attackers opened fire with machine-guns and lobbed grenades.

Around 30 people were injured in the carnage" Dec. 12,k 2010