Whack-a-mole: Pancho Villa relative is Mexico's newest tough cop

The Associated Press: Pancho Villa relative is Mexico's newest tough cop: "Much like his great uncle, revolutionary leader Pancho Villa, retired Mexican army Gen. Carlos Bibiano Villa Castillo isn't easily frightened.

Even before Villa started his job last month as top cop in the Caribbean coast state of Quintana Roo, he'd received a grisly welcome from Mexico's most ruthless drug cartel, the Zetas. 'This is a little gift for you,' read the note, which was placed on a dismembered body dumped near the resort city of Cancun. 'You're next, Villa.' ...

A telecommunications and intelligence expert during his 43 years in the military, he rose to the rank of general and now calls the army his father, and the nation his mother.

In fact, Villa represents a new mold of top cop in a country where all levels of law enforcement — even federal prosecutors — have been co-opted by drug cartels. According to Mexico's Institute for Security and Democracy, 17 of Mexico's 32 states have retired military officers heading their departments of public security. Two years ago, the newspaper Reforma said there were only six.

That trend concerns human rights observers, who say a military-based approach threatens to only escalate the violence in a nation where mass graves and gang executions have become numbingly common. "