Whack-a-mole Drug War: Sinister Details Emerge of Mexico Jail Massacre

From 'InSight Crime'

Sinister Details Emerge of Mexico Jail Massacre: "As Mexican authorities investigate the murder of 17 inmates in a Juarez jail, video footage from the scene has painted a picture of a cold-blooded killing, which officials seemingly made no effort to prevent.

Video taken from the jail’s security cameras, and released online by state authorities, shows the events leading up to the killing. A handful of guards are seen, just before the shooting began, leaving the hallway adjacent to the cell where 13 of the inmates were killed....

According to the government, the shooters belong to the Aztecas, a gang working for the Juarez Cartel, while the victims, the Mexicles, are in the service of the Sinaloa Cartel. While some have interpreted recent declines in the levels of violence in Juarez as a sign that Sinaloa is steadily winning control of the city, the rivalry, which has killed thousands of people in Juarez over the past several years, appears to be as hotly contested as ever inside of the jail. ...

The incident in Juarez points to a longstanding problem in Mexican criminal justice: the abysmal quality of the prison system. The massacre in Juarez is just the latest mass killing in a Mexican prison. Nineteen people died in a prison riot in Tijuana in September 2008, the Aztecas killed 20 rival gang members at a state prison in Juarez in March 2009, 19 people were killed in fighting in a Gomez Palacio prison a few months later, and a 23 were murdered in Durango in January 2010."