ACAPULCO - President Calderón announced Friday that 7,600 soldiers have massed in the Pacific Coast state of Guerrero to go after drug gangs that have committed beheadings and other violence in the resort city of Acapulco in recent months."There will be impunity for nobody," Calderón said at a ceremony where he was presented with the sword of command from Navy Secretary Francisco Saynez.
The objective, Calderón said, is to re-establish security in the state in collaboration with Gov. Zeferino Torreblanca. Torreblanca - a member of the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) - attended the ceremony which took place aboard the Navy ship, Escuela Cuauhtémoc.
The soldiers, who arrived Sunday, joined more than 1,000 troops that started conducting random checks on vehicles throughout Acapulco last week.
The operation "seeks to improve security not only in Acapulco but across Guerrero for its residents and national and foreign visitors," said Calderón.
"The seas and coasts of Mexico should not be used for acts that endanger the health and safety of Mexicans," he said, adding that the troops´ first assignment will be to destroy 3,000 drug plantations in the southern state.
Mindful of the sensitivity Guerrero residents might have to soldiers operating in their state after a fierce military campaign was waged there during the so-called "Dirty War" of the 1960s and ´70s, Defense Secretary Guillermo Galván made clear that the operation was exclusively focused on drug traffickers and organized crime.
"Our objective does not include any strategy to engage guerrilla groups that might be operating in Guerrero," Galván said.
