It was the day before All Souls' Day, a Roman Catholic holiday also known as the Day of the Dead. As part of the Mexican government's efforts to crack down on drug smugglers, 17 policemen made a sweep of the mountainous "bandit country" in the state of Veracruz, 300 miles southeast of Mexico City. Nearing the banks of the Coachapa River in predawn darkness, the government force surprised a gang of some 50 drug traffickers in the act of loading 1,300 lbs. of marijuana onto a boat. The police had hardly shouted a warning when the smugglers opened fire.
The agents repelled the first attack but were ambushed again on the road to the town of Acayucán and eventually used up their ammunition. A day later the bodies of the 17 officers were discovered lying along the banks of the Coachapa River by a helicopter pilot. Some had been tortured. Most had been executed with a bullet in the head. Observed Vicente López Estrada, head of the Veracruz state judicial police: "The drug traffickers are well armed."
The grisly incident highlighted Mexico's problems in controlling its illegal drug trade. Washington has been pressuring the Mexican government to take stronger measures against drug traffic since a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration officer, Enrique Camarena Salazar, was kidnaped and killed in Mexico last February. In the past year U.S. Customs agents have reported a marked increase in narcotics smuggling across the U.S.-Mexican border. Last month two major busts yielded $40 million worth of cocaine near San Ysidro, Calif. Said a U.S. embassy spokesman in Mexico City of last week's raid: "This was an operation carried out by the Mexican government. We think they were unaware of the magnitude of the problem."
At week's end 20 people were being held for questioning in the massacre. Two informers who had reportedly accompanied police and survived the ordeal were "contributing information." So far one suspect has been arrested. Brigadier General Jaime Jiménez Muñóz, a Mexican army commander, believes that armed peasants, "desperate to earn money" by growing marijuana, may have done the killing. Indeed, military patrols have reported that entire villages have been abandoned by frightened peasants as soldiers comb the mountains, searching for the culprits. But evidence also indicates that powerful drug traffickers are behind the murders. "We are fighting intensely against drug traffic," insisted Attorney General Sergio García Ramírez in Mexico City. Still, few doubted that the government had lost a costly battle in its struggle with drug smugglers.