TIMELINE-Key events in Mexico's gruesome drug war
May 20 (Reuters) - As drug violence flares on a new front in northern Mexico, following is a timeline of the key events in a drug war that has killed more than 15,000 people since 2005.
2001 - Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman, escapes from a Mexican prison in a laundry van. Mexico's most-wanted drug lord, he puts together a coalition of drug gangs from the western state of Sinaloa and vows to take control of Mexico's $40 billion-a-year drugs trade.
2002 - Police weaken the Tijuana cartel, which operates across from southern California, by killing leading drug lord Ramon Arellano Felix in Sinaloa and arresting his brother, Benjamin.
2003 - Mexican soldiers capture Gulf cartel leader Osiel Cardenas at a party after a huge street shootout between troops and hitmen in the border city of Matamoros.
2004 - Trying to take advantage of Cardenas' arrest, Guzman sends well armed enforcers to the border cities of Nuevo Laredo, Reynosa and Matamoros to try to take over Gulf cartel smuggling routes into Texas. Heavy fighting breaks out before Guzman is eventually repelled.
2005 - Guzman now seeks control of Tijuana and trafficking routes into California. Violence escalates across Mexico and about 1,500 people die in 2005.
2006 - Violence spreads to the beach resort of Acapulco, the industrial city of Monterrey and Michoacan in western Mexico, the home state of President Felipe Calderon who takes office on Dec. 1 and sends troops and federal police to stem the violence in Michoacan, which was sparked by Guzman's territorial ambitions. The drug violence death toll rises to 2,300 and brutalities like beheadings and torture increase.
2007 - Calderon sends troops to Tijuana and across Mexico. Mexico extradites Gulf cartel leader Cardenas to the United States and makes a historic 23-tonne cocaine seizure. U.S. President George W. Bush pledges $1.4 billion in drug-fighting equipment for Mexico and Central America. Violence escalates and leads to more than 3,000 deaths in the year.
2008 - Guzman takes on the Juarez cartel in Ciudad Juarez across from El Paso, Texas, and the Mexican city becomes the bloodiest flashpoint in the drug war. Mexico captures hundreds of drug gang members and disrupts smuggling routes, but some 6,300 people are killed across Mexico in the year.
2009 - Killings continue apace. Calderon sends an extra 10,000 troops to Ciudad Juarez and says the surge cut drug murders there by up to 80 percent. Violence spills into U.S. border cities Phoenix and Tucson. President Barack Obama visits Mexico City and vows to clamp down on smuggled U.S. weapons that feed the violence. Mexico captures more drug barons, but violence flares in new fronts like northern Durango state. (Reporting by Robin Emmott) (To read a related story on the violence in Durango, please click on: [nN20507656])
2001 - Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman, escapes from a Mexican prison in a laundry van. Mexico's most-wanted drug lord, he puts together a coalition of drug gangs from the western state of Sinaloa and vows to take control of Mexico's $40 billion-a-year drugs trade.
2002 - Police weaken the Tijuana cartel, which operates across from southern California, by killing leading drug lord Ramon Arellano Felix in Sinaloa and arresting his brother, Benjamin.
2003 - Mexican soldiers capture Gulf cartel leader Osiel Cardenas at a party after a huge street shootout between troops and hitmen in the border city of Matamoros.
2004 - Trying to take advantage of Cardenas' arrest, Guzman sends well armed enforcers to the border cities of Nuevo Laredo, Reynosa and Matamoros to try to take over Gulf cartel smuggling routes into Texas. Heavy fighting breaks out before Guzman is eventually repelled.
2005 - Guzman now seeks control of Tijuana and trafficking routes into California. Violence escalates across Mexico and about 1,500 people die in 2005.
2006 - Violence spreads to the beach resort of Acapulco, the industrial city of Monterrey and Michoacan in western Mexico, the home state of President Felipe Calderon who takes office on Dec. 1 and sends troops and federal police to stem the violence in Michoacan, which was sparked by Guzman's territorial ambitions. The drug violence death toll rises to 2,300 and brutalities like beheadings and torture increase.
2007 - Calderon sends troops to Tijuana and across Mexico. Mexico extradites Gulf cartel leader Cardenas to the United States and makes a historic 23-tonne cocaine seizure. U.S. President George W. Bush pledges $1.4 billion in drug-fighting equipment for Mexico and Central America. Violence escalates and leads to more than 3,000 deaths in the year.
2008 - Guzman takes on the Juarez cartel in Ciudad Juarez across from El Paso, Texas, and the Mexican city becomes the bloodiest flashpoint in the drug war. Mexico captures hundreds of drug gang members and disrupts smuggling routes, but some 6,300 people are killed across Mexico in the year.
2009 - Killings continue apace. Calderon sends an extra 10,000 troops to Ciudad Juarez and says the surge cut drug murders there by up to 80 percent. Violence spills into U.S. border cities Phoenix and Tucson. President Barack Obama visits Mexico City and vows to clamp down on smuggled U.S. weapons that feed the violence. Mexico captures more drug barons, but violence flares in new fronts like northern Durango state. (Reporting by Robin Emmott) (To read a related story on the violence in Durango, please click on: [nN20507656])
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