Once quiet towns engulfed by Mexico drugs war

By Catherine Bremer

VERACRUZ, Mexico (Reuters) - A slow-paced port city where old men in tropical guayabera shirts linger in cafes and couples sway to romantic "danzon" music, Veracruz was always a world away from the crime-scarred cities of northern Mexico.

But a rash of broad-daylight killings as a local drug cartel fights off an invading gang from the north has sucked the port, and the surrounding state of Veracruz, into a brutal drug war that is spreading through Mexico.

In towns and cities across the country, drug hitmen who for years kept their tit-for-tat killings out of public view are now much bolder, settling their scores in busy streets, dumping severed heads and brazenly shooting soldiers and police.

The violence has spread to the affluent business city of Monterrey, the beach resort of Acapulco and beyond. In remote towns like Juchitan on the Pacific coast, wealthy local families have fled a wave of kidnappings by drug gangs.

President Felipe Calderon has deployed thousands of troops and police, but experts say it might not be enough to stop powerful networks of hitmen like the Gulf cartel's "Zetas", an elite and heavily armed militia of former soldiers.

"They are professionals. Their infrastructure is more powerful than the police. The authorities don't have the resources to face up to a phenomenon like this," said a drug expert within the Veracruz state government.

"This isn't finished, I think it's only just beginning," said the expert, who asked not to be named.

OUT OF CONTROL