Fifteen people have been killed on a remote ranch in northern Mexico, with a prominent union leader among the dead. The body of Margarito Montes, an organizer of agricultural workers, was among those found riddled with bullet holes in the northwestern state of Sonora.
Correspondents say the killings bear the hallmarks of drug gang murders--more than 15,000 people have died in drug-related violence since a concerted push against drug gangs began in 2006.
President Felipe Calderon has so far deployed some 45,000 extra security forces in key areas across Mexico in a bid to tackle the cartels. Correspondents say farmers are often caught up in drug violence, by being paid or coerced to grow marijuana and opium poppies.
This incident follows closely on recent shootings in Juarez (across the border from El Paso). In September, gunmen carried out an attack on a drugs rehabilitation center, killing 10 people and injuring two others. The shooting followed the deaths of 18 other people in an attack on a separate rehab center in the same city that month.
Such shootings have been blamed on drug traffickers who accuse the clinics of protecting dealers from rival gangs. A vicious inter-gang drug war in Ciudad Juarez has seen some 1,400 drug-related deaths so far this year.
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