The Mexican Mess

Now this is what you call ballsy:

Gunmen launched grenades and opened fire in near simultaneous attacks on two police stations in Acapulco Monday, killing three officers in violence that broke out less than 48 hours after a gunbattle in the resort left 17 dead. . .

Gunmen fatally shot two officers sitting in a patrol car parked outside one police station. A few minutes later, assailants attacked a second station, about two miles (three kilometers) away, wounding two officers, according to the Guerrero state police department. One of the officers later died.

Serious stuff on our southern border, it's an all-out war that our media is underplaying. The cartels are trying to get a foothold anywhere they can in order to bulwark their efforts:

Twice before, the anti-drug agents had gotten a tip about a load of cocaine at the hulking industrial park on this dreary stretch of highway half an hour outside Guatemala City. Twice before, a U.S. official said, they had found nothing.

On their third visit, they found a firing squad. . .

During the last year and a half, the Zetas have carved a bloody trail across Guatemala's northern and eastern provinces. More than 6,000 people were slain in Guatemala in 2008. Police say most of the killings were linked to the drug trade.

As the recent blood bath shows, the violence is now threatening the capital, deep in the interior.

Hell, the cartels are even in office, though they may be slowly losing their grip:

Severed heads tossed in front of a car dealership. Bodies hurled off a bridge. Extortion threats against shop owners. It was no secret that this town popular with tourists for its monarch butterfly nesting grounds was in the grip of Mexico's drug trade.

But even the most jaded were stunned when Zitacuaro's young, charismatic mayor was arrested this week in Mexico's biggest sweep ever against politicians with alleged cartel ties.

The swift and secretive operation by federal forces netted 10 mayors and 18 other top officials in Michoacan state, escalating President Felipe Calderon's battle against cartels ahead of the July 5 national elections.

What bothers me is that I heard not one peep from the news networks yesterday about the attack on the police station. Because it's escalating, even 2 1/2 years after Calderon's renewed offensive. And it will spill toward us next.