Hit Men Execute Mexican Serviceman's Family

By DAVID LUHNOW and JOHN LYONS
WSJ

MEXICO CITY -- More than a dozen hit men burst into a house in eastern Mexico early Tuesday and executed or wounded several family members of a navy sailor who died in last week's battle that killed drug lord Arturo Beltran Leyva, Mexican police officials said.

The gunmen killed the mother, sister and aunt of Melquisedet Angulo Córdova near the town of Paraiso, Tabasco, just hours after the sailor was buried with a military honor guard and had been feted by the military high command as a national hero. Two of the sailor's brothers were badly wounded and remain in critical condition, officials said.

"They broke the door down with a sledgehammer and sprayed them with bullets in the living room and bedrooms," local deputy police commander Saturnino Dominguez was quoted as telling Reuters news agency.

The killing is a huge embarrassment for President Felipe Calderón and the Mexican military. Last week's navy operation that killed Mr. Beltran Leyva had temporarily quelled rising criticism that the president's strategy of sending 45,000 army troops to take on drug gangs in parts of the country had failed to have much effect either on the drug gangs' leadership or their business operations.

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