Royale: Victim of cartels, or corrupt officials?

Raul Rocha Cantu, majority owner of the doomed Casino Royale in Monterrey, has reported being shaken down for extortion. But who was doing the extorting -- drug cartels, or government officials?
The authorities and media are exploring this question. Vanguardia paints the attack on the Royale as the result of a showdown between two cartels: The Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas.
Vanguardia reports that casino owners in Monterrey paid Los Zetas a monthly sum of up to $50,000, and that this raised the ire of the rival Gulf Cartel, which ordered the casinos in May to stop the payments.
Other newspapers, including Milenio and El Universal, report that government officials are also suspected of extorting the Royale, and that they raised the ante from $40,000 to $140,000.
Rocha fled to Miami, fearing for his safety, after his casino was torched by a group of attackers on Aug. 25, leading to 52 deaths.

Monterrey casino attack: An analysis

Now we have a new tragedy in Mexico: The attack on a Monterrey casino on Thursday afternoon that has claimed at least 61 lives. What can we ascertain so far?

• The 8-9 armed attackers were brazen enough to drive up to the Casino Royale on San Jeronimo Avenue in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, in four vehicles (a grey sedan, a white Mini Cooper, a grey Equinox and a black Chevrolet S10) -- practically blocking an entrance from the road -- and get out from their cars, torch the casino with gasoline, reenter their vehicles and make their getaway as smoke began clouding a security camera. It took them about two minutes to burn down the casino.
• The dead include 35 women and 8 men. "There were a series of cadavers that could not be identified," El Universal reported. Ten people have been wounded.
  
• The authorities, including Nuevo Leon Gov. Rodrigo Medina de la Cruz, consider the attack as a strike by organized crime, although they did not want to specify which criminal group was suspected.
• President Felipe Calderon called the perpetrators "true terrorists" and also blamed the US illegal-drug market for causing such strife in Mexico and Latin America in general.
• There is a disturbing trend of violence directed against the many casinos of Monterrey, which are reportedly linked to a turf war between two drug cartels: The Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas. In fact, the Casino Royale was one of four gambling houses attacked by an armed group on May 25, and weapons were reportedly found inside on Thursday.
  
• The Casino Royale should not have been open in the first place. Mayor Fernando Lorrazabal had ordered a municipal closure of 12 casinos, including the Royale, in May. Enrique Hernandez Navarro of the CYMSA (Conexiones y Mangueras S.A. de C.V.) Corporation, which owns the Royale, had lobbied to keep it open -- and gotten the OK from a magistrate.
  

Ex-Tijuana mayor in hot water

Former Tijuana mayor Jorge Hank Rhon was arrested on Saturday and charged with links to organized crime after authorities allegedly discovered a stash of illegal weapons, El Universal reports (with video).
Hank and 10 members of his security detail were taken into custody, and the length of their custody was doubled from 48 to 96 hours. A member of the Undersecretary of Specialized Investigation into Organized Crime told La Jornada that there are discrepancies in the statements of the 11 individuals.
The arrests were made after the authorities received a report of armed persons in the Hipodromo neighborhood of Tijuana.
The 11 people arrested by members of the Army had an alleged arms stash of 88 firearms, over 40 of them high-caliber, and 9,298 cartridges, in a possible violation of the Federal Firearms and Explosives Law.
Grisly discovery on Monterrey bridge
The bodies of two men were found hanging from a bridge in Monterrey on Sunday. Their identities were unknown and reports of their ages differ; but the gruesome photos in both El Porvenir and La Prensa clearly depict what was done to them (one of them had his leg amputated).
Reports also cite narcomessages left on the bodies of the slain, who were discovered around 6 a.m. local time. La Prensa attributes the deaths to a bloody clash between two drug cartels -- Los Zetas and their former allies, the Gulf Cartel -- that has consumed the states of Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas.