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4 'executed' bodies found in Baja California

Story Highlights
Four bodies found in a canyon 20 miles south of the U.S. border, police say
At least 1 victim is American, police say; car has California plates
At least 40 deaths reported in 9 states in the past 3 days, official says
Northern Mexico has been scene of a struggle between government and drug gangs
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From Harris Whitbeck and Mario Gonzalez
CNN

MEXICO CITY, Mexico (CNN) -- The bodies of four people, including at least one American, were found in the Mexican state of Baja California on Sunday, police said Monday, part of a wave of violence sweeping the country.

Mexican President Felipe Calderon says of the government's battle with drug traffickers: "It is a war."

The decomposed bodies of three men and one woman were found near Rosarito, about 20 miles south of the U.S. border, Baja California state police spokesman Rogelio Contreras said.

Two of the bodies were found in a car with California license plates, and all the victims appear to have been "executed," he said.

A U.S. government official, who asked to remain anonymous, told CNN that one of the four victims was an American. The nationality of a second victim was unknown, while the others were either known or suspected to be non-Americans, the official said.

Officials are investigating a possible drug link, assistant Baja California state prosecutor Rafael Gonzalez told The Associated Press.

Mexico has seen at least 40 deaths in nine of the country's 31 states in the past three days, a government official said Monday.

Eduardo Cano, in charge of communications for the federal secretary of public security, said much of the killing appeared related to narcotrafficking. The biggest single toll was in Chihuahua, where confrontations with narcotraffickers in the city of Villa Ahumada left 12 police officers dead.

"This is a serious fight," said President Felipe Calderon. "It is a war and it implies effectively that we must assume the consequences. The question is whether we should persevere and continue forward or simply remain in our offices and duck our heads."

Northern Mexico has been the scene of a struggle between Calderon's government and drug gangs who have fought battles with rival traffickers, police and Mexican troops. A U.S. State Department travel alert warned in April that international visitors have fallen victim to killings or kidnappings in the region.

Security forces have also left a mark. At the weekend, they arrested narcotrafficking suspects Zulema Iribe Sauceda and Julio Alberto Zazueta Angulo, presumed collaborators with Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, accused leader of the drug cartel in the northwestern state of Sinaloa.

In addition, customs officials seized two tons of pseudoephedrine, a chemical used to make methamphetamine, in Mexico City airport.

In Tijuana, authorities seized two tons of marijuana from a narcotrafficker.

"The Mexican government has struck, in a key manner, the financial and operations structure of several of them," Calderon said.

He said the seizures have forced a regrouping by the narcotraffickers, who are struggling not only against public authorities, but also against different factions of drug dealers.

Analysts say the so-called federation -- which includes the Sinaloa cartel, the Gulf cartel and the brothers Beltran Leyva -- is seeking to form a new group allied with "the Zetas," the band run by Osiel Cardenas Guillen.

A number of authorities who have been threatened have quit, as did the chief of police in the border city of Juarez and three high-level government workers who recently sought political asylum in the United States.

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