Gunmen block roads into Mexican city

MORELIA, Mexico — Gunmen blockaded a western Mexican city Thursday with cars and buses stolen from motorists and then torched in a second day of violence that has left at least five people dead, including an 8-month-old baby.

The gunmen arrived at all five roads leading into Morelia and fired into the air to force drivers and passengers from their vehicles, said Jonathan Arrendondo, a spokesman for the attorney general's office of Michoacán state.

An Associated Press reporter saw a 75-year-old man being treated for a bullet wound to the leg at one of the entry points. Witnesses said he had been a bus passenger and was wounded as he tried to flee.

Such blockades have become a common cartel tactic in Mexico's raging drug war.

The practice started in northeastern Mexico, where the Gulf and Los Zetas cartels are locked in a fierce turf war, and spread recently to Michoacán, home state of President Felipe Calderón.

Michoacán is a stronghold of La Familia, a cartel known for beheadings and brash attacks against government security forces. Gunmen have blocked roads leading into Morelia, the state's picturesque colonial capital, twice in the past month.

The blockades came a day after three people were killed in a shootout between suspected La Familia gunmen and federal police in Apatzingán, another city in the state. An 8-month-old baby and the teenage daughter of the town's mayor were among the dead.

It was unclear if the blockades and shootout were related.

The Michoacan Attorney General's Office said that, by Thursday night, the total number of people killed was five, including two federal police officers. Three other officers were injured.

The shootout began when federal police investigating a tip about the presence of armed men came under fire from suspected La Familia gunmen, the statement said. Another group of gunmen fired on civilian vehicles and used them as barricades.

The Public Safety Department statement said a third group of gunmen ambushed another federal police unit trying to come to the aid of their colleagues. The gunmen blocked a highway leading into Apatzingán to prevent police from advancing.

The emergence of blockades in Michoacán has coincided with the arrest of several key La Familia leaders.

One of those suspects, Sergio Moreno Godinez, said under police interrogation last month that the cartel is in decline. He confirmed the authenticity of a letter, e-mailed to journalists and dropped on the streets of several towns, saying the cartel wants to disband and negotiate a truce with authorities. The government has ignored the offer.

Meanwhile, in northern Chihuahua state, six people were gunned down Thursday morning beside a highway south of the capital, also called Chihuahua. Witnesses told police that gunmen drove up, forced the six men out of the car, shot them and fled, said Carlos Gonzalez, a spokesman for the state attorney general's office.

And in the resort city of Acapulco, a traffic officer was found shot to death on a road, his hands bound.