The violence in Mexico between drug cartel and federal troops shows no signs of easing.

Last week, a shootout in the border town of Tijuana once again demonstrated the violence that is occurring on a daily basis.

From the AP (via the Washing Post):

Even in Mexico’s most violent city, jaded residents feel caught in the crossfire between drug smugglers and federal troops sent in to stop them. Hospitals, schools, and even taco-and-beer tourism are suddenly on the front lines of a raging turf war.

The latest bout of violence exploded on Saturday, with rival gang members killing each other all over Tijuana in simultaneous, pre-dawn attacks that left at least 13 dead.

Three days later, the Hospital General de Tijuana is surrounded by camouflaged federal troops with machine guns guarding locked gates. Outpatient services were halted, visits from family and friends were severely restricted and anyone without an emergency was told to go elsewhere.

“There isn’t any other way,” said Miguel Marin, a 28-year-old day laborer who missed the birth of his second daughter because he wasn’t allowed to accompany his wife inside.

The soldiers guarding the hospital hope to prevent cartel gunmen from shooting their way in to rescue their colleagues _ or finish them off. A year ago, a drug gang sent hit men into the hospital to rescue a wounded criminal, leaving three people dead and hundreds of patients and staff trapped for hours.

Mexico’s drug cartels had long divided the border, with each controlling key cities. But over the past decade Mexico has arrested or killed many of the gangs’ top leaders, creating a power vacuum and throwing lucrative drug routes up for the taking.

Based on the culture of corruption in Mexico, it is difficult for the media to determine who was killed or shot at during the shootout on Sunday.

From the LA Times:

On Sunday morning Tijuana residents awoke to a rogue’s gallery of criminal names in their newspapers.

“According to reliable sources,” reported, the shootout was between rivals within the Arellano Felix gang.

Or maybe not. The national daily El Universal reported that the so-called Sinaloa cartel was to blame.

Several newspapers reported that among the dead was “Crutches,” a.k.a. Luis Alfonso Velarde, a reputed local drug lord with a handful of YouTubevideo tributes to his name.

Another, even bigger “cartel” operative nicknamed “Mr. Three Letters” might be dead too, along with “La Perra,” reported El Sol de Tijuana. And they may all have been ambushed by another cartel leader known as “El Cholo.”

But no one was willing to confirm any of that on the record.

Official silence, many here argue, helps feed the culture of corruption. It is a widely recognized truth that drug traffickers operate in Baja California and elsewhere with the protection of some public officials.

The drug cartels in Mexico are all fighting over the estimated $23 billion in revenue that the drug trade generates.