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Mexican president calls crime 'a cancer'

(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-08-26 14:47

VERACRUZ, Mexico -- Mexican President Felipe Calderon has vowed to eradicate crime, calling it "a cancer."

Screens show Mexico's President Felipe Calderon (C) delivering a speech during a national security meeting at the National Palace in Mexico City August 21, 2008. Calderon, who has come under heavy pressure to stamp out violent crime, hosted the meeting of security chiefs, state governors and lawmakers. He pledged to build two new high security prisons with special wings for kidnappers. [Agencies]

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Calderon's comments in a national address on Monday came just hours after gunmen attacked police and soldiers in the Gulf coast state of Veracruz.

Detective Jose Severino Ruiz said the attack killed an army officer, a policeman and two kidnap victims.

One of the gunmen also died in the attack, and two people were wounded.

Mexico has faced an increasingly brutal wave of kidnappings, executions and drug shootouts in recent months.

Calderon said 100 federal police, 62 soldiers and five navy personnel have been killed in the line of duty this year, but it was unclear whether that number included the victims of Monday's attack.