Mexico also made its official debut at the Venice Biennele, renting a labyrinthine Gothic palazzo near the Rialto Bridge that looks like something out of a Tolkien fever dream, with a high interior courtyard flanked by a winding stone staircase. The exhibition, by Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, is the opposite of the don’t-touch art that fills most of this city. Every piece requires some kind of participation.
On Sunday, following one of the bloodiest days in Tijuana’s history, authorities held no news conferences. The death toll in the gangland-style shootings early Saturday between rival drug traffickers increased to 15 from 13, after two men died of their injuries.
Official silence is common in Mexico, where thousands have been killed in drug-related violence since President Felipe Calderon took office in December 2006. But many analysts believe that Calderon’s decision to send thousands of army troops to Baja California, Veracruz, Michoacan and other states to crack down on the drug trade is reaping a type of dividend.
The government’s efforts have disrupted agreements between trafficking organizations and corrupt officials, setting off turf wars among weakened organizations, analysts and government officials say.
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