Second Mexican drug-war minister dies in mystery air accident

Reuters
November 11, 2011

MEXICO CITY — Mexican Interior Minister Francisco Blake was killed in a helicopter crash on Friday in a huge blow to the government as it fights powerful drug cartels.

Blake, who for many Mexicans embodied the government’s crackdown on the drug trade, is the second Mexican interior minister in President Felipe Calderon’s presidency to be killed in an aviation accident.

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Mexico is locked in a brutal conflict against drug gangs that has killed 45,000 people in the last five years and Blake was a key member of Calderon’s security team.

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