Confusing

The Washington Post builds a standard Mexico-is-F----- story around the dubious premise that Mexico's cartels are suddenly staffed by professional killers, whereas in the past they were bumblers.

In Mexico's chaotic drug war, attacks are no longer the work of desperate amateurs with bad aim. Increasingly, the killings are being carried out by professionals, often hooded and gloved, who trap their targets in coordinated ambushes, strike with overwhelming firepower, and then vanish into the afternoon rush hour -- just as they did in the Huerta killing.

At the risk of sounding snotty, over the course of reading dozens of books and hundreds of articles about Mexico's drug trade, I have never, ever read a portrayal of Mexico's hitmen as a class of "desperate amateurs with bad aim." I guess this could be an oblique reference to the assassination of Cardinal Posadas in 1993 (the killers thought they were shooting at the car of Chapo Guzmán), but then again, the author doesn't reference that or any other example of Mexican cartels' amateurism.

This is probably a reflection of the conventions of covering Mexico for a daily paper, too. Security is always a dominant theme, and the ups and downs in the battles with the cartels warrant a periodic update, but there's only so many original ways you can tell the typical MiF story. In this case, the efforts to vary the formula fell flat.