Narcobloqueos and the Spread of Tactics

The main highway into Monterrey's airport was blocked by a handful of semi trucks late last night. The trailers, presumably placed on the highway by criminal groups, were removed by authorities after 90 minutes, but red-eye flights were nonetheless postponed until this morning.

It's interesting how two relatively new criminal tactics have remained isolated in their place of origin: blockades in the Northeast (especially Monterrey), and machine-gunning partiers to punish the venue's owners in La Laguna. One of course hopes that neither menace spreads across the nation (especially the latter), but it's alarming to consider that many of the more worrying recent changes to Mexico's criminal landscape --increased use of decapitations, extortion-- were once relatively isolated to certain gangs or regions.