governors in attendance were placed on notice that things have changed with the newly elected government of President Enrique Pena Nieto.

According to a separate news report which appeared on the website of Sin Embargo news, part of the operation will include conducting checkpoints at specific locations in the region, which is already established practice in some Mexican Army commands.

The area around Guachochi municipality is included in the command of the Mexican 42nd Military Zone, which maintains at least one infantry company sized base in the region.

It should be noted that last May, during the Choix, Sinaloa shootouts, it was reported by Mexican news agencies that drug gang shooters from Sinaloa had exfiltrated from Choix municipality into western Chihuahua to escape Mexican Army and naval infantry counter operations inthe area. By this writer's count, a total of 56 individuals were killed in May in northern Sinaloa state that month, making it one of the bloodiest battles in Mexican Drug War history.

The sierras of western Chihuahua are also known as the Tarahumara Sierras, the home of the Tarahumara Indians. The area suffered greatly in the drought which gripped the region a year ago and sparked a nationwide relief effort. The Taramhumara Indians are subsistence farmers.

A few areas in the Tarahumara region also aid drug cartels in growing drugs, sometimes by force, and are often treated like serfs by local drug gangs.

During the relief efforts last year, news reports from the area leaked out that local government officials had withheld aid from residents to obtain promises of votes.

According