The attackers spread gasoline around the casino then lit a match.
Sylvia Longmire says labeling this as terrorism, as Calderon is doing, is a mistake. It was more likely due to rival cartels and casinos being used for money laundering.
Yesterday’s attack on the Casino Royale was one of the biggest tragedies we’ve seen in Mexico’s drug war. Whenever innocent people are caught in the crossfire of TCO [Transnational Criminal Organization] violence, it has a huge impact on the morale of the Mexican people, and the viability of Calderon’s strategy. How will the Mexican people choose to view this attack? As a true “act of terror” and an indiscriminate killing? As a severely botched attempt by a TCO to send a message to a rival, or uncooperative casino owner? Or yet another example of a failed drug war strategy?