Deaths climb in Mexico's drug war

MEXICO CITY, Mexico (CNN) -- The fight against narcotraffickers is showing good results, Mexican President Felipe Calderon said, a day after authorities linked 38 deaths nationwide to the drug war."We are truly hitting crime's operative structure," he said on Tuesday. "This is making it so that the gangs are fighting among themselves and that is causing the deaths that are occurring in the country. For example, of all the violent deaths that we have seen, 65 percent have been in two states -- in Chihuahua and Sinaloa."

On Monday, 21 people were killed in Chihuahua, apparently by drug traffickers. The dead included 18 found in the frontier town of Juarez alone. There is plenty at stake. Mexico has sized more cocaine and money from drug cartels than anywhere else in the world. In addition, authorities have recently seized some 16,000 arms, including more than 1,000 grenades.