Who wants Rogaciano Alba dead?

updated 10:09 p.m. ET May 7, 2008

PETATLAN, Mexico - Somebody wants to kill Rogaciano Alba.

Dozens of gunmen attacked the house of the local political boss, killing his sons and kidnapping his daughter in a weekend rampage that left 17 dead. With Alba in hiding, the motive remains unclear, lost in the tangle of drugs, land disputes and rebellion that lurks amid Mexico's glittering beach resorts.

"If anybody has something against me, let them tell me to my face," Alba raged in a call to a local radio station. "But (the victims) didn't steal or do anything to anybody. There was no reason to kill them like that."

Alba is easily the most powerful man in Petatlan, a Pacific coast town near the resorts of Ixtapa and Zihuatenejo that was dependent on coconut plantations and cattle ranching until drugs and illegal logging pushed them aside in the 1980s.

Mexico's drug underworld has become ever more violent in recent years, with gunmen beheading victims and carving threats into their bodies. But almost like a code of honor, hit men targeting ranchers, businessmen, journalists and rival drug smugglers have largely left the victims' families alone.

The attack on Alba broke all the rules.

'Situation has spun beyond our control'
On Saturday, seven ranchers were killed as they returned from a union meeting led by Alba. The following day, gunmen disguised as police showed up at Alba's ranch. When they didn't find him, they lined up 10 of his relatives and friends in front of his sturdy, two-story brick house and mowed them down.

Alba's sons Alejandro and Rusbel were among the dead, and his 18-year-old daughter, Ana Karen, disappeared and is believed kidnapped, although no ransom has been requested. Alba immediately went into hiding.

"Only God and he knows where he is now," said one of his daughters, who asked her name be withheld for fear the gunmen would come back for her.

She and other relatives gathered late Tuesday before the house's bullet-scarred walls, arranging white flowers and candles in a simple altar to the dead. Then they prayed for the victims and condemned the faceless killers.

Motive remains unclear
On Wednesday, police set up roadblocks as they searched for weapons, but Petatlan police director Horacio Lluck Mendiola said his 30 officers are outmanned and outgunned by criminals.

"The situation has spun beyond our control," he said. "The federal government needs to take control of this business because of the magnitude of the massacre."

He said no arrests had been made, adding: "We believe it was a well-organized gang." However, the motive remains unclear — largely because so many people have reason to want Alba dead.

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