Mexico is winning the war on drug cartels, according to the country’s president.

Felipe Calderon says raging drug gang violence shows his tough stance is working.

In the latest response, at least 25 suspected drug gang members were killed in an army raid in rural northeastern Mexico.

Three people who had presumably been kidnapped were freed following the gunbattle.

Although violence is now more widespread, Calderon says Mexico is turning the tide: “The presence of security forces and the arrest and bringing down of important criminal leaders has generated within those criminal organisations, expressions of more desperation and internal instability that spark additional ruptures.”

Authorities, meanwhile, are hailing the arrest of one of the country’s most dangerous drug barons as another breakthrough in the long running battle.

But the capture of Edgar “La Barbie” Valdez may do little to stem the bloodshed in Mexico’s most violent areas.

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