THE BORDER REPORT

Somebody's sent a message to Sonoran Gov. Guillermo Padrés Elias last night via a coordinated grenade attack that spanned the state, from Navojoa to Hermosillo and Cananea. It's the first serious threat to have hit Sonora since the PAN-ista took office last fall and though nobody was injured in those attacks, five gunbattles throughout the border city of Nogales followed the grenadierings, leaving three dead this morning.

The first grenades came about 9 p.m. in Hermosillo, followed by Navojoa and then Cananea. In Hermosillo, they hit a state police headquarters, followed by a restaurant in Navojoa and a bank in Cananea some twenty minutes later. "Supongo that we've been long overdue, it's been quiet – until now," says a state police investigator I talk to from time to time.

Nobody significant seems to have been targeted in the shootings that have rolled through Nogales since at least 2 a.m., including major intersections and a hotel. Looks like the old acuerdos have vanished along with the PRI-istas; we'll have to wait and see how the Padrés Administration reacts. It's going to be their first test and interestingly enough, it's going to be one of the first tests for a border state controlled by the PAN in dealing with the cartels. It's something that I've been curious to see since a conversation with an analyst from the Rand Corporation a few weeks ago. Her speculation was that even though the Obama Admistration has agreed to support the federal government, Pres. Calderón's cabinet still has to deal with the northern border governors, overwhelmingly old school PRI-istas. Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León and Tamaulipas are all controlled by the PRI. So is Sinaloa.

Baja California is the only other PAN state and well, we know how they've worked things out ...