1

UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY

INSTITUTE FOR THE STUDY OF VIOLENT GROUPS (www.isvg.org)DAILY BORDER NEWS REPORT FOR 5 DECEMBER 2011

COMPILER, INSTITUTE FOR THE STUDY OF VIOLENT GROUPS (www.isvg.org)EDITOR, JOINT TASK FORCE NORTH (www.facebook.com/USA.JTFN)

(U) This document is UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY and portions may be exempt from mandatory disclosure under FOIA. DoD 5400.7R, "DoD Freedom of Information Act Program", DoD Directive 5230.9, "Clearance of DoD Information for Public Release", and DoD Instruction 5230.29, "Security and Policy Review of DoD Information for Public Release" apply.

(U) FAIR USE NOTICE. This document may contain copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making it available to recipients who have expressed an interest in receiving information to advance their understanding of threat activities in the interest of protecting the United States. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

(U) Use of these news items does not reflect official endorsement by Joint Task Force North or the Department of Defense.

For further information on any item, please contact the JTF-North Knowledge Management (KM).

Compiled By: Mr. Tom Davidson, Institute for the Study of Violent GroupsEdited by: Mr. Jonathan KauppApproved for Release by: Dr. Rodler Morris CONTENTS: (Note: All active EXTERNAL hyperlinks have been removed)

Table of Contents

CONTENTS..............................................................................................................................1

1. CANADA AND NORTHERN BORDER STATES...........................................2A. Eleven Arrested on Federal Charges in Meth Distribution Ring (OR/WA)........................3B. Drug Runner Nabbed in Project Faril Bust Facing Years in U.S. Prison (MT/SK)............3

2. INNER UNITED STATES..................................................................................5A. Memo Shows Early ATF Concern on Fast and Furious Probe Despite Claims (DC).........5B. DHS To Equip Border Agents with New Body Armor (DC/NC).......................................7

2

C. D.E.A. Launders Mexican Profits of Drug Cartels (DC)....................................................7

3. MEXICO AND SOUTHERN BORDER STATES...........................................10A. 85- Year Old Woman Gets 2 ½ Years For US-Mexico Smuggling Ring (CA)................10B. 2 Women Convicted in Arizona Human Smuggling Case (AZ).......................................11C. Mexican Government Condemns Activist’s Murder (DF)................................................12D. Soldiers Seize 1.9 Tons of Marijuana from 18-Wheeler in Nuevo Laredo (TAMPS)......14E. Former Mexico President Fox Blames US for Drug War (TX)........................................14F. High Risk, Low Profile for Mexican Women Drug Mules (SIN).....................................15G. Mexico Activist in Juarez Women Killings Wounded (CHIH).........................................17H. Mexican Army Dismantles Gang’s Antennas, Radios......................................................18I. 1,230 Bodies Found in Mexico’s 'Narco-Graves’ Since 2007

(TAMPS/CHIH/NL/DGO/GRO/MOR/COAH/VER/MICH/OAX)..................................18J. Why Guadalajara is the Next Hotspot, Part II (JAL).........................................................19K. 11 Individuals Arrested for Human Trafficking (TX).......................................................20L. 22 Policemen Linked to Los Zetas are Arrested (TAB/CHIS)..........................................21M. Zetas Issue Open Challenge to US and Mexico Governments (US/MX).........................22N. Z-40′s Challenge to Mexico (US/MX)..............................................................................23

4. CARRIBEAN, CENTRAL, AND SOUTH AMERICA....................................24A. Russia to Build AK-47 Ammo Factory in Cuba (CU)......................................................24B. Could Ecuador See Rise of a Home-Grown Rebel Insurgency? (EC)..............................24C. Paraguay Busts Sex Trafficking Ring Linked to Drug Smuggling (PY)...........................26D. How Gangs Have Disturbed the Math of Football in El Salvador (SV)...........................26

5. OPINION AND ANALYSIS.............................................................................28A. El Salvador Braces for 8% Rise in Homicides in 2011 (SV)............................................28B. Majority of Undocumented Immigrants Have Lived in US Over a Decade, Report Says

(DC)...................................................................................................................................29C. Mergers and Acquisitions in Tijuana (BC)........................................................................31D. Columbia is no Lesson For Mexico (MX/CO/US) Part 1.................................................32E. DEA Warns of Narco and Terrorism Nexus (US/MX).....................................................37F. Rival Cartels Take Bloody Drug War to the Heart of the Country (JAL/CHIH/SIN)......39G. Latin American, Caribbean Leaders Meet in Venezuela (VE)..........................................41H. Mexico Drug War Refugees Escape to More Bloodshed (CHIH/VER)...........................44

1. CANADA AND NORTHERN BORDER STATES

3

A. Eleven Arrested on Federal Charges in Meth Distribution Ring (OR/WA)

1 December 2011KOIN News

Eleven suspects described as “heavy hitting, large scale drug traffickers” were arrested this week on federal charges in connection with a multistate methamphetamine distribution ring, the U.S. District Attorney’s Office for the District of Oregon announced Thursday. Dec. 1, 2011. (Washington County Sheriff's Office)

The arrests follow a multi-year investigation. According to a federal indictment unsealed Wednesday, the suspects used cell phones to traffic drugs from February of this year to the present. The indictment alleges investigators used court sanctioned wiretaps to capture communication between the defendants and drug supply sources in Mexico. 

Law enforcement from federal, Oregon and Washington agencies executed 14 search and arrest warrants on Tuesday and Wednesday, recovering 15 pounds of methamphetamine and heroin, over 20 firearms and large amounts of cash. 

The defendants include:

A 27year old man, of HillsboroAdrian Gonzalez-Pasaye, 35, of VancouverA 23year old man of Hillsboro 27 year old man of HillsboroA man from PortlandA 20year old man of Hillsboro43 year old man of Forest GroveA 22 year old of Portland

The federal charges carry a minimum sentence of 10 years, and a maximum of life in prison.  

Multiple agencies assisted in the investigation including: Westside Interagency Narcotics Task Force, DEA, FBI, the U.S. Marshals Service, Oregon State Police, the Vancouver Police Department, Clark County Sheriff’s Office, Washington County Sheriff’s Office, Sherwood Police Department, the Oregon National Guard, the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office, the Portland Police Bureau, the Hillsboro Police Department, the Beaverton Police Department, the Clark Skamania Drug Task Force and the Douglas County District Attorney’s Office.

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. District Attorneys.

Source: [www.koinlocal6.com/news/local/story/Eleven-arrested-in-Ore-Wash-on-federal-charges-in/wZbOcS9U402RBGmENVPiwQ.cspx]Return to Contents

4

B. Drug Runner Nabbed in Project Faril Bust Facing Years in U.S. Prison (MT/SK)

2 December 2011Leader-Post

REGINA — A Canadian who was a U.S. connection in an international drug smuggling ring that saw loads of cocaine shipped across the border into Saskatchewan has pleaded guilty to charges in a Montana courtroom.

Gregory Mark German is awaiting sentencing, set for March 19, after pleading guilty this week in U.S. Federal Court in Great Falls, MT, to possession with the intent to distribute cocaine.The 27-year-old Edmonton man, who had been living in the U.S., was one of five people arrested in October in an international investigation dubbed Project Faril by the Regina Integrated Drug Unit. Intercepting about 370 kilograms of cocaine worth $16.5 million and 100,000 ecstasy pills worth $1 million, RCMP have called it the largest bust of its kind for a Saskatchewan police force.

“Montana and Canada’s wide, empty expanses make their borders ripe targets for criminal mischief,” U.S. Attorney said in a news release issued Tuesday by the U.S. Department of Justice for the District of Montana.

The five-month-long joint operation involved police in Montana, California, Saskatchewan, Alberta and B.C. “The cases brought in Montana and in Canada are truly exemplary examples of cross-border co-operation,” US Attorney added.

German, who is currently in custody in a Montana jail, was arrested Oct. 7 as he stepped off a flight in Las Vegas, where he planned to relocate. The offence to which he pleaded guilty carries a mandatory minimum of 10 years in prison — but the sentence can range up to life, as well as a $4 million fine and five years of supervised release. Under U.S. law, he’ll have to serve at least 85 per cent of his time behind bars before parole.

As part of the plea proceedings, an assistant U.S. attorney filed an “offer of proof,” outlining the case against German had it gone to trial.

The news release states the investigation had a “confidential source or CS,” who was caught by border patrol agents near Malta, MT, in April and agreed to assist police in intercepting future loads. The CS admitted he had smuggled approximately 12 separate loads — totaling about 916 kilograms of cocaine — from California to Canada via the border between Montana and Saskatchewan since December 2009, says the document.

On April 28, members of the Drug Enforcement Administration and Homeland Security Investigations monitored the CS as he picked up about 35 kilograms of cocaine, destined for Canada, from German in Los Angeles, CA.

The offer of proof outlines other monitored drug deliveries after that, but notes German was not involved in the transactions.

5

According to the document, German had pharmacy training from a Canadian college, and became acquainted with an organization of drug traffickers with connections in Los Angeles. In January, he was persuaded to move there and put his training to use testing the quality of the drugs delivered to the organization. He initially picked up large amounts of U.S. cash for the organization, used to buy drugs to be shipped to Canada.

“In April 2011, German’s contact in the organization instructed German to take a sum of cash, obtain a load of cocaine from a third party, and deliver the drugs to a person who ultimately turned out to be the CS,” the release notes. After learning the cocaine had been seized, German returned to Canada where he helped recruit drug runners for the organization.

In Canada, Brock Ernest Palfrey, 25, Troy Ernest Swanson, 25, William Bruce Larsen, 51, and Ronald Charles Learning, 28, all of B.C., were arrested as a result of Project Faril. Their drug charges are proceeding before the courts in Swift Current.

Source: [www.leaderpost.com/news/Drug+runner+nabbed+Project+Faril+bust+facing+years+prison/5804806/story]Return to Contents

2. INNER UNITED STATES

A. Memo Shows Early ATF Concern on Fast and Furious Probe Despite Claims (DC)

2 December 2011 Fox News

While federal officials publicly denounced a lone whistleblower and told Congress the administration had done everything it could to stop guns from going to Mexico, administration officials had signs that Fast and Furious investigators were losing track of weapons, a new memo obtained exclusively by Fox News suggests.

The memo, written in early February by an Agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, appears to corroborate allegations made a few weeks earlier by whistleblower ATF Agent about the gunrunning probe. It also conflicts with a letter from Assistant Attorney General to Congress, in which he insisted, "The allegation ... that ATF ‘sanctioned’ or otherwise knowingly allowed the sale of assault weapons ... is false.” Styers' memo to top ATF officials was dated Feb. 3, a day before the Assistant Attorney General told Congress on Feb. 4 that the whistleblowers claims were false. The ATF agent explained that Fast and Furious "divided and isolated agents," and the agent in charge called off surveillance. He detailed one instance in which agents monitoring a firearms transaction at a gas station were told they were too close to the scene -- while they repositioned, the buyer left the area without agents following. 

6

"It is unheard of to have an active wiretap investigation without full time dedicated surveillance units on the ground," he wrote. 

He wrote that his advice, and the advice of other agents, was "widely disregarded." 

….

The Iowa Senator has demanded to know who at Justice approved the Assistant’s AG letter before it was sent out. So far, Justice has failed to comply, prompting the Iowa Sentor to speak out Thursday afternoon on the Senate floor.

"It’s clear that multiple highly placed officials in multiple agencies knew almost immediately of the connection between Operation Fast and Furious and the Agent’s death," the Senator said. "Yet a month and a half after the Agent’s death, Attorney General was allegedly ignorant of the Fast and Furious connection."

The Iowa Senator said "documents that have come to light in my investigation" that suggest the AG was either untruthful or uninformed when he told Congress he didn't know Fast and Furious guns were used kill the agent. The Senator suggested Homeland Security Secretary also may have been untruthful or in his words, "kept in the dark" on the agent’s matter.

Those documents include emails suggesting U.S. Attorney knew immediately guns found at the scene belonged to Fast and Furious and that US Attorney briefed DHS Secretary when she arrived in Tucson. The Phoenix FBI director knew it as well, and he too allegedly spoke to the Secretary.

"So, a very important question comes up. Why would they conceal the Fast and Furious connection from the Secretary days later?" the Senator asked. "Why would the US Attorney conceal the Fast and Furious connection from Secretary of DHS?"

The Senator says emails also show the US Attorney spoke on Dec. 15, the day after the agent was shot, with AG’s deputy chief of staff.

Shortly after that, the deputy director of the ATF made sure briefing papers were prepared about the Fast and Furious connection to the agent’s death and sent those to the deputy attorney general’s office at the Justice Department. Within 24 hours, the Iowa Senator said, they were forwarded to Deputy Attorney General, accompanied by a personal email from one of the Deputy AG’s assistants, explaining the situation. Two weeks later, Deputy AG was named the AG’s chief of staff.

"So, a very important question is unanswered," the Senator said. "Why wouldn’t Deputy AG bring up these serious problems with Attorney General? The Border Patrol and the Department of Homeland Security lost a man. ... And, if that’s not serious enough to brief up to the top of the department, then I don’t know what is."

….

7

Source: [www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/12/02/memo-whistleblower-fast-and-furious/#ixzz1fX8dyczO]Return to Contents

B. DHS To Equip Border Agents with New Body Armor (DC/NC)

2 December 2011Homelands Security News Wire

Eden, North Carolina-based KDH Defense Systems, Inc. said it has been awarded an estimated maximum value $48,629,750 firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity multiple award contract for personal body armor and associated accessories the U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

“This award, one of the largest domestic law enforcement contracts for personal body armor in the United States, represents a significant milestone in the company’s history,” said Dave Herbener, president and CEO for KDH. “Along with our recent sales to the U.S. military, this continued growth and diversification of both our products and core customer base underscores the expanding market share of KDH’s industry leading body armor solutions.”

The contract was awarded as a result of a competitive small business set-aside and proposals were solicited via FedBizOpps. The first delivery under the contact is expected to begin during the first half of 2012.

Source: [www.homelandsecuritynewswire.com/dr20111202-dhs-to-equip-border-agents-with-new-body-armor]Return to Contents

C. D.E.A. Launders Mexican Profits of Drug Cartels (DC)

3 December 2011The New York Times

WASHINGTON — Undercover American narcotics agents have laundered or smuggled millions of dollars in drug proceeds as part of Washington’s expanding role in Mexico’s fight against drug cartels, according to current and former federal law enforcement officials.

The agents, primarily with the Drug Enforcement Administration, have handled shipments of hundreds of thousands of dollars in illegal cash across borders, those officials said, to identify how criminal organizations move their money, where they keep their assets and, most important, who their leaders are.

8

They said agents had deposited the drug proceeds in accounts designated by traffickers, or in shell accounts set up by agents.

The officials said that while the D.E.A. conducted such operations in other countries, it began doing so in Mexico only in the past few years. The high-risk activities raise delicate questions about the agency’s effectiveness in bringing down drug kingpins, underscore diplomatic concerns about Mexican sovereignty, and blur the line between surveillance and facilitating crime. As it launders drug money, the agency often allows cartels to continue their operations over months or even years before making seizures or arrests.

Agency officials declined to publicly discuss details of their work, citing concerns about compromising their investigations. But a former senior agency official who is currently working for a private contracting company called Mission Essential Personnel, said, “We tried to make sure there was always close supervision of these operations so that we were accomplishing our objectives, and agents weren’t laundering money for the sake of laundering money.”Another former agency official, who asked not to be identified speaking publicly about delicate operations, said, “My rule was that if we are going to launder money, we better show results. Otherwise, the D.E.A. could wind up being the largest money launderer in the business, and that money results in violence and deaths.”

Those are precisely the kinds of concerns members of Congress have raised about a gun-smuggling operation known as Fast and Furious, in which agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives allowed people suspected of being low-level smugglers to buy and transport guns across the border in the hope that they would lead to higher-level operatives working for Mexican cartels. After the agency lost track of hundreds of weapons, some later turned up in Mexico; two were found on the United States side of the border where an American Border Patrol agent had been shot to death.

Former D.E.A. officials rejected comparisons between letting guns and money walk away. Money, they said, poses far less of a threat to public safety. And unlike guns, it can lead more directly to the top ranks of criminal organizations.

….

The laundering operations that the United States conducts elsewhere — about 50 so-called Attorney General Exempt Operations are under way around the world — had been forbidden in Mexico after American customs agents conducted a cross-border sting without notifying Mexican authorities in 1998, which was how most American undercover work was conducted there up to that point.

But that changed in recent years after President Felipe Calderón declared war against the country’s drug cartels and enlisted the United States to play a leading role in fighting them because of concerns that his security forces had little experience and long histories of corruption.Today, in operations supervised by the Justice Department and orchestrated to get around sovereignty restrictions, the United States is running numerous undercover laundering

9

investigations against Mexico’s most powerful cartels. One D.E.A. official said it was not unusual for American agents to pick up two or three loads of Mexican drug money each week.

A second official said that as Mexican cartels extended their operations from Latin America to Africa, Europe and the Middle East, the reach of the operations had grown as well. When asked how much money had been laundered as a part of the operations, the official would only say, “A lot.”

….

Former counternarcotics officials, who also would speak only on the condition of anonymity about clandestine operations, offered a clearer glimpse of their scale and how they worked. In some cases, the officials said, Mexican agents, posing as smugglers and accompanied by American authorities, pick up traffickers’ cash in Mexico. American agents transport the cash on government flights to the United States, where it is deposited into traffickers’ accounts, and then wired to companies that provide goods and services to the cartel.

In other cases, D.E.A. agents, posing as launderers, pick up drug proceeds in the United States, deposit them in banks in this country and then wire them to the traffickers in Mexico.The former officials said that the drug agency tried to seize as much money as it laundered — partly in the fees the operatives charged traffickers for their services and another part in carefully choreographed arrests at pickup points identified by their undercover operatives.

And the former officials said that federal law enforcement agencies had to seek Justice Department approval to launder amounts greater than $10 million in any single operation. But they said that the cap was treated more as a guideline than a rule, and that it had been waived on many occasions to attract the interest of high-value targets.

….

Mexico has tightened restrictions on large cash purchases and on bank deposits in dollars in the past five years. But a proposed overhaul of the Mexican attorney general’s office has stalled, its architects said, as have proposed laws that would crack down on money laundered through big corporations and retail chains.

“Mexico still thinks the best way to seize dirty money is to arrest a trafficker, then turn him upside down to see how much change falls out of his pockets,” said Sergio Ferragut, a professor at the Autonomous Technological Institute of Mexico and the author of a book on money laundering, which he said was “still a sensitive subject for Mexican authorities.”

….

But there has been no significant dip in the volume of drugs moving across the country. Reports of human rights violations by police officers and soldiers have soared. And drug-related violence has left more than 40,000 people dead since Mr. Calderón took office in December 2006.

10

The death toll is greater than in any period since Mexico’s revolution a century ago, and the policy of close cooperation with Washington may not survive.

“We need to concentrate all our efforts on combating violence and crime that affects people, instead of concentrating on the drug issue,” said a former foreign minister, Jorge G. Castañeda, at a conference hosted last month by the Cato Institute in Washington. “It makes absolutely no sense for us to put up 50,000 body bags to stop drugs from entering the United States.”

Source: [www.nytimes.com/2011/12/04/world/americas/us-drug-agents-launder-profits-of-mexican-cartels.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&hp]Return to Contents

3. MEXICO AND SOUTHERN BORDER STATES

A. 85- Year Old Woman Gets 2 ½ Years For US-Mexico Smuggling Ring (CA)

2 December 2011Latino Fox News

The 85-year old Doña of a female-controlled immigrant smuggling ring was sentenced in a U.S. court Thursday to 2 1/2 years in prison in case that appears out of place during a time when smuggling has been controlled by powerful and violent organizations. 

The suspect was charged with moving up to 80 people a month past border inspectors at the nation's busiest border crossing in San Diego by having them assume false identities. Her method was relatively safe compared to common and sometimes fatal smugglers' tacks like leading groups through remote mountains and deserts or stuffing them in car trunks and engine compartments.

"This was a very well-organized, safely run operation," said her attorney. "No one was ever put in danger."

Prosecutors argued that the suspect deserved more than three years in prison for conspiracy to bring illegal aliens into the United States, saying she was a high-level smuggler compared to the lowly operatives that usually get captured by U.S. authorities. The defendant led the organization with her daughter and another woman who were also sentenced.

"We've essentially been able to pull back the curtain," said an assistant U.S. attorney.The defendant — appearing frail with long, gray hair — apologized in a barely audible voice."I'm remorseful. I ask for forgiveness. I'm very nervous. I can't speak," she said through a Spanish interpreter.

11

U.S. District Judge gave the daughter 2½ years in prison. Guadalupe Ojeda, who managed a defendant-owned hotel in Tijuana that was used as a staging ground for migrants, got three years and one month in prison.

Small family-run organizations used to dominate the migrant smuggling business, but they have faded in the last decade along with a dramatic increase in border security. As smuggling fees have skyrocketed from hundreds to thousands of dollars, larger, more violent criminal groups have pushed them aside.

The defendant managed to survive the industry turmoil until her arrest earlier this year, aided by her 54-year-old daughter and others, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement investigators. She met migrants at Tijuana's Suites Royal Hotel where she gave them immigration documents belonging to others and told them to memorize the information. An underling knew how to read codes on the documents to determine information such as whether they were new issues or renewals.

In the morning, migrants had their hair done to resemble the person on the immigration documents, said an ICE supervisory special agent. The defendant lined them up and assumed the role of immigration inspector. She berated them when they fumbled for answers.

Guides then led migrants through the San Ysidro border crossing, joined them on a commercial bus to the Los Angeles area and collected $3,500 per person on arrival, investigators said. The guides returned to the border in time for dinner. "She had been doing it for a long time and she found her niche," ICE said.

The defendant was indicted on immigrant smuggling charges in 1982 but never arrested, according to an affidavit filed with a criminal complaint. She allegedly boasted on a wiretap that she had been in the business for more than 40 years.

As part of an agreement with prosecutors to dismiss some charges, her daughter surrendered her home in Chula Vista, outside San Diego.

The defendant, a legal U.S. resident who was born in Mexico, lived in Chula Vista with her daughter, ICE said. They invited friends to sit on lawn chairs in the garage and watch television. They often visited San Diego-area casinos to unwind.

The daughter's attorney, told the judge that the smuggling organization was wrong, but he drew a contrast with more violent groups. "It can be said they had a certain ethic in the way they ran their business," he said.

Source: [latino.foxnews.com/latino/news/2011/12/02/85-year-old-woman-gets-2-12-years-for-smuggling-ring]Return to Contents

B. 2 Women Convicted in Arizona Human Smuggling Case (AZ)

12

1 December 2011My Fox Phoenix

TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) - Two women have been convicted in a human smuggling case in southern Arizona.

Federal prosecutors said Thursday that 28-year-old woman and 33-year-old female were convicted in U.S. District Court in Tucson of transporting five illegal immigrants in July. They are scheduled to be sentenced sometime in February.

The Arizona Department of Transportation requested Border Patrol assistance with a vehicle stop involving possible human smuggling.

The two women and five illegal immigrants were taken into custody by Border Patrol agents and transported to the Tucson Station for processing.

Agents scanned fingerprints of the two women and found both had prior criminal convictions. The 28 year old was convicted in 2005 for aggravated assault and child abuse. The other woman was convicted in 2008 for a dangerous drug violation.

Source: [www.myfoxphoenix.com/dpp/news/immigration/AZHuman-Smuggling-Convictions-apx-12012011]Return to Contents

C. Mexican Government Condemns Activist’s Murder (DF)

2 December 2011Latin American Herald Tribune

MEXICO CITY – The Mexican government has condemned “the cowardly murder” of Nepomuceno Moreno, a member of the peace movement led by poet Javier Sicilia, and ripped the Sonora state Attorney General’s Office’s handling of the case by criminalizing the victim.

Moreno, who had embarked on a quest for justice on behalf of his kidnapped son and had received death threats, was killed on Monday while driving in Hermosillo, the capital of Sonora.

The Sonora AG’s office said Tuesday it was pursuing several “lines of investigation” but that all the evidence indicated Moreno’s murder was linked to organized crime, his criminal record and his son’s July 2010 abduction.

“What happened before will not be a barrier to bringing those responsible for these reprehensible acts to justice,” the Government Secretariat said in a statement.

The federal government will provide all the “necessary support” to investigators so they can

13

clear up the killing of the “well-known activist,” the secretariat said.

Federal officials are “following the results of the investigation” being conducted by the Sonora AG’s office in terms of “the actions of the authorities responsible, especially with regard to procedural matters,” the secretariat said.

Moreno had asked President Felipe Calderon during a meeting in October to guarantee his personal safety in light of the death threats he had received.

The meeting was attended by Sicilia and other members of his Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity.

Sicilia called during an appearance earlier this week at the Guadalajara International Book Fair for the dismissal of Sonora Attorney General Abel Murrieta.

The prominent poet and peace activist said Murrieta was directly responsible for the failure to ensure Moreno’s safety.

“We can’t have a state attorney general who makes these kinds of omissions and who also criminalizes the victim ... Let’s hope he’s (fired). It would be a really classy move politically and morally speaking by the governor and a good sign for citizens,” Sicilia said.

“The worst thing about the incident,” Sicilia added, was that it was “‘the chronicle of a murder foretold.’”

Moreno was killed after spending most of the last year of his life seeking to draw attention to the abduction of his son and four other people in Ciudad Obregon, Sonora, a crime he attributed to state police, Sicilia said.

Two of the five abductees – including Moreno’s son – remain missing, while one was found dead in a canal and the other was freed by his captors.

The slain activist was a “brave” and “exemplary” man who had traversed “11,000 kilometers (6,830 miles)” carrying a photo of his son and had asked Calderon to help him in his search, Sicilia said.

Moreno was convicted in the United States in 1979 of conspiracy to smuggle heroin, Sinaloa AG’s office spokesman Jose Larrinaga told a press conference.

One of the people abducted along with Moreno’s son was facing car-theft charges and another was involved in a September 2008 homicide in Ciudad Obregon, Larrinaga said.

Sicilia, however, blasted what he said was the criminalization of the activist and also Sonora authorities’ failure to provide him with adequate protection.

14

Moreno is the second member of Sicilia’s group to be slain after indigenous land-reform activist Pedro Leiva Dominguez was killed Oct. 7 in the western state of Michoacan. EFE.

Source: [laht.com/article.asp?CategoryId=14091&ArticleId=449113]

Return to Contents

D. Soldiers Seize 1.9 Tons of Marijuana from 18-Wheeler in Nuevo Laredo (TAMPS)

2 December 2011Valley Central

MEXICO CITY (AP) -- Mexican soldiers have confiscated more than a ton of marijuana Thursday hidden in a tractor trailer at one of the international bridges at Nuevo Laredo, across the border from Laredo, Texas.

The Mexican military says the army arrested the driver.

Also on Thursday, the U.S. government delivered inspection technology and a surveillance plane to help Mexico's navy fight drug cartels.

The equipment is part of the Merida Initiative, a program for which the U.S. government has spent $1.4 billion since 2008 in helping Mexico and Central American nations counter drug trafficking.

Source: [www.valleycentral.com/news/story.aspx?id=693099#.TtmZPWO5MVA]Return to Contents

E. Former Mexico President Fox Blames US for Drug War (TX)

1 December 2011KENS 5

FORT WORTH — Former Mexican President Vicente Fox said during a speech at Texas Christian University this week that Americans addicted to drugs are at the root of the border violence in his country.

"This country has to think about legalization of drugs or make the decision to stop drug consumption," Fox explained. "If you don't consume drugs, our problem is solved. We're doing our part. We're paying with 50,000 dead now."

Violence along the international border — especially in Mexican cities that border Texas like Juarez, Piedras Negras, and Nuevo Laredo — has increased in the the last 24-months with beheadings, kidnappings, and even car bombs detonated as drug cartels battle each other and the federal police who were sent in to solve the problem.

15

….

"We don't deserve to be where we are. It's not even our problem," Fox said. "Mexico does not consume drugs — not at the level of the drug consumption in the United States."

President Fox said the U.S. and Mexico should also work together more closely to stop "the free flow of weapons and ammunition" south of the border.

Still, the drug war is a growing image problem for Mexico because it is wedged between the South American countries that produce drugs and the U.S., which uses them.

Overcoming such a geographic dilemma doesn't have an easy answer.

"The strategy has to be changed," Fox said. "We have to look for other ways of confronting this issue."

Source: [www.kens5.com/home/Former-Mexico-President-Fox-blames-US-for-drug-war-134855133]Return to Contents

F. High Risk, Low Profile for Mexican Women Drug Mules (SIN)

2 December 2011AFP

CULIACAN, Mexico — Drug traffickers showed up at Martha Lopez's home in Sinaloa state, at the heart of Mexico's drug industry, and said they knew she planned to visit her sick son in San Quintin, near the US border.

A man held a gun to the head of the almost 70-year-old Mexican as a woman strapped crystal meth around her waist before she was due to board the plane.

"I was really scared but I wanted to see my son. They said they would kill me if I reported them," said Lopez inside a shabby jail in Culiacan, capital of the northwestern Sinaloa state, where she has served three of a 10-year sentence for transporting drugs, after being stopped at the airport.Women are increasingly visible and vulnerable as Mexico's drug gangs break up and grow, not only as "mules" transporting drugs either because they are threatened or want the cash, but also as money launderers, occasional assassins or victims of beheadings.

In a gritty take on the issue, "Miss Bala" or "Miss Bullet," Mexico's bid for the 2012 Oscars, tells the tale of a 23-year-old woman forcibly swept into a world of drug trafficking and violence after witnessing a massacre.

16

The movie -- inspired by a real-life beauty queen arrested in a drug trafficking scandal in 2008 -- shows a passive woman manipulated and violated by criminals and officials alike in a macho world.

It also highlights the increasing risks for many Mexicans in areas affected by drug-related violence, blamed for some 45,000 deaths since 2006.

While glamorous girlfriends or gang leaders steal the limelight in soap operas and drug ballads, many poor and uneducated women are often jailed for 10 years for carrying small amounts of drugs.

"They are crimes which are judged in a completely disproportionate way," said Elena Azaola, an investigator at Mexico's Center for Advanced Studies and Research in Social Anthropology."The criminal gangs hire women precisely because they're more vulnerable with less capacity to defend themselves."

Although only five percent of the prison population, female inmates have almost doubled in the past decade to 11,000, with around a third jailed for drug-related crimes, according to the Public Security Ministry.

Streets of luxury car showrooms hint at the massive wealth available to some in Culiacan, home to the Sinaloa Federation of fugitive billionaire drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman.The state is renowned for beautiful women handpicked as girlfriends and wives by drug traffickers, standing out in their designer clothes, high heels and diamond-incrusted nails.

It has also produced top female drug operators, like Blanca "The Empress" Cazeres and Sandra Avila, known as "The Queen of the Pacific," both accused of working for the Sinaloa gang.But most women remain anonymous, often getting involved in drug crime through their families, sometimes after the death of a partner.

"Those detained are the most abandoned, who don't have someone to defend them. But many women are partners of sellers or gunmen and know what their partner does. Sometimes they don't only know but are very active in it," said Teresa Guerra, a lawyer and member of a local women's collective.

Double walls topped with barbed wire surround Culiacan's jail, where a smell of sewage mixes with the warm breeze and small cells house 75 women, more than half jailed for drug-related crimes.

Traffickers offered Josefa Carreno 1,000 dollars to take metamphetamines by bus to the border, hidden in drinking yogurt bottles.

"They saw me in a moment of need. My children were really small," said the single mother of two. "I saw it was easy."

17

In a rare admission, Mercedes Rodriguez said adrenalin rather than a need for money led her to drive carloads of drugs up Mexico's Pacific coast.

"It was like the high from taking drugs," Rodriguez said.

Her youngest son stopped talking to her when she was jailed two years ago, she said, wiping a hand over her eyes.

Source: [www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hiB0oN-jOC8SjK51naGWu4J1k1Yw?docId=CNG.70b013c2f0a76fbaf7abaf9262383c37.351]Return to Contents

G. Mexico Activist in Juarez Women Killings Wounded (CHIH)

3 December 2011ABC News

An activist representing relatives of women slain or missing in the border city of Ciudad Juarez was shot Friday in what authorities called an apparent robbery attempt.

Chihuahua state prosecutors said Norma Andrade 51, was shot twice outside her home and was in stable condition in a hospital.

Andrade was the second activist to be shot this week in northern Mexico. Anti-crime activist Nepomuceno Moreno was killed Monday in Hermosillo. He had protested the kidnapping of his teenage son.

Andrade founded an organization of relatives of women who have gone missing or been murdered in Ciudad Juarez to pressure authorities to solve the cases. Her daughter Lilia Alejandra Garcia Andrade was tortured, raped and killed in 2001 when she was 17.

Arturo Sandoval, spokesman for the state Attorney General's Office, said Andrade told investigators that a man approached her outside her house and tugged at her purse. When she tried to hold on to it, the man fired his gun wounding her right hand and left shoulder, Sandoval said.

Authorities were still trying to determine whether it was a robbery or a murder attempt, Sandoval said.

Andrade's daughter, Malu Andrade, told The Associated Press teachers at the middle school where her mother works said suspicious men had been asking about her whereabouts Friday morning. The attack happened in the afternoon.

"Authorities knew that we had been threatened," the daughter said by telephone.

18

A series of eerily similar killings of more than 100 mainly young women began in Ciudad Juarez in 1993, but appeared to have tapered off by late 2004 or early 2005.

The killings have been the topic of books, documentaries and the 2006 movie "Bordertown" starring Jennifer Lopez. Lopez in 2007 received a special recognition from Andrade and her organization, Bring Our Daughters Home.

Source: [abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/mexico-activist-juarez-women-killings-wounded-15078087#.Ttrh6GO5MVB ]Return to Contents

H. Mexican Army Dismantles Gang’s Antennas, Radios

1 December 2011The Associated Press

MEXICO CITY—Mexican army troops dismantled a telecommunications system set up by organized crime in four northern states, authorities said Thursday.

The Defense Department said soldiers confiscated 167 antennas and 166 power supplies that gang members used to communicate among themselves and to monitor military movements.The operation also netted more than 1,400 radios and 2,600 cellphones in the border states of Tamaulipas, Nuevo Leon and Coahuila and in the state of San Luis Potosi, a statement said.The army hasn't said which cartel was affected.

During the summer, Mexico's navy dismantled a communication system used by the Zetas cartel in the Gulf state of Veracruz. The Zetas have a strong presence in all four of the states involved in the army's operation.

Elsewhere, soldiers confiscated more than a ton of marijuana hidden in a tractor trailer at one of the international bridges at Nuevo Laredo, across the border from Laredo, Texas. The army arrested the driver.

Also on Thursday, the U.S. government delivered inspection technology and a surveillance plane to help Mexico's navy fight drug cartels.

The equipment is part of the Merida Initiative, a program for which the U.S. government has spent $1.4 billion since 2008 in helping Mexico and Central American nations counter drug trafficking.

Source: [www.elpasotimes.com/juarez/ci_19450718]Return to Contents

I. 1,230 Bodies Found in Mexico’s 'Narco-Graves’ Since 2007 (TAMPS/CHIH/NL/DGO/GRO/MOR/COAH/VER/MICH/OAX)

2 December 2011In Sight

19

According to data from Mexico’s National Human Rights Commission (CNDH), a quasi-governmental institution charged with evaluating the state’s adherence to human rights law, the bodies have been distributed in 310 graves across the country.

The commission’s data shows that the trend is increasing at an alarming rate. From January 2007 to December 2009, the CNDH counted only 123 victims buried in hidden graves, but since then the organization has counted 1,107 (90 percent of the total).

So far this year 768 bodies have been discovered, making up some 63 percent of the total.In general the states where these clandestine graves are found are home to the most drug-related violence, leading to the sites being referred to as "narco-graves." The largest burial sites have been found in Tamaulipas, Chihuahua, Nuevo Leon, Durango, Guerrero, Morelos, Coahuila, Veracruz, Michoacan and Oaxaca.

Perhaps the most famous “narco-grave” discovery took place in August 2010, when officials found the bodies of 72 Central American migrants buried in a series of graves in San Fernando, Tamaulipas. As In Sight Crime has reported, organized crime has a tightening grip on the migrant smuggling business, meaning that migrants are especially vulnerable to drug violence.

Source: [insightcrime.org/insight-latest-news/item/1927-1230-bodies-found-in-mexicos-narco-graves-since-2007]Return to Contents

J. Why Guadalajara is the Next Hotspot, Part II (JAL)

2 December 2011Southern Pulse

The 24-25 November mass killing of 26 individuals, dumped in a symbolic section of Guadalajara, was a message left by Heriberto Lazcano for El Chapo Guzman, his primary rival. Within hours of the federal police pullout of Guadalajara at the conclusion of the Para Panamerican Games, Los Zetas operators began kidnapping individuals likely tied to several low-level Sinaloa Federation operations in the city. Though the absence of these individuals will have little to no impact in the overall structure of the Sinaloa Federation’s operations in the city, it left a strong message in the wake of the attacks on Los Zetas in Veracruz, where the Matazetas vigilante group killed over 30 low-level Zeta operators in September 2011.

As Southern Pulse presented in the first report, Why Guadalajara is the next hotspot, Los Zetas organized and executed a well-planned attack, but after careful consideration and a series of discussions with our investigators and sources in Guadalajara, we assess that this even is isolated and should be considered as a messaging device, not the harbinger of a sustained conflict in Guadalajara.

We agree with our sources who claim that Guadalajara is still well within the grip of the Sinaloa

20

Federation. One source suggested that the city itself is perhaps more of a symbolic trophy than logistically necessary for the Zetas criminal enterprise. Considering the layout of the routes in and around the city, and through Jalisco, Zeta control of outlying routes and highways would allow the organization to operate in the region without the possibly high losses that would result in a direct assault on Sinaloa Federation forces in the city.

Unlike Monterrey, where logistics routes run through the city, and the state of Nuevo Leon, where most significant routes pass through or near Monterrey, the city and state of Guadalajra and Jalisco present several options for logistics, a fact that supports the consideration that the Zeta push for control of Guadalajara is more likely to play out in the state of Jalisco before it spills over into the city’s streets. While it is possible that Guadalajra becomes a focal point of violence in 2012, its more likely that in their currently weakened state, Los Zetas will focus first on easy targets and gather strength before mounting a criminal seige on Sinaloa Federation operators, assets, and government partners in Guadalajara.

The body dump by the Arcos de Milenio in Guadalajara was a message that fits well within the long-established Zeta strategy of using fear as a weapon. In a city that the Mexican government touted as “bulletproof,” the body dump reminded local, state and federal leaders that Los Zetas could strike at will in even the most secure sections of the country. At the same time, this message reminded El Chapo that his enemies are in his backyard - an effective reminder that simultaneously pulls El Chapo’s attention from attacking Los Zetas flanks in Veracruz and forces him to wonder about other cities he once thought were secure.

A body dump in the city of Culiacan, a day before the Guadalajara event, was possibly connected. If so, the double massacre indicates a high degree of planning and makes a strong step in the direction of raising doubt within the high-level ranks of Sinaloa Federation’s strategic thinkers. As the chess match between these two groups and their proxies continues, Guadalajara will remain a focal point, though an assault on the city before Los Zetas establish a stronger presence in the state of Jalisco is less likely in the wake of this massacre.

Source: [southernpulse.com/_webapp_4099571/Why_Guadalajara_is_the_next_hotspot,_part_II]Return to Contents

K. 11 Individuals Arrested for Human Trafficking (TX)

1 December 2011CBS 19

Today the Nacogdoches County Sheriff's Office detained a large group of illegal aliens that were traveling through Nacogdoches County in a Chrysler Minivan. 

At approximately 3:30 this afternoon deputies spotted 11 people traveling northbound on U.S. 59 in the 7 seat capacity Minivan and stopped the vehicle for traffic violations, including several "No Seatbelt" violations. 

21

Upon contacting the occupants, it was determined that none of the 11 occupants of the vehicle were legally in the United States. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials were notified and federal detainers were placed on all 11 individuals. The individuals were very hungry and thirsty, reporting that they had not eaten since their journey through Texas began, but, otherwise, they all appeared to be in good physical condition.

All 11 individuals will be detained overnight in the Nacogdoches County Jail until ICE can arrange for transport to a federal holding facility. 

Source: [www.cbs19.tv/story/16169642/11-illegal-immigrants-found-during-routine-traffic-stop]Return to Contents

L. 22 Policemen Linked to Los Zetas are Arrested (TAB/CHIS)

3 December 2011Borderland Beat

A total of 22 municipal and ministerial policemen including a former agent, were arrested yesterday by the Safety Group Coordination Inter-agency of Tabasco as suspected accomplices of Los Zetas, said the Attorney General of the State (PGJE).

In a statement the PGJE said this arrest of the police officers is the result of an operation in the municipalities of Centro, Cardenas, Comalcalco and Huimanguillo, based in statements from Santos Ramirez Morales, aka "Santo Sapo," plaza boss of Los Zetas who was arrested on November 24 in Ocozocoautla, Chiapas.

The state agency said that of those captured, 12 belong to the Ministerial Police of Centro, 5 along with the former agent are from Huimanguillo, 4 are from Comalcalco and one is from Cardenas.

These municipalities are in the region of Chontalpa, main territory of influence of the Zetas in Tabasco.

Translated to the Special Prosecutor for Combating Kidnapping, for investigation were ministerial police officers Alfonso Rueda Palma, Lenín Silvano Pérez, Nahún Domínguez Ramos and Jorge Alberto Olvera Márquez, El Chilango.

Also arrested were Javier Alonso Hernández, El Chancla; Víctor Domínguez Hidalgo, Regino Bautista de la Cruz, Rafael Javier Jiménez López, Marco Antonio Morales Avalos, Joaquín Ruiz García, El Mechudo; Víctor Ángel Montalvo Bello and Carlos García Bautista.

The officers of Cardenas that were arrested were identified as Ever Cadena Mollinedo, Felipe Burelo Burelo, Víctor Manuel Camacho López and Aníbal de Dios Jiménez.

22

From the town of Comalcalco was municipal police Bertino Broca Lázaro.

In Huimanguillo authorities located former municipal police officer Eleazar Mendoza Gomez along with active officers Luis Alfonso López Castañeda, Serio León Cruz, José Manuel Garduza Gerónimo, Candelario García García and Darwin Hernández Jiménez. 

In that region is where according to authorities "Santos Sapo" ordered the execution of at least 25 policemen, two of them killed along with their entire family for refusing to collaborate in kidnappings and murders.

Sapo is also linked to execution of the family of a marine Melquisedec Angulo Córdova, who was killed in an operation where Arturo Beltran Leyva, alias "El Barbas" was also killed in December 2009.

Source: [www.borderlandbeat.com/2011/12/22-policemen-linked-to-los-zetas-are.html]Return to Contents

M. Zetas Issue Open Challenge to US and Mexico Governments (US/MX)

2 December 2011Latino Fox News

Mexico's ultra-violent Zetas drug cartel released a communique challenging Mexico and the United States.

"Message to the nation, the government, and all of Mexico and to public opinion: The special forces of Los Zetas challenges the government of Mexico and its federal forces," said the communique, which was signed by Zetas leader Miguel Angel Treviño Morales, also known as Z-40.

The Zetas were formed in 1999 Heriberto Lazcano Lazcano, known as "El Lazca," who along with three other soldiers deserted an elite special operations unit within the Mexican army to become the armed wing of the Gulf drug cartel.

The Zetas are now one of the most violent and powerful cartels operating in Mexico. The former paramilitary group is considered to be one of two dominant cartels in Mexico, along with Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán's Sinaloa cartel.

The group is believed to be responsible for the attack on a casino in Monterrey earlier this year that left 52 people dead.

"Not the Army, not the Marines nor the security and anti-drug agencies of the United States government can resist us. Mexico lives and will continue under the regime of Los Zetas," the communique went on to state.

23

While most of the violence related to the Zetas has remained in Mexico, the group has made headway into the U.S. with recent attacks and the capture of cartel members highlighting this infiltration. Last month, a botched drug bust outside of Houston left a U.S. secret operative dead and a sheriff's deputy injured after Zetas gunmen surprised the operation.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents also deported last week Donis Ruiz a suspected Zetas member wanted for kidnappings in Mexico.

"Let it be clear that we are in control here and although the federal government controls other cartels, they cannot take our plazas. You want proof?" the communique asked. "Look at what happened in Sinaloa and Guadalajara. If we can get all the way into their kitchen we are not going to lose control of our territory."

The Zetas are considered the second most powerful cartel in Mexico behind Guzmán's Sinaloa cartel, with one or the other group present in almost every Mexican state. As they battle for lucrative smuggling routes, the two cartels have recently ramped up attacks on one another.Back in September in the Gulf coast city of Veracruz, Mexican authorities discovered the bound and tortured bodies of 35 alleged Zetas members dumped by the Sinaloa cartel onto a main thoroughfare in the city. In May, over two dozen people, most of them Zetas, were killed as they attempted to infiltrate the Sinaloa cartel's territory in the state of Nayarit.Since President Felipe Calderón declared war on the country's drug cartels shortly after taking office in 2006, an estimated 35,000 to 40,000 people have been killed in Mexico's ensuring violence.

Source: [latino.foxnews.com/latino/news/2011/12/02/zetas-send-challenge-to-us-and-mexico]Return to Contents

N. Z-40′s Challenge to Mexico (US/MX)

Editorial note: The following is a full translation of the “narco-banner” mentioned in the article 3.M.

3 December 2011Blog Drug Trafficker

A communique from the special forces of Los Zetas

Message to the nation, the government, and all of Mexico and to public opinion: The special forces of Los Zetas challenges the government of Mexico and its federal forces.

Not the Army, not the Marines nor the security and antidrug agencies of the United States government can resist us. Mexico lives and will continue under the regime of Los Zetas. Let it be clear that we are in control here and although the federal government controls other cartels, they cannot take our plazas. You want proof? Look at what happened in Sinaloa and Guadalajara. If we can get all the way into their kitchen we are not going to lose control of our territory.

24

Sincerely, Miguel Angel Trevino Morales Z-40

Source: [http://blogdrugtrafficker.com/2011/12/z-40s-challenge-to-mexico-19/]

4. CARRIBEAN, CENTRAL, AND SOUTH AMERICA

A. Russia to Build AK-47 Ammo Factory in Cuba (CU)

2 December 2011Latin American Herald Tribune

MOSCOW – Russia plans to build a factory in Cuba to make ammunition for AK-47 assault rifles, Federal Agency for Military and Technical Cooperation director Konstantin Biriulin said Thursday.

“The components were taken to Cuba a few years ago. Now, it is just a matter of taking them out of the crates and getting production underway,” Biriulin said.

The Russian official, however, did not say when the plant would be finished or what its production would be.

Cuba expressed interest in the past in asking Russia for the technology to produce ammunition, the Russian daily Kommersant said.

Havana wants to be able to produce 7.62 mm ammunition, Kommersant reported, citing sources. EFE

Source: [laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=449116&CategoryId=14510]Return to Contents

B. Could Ecuador See Rise of a Home-Grown Rebel Insurgency? (EC)

28 November 2011In Sight

On November 22, two separate bombs exploded nearly simultaneously in downtown Guayaquil, the first of which went off in front of the local Ministry of Health offices, while the second detonated several blocks away. While no one was seriously injured in either incident, the second explosion sent dozens of leaflets flying through the air, all of which bore a call to arms against the center-left government of President Rafael Correa.

The flyers were titled “The Right to Work is Guaranteed by the Constitution and We Will Defend it Through Blood and Fire,” and issued a scathing critique of President Correa’s recent

25

decision to fire thousands of doctors and other public health professionals to rein in federal spending. Calling on the youths of Ecuador to “join the ranks of the militias and people’s army in order to rid ourselves once and for all of the rightist mafia known as Alianza Pais [Correa’s political party],” the statement was signed by a group calling itself the Armed Revolutionary Insurgent Forces of Ecuador (FAIRE).

The appearance of a leftist insurgency is unusual for Ecuador, which, unlike neighboring Peru and Colombia, has been free of large-scale insurgent groups for most of its history. The most notable left-wing rebel group in Ecuador’s past was a small urban guerrilla front known as the Eloy Alfaro Popular Armed Forces. Named after an early 20th century revolutionary, the guerrillas carried out a series of kidnappings and bank robberies in the mid to late 1980s, but were swiftly dismantled by security forces. By 1989, the group’s remaining members had agreed to lay down their arms.

Since then, several small-scale rebel groups have emerged in the country, such as the Red Sun Communist Party of Ecuador, the Group of Popular Combatants, the Alfarist Liberation Army, and the Guerrilla Coordinator of Ecuador. However, none of these have been able to mobilize mass support, and do not pose a significant threat to the Ecuadorian government. It is unclear if any links exist between these groups and the FAIRE, but police claim that the November 22 bombings were first they had heard of the group, suggesting that it may be an entirely new force.

The real security threat does not lie in potential in collusion between these groups, however, but on the northern border with Colombia, where the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) are known to operate. As InSight Crime has documented, the FARC’s presence in Ecuador was an open secret for years, and Ecuadorian security forces, like their Venezuelan counterparts, seemed to turn a blind eye to FARC activity in the border region. This changed in March 2008, when the Colombian air force bombed a FARC camp located in Ecuadorian territory, killing Luis Edgar Devia Silva, alias “Raul Reyes.”

Although the attack caused Ecuador to shut off diplomatic relations with Colombia for two years, it also brought unprecedented international attention to the FARC’s activities in Ecuador. This, combined with the fact that Correa himself has been accused of accepting donations from the FARC for his latest presidential campaign, has prompted the Ecuadorian government to crack down on the rebels.

With the loss of Ecuador’s tacit support, the FARC have also lost an incentive not to conduct operations on Ecuadorian soil, meaning that they could potentially be a valuable ally to nascent guerrilla groups such as the FAIRE. While it is hard to see what the FARC would gain by supporting Ecuadorian insurgents, Colombian intelligence officials allege that such international cooperation has already been documented, most notably between the FARC and Peru’s Shining Path (Sendero Luminoso).

Because support from the FARC would almost certainly mean unwanted attention to the Colombians' camps along the border, the FAIRE would likely have to become far more influential for the FARC to want to collaborate with them. The FAIRE would have to develop a much larger support base, and likely expand their operations beyond mere bombings, to include

26

confrontations with security forces. Ultimately, the group is a long way from this, and if their luck resembles that of the other small insurgencies in Ecuador, they’ll be taken down long before they become such a threat.

Source: [www.insightcrime.org/insight-latest-news/item/1905-could-ecuador-see-the-rise-of-home-grown-rebel-insurgency]Return to Contents

C. Paraguay Busts Sex Trafficking Ring Linked to Drug Smuggling (PY)

30 November 2011In Sight

On Monday, police in Paraguay carried out an operation to shut down a brothel in the capital city of Asuncion. Authorities rescued three minors and arrested an Argentine national, Adrian Providenza, and several Paraguayan nationals, including Miguel Bogado, reports ABC.In 2009, Bogado was detained in Paraguay for allegedly transporting 48 kilos of an ephedrine-like substance used in the production of methamphetamine. Providenza has previously been arrested in Argentina in 2006 for alleged participation in a network that trafficked cocaine to Spain.

Both men, along with Providenza’s brother, who is still at large, are suspected of forcing young girls into prostitution in the Asuncion brothel and in Mexico.

After discovering 60 drums of suspected precursor chemicals and 30 kilos of an unidentified white powder in the brothel, authorities in Paraguay have begun to investigate the possibility that Providenza, Bogado and other individuals detained on charges of pimping and sex trafficking may also be part of an international drug smuggling ring.

Source: [insightcrime.org/insight-latest-news/item/1915-paraguay-busts-sex-trafficking-ring-linked-to-drug-smuggling]Return to Contents

D. How Gangs Have Disturbed the Math of Football in El Salvador (SV)

2 December 2011In Sight

The evidence is in the Salvadoran Soccer Federation itself, there for anyone who wants to see it. On the right, as soon as you enter the main building, are cubicles for the 2nd Division, with a large notice board and a sign saying "Championship 2011-2012." Below, neatly arranged and held up by colored pins, there are 10 sheets of paper with the line-up of the teams. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 -- all normal until 12. But there is no 13, and no 18.

27

In the three top national soccer leagues there are 66 clubs registered, of which only 14 -- 21 percent -- think it appropriate in the current climate to use 13 and 18. Those who are behind the measure explain that it is an attempt to avoid attacks on the players.

But not everyone agrees with the initiative. Marcelino Dias, a forensic psychologist who has worked with the government forensic institute since 1993, thinks that in some way it legitimizes the maras (gangs) and recognizes their influence on society. “The state should be the one that control people’s behavior, through laws, but in El Salvador many aspects of social conduct are controlled by criminal groups, and what has happened in soccer is a clear example.”

El Salvador has one of the highest homicide rates in the world, at 65 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2010. The United Nations considers anything over 10 per 100,000 to be an “epidemic.”

According to the national police (PNC), more than half of the murders are related to the maras. The Armed Forces go further and speak of 90 percent.

“Fear is the most effective way to control a society, and the gangs know that,” added the sociologist Diaz.

The OriginsThe decision to give up the numbers 13 and 18 is not new. The world of soccer began to consider the move on its own initiative, and with absolute discretion -- at least four years ago. After receiving some complaints from players who were wearing those numbers, the measure was discussed in presidents’ meeting in each of the leagues, and was approved as a suggestion, so it was the teams who took the decision

“For a player it's dangerous to go around with those numbers on his back when he comes from Soyapango and places like that, says Orsy Tejada, president of Brasilia, of Suchitoto (Cuscatlan)."Our goalkeeper still plays with the 13 on his back, but we are thinking about removing the number because some players live in other places and they could be attacked,” said Elba Josefina Peña, president of La Asuncion, in Anamoros (La Union). “There have not been any deaths because of this, but there have been beatings, insults, verbal aggression, rocks thrown, etc.,” says Pinto.Why 13, Why 18?Barrio 18, or the 18 (also wrongly known as Mara 18) is the Hispanic name of the 18th Street Gang, a group created in Los Angeles in the 1970s. Originally made up of Mexican migrants, various investigators have said it was the first Latin gang to open its doors to people of different origins. In El Salvador it is currently divided into two factions, called Sureños and Revolucionarios. Even though they are deadly rivals, neither group has given up the 18 as a mark of identity.

The origins of the rival group, the MS-13, are more recent. It also emerged in Los Angeles, but well into the 1970s, and also in the Rampart area, the same sector in which the 18 was born. Some investigators think that the Mara Salvatrucha is a group that splintered off from Barrio 18 because, at the beginning, most of its members were Salvadoran migrants.

28

Both the MS-13 and Barrio 18 are southern gangs, that is to say, they are under the umbrella of a criminal structure called the Mexican Mafia or La Eme (The M). The identifying number for the Eme is 13 -- the letter M is the 13th letter of the alphabet -- and that’s why all the southern gangs are identified with that number. Contrary to popular belief, the 13 does not divide the groups, but unites them. Hundreds of members of the 18 have a 13 tattoo, without it being a problem.

The number 18, however, is banned and reviled among the members of Mara Salvatrucha as being for the exclusive use of the rival group, which adopted it because, in its earlier years it began to gain strength in some parts of 18th Street in Los Angeles.

The symbolism around these two numbers was born, then, in Los Angeles, thousands of kilometers from El Salvador. Central America imported and radicalized it. And now Salvadoran soccer is paying the toll.

A Violent TimeFor the psychologist Marcelino Diaz, the decision by soccer teams not to use the numbers is a step back for the country. “It is evidence that the gangs, with their violent deaths and dismembering, have managed to intimidate a society.”

On his reading, what is happening in the world of football is not far removed from other developments, also motivated by the development of the maras, like the fact that some public institutions are in practice aligned with one pandilla or another. This makes them no-go zones for young people that live in areas under the influence of a rival gang, even if they are not members of the mara.

“Little by little we are allowing the gang members to stop us doing what we have to do. Even though what is happening with soccer is only a small, symbolic step, if we start to give way on these things, more demands will come,” concluded the sociologist Diaz.

Source: [insightcrime.org/insight-latest-news/item/1928-how-gangs-have-disturbed-the-math-of-football-in-el-salvador]Return to Contents

5. OPINION AND ANALYSIS

A. El Salvador Braces for 8% Rise in Homicides in 2011 (SV)

2 December 2011Latino Fox News

Homicides in El Salvador are are expected to rise eight percent by the end of 2011.

29

El Salvador has already had more homicides in 2011 than in the whole of the previous year, with 4,005 murders committed in the country between January 1 and November 30 this year, one more than the total in 2010, according to El Salvador’s La Presna Grafica newspaper.

Central America is one of the most dangerous regions of the world, with El Salvador coming in second in the total number of murders per capita behind Honduras for 2010, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime's Global Study on Homicide. The country averaged 66 murders per 100,000 people in 2010, with Honduras averaging 82.1 per 100,000.

In November, Salvadoran police recorded 375 homicides, higher than the figures for the same month over the last two years. August was the most violent month to date this year with 391 murders recorded, according to In Sight.

The statistics compiled by El Salvador’s police force mirror that of Latin America’s regional trends from the UN study, with males under the age of 30 being most to be murdered and 70 percent of all murders in the country being committed by a firearm.

The accessibility of guns throughout Latin America has driven the homicide rate upward throughout the region, the UN study found. UNODC's executive director Yury Fedotov said more countries should become party to Firearms Protocol, which supplements the U.N. Convention on Transnational Organized Crime.

"Domestic policies in furtherance of the Protocol's provision can help avoid the diversion of firearms to fuel violence and increase homicides," he said.

Salvadoran President Mauricio Funes has promised to reduce the murder rate and entrusted the task to retired Gen. David Munguía.

"The 30 percent reduction in homicides is the goal we have set," Funes said, according to Univision. 

Source: [latino.foxnews.com/latino/news/2011/12/02/el-salvador-expects-8-rise-in-murders-in-2011]Return to Contents

B. Majority of Undocumented Immigrants Have Lived in US Over a Decade, Report Says (DC)

1 December 2011Latino Fox News

The majority of the 10.2 million undocumented adult immigrants in the United States have lived in this country for at least 10 years, according to a new report by the Pew Hispanic Center.

30

The report comes on the heels of a debate among GOP presidential candidates over what to do with the millions of undocumented immigrants who are living in the country, particularly those who have lived here for more than a decade and have planted roots in the United States.

The issue was fueled by GOP presidential candidate, who proposed letting undocumented immigrants obtain a special kind of legal status that allows them to work here if they have lived in the United States for a long time, have children, have paid taxes and belong to a church.The Pew report also said that nearly half of the nation’s undocumented parents are parents of minor children.

Many of Gingrich’s fellow candidates assailed his proposal – which he stressed did not call for granting such immigrants citizenship -- claiming that it is a form of amnesty that would encourage more immigrants to come to the United States.

According to the Pew Hispanic Center, 35 percent of unauthorized adult immigrants have lived in the US for more than 15 years, 28 percent for 10-14 years, 22 percent for 5 to 9 years, and 15 percent for less than five years.

The analysis also suggests that the portion that has been in the country for 15 years or more has doubled since 2000.

The share of immigrants that has lived in the United States for less than five years has fallen by half during this period, from 32 percent in 2000 to 15 percent in 2010.

The fact that the amount of unauthorized immigrants that have been in the country for more than 15 years have been here for a longer time reflects the downturn of the economy and the tightening of the border. It also reflects that fewer immigrants are returning to their country.

The Pew Hispanic Center analysis also shows that 46 percent of unauthorized adult immigrants are parents of minor children, while only 38 percent of legal immigrant adults and 29 percent of U.S. born adults are parents to underage children.

The report noted that 91 percent of Latinos who are not U.S. citizens or legal residents feel that unauthorized immigrants should be given an opportunity to legalize their status if they pay fines, have jobs and pass background checks. Some 86 percent of all Latinos said they feel the same, the report said. Among the general population, 72 percent shared that view.

As for religion, nearly 40 percent of Hispanic adults who are not citizens or legal permanent residents say they attend religious services weekly. An additional 23 percent say they attend services at least once or twice a month. And slightly less than 20 percent say they attend services seldom or never.

Among the general U.S. population, 38 percent reported attending religious services on at least a weekly basis.

31

Source: [ latino.foxnews.com/latino/news/2011/12/01/majority-undocumented-immigrants-have-lived-in-us-for-over-decade-report-says]Return to Contents

C. Mergers and Acquisitions in Tijuana (BC)

1 December 2011Borderland Beat

While many sources are claiming that the tunnel discovered in Otay Mesa, San Diego, on November 29, 2011, belonged to the Sinaloa Cartel, and it's much publicized leader, Chapo Guzman, it may not be the case. And, it may not matter much.

36 tons of marijuana were pulled out of the tunnel, on both the Tijuana, and US side, and while the 'Captain America' logos were absent this time, many of the bundles contained the label, JR, which may refer to a son of 'El Chapo', but another source states explicitly that the drugs and tunnel belonged to Fernando Sanchez Arellano, 'El Ingeniero', the elusive heir of the Arellano family. The source confirmed they belonged to the Engineer, and one of the cells that operates for him.

The Sinaloa and Arellano cartels are working together in Tijuana, and the latest seizure of both the product and the tunnel, hurts both organizations, as they likely combine resources. It was also reported that the previous tunnel, and the product found may have also belonged to the Engineer, and was given to him as a gift, from Sinaloa Cartel operatives, the Azarte brothers, Aquiles, and La Rana. The gift was given in order to smooth things over, after the arrest of Juan Sillas Rocha, on November 4th. The peace achieved in Tijuana, largely due to agreements by organized crime, is kept with this kind of diplomacy.

Many different reports have tried to make sense of the criminal politics in the city, and no one quite knows the fine print, although it is assumed that Sinaloa pays Sanchez Arellano. Though the opposite is printed by some sources recent evidence points to a more intimate coordination between the two, sharing tunnels, and bundling together product, for shipment to the US. Although, this has been suspected since the October 2010 seizure of 134 tons of marijuana, many bearing the mark of 'Engineering', as well as stamps associated with Sinaloa operatives.

Keeping the peace between the two bitter rivals, has not been easy. Blood has been spilling since the early 1990's, twenty years of violence and viciousness. Family members, friends, children, have all been executed, kidnapped, tortured, immeasurable amount of atrocities committed by both sides, in the name of one side or the other. For some, the desire for revenge and blood was too great, and proved impossible to disregard, for the purposes of business.

El Sillas was long considered a problem, labeled unpredictable, impulsive, and drug addled, he was a good soldier in war, but proved troublesome when asked to make peace with his former rivals. After Sillas kidnapped the nieces of 'El Mayo', it is said that Sinaloa refused to work with Sanchez Arellano, if 'El Sillas' was allowed to continue in his leadership role, so the father of 'El

32

Sillas' took his place, and Sanchez Arellano ordered Sillas out of Tijuana. Further aggrevating the situation, Sillas went to war with 'El Aquiles', in November of 2010. Bodies were burned alive, hanged from overpasses, heads tossed in the streets, as the two played cat and mouse in eastern Tijuana, until Sillas finally left, near the end of the year.

Sillas returned, in recent months, to generate income, and, was arrested after a reckless attempted murder, of his one-time lieutenant, 'El Marquitos'. It is also reported that El Sillas was responsible for leading authorities to the safe house, in which the Army seized 15 million, belonging to Sinaloa. The house was a financial center for the group, and Sillas, true to his reputation was planning to rob it, a short sighted plan, which no doubt would have caused further problems between the two organizations.

Somewhere beyond the headlines, the truth lies, murky and submerged, and still incomplete. As long as the truce and working agreement continues in Tijuana, hundreds of kilos of cocaine, and hundreds of tons of marijuana will not make it across, but untold hundreds will, as organized crime continues in the city, evolving and adapting, but never stopping, or giving up its territory.

Source: [www.borderlandbeat.com/2011/12/mergers-and-acquisitions-in-tijuana.html]Return to Contents

D. Columbia is no Lesson For Mexico (MX/CO/US) Part 1

28 November 2011In Sight

Mexico's model for combating organized crime cannot be the same as the one that brought down Colombia's Medellin and Cali cartels and pushed guerrilla movements like the FARC and 

ELN into a foxhole.

Consider the circumstances in which these two wars started. Colombia in the 1980s was already in the midst of a violent conflict. Two guerrilla groups, the FARC and the ELN, comprised thousands of trained fighters. These guerrillas were driven by a Marxist ideology, and had ambitions to take over the state -- or at the very least create their own independent territories within Colombia.

The cocaine trade that centered on Medellin, home of the notorious Pablo Escobar, was not the dominant security concern for Colombia at the time. To be sure, Escobar and his cronies had sparked a wave of urban violence, but the Colombian state was largely occupied with pushing back the growing guerrilla movements, and not a rise in homicides (largely among the urban poor) in Medellin. In fact, Medellin wasn't even a priority for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

According to some DEA agents, Escobar wasn't yet on the radar, even though he had been trafficking cocaine for over a decade. A spate of killings in Miami in the late 1980s, according to

33

former DEA Special Agent, suddenly brought Escobar to the foreground. The DEA learned that almost all the cocaine being seized in New York and Miami could be traced back to one person. "His name was always coming up as being the boss," he recalled in 2008. "So we started asking, 'Who is this guy? “Who is Pablo Escobar?'"

When the DEA finally got a good bead on Escobar, the pressure on the Colombian government began. And so did Escobar's own efforts to challenge the state.

When President Felipe Calderon launched this phase of the Mexican drug war in December 2006, he, too, was reacting to intelligence gathered about a new player on the drug scene -- the Familia Michoacana, whose members had rolled five heads onto a dance floor in Uruapan, Michoacan, and was apparently now in control of the methamphetamine industry in Calderon's home state of Michoacan.

But the Mexican authorities and their DEA counterparts were hardly unaware of the main players in the Mexican drug trade. They had already captured or killed dozens of high-level lieutenants during the previous administration of Vicente Fox (who, incidentally, had also deployed the army with far more force than any of his predecessors in the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI); they were monitoring the growth of the Sinaloa cartel as the Gulf, Juarez and Tijuana Cartels took hits from both law enforcement and rivals.

They knew about the Familia, although they had not predicted its rapid growth and ambition, or its bloodlust.

So, the Mexican authorities and DEA have not been playing a reactionary game like their counterparts in Colombia did. At the height of his reign, Escobar pushed every conceivable limit. He tried to run for Congress. He vowed to kill officials who openly opposed him. Escobar tried to assassinate a presidential candidate who challenged him and his drug trade. (He failed, as Cesar Gaviria Trujillo didn't get on the Avianca plane to Cali that he ordered to be bombed. (But all 107 passengers on board died.)

Another long-time vocal opponent, journalist-cum-presidential candidate Luis Carlos Galan, was assassinated later in 1989. Immediately, everyone pointed the finger at Escobar.

According to DEA agents on the ground in Bogota and Medellin at the time, then-President Virgilio Barco called the U.S. Embassy shortly after hearing the news of Galan's death. "I've just authorized extradition on my own decree," he reputedly said. "I am bypassing Congress. I want to start extraditing everybody as soon as we can."

Many of the Mexican capos have learned from Escobar's over-exposure and unrelenting ambition. Each Mexican organization's leader has had his quirks, his own penchant for the spotlight -- but thanks to the tutelage of Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo, the so-called Godfather who in 1989 delegated Mexico's various drug plazas, the cartel leaders in Mexico have historically kept their ambitions in check. Prior to 2006, they rarely, if ever, provoked the state.The Arellano Felix brothers were notorious for their bloodlust and random violence. "They would be out drinking at a bar or eating at a restaurant, for instance, and Ramon Arellano Felix

34

would suddenly ‘have the urge to kill," recalls former DEA Special Agent, who was based in San Diego in the late 90s, the Arellano Felix brothers' heyday. "So they would just drive off down the road -- and kill somebody."

But they rarely challenged the authorities directly, preferring instead to co-exist with a corrupt political system.

Amado Carrillo Fuentes, the so-called "Lord of the Skies" in Ciudad Juarez, was famous for his lavish parties -- but equally well-known for his diplomacy, particularly when it came to rival cartels and the authorities. His one similarity to Escobar was that he reputedly sought to strike an immunity deal with the authorities, but was turned down.

Carrillo Fuentes rarely challenged the authorities directly, preferring instead to co-exist with a corrupt political system.

Osiel Cardenas Guillen, the leader of the Gulf Cartel, was perhaps the most brazen of the Mexican capos, threatening a DEA and FBI agent in Matamoros, when they went to meet a source in the late 90s. He and his men surrounded the agents, and Cardenas Guillen warned them off: "You f-----g gringos. This is my town, so get the f--k out of here before I kill you."

Compared to Escobar's threats, Cardenas Guillen's words were nothing. Yet the DEA vowed to hunt him down, sparing few resources. DEA agents vividly remembered the death of an agent at the hands of a group of old-school Mexican capos in 1985. They caught Cardenas Guillen in 2003 -- he was later extradited to the United States and is now serving a 25-year sentence.

Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada and Juan Jose Esparragoza Moreno, "El Azul," would not be drawn into such traps. They laid low in the northwestern state of Sinaloa and in Sonora further to the north, so far below the radar that it took several years to learn that Guzman was actually running the show. They learned from Escobar's mistakes. They grew into the most powerful drug trafficking organization on the planet, thanks in part to their reliance on corruption and good business sense (delegation over micromanagement, franchising of operations and, effectively, the encouragement of free enterprise under the umbrella of their organization) rather than pure greed and megalomania. Guzman has done so well in failing to provoke the authorities' wrath that many experts and journalists in Mexico believe the federal government is actually protecting him and his operation.

Source: [www.insightcrime.org/insight-latest-news/item/1899-colombia-is-no-lesson-for-mexico-part-i]

Part 2

29 November 2011In Sight

35

The two countries have had one similar goal: in the 1980s and 1990s, the Colombian authorities had to quell violence in mainly urban areas; a situation similar to that of Ciudad Juarez or Tijuana today. This is the one aspect of Colombia's strategy that can be applied to Mexico today. Cities like Juarez, Tijuana and Culiacan, not to mention recently terrorized towns throughout Tamaulipas, need social reconstruction programs and community-building efforts as much as they need police reforms that will build security forces that residents can trust. But it was only possible to implement such programs in Medellin and Cali long after the cartels were totally disrupted; the same applies to these Mexican cities. Like it or not (and to this day, more than 80 percent of Mexicans appear to support the idea), the military is needed on the streets, until the violence has abated and adequate reforms have been undertaken.

Plan Colombia, developed with the cooperation of President Andres Pastrana and implemented in full once Alvaro Uribe assumed office in 2002, is often brought up alongside the Merida Initiative, also a Bush administration effort to provide counter-drug assistance, this time to Mexico. But the targets of the two initiatives are quite different. By the time Plan Colombia came into effect, the Medellin and Cali cartels had basically collapsed. (It's important to note, as well, that at no time were both cartels equally powerful -- unlike the situation in Mexico where during various periods, including today, cartels have effectively co-existed with or without tensions and blood feuds.) Uribe faced two primary challenges: securing the cities and main roads in Colombia and bringing an end to a decades-long ideological conflict. The guerrillas had come to depend on drugs due to lack of support and financial resources; they were rapidly losing their ideological motivation and appeal. The cocaine trade was never going to end, but keeping it under control -- effectively, well-managed -- would be a realistic goal.

Those aims couldn't be more different from those of the Calderon administration, which are as follows:1) To quell violence in urban and rural areas where it had become uncontrollable and instilled terror in citizens.2) To disrupt and/or dismantle the four primary organized crime syndicates operating throughout the country, as well as root out the institutional corruption that allowed them to thrive.3) To break the organized crime syndicates into groups of independent -- and competing -- gangs.4) To make it so difficult to traffic drugs through Mexico, either through law enforcement crackdowns or intimidation by rivals, that the trafficking organizations simply move elsewhere.

Mexico is currently at Stage Three of the overall strategy (with the exception of the Sinaloa Cartel, which still seems to operate as a cohesive unit -- although there is increasing evidence that it is under threat from the Zetas in certain areas.) This is crucial vis a vis using Colombia as a model for Mexico, because at no time were the Colombian authorities ever battling as many as 10 different organized groups.

Since 2009, another new organized crime group has seemingly sprung up in Mexico every few days. Some of these groups appear to just be young, opportunistic thugs, trying to make a name for themselves in the wake of a weakened cartel. Others are simply gangs, operating under the umbrella of a cartel. Since the split between the Beltran Leyva brothers and Chapo Guzman in Sinaloa in 2009, for instance, various factions in the region and along the west coast have formed

36

their own groups. But even though there have been serious clashes between them, there is no evidence that they are operating any differently than the various factions of the Federation, as the Sinaloa Cartel used to be known.

As a result of this mayhem, the authorities don't even know exactly what they are currently fighting. The word "cartel" doesn't really apply to many of Mexico's drug gangs (academics would argue that it doesn't apply even to the Sinaloa drug trafficking organization, as it is not responsible for setting prices of its product). In Washington, Congress is now being told about Mexico's drug trafficking organizations (DTOs), its transnational criminal organizations (TCOs), its narco-terrorists, the possibility of paramilitaries operating in the region (the Matazetas in Veracruz) and even of the threat of a "spiritual insurgency."

Some of these monikers can be crossed off the list. The Mata Zetas, while a paramilitary group in one sense of the word, is not a paramilitary unit like the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC). There is absolutely no evidence that they are highly-trained, or as cohesive as the Colombian paramilitaries. Nor are they as new as media reports would suggest -- they emerged on the scene in Nuevo Laredo and Ciudad Juarez around 2003, and given that the name has not become a household one throughout Mexico since, it's fair to argue that the Mata Zetas are not organizing into a full-fledged paramilitary force like the one Colombian authorities had to deal with.

As for a "spiritual insurgency" in Mexico, evidence that drug traffickers are increasingly linked to Santa Muerte, an alternative saint followed by thousands of disenfranchised Mexicans, is minimal. Some traffickers follow Santa Muerte, some Santa Muerte follower’s traffic drugs. The connections end there; there is no ideological or spiritual war being launched in Mexico. Alternative faiths and religion are simply being exploited by drug traffickers to enlist loyal employees. Likewise, serious links between Hezbollah and the Mexican cartels have largely proven tenuous at best.

In Colombia, the need to go after large guerrilla organizations was so immediate that innocent civilians were often considered collateral damage. Rural residents were caught in the crossfire and even killed by paramilitaries/guerrillas for having supported (often not by choice) the enemy combatant during a previous takeover of the region.

This has not happened to such an extent in Mexico, nor can it. Innocents have died in Mexico there is no doubt about that, but not in such large numbers. Given the emphasis on human rights within Mexico itself (there are countless human rights organizations and activists operating throughout the country, with the government's blessing) -- not to mention Mexico's proximity to the United States and its relatively free press -- human rights atrocities in the name of the drug war won't be tolerated by even the most callous politician. As a result, the heavy-handed military crackdowns witnessed in Colombia in the 1980s and under Uribe wouldn't work or be tolerated.

Human Rights Watch recently submitted a report, after conducting extensive investigations, and found evidence of 170 cases of torture, 39 disappearances and 24 extrajudicial killings since Calderon took office. In most of these cases, Human Rights Watch found evidence that strongly suggested the involvement of security forces, be they military, or federal or local police.

37

Atrocious, but compare these to figures from Colombia: an estimated 3,000 civilians killed by the military; as many as five million Colombians displaced by guerrilla and paramilitary operations; as many as 150,000 citizens killed by paramilitaries. In comparison, Mexico is a beacon of good-naturedness.

The model applied to Mexico must be one of urgent institution-building -- effectively, leap-frogging many of the processes applied in Colombia and going straight to the final stages. Police and judicial reforms are underway, but either languishing in Congress or being put into effect too slowly. As a result, Mexico has seen a whack-a-mole strategy implemented against upstart groups: a new gang pops up, beheads a dozen rivals, strings up a bunch of narco-mantas (banners meant to intimidate rivals or expose corrupt authorities -- in effect, a form of psy-ops) and the military is called in to deal with the problem, short-term. Community-building efforts -- seen in Colombia, but only after the cartels were brought down -- need to be implemented with the full support of the federal government, even before the police truly take control of the nation's cities.

Lastly, the increasingly popular concept of winning hearts and minds must be applied in Mexico and thought through. In Colombia, citizens -- especially the young -- were initially recruited by the FARC and ELN under the precept of an ideology that would challenge the state. The state, in turn, had to win them over by offering a countering ideological motivation that they might find attractive. In Mexico, the state has been unable to win over many residents of areas like Sinaloa and Tamaulipas, but not because of their political agenda. In Mexico, it is a matter of money and economic prospects. In the country, a young man or woman does not join drug-trafficking organizations because they are rebels, but because they offer financial incentives in an environment where jobs are almost non-existent. The Mexican state, as a result, has to match the offers presented by the cartels.

Trying to convince people that the government are the so-called good guys isn't enough; they have to put their money where their mouth is.

But figuring out exactly who the enemy is does pose serious challenges to the Mexican authorities and their U.S. counterparts; as a result, the Colombian model of going after one group with the full force of the state and then moving on to the next cannot be applied.

Source: [www.insightcrime.org/insight-latest-news/item/1900-colombia-is-no-lesson-for-mexico-part-ii]Return to Contents

E. DEA Warns of Narco and Terrorism Nexus (US/MX)

2 December 2011El Universal

Although Mexico’s federal government rejects the existence of links between drug cartels and Islamic terrorist groups, the United States assures that “the nexus between drug trafficking and terrorism is well established.”

38

Washington has documented the link between Islamic terrorists in cases in Mexico, and it appears to be the case in the alleged Iranian plot orchestrated to assassinate Saudi Arabia’s ambassador in the United States in September which involved a Mexican cartel.

The relationship between cartels and terrorism is detailed in a report by the Special Operations Division of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), delivered to the U.S. Congress on November 17. Another report from the Department of Homeland Security disclosed that a Taliban attempt was detected to partner with a human trafficking organization in Ecuador to smuggle one of its members into the U.S.

Given these cases, it is recognized that one of the national security challenges for the U.S. is to detect and dismantle the links between organized crime and fundamentalist groups in different parts of the world.

In the DEA document Narco-terrorism and the long range application of the law, indicates that the threat is serious. Investigation points to proceeds from drug trafficking or other forms of organized crime are used to pay corrupt officials, undermine institutions, and facilitate attacks on diplomats, government officials or agencies, where there are often civilian casualties.

The report notes that “the nexus between drug trafficking and terrorism is well established. The most recent example is the plot to assassinate the ambassador of Saudi Arabia in the U.S., which illustrates the extent to which terrorist organizations are aligned with other criminals to achieve their goals.”

In this case, it is argued that the alleged terrorist Arbasiar Manssor approached someone he thought was a member of an extremely violent drug trafficking organization in Mexico, “because he believed that people in the drug business are willing to engage in criminal activity for money. Luckily, the person contacted was a DEA informant.”

In the case of Arbasiar, recruited by the Qods Force, a branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards, he entered Mexico on at least 3 occasions this year-between May and September-to prepare the attack. This is evidence that the threat between cartels and terrorists is latent.Meanwhile the report by DHS delivered on November 1, reveals the existence of other cases in Latin America, including three Pakistanis arrested this year in Miami, Florida. They were seeking to associate with a human trafficking organization in Quito, Ecuador “to facilitate transnational illicit movement of suspected members of terrorist organizations like Al Quaeda, Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and Jaish-e Mohammed.”

Therefore, the document acknowledges that “a threat of particular concern is the convergence of terrorism and human trafficking,” as the recent case was investigated together with the Ecuadorian government.

This is not the first time the United States government is concerned about the risks of a possible alliance between cartels like Los Zetas and terrorists like Al Quaeda.

39

Patricia Espinoza, head of Mexican Foreign Affairs, denied that the country has the presence of extremist groups and that there is a risk that they are linked to cartels, and she invited U.S. politicians to be careful with these pronouncements.DEA

Source: [http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/notas/813230.html#1]Return to Contents

F. Rival Cartels Take Bloody Drug War to the Heart of the Country (JAL/CHIH/SIN)

2 December 2011The Vancouver Sun

Mexico's two most powerful criminal gangs are locked in a titanic battle for control of the country's heartland in a struggle that's redrawn Mexico's map of violence. 

Violence has dropped along the U.S. border, with Ciudad Juárez, once considered the most violent city in the world, seeing a 35-per-cent drop in homicides this year.

That good news is balanced by bad news in Guadalajara, Culiacán and Veracruz, where the Sinaloa cartel, whose bulwark has always been Mexico's Pacific coast, and the Zetas, a violent gang that originally was created to protect the Gulf cartel along the Gulf of Mexico coast, are locked in a spiralling struggle that's seen each gang invade the other's territory.

The conflict has thrust Guadalajara, an important manufacturing centre of 4.4 million people, into the battlefield. After overcoming a spate of drug violence in the mid-1980s, Guadalajara quieted down, perhaps because the Sinaloa cartel held a monopoly on operations in the surrounding state of Jalisco.

"Here in Jalisco, we've seen this as a distant thing. 'Oh, this is happening over in Michoacán.' It felt like it was far away," said Dante Haro Reyes, a law professor and public security expert at the University of Guadalajara. "Now it feels like it's around the corner."

The wake-up call came at daybreak Nov. 24, when mobsters abandoned three vehicles filled with 26 dead bodies at the iconic bright-yellow Millennium Arches that straddle a Guadalajara thoroughfare. A message on a poster board was signed "Z," a signature of Los Zetas.

"Look how we leave you these dead people," the poster said in part. "We are in your kitchen."

Boasting of their penetration deep into Sinaloa turf, the Zetas claimed to be "the strongest cartel at the national level, the only cartel that doesn't pass information to the gringos," a reference to the son of a Sinaloa boss who claims to have been a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration informant before his 2009 arrest.

Just a day earlier, the Zetas had dealt another blow to Sinaloa, leaving a truck filled with 16 charred bodies in Culiacán, the capital of Sinaloa state, from which the Sinaloa cartel takes its

40

name.

The war between the groups - clearly the alpha dogs of Mexico's underworld - pits not just weapons but also two very different business models and geographic strongholds.

"This is a kind of death struggle, a definitive struggle between the Zetas, who have no remorse and expand constantly, and Sinaloa, which is trying to consolidate itself," said Bruce Bagley, an organized crime and narcotics expert at the University of Miami.

Sinaloa operatives appear to have set off the conflict over the summer, forming a group called "Matazetas," or Zeta Killers, to exterminate Zetas in Veracruz, a Gulf Coast state that's a bottleneck on a key smuggling route. The group went public in a big way at afternoon rush hour on Sept. 20, parking three vehicles packed with dead bodies near an urban underpass. Security agents found 35 victims at the grisly scene, nearly all asphyxiated and partly naked.

The "Zeta Killers" released videos of masked gunmen promising to hunt down Zetas and end their rampant extortion in Veracruz against common people.

Even as they execute plenty of their own rivals, Sinaloa bosses are thought to detest the brutality of the Zetas, which they think brings increased law enforcement pressure on crime groups.

"The Matazetas quite clearly tried to win a kind of public approval and government tolerance. They said, 'Get out of our way and we'll take care of this problem,'" Bagley said.

With the latest Zetas blows against Sinaloa, experts say tit-for-tat violence is taking on its own momentum.

"The theory going around is that this is a battle for total control," Haro Reyes said, adding that reprisals wouldn't take long to occur. "When you get attacked on your own territory, you've got to attack in your rival's territory or you look weak."

Sinaloa and the Zetas have vastly different histories. Smugglers from Sinaloa began packing marijuana northward half a century ago. Today, the Sinaloa cartel's tentacles loop as far as Australia and West Africa, making it the most powerful drug syndicate in Mexico, and perhaps the world. The group, which is also known as The Federation, is loosely organized and more inclined to negotiate with rivals and bribe authorities.

In comparison, the Zetas are upstarts. A militia formed by former Mexican special forces commandos recruited to protect the Gulf Cartel, the Zetas broke away early last year. Unlike the Sinaloa crime group, which sticks largely to drug trafficking, the Zetas branched into extortion, kidnapping, human smuggling and the sale of pirated goods.

Brutality and beheadings have become their hallmark.Only a year or two ago, Mexico had half a dozen significant crime groups, including the Tijuana, Juarez, Beltran Leyva and La Familia Michoacana cartels. Security forces have crippled some of those groups through arrests and killings, while others have splintered, leaving remnants to

41

struggle for allies.

One of those fragmentations occurred in Guadalajara after the slaying of Sinaloa boss Ignacio Coronel on July 29, 2010. Some of his enforcers have allied with another group, Milenio, and moved under the umbrella of Los Zetas.

If the Zetas win control of Jalisco state, their territory would bisect Mexico, stretching from Tamaulipas along the Gulf Coast through San Luis Potosi and into Jalisco, giving them access to Manzanillo, the nation's busiest port.

While body dumps are becoming common in central Mexico, residents of Ciudad Juárez, where homicides have dropped this year, are finding unusual periods of calm. For 65 hours over Nov. 19 to 21, Juarez tallied no homicides at all, the longest such period in three years.

"There are clear signs of Ciudad Juárez's recovery," Gov. Cesar Duarte of Chihuahua state said last week. "Instead of streets congested with security forces, we have restaurants congested with clients."

To be sure, Ciudad Juárez has tallied 1,832 killings so far this year, an unacceptable rate of about 5.5 homicides per day. But the trend line heartens residents.

Ciudad Juárez's police chief, Julian Leyzaola, a former army lieutenant colonel who gained notoriety for tough tactics in quelling crime in Tijuana in an earlier posting there, notes that the drop in murders coincides with his arrival in March.

There may be other reasons, however.

The Sinaloa Cartel appears to have reached a settlement with one-time rival cartels in Tijuana and Juarez, negotiating a 60-40 split in drug trafficking profits, "with Sinaloa taking the lion's share," Bagley said.

The agreements may explain why Ciudad Juárez and border areas to the west all the way to Tijuana on the Pacific coast have seen violence drop, he said. 

Source: [www.borderlandbeat.com/2011/12/rival-cartels-take-bloody-drug-war-to.html]Return to Contents

G. Latin American, Caribbean Leaders Meet in Venezuela (VE)

2 DECEMBER 2011CTV News

CARACAS, Venezuela — Leaders from across Latin America and the Caribbean pledged closer ties to safeguard their economies from the world financial crisis as they formed a new bloc on Saturday including every nation in the hemisphere except the U.S. and Canada.

42

Several presidents stressed during the two-day summit that they hope to ride out turbulent times by boosting local industries and increasing trade within the region.

"It seems it's a terminal, structural crisis of capitalism," Bolivian President Evo Morales said in a speech Saturday. "I feel we're meeting at a good moment to debate ... the great unity of the countries of America, without the United States."

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and some of his closest allies called the new regional bloc a tool for opposing U.S. influence. But other leaders focused more on economic concerns and on working together to confront issues such as drug trafficking and the effects of climate change.Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff said that if the nations are to keep thriving they will need to look more to their neighbours.

"The economic, financial crisis should be at the centre of our concerns," Rousseff said Friday night. She said Latin America should "realize that to guarantee its current cycle of development despite the international economic turbulence, it means that every politician must be aware that each one needs the others."

The region has so far weathered the economic woes better than the U.S. or Europe, achieving economic growth of more than 5 per cent last year.

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos said the region has immense potential "in this world that's going through great uncertainty, where there's a hurricane that's hitting the so-called industrialized economies hard." He said Colombia's current trade with Brazil, for instance, is minimal and could grow significantly.

Chavez read aloud a letter from Chinese President Hu Jintao congratulating the leaders on forming a new 33-nation regional bloc, the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States. Hu pledged to deepen co-operation with the new group.

The U.S. remains the top trading partner of many countries in the region, with exceptions including Brazil and Chile, where China has become the biggest trading partner. China has also made diplomatic inroads, including by granting about $38 billion in loans to Venezuela in exchange for increasing shipments of oil.

Chilean President Sebastian Pinera touted the region's opportunities for growth, while Argentine President Cristina Fernandez said building trade among the countries should be a priority.Bolivia's Morales took a different focus, strongly criticizing the International Monetary Fund and saying "they've just pillaged us and led us to poverty."

Morales also appealed for strong steps at this month's climate change conference in South Africa, saying it's critical that developed nations renew pledges to cut greenhouse gas emissions under the 1997 Kyoto Protocol.

"If they kill the protocol, they kill the planet," Morales said.

43

Trinidad and Tobago's prime minister, Kamla Persad-Bissessar, also expressed concerns about changing weather patterns and said nations should work together to better plan for disasters.Several leaders called for closer co-operation to fight criminals and drug trafficking."Our region is seriously threatened by organized crime," Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom said.

Colombia's Santos said the new bloc could help in re-examining whether current counter-drug efforts are the right approach.

Caribbean leaders including Haitian President Michel Martelly thanked Chavez for selling their nations oil on preferential terms, including long-term, low interest loans.

"The people of Haiti love you with all their hearts," Martelly told Chavez during his speech, saying "south-south co-operation" is key to the future of his impoverished country.

Chavez assured leaders he will survive cancer, reiterating that he underwent recent tests in Cuba after finishing chemotherapy and they found no "malignant cells in any part of my body, thanks to God."

Trinidad's prime minister gave Chavez a vial of what she described as holy water, and Chavez thanked her, saying "soon we will have a summit of those of us who've beaten cancer."Venezuela's government celebrated the gathering at a Caracas military base with bursts of fireworks that could be heard from the session. Other events included an orchestral performance led by Venezuelan conductor Gustavo Dudamel and a post-summit concert headlined by Puerto Rican hip-hop duo Calle 13.

The leaders planned to formally launch the new bloc known by its Spanish initials CELAC on Saturday by approving the group's procedural rules as well as a clause dealing with democratic norms and a declaration of shared principles.

Both Chavez and Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa said they hope the bloc eventually overshadows the importance of the Washington-based Organization of American States. Unlike the OAS, the new group will have Cuba as a full member and exclude the U.S. and Canada."We need a new inter-American system and, more specifically, a new system to guarantee human rights," Correa said Friday, referring to the Washington-based Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, which has received complaints from Ecuadorean newspapers and television channels that accuse his government of trying to silence critics.

"All these attacks and threats are made in the name of freedom of expression," Correa added, accusing powerful media outlets of manipulating public opinion.

Several other presidents said they see CELAC as an important forum to resolve conflicts and build closer ties, but not as an alternative to existing bodies such as the OAS.

44

Source: [www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/World/20111203/latin-american-caribbean-leaders-meet-in-venezuela-111203/]Return to Contents

H. Mexico Drug War Refugees Escape to More Bloodshed (CHIH/VER)

4 December 2011Americas Wires

VERACRUZ, Mexico -- Rafael Echevarria had a steady factory job, a modest home of his own, and enough cash to occasionally take his family to McDonald's. It was a good life until the drug war hit Ciudad Juarez, followed by two robberies at his house, extortion at his daughter's school, and finally, the shootout on the bus.

When the firing began, 6-year-old Valeria dove to the floor, breaking a tooth. There was so much blood from her mouth wound her parents thought she'd been shot.

The next day, the couple and their two children boarded a flight back home to Veracruz, along with 1,600 others who had once moved north for work in foreign assembly plants and now were fleeing south in search of safety. The Veracruz state government paid for the flights, and assured the drug war refugees that there would be jobs, education and housing.

At the time, it seemed to the Echevarrias like the only solution.

Then the drug war followed them home.

Military offensives against the drug cartels and turf battles among crime syndicates have pushed the war into areas once considered quiet. A year after their hopeful flight, the Echevarrias are not only caught anew in a crush of violence, but still without the promised help.

….

The Echevarrias are among thousands of Mexicans who make up the internal diaspora trying to escape drug violence that seems to migrate rather than cease, with more than 45,000 troops fighting cartels and more than 40,000 dead by many counts.

Recent survey results by Parametria found that 1.6 million Mexicans have moved because of drug violence since 2006. One study by the Geneva-based Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre put the number at 230,000 in 2010, estimating that half fled to the United States.

Another study, by demographer Rodolfo Rubio at Colegio de la Frontera Norte, says 200,000 people left Juarez alone for other Mexican cities between 2007 and 2010.

….

45

Veracruz is a steamy, tropical mountain state that cultivates sugar cane and coffee. Curling along the lower dip of Mexico's Gulf coast, it is known for its scenic beauty, rich farmlands and busy port, one of Mexico's largest. But it was the lack of opportunity there that drove thousands of Veracruzanos northward beginning in the 1990s, when border factories started recruiting assembly workers with above-average wages and benefits.

….

There, Echevarria and his son, Cristian, found jobs working in the assembly plants that largely produce goods exported to the U.S. Cristian rose to quality control inspector in a factory that made printer cartridges. Together the two made about 14,000 pesos a month, nearly triple Mexico's average salary.

They bought a three-bedroom house on the southeastern outskirts of town, as well as a van."Juarez was a land that helped people," Duran said.

By 2008, the drug wars shattered the peace. Two rival cartels - Juarez and Sinaloa - began fighting for control of the lucrative smuggling corridor to the U.S. The annual murder rate nearly doubled from 1,600 in 2008 to 3,100 in 2010.

President Felipe Calderon deployed thousands of soldiers to curb drug violence, and later federal police to patrol the streets and lead counterattacks.

Nonetheless, the Echevarria house was robbed twice. An uncle was attacked by a group of men trying to steal his car.Then came the extortion. Valeria's teacher told the Echevarrias that gang members were asking for a weekly fee from the school.

It was hard to sleep, Echevarria said.

In early 2010, word got around that the Veracruz government was offering to evacuate the refugees and help them resettle.

The day after the bus shooting, the Echevarrias abandoned their house and left with a washing machine, a set of saucepans, a dining table, Valeria's dresser and her Disney princess chairs.Once back in Veracruz, Cristian Echevarria got a job as a cashier in a convenience store, while his father decided to get a taxi driver's permit.

….

Veracruz had long been a route for drugs and migrants coming from the south. For years it was dominated by the Gulf cartel, which had contracted with a gang of former army special forces - the Zetas. Because the state and the port were controlled by one drug gang, it was quiet.

46

In early 2010 the Zetas split from the Gulf cartel, triggering a vicious war in the border state of Tamaulipas, just north of Veracruz. This year a government offensive to stop that drug war spilled the violence into Veracruz.

The bloodshed worsened in the last few months, when a third cartel thought to be aligned with Mexico's most-wanted drug lord, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, moved into Veracruz to try to take over drug operations.

The results of the cartel wars became visible to commuters in September, when a group of masked men stopped rush-hour traffic to dump 35 strangled bodies onto a main thoroughfare. Banners left at the scene claimed the dead were Zetas, though official reports have questioned their link to the drug gang. The victims included bricklayers, former police officers and a taxi driver.

The Echevarrias found themselves in a situation worse than the one they'd fled.

They had moved to a slum of concrete-block housing outside Veracruz to save 500 pesos a month in rent.

….

"They've kidnapped 10 taxi drivers. They asked me to sell drugs," Rafael said. "Yes, I'm scared. I need to provide for my family."

The Echevarrias now make far less than the average wage of $250 pesos a day, about $19.Alejandra uncovered a saucepan filled with red rice. A loaf of bread sat on a plate. There was no milk. In a big black bag, they'd save plastic bottles collected from the streets to sell for 5 pesos a kilo.

….

Cristian said more than 20 men dressed as marines arrived a few weeks ago to their neighborhood, rifles in hand. Valeria heard the shots. Cristian pulled her into an inside room where the family waited.

In a separate attack, Cristian said, four of his childhood friends were killed and three others kidnapped.

The move to Veracruz was a mistake, he said.

When Cristian finishes high school in June, he will move back to their Juarez house and look for work. If he is successful, the rest of the family will join him.

The homicides there have dropped from 2,657 in the first 10 months of 2010 to 1,730 in 2011. They continue to fall.

47

Valeria doesn't remember the time when she wouldn't talk and only communicated with drawings, when she was a chipped-tooth girl who barely smiled.

….

Source: [www.miamiherald.com/2011/12/04/v-fullstory/2530896/mexico-drug-war-refugees-escape.html]Return to Contents