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UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY
INSTITUTE FOR THE STUDY OF VIOLENT GROUPSDAILY BORDER NEWS REPORT FOR 18 NOVEMBER 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 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 Contents1. CANADA AND NORTHERN BORDER STATES...........................................3
A. Man Charged in Connection with Drug Investigation Released on Bail in Saskatchewan (SK)......................................................................................................................................3
B. Cameras Found in Tree Contained Images of RCMP Investigations (BC).........................4
2. INNER UNITED STATES..................................................................................4A. Feds in GA Say They Found $500,000 of Cocaine in Horse Saddle (GA).........................4B. Probe of Mexican Zetas Leads to Chicago Arrests (IL/TX)................................................5C. 6 Members of Interstate Drug Ring Plead Guilty in FL (FL/TX).......................................6D. OWS Protesters Vow Domestic Terrorism in NYC (NY)...................................................7
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E. Four Arrested in Major PA Drug Sweep (PA)....................................................................7F. 3 Mexican Citizens in Miami Sentenced To 15 Years for Sex Trafficking (FL)................8
3. MEXICO AND SOUTHERN BORDER STATES.............................................9A. Gunmen Kill Federal Prosecutor in Northern Mexico (COAH).........................................9B. Mexican Mayor's Brother Freed after Extortion Complaint Dropped (NL)......................10C. Police Find Major Drug Tunnel under U.S.-Mexico Border (BC/CA).............................11D. Border Tourism Suffers Due To Drug Violence (SON)....................................................12E. Fuel Contamination Eyed in Fatal Mexico Air Crash (MEX)...........................................12F. Effort Aimed at Zetas Leads to San Antonio Arrest (TX).................................................14G. Cartel-Related Deaths Spike up in the Desert Southwest (BC).........................................15H. Border Sheriffs Refute GOP Claims of Border ‘War Zone' (YX).....................................16I. Drug Cartel Graffiti Raises Eyebrows along Falcon Lake (TX).......................................17J. Calderon Rival Has New Answer to the Drug War (DF)..................................................19K. Border City Sees Little Violence (AZ)..............................................................................20L. Border Group Shields Children from Drug Violence (SON/AZ)......................................21M. Mexico to Use Drones against Drug Cartels (DF).............................................................21N. Tip Leads Police to Stash House (TX)..............................................................................22O. Mexican Cartel Tactical Note # 6 (TX).............................................................................22
4. CARRIBEAN, CENTRAL, AND SOUTH AMERICA....................................25A. Venezuela Authorities Charge 8 in Kidnapping (VE).......................................................25B. Ecuadorian Soldier Dies in Clash with Smugglers (EC)...................................................26
5. OPINION AND ANALYSIS.............................................................................26A. Who Will Take over Drug-Torn Mexico in 2012? (MX)..................................................26B. People’s Movement in Mexico Calls for End to Narco-Violence (MX)...........................30C. US Builds New Partnerships to Uproot Transnational Organized Crime (US).................31D. Journalists under Attack in Fresh Wave of Violence in Mexico (COAH/VER)...............32E. The Mexican Drug Cartel Threat in Central America (GT)..............................................33F. Special Report: In Acapulco, It's Mayhem by the Beach (GRO)......................................39G. Tijuana's Uneasy Peace may Endure, Despite Arrests (BC).............................................40
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1. CANADA AND NORTHERN BORDER STATES
A. Man Charged in Connection with Drug Investigation Released on Bail in Saskatchewan (SK)
16 November 2011 Leader-Post
One of several men charged in connection with a multi-million-dollar cross-border drug investigation was released on bail conditions Wednesday.
Ronald Charles Learning, 28, appeared at Swift Current Provincial Court Wednesday to learn whether he’d be released on bail. Bail submissions — details of which cannot be reported because of a court-imposed publication ban — were heard previously, following which the judge reserved decision. Reasons for the judge’s decision to release the British Columbia resident also cannot be published.
Learning was released on the condition that a friend sign a $7,500 surety. Among other conditions are that Learning stay within a 100-kilometre radius of his Vernon residence; maintain a curfew of 11 p.m. to 6 a.m.; report once a week in person to the Vernon RCMP; not use or possess alcohol or drugs or attend bars or liquor stores; submit to searches of his person, residence or vehicle up to three times per month; not carry more than $1,000 cash at any time; not possess a cellphone; and not possess firearms.
According to information previously released by the RCMP, the investigation led to the seizure of 367 kilograms of cocaine destined for Canada and 100,000 ecstasy pills headed for the United States.
The investigation involved law enforcement agencies in both Canada and the U.S. The RCMP has described the seizure — estimated at $17.5 million worth of drugs — as the largest in the province’s history.
A fifth man faces charges in the U.S.
Source: [www.leaderpost.com/news/charged+connection+with+drug+investigation+released+bail/5721785/story.html](Return to Contents)
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B. Cameras Found in Tree Contained Images of RCMP Investigations (BC)
17 November 2011Herald News
RCMP have been left red-faced after police investigation pictures, including some depicting dead bodies, were found on surveillance cameras installed in a tree in Grand Forks, B.C., forcing police to contact victims’ families after the cameras were taken.
Staff Sgt. Dan Seibel said Mounties want the cameras back so they can review what’s on their memory cards and call relatives.
"I’m told that there’s images in various investigations where dead bodies are included in those so that’s why it’s important for us to get those cameras back and review the images and contact the families." The cameras were installed in June as part of a marijuana grow-op investigation and targeted the driveway of Dion Nordick’s residence, about 600 kilometres east of Vancouver, Seibel said Wednesday.
But the supposedly covert cameras were spotted when they flashed and someone removed them. Nordick’s lawyer now has them.
….
Source: [thechronicleherald.ca/canada/33904-cameras-found-tree-contained-images-rcmp-investigations](Return to Contents)
2. INNER UNITED STATES
A. Feds in GA Say They Found $500,000 of Cocaine in Horse Saddle (GA)
16 November 2011CBS News (AP)
Authorities in Georgia say they uncovered $500,000 of cocaine inside a horse saddle that they tracked to their state after it crossed the U.S.-Mexico border.
FOX5 in Atlanta reported that federal agents said they discovered the saddle as it crossed the border, and immediately launched "Operation Urban Cowboy," which followed it to a DeKalb County, Ga. store.
Law enforcement officials had informed the store owner and were at the store when an unidentified man and woman came to pick up the package.
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Police had the owner hand the suspects the package. "I said, 'Here's the package, it's a little heavy I can't carry it, can you carry it,' so he [the man] carried it out and he walked out the door and the police took over," the store owner said. Then police took over.
The pair who walked out with the package was arrested with drug trafficking at the scene. Police said they found five kilograms of cocaine valued at $500,000 in the layers of the saddle.
Upon seeing the contents of the package, the store owner said he was shocked.
Source: [www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_162-57325947-504083/feds-in-ga-say-they-found-$500000-of-cocaine-in-horse-saddle/](Return to Contents)
B. Probe of Mexican Zetas Leads to Chicago Arrests (IL/TX)
16 November 2011Houston Chronicle
Federal agents have arrested 13 people as part of a probe into the alleged multimillion-dollar shipments of drug money between the Chicago area and Mexico's brutal Zetas cartel, authorities said Wednesday.
The FBI and Drug Enforcement Administration arrested 12 people Tuesday in Chicago and another during a simultaneous raid in Laredo, Texas, according to a statement from the U.S. attorney's office. Five people of the 20 total indicted in the probe remain at large, another was already in custody and one is hospitalized.
Authorities said they seized more than $12.4 million in cash and approximately 250 kilograms of cocaine last year from Chicago-area safe houses. An additional $480,000 and two kilograms were seized during Tuesday's raids, they said.
A U.S. Attorney said the charges are part of the first federal prosecution in Chicago of defendants with ties to the Zetas cartel, which is believed to be one of Mexico's two dominant drug traffickers. Three people with ties to the Zetas were arrested and two others remain at large, authorities said.
The Zetas, formed by former members of an elite Mexican army unit, are believed to have been behind some of the most ruthless violence in a drug war that's claimed an estimated 35,000 to 40,000 lives.
Among the men who remain at large is a man who is accused of directing a network that shipped drug money from Chicago and other American cities to Laredo, where the money could then be moved across the border into Nuevo Laredo, Mexico. Another defendant still at large is accused in an indictment of packaging millions of dollars in cash to be driven south by truck drivers.
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Two alleged truck drivers and another defendant linked to the Zetas are now in custody. Attorney information for the three men was not immediately available.
The Chicago special agent in charge for the DEA said in a statement that the "influence of Mexican criminal organizations in the wholesale Chicago drug market is apparent."
One expert on the cartel said the Zetas have expanded their reach along the corridors of several interstate highways, including Interstate 35, which runs north from Laredo into the Midwest. Authorities in several other cities have made arrests of people with alleged Zeta ties.
Their influence stretches to thousands of drug dealers and peripheral supporters, said the founder of Southern Pulse, a Latin America intelligence service.
"The word 'Zetas' as a criminal brand is in a lot of ways much more powerful than the 500 or so men who actually are Zetas," he said. "Of that number, very close to zero are actually active inside the United States."
The odds are slim that federal agents will ever be able to prosecute cartel members such as the man believed to be running drug operations. Authorities say they believe him to be living in Nuevo Laredo.
Source: [www.chron.com/news/article/20-charged-in-drug-tracking-case-linked-to-cartel-2272441.php](Return to Contents)
C. 6 Members of Interstate Drug Ring Plead Guilty in FL (FL/TX)
16 November 2011WJXT TV
Six people pleaded guilty Wednesday to drug trafficking charges for their involvement in an interstate drug ring, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and Baker County Sheriff's Office announced at a news conference.
During a one-year period starting in April 2010, they transported about 160 kilograms of cocaine from Houston to Baker County and distributed the drugs to people in Jacksonville. They reaped the benefits of more than $4 million in drug proceeds, investigators said.
"We should be rid of these people for a long time," the Baker County Sheriff said.
The interstate ring transported the cocaine between Jacksonville and Houston.
Among those who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute five kilograms or more of cocaine were a 39-year-old man from Jacksonville, and 39-year old and a 54-year old men from Baker County. The others were a 65-year old man, a 52-year-old woman, and a 23-year-old woman from Houston.
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Three additional people have been charged with conspiracy to distribute five kilograms or more of cocaine as part of this investigation.
….
Source: [www.news4jax.com/news/6-members-of-interstate-drug-ring-plead-guilty/-/475880/4769360/-/h7yfn1/-/](Return to Contents)
D. OWS Protesters Vow Domestic Terrorism in NYC (NY)
16 November 2011The Right Scoop
Editorial comment: The link contains a video.
Unhappy with their eviction, protesters are now vowing to throw Molotov cocktails at businesses on Nov 17.
Source: [www.therightscoop.com/ows-protesters-vow-domestic-terrorism-in-nyc/](Return to Contents)
E. Four Arrested in Major PA Drug Sweep (PA)
16 November 2011PhillyBurbs.com
Four men were arrested Wednesday and jailed in lieu of $10 million bail each after Bensalem police and federal agents busted up a suspected multimillion dollar drug ring.
A tractor trailer seized Wednesday had 280,000 ecstasy pills inside it, according to court documents.
And the district judge also signed two search warrants for two vehicles, a Honda Accord and Kia Sorrento, one alleged to have $1 million cash inside. It was unclear at press time what police found in the vehicles.
All were charged with criminal conspiracy and manufacture, delivery and possession with the intent to deliver, records show.
Court documents show that in September an undercover police officer was introduced to a prospective ecstasy supplier named “Imigrante” by a confidential informant.
Imigrante was looking into trading kilogram quantities of cocaine for ecstasy and money. A kilogram equals 2.2 pounds.
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During the first meeting, Imigrante gave an informant 10 ecstasy pills as a sample and they talked about a sale of 5,000 pills, records show.
On Oct. 13, Imigrante sent one of the suspects to Franklin Mills, who allegedly sold 5,100 ecstasy pills for $14,000, which is about $28 a pill, records show.
On Sunday, a month later, an informant met with Imigrante at Franklin Mills and discussed a possible sale of 100 kilograms (220 pounds) of cocaine for $940,000 and $500,000 worth of ecstasy, records show.
The suspect was driving a red 2005 Kia Sorrento. The alleged drug deal was set for 11:30 a.m. Monday at a location in the 3300 block of Progress Drive in Bensalem.
He and Imigrante told the informant the ecstasy would be coming in a tractor trailer from Canada, records show.
On Tuesday, informants met with Imigrante and another suspect named “Lolo” at Parx Casino. They discussed the sale of 100 kilograms of cocaine for an amount of ecstasy and cash, records show.
Unbeknownst to the suspect, DEA agents watched him leave Parx and drive to the Commerce Circle parking lot in Bristol. From there, the vehicle was followed to the Holiday Inn, 3499 Street Road in Bensalem.
On Wednesday, two informants met with Imigrante and Lolo at Parx again.
The suspects talked to undercover police and agreed to meet on Route 13 with a tractor trailer.
Agents and police converged on the site Wednesday afternoon and arrested the four men.
Source: [www.phillyburbs.com/my_town/bensalem/four-arrested-in-major-drug-sweep/article_411074bb-476f-5630-90e4-b7c0e5594aba.html](Return to Contents)
F. 3 Mexican Citizens in Miami Sentenced To 15 Years for Sex Trafficking (FL)
16 November 2011ICE.gov
Three Mexican citizens were sentenced to 15 years in prison Wednesday for conspiring to force Mexican women to engage in prostitution, following an investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). The defendants pleaded guilty to the conspiracy charge in August.
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According to evidence presented in court, from 1999 through December 2010, Israel Cortes-Morales, 31, Alberto Cortes-Castro, 30, and Ernesto Cortes-Castro, 26, forced multiple Mexican women to engage in prostitution in the United States for the defendants' financial benefit.
With false promises of a better life, legitimate employment and marriage, the defendants lured victims from their homes in Mexico to this country, knowing that they would actually force the women to be prostitutes in the United States.
The victims were compelled, through threats, psychological coercion and other means, to work within a prostitution circuit that spanned the east coast of the United States, including cities like Miami.
Earlier this year, Mexican authorities successfully prosecuted a fourth defendant charged in the conspiracy, Jorge Velasquez, 24, for his role in the commercial sex trafficking ring. Velasquez was sentenced in Mexico to more than18 years in prison.
Source: [www.ice.gov/news/releases/1111/111116miami.htm](Return to Contents)
3. MEXICO AND SOUTHERN BORDER STATES
A. Gunmen Kill Federal Prosecutor in Northern Mexico (COAH) 16 November 2011Americas Wires (AP)
Mexican authorities say gunmen have killed a federal prosecutor for the border state of Coahuila.
A federal official in Coahuila says Victor Manuel Martinez Cortez was about to leave his home in the city of Torreon when he was attacked Wednesday while sitting in his car.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation. He said Martinez had been working at the federal Attorney General's Office in Coahuila since 2005.
Authorities say the Zetas and the Sinaloa drug cartel are fighting to control smuggling routes in the state.
On Tuesday, gunmen set a fire at the office of the Torreon newspaper El Siglo and fired shots at it. No injuries were reported.
Source: [www.miamiherald.com/2011/11/16/2505083/gunmen-kill-federal-prosecutor.html](Return to Contents)
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B. Mexican Mayor's Brother Freed after Extortion Complaint Dropped (NL)
16 November 2011Fox News (EFE)
An extortion complaint has been dropped against the brother of the mayor of the northern Mexican industrial city of Monterrey, a judge told local media.
The case against Jonas Larrazabal, brother of Monterrey Mayor Fernando Larrazabal, was closed and the suspect freed from custody after the owners of a casino withdrew their complaint against him, Judge Jose Luis Pecina said Tuesday.
The owners of the Red casino in that city had filed their complaint against Larrazabal for allegedly demanding bribes, prompting his arrest on Sept. 1.
As part of their case, they showed prosecutors videos in which the mayor's brother could be seen receiving money.
The suspect's defense attorney, however, said the cash was payment for the sale of "cheeses and mescal (a distilled alcoholic beverage)" from the southern state of Oaxaca to people linked to casinos in Monterrey.
One of the videos was dated Aug. 19, just days before members of the Los Zetas drug cartel killed 52 people in an Aug. 25 arson attack on Monterrey's Casino Royale.
They reportedly set fire to the gaming establishment after its owner refused to pay protection money in an extortion racket the gang was running.
The gunmen told the people inside the casino to get out before torching the building, but dozens were trapped due to blocked fire exits. The casino also lacked fire retardant materials, allowing the blaze to spread quickly.
Many gaming establishments in Mexico operate in an irregular manner and remain open only through controversial court orders or by making payoffs to corrupt officials.
Source: [latino.foxnews.com/latino/news/2011/11/16/mexican-mayors-brother-freed-after-extortion-complaint-dropped/](Return to Contents)
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C. Police Find Major Drug Tunnel under U.S.-Mexico Border (BC/CA) 16 November 2011Yahoo (Reuters)
Police have discovered a "major cross-border drug tunnel" running to California from Mexico, and seized more than 17 tons (12,700 kilograms) of marijuana, U.S. and Mexican authorities said on Wednesday.
The tunnel measuring around 400 yards links warehouses in an industrial park south of San Diego and the Mexican border city of Tijuana, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency said.
U.S. federal agents made the discovery after police stopped a small cargo truck seen leaving a nondescript white warehouse building near the Otay Mesa port of entry on Tuesday afternoon, and arrested two men, ICE said.
A subsequent search of the warehouse found the entrance of the tunnel in the floor. It plunged more than 20 feet to the bottom of a shaft, meeting a passageway measuring approximately 4 feet by 3 feet, with structural supports, electricity and ventilation.
Agents with the San Diego Tunnel Task Force retrieved three tons of marijuana from the van. A subsequent search of the warehouse recovered an additional 6.5 tons of the drug. Mexican authorities said they found almost 8 tons of marijuana on the south side.
Tijuana is the principal gateway for tons of drugs entering California from Mexico. Last year, authorities uncovered two large tunnels linking the gritty industrial city with the strip flanking the border south of San Diego.
Measuring around 2,000 feet in length, they were equipped with rail systems, lighting and ventilation and each discovery yielded multiple tons of marijuana.
'STOP AT NOTHING'
"The fact that this is the third sophisticated cross border tunnel found within a year's time demonstrates the cartels will stop at nothing to smuggle their drugs into the United States," said the acting special agent in charge for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in San Diego.
"The seizure of marijuana coupled with the loss of yet another tunnel will deal a heavy blow to those responsible for constructing this tunnel," he added.
Evidence found inside the warehouse led investigators to believe the tunnel was only recently completed.
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Mexican General Gilberto Landeros said many packets of the seized drugs were marked with a "Captain America" logo. Landeros said the tunnel was operated by the powerful Sinaloa cartel, headed by Mexico's most wanted man, Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman.
Authorities on Wednesday also reported the discovery of a much smaller drug tunnel running under the border to Arizona from Mexico's northern Sonora state.
That tunnel stretched for 70 feet from a drain in Nogales, Mexico, to an area beneath the porch of a house in the namesake city in Arizona, ICE said. Authorities also retrieved a number of excavating tools.
Source: [news.yahoo.com/police-major-drug-tunnel-under-u-mexico-border-220929752.html](Return to Contents)
D. Border Tourism Suffers Due To Drug Violence (SON)
16 November 2011KVUE
Editorial Comment: The video in the link outlines the decrease in Nogales tourism
Before the outbreak of drug violence, border towns attracted American tourists who came to shop, sightsee, and even visit a discount dentist. But shops that depend on those tourists and their dollars, are struggling.
In this special assignment, KVUE's border reporter visited Nogales, Mexico to see just how bad it's gotten.
Source: [www.kvue.com/video/featured-videos/Border-tourism-suffers-due-to-drug-violence-134002448.html](Return to Contents)
E. Fuel Contamination Eyed in Fatal Mexico Air Crash (MEX)
16 November 2011Houston Chronicle
An Austin-based global intelligence company contends aircraft fuel may have been purposely contaminated to cause the Mexican government helicopter crash that killed a top Cabinet member.
Interior Minister Jose Francisco Blake Mora, considered second in command in a country with no vice president, died as did all seven other people aboard the flight that went down last week outside Mexico City.
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The vice president for intelligence at Stratfor emphasized that it is too soon to know for sure what caused the crash, and that faulty maintenance or bad weather could have played roles.
Trust 'in short supply'
A company report published Wednesday claims that a confidential law-enforcement source in Mexico has said fuel contamination is among the leading concerns being checked out by investigators.
"It has been my experience that the facts will speak for themselves, if the investigators are allowed access to all of the data and the crime scene," the expert said.
"Internal politics may come into play in this case due to the politics of the Mexican military aircraft carrying the interior minister, complicated by the fact that due to rampant corruption, trust in the Mexican government by the public is in short supply," he said.
Furthering conspiracy theories that run rampant in Mexico, the incident marked the second time that an aviation crash has taken the life of a member of President Felipe Calderon's Cabinet. Reportedly, Calderon was to fly in the very same helicopter later that day, he said.
"If in fact that is true, that Calderon was slated to be on the helo that day, it does raise a lot of interesting questions and helps you focus your investigation in on certain things," he said.
"You'll want to rule out sabotage or foul play as soon as possible."
NTSB help requested
The Mexican government did not have immediate comment on Stratfor's contention or the ongoing investigation.
As part of the investigation, Mexico has asked for American help from the National Transportation Safety Board, which has had a team there since Saturday, said an NTSB spokesman.
Video of the crash site shows the helicopter broke into many pieces, but does not appear to have been extensively charred.
Juan Camilo Mourino, who held the same post as Blake Mora, died in a plane crash three years ago.
Ramon Martin Huerta, who was the top law enforcement officer under Calderon's predecessor, Vicente Fox, was killed in a helicopter crash in 2005.
Source: [www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Fuel-contamination-eyed-in-fatal-Mexico-air-crash-2273093.php](Return to Contents)
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F. Effort Aimed at Zetas Leads to San Antonio Arrest (TX)
16 November 2011San Antonio Express-News
Federal agents dismantled a network with San Antonio ties used by the Zetas drug cartel to bring proceeds from U.S. drug sales back to Mexico, officials announced Wednesday.
A 49-year old man was arrested Tuesday in San Antonio as part of the investigation. He's indicted along with five others on cocaine trafficking charges and is connected to the Zetas, said the assistant special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration in San Antonio.
Also facing charges in San Antonio are a man who was arrested in Florida, and a woman who was arrested in Waco. Two other defendants' names have not been released.
The special agent in charge said authorities seized cocaine, $2 million in cash, a trailer and four classic cars. Prosecutors also are seeking forfeiture of a lot near Windcrest and a house in Southeast San Antonio.
“They can run, but they cannot hide,” he said. “DEA together with our partners will continue to target these drug organizations wherever they attempt to move drugs.”
The San Antonio case is part of a larger investigation into the Zetas' money transportation network here as well as in Laredo, Eagle Pass and Chicago conducted by the agency's Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force.
The first defendant also is charged in a money laundering case out of Laredo that alleges he and others helped smuggle the proceeds of pot and cocaine sales in Dallas, Chicago and other cities back to Mexico through Eagle Pass and Laredo.
Law enforcement seized $20 million in drug proceeds and 200 kilograms of cocaine as part of those investigations, according to prosecutors.
Four others have been arrested in the Laredo case and several names remain blacked out on the indictment.
“The investigation identified a Zeta member who was the head of a drug proceeds transportation network for the Zetas and operated out of Nuevo Laredo, Mexico,” read a news release from the U.S. attorney's Office in Houston. “As head of the network, this person directed and orchestrated, through other co-conspirators based in Laredo and Chicago, the collection, concealment, transportation and movement of drug proceeds from the Chicago area to the border cities in Texas.”
An indictment from a Chicago federal court identifies Eduardo “Aldo” Treviño as the Nuevo Laredo-based Zeta in charge of bringing drug proceeds back to that city.
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Officials said Treviño, who's still a fugitive, might be a relative of Miguel Treviño Morales, a Nuevo Laredo native and the alleged second-in-command of the Zetas who's wanted in Laredo on five murder charges from 2005 and 2006. Defendants in Chicago would package millions of dollars of drug proceeds and hand them to couriers who would ship them to Texas, and from there to Mexico, the indictment states.
Prosecutors in Houston said this week's arrests are related to an investigation into a spate of Zeta-related killings from last year. Laredo police last week arrested five people and charged them with capital murder in the killings of three people that authorities said were ordered by the Zeta leadership in Nuevo Laredo.
Prosecutors said they also turned over information to Laredo police that led to them finding a kidnapping victim and arresting six people, including one of those charged in the homicides.
Source: [www.mysanantonio.com/news/local_news/article/Feds-strike-at-cartel-money-2272903.php](Return to Contents)
G. Cartel-Related Deaths Spike up in the Desert Southwest (BC)
16 November 2011KSWT TV
The number of cartel-related murders in the Desert Southwest has spiked this year according to one law enforcement agency.
Murders are becoming more frequent in Mexicali.
Some bodies found in Mexicali streets were shot to death, some bodies were strangled with barbed wire and then thrown in canals, but the most gruesome murder we know of so far was a man tied onto train tracks and run over by the locomotive.
Mexicali state police said the killings are a mixture of cartels fighting to claim new territory and small scale drug smuggling gangs fighting against each other.
"It's somewhat of a relief that these events are only occurring between people who dedicate themselves to illegal drug trafficking," Abel Gallardo Pedrosa, sub director of the Mexicali's State Police Organized Crime Division said. "It isn't as alarming as it is in other parts of the country."
Mexicali state police say before 2006, cartel-related murders were high but after 2006 the numbers started to drop.
That's the same year when Mexican President Felipe Calderon began cracking down on cartels in Mexico.
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But this year, Mexican authorities say they counted nearly 130 bodies in Mexicali.
"They're readjustments between two cartels...in this case, we obviously can't hide that the Sinaloa cartel is present in our state," Gallardo said. "It's a common readjustment just like any other part of the world or country."
Gallardo said fortunately the murders have only been between cartel members and it has not directly harmed Mexicali residents.
"The theme here is that they'll go execute the person they need to execute and that's where it ends," he said.
He said Mexicali is not experiencing full blown cartel violence such as Ciudad Juarez or Tamaulipas.
But he said they're taking extreme preventative measures to try and prevent that.
Reports do not specify the nationality of those killed although most were Mexican and from the state of Sinaloa.
Source: [www.kswt.com/story/16060266/cartel-related-deaths-spike-up-in-the-desert-southwest](Return to Contents)
H. Border Sheriffs Refute GOP Claims of Border ‘War Zone' (YX)
16 November 2011San Antonio Express-News
Administration officials used a White House roundtable and Democratic forum with South Texas law enforcement officers Wednesday to refute Republican claims that Mexican drug cartels have turned the U.S.-Mexico border region into a war zone.
The Homeland Security Secretary said collaboration between federal, state and local law enforcement agencies is working to keep border communities safe, while facilitating commerce.
“Protecting communities along our borders is vital to our homeland security, as well as economic prosperity,” she said.
She said the current administration was committed to working with local law enforcement partners “to strengthen our border security efforts while expanding legal trade and travel.”
South Texas law enforcement officials and Democratic congressmen said claims by Republicans that the border has become a war zone were untrue and unfairly painted the border region as drenched in cartel violence.
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“The border is not in chaos,” said the Hidalgo County Sheriff. “We are not at ‘Ground Zero.'”
The Sheriff said an October shootout that began in Mexico and crossed the border, leading to the wounding of a Hidalgo Deputy, was the first incident of cartel “spillover” violence in his county.
The initial shooting left a Gulf Cartel leader dead. A team of drug smugglers then crossed the border into Hidalgo County to look for a stolen load of marijuana, when the shootout with the deputy took place.
The deputy, wearing a bullet proof vest, survived the shooting.
The Sheriff said the incident was the first of its kind in his county, which has seen an overall reduction in crime in recent years.
“We must be doing something right,” he said during a panel discussion held by the New Democratic Network & The New Policy Institute.
The Sheriff and six other border law enforcement officials from Texas and California attended the White House roundtable with The Secretary of State.
Also attending were the Laredo Police Chief, the Brownsville Police Chief and the Webb County Sheriff.
….
Source: [www.mysanantonio.com/news/local_news/article/Border-sheriffs-refute-GOP-claims-of-border-2272660.php](Return to Contents)
I. Drug Cartel Graffiti Raises Eyebrows along Falcon Lake (TX)
16 November 2011Valley Central
Blue skies and pleasant weather make it a lovely time of the year to visit Falcon Lake.
Boaters are out on the water hoping to catch a trophy bass or other fish but something found on the shore is raising eyebrows among law enforcement officials.
Gulf Cartel graffiti was recently found on the American side of the lake at picnic pavilions at Falcon State Park over the weekend.
Some of the graffiti includes the nicknames of both living and dead Gulf Cartel leaders.
Other items of graffiti found at the same spot make references to getting high and using drugs.
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Although there are no reports of drugs or violent crime inside park itself, the incident comes more than a year after the death of an American tourist on the Mexican side of the lake.
The Zetas drug cartel is blamed in the man’s death but no arrests have ever been arrested and his body has never been recovered.
Law Enforcement
The Zapata County Sheriff told Action 4 News that the graffiti is most likely the work of drug cartel 'wannabes.’
He said young people and adults making false claims of belonging to a cartel is dangerous.
“To me, it’s a serious matter,” the Sheriff said in a telephone interview. “It means we have a problem as far as I’m concerned. We’ve already had several incidents.”
The Sheriff said a June 2010 murder in Zapata County is attributed to a man who falsely claimed to be with a cartel while in the presence of men who actually were with a rival cartel.
The suspects fled into Mexico where they also reportedly took the man's body.
Another incident involved two young men ramming their cars into each other after falsely claiming to be with rival cartels.
With the area across Falcon Lake controlled by the Zetas drug cartel, the Sheriff said he’s worried about actual cartel members starting an incident after seeing false graffiti.
His deputies are looking into the graffiti at Falcon State Park.
“To me, it’s a sign that they’re being more brazen, more open about it,” the Sheriff said of those leaving behind drug cartel graffiti.
State Park Officials
Officials with Falcon State Park said employees spent part of Tuesday afternoon removing the drug cartel graffiti from picnic pavilions.
The park Supervisor said graffiti is somewhat common in bathrooms and picnic pavilions but gang-related graffiti is not common.
No suspects have been identified but he said anyone caught putting graffiti on state park property would face criminal mischief charges.
The months of November through March are busy at Falcon State Park as a number of Winter Texans arrive in the area.
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Warning signs are the park’s boat ramps warn boaters about traveling on the Mexican side of the lake and ask everyone to report suspicious activity.
….
Source: [www.valleycentral.com/news/story.aspx?id=687529#.TsUmrPI1SSo](Return to Contents)
J. Calderon Rival Has New Answer to the Drug War (DF)
17 November 2011Global Post
The death toll in Mexico’s drug war has topped 50,000 in five years. Soldiers and marines are accused of widespread human rights abuses. Officials have been assassinated or died in mysterious air crashes.
But the whole mess can be cleared up in the first six months of a new administration. At least, that's the campaign pledge of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the silver-haired presidential hopeful of the Mexican left.
Lopez Obrador, also known as “El Peje” after a tough fish from his native state of Tabasco, has jumped into the drug-war debate this week after winning the candidacy of three leftist parties for the 2012 presidential race.
A lifelong defender of Mexico’s poor and downtrodden, the 58-year-old Lopez Obrador argues that soldiers should be sent back to their barracks and replaced by social workers and jobs.
“You can’t fight violence with violence,” Lopez Obrador said on national radio Wednesday. “We need a loving republic. We need opportunities for young people so they don’t fall into the arms of organized crime.”
Between now and the election day in July, Lopez Obrador says, he will convince the Mexican people for a new peaceful approach — as opposed to the military policies of the present President Felipe Calderon or the former ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party.
Calderon's war on drug cartels, the leftist candidate said, has been a disaster for Mexico, unleashing more bloodshed and destroying the economy.
Lopez Obrador has a history of deep rivalry with Calderon.
In the 2006 presidential election, Calderon and Lopez Obrador ran against each other in a tight race that was characterized by mudslinging.
Calderon, who is from the conservative National Action Party, accused Lopez Obrador of being a raving populist who would plunge Mexico into crisis.
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After Calderon won by less than 1 percent — the closest margin in Mexican history — Lopez Obrador alleged electoral fraud and blocked the streets with tent cities in protest.
As he led demonstrations, Lopez Obrador called Calderon a “fascist” and said the president was part of a “mafia of power.”
However, since winning the candidacy again, Lopez Obrador has moderated his comments, switching his focus to pacifying Mexico and fighting corruption.
“The biggest enemy of Mexico is dishonesty. That is the cause of so many of our problems,” he said.
….
Source: [www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/americas/mexico/111116/calderon-drug-war-lopez-obrador-pena-nieto](Return to Contents)
K. Border City Sees Little Violence (AZ)
17 November 2011KPHO TV
The city of Nogales, AZ is proving that location is not everything. According to FBI crime statistics, this border city is safer than most other Arizona cities of similar size, which are far from the border and the drug violence it has become known for.
Crime statistics show there were 51 violent crimes in Nogales in 2010. The number is revealing in that there were no murders or rapes in this city of roughly 20,000.
Other similar sized cities include Payson, which reported 122 violent crimes in 2010 and Kingman, which reported 83 violent crimes.
Law enforcement officials say one of the factors that keep violent crime to a minimum in Nogales include the fact that city, county, state and federal agencies all patrol the relatively small city.
Source: [www.kpho.com/story/16061424/border-city](Return to Contents)
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L. Border Group Shields Children from Drug Violence (SON/AZ)
17 November 2011KPHO TV
A group of volunteers on the Arizona/Mexico border is working to curb the influence of violence on Mexico's children. The effort is meant to prevent a generation of young people from viewing drug violence as a normal part of life.
Inside a barren classroom, fewer than 100 feet from the steel border fence, 70 teachers, social workers, religious leaders and students are learning how to teach children to say no to violence. It's a tall order, given the ruthlessness of Mexico's drug cartels.
More than 40,000 people have died in the drug war and the images of graphic violence are on full display on television and newspapers across the country.
"We're learning a new language," said one of the event's organizers.
She says one of the big problems is that many children in Mexico are growing up without fathers. They either leave to work in the United States, work long hours in Mexico, or abandon their families.
"We're seeing a generation of single mothers so these other organizations, teachers, preachers and pastors are providing the male image," she said.
The goals of the effort is to encourage mothers to pay close attention to their children and dissuade them from embracing the "mafia" lifestyle, as well as teaching children that violence of any sort is wrong.
Source: [www.kpho.com/story/16061370/border-group](Return to Contents)
M. Mexico to Use Drones against Drug Cartels (DF)
17 November 2011InSight Crime
Mexico’s Navy announced plans to deploy unmanned planes in support of government operations against drug cartels, starting March 2012.
The drones will transmit real-time video and images, which Mexico’s security forces will use to identify locations being used by drug cartels to stash weapons and drugs, hold kidnapping victims or carry out other criminal activities. They will have the capacity to fly for up to two hours, reports Excelsior.
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The drones, which were designed by scientists working for Mexico's armed forces, are currently in a test phase. They are light, can be easily transported and operated remotely using a mobile communications tower.
The unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) can fly at low speeds, gathering intelligence on criminals during reconnaissance missions that will then be used to inform the actions of security personnel, without risking the lives of pilots.
The U.S.'s deployment of drones in Mexican airspace sparked controversy earlier this year, with some saying they had been used since 2009.
Source: [insightcrime.org/insight-latest-news/item/1861-mexico-to-use-drones-against-drug-cartels](Return to Contents)
N. Tip Leads Police to Stash House (TX)
16 November 2011The Brownsville Herald
A Crime Stoppers tip led police to a home in Southmost Tuesday where agents discovered more than 150 pounds of marijuana, a police report said.
The tip claimed the residence was a stash house, and someone was planning to move a shipment of drugs out of Texas.
Agents surveyed the home, which had bars on the windows and a chain-link fence, on the 4700 block of Young Drive. Marijuana was visible from the door, according to the report.
They searched the home and found the 150 pounds of the narcotic, worth about $35,000 on the street, the report said.
Police arrested the residents of the home on a possession charge.
Source: [www.brownsvilleherald.com/articles/home-133774-police-report.html](Return to Contents)
O. Mexican Cartel Tactical Note # 6 (TX)
15 November 2011Small Wars Journal
Cross Border Incursion with SWAT Teams Responding: 15 Cartel/Gang Gunmen Cross into US Near Escobares, Texas
Key Information:
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Via The Monitor:
Gunmen crossed the Rio Grande into the United States near a shootout between where the Mexican military and a group of gunmen was taking place.
Several area SWAT teams responded about 1:30 p.m. Tuesday to a ranch near Escobares, just across the U.S.-Mexico border, where a shootout broke out south of the Rio Grande.
The shootout reportedly began shortly after noon but details were not immediately available. Residents on the U.S. side reported seeing members of the U.S. Border Patrol and Starr County Sheriff’s Office securing the area near the border.
A Border Patrol spokeswoman said agents had been tracking a suspected drug load near La Rosita and pushed it back to Mexico.
Border Patrol alerted Mexican authorities of the suspected load and then found an injured Mexican national on the U.S. side of the Rio Grande, the spokeswoman said. Emergency crews rushed the man to an area hospital. His condition remains unknown.
The man, a suspected cartel gunman, had been shot by Mexican authorities, a separate U.S. law enforcement official said.
The official confirmed a group of as many as 15 gunmen had crossed the Rio Grande, though it remained unclear whether they were Mexican soldiers or cartel gunmen.
“We don’t know who they are,” the official said. “We haven’t gotten that information yet.”
Local authorities in Hidalgo County provided backup support along the Rio Grande as Border Patrol dispatched additional agents from the McAllen area to the incident in rural Starr County.
The experience was a bit unnerving for one man, whose brother owns La Prieta Ranch in La Rosita. He was overseeing the ranch hands shortly after noon when they noticed that the roads near the property became quickly swarmed with authorities.
“Yeah, you worry when that happens,” he said. “We all went back inside the house. It looks like there was something going on over there (Mexico); we heard four or five shots from the helicopter. It looks like the (Mexican military) helicopter was shooting at the people on the ground over there.”
While he heard the shots, the man’s property soon swarmed with more than 100 law enforcement officials from various agencies.
“We saw them take one guy in an ambulance,” he said. “He looked in bad shape.”
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Additional information was solicited from the Border Patrol spokeswoman, one of the original reporters of the above newspaper story, and the Starr County Sheriff’s Office who have investigative authority over this incident. No further information was provided.
Who: 15 gunmen— elements of a cartel/drug gang.
What: Armed incursion on US soil by criminal combatants from the Mexican drug war.
When: Tuesday 8 November 2011 at 1:30 PM (13:30).
Where: A ranch near Escobares, Texas, just across the U.S.-Mexico border, north of the Rio Grande.
Why: Bringing a drug load into the US and escape and evasion by elements of a cartel/drug gang from the Mexican military.
Tactical Analysis: The most plausible explanation concerning the identity of the 15 gunmen is that they belong to a Mexican cartel/drug gang. The drug load had been pushed back from the Texas side over the border in a coordinated effort by US federal and local law enforcement and the Mexican military who had been alerted by the Border Patrol. Further, it would make no sense for the Mexican military to openly risk an international incident, or the possibility of a friendly fire event, by crossing the Rio Grande (Rio Bravo) in hot pursuit when they were actively coordinating with US law enforcement assets.
For the responding US SWAT teams, this incident poses a potentially dangerous situation. It is more of a military operation on a “movement to contact” than a conventional SWAT operation in the US. SWAT teams are trained and equipped to contend with criminals in barricade and hostage type situations and are accustomed to stacked (bunched together) movement and entry tactics.
Typically the criminals encountered are found in small numbers— usually one or maybe two— and may or may not have a shotgun, semi-automatic rifle, and some form of body armor. It is the intent of such criminals to flee from responding police forces and only put up a fight if corned out of desperation—even then such criminals typically surrender to responding SWAT units. A group of 15 cartel/drug gang gunmen represents an entirely different threat—it essentially contains a reinforced squad of opposing force personnel.
These cartel/gang foot soldiers will be proactive in their actions—not reactive like most criminals encountered— and therefore represent an opposing (enemy) force the US SWAT teams are unaccustomed to. Besides the potentials for ambushes and fires and movement being conducted by the cartel/gang gunmen, their semi-automatic (and full auto) assault weapons and the great likelihood of the presence of grenade-launchers and fragmentation grenades makes for a military-like engagement scenario that is beyond present SWAT capabilities to effectively respond. Under these circumstances, standard SWAT operating procedures—such as the use of stacked movement tactics— could be disastrous in their implementation.
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Source: [smallwarsjournal.com/blog/mexican-cartel-tactical-note-6](Return to Contents)
4. CARRIBEAN, CENTRAL, AND SOUTH AMERICA
A. Venezuela Authorities Charge 8 in Kidnapping (VE)
17 November 2011ABC News (AP)
Editorial Comment: This is an update to a previously-reported story
Venezuelan authorities formally charged eight suspects Wednesday in the kidnapping of a Washington Nationals catcher.
The charges against include kidnapping, illegal possession of firearms, using a stolen vehicle and criminal association, prosecutors said in a statement. Those jailed include six men accused of directly participating in the abduction and a 59-year-old woman and 74-year-old man who are charged as accomplices for allegedly providing food to the group.
The 24-year-old baseball player was seized at gunpoint outside his family's home in the city of Valencia last week and was rescued by police commandos two days later in the mountains of Carabobo state.
Authorities said four men were arrested at the abductors' hideout but other suspects escaped the police raid. On Monday, police arrested a Colombian and a Venezuelan as alleged participants in the kidnapping. The older man and woman were detained before the rescue.
The catcher said after his release that his kidnappers had carefully planned the abduction with the help of an informant who had studied his movements. He said his abductors told him they were going to demand a large ransom.
"What they did was laugh, joke about my pain," the victim said in brief remarks on television Tuesday.
The 74-year-old suspect, Aristides Sanchez, was granted house arrest by a court as permitted in Venezuela for suspects older than 70. However, officials said he will remain jailed until authorities confirm his age.
Sanchez is the father of another jailed suspect, 26-year-old Alexander Sanchez, the attorney general's office said in a statement.
The kidnapped catcher recently returned to his homeland after his rookie year with the Nationals to play during the offseason for his Venezuelan team, the Aragua Tigers. He has said he expects to be on the field playing for the Tigers again soon.
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"I'm very thankful, and I feel like I've been born again," he said.
Source: [abcnews.go.com/Sports/wireStory/venezuela-authorities-charge-ramos-kidnapping-14969504#.TsUnpvI1SSo](Return to Contents)
B. Ecuadorian Soldier Dies in Clash with Smugglers (EC)
16 November 2011Latin American Herald Tribune
One soldier was killed and two others wounded Wednesday in a clash with fuel smugglers near the Colombian border, the Ecuadorian Defense Ministry said.
The incident occurred shortly after 6:00 a.m. as the troops were conducting surveillance at the confluence of the Putumayo and San Miguel rivers.
Spotting an Ecuador-bound boat that was carrying barrels of fuel, the soldiers ordered the crew to stop for an inspection.
The crew ignored the order and when the Ecuadorian troops moved to stop the boat, they were confronted by two other vessels whose occupants opened fire on the soldiers, the defense ministry said in a statement.
Cpl. Fabian Chango, Lt. Javier Espinoza and Pvt. Rommel Monar were hit by shotgun pellets.
The wounded men were transported to the military hospital in Quito, where Chango died, the defense ministry said, adding that the other two soldiers “are in stable condition.”
Source: [www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=445069&CategoryId=14089](Return to Contents)
5. OPINION AND ANALYSIS
A. Who Will Take over Drug-Torn Mexico in 2012? (MX)
16 November 2011The National Post
The field of potential candidates for Mexico’s 2012 presidential elections has narrowed after left-wing stalwart Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Tuesday he would run for the presidency a second time.
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Lopez Obrador is set to be formally nominated to represent the left, led by the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), after winning the backing of supporters in internal polls over Mexico City mayor Marcelo Ebrard.
The other two parties have a list of five possible candidates, including three former ministers, who will vie for the nomination in a process that began in October and ends in March. The winners will run for president in July.
Whoever succeeds President Felipe Calderon in December 2012 will inherit a country wracked by violence. The death toll from a drug war has hit more than 44,000 in just under five years.
The parties that have not yet selected their candidates have finalized the rules for primaries, with the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which currently tops opinion polls, opting to choose its candidate in a poll open to all voters.
Calderon’s National Action Party (PAN) will restrict voting in the primary to party members and supporters.
The next president will be in charge of an economy with great potential but in danger of being hobbled as its main trading partner, the United States, struggles with its own economic problems.
A new leader will have to generate enough jobs to alleviate the grinding poverty that affects half of Mexico’s population. None have yet defined their policy platforms for the election.
Following is a list of the principal potential candidates.
PRI
ENRIQUE PENA NIETO
The telegenic Pena Nieto, 45, carries the hopes of the party that governed Mexico for 71 years until it was ousted by the PAN in 2000. Governor of the state of Mexico from 2005 until mid-September 2011, Pena Nieto has suffered less from the taint of corruption than previous governors of the state.
Styling himself as a more transparent governor, Pena Nieto has built his image on public works and cooperation with the neighboring Mexico City government to improve infrastructure.
Married to a popular Mexican soap opera star, Pena Nieto studied law and taught before becoming a politician. The sudden death of his first wife in 2007 stirred rumors of suicide but Pena Nieto weathered the storm and solidified his power base.
Pena Nieto’s image has been carefully cultivated by the party with the aid of the media, notably broadcaster Televisa. Critics say he has not been tested against rivals and has so far ignored challenges to engage them in public debates.
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A recent Mitofsky poll put his raw support at 33 percent of the electorate and he is likely to easily win the primaries.
MANLIO FABIO BELTRONES
One of the most powerful political operators in the PRI, Senate leader Beltrones is seen as a representative of the party’s old guard but lacks Pena Nieto’s public profile.
The 59-year-old ex-governor of Sonora state has sought to burnish his credentials as a reformer, proposing a bold overhaul of taxes earlier this year, but his plans were stalled by the faction loyal to Pena Nieto in the lower house.
A former official of now-defunct intelligence agency the Federal Security Agency (DFS), Beltrones has attacked Calderon for using the army to crush Mexico’s drug cartels.
His influence within the party could be sufficient to secure him or one of his supporters a key role in any future PRI government, such as the post of interior minister.
PAN
SANTIAGO CREEL
Interior minister under ex-President Vicente Fox, Creel is a seasoned politician who lost his party’s 2005 nomination for president to Calderon. He has been promoting his candidacy longer than other PAN hopefuls and early polls gave him more support than his rivals. That lead has since evaporated.
A trained lawyer of U.S. descent, Creel has sought to trumpet his experience dealing with national crisis when Fox’s administration was faced with Zapatista guerrilla protests.
Creel, 56, has accused the PRI of negotiating with organized crime. He said earlier this year Mexico’s political system did not work and must be reformed.
JOSEFINA VAZQUEZ MOTA
Vazquez Mota, 50, was Calderon’s education minister before becoming leader of the PAN in the lower house of Congress. Recent polls have marked her as the most popular candidate to lead the PAN’s bid, moving ahead of Creel.
Widely regarded as one of the PAN’s most capable lawmakers, she has been a vigorous proponent of Calderon’s reform drives. However, her efforts to shepherd them through Congress frequently foundered on opposition from the PRI.
She stood down from her congressional role to focus on the presidency earlier in September and is popular among grass-roots PAN voters, opinion polls show.
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A former journalist who supported Calderon’s run for the presidency in 2006, Vazquez Mota has an outside chance of becoming Mexico’s first woman president if she can secure the PAN’s nomination for next year’s election.
Allowing party supporters to have a say in selecting the PAN candidate should boost her chances.
ERNESTO CORDERO
Cordero, 43, was finance minister from 2009 until standing down on Sept. 9 to run for his party’s presidential nomination. Considered one of the PAN lawmakers closest to the president, Cordero could benefit greatly if Calderon’s political machine swings in behind him.
Cordero crafted Calderon’s policy platform for his presidential campaign and has been a long-standing policy adviser for the PAN. With a master’s degree in economics from the University of Pennsylvania in 1998, Cordero ran a conservative think tank that advises lawmakers for the PAN.
He was minister for social development from 2008 to 2009. Previously, Cordero held senior posts in the energy and finance ministries. He has taught at the University of Pennsylvania and at several Mexican universities. He is seen as having more support within the party structure than Vazquez Mota, so the preselection method may count against him.
PRD
ANDRES MANUEL LOPEZ OBRADOR
The leftist former mayor of Mexico City came within a hair of beating Calderon to the presidency in 2006 and called the vote fraudulent when he lost. Protests by his supporters choked the capital for months.
A firebrand whose politics worried foreign investors and sent jitters through financial markets, “AMLO” still calls himself the legitimate president of Mexico. But since the election, his influence on national politics has waned. In a recent poll that matched up possible candidates from different parties, 28 percent of those surveyed said they would vote for Lopez Obrador.
Lopez Obrador, 58, gained popularity as a mayor by making cash payments to the elderly and building up social programs. Retaining a loyal base of followers, he has attacked Calderon for failing to reduce poverty and pledged to put an end to what he calls the “mafia of power” running Mexico.
In the latest Mitofsky poll, Lopez Obrador was second behind Pena Nieto in voter support, at 10 percent.
Source: [news.nationalpost.com/2011/11/16/who-will-take-over-drug-torn-mexico-in-2012/](Return to Contents)
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B. People’s Movement in Mexico Calls for End to Narco-Violence (MX)
16 November 2011Voto Latino
If I remember my European history correctly (10th grade was a while ago), the year 1848 was defined by widespread social turmoil and uprising. The Revolutions of 1848 ripped through every autocracy in continental Europe between Paris and Warsaw, ousting monarchies in favor of fledgling democracies. The new regimes’ power was fleeting, and disorganization and infighting allowed the old conservative powers to regain control in every revolutionary country before the end of 1849.
My children will be reading about the Revolutions of 2011 in their history books. What we are currently living through is a series of popular movements spanning the entire globe, whose aims are as diverse as the nations they occur in, and the people demonstrating on the street. Yet, unifying each of these movements is an implicit (or explicit) call for democracy.
In the Middle East, they protest against authoritarianism; in North America and Europe, they protest against capitalist excess and economic uncertainty. In Mexico, however, they protest against violence. In a previous blog post, I detailed Mexico’s (losing) battle with organized crime and narco-violence, and discussed different steps its government has taken to combat it. Now Mexican civil society is doing its part, as well.
In past years, the economic woes facing Mexico have been severe enough to take precedence over the violence in the eyes of many Mexican voters. Recently, however, with a steady rise in Mexico’s GDP, the people’s focus has shifted to ending the narco-violence. In response to his 24-year-old son’s murder at the hand of bandits linked the drug cartels in March, poet Javier Sicilia Zardain founded a movement called the Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity in Mexico (Movimiento por la Paz con Justicia y Dignidad) to end the Mexican drug war.
Much like its counterparts to the north, Sicilia’s movement is still formulating its demands. Sicilia himself calls for the legalization of drugs, the removal of the Mexican Army from cities, the removal of Calderón from power and an end to the war, though it seems the movement has yet to reach consensus on the many problems facing Mexico. Through its marches and demonstrations and its “Caravan for Peace”—a 14-bus convoy that travels the country protesting the anarchy and devastation wrought by the war on narco-trafficking—Sicilia’s movement has shown that, if nothing else, it is unified by its dream of peace and stability, which above all else is a prerequisite for a functioning, healthy democracy.
In the coming months and years we will see which of the Revolutions of 2011 will succeed or fail. The Arab Spring has already made an immeasurable impact on the greater Middle East, and neither the Tea Party nor the Occupy movements seem to be losing steam either. For Mexico, hopefully, with the help of leaders like Javier Sicilia and his Movement for Peace, the Mexican people will be able to reclaim their country and move forward.
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Source: [www.votolatino.org/news/2011/11/16/end-to-narco-violence/](Return to Contents)
C. US Builds New Partnerships to Uproot Transnational Organized Crime (US)
16 November 2011The Epoch Times
The United States is expanding the reach of its global campaign combating transnational organized criminal groups, which are the hands behind criminal activity from drug trade and human trafficking to international terrorism.
These criminal groups “respect no borders and are very global, partnering and entering into joint ventures with each other, exploiting weak borders,” said the director of Anticrime Programs, Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs at the U.S. Department of State, during a Nov. 15 speech in Colombia, according to a transcript.
He said, “In the coming months, around the hemisphere and other regions, the United States is actively building partnerships with other nations against the destabilizing influence of transnational criminal networks and their corruptive power.”
His speech followed a new public-private partnership launched over the weekend to dismantle illicit trade networks and combat corruption in the Asia-Pacific. It was announced during the APEC Leaders’ Summit in Honolulu, Hawaii, attended by the President, the Secretary of State, and other APEC leaders.
Transnational criminal groups are the globalized versions of conventional organized crime. They often spread their roots in countries emerging from civil wars or where the government has been weakened. As things stand today, where fresh governments are emerging from the civil wars of the Arab Spring, and weakened by wars or failing economies, this is a large threat.
According to the National Security Council, these groups vary in form and “operate transnationally for the purpose of obtaining power, influence,” and monetary gain through both legitimate and illegitimate means, and then use various methods to protect what they’ve built.
They also “attempt to gain influence in government, politics, and commerce through corrupt as well as legitimate means,” the National Security Council states.
If they find their way into the political system, “instead of starting on a path of economic and institutional development, these nations are transformed into way stations on the route of illicit products,” and threats posed by these groups are “serious and spreading,” states a report from Canada-based Human Security Research Group.
One of the most harmful byproducts of this process “is the rise of violent crime, which threatens weak state institutions and the rule of law,” states the report. After they latch themselves to governments, they form links with official economic and political actors, and use “their power
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where necessary to intimidate citizens into submission,” and reshape the political systems through “criminal money and violence.”
The world has witnessed the effect of these groups. In parts of Central Asia, West Africa, and Central America where “the wounds of civil war and political transition had not yet healed by the time the phenomena appeared,” states the report, this led to the criminal groups taking “full advantage of the weaknesses of governments and the rule of law in the aftermath of faltering transitions to democracy.”
The United States hopes to stop these organizations from spreading, while eliminating networks that have already formed.
In addition to its current campaign to bring in new international partners, since 2009, the United States has formed partnerships with countries including Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, West Africa, Central America, Mexico, and others.
….
Source: [www.theepochtimes.com/n2/united-states/us-builds-new-partnerships-to-uproot-transnational-organized-crime-142875.html](Return to Contents)
D. Journalists under Attack in Fresh Wave of Violence in Mexico (COAH/VER)
17 November 2011RTT News
Amnesty International has said that fresh attacks against media outlets in Mexico highlight the authorities' failure to take measures to protect journalists from a wave of intimidation and violence by armed gangs.
Gunmen set a car alight and fired bullets outside the offices of a newspaper in the northern city of Torreón, Coahuila State, on Tuesday, while a newsroom in the eastern state of Veracruz was ransacked by armed intruders on November 6.
"As these latest incidents show, Mexico continues to be one of the most dangerous countries in the world to be a journalist," said Javier Zuñiga, Special Adviser to Amnesty International.
He urged the Mexican authorities to "demonstrate that threats and violence against the media will not be tolerated, by putting in place effective preventative measures and by carrying out a thorough, impartial investigation into the attacks and swiftly bringing those responsible to justice."
At least three armed men reportedly took part in the attack on the newspaper El Siglo de Torreón in the northern state of Coahuila early on Tuesday morning.
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In addition to setting a car alight outside the main entrance to the newspaper's offices, the gunmen fired at least 20 live rounds at an adjacent building, which houses a sister publication. No one was hurt in the attack.
Similar attacks were carried out at the newspaper's offices in August 2009 also, while several other media outlets in and around Torreón have come under attack and journalists have been abducted in recent years by organized crime groups.
In the neighboring state of Zacatecas, authorities are investigating the case of two delivery workers from the newspaper El Financiero, who have been missing since Monday afternoon after they reportedly informed colleagues they were being followed by police.
On November 6, gunmen ransacked El Buen Tono, a daily in the eastern port city of Veracruz, and set fire to the newspaper's offices.
U.N. Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression Frank La Rue has said Mexico was the most violent country in the Americas for journalists, and the fifth most dangerous worldwide.
According to figures published in September by the State-funded National Human Rights Commission, 74 journalists have been killed in Mexico since 2000, out of which at least eight killings occurred this year. Those behind the attacks and killings are virtually never identified or brought to justice.
Given the high risk to reporters, particularly at local level, regional Mexican media outlets often take precautions like toning down their coverage or completely ignoring issues surrounding crime and insecurity.
"The self-censorship brought on by Mexico's violent war on organized crime is eroding freedom of expression in some parts of the country," said Zuñiga.
He called upon the authorities to do more to ensure effective protection measures for journalists so they can carry on their work without facing intimidation or physical attacks. The most urgent measure needed is to end the impunity enjoyed by those responsible for attacks on journalists and media outlets.
Source: [www.rttnews.com/Content/GeneralNews.aspx?Id=1763946&SM=1](Return to Contents)
E. The Mexican Drug Cartel Threat in Central America (GT)
17 November 2011Stratfor
Guatemalan President-elect Otto Perez Molina told Mexican newspaper El Universal on Nov. 9 that he plans to engage drug cartels in a “full frontal assault” when he takes office in 2012. The
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former general said he will use Guatemala’s elite military forces, known as Los Kaibiles, to take on the drug cartels in a strategy similar to that of the Mexican government; he has asked for U.S. assistance in this struggle.
The statements signal a shifting political landscape in already violent Central America. The region is experiencing increasing levels of crime and the prospect of heightened competition from Mexican drug cartels in its territory. The institutional weakness and security vulnerabilities of Guatemala and other Central American states mean that combating these trends will require significant help, most likely from the United States.
From Sideshow to Center Stage
Central America has seen a remarkable rise in its importance as a transshipment point for cocaine and other contraband bound for the United States. Meanwhile, Mexican organized crime has expanded its activities in Mexico and Central America to include the smuggling of humans and substances such as precursor chemicals used for manufacturing methamphetamine. Substantial evidence also suggests that Central American, and particularly Guatemalan, military armaments including M60 machine guns and 40 mm grenades have wound up being used in Mexico’s drug conflict.
From the 1970s to the 1990s, Colombian cartels transited directly to Miami. After U.S. military aerial and radar surveillance in the Caribbean effectively shut down those routes, Mexico became the last stop on the drug supply chain before the United States, greatly empowering Mexico’s cartels. A subsequent Mexican government crackdown put pressure on Mexican drug trafficking organizations (DTOs) to diversify their transit routes to avoid increased enforcement at Mexico’s airstrips and ports. Central America consequently has become an increasingly significant middleman for South American suppliers and Mexican buyers of contraband.
The methods and routes for moving illicit goods through Central America are diverse and constantly in flux. There is no direct land connection between the coca-growing countries of Colombia, Peru and Bolivia. A region of swampy jungle terrain along the Panamanian-Colombian known as the Darien Gap has made road construction prohibitively expensive and thus barred all but the most intrepid of overland travelers. Instead, aircraft or watercraft must be used to transport South American goods north, which can then be offloaded in Central America and driven north into Mexico. Once past the Darien Gap, the Pan American Highway becomes a critical transportation corridor. Honduras, for example, reportedly has become a major destination for planes from Venezuela laden with cocaine. Once offloaded, the cocaine is moved across the loosely guarded Honduran-Guatemalan border and then moved through Guatemala to Mexico, often through the largely unpopulated Peten department.
Though precise measurements of the black market are notoriously difficult to obtain, these shifts in Central America have been well-documented — and the impact on the region has been stark. While drug trafficking occurs in all Central American countries to some extent, most violence associated with the trade occurs in the historically tumultuous “Northern Triangle” of Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras. No longer receiving the global attention they did when
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the United States became involved in their Cold War-era civil wars, these countries remain poverty stricken, plagued by local gangs and highly unstable.
The violence has worsened as the drug traffic has increased. El Salvador saw its homicide rate increase by 6 percent to 66 per 100,000 inhabitants between 2005 and 2010. At the same time, Guatemala’s homicide rate increased 13 percent, to 50 per 100,000 inhabitants. Meanwhile Honduras saw a rise of 108 percent, to 77 per 100,000 inhabitants. These are some of the highest homicide rates in the world.
In comparison, the drug war in Mexico caused murder rates to spike 64 percent, from 11 to 18 deaths per 100,000 between 2005 and 2010. Conservative estimates put the number of dead from gang and military violence in Mexico at 50,000. These numbers are slightly misleading, as Mexican violence is concentrated in scattered pockets where most drug trafficking and competition among drug traffickers occurs. Even so, they demonstrate the disproportionate impact organized criminal groups have had on the societies of the three Northern Triangle countries.
Guatemala’s Outsized Role
Increased involvement by Mexican cartels in Central America inevitably has affected the region’s politico-economic structures, a process most visible in Guatemala. Its territory spans Central America, making it one of several choke points on the supply chain of illicit goods coming north from El Salvador and Honduras bound for Mexico.
Guatemala has a complex and competitive set of criminal organizations, many of which are organized around tight-knit family units. These family organizations have included the politically and economically powerful Lorenzana and Mendoza families. First rising to prominence in trade and agriculture, these families control significant businesses in Guatemala and transportation routes for shipping both legal and illicit goods. Though notorious, these families are far from alone in Guatemala’s criminal organizations. Major drug traffickers like the well-known Mario Ponce and Walther Overdick also have strong criminal enterprises, with Ponce reportedly managing his operations from a Honduran jail.
The relationship of these criminal organizations to Mexican drug cartels is murky at best. The Sinaloa and Los Zetas cartels are both known to have relationships with Guatemalan organized criminal groups, but the lines of communication and their exact agreements are unclear.
Less murky, however, is that Los Zetas are willing to use the same levels of violence in Guatemala to coerce loyalty as they have used in Mexico. Though both Sinaloa and Los Zetas still need Guatemalan groups to access high-level Guatemalan political connections, Los Zetas have taken a particularly aggressive tack in seeking direct control over more territory in Guatemala.
Overdick facilitated Los Zetas’ entry into Guatemala in 2007. The first indication of serious Los Zetas involvement in Guatemala occurred in March 2008 when Leon crime family boss Juan Leon Ardon, alias “El Juancho,” his brother Hector Enrique Leon Chacon and nine associates all
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died in a gunbattle with Los Zetas, who at the time still worked for the Gulf cartel. The fight severely reduced the influence of the Leon crime family, primarily benefiting Overdick’s organization. The Zetas most flagrant use of force occurred in the May 2011 massacre and mutilation of 27 peasants in northern Guatemala intended as a message to a local drug dealer allegedly tied to the Leon family; the Zetas also killed and mutilated that drug dealer’s niece.
MS-13 and Calle 18
In addition to ramping up relationships with powerful political, criminal and economic players, Sinaloa and Los Zetas have established relationships with Central American street gangs. The two biggest gangs in the region are Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) and Calle 18. The two groups are loosely organized around local cliques; the Mexican cartels have relationships at varying levels of closeness with different cliques. The U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime estimates that there are 36,000 gang members in Honduras, 14,000 in Guatemala and 10,500 in El Salvador.
They were formed by Los Angeles gang members of Central American origin whose parents had immigrated to the United States to escape the region’s civil wars. After being arrested in the United States, these gang members were deported to Central America. In some cases, the deportees spoke no Spanish and had no significant ties to their ancestral homeland, encouraging them to cluster together and make use of the skills learned on the streets of Los Angeles to make a living in Central America via organized crime.
The gangs have multiplied and migrated within the region. Many have also returned to the United States: U.S. authorities estimate that MS-13 and Calle 18 have a presence in as many as 42 states. Though the gangs are truly transnational, their emphasis is on controlling localized urban turfs. They effectively control large portions of Guatemala City, Guatemala; Tegucigalpa, Honduras; and San Salvador, El Salvador. Competition within and among these gangs is responsible for a great deal of the violence in these three countries.
In a March statement, Salvadoran Defense Minister David Munguia Payes said his government had evidence that both Sinaloa and Los Zetas are active in El Salvador, but that he believes MS-13 and Calle 18 are too anarchic and violent for the Mexican cartels to rely on heavily. According to Honduran Security Minister Pompeyo Bonilla, Mexican cartels primarily hire members of these gangs as assassins. The gangs are paid in drugs, which they sell on the local drug market.
Though limited in their ties to the Mexican cartels, the prevalence of MS-13 and Calle 18 in the Northern Triangle states and their extreme violence makes them a force to be reckoned with, for both the cartels and Central American governments. If Central American street gangs are able to better organize themselves internally, this could result in closer collaboration, or alternately serious confrontations with the Mexican cartels. In either case, the implications for stability in Central America are enormous.
The U.S. Role
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The United States has long played an important, complex role in Latin America. In the early 20th century, U.S. policy in the Western Hemisphere was characterized by the extension of U.S. economic and military control over the region. With tactics ranging from outright military domination to facilitating competition between subregional powers Guatemala and Nicaragua to ensuring the dominance of the United Fruit Company in Central American politics and business, the United States used the first several decades of the century to ensure that Central America — and by extension the Caribbean — was under its control. After World War II, Central America became a proxy battleground between the United States and the Soviet Union.
On a strategic level, Central America is far enough away from the United States (thanks to being buffered by Mexico) and made up of small enough countries that it does not pose a direct threat to the United States. U.S. interest in the region did not end after the Cold War, however, as it is critically important to the United States that a foreign global competitor never control Central America or the Caribbean.
The majority of money spent combating drug trafficking from South America to the United States over the past decade has been spent in Colombia on monitoring air and naval traffic in the Caribbean and off the Pacific coasts, though the U.S. focus has now shifted to Mexico. Central America, by contrast, has languished since the Reagan years, when the United States allocated more than $1 billion per year to Central America. Now, the region has been allocated a total of $361.5 million for fiscal years 2008-2011 in security, economic and development aid through the Merida Initiative and the Central America Regional Security Initiative (CARSI). The current administration has requested another $100 million for CARSI. Of this allocated funding, however, only 18 percent has been dispersed due to failures in institutional cooperation and efficiency.
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has facilitated most U.S.-Central American security cooperation. The DEA operates teams in the Northern Triangle that participate in limited counternarcotic operations. They are also tasked with both vetting and training local law enforcement, a particularly tricky — and most likely doomed — task. As the failure of Guatemala’s highly vetted and lauded Department of Anti-Narcotics Operations shows, preventing local law enforcement from succumbing to the bribes and threats from wealthy and violent DTOs is a difficult, if not impossible, task.
The DEA’s limited resources include five Foreign-deployed Advisory and Support Teams worldwide. These are the agency’s elite operational teams that are equipped to train foreign law enforcement and military personnel and to conduct support operations. Originally established to operate in Afghanistan exclusively, the teams have been deployed to several countries in Central America, including Guatemala and Honduras. These teams are designed to be flexible, however, and do not represent the kind of long-term commitment that would likely be necessary to stabilize the region.
Central America’s Challenge
Central America has no short-term escape from being at the geographical center of the drug trade and from the associated violence. Unless and until technologies shift to allow drugs to flow
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directly from producer to consumer via ocean or air transport, it appears likely that Central America will only become more important to the drug trade. While the drug trade brings huge amounts of cash (admittedly on the black market) into exceedingly capital-poor countries, it also brings extreme violence.
The billions of dollars drugs command create an insurmountable challenge for the regional counternarcotic campaigns. The U.S. “war on drugs” pits the Guatemalan elite’s political and financial interests against their need to retain a positive relationship with the United States, which views the elites as colluding with drug organizations to facilitate the free passage of drugs and key figures in the drug trade.
For the leaders of Central America, foreign cartel interference in domestic arrangements and increasing violence is the real threat to their power. It is not the black market that alarms a leader like Perez Molina enough to call for greater involvement by the United States: It is the threat posed by the infiltration of Mexico’s most violent drug cartel into Guatemala, and the threat posed to all three countries by further Central American drug gang destabilization, which could lead to even more violence.
Looking Forward
The United States is heavily preoccupied with crises of varying degrees of importance around the world and the significant budget-tightening under way in Congress. This makes a major reallocation of resources to Guatemala or its Central American neighbors for the fight against Mexican drug cartels unlikely in the short term. Even so, key reasons for paying close attention to this issue remain.
First, the situation could destabilize rapidly if Perez Molina is sincere about confronting Mexican DTOs in Guatemala. Los Zetas have proved willing to apply their signature brutality against civilians and rivals alike in Guatemala. While the Guatemalans would be operating on their own territory and have their own significant power bases, they are neither technologically advanced nor wealthy nor unified enough to tackle the challenge posed by heavily armed, well-funded Zetas. At the very least, such a confrontation would ignite extremely destabilizing violence. This violence could extend beyond the Northern Triangle into more stable Central American countries, not to mention the possibility that violence spreading north could open up a new front in Mexico’s cartel war.
Second, the United States and Mexico already are stretched thin trying to control their shared 2,000-mile land border. U.S. counternarcotic activities in Mexico are limited by Mexican sovereignty concerns. For example, carrying weapons and operating independent of Mexican supervision is not allowed. This hampers the interdiction efforts of U.S. agencies like the DEA. The efforts also are hampered by the United States’ unwillingness to share intelligence for fear that corrupt Mexican officials would leak it.
Perez Molina’s invitation for increased U.S. participation in Guatemalan counternarcotic operations presents a possibility for U.S. involvement in a country that, like Mexico, straddles the continent. The Guatemalan choke point has a much shorter border with Mexico — about 600
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miles — in need of control, and is far enough north in Central America to prevent insertion of drug traffickers into the supply chain between the blocking force and Mexico. While the United States would not be able to stop the illicit flow of cocaine and people north, it could make it significantly more difficult. And although significantly reducing traffic at the Guatemalan border would not stop the flow of the drugs to the United States, it would radically decrease the value of Central America as a trafficking corridor.
Accomplishing this would require a much more significant U.S. commitment to the drug war, and any such direct involvement would be costly both in money and political capital. Absent significant U.S. help, the current trend of increased Mexican cartel influence and violence in Central America will only worsen.
Source: [www.stratfor.com](Return to Contents)
F. Special Report: In Acapulco, It's Mayhem by the Beach (GRO)
17 November 2011Reuters
This city of dazzling hotels and sunlit beaches rose to fame as a playground of Hollywood stars. Today, Acapulco has now earned a very different reputation-for gangland decapitations, kidnappings and extortion.
As Mexico's drug war grinds on, killings in Acapulco have almost tripled this year to nearly 900, making the Pacific resort one of the most violent cities in the world and the second-deadliest in the country. The endless reports of slayings have kept the drug chaos on the front page even as killing slows in some parts of Mexico, where in 2010 the war claimed a record 15,273 lives.
So horrifying was the death toll that the government, which declared 2011 to be Mexico's "year of tourism," has simply stopped publishing a count.
The first destination touted on Mexico's official tourism website is Acapulco. Outwardly, the beach front is calm, and the city remains studded with hotels, bars and restaurants steeped in its colorful past. But Acapulco's main promenades have taken on a more somber aspect. Where cabs once jostled to pick up fares, taxi ranks stand empty; bars awaiting customers blast music into space; and idle waiters straighten chairs at countless tables that line the long boulevards of the Zona Dorada tourist drag.
"This has been really terrible for Mexico's image," said Victor Hernandez, bookkeeper at hotel Los Flamingos, a favorite getaway of film stars John Wayne and Errol Flynn. "If there's no tourism, the economy goes to hell."
The troubled areas now extend right into the historic square, or Zocalo, just 100 meters from the ocean between the Zona Dorada and the fabled diving cliffs of La Quebrada.
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A killing at an internet café there on the afternoon of October 19 was nothing out of the ordinary, said Erika Hernandez, 20.
"I heard three shots and took cover," said Hernandez, a shop attendant at a clothes boutique ten yards from the café, where two gunmen walked in and shot dead a 35-year-old man. "A lot of young guys are mixed up in crime. You get used to it." But not enough to want to make a life there. "In two, three months I'm looking at a move to Mexico City," she said.
An examination of the drug war in Acapulco shows that Mexico's relentless stream of violence has hit this tourist haven harder than most cities precisely because for so long it was viewed as a place where people come to forget their troubles, not fear for their lives. The war's spread to this pillar of the country's tourism industry is a milestone in the conflict. The jolt to Mexicans' psyche is akin to that caused by the violence ravaging the business capital of Monterrey. Only the border city of Ciudad Juarez is more violent.
….
Source: [www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/17/us-mexico-acapulco-violence-idUSTRE7AG0Y520111117](Return to Contents)
G. Tijuana's Uneasy Peace may Endure, Despite Arrests (BC)
16 November 2011Insight Crime
A high-ranking Tijuana Cartel lieutenant was arrested last week, sparking commentary that the trafficking organization is on the ropes. Not so fast; experts have said this since 2002, but the group has proved resilient.
Juan Francisco Sillas Rocha, “El Ruedas,” was arrested on Friday in Tijuana after he attempted to kill a cartel defector. The man survived, fleeing the hospital after treatment, and Sillas was arrested by police.
Some have hailed this as the final "nail in the coffin" for the Tijuana Cartel, also known as the Arellano Felix Organization (AFO). Sillas was an important enforcer lieutenant during the group's internecine conflict from 2008-2010. He was known as a violent, hot-tempered leader who fought against break-away cells led by Teodoro Garcia Simental, alias “El Teo.”
However, Sillas’ importance in the AFO in recent years may not have been as great as some media have portrayed it. The post-2010 Tijuana reality has been a truce between the Sinaloa Cartel and the Arellano Felix Organization led by Fernando Sanchez Arellano, alias "El Ingeniero." According to Zeta Magazine, Sillas was involved in the kidnapping of three relatives of Sinaloa lieutenant Ismael Zambada Garcia, alias "El Mayo," in October 2010. This may have caused the AFO to shun Sillas in order keep the peace, although it is possible that they faked his exclusion in order prevent a conflagration with the Sinaloa Cartel.
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Sillas’ brother was also arrested earlier this year in Palmdale California in an alleged murder-for-hire plot ordered by Sillas himself from Mexico. This indicates that Sillas’ international capability had already been limited by law enforcement efforts.
The question remains: Will Sillas' arrest upset the organized crime balance of power in Tijuana?The Nature of the Tijuana Truce
Explaining the decrease in violence in Tijuana since 2009 is not straightforward. In broad strokes, the general consensus among analysts is that the Sinaloa Cartel and the AFO have reached a truce after the elimination of cells led by Teodoro Garcia Simental “El Teo” arrested in January 2010.
Three versions of what that truce might look like have emerged from interviews carried out by InSight Crime over the last year. The first scenario is that the Sinaloa Cartel, desiring a peaceful business environment, pays the AFO a tax to operate in the plaza. In the second scenario the AFO pays the Sinaloa Cartel to operate in the area, while the third describes the Tijuana region as an open plaza, not controlled by any one group. Given the low levels of violence, scenario three appears least likely; an arrangement between traffickers must be keeping the killings under control. Scenario two is plausible, but most experts lean toward scenario one, that the AFO charges the Sinaloa Cartel to operate, despite the AFO’s supposedly weakened state.
See chart, using data from the Mexican Secretaria de Seguridad Publica.
A recent FBI gang report listed the AFO and Sinaloa Cartel as rivals. This is puzzling because it is at odds with the prevailing narrative explaining the relatively low levels of violence in the Tijuana corridor as a result of a truce/non-aggression pact between the groups, if not outright cooperation. Why the various law enforcement agencies involved in compiling this report
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categorized Sinaloa-AFO relations as a rivalry is not clear, given the success of the non-aggression pact apparently functioning in the area. They may have based their judgment on the long historical animosity between the two cartels, and the risk that they could engage in all-out conflict, plunging Tijuana into Ciudad Juarez-style violence, if the pact breaks down.The Future of the AFO
The Sillas arrest does not appear to be important enough to upset the balance of power and undermine the truce seemingly in place in the region, but only time will tell. While many have predicted the demise of the AFO, its future may be less stark.
Assuming no major conflagration between the Sinaloa Cartel and the AFO, the AFO is likely to continue its activities as a low profile trafficking organization with deep ties to U.S. street and prison gangs. These long term relationships of trust with U.S. prison gangs like La Eme (some associates of which have referred to the Sinaloa Cartel as too “ruthless”) could provide AFO members with a long term niche. In this scenario, AFO members would not be wiped out in conflict with the Sinaloa Cartel, but could instead be slowly absorbed by the rival group, making themselves useful through their trafficking contacts.
Source: [insightcrime.org/insight-latest-news/item/1854-tijuanas-uneasy-peace-may-endure-despite-arrests](Return to Contents)
