Violence falls along Mexico’s border region, rises further south
According to a new report:
A new report by the Trans-Border Institute documents the major trends in Mexico’s drug war last year, which saw violence dropping in some of the most dangerous areas, and rising in places far from the US border.
This trend should not be surprising. At the beginning of the year I suggested that the shifting dynamics of Mexico’s cartel battles would become a major headline in 2012.
North America is hit by its worst terrorist attack since 9/11
Mexico’s drug cartels are willing to burn down the country’s commercial capital in order to kill and terrorize anyone who gets in their way, it seems. I first heard about this earlier today when I went to my neighbor’s house for a barbecue…he had the TV on while an inferno — which was triggered by gunmen armed with assault rifles, fuel, and possibly explosives – was underway inside of a Monterrey casino. As the death toll increased — 51 right now — I realized this is the worst terrorist attack in North america…or even the western hemisphere, since the September 11th attacks.
Here’s one of the more recent media reports:
(Reuters) – Armed men killed at least 51 people in an attack on a casino in northern Mexico that left the building ablaze with gamblers trapped inside, officials said on Thursday.
People remained stuck inside the Casino Royale building in Monterrey, a prosperous city 140 miles from the Texas border that has suffered from increasing violence in recent months as the country’s war with drug gangs intensifies.
Nuevo Leon state attorney general Adrian de la Garza was quoted by local media as saying 51 people died in the attack. Civil protection warned the death toll could rise further.
Television images showed firemen had controlled the blaze while relatives of people trapped inside the building lined up to demand information about their loved ones.
Mexico deserves better than this. Monterrey is the richest city in Mexico and the economic center of the country…if its people can achieve this kind of success, they are strong enough to overcome the terror that has been thrown over their cities by the warring drug cartels.
Monterrey’s rising violence is due to a split in the Gulf Cartel, which recently saw its dangerous army of trained assassins — Los Zetas — break away to form their own cartel and their own profit. Its unclear who was behind the casino killings, but an attack of this magnitude in the city is unlikely without the support of one of these groups.
The attack on the casino was preceded by another incident two days earlier in Monterrey…when a man was hung from a bridge and shot to death in broad daylight. As mass killings — such as that in the casino — and horrific public executions continue, the bad blood between the Zetas and the Gulf Cartel is rivaling the ferocity of the gang war that has gripped Ciudad Juarez these past few years.
Los Zetas execute kidnapped Guatemalan prosecutor
The ferocious Mexician drug cartel — Los Zetas — is exporting its terror across Central America.
COBAN, GUATEMALA (BNO NEWS) — The dismembered body of a Guatemalan prosecutor investigating the recent massacre of 27 people was found in the central region of the country, officials said Wednesday.
Allan Stowlinsky Vidaurre, 36, assistant public prosecutor in Coban, Alta Verapaz, was killed and slaughtered as his remains were found in five plastic bags placed around the Public Ministry’s Interior Department.
A message from Mexican-based drug cartel ‘Los Zetas’ Z200 bloc – which has been linked to the May 15 massacre of 27 people – was found with the body.
“This is for all those who go wrong with Z 200,” the message said. “I told them one by one that I would be killing them. Go ahead and think you are ‘gringos’ (Americans). If they are willing to fight, leave them alone and don’t be stupid because you will end up f–ked.”
Last year I published a report in the newspaper about the security situation in Guatemala. Since then, the Zetas appear to be expanding their influence. The massacre of 27 farm workers mentioned in the above article is said to be one of the worst acts of violence since the end of Guatemala’s civil war.
Juarez traffic cops rearm
Police in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez are re-arming after a recent attack that killed two officers. As sick as it sounds, some criminals and drug cartel assassins may target them still, for the purpose of taking their weapons. When I visited in Juarez I noticed how traffic cops travel in single units…unlike the Federal Police, who usually moved heavily-armed and in convoys.
Juárez officials expect to fully resume traffic law enforcement operations as traffic police get back their handguns for their own safety while patrolling, according to a news release.
So far, 87 percent of traffic officers are already equipped with weapons, Juárez Mayor Héctor Murguía said Wednesday.
“Hopefully, we will be able to bring back regular traffic patrolling,” Murguía said, who added that almost no traffic officers were patrolling Juárez streets, to the disadvantage of drivers. “But we are getting back in shape,” he said in a written statement.
Until last week, Juárez traffic officers didn’t carry weapons while on duty.
The final installment
This is the final installment of my series “America’s habit, Mexico’s war” that has been published in the Brentwood Press.
My archive can be found here at the Press website
Brentwood's Highway 4 Bypass connects the city to the rest of California like never before, including the Central Valley, where much of the local drug trade originates (photo/Corey Hunt)
When the sun sets over Mount Diablo each evening, Brentwood residents usually go to sleep knowing that they will wake up to another peaceful day. Most of us will be resting, primarily concerned with thoughts surrounding work or school the next morning. All too often security is something that is taken for granted, and while residents of the East Bay are guarded by it, some of us are taking it away from others, however far away they might be. Just like every community throughout the United States, there is a demand for drugs here…and where there is demand, there are dealers who are as eager for money as their customers are for a fix. Above them are the drug traffickers and the Mexican cartels, who crave power as much as money, corrupting as many aspects of life in Mexico as they can, while fighting to the death anyone who steps in their way. Fears that Mexico may “lose control” of entire regions were brought to light in leaked diplomatic cables by the controversial website Wikileaks last month. Unfortunately, anyone who reads through the reports of shootings and beheadings in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico’s most violent city, probably already fears this.
Sergeant Mark Misquez, a Detective at the Brentwood Police Department, explained the drug trade in Brentwood and East County with fellow detective Miguel Aguiar. He described some of the drug networks.
“Drugs often come in from the Central Valley or the bigger cities,” he said, adding that there are several levels of drug trafficking, from powerful cartels to medium-sized gangs and street level dealers. “You have the cartels bringing it into southern California and eventually it makes its way up here, to this part of the state. It trickles down to the lower-level dealers.” He went on to describe the shift in drug production in the last two decades, particularly with methamphetamine.
“In the early 90’s and early 2000’s we saw local production of meth and now it is rare to see that,” he said. “The Mexican nationals have taken over that market now.” According to Misquez, the orgins of marijuana are more difficult to tell because a lot of it is homegrown in California, even though large quantities are being smuggled in from Mexico. Recently, police in the border city of Tijuana recovered more than 130 tons of cannabis destined for the United States, which Mexico’s national security spokesman said was the largest-ever drug haul in the country’s history. Some investigators have connected it to a recent spasm of violence in the city that has brought back memories of years past, before the brunt of the violence shifted to Ciudad Juarez on the border with Texas.
Regardless of the point of entry or cultivation, there are the gangs who are trafficking the drugs and dealing them on the streets. Misquez, along with Detective Aguiar, described two Latino gangs that have the most influence in Brentwood and the surrounding communities: the Norteños and the Sureños, aptly named for their separate roots in northern and southern California. The two gangs are fierce rivals, with the Sureños using the color blue and the Norteños identifying with red. Last year, the San Francisco chronicle reported on an attack in Daly City where a man was presumed by gunmen to be a member of the Norteños and shot to death inside of a car, simply because other passengers were wearing red. The gunmen were said to be members of the Mara Salvatrucha, known better as MS-13, which holds an alliance with the Sureños and traces its roots back to Los Angeles. However, MS-13 wields power well outside of California – the Center for Immigration Studies notes that its influence is extensive throughout Central America and the government of Honduras has blamed it for several recent massacres.
“Since the gang phenomenon took off in the 90’s, we have had these gangs in our community,” Aguiar said, while Misquez described a recent incident that occurred in Brentwood.
“A few weeks ago, we stopped a car carrying two Sureños members with loaded firearms,” he said. “That same night, officers pursued and tried to contact individuals in a park as they fled on foot, leaving behind a weapon and drugs.” He stressed that violence in Brentwood is not common and that when it does occur, it is usually targets rival gang members, not everyday citizens.
“We don’t have much violence, but just the fact that they are here is concerning enough.”
Sicario kills two Americans at Tijuana border crossing
I hate having to start blogging after a month’s absence with a disturbing news report, but I thought this is important to post because I will be going to Tijuana in just a few days. I’m going to be looking at apartments so I can spend an extended period of time down there for my research.
(A video I made last year, shot from the San Ysidro border crossing)
TIJUANA — In a rare shooting at the San Ysidro border crossing, two San Diego workers were killed early Monday as they sat in a pickup waiting to enter the U.S. The men were on their way to work when someone shot them repeatedly with a 9 mm weapon.
The Baja California Attorney General’s Office identified the victims as Kevin Joel Romero, 28, and Sergio Salcido Luna, 25. The agency provided few details of the incident, which occurred at about 2:40 a.m., a time when many workers are in line to cross.
Read more in the San Diego Union Tribune.
The real horror show
All of the world’s media have had their focus on Egypt and the Middle East throughout the last few weeks. Although there is good reason for this — the protests in Egypt and Tunisia are unprecedented in the region – there are much more unsettling events unfolding. While President Obama and his spokesman, Robert Gibbs, go back and forth with whether or not to support the pro-democracy demonstrators over Hosni Mubarak, Egypt’s ruler, this is what’s staring America in the face.
From the Los Angeles Times:
An artificial-intelligence model generated by a university researcher in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, projects that 5,000 people will be killed in the violent border city this year. The same model projected at the start of 2010 that 3,000 would be killed in the greater Juarez area, a figure that eventually reached 3,111 — about a 94% accuracy rate.
It may seem far-fetched to make such long-term projections on a fluid criminal conflict such as the drug war in Juarez. Researcher Alberto Ochoa, in an interview with La Plaza on Monday, said his model is based on methods that mimic biology-based, or “bioinspiredd,” patterns. Barring a “radical change” in Ciudad Juarez — where the Juarez and Sinaloa cartels are battling over the drug-trafficking route across the U.S. border into El Paso, Texas — his projection foresees a figure of roughly 5,000 dead.
“This technique is nothing new,” Ochoa said from the Autonomous University of Ciudad Juarezz, where he is a researcher at the Center for Social Investigations. “It’s not the most accurate model but it is based heavily on reality.”
“It’s not Excel,” the researcher added, referring to the commonly used software program. “The model has to be fed, values have to be adjusted. It’s complicated.”
By differing measures, Juarez ranks as the most violent city in Mexico, most violent in the Western Hemisphere, or even the most violent in the world, the local newspaper El Diario reported earlier this month (link in Spanish). Juarez, with a current population of 1.3 million, has lost more than 230,000 residents in an “exodus” from the daily barrage of drug-related killings, kidnappings and extortion operations.
By pointing this out, I am not suggesting this horrible situation is worse than the Middle East crisis because it is close to America. Cairo and Alexandria — Egypt’s two largest cities — have been described as “lawless” and “dangerous” by the reporters who are stationed there. This may be true, but the level of violence taking place there is far from the levels that northern Mexico is seeing. Between drug cartels and dictators, drug cartels have a bigger appetite for innocent lives these days.
Prop 19 will not help California
Californians have a chance to make history in the election this November. While the escalating rhetoric between gubernatorial candidates Meg Whitman and Jerry Brown has been at the forefront, voters have an equally important choice to make on November 2nd: should California legalize marijuana? The decision will be made through Proposition 19, which clears the way for Cannabis to be legalized and taxed on a county by county basis. Backers of the measure are enjoying a lead in the polls right now, but as citizens of this state, we should all be asking ourselves if this is the kind of culture we want to promote in our communities.
The legalization of marijuana and other illicit substances has been a major issue ever since the War on Drugs was launched decades ago. Marijuana is seen by many users as a “victimless crime”, while supporters of legalization claim that government control will take the lucrative trade out of the hands of the black market — the drug cartels that terrorize Latin America while knocking on America’s back door with gunfire and car bombs. Supposedly, the measure is going to bring in huge revenues for our state, by collecting taxes and “easing the burdern” off of law enforcement who are busy making marijuana-related arrests and seizures.
Sure, these benefits sound great for our ailing state. The reality though, is that they are merely an illusion. The counter-campaign to the legalization of marijuana is right when they state bluntly that nothing is good about the drug. Everywhere it is found, it breeds crime, greed, death, and a culture of uselessness and ignorance. Look around your own community. Where are the people who smoke pot on a regular basis going in life? Are they successful? Only if they are selling it to other mind-altered individuals, most likely. Just think…if California becomes the world’s legal marijuana bastion, it will bring in the above-mentioned rift raft, eagerly looking for a fix, from all over the country. The drain that such people put on a working society — whether in healthcare, policing, or social justice benefits –will almost certainly neutralize any tax “revenue” collected by the government. Besides, If prop 19 passes, it will bring about a landslide of new regulations, laws, and court cases, since the Cannabis taxes will be handled on a city and county basis. In a state that is being dragged down by beaurocracy, do we really need this right now?
Prop 19 allows for individuals to grow up to 25 square feet of Cannabis for personal consumption on their property, which is just one reason why, as Governor Schwarzennegger put it, California will become a national laughing stock if this measure passes. Far more serious though, is the home invasions that could skyrocket when local drug gangs see the potential profits in shipping “legal” California pot across state lines, where demand for our lovely new product will be stronger than ever. Imagine how appealing a neighborhood filled with personal marijuana farms would be to interstate drug traffickers, like MS-13 and its rivals. In a twist of irony, what if local police end up wasting their time responding to marijuana heists? It may be comical to imagine a panicked pot-smoker waking up to see his Cannabis plants cut down and stolen from his back yard, but I would rather see my tax money spent (or kept in my bank account altogether) on other things than having the authorities try and protect such property.
Supporters of legalization may read some of these points and argue that the entire country should follow California’s model and legalize cannabis…and possibly other drugs too. But where is the line drawn? If its okay for Americans to smoke marijuana, shoot heroin, and snort cocaine, why bother to pull medicinal drugs like Vioxx and Rezulin from pharmacies when its revealed they can have dangerous side-effects? Recreational drugs are far more lethal than any of these medicines, and have no benefits to our bodies at all.
lastly, there is the fallacy that drug legalization (marijuana and others) is going to free us from the grip of the cartels and the black market. Sadly, this is hardly grounded by facts because the benefits espoused by prop 19 and other drug advocates are at odds with one another. Taxing Cannabis to save California’s economy and preventing people under the age of 21 from using it gives the cartels, gangs, and dealers plenty of market, and can even open up a whole new one. South of our border, Mexico’s attempt to legalize small amounts of marijuana and other drugs have been met by a local market that is growing unabated (in addition to the powerful demand for drugs in the United States) while the narco-terrorists expand their influence in the country. This grim reality was further cemented in a report by the Brookings Institution, published last month, which assessed Mexico’s debate over legalization and highlighted the probable inabilities the state would have in reducing the power of the black market, so long as the country is awash with corruption and other turmoil. Considering the rampant incompetence in our own state government, the Mexican drug cartels and their street-level distributors have nothing to fear from proposition 19. In fact, they have every reason to look forward to the new horizons it will bring to them.
Keep your eye on the ball, society
If you’ve been following my twitter updates, you’ve seen that I have been living in Nepal and South Asia for the last 6 weeks. Believe me, there is a lot to talk about…and I’m not quite sure where to start. But I decided to step away from the temple-lined trails of Lumbini and take my eyes off of the snow-covered mountains in Pokhara, at least for a few minutes, to write about a very serious situation that is talking place back home. No, its not President Obama’s remark about Kanye West or the latter’s behavior on television. The title of this post is not about H1N1 either, its something that has claimed 10 times as many victims.
From BBC News:
Gunmen have carried out another attack on a drugs rehabilitation centre in the Mexican city of Ciudad Juarez, killing 10 people and injuring two others.
The shooting follows the deaths of 18 people in an attack on a separate rehab centre in the same city this month.
Such shootings have been blamed on drug traffickers who accuse the clinics of protecting dealers from rival gangs.
A vicious inter-gang drug war in Ciudad Juarez has seen some 1,400 drug-related deaths so far this year.
Thousands of extra police and troops have been deployed in the city, which is on the US border, to try to stem the inter-gang violence.
The latest killings took place at the Anexo de Vida clinic.
I read the international news the other day and came across the headlines that have been coming out of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico’s largest border city and ground zero for narco-terrorists and their horrific antics that include mass killings, beheadings, and forms of torture that are among the most gruesome in the world. The most dangerous people don’t necessarily linger in the mountains of Pakistan, as some believe. Even those who scoff at the “War on Terror”, such as Isolationists like Ron Paul, should be able to see the seriousness of this threat. At the very least, we should feel for our neighbors on the other side of the border who have to live with a nightmare like this because of America’s obsession with drugs.
A taste of Tijuana
Here is the link to my article published last week in the Brentwood Press. I wrote about my experience and Tijuana–which took place in March–and what I took away from it. I should add I plan on going back to the city early next year to try and write a follow-up story. I’m hoping I can get the coveted interview I narrowly missed last time I was down there.
As I read the horrific details about the killing of four young Americans that emerged from Tijuana last week I felt a sense of horror … it was the second major attack in the city I had read about in less than two weeks, the most recent being a coordinated attack by drug gangs armed with AK-47s that left seven police officers dead and many more injured.
Having been to Tijuana myself, the brutal attacks did not surprise me – just days before I left for my trip, six people were brutally executed; three of them were found beheaded. What did surprise me was the overwhelming coverage of the swine flu outbreak that originated in Mexico City and brought the world to the brink of a “pandemic” just a couple weeks ago. I’m not one to compare tragedies and argue which is worse, but after a week of fear-mongering from media outlets all over the world, swine flu turned out to be far less threatening than we thought.
Meanwhile, the thousands of ruthless drug cartel fighters threatening Americans and Mexicans alike continue to run back and forth across the border, killing people and terrorizing entire cities to the point where mayors and police chiefs are afraid to go to work. In fact, more Americans died in the recent Tijuana attack than in the nationwide outbreak of the H1N1 virus.
Just two months earlier, I was in Tijuana, walking the streets of Avenida Revolucion and the city’s financial district. Common sense kept me away from the most dangerous parts of the city, like Zona Norte, which is arguably the most dangerous place imaginable for a lone traveler to mill about late at night.
I visited the city because I wanted to get an understanding of Mexico’s bloody and lengthy drug war, casualties of which are comparable to Iraq or Afghanistan. During my trip, I got to visit a police station in the center of the city and talk with some of the officers about Mexico’s progress in confronting the increasingly violent drug cartels. I had originally planned to have a solid interview, but the weekend, with its need for more men on the streets, made that very difficult.
Much like the consular official– Press attaché Jessica Lopez from Mexico’s San Francisco Consulate – with whom I had spoken over the phone, who acknowledged that Northern Mexico in general and the city in particular have problems. But Lopez did her best to assure me that Americans should not be discouraged from coming to Mexico despite the travel advisory that was issued.
Most officers were very friendly and I trust that they are doing their best to serve their city, but many were wary when I asked to take a few photos – something that required the consent of a higher-ranking officer at the scene. I assured him I only wanted to show my community how much courage and hard work is being done at the hands of police officers south of the border, which pleased him.
The Army soldiers who patrolled a government office not far from my hotel weren’t too anxious to have their photos taken either, a request I politely asked in my progressing Spanish. Four men occupied a Humvee, one of them sitting behind a .50 caliber machine gun and all of covering their faces in balaclava – I suspected this was out of fear that they would be identified by passersby associated with local cartels, who in turn would come after their families. Unfortunately, this is all too common in Mexico and I was quick to thank the soldiers for their service and apologize for inconveniencing them.
The rest of my story can be viewed here.
Recent Comments