Mexico’s instability, drug wars, et. al.

[Yrys]

A Cause Célèbre Clouds Mexican Sentiment on Kidnapping Scourge

As Mexican Killings Rise, Groups Take Envoy to Task

Francisco Barrio Terrazas, left.
(Does that mean the newspaper assumed that Americans knows who's right?)

MEXICO CITY — Lawless Ciudad Juárez has become a potent symbol of Mexico’s escalating drug war.
Drug cartels recently chased out the police chief there, and citizens have become fearful witnesses
to daily murders of drug dealers, police officers and bystanders. But lost amid the headlines are
the murders of young women that drew international notice more than a decade ago and that
continue today.

Now, frustrated women’s groups are making new headlines of their own, challenging the recent
appointment of Mexico’s ambassador to Canada, Francisco Barrio Terrazas. They say he was
negligent in dealing with the killings in the 1990s as governor of the state of Chihuahua, where
Ciudad Juárez is located, across the border from El Paso, Tex.

The women’s groups, along with other human rights organizations, sent a formal protest to Mexico’s
Ministry of Foreign Relations this month. They are also asking the Foreign Relations Commission
of the Mexican Senate to reconsider Mr. Barrio Terrazas’ appointment. Several human rights groups
in Quebec have supported their protests.

“He doesn’t represent Mexicans,” said Marisela Ortiz, a founder of May Our Daughters Return Home,
an association of victims’ families in Ciudad Juárez that is leading the challenge. “Because of his
misogynistic characteristics, we oppose him having any position, and even less in a country that
is known as a promoter of peace.”

Rights groups estimate that as many as 500 women have been killed since 1993 in Ciudad Juárez and
other cities in the state of Chihuahua. Many of them were tortured before they were killed, their bodies
often found weeks later, dumped in the desert. Many of the killings remain unsolved. Although several
people have been convicted in some of the slayings over the years, some were later released after
evidence suggested they were tortured into confessing.

Women’s groups have long maintained that the police did not try to solve the cases, either because
they feared that organized crime was involved or because they were involved themselves, or both.
The groups also argue that the authorities simply did not care because the victims were poor. Many
of those killed had challenged Mexico’s machismo culture by earning their own livings in the area’s
assembly plants. The women’s groups’ most incendiary assertion against Mr. Barrio Terrazas — and
one that the Mexican media have repeated — is that he once suggested that the victims should not
have worn miniskirts and walked through unlighted streets. But it is unclear whether Mr. Barrio
Terrazas, who was governor for six years starting in 1992, ever made such a statement.

In response to a query, the Mexican Embassy in Ottawa said the ambassador “rejects the notion that
he was indifferent or insensitive about the topic or that he insinuated that the murdered women
of Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, bore some responsibility for their own deaths.” The embassy statement
also said he had “strongly encouraged the punishment of the perpetrators of murders or
disappearances of women.”

Mr. Barrio Terrazas, a member of President Felipe Calderón’s National Action Party, has held several
national posts since his years as governor, including serving as a deputy in the Mexican Congress.
He began work as ambassador on Feb. 26, after Senate ratification.

As violence in Juárez has risen in the past year, so, too, have the killings of women, said Ms. Ortiz,
of May Our Daughters Return Home. The state government said that 98 women were killed last year
in Juárez, although Ms. Ortiz estimated the toll at 130.

Although attention in Mexico to the plight of the women of Juárez has wavered, the murders have
caught the attention of celebrities. The latest to take up the cause is the singer Peter Gabriel who,
along with representatives of human rights groups, met with Mr. Calderón last month to deliver a
petition asking him to work to end violence against women.

 

[Yrys]

real collapse :  Earthquake hits Mexico City, BBC News

A strong earthquake has struck south of Mexico's capital, Mexico City, causing buildings
to shake and prompting workers to rush out onto the streets.

The quake had a magnitude of 6.0, according to the United States Geological Survey.

The USGS said the quake hit 240km (150 miles) south of the capital at a depth of 40km.

Mexico is currently battling an outbreak of the swine flu virus, which has claimed 149 lives
in the country.


Strong Earthquake Felt in Mexico City, NY Times

MEXICO CITY (AP) -- A strong earthquake struck central Mexico on Monday, swaying tall buildings
in the capital and sending office workers into the streets. The 6.0-magnitude quake was centered
near Chilpancingo, about 130 miles (210 kilometers) southwest of Mexico City or 50 miles (80
kilometers) from the resort of Acapulco, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

Televisa television network quoted Mexico City officials saying there were no immediate reports
of damage or injuries. The quake rattled nerves in a city already nervous about a swine flu outbreak
suspected of killing as many as 149 people nationwide.

''I'm scared,'' said Sarai Luna Pajas, a 22-year-old social services worker standing outside her office
building moments after it hit. ''We Mexicans are not used to living with so much fear, but all that is
happening -- the economic crisis, the illnesses and now this -- it feels like the Apocalypse.''

Co-worker Harold Gutierrez, 21, said the country was taking comfort from its religious faith, but
he too was gripped by the sensation that the world might be coming to an end.

''If it, it is God's plan,'' he said, speaking over a green mask used to ward off swine flu.

 

[Yrys]

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1904756,00.html
Drug Gangs’ Kin Ensnared in Mexico Crackdown


In Mexican City, Drug War Ills Slip Into Shadows

NUEVO LAREDO, Mexico — The reminders of Nuevo Laredo’s violent days still mar its streets
— bullet holes and the impacts of grenades where drug traffickers once flaunted their power,
boarded-up buildings of merchants who fled the lawlessness, and until they were leveled by
the government a few weeks ago, garish roadside shrines to Santa Muerte, the saint of death.

What makes Nuevo Laredo so remarkable now, however, is the relative calm that envelops
this border town, a small dose of good news in a country awash with bloodshed. Tamaulipas
State, where Nuevo Laredo is located, used to be ground zero in the country’s drug war, with
convoys of criminals riding through the streets as if they owned them and one of the highest
murder rates in the country. That distinction has since shifted farther west along the United
States-Mexico border to Ciudad Juárez and Tijuana, where soldiers patrol the streets by the
thousands. But Nuevo Laredo’s transformation from war zone to regular town is not
necessarily what it seems. Organized crime has gone underground in Nuevo Laredo,
still feared, still thriving, but no longer in charge.

That uneasy peace may well be the best outcome Mexico can extract from its consuming drug
war, so Nuevo Laredo could be a glimpse of the country’s future. Government officials
acknowledge that their realistic goal is not to eliminate the outlaws, but to weaken them
to the point where something resembling everyday life can resume.

The government, which is in the midst of a vicious, countrywide battle with the cartels, played
a role in the newfound tranquillity by pouring soldiers into Nuevo Laredo, under President Felipe
Calderón and his predecessor, Vicente Fox. They took up positions around the city and took over
the police force, which was regarded as a corrupt adjunct of the cartels. But the army did not
actually defeat the traffickers here by rounding them up and putting them out of business. Rather,
law enforcement officials on both sides of the border say, a brutal, long-running turf war between
rival cartels came to an end when one side, the Gulf Cartel, came out on top. The added presence
of government troops made it harder for the rival Sinaloa Cartel to continue its quest to take over
Gulf territory. But many of the most-wanted criminals responsible for the violence got away and
continued their business trafficking drugs, in the shadows.

What has changed and what has not in this once-besieged border city are best seen through
the eyes of some of those who survived the darkest times.


A POLICE OFFICER
Wavering Allegiances

“I’ll never go back,” said Homero Villarreal, a former Mexican federal police officer who used
to investigate the cartels. Mr. Villarreal spoke from an Italian restaurant across the border in
Laredo, Tex., with his wife, Dora, at his side. They fled from Nuevo Laredo in 2005 after two
of their sons, who were in their 20s, were abducted by gunmen and not heard from again.
Mr. Villarreal is not sure exactly why his sons were singled out, although he acknowledges
that he, like many officers, accepted money from the cartels on occasion to look the other
way. He makes a firm distinction between the money he took not to act and the payments
that other officers took — and continue to take — to commit illegal acts themselves.

Mr. Villarreal has not been back since he fled because, he says, the traffickers who once ran
the city still lurk below the surface. Drugs continue to flow north, and money and guns return,
as recent seizures of huge shipments make clear. In recent weeks, the haul at the bridges
connecting Laredo and Nuevo Laredo, for example, has included nearly three tons of marijuana
and cocaine heading north, and two caches of weapons and ammunition, as well as $1 million
in cash going south.

Mr. Villarreal has joined a group called Laredo’s Missing to try to find out what happened to
his sons. Disappearances were commonplace in those days, and the police sometimes acted
in cahoots with the criminals, Mr. Villarreal said. “The cartels would call the police and say
they were looking for someone,” he said. “The police would find the person and turn him
over to the cartels, who would take him away.”

Those police officers who did not play along were killed. It was in June 2005, after a police
chief was killed hours after being sworn in, that the federal government of Mr. Fox launched
Operation Safe Mexico and sent hundreds of soldiers and federal police officers into Nuevo
Laredo. On their way to the city from the airport, the federal forces were fired upon by
none other than the municipal police, which had all but turned into a protection force for
the drug cartels. Dozens of officers were arrested after that morning shootout, which left one
federal police officer wounded and offered a stark example of Nuevo Laredo’s lawlessness.

A scrubbing of the police began, with all 700 officers removed from their posts and investigated.
What brought the explosion of violence to an end, however, was not just revived law enforcement
but the fact that a long intercartel war over the lucrative transit route through Nuevo Laredo had
run its course. Some law enforcement officials say that the Gulf Cartel, backed up by a feared
paramilitary group, the Zetas, defeated its rivals from the Sinaloa Cartel outright and sent them
packing. Others say the cessation of hostilities was the result of a pact in which the Sinaloa Cartel,
unable to dislodge its rivals, agreed to pay what amounts to a transit tax for drugs that passed
through Tamaulipas. Emerging from the conflict stronger than ever were the Zetas, which now
operate semi-independently from the Gulf Cartel.

The soldiers stationed in an armored vehicle at one of the bridges connecting Laredo and Nuevo
Laredo are only a temporary solution, government officials say, until the police are able to handle
the outlaws on their own. That time has not yet come. “It’s quiet, but that doesn’t mean they’re
not around,” Mr. Villarreal said of the drug lords. “Believe me, they’re there.”

A JOURNALIST
Muted Media

Long ago, journalists here stopped covering the drug violence in their backyard. They still do not.
They avoid mentioning the Zetas and would not even consider writing about one of the group’s
top men, Miguel Ángel Treviño, whom law enforcement officials hold responsible for much of
the bloodshed here.

When the Drug Enforcement Administration in April named Mr. Treviño and his younger brother
as 2 of the 11 most wanted Mexican fugitives, the local press took a pass. “We’re self-censored,”
said one Nuevo Laredo newspaper editor, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid
angering the outlaws. “We’re in the mouth of the wolf. We hope one day to again have the
freedom to publish what we want.”

Some papers did publish photographs recently of banners that the traffickers hung from overpasses
criticizing Mr. Calderón’s government for detaining the relatives of some drug traffickers. “Families
are sacred and should be respected,” the traffickers said, a gibe that the papers reported straight.

Army transgressions receive extensive coverage. In May, the military prosecutor’s office arrested
12 soldiers and said it would court-martial them on charges that they murdered three local
residents and then buried them in a hidden grave.

The editor says that the drug barons do not contact newspapers as much as they used to offering
suggestions, which were really not optional, on which articles should be printed and which should
not. But they continue to lurk in the background, issuing occasional threats to keep the news
media in line. They mean business. In 2006, the newspaper El Mañana was invaded by attackers,
who opened fire on the newsroom and hurled a grenade in as well. One journalist, struck in the
back by shrapnel, was paralyzed. The battle scars are still visible in that newsroom. Journalists
continue to be singled out, but in recent years they have been killed in other parts of the country.

“I’m concerned the problems could come back, but I’m not afraid anymore,” the editor said. “We’ve
all been through too much. Everyone. Society, little by little, is recovering its voice. They are talking
about what happened.”

A CHILDREN’S ADVOCATE
Outlaw’s Philanthropy

On Children’s Day in 2004, tractor-trailers full of food and gifts pulled up outside the orphanage that
Guadalupe Carmona de González runs on the outskirts of the city. There were bags of rice, toys
galore and cakes in the shape of cartoon characters. The children were giddy and so was Ms. Carmona,
who founded Casa Hogar Elim in the mid-1980s with her own money.

Even after she learned that the donations were sent by one of the area’s most notorious drug dons,
Ms. Carmona remained thankful. “The gifts weren’t for me,” she said in a recent interview. “It was
for children who had nothing.”

The gift giver was Osiel Cárdenas, who was in a Mexican prison at the time, accused of being
the leader of the Gulf Cartel, which ran drug operations in Nuevo Laredo and points east. It was
his jailing, authorities say, that emboldened a leader of the Sinaloa Cartel, Joaquín Guzmán Loera,
who is known universally by the nickname El Chapo, or Shorty, to launch his bold and bloody
takeover attempt in Nuevo Laredo.

Mr. Guzmán failed. Mr. Cárdenas was eventually extradited to the United States, where he awaits
trial on drug trafficking charges. Filling the void were the Zetas, ruthless ex-soldiers who cared
much less about their public image than Mr. Cárdenas did and who sent no gifts to Ms. Carmona’s
orphanage, which now houses about 100 children.

Her chief patron now is the government, a normal state of affairs. Ms. Carmona credits Nuevo
Laredo’s mayor, Ramón Garza Barrios, with bringing air-conditioning to her orphanage, helping
to build a library and outfitting the children with school uniforms. Gone are the days when her
calls for the city to pave the road in front of her orphanage would go unheeded, and
Mr. Cárdenas would step in to hire a crew to do the job.

Mr. Garza was also one of the officials behind the destruction of the shrines to the saint of death,
worshiped by traffickers, which had been set up on the highways leading into Nuevo Laredo. He
banned the sale of images of the saint on public property. One of Mr. Garza’s spokesmen said
the mayor was so intent on eliminating Nuevo Laredo’s image as a drug haven that he would
not comment for any newspaper article on the subject.

Ms. Carmona, a religious woman, said she welcomed the government support. As for her former
patron, she said she never knew Mr. Cárdenas personally but appreciated his humanitarian gestures
and prayed for him during his travails. She agreed that drugs break up families and result in even
more orphans. But she was somewhat philosophical about those who were engaged in the business,
saying they were not evil people but were lured into the easy money by dire poverty.

“We’ve all committed sins,” she said.

A SHOPKEEPER
Enduring Reputation

Nuevo Laredo’s violence may have calmed, but the border city’s reputation has not changed as quickly.
Nuevo Laredo is still frequently mentioned in the same breath as Tijuana and Ciudad Juárez, the more
recent hotspots.

That frustrates business owners like Jack Suneson, who sells Mexican artifacts, or rather tries to sell them,
from a stylish boutique in Nuevo Laredo. Customers are so few that he recently bought land in San Antonio
and is on the verge of closing his Mexican store, which his mother first opened in 1954. “I can’t begin to tell
you how bad business is,” he said inside his sprawling store, which was full of merchandise but not buyers.

The other day, he took a walk around his store, pointing out the events that took place on his block alone
during the dark days. There were the dead bodies — “There was one there,” he said, pointing down the
block. “And another there. You never knew when you’d come across another victim.” There were the
boarded-up buildings. Some were once well-known restaurants that catered to the Americans who used
to stream across the border for a taste of Mexico. Others were casinos that were similarly filled with
foreigners but closed their doors when cartels began demanding more and more in protection money.

Mr. Suneson said the cartels have always steered clear of his store. But the collection of taxes by the
criminals continues. In but one example, the pirated movies that are sold across the city bear stamps
from the particular organized crime group that produced them. Many movies carry a photograph of a
gold Hummer, referring, authorities say, to “El Hummer,” one of the top leaders of the Zetas in the
area until he was arrested in 2008.

“There’s a psychosis,” Mr. Suneson said of the fear that Americans still have about crossing the border
into Nuevo Laredo these days. “I won’t deny we had a bad period. I won’t say we weren’t in the middle
of a drug war. We were. But we shouldn’t be the poster child of violence in Mexico. We had our bad
period, and now it’s crept along somewhere else.”

 

[Yrys]

Army in Mexico Seizes 25 Gunmen

Mexico drug gang 'boss' arrested

Mexican officials say they have arrested a drug cartel leader in Cancun who is believed to be behind
the murder of a retired general last February. Juan Manuel Jurado Zarzoza, known as the Puma,
was detained on Friday with three other suspected traffickers. They were found in possession
of drugs and weapons, officials said. The arrest of Juan Manuel Jurado is being seen as a blow
to the feared Gulf Cartel's operations in Cancun.

In another operation on Sunday, the army arrested 25 suspected drug traffickers in northern
Mexico who were apparently disguised as soldiers.

The city, known internationally as a tourist resort, is also an important base for cocaine-trafficking
from South America to the US via Mexico's Caribbean Coast. Last February, retired Brig Gen Mauro
Enrique Tello Quinones from the Mexican army was sent to the city to clean up the apparently
corrupt local police force. Within days of arriving, he was kidnapped, tortured and murdered.

The Mexican authorities say the Gulf Cartel was behind that killing, as well as other drug-
running and extortion operations.

Over the weekend the Mexican army also raided a ranch close to the city of Ciudad Juarez
on the border with the US after a tip-off. According to witnesses, the 25 men who were
arrested there were wearing soldiers' uniforms. They were later paraded in front of the
press, in civilian clothes, along with a large weapons haul.

Mexican drug cartels have in the past resorted to the tactic of disguising themselves as
policemen, and indeed police officers have often been found to have been working for
the cartels. But criminals disguising themselves as soldiers would appear to be a new
strategy - perhaps reflecting the fact that it is the army which is now most visibly on
the front line in Mexico's war on drugs.

See the Mexican cartels' main areas of influence :

 

[Yrys]

Mexico cocaine 'hidden in sharks'

The Mexican Navy says it has seized more than a tonne of cocaine hidden inside
the carcasses of frozen sharks. Armed officers found slabs of cocaine inside more
than 20 sharks aboard a freight ship in the Gulf coast port of Progreso in Yucatan
state.

Correspondents say cartels are coming up with increasingly creative ways of
smuggling drugs into the US. Shipments of cocaine have also been discovered
hidden inside sealed beer cans, religious statues and furniture.

"We are talking about more than a tonne of cocaine that was inside the ship,"
said Mexican Navy Commander Eduardo Villa. He said X-ray machines and
sniffer dogs had helped to uncover the haul. "Those in charge of the shipment
said it was a conserving agent but after checks we confirmed it was cocaine,"
he said.

Methamphetamine

In another development on Tuesday, the Mexican Navy unveiled what it described
as one of the largest methamphetamine labs ever found in the country. When
officers stumbled across the enormous holding tank in a remote part of the northern
state of Sinaloa last week they thought it might be used to water a marijuana plantation.

Instead, the tank fed water into two enormous sheds where investigators found
12,905 gallons (49,640 litres) of ephedrine, a chemical used to make methamphetamine.
Officials said it was enough to produce 40.2 tonnes of the drug, or about 309 million
individual doses.

So far this year more than 2,700 people have died in drug-related violence in Mexico.
Last year about 6,300 were killed. Mexican President Felipe Calderon has committed
some 45,000 troops and federal police to try to crush the country's powerful cartels.

 

[Yrys]

Charges over Mexico nursery fire

Prosecutors in Mexico have arrested seven regional officials over the deaths
of 47 children in a fire at a day-care centre earlier this month. The attorney
general of northern Sonora state said the officials, from the state's finance
department, were being charged with negligent homicide. The department
was in charge of the operations at a warehouse next to the nursery, where
the fire started.

Investigators found no fire alarms or extinguishers in the warehouse. The
property was used to store cars, tyres and paperwork for the state.

Sonora State Attorney General Abel Murrieta said arrest warrants had been
issued for six other Finance Department officials. "They are employees and
officials with the Finance Department who have a direct responsibility for the
warehouse where the fire started," he told a news conference.

Investigators said the fire may have been caused by a short circuit or over-
heating in the warehouse air conditioning system. The blaze spread to the
roof of the day care centre and fire fighters had to knock holes in the walls
of the building to rescue children.

Thirty children died on the day of the 5 June fire in Hermosillo and many more
were badly injured. The 47th victim, a three-year-old girl with burns on 65% of
her body, died on Sunday.

 

[CougarKing]

Yikes.

Mexico's drug conflict intensifies - 20 Sep 09
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DaNdpma8duM&feature=channel
The Mexico-US border has become a battleground in the war on drug cartels.

Traffickers criss-cross the river that marks the border in a cat and mouse game with authorities on both sides.

Al Jazeera's Mariana Sanchez spent the day with US police patrolling the area to see just how well organised the cartels have become.

 

[muskrat89]

People who live in the southern border states see this stuff (and related activity) every day. Home invasions, gun battles, drop houses, ransoms, and more. Phoenix is Number 2 in the world for kidnappings - behind only Mexico City. I think AZ is close to leading the nation in vehicle thefts. Invariably they find them trashed near the border - used to transport people or dope.

 

[CougarKing]

Another factor that affects the Mexican military's ability to stabilize the country?

17/09/2009
Mexico.- During the Calderon administration military desertion has decreased 39.88 percent compared to that documented in the Fox administration, this according to a report provided by the Secretariat of National Defense that was given to the senate.

It is stated that the reason for this is the increase of benefits for the military troops that has raised their quality of life.

''The objective of President Calderon was to reinforce the morale among the Army and Air Force troops, between the period of September 1st 2008 and August 31st 2009 there were only 5912 cases of desertion making a total of 30233 desertions in this administration to this date. Numbers that represent a decrease of 39.88 compared to the same period of the previous administration,'' informs the Secretariat of National Defense.

Among the measures to improve the quality of life of the troops the report said that 20 percent of the 2009 budget was destined for personal services.

More than 40 million pesos were also assigned for death and burial compensations and 410 million pesos for life and institutional insurance.
http://www.milenio.com/node/286800

 

[time expired]

All this and not a word about the financial supporters of all this
mayhem,the user,the Hollywood stars,sporting hero's, politicians,
businessmen and all the other users of this coolest of all drugs,
cocaine.Some people still refer to drug use as  a victimless crime
I beg to differ,every dollar spent on drugs goes to support the
murdering swine who organize this evil trade.
Maybe we should make an agreement with the Mexicans that our
convicted drug users spend some time in Mexican jails as they are
responsible for Mexico`s missfortunes.
                                            Regards

 

[CougarKing]

Some good news for once on an otherwise bleak-sounding thread.

Two hundred sailors raided an upscale apartment complex and killed one of Mexico's top kingpins in a two-hour gunbattle Wednesday, one of the biggest victories yet in President Felipe Calderon's drug war.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091217/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_drug_war_mexico

 

[tomahawk6]

They were Mexican Marines. :christmas happy:
Probably FES. Good job. Taking Mexico back one drug lord at a time.

 

[CougarKing]

Mexican navy sailors stand guard in a vehicle during an operation in Cuernavaca, Mexico, Wednesday, Dec. 16, 2009. A Mexican navy official said alleged drug cartel chief Arturo Beltran Leyva was killed in a shootout with sailors Wednesday. Two hundred sailors raided an upscale apartment complex and killed a reputed Mexican drug cartel chief in a two-hour gunbattle, one of the biggest victories yet in President Felipe Calderon's drug war.  (AP Photo/OEM, Froylan Trujillo)

Mexican navy sailors arrive during an operation in Cuernavaca, Mexico, Wednesday, Dec. 16, 2009. A Mexican navy official said alleged drug cartel chief Arturo Beltran Leyva was killed in a shootout with sailors Wednesday. Two hundred sailors raided an upscale apartment complex and killed a reputed Mexican drug cartel chief in a two-hour gunbattle, one of the biggest victories yet in President Felipe Calderon's drug war. (AP Photo/OEM, Froylan Trujillo)

Mexican navy sailors take cover during an operation in Cuernavaca, Mexico, Wednesday, Dec. 16, 2009. A Mexican navy official said alleged drug cartel chief Arturo Beltran Leyva was killed in a shootout with sailors Wednesday. Two hundred sailors raided an upscale apartment complex and killed a reputed Mexican drug cartel chief in a two-hour gunbattle, one of the biggest victories yet in President Felipe Calderon's drug war. (AP Photo/OEM, Froylan Trujillo)

Soldiers arrive near an apartment complex in Cuernavaca, Mexico, Wednesday, Dec. 16, 2009. A Mexican navy official said alleged drug cartel chief Arturo Beltran Leyva was killed in a shootout with sailors Wednesday. Two hundred sailors raided an upscale apartment complex and killed one of Mexico's top kingpins in a two-hour gunbattle Wednesday, one of the biggest victories yet in President Felipe Calderon's drug war. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

Soldiers stand guard near an apartment complex in Cuernavaca, Mexico, Wednesday, Dec. 16, 2009. A Mexican navy official said alleged drug cartel chief Arturo Beltran Leyva was killed in a shootout with sailors Wednesday. Two hundred sailors raided an upscale apartment complex and killed one of Mexico's top kingpins in a two-hour gunbattle Wednesday, one of the biggest victories yet in President Felipe Calderon's drug war. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

Soldiers arrive near an apartment complex in Cuernavaca, Mexico, Wednesday, Dec. 16, 2009. A Mexican navy official said alleged drug cartel chief Arturo Beltran Leyva was killed in a shootout with sailors Wednesday. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

Navy special forces stand guard during a navy operation in Cuernavaca, in the Mexican state of Morelos December 16, 2009. Arturo Beltran Leyva, one of Mexico's most wanted drug traffickers, was killed in a shoot out with state security forces during the same operation on Wednesday, the navy said.
REUTERS/Margarito Perez (MEXICO - Tags: CIVIL UNREST CRIME LAW SOCIETY)

Mexican soldiers detain an unidentified man during a navy operation in Cuernavaca, in the Mexican state of Morelos December 16, 2009. Arturo Beltran Leyva, one of Mexico's most wanted drug traffickers, was killed in a shoot out with state security forces during the same operation on Wednesday, the navy said. QUALITY FROM SOURCE REUTERS/Margarito Perez

Mexican soldiers detain an unidentified man during a navy operation in Cuernavaca, in the Mexican state of Morelos December 16, 2009. Arturo Beltran Leyva, one of Mexico's most wanted drug traffickers, was killed in a shoot out with state security forces during the same operation on Wednesday, the navy said. REUTERS/Margarito Perez

 

[tomahawk6]

Video of the aftermath. Graphic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tz1NhmY4xdY&feature=related

 

[CougarKing]

The cartels/kingpins exacting their revenge against the Mexican Navy's Marines for taking one of their own.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091222/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_drug_war_mexico

MEXICO CITY – Gunmen mowed down the family of a Mexican marine just hours after the military honored him as a national hero for losing his life during a raid that took down powerful drug kingpin Arturo Beltran Leyva.

(...)

Angulo and Beltran Leyva were both killed during a shootout last week between marines and the cartel at an apartment complex in the colonial city of Cuernavaca, south of Mexico City.

(...)

 

[Retired AF Guy]

The cartels/kingpins exacting their revenge against the Mexican Navy's Marines for taking one of their own.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091222/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_drug_war_mexico

Time for the Mexican government to hoist the Red Flag and start playing El Deguello -  no mercy, no prisoners, a fight to the end.

 

[CougarKing]

Wow. Another victory for the Mexican authorities.

From the Associated Press via Yahoo News

MEXICO CITY – Mexican police have captured alleged drug lord Carlos Beltran Leyva, just two week after his even more powerful brother was killed in a shootout with troops — back-to-back victories in President Felipe Calderon's drug war.

The Public Safety office said in a statement Saturday night that Carlos Beltran Leyva was arrested in Culiacan, the capital of the Pacific coast state of Sinaloa, where he and several of his brothers were born and allegedly started their gang.

Two weeks ago, his brother Arturo, reputed chief of the Beltran Leyva Cartel, was killed in a shootout with Mexican marines in the central city of Cuernavaca.

Mexican officials in the past have described Carlos Beltran as a key member of the gang, but it was unclear if he took over as chief of the cartel after his brother died. A third brother, Alfredo Beltran Levya, was arrested in January 2008

Another brother, Mario Beltran Leyva, is still at large and listed as one of Mexico's most wanted alleged drug lords.
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[CougarKing]

Mexican Federal Police present Teodoro Garcia Simental, known as "El Teo" or "Tres Letras" (L) and Diego Raimundo Guerrero, members of Tijuana cartels, in Mexico City January 12, 2010. Mexican police on Tuesday captured Garcia Simental, a drug kingpin known for having the corpses of tortured rivals dissolved in acid and blamed for much of a surge in violence in the northern border city of Tijuana, police said.
REUTERS/Eliana Aponte

Eduardo Teodoro Garcia Simental, a.k.a "El Teo", one of Mexico's most-wanted drug lords with possible connections to the Arellano Felix brothers or Tijuana cartels, is escorted by police officers in Mexico City. Garcia was captured early on January 12, 2010 in the northwestern state of Baja California Sur, Mexico, along with one of his brothers known as 'El Torito'. (AFP/Alfredo Estrella)

A soldier stands inside a raided pawn shop while under investigation for money laundering in Tijuana November 25, 2009. Often overlooked amid all the violence and chaos they engender is the fact that Mexico's drug cartels are capably run businesses that have turned into some of the most lucrative criminal enterprises ever. Picture taken November 25, 2009. To match SPECIAL REPORT - DRUGS/MEXICO- REUTERS/Jorge Duenes

Mexican soldiers stand at a check point in Tijuana, Mexico, Saturday, Jan. 16, 2010. The Mexican government stepped up its fight against drug cartels, sending 860 more soldiers to Tijuana where violence has risen in recent months.
(AP Photo/Guillermo Arias)

Soldiers stand on guard at a check point in Tijuana, Mexico, Saturday, Jan. 16, 2010. The Mexican government stepped up its fight against drug cartels, sending 860 more soldiers to Tijuana border city where violence has been rising in recent months. (AP Photo/Guillermo Arias)

Alleged gunmen and kidnappers are displayed to the media in front of seized guns and drugs in Tijuana, Mexico, Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2010. According to the army, the suspects were arrested on Monday during an operation in a house where soldiers seized the guns, the drugs and also found an unidentified dead body.
(AP Photo/Guillermo Arias)

 

[Sprinting Thistle]

There is bigger problem here that goes frequently unreported.  Trans-national terrorists and trans national criminal enterprises are working together, sharing TTPs, using each others networks and contacts to support their own activities.  In South America, Hezbollah and AQ have been working in the Tri Border Area (TBA) generating a support base and raising funds; all facilitated by narco-terrorists.  The TBA is an ungoverned area much like the FATAs of Pakistan.  Mexico becomes a gateway into North America, not just for drugs, illegals, but also terrorists, all using and sharing the same methods.

 

[CougarKing]

Good news for Mexico:

Associated Press link

MEXICO CITY – Federal police have arrested Mexico's "King of Heroin," a powerful drug trafficker allegedly responsible for running thousands of pounds of heroin into Southern California each year, authorities said Thursday.

Jose Antonio Medina, nicknamed "Don Pepe," was arrested in the western state of Michoacan on Wednesday and is being held for prosecution, said Ramon Pequeno, head of the anti-narcotics division of Mexico's federal police.

Medina, 36, ran a complex smuggling operation that hauled 440 pounds (200 kilograms) of heroin each month across the Mexican border in Tijuana for La Familia drug cartel, Pequeno said.

The White House National Drug Threat Assessment says that while heroin use is stable or decreasing in the U.S., the source of the drug has shifted in recent years from Colombia — where production and purity are declining — to Mexico, where powerful drug cartels are gaining a foothold in the lucrative market.

Heroin production in Mexico rose from 17 pure metric tons in 2007 to 38 tons in 2008, with the increase translating to lower heroin prices and more heroin-related overdoses and more overdose deaths, according to U.S. government estimates in a report by the National Drug Intelligence Center.

Border Patrol agents seized 4.8 million pounds of narcotics at border crossings last year, and heroin seizures saw the most significant increase during that time, with a 316 percent jump over 2008.

Mexico and the U.S. are working together to counter a handful of increasingly violent drug cartels that supply most of the illicit drugs sold in the U.S. The arrest came the day after top U.S. Cabinet officials, led by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, visited Mexico to underscore their shared responsibility for the country's drug-related violence.

Nearly 17,900 people have died in drug-related violence since President Felipe Calderon launched an assault on cartels after taking office in December 2006.

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