Mexico's Drug War Shows Little Sign Of Waning

Forensic workers move a stretcher with a dead body, one of the 18 decapitated people found on Wednesday, out of a morgue in Guadalajara on May 10, 2012. (Reuters)

After Six Years of Bloodshed, Mexico's Drug War Shows Little Sign Of Waning -- Malcolm Beith, The Atlantic

The horrors of daily life with the cartels.

It was roughly 8 a.m., on Jan. 3, 2007. Mexican President Felipe Calderon had just landed at the airport in Uruapan, in the central state of Michoacan. He had come to check on the troops involved in counter-drug operations, to give them a morale boost; they had been deployed just weeks earlier to fight the narcos, as Mexico's drug traffickers are known.

Calderon had donned an olive-green military jacket - adorned with five stars - and beige pants. He wore a military cap. He was dressed like a soldier. A general. A commander-in-chief.

Calderon was flanked by Gen. Guillermo Galvan Galvan and the head of the Navy, Adm. Mariano Francisco Saynez Mendoza.

Read more ....

My Comment: An excellent summary on a war that America continues to choose to ignore.

A Look At The Mexican Drug Cartel 'Los Zetas' (Video)

Mexico Changes How it Cooperates With The U.S. In Combating The Drug Cartels

U.S. Role At A Crossroads In Mexico’s Intelligence War On The Cartels -- Washington Post

MEXICO CITY — For the past seven years, Mexico and the United States have put aside their tension-filled history on security matters to forge an unparalleled alliance against Mexico’s drug cartels, one based on sharing sensitive intelligence, U.S. training and joint operational planning.

But now, much of that hard-earned cooperation may be in jeopardy.

The December inauguration of President Enrique Peña Nieto brought the nationalistic Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) back to power after 13 years, and with it a whiff of resentment over the deep U.S. involvement in Mexico’s fight against narco-traffickers.

The new administration has shifted priorities away from the U.S.-backed strategy of arresting kingpins, which sparked an unprecedented level of violence among the cartels, and toward an emphasis on prevention and keeping Mexico’s streets safe and calm, Mexican authorities said.

Read more ....

My Comment: A comprehensive look at U.S. - Mexican efforts to combat the Mexican drug cartels .... and the changes that the new Mexican government are now implementing.

Mexico`s Drug Cartels Are Now Expanding Into The U.S.

Mexican Drug Cartels: ‘The Most Serious Threat The US Has Faced From Organized Crime’ -- RT

Mexican drug cartels — the same groups credited with taking tens of thousands of innocent lives through brutal murders during the last few years — have infiltrated the United States.

In an exposé published by The Associated Press this week, reporter Michael Tarm cites an extensive review of federal court cases, government drug-enforcement data and interviews with top law enforcement officials to back up the claim that violent drug lords from south of the border have established bases within the US that are now working as remote hubs for international narcotics rings.

Read more ....

More News On The Mexican Drug Cartel Moving Into The U.S.

Mexican drug cartels move deeper into US to tighten grip on narcotics market -- The Guardian
Cartels send agents to US, including Chicago burbs -- Bloomberg Businessweek
Mexican Drug Cartels Are Sending Deputies Deep Inside The US -- Business Insider
Mexican drug cartels using covert agents inside U.S. -- Examiner
Mexican Drug Cartels Moving Deeper Into US; Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman Named Chicago's Public Enemy Number 1 -- Latin Times
Mexican Drug Cartels Have an "Emboldened Presence" in the United States -- Gather
Mexican Cartels Push Deep Into US -- Newser
Mexican Drug Cartels Biggest Threat To Texas And Its Residents -- FOX News

My Comment: All my friends who live in Mexico tell me the same thing .... we have not seen anything yet.

Mexico's Drug Cartel War Is Now One Of Latin America’s Bloodiest Conflicts

Mexico’s War On Crime Now Ranks Among Latin America’s Bloodiest Conflicts -- McClatchy News

MEXICO CITY — The revelation that as many as 27,000 people may have gone missing in Mexico in recent years renews attention to the huge human toll left by the war on crime that former President Felipe Calderon waged during his six years in office.

Combined with the 70,000 dead acknowledged recently by the new administration of President Enrique Pena Nieto, who succeeded Calderon on Dec. 1, the number of the disappeared makes the Calderon tenure the bloodiest period in Mexican history since the Mexican Revolution of the early 20th century.

On Thursday, human rights campaigners said the numbers place Mexico far above some of the better-known Latin American human catastrophes of decades past, including the rule of military regimes in Argentina, Chile and Brazil and civil wars in Nicaragua and El Salvador.

Read more ....

WNU Editor: The bottom is a list of conflict totals for past Latin American conflicts:

Dead and missing in Latin American violence:

CHILE 1973-1990 (Augusto Pinochet regime) – 3,197
ARGENTINA 1976-1983 (Military dictatorship) – 10,000
EL SALVADOR 1932 (La Matanza) – 32,000
NICARAGUA 1981-90 (Contra war) – 60,000
PERU 1980-92 (Sendero Luminoso) – 69,000
EL SALVADOR 1979-1992 (civil war) – 75,000
COLOMBIA 1948-1958 (La Violencia) – 200,000
GUATEMALA 1960-1996 (civil war) – 250,000

Is The World's Most Powerful Drug Lord Dead?

Is El Chapo Dead? Police Probe Claims The World's Most Powerful Drug Lord Was Killed In Cartel Shootout In The Guatemalan Jungle -- Daily Mail

* Joaquin Guzman named 'world's most powerful drug lord' by US Treasury
* Soldiers combing Guatemala jungle after locals claim 'body' found in car
* Locals reported violent gunfight between rival gangs in Peten region
* Has been on the run since daring 2001 Mexican jailbreak in a laundry truck
* Forbes estimated this month his fortune worth more than $1billion

Police are probing claims that the world's most powerful drugs baron died in a hail of bullets yesterday in a violent jungle shootout with a rival gang in Guatemala.

Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman, whose fortune is estimated at more than $1 billion, has been on the run since 2001 when he escaped from a Mexican prison in a laundry truck. There has been a $7million bounty on his head ever since.

Last year, the US Treasury Department named the kingpin as the 'world's most influential drugs trafficker' before Chicago's crime commission this month officially recognised him as the city's Public Enemy Number One - the first time the infamous soubriquet has been rolled out since Al Capone in the 1920s.

Read more ....

More News On Reports That The Head of The Mexican Sinaloa Drug Cartel (Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman) Is Dead

Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman Dead? Guatemala Probes If Drug Lord Killed In Shootout -- Huffington Post/AP
Is Mexico’s Most Wanted Drug Lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman Dead? -- FOX News
Narco gun battle reported in 'Chapo' Guzman's Guatemala territory -- L.A. Times
Guatemala checking Mexico drug lord death -- Al Jazeera
Rumors Swirl Drug Lord Joaquín Guzmán Shot Dead -- Newser
Mexico's Sinaloa Cartel Could Fragment If Boss 'El Chapo' Is Confirmed Dead In Guatemala -- International Business Times
Guatemala checking if Mexico drug lord killed -- Global Post/AFP
Report: Chicago's Public Enemy No. 1 May Be Dead -- NBC
Did Wikileaks Help Kill the World's Most Powerful Drug Lord? -- Atlantic Wire

Mexico Admits That 27,000 Have Disappeared After Being Arrested By The Security Forces

A file photo dated Nov. 30, 2012, showing photographs of disappeared persons in Mexico during a protest by their family members in Mexico City. New York-based Human Rights Watch released a report Wednesday that documents 249 disappearances in Mexico since December 2006, when then-President Felipe Calderon launched a war on organized crime that "produced disastrous results." EFE/File

Mexico Admits 27,000 Missing; Human Rights Watch Protests Crisis Of ‘Disappeared’ -- McClatchy News

MEXICO CITY — Mexico said Wednesday that it had records of more than 27,000 cases of “disappeared people” that it would make public soon in an effort to clarify the circumstances under which they vanished.

Lia Limon, the country’s deputy interior secretary for human rights, acknowledged the cases hours after Human Rights Watch issued a scathing report that called Mexico the Western Hemisphere’s hot spot for “enforced disappearances,” in which police or the military arrest citizens who are never seen again.

The advocacy group said it had documented 149 cases throughout the country in which witnesses saw police or soldiers take someone into custody only to have the person vanish without a trace. But the group said the number of people who’d disappeared since 2006 was enormous, noting that a provisional list compiled by the attorney general’s office indicated that more than 25,000 people had gone missing during the administration of former President Felipe Calderon, who left office Dec. 1 and is now a visiting fellow at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.

Read more ....

More News On Mexico's Disappear

Mexican forces involved in kidnappings, disappearances, report charges -- L.A. Times
Mexican authorities participated in civilian disappearances, report says -- Washington Post
Human rights report: Mexico disappearances during drug war ‘a crisis ignored’ -- Washington Post/AP
HRW: Mexico security forces colluded in disappearances -- BBC
Human Rights Watch documents 249 disappearances in Mexico -- La Prensasa.com
Mexico: Crisis of Enforced Disappearances -- Human Rights Watch

Civil Rights Group: 92,000 Dead In Mexico`s War On The Drug Cartels

92,000 Dead In Mexico`s War On The Drug Cartels -- Express.co.uk

THE horrific cost of Mexico’s six-year war on drugs has been starkly highlighted by a civil rights group that says the official 72,000 death toll may be wildly underestimating the scale of the slaughter.

It has published the grim statistic that 20,851 more victims have ­simply disappeared since the government declared war on the drug cartels.

It believes many of the missing women and children may still be alive, kidnapped by the cartels from remote villages and put to use as sex slaves.

The missing include 138 soldiers, 1,300 police ­officers and 58 journalists known to have been ­assassinated by cartel hitmen.

Read more ....

My Comment: While much of the bloodshed for the past few years has decreased, the sad fact is that the bloodshed is still continuing at a horrific rate, and the authorities are nowhere near in being able to stop it. As to the number of 92,000 .... who knows if even this is accurate .... but what is known is that tens of thousands have been murdered, even more have fled the communities that they have always lived in, and the numbers of the disappear keep on rising.

Mexico's Drug War Has Killed An Estimated 70,000 People In Six Years

Economist

Mexico To Track Drug War Victims, Compensate Families -- Reuters

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico's new government on Wednesday introduced a long-delayed law to trace victims of a brutal drug war that has killed an estimated 70,000 people in six years, and compensate the families of those deemed innocent.

The bill, which was approved by Congress last April, had stalled after former President Felipe Calderon objected to parts of its content. New President Enrique Pena Nieto signed the bill into law on Wednesday, and it will take effect in a month.

The law comprises the creation of a fund to pay relatives up to $70,000 per innocent victim killed in attacks by drug gangs, as well as a database that aims to help record what happened to the dead.

Read more ....

My Comment: This database and compensating families who lost loved ones (who are innocent) are long overdue .... but the 70,000 figure is what caught my attention.

Mapping Program Makes It Possible To See The Conquest Of Mexico By The Drug Cartels

"Mapping areas of operation of Mexican criminal groups". Michele Coscia and Viridiana Rios

How Drug Cartels Conquered Mexico [MAPS] -- Business Insider

It is now possible to see the conquest of drug cartels over Mexico.

Viridiana Rios and Michele Coscia of Harvard University created a program called MOGO that searches specialized blogs, local newspapers and Google News for references to the different cartels, their locations and their influence between 1999 and 2011.

The results show how since 2006—when Mexican President Felipe Calderon declared an all-out war against drug traffickers in the country— the cartels have only gotten stronger. Meanwhile, more than 100,000 Mexicans have been killed.

Read more ....

My Comment: Bottom line .... Mexico is losing the drug war .... and some may even say that they have lost it.

Another Mexican State Falls Under The Control Of The Zetas Drug Cartel

Zetas Cartel Occupies Mexico State Of Coahuila -- L.A. Times

The aggressively expanding and gruesomely violent Zetas group dominates territory by controlling all aspects of local criminal businesses.

SALTILLO, Mexico — Few outside Coahuila state noticed. Headlines were rare. But steadily, inexorably, Mexico's third-largest state slipped under the control of its deadliest drug cartel, the Zetas.

The aggressively expanding Zetas took advantage of three things in this state right across the border from Texas: rampant political corruption, an intimidated and silent public, and, if new statements by the former governor are to be believed, a complicit and profiting segment of the business elite. It took scarcely three years.

What happened to Coahuila has been replicated in several Mexican states — not just the violent ones that get the most attention, but others that have more quietly succumbed to cartel domination. Their tragedies cast Mexico's security situation and democratic strength in a much darker light than is usually acknowledged by government officials who have been waging a war against the drug gangs for six years.

Read more ....

My Comment: More evidence that Mexico is losing it's war against the drug cartels.

Why Is The U.S. Ignoring Mexico's Drug War

Why Is Mexico Drug War Being Ignored? -- Ted Galen Carpenter, Special to CNN

A striking feature of the presidential debate on foreign policy was the total lack of attention given to Latin America –notably the drug violence wracking our next door neighbor, Mexico. Nearly 60,000 people have perished since 2006 in the Mexican government’s military-led offensive against the country’s powerful, ruthless drug cartels. But while President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney both obsessed about the Middle East, they virtually ignored Washington’s relations with our southern neighbors. After a brief observation from Romney near the start of the debate that the region offered important – and neglected – economic opportunities for the United States, both candidates quickly abandoned the Western Hemisphere.

Read more ....

My Comment: This is a good question .... but why is the U.S. media and the American political class ignoring this important story is beyond me.

Update: An excellent graphic on Mexico's drug cartel war can be found here.

Mexico`s Drug Lords Are In An Arms Race

Mexico’s Drug Lords Ramp Up Their Arsenals with RPGs -- Time

When a Mexican SWAT team stopped a stolen Cadillac van in the border city of Piedras Negras, it was not a surprise when they were greeted by a tirade of bullets as the criminals blasted and ran. But after they kicked open the trunk, the officers realized they could have been victims of more catastrophic firepower. The gunmen had been in possession of an arsenal of weapons that included three Soviet-made antitank rockets complete with an RPG-7 shoulder-fired launcher. If the criminals had got a rocket off, they could easily have blown the SWAT vehicle to pieces. RPG-7s can also take out helicopters and were used in the Black Hawk Down episode in Somalia in 1993.

Read more ....

My Comment: Talk about escalation and changing the dynamics in Mexico`d drug cartel wars.

A New Head Of The Zetas Drug Cartel

ABC News - Drug Lord Takes Control of Cartel (ABC News)

Drug Lord Takes Control of Cartel -- ABC News

The new head of the Zetas drug cartel is a former Dallas resident who is scorned as a traitor by many of his own cartel soldiers and mocked as an ex-"car washer" by his enemies, but has risen to power thanks to a fearsome reputation for violence.

"[Miguel Angel Trevino Morales] is extremely brutal, to the point of sadism," says George Grayson, an expert on the Zetas. "He is prepared to advance his interest through unspeakable violence." Grayson's recent book on the cartel, "The Executioner's Men," opens with a scene in which Trevino Morales slowly beats a female police officer to death, in front of her colleagues, with a two-by-four.

Read more ....

My Comment: Here is an easy prediction .... he is not going to last long.

Mexico Confirms The Death Of Zetas Cartel Leader Killed, But Gunmen Steal His Body

Zetas Cartel Leader Killed, Mexico Navy Says -- New York Times

MEXICO CITY — The Mexican Navy confirmed on Tuesday that it had killed Heriberto Lazcano, the founder and the principal leader of the Zetas, one of the most violent criminal gangs to terrorize the country in years.

But in a striking twist, an armed group quickly stole the body, a state prosecutor said Tuesday, leaving the authorities struggling to explain how such a major blow against Mexico’s criminal organizations could turn into an illustration of their persistent strength.

Read more ....

More News On The Death Of Mexico's Zetas Cartel Leader

Mexico Strikes Back Against Cartel -- Wall Street Journal
Mexican marines kill founder of Zetas drug cartel, then lose corpse -- Washington Post
Mexico says kills top Zetas drug lord but body snatched -- Reuters
Gang steals body of Mexican druglord Heriberto Lazcano -- The Australian/AFP
Mexico Says Prints Identified Zetas Boss Before Body Disappeared -- Bloomberg Businessweek
Mexico capo killed, then body stolen by gunmen -- Bloomberg Businessweek/AP
Mexico marines: Zetas cartel leader killed -- USA Today
Recent Major Drug Detentions by Mexican Marines -- ABC News/AP
Heriberto Lazcano, a Zetas leader, was killed in Mexico - but is the cartel done? -- Sara Miller Llana, Christian Science Monitor

Is Mexico's Zetas Drug Cartel Kingpin Dead?

Major Victory In War Against Mexican Drug Trade After Leader Of Zetas Cartel, Known As The Executioner, Is Gunned Down In Fierce Firefight -- Daily Mail

* Heriberto Lazcano was leader of the notorious Zetas cartel and is suspected to have masterminded hundreds of killings
* He was considered such an influential crime boss that the US government had put a $5million price on his head
* He died in a shootout in the lawless badlands of Progreso, Coahuila, about 80 miles west of the Texas border, near Laredo
* He was one of a band of elite Mexican soldiers who defected in 1998 to work as hired guns for drug traffickers before forming Los Zetas
* Los Zetas since carved out a smuggling empire across Mexico and diversified into kidnapping, extortion, theft of crude oil and wholesale murder

One of Mexico's most feared drug barons - known as The Executioner - has been killed in a gunfight with marines.

Heriberto Lazcano died in a hail of bullets in a firefight with Mexican forces in the lawless badlands of Progreso, Coahuila, about 80 miles west of the Texas border, near Laredo.

The former Mexican army commando was leader of the notorious Zetas cartel and is suspected to have masterminded hundreds of killings, including the June 2004 slaying of Francisco Ortiz Franco, a top editor of a crusading weekly newspaper in Tijuana that often reported on drug trafficking.

Read more ....

More News On Mexico Believing That Zetas Drug Lord Heriberto Lazcano May Be Dead

Mexican navy says fingerprints confirm Zetas cartel leader Heriberto Lazcano slain in shootout -- Washington Post/AP
Top Zetas Cartel Leader 'El Lazca' Killed, Mexico Navy Reports -- FOX News
Mexico says may have killed Zetas cartel leader -- AFP
Commando-Turned-Cartel-King Reportedly Killed in Mexico Shootout -- Danger Room
Mexican navy: Leader of notorious Zetas cartel may have been killed in shootout -- CNN
Mexican Authorities Believe They Have Killed "El Lazca," the Leader of the Feared Zetas Cartel -- ABC News/Univision
Mexican Navy Believes It Killed Ruthless Gang Kingpin -- New York Times
Mexico Says Zetas Drug Lord Heriberto Lazcano May Be Dead -- BBC
Top drug cartel leader in Mexico possibly killed in firefight, officials say -- L.A. Times
Double blow to Mexico's Zetas? Top man Lazcano reportedly killed, another captured -- Christian Science Monitor

Is Mexico's Drug Cartel War Winding Down?

In Mexico’s Murder City, The War Appears Over -- Washington Post

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico — When this city was among the most murderous in the world, the morgue ran out of room, the corpses stacked to the ceiling in the wheezing walk-in freezers.

Medical examiners, in plastic boots, performed a dozen autopsies a day as families of victims waited outside in numbers sufficient to require a line.

For all this, Mexico has not made much sense of one of the most sensational killing sprees in recent history, which has left 10,500 dead in the streets of Juarez as two powerful drug and crime mafias went to war. In 2010, the peak, there were at least 3,115 aggravated homicides, with many months posting more than 300 deaths, according to the newspaper El Diario.

But the fever seems to have broken.

Read more ....

My Comment: I am skeptical that after a number of years of violence and mayhem the drug cartel war is winding down. Drugs are still being transported, the cartel leaders are still alive, and the money that fuels this chaos is still there.

Will Mexico's New President Change The Drug War Policy?

Mexico's President-elect Enrique Peña Nieto. Reuters

Mexico's New President Vows to Continue Fight Against Drug Gangs -- Wall Street Journal

MEXICO CITY -- Mexico's president-elect Enrique Peña Nieto, fresh off his weekend election victory, said Tuesday he plans to continue President Felipe Calderón's fight against the country's drug gangs, but outlined a long-term strategy to place more of the battle in the hands of civilians rather than the military.

In a wide-ranging interview in the capital, Mr. Peña Nieto, of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, praised much of Mr. Calderón's strategy against organized crime, including the creation of a federal police force and growing cooperation with the U.S.

He also said he saw Colombia, long the U.S.'s closest ally in the region, as offering valuable lessons in fighting organized crime.

Read more ....

More News On Talk That Mexico Will Shift It's Drug War Policy

Mexico's New President Signals Shift in Drug War Policy -- FOX News/AP
Mexico’s new leader could focus law-enforcement on small local gangs that rob, extort, kidnap -- Washington Post/AP
Mexico's Next President and the Future of the Cartel War -- David Silverberg, HSToday
New President of Mexico Raises Questions Whether He has a Plan to Fight Drug Gangs -- JD Journal
Will Mexico go soft on cartels? -- Chad Groening, OneNewsNow
Pena Nieto Outlines Agenda on Drug Trafficking, Economic Reforms -- PBS Newshour

Mexico's Presidential Election Will Not Change The Drug War

Enrique Pena Nieto is cheered by supporters during a rally in Cuautla, in the Mexican state of Morelos Photo: Reuters

Mexico Election Unlikely To Reshape Drug War -- L.A. Times

The top candidates in next week's presidential vote all emphasize plans for reducing the drug cartels' brutal violence, but nobody offers a significant new strategy.

MEXICO CITY — Six years into a ghastly drug war, none of the top candidates in next Sunday's presidential election has offered a significant new strategy to win a conflict that has claimed more than 50,000 lives and terrorized Mexican society.

Instead, the politicians emphasize reducing the increasingly brutal violence, as they seek to address the concern that weighs heavily on the minds of outraged Mexican voters.

Read more ....

My Comment: Most of the killing that is being done in Mexico is between the drug cartels, and they are not listening to what the candidates and political parties are promising. Bottom line .... in the eyes of the cartels .... their war is between each other, and the politicians are just spectators on the sidelines.

Talk About Arresting The Wrong Man

Mexican Car Dealer Mistaken For Son Of Wanted Drug Lord -- The Telegraph

Embarrassed Mexican officials have been forced to admit that they had mistakenly claimed to have arrested the son of the country’s most wanted drugs lord.

The capture of Jesus Alfredo Guzman, 26, alias El Gordo or The Fat One, had been hailed as a huge triumph by the government and the media on Friday morning.

Joaquin ‘Chapo’ Guzman, head of the Sinaloa Cartel, is Mexico’s most powerful drug dealer and is thought to have a personal fortune in excess of $1 billion. He is listed in Forbes magazine as the 55th most influential person in the world.

Read more ....

More News On Mexican Authorities Arresting The Wrong Drug Lord

Mexico: 'Mistaken identity' over Guzman drug arrest -- BBC
Mexico admits arrested 'drug kingpin' is actually a car salesman -- The Guardian
Mexico says most-wanted drug lord's son not arrested -- FOX News/EFE
Mexico admits suspect not drug lord's son -- CBC/AP
Mexico got wrong man in high-profile drug arrest - lawyer -- Reuters
Mexican detainee not drug lord's son after all -- L.A. Times

My Comment: Talk about a major intelligence failure .... people should be fired for this mess.