Mexico's Drug War - Page 17

On January 16 2011 13:30 F1rstAssau1t wrote:
I live in Mexico, and yeah the violence is to high in the last years since the President Felipe Calderon started a "war" against all the drug cartels and he is the only one that believe is winning it.

By the way Stealthblue, those pic and infor your ussing it's actually really soft to talk about the current situation in lot's of part in Mexico, if you want to see the real deal check this blog: www.blogdelnarco.com

It's in spanish, but if you can pass that barrer you will see some really amazing news and even worst pics.

On January 16 2011 15:48 meltphaced wrote:
Thanks to StealthBlue for raising much needed awareness and attention to this problem. I am from Monterrey and I can attest that the things that are happening here are truly frightening. Even though not all of Mexico is as bad as Juarez or Monterrey (or most of the cities near the US border, for that matter), violence is quickly creeping south into safer cities turning them into dangerous ones. I still remember 10 years ago how peaceful and safe it used to be here, even for a city of 4 million people you could go out to the city center without worry of anything happening to you. Fast forward only ten years and everything has changed so much: kidnappings and gunfights in plain daylight are not uncommon, heavily armed military commandos patrolling the city's streets driving next to you, people dying every day due to organized crime. It's made most of us paranoid, but the sense of danger is an ever-present feeling as you move around the city.

As a side-note, I didn't see mention of this event. About 3 weeks ago a lady was "rescued" from prison by an armed commando here in Monterrey. Days later, she was found half-naked, hanged from a bridge on one of the city's busiest avenues.

http://neglectedwar.com/blog/archives/448

Anyway, just my 2 cents. If you smoke, make sure your weed is locally grown. It helps us all down here. Thanks again for raising awareness, StealthBlue!

Peace!

MEXICO CITY – Mexico's federal police have arrested a founding member of the brutal Zetas drug cartel, a man who controlled drug smuggling routes and the kidnapping of Central American migrants in southern Mexico, officials said Tuesday.

Flavio Mendez Santiago, 35, was arrested along with a bodyguard outside Oaxaca City. He was in charge of operations in the states of Oaxaca, Chiapas and Veracruz, said Federal police anti-drug chief Ramon Pequeno.

Pequeno said Mendez Santiago, known as "El Amarillo" or "The Yellow One," controlled the smuggling of Central and South American migrants and was in charged of moving them to the northern states of Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas, on the border with Texas.

The Zetas are suspected in the disappearance of more than 40 Central American migrants in Oaxaca last month. The travelers were last seen Dec. 16 near the city of Ixtepec along the sun-scorched transit route for thousands who ride northbound freight trains.

MONTERREY, Mexico (Reuters) – Police found five mutilated bodies outside the wealthy city of Monterrey on Tuesday, part of a series of attacks that killed 23 people and dragged the region deeper into Mexico's drug war.

Gunmen dumped the five dead men, their arms and legs chopped off, on a street in the town of Montemorelos south of Monterrey just before dawn, police and witnesses said, in a escalation of killings since the New Year blamed on drug cartels and alarming locals and businesses.

The unprecedented spate of killings over the past 24 hours in and around Monterrey also included the drive-by shooting of three brothers while they were eating tacos, and an attack by gunmen on five men in a working class neighborhood. One woman died of a heart attack after witnessing that multiple homicide, and nine were killed in other shootings, police said.

VERACRUZ, Mexico – A suspected top operative of the brutal Zetas drug cartel died Wednesday during a confrontation with Mexican security forces in a city in the Gulf Coast state of Veracruz

It was one of several developments throughout Mexico linked to the grinding battle between drug traffickers and the state.

Leonardo Vazquez, alias "El Pachis," died in the city of Poza Rica during an operation by members of the military and federal, state and local police, said Veracruz Gov. Javier Duarte de Ochoa in a statement.

One federal police officer was wounded during the gunfight in the city about 155 miles (250 kilometers) north of the capital, said Ochoa and the federal Attorney General's office.

TIJUANA, Mexico – The head of a Tijuana-area drug trafficking ring who worked for the Sinaloa cartel and has been linked by authorities to about 50 killings was captured by the Mexican army, officials said Thursday.

A 14-year-old girl kidnapped by the gang was freed in the raid, said Julian Leyzaola, deputy public safety secretary in Baja California state.

Juan Miguel "El Boxer" Valle Beltran was arrested Wednesday after the shootout in the seaside city of Playas de Rosarito, the Mexican army said. He was arrested with 13 suspected underlings, they said.

The army said one of Valle Beltran's followers was killed. The man killed was not identified, but Leyzaola said those arrested told officials he decapitated the gang's rivals and hung corpses from bridges.

Leyzaola said Valle Beltran has been linked to about 50 killings.

A policeman was killed and three others wounded Saturday when an abandoned car rigged with explosives detonated in the central state of Hidalgo, local police said.

Police believe the bomb was set by the Zetas, one of Mexico's deadliest drug cartels.

The officers were responding to information sent anonymously stating that there was a body inside a car parked outside the town of Tula, some 90 kilometers (56 miles) north of Mexico City.

There was no body, Tula Mayor Rodolfo Paredes told AFP, and the bomb exploded when the officers opened the car trunk.

MEXICO CITY – Soldiers patrolling a rural area on the border with Texas killed 10 suspected drug gang gunmen at a training camp, Mexico's Defense Department said Saturday.

The military patrol came under attack after finding the camp of armed men in the town of Valle Hermoso, in the border state of Tamaulipas, on Friday, the department said in a statement.

The soldiers returned fire and killed 10 suspects. Soldiers also seized weaponry including 24 rifles, two grenade launchers and 18 grenades, as well as an armored vehicle, it said.

The Gulf coast state of Tamaulipas, which borders Texas, has seen a spike in violence since last year's split between the Gulf cartel and the Zetas, formerly a gang of enforcers and now a cartel in its own right.

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico – Gunmen spraying automatic weapons fire killed seven people at a park that had been built as an anti-violence measure in the besieged border city of Ciudad Juarez, authorities said Monday.

Chihuahua state prosecutors' spokesman Carlos Gonzalez said the assailants arrived at the park in the Francisco I. Madero neighborhood and opened fire Sunday afternoon. Four people, including a 12-year-old girl, were hospitalized in critical condition, and one later died of his wounds.

Investigators found 180 bullet casings from the sort of assault weapons typically used by drug gangs, Gonzalez said, though they had not yet identified the perpetrators or a motive.

The park was inaugurated four months ago as part of a government program called Todos Somos Juarez, or We're All Juarez, to reduce violence and improve life for the city's 1.3 million residents.

MEXICO CITY – The Mexican government vowed Tuesday not to back down in its fight against La Familia drug cartel, despite mysterious banners proclaiming that the brutal gang has dissolved itself.

Lawmakers and drug war experts expressed skepticism about the banners, saying the message could be a ploy to divert the focus of federal security forces away from the cartel, known for beheadings and bold attacks on police and soldiers.

Alejandro Poire, the federal government's security spokesman, "there would be no truce" with La Familia. He did not comment directly on the banners but said La Familia has been weakened since its leader Nazario Moreno was killed in a gunbattle with police last month.

"What is clear is that this criminal organization is weakened and in retreat," Poire said at a news conference.

The banners claiming "La Familia is completely dissolved" appeared Monday on bridges in western Michoacan state, the cartel's stronghold.

MONTERREY, Mexico – The police chief and all 38 police officers of a northeastern Mexican town have quit following a series of drug cartel attacks, including the decapitation of two of their colleagues.

Soldiers, state and federal police had been deployed to patrol General Teran, a town along a notorious drug-smuggling route to the U.S. border, said Mayor Ramon Villagomez.

The police quit after the discovery Wednesday of the mutilated bodies of two officers who had been kidnapped by gunmen two days earlier.

The killings followed three attacks on the police headquarters since December. Gunmen hurled grenades and sprayed the building with machine-gun fire.

Villagomez said another police officer has been missing for weeks in the town of 14,500 people southwest of the industrial city of Monterrey.