Mexico's Drug War - Page 39

After working with US intelligence for months, the Mexican navy said it believed it had nabbed a big prize in a known Guadalajara narco-haven: the son of Mexico's top fugitive drug lord.

But it turned out they got the wrong man.

The man arrested on Thursday as the presumed son of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman is really Felix Beltran Leon, 23, and not Alfredo Guzman Salazar, as the Mexican navy had presented him, the attorney general's office said on Friday.

The stocky, baby-faced suspect had been presented as the son of Guzman, the chief of the Sinaloa Cartel, and a navy official described him as a rising operator in the international drug trafficking organisation.

But Beltran Leon's wife, Karla Pacheco, said he is the father of a toddler and works with his mother-in-law at a used car dealership.

The attorney general's office said that "necessary tests" had proved he was not the drug lord's son, but said he would remain under investigation for the guns and money found during his arrest.

"There is total confusion," said Beltran Leon's lawyer Veronica Guerrero,"... which is having a serious effect on their personal and family situation."

MEXICO CITY — Three federal police officers were killed in a chaotic shootout in Mexico City's busy international airport when they tried to arrest drug suspects, officials and witnesses said.

The shooting erupted at a crowded food court at around 8:50 am (1350 GMT) Monday, sending panicked travelers diving for cover and racing to hide in bathrooms.

Mexico has been gripped by a wave of drug killings in recent years but the gang violence has mainly been confined to areas along the US border and major ports. There have been no attacks inside the airport in recent memory.

Federal Police said late Monday that the suspects appeared to be airport police who were part of a drug trafficking ring involving corrupt officials, adding that the men had opened fire in order to evade capture.

"Finding themselves surrounded," the alleged traffickers "opened fire with their weapons against the federal police," the Public Security ministry said.

Enrique Pena Nieto, the frontrunner in Mexico’s presidential race, has a wide lead over his rivals ahead of Sunday’s elections, according to the most recent opinion polls.

Newspaper El Universal conducted the final voter survey on Wednesday that showed Pena Nieto rising 4.2 percentage points to 41.2 per cent from a poll published on June 18.

A victory for Pena Nieto would see a return to power of the opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which ruled Mexico for most of the last century.

The poll gave him a 17.4-point lead over Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the leftist former Mexico City mayor and 2006 runner-up, who rose 0.3 percentage points to 23.8 per cent, the survey showed.

Josefina Vazquez Mota, candidate of the ruling National Action Party (PAN), trailed in third place with 20.6 per cent, a drop of a 0.8 percentage point from the previous survey.

Vazquez Mota is seeking to become Mexico's first woman president.

Two other polls published on Wednesday, which marks the final day of campaigning, gave the PRI candidate a lead of between 10 to 16 points over Lopez Obrador.

On June 28 2012 10:24 {CC}StealthBlue wrote:
Affects the Drug War in Mexico, this could have an impact on the U.S. as well:



Source

EDIT: In fact why isn't there a Mexican elections thread?

On June 28 2012 14:40 andReslic wrote:

It's less than one week from the elections, I can't wait to see all the shitstorm that is coming this july 1st, as a resident from mexico, you can also check twitter and see all the things people say from every candidate.

Back in the thread, things are getting worse in my city (chihuahua)
everytime i see the newspaper, theres at least 2-3 articles saying that people got killed, every day the first page is about people getting killed, its sad because its all i see, i can bring on some pics of them.

On June 22 2012 08:45 DamnCats wrote:
You know your culture is fucked up when a significant majority of the population is in favor of having the responsibility of owning tubes of metal that shoot out little pieces of metal for the sole motive of killing living things but not in favor of having the responsibility of deciding what plants to put in their own bodies. Especially since 90% of these people can't fucking function without caffeine*. Such an enormous joke.

edit: *or go a single week without getting wasted on the single worst drug ever, alcohol.

While that sounds preposterous to most of us, including (one assumes) to most critics of the president, there is a place where the levelheaded believe what the anti-government fringe in the United States believes, and where Fast and Furious is a constant topic of conversation -- Mexico. Issa's investigation is a mainstay of news coverage there. Go on the comment boards of Mexican newspapers such as La Prensa or magazines such as Proceso, and you'll find that readers mention Fast and Furious, in conspiratorial tones, at every chance.

This spring, I was in Culiacán, home to the Sinaloa cartel and some of the worst recent violence in Mexico. Beginning in 2007, just as Project Gunrunner was getting started, the cartel's leader, Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán Loera, was challenged for supremacy by a gang from the east, Los Zetas, and by the Beltrán-Leyvas, a quartet of murderous brothers who had once worked for Chapo. Gun battles broke out in the plazas and streets of Culiacán on a daily basis. Heads rolled, literally, a lot of them.

On June 29 2012 01:26 CaptainCrush wrote:


This is the single most closed-minded and derailing post in this thread. Take your elitest hippy-douchebag comments elsewhere, if you want to actually talk about the drug war though, please feel free to try again.

On June 29 2012 04:16 MethodSC wrote:


Not to state the obvious or anything, but there would be no drug war if there was no drug prohibition. People really need to think about that.

On June 29 2012 04:22 andReslic wrote:

Allow drugs, lot of people dying from overdose, people killing just for fun under the effects of drugs.
I don't know how you think thats a good idea.

On June 29 2012 04:16 MethodSC wrote:


Not to state the obvious or anything, but there would be no drug war if there was no drug prohibition. People really need to think about that.

On June 29 2012 05:59 craz3d wrote:
Legalizing drugs wouldn't solve the problem here. The problem is that producing and selling drugs is a very profitable business. There would still be violence between rival factions vying for control of the drug trade in Latin American countries even if the drugs themselves are legal in the West.

The question is whether we would rather have big-Pharma companies producing and selling these drugs or the same shady types that are on top of the business now.

Another interesting question is whether we'd save any money if there was no war on drugs. Would the number of users and thus overdoses and the need for rehab programs increase? If the number of users doesn't dramatically increase then money will be saved; if however it does increase, then the money spent on the war on drugs will be straight swapped into medical aid for overdoses and rehab programs.

On June 29 2012 05:28 cydial wrote:


Yes because allowing people to take hard drugs, OD or simply ruin their lives and those around them financially and physically is also a better extreme.

"People really need to think about that."

You really think that these, "People" havn't thought about this? Oh yes but you, yes, you the lone ranger of the internet, has seen through all the lies and disinformation and you alone know what's truly, "The truth."

Fortunately, unlike you people in the real world realize that this problem has no easy solution.