Mexico's Drug War - Page 48

Enrique Peña Nieto assumed the presidency of Mexico a year ago Sunday, vowing to refocus his country’s war on drugs and put an end to the violence that had led to the killing of some 60,000 people in six years and inflicted a significant hit on Mexico’s $12 billion-a-year tourism industry.

Peña Nieto’s strategy has been to focus on public safety instead of trying to drive the drug traffickers out of business. His predecessor, Felipe Calderón, tried to use the military to defeat the cartels. Peña Nieto called for the establishment of a 40,000-member national police force that would crack down on violence and take the lead in the war on drugs from Mexico’s security forces, which have long been vulnerable to cartel infiltration and corruption. He also promised to work more closely with U.S. drug authorities.

One year later, he hasn’t done either. Plans for the national police force have been scaled back to just 5,000 officers. And while under Calderon, U.S. spy planes could fly over Mexican air space to gather intelligence, and unarmed drones flew from U.S. bases to support Mexican drug raids, under Peña Nieto these and other cooperative ventures must be channeled through the Mexican Interior Ministry, a move that is effectively “limiting U.S. involvement in some law enforcement and intelligence operations,” according to a June 2013 Congressional Research Service report.

The results seem mixed.

Philippine anti-drug police said on Thursday they had arrested three people connected to Mexico's feared Sinaloa drug cartel while they were storing narcotics.

The two Filipinos and one Filipino-Chinese were arrested in a raid on Wednesday on a fighting cock farm in Lipa City, nearly 50 miles south of Manila, after weeks of intelligence operations by local and U.S. anti-narcotics personnel.

Seized in the raid were 185 pounds of methamphetamine hydrochloride, popularly known as "ice" or "shabu," as well as two firearms, said police officials.

However the actual members of the Mexican cartel were not there during the raid, said Senior Superintendent Bartolome Tobias, head of a drugs task force.

"We have previously had reports that the Mexicans are here and ... this is the first time we have confirmed that indeed, the Mexicans are already here," he told reporters.

Tobias did not say how they knew the Sinaloa cartel was involved

He said a Filipino-American named Gary Torres and two Mexicans known as "Jaime" and "Joey" were being sought in connection with the seized drugs.

It was not clear when the Mexican cartel would have entered the Philippines. The national police chief, Director-General Alan Purisima, said the country's strategic location and the difficulty of guarding the archipelago's maritime borders made it easy to infiltrate.

Hundreds of armed vigilantes stormed a Mexican town and arrested federal police in the latest bloody battle between residents, criminal gangs, and the police locals say are in league with the gang members.

Around 600 members of local 'autodefensas', or self-defence groups, stormed Paracuaro in the troubled Michoacan state yesterday in an attempt to seize control of the town back from the feared Caballeros Templarios (Knights Templar) drug cartel.

The battle was the latest in a long-running war between the drugs gang in Mexico's south-west and local residents who say state and federal police are not protecting them.

ARMED vigilantes have seized a drug cartel bastion in western Mexico, sparking a shootout between the two groups.

There were no immediate reports of casualties following Sunday's gunfight in Nueva Italia between the self-defence forces and the Knights Templar gang in Michoacan state, a senior state government official said on condition of anonymity.

On its Facebook page, the Tepalcatepec vigilante force said about 100 pick-up trucks entered Nueva Italia and a "light confrontation took place at the entrance, everything is fine".

The growing civilian militia movement, which emerged in Michoacan nearly a year ago, has seized more communities in recent weeks in their bid to oust the Templars from the state.

The militias have now surrounded Apatzingan, a city of 123,000 people considered the key stronghold of the Knights Templar in Michoacan's lime- and avocado-growing region known as Tierra Caliente, or Hot Country.

Armed vigilantes who have taken control of territory in lawless Michoacan could turn into the very sort of organized crime forces they're fighting, a Mexican official assigned to clean up the violence-wracked state said Thursday.

Alfredo Castillo, the federal government's new envoy to coordinate security and development in the state, said the Knights Templar cartel that the vigilantes are battling formed under a different name about 10 years ago with the same mission: to fight an incursion by the Zetas cartel.

"You can start with a genuine cause, but when you start taking control, making decisions and feeling authority ... you run the risk of getting to that point," Castillo told MVS radio.

Estanislao Beltran, spokesman for the self-defense groups, said the mission is to kick out the cartel, not become one.

To make the point, about 200 vigilante supporters gathered in Tancitaro's town square Thursday for a symbolic return of 25 avocado orchards that had been seized by the cartel, which started in drug trafficking and expanded into extortion and total economic control of the areas it dominated.

Such events are bolstering the strength and popularity of the vigilantes even as the government demands they disarm.

On January 18 2014 09:10 SCST wrote:
Thought I'd chime in here . . . .the vast majority of the country is not affected by this drug war. Most people have never seen any violence or know anyone who was involved.

It is true that there is an armed vigilante group of 200 people in Michoacan. But consider there are also 120,000,000+ people living in Mexico. Most of us never see or experience this kind of thing. It would be like the daily occurrences a major U.S. cities ghetto making top news. Those events don't make the news though, because the average Joe would never venture into those areas and doesn't care what happens to people living in those conditions. It's no different here.

I just wanted to make that clear. Not to diminish what's happening, but to give some perspective to people who are continually shitting their pants over this. I live a happy life in Mexico. It's not Syria. There is no overt war taking place. I live in a big city and have never seen an act of violence in all my time here. Not once.

On January 18 2014 09:14 Anesthetic wrote:


While that is true you also cannot say that certain areas are having their way of life completely destroyed. I have family in Guerrero that I talk to that tell me of how they simply are not safe and shootouts are very frequent there, I even have a cousin who was kidnapped in Acapulco. There was also a situation in the city of Acapulco where the Cartels demanded that the teachers of every school give their Christmas bonuses to them or they would start killing a child from every school. Thats pretty harsh man.

As I said, the Mexican Media does not paint a true picture of the situation down there, so its hard to gauge just how bad the situation is.

On January 18 2014 09:29 SCST wrote:


I don't doubt that these things are happening. Mexico has a high corruption index - I don't trust political leaders or the media whatsoever. There are definitely areas in Mexico that are being destroyed.

I only posted that to give some perspective on the situation. Especially to people in the United States. When statistics are examined, it's important to note that the ratio of violence per population density is currently higher than the United States, but isn't so much higher that the average person would notice any difference between the two countries. The chance of a person experiencing violence in either country is infinitesimal from a statistical standpoint.

Honestly, the fact that tourists from the United States are avoiding Mexico is doing far more damage to the country than the drug war itself. The media in the U.S. is sensationalizing things to the point that it's causing significant damage to this countries economy. In contrast, European tourism hasn't suffered at all. The media in Europe is not using scare tactics against it's citizens regarding travel to Mexico.

Also, I just vacationed in Acapulco two months ago. I had a great time, never saw or experienced any violence. All of the hotels were packed with tourists from Europe and other parts of Mexico. I was probably the only American there. I never felt unsafe for even a moment.

Mexican vigilante militias battling drug traffickers in the restive state of Michoacan said Thursday they had returned several hundred acres of land seized from villagers by the Knights Templar cartel.

The symbolic handover of some 654 acres, which include avocado and lemon orchards, took place in the village square of Tancitaro in the Michoacan highlands.

"Citizens, businessmen, farmers, people in the communities are bewildered by these narcos. Let's get them out of our land," militia leader Estanislao Beltran told Agence France-Presse.

Civilians first took up arms last February to oust the Knights Templar from the region, saying local police were either colluding with gangs or unable to deal with the violence and extortion rackets.

Since then, government officials have alleged that at least some civilian militias were backed by cartels, with critics noting that they used unlawful assault rifles that gangs usually own.

Michoacan, where much of the population lives in poverty, has become the most pressing security issue facing Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, who inherited a bloody war on drugs from his predecessor, Felipe Calderon, in 2012 that has left more than 77,000 people dead since it was launched in 2006.

Mexico's federal police and army troops are currently waging a major operation aimed at wresting back control of Michoacan from the Knights Templar cartel.

On January 18 2014 09:10 SCST wrote:
Thought I'd chime in here . . . .the vast majority of the country is not affected by this drug war. Most people have never seen any violence or know anyone who was involved.

It is true that there is an armed vigilante group of 200 people in Michoacan. But consider there are also 120,000,000+ people living in Mexico. Most of us never see or experience this kind of thing. It would be like the daily occurrences a major U.S. cities ghetto making top news. Those events don't make the news though, because the average Joe would never venture into those areas and doesn't care what happens to people living in those conditions. It's no different here.

I just wanted to make that clear. Not to diminish what's happening, but to give some perspective to people who are continually shitting their pants over this. I live a happy life in Mexico. It's not Syria. There is no overt war taking place. I live in a big city and have never seen an act of violence in all my time here. Not once.

After a week of fighting between civilian militias, drug traffickers and federal forces, there is a tense calm in the western Mexico state of Michoacan.

It's been the site of clashes between civilian militias defending themselves from ruthless drug traffickers, and federal forces trying to regain control.

For now, businesses are slowly reopening, school will restart on Monday, and the militias who took up arms have put down their weapons. It's unclear how long this fragile peace will last.

About 20 men stand guard at the main intersection on the road into the Michoacan town of Nueva Italia. Some are young, some old. A few wear T-shirts identifying them as the civilian militia — or self-defense patrols, as they call themselves.

There are no arms in sight, except for a pistol one young man has strapped to his belt.

All say they've had run-ins with the Knights Templar. That's the drug cartel that rules this region, which is known for its limes, avocados and tempestuous residents. The area also has a reputation for rebellion.

Joel Gutierrez says residents here are sick of the cartel kidnapping, murdering and stealing.

"That's why we took up arms," says Gutierrez, 19. "The local and state police did nothing to protect us."

MEXICO CITY (AP) — A Mexican government official says federal forces have detained three members of the Knight Templar drug cartel, including one he describes as a leader who was behind a lot of the bloodshed in the state.

National Public Safety System secretary Monte Rubido said Sunday that 37-year-old Jesus Vazquez Macias was detained along with two other men as part of the strategy to bring security back to Michoacan state.

At a recent Washington power point presentation, a Mexican security analyst put up a slide reading: How Do You Say Quagmire in Spanish?

The answer: Michoacan.

If any one place symbolizes the continuing frustration facing the Mexican government dealing with drug gangs, it is this western state of 4.3 million, which might have suffered as many as 1,000 homicides in the past year. The fight there is not merely between law enforcement and criminal gangs but with the added element of locally organized and increasingly well-armed vigilantes. The violence has reached such a point that the central government is taking over law and order responsibility from local and state authorities.

In December 2012, a new Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto took office, promising a focus on reducing violence in a country riven by tens of thousands of killings in a five year war against drug cartels waged by his predecessor Felipe Calderon.

An assessment of Pena Nieto's new focus came from Alejandro Hope, director of Security Policy at the Mexican Institute for Competitiveness (IMCO). Speaking to an overflow auditorium at Washington's Woodrow Wilson Center, Hope headlined his presentation: "Not Quite at War, Not Quite at Peace".

The homicide rate has declined from its May 2011 peak and from 22,856 that entire year to 19,726 in 2013. The totals are still way above their level of 2007, before Calderon opened his campaign against the cartels. But even those numbers are a bit deceptive, Hope added, with substantial drops in the death tolls in Ciudad Juarez and Monterrey, where civil society and business have assumed a larger role in crime prevention but not much change in other states.

While Pena Nieto and his Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) government have made some changes in Calderon's strategy, especially centralizing both national authority and intelligence cooperation with the United States, many elements remain the same, Hope said. Spending on security keeps growing, cartel kingpins are still top targets and Mexican ministries are still dealing with the U.S. government, albeit with more flowing through the Interior Ministry. And Pena Nieto's plan to create a 40,000-strong National Gendarmerie has been pretty well stymied by opposition from the military, whose role in the drug fight remains a constitutional issue for the country.

The basic assessment, Hope said, is that the situation is better than in 2011, "but we are clearly not out of the woods."

A new study suggests that Mexico's drug cartels could take big hits to their pocketbooks if ballot initiatives to legalize marijuana in parts of the United States are approved by voters, but the overall effect on the country's security situation would likely be limited.

The study (.pdf), released on October 31 by the Mexican Institute of Competitiveness (IMCO), found that Mexican drug cartels could see their revenue drop by as much as 30 percent across the board if current ballot initiatives on marijuana legalization in three states are passed.

On November 6, residents of Colorado, Oregon and Washington state will vote on measures that will allow adults to grow, sell and possess small amounts of marijuana for recreational use. While opinion polls in Oregon show that the referendum is unlikely to be approved there, both Colorado and Washington stand a chance of passing theirs.

Using a statistical model, IMCO researchers estimated the legalized price of marijuana produced in Oregon, Washington and Colorado based on local demand. They then assumed that some of the drug will be smuggled into other states, and that marijuana purchasers in the country would be more likely to choose domestic marijuana over Mexican marijuana because of its lower price.

MEXICO CITY — Boots on the ground was the easy part.

Last week, Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto sent a massive surge of military and federal police to embattled Michoacan state. The federal forces currently patrolling its cities, highways and backroads have brought a tenuous peace to a region that had faced a potential showdown between the dominant Knights Templar drug cartel and armed vigilante militias that emerged to drive the cartel off.

Now Peña Nieto must find a long-term solution for the troubled area known as Tierra Caliente, or Hot Land, where years of corruption and neglect — and the subsequent tyranny imposed by criminals — have eroded faith in government authority at all levels, allowing civil society to all but unravel.

For Peña Nieto, who took office 13 months ago, the search for an enduring solution is likely to be one of the most complex challenges of his six-year term. The Knights Templar, a group deeply embedded in the commerce and culture of this swath of southwestern Mexico, will have to be rooted out. The citizen militias will need to be convinced to lay down their own arms. Municipal governments and police forces corrupted by the cartel must be reconstructed from scratch. And that crucial, if impalpable, ingredient that Mexicans call the tejido social — the social fabric — must be repaired.

Any success must take place in a state flooded with assault rifles, ancient clannishness and deep resentments. "It's going to be a very complicated process," said Raul Benitez, a security expert at the National Autonomous University of Mexico.

Mexico essentially legalized the country's growing "self-defense" groups Monday, while also announcing that security forces had captured one of the four top leaders of the Knights Templar drug cartel, which the vigilante groups have been fighting for the last year.

The government said it had reached an agreement with vigilante leaders to incorporate the armed civilian groups into old and largely forgotten quasi-military units called the Rural Defense Corps. Vigilante groups estimate their numbers at 20,000.

The twin announcements may help the administration of President Enrique Pena Nieto find a way out of an embarrassing situation in the western state of Michoacan, where vigilantes began rising up last February against the Knights Templar reign of terror and extortion after police and troops failed to stop the abuses.

"The self-defense forces will become institutionalized, when they are integrated into the Rural Defense Corps," the Interior Department said in a statement. Police and soldiers already largely tolerate, and in some cases even work with, the vigilantes, many of them armed with assault rifles that civilians are not allowed to carry.

Vigilante leaders will have to submit a list of their members to the Defense Department, and the army will apparently oversee the groups, which the government said "will be temporary." They will be allowed to keep their weapons as long as they register them with the army.