From Michoacán to Guerrero, the Narco State Posted: 23 Oct 2014 05:33 AM PDT
 | Veracruz: Students from the University of Veracruz join the protest for the Ayotzinapa case |
The Narco State is one of the most recent meanings to define the structure where organized crime has become the government and the politicians, governors, and drug traffickers are all the same. It isn’t about the infiltration or the corruption, but of the symbiosis of these last two figures in which all of the power is concentrated and they function to control a territory with the laws of violence and terror.
This is what has happened more clearly in Michoacán and Guerrero than in other states in the last decade, under the apathy of governors and political parties who don’t care about the conditions of violence and the safety of the population that suffers havoc caused by an unconventional war, but only care about staying in power at all costs.
For decades, we have witnessed the merger or symbiosis between politicians and drug traffickers with the cases of former governors of Quintana Roo, Mario Villanueva Madrid; Tamaulipas, Tomás Yarrington; Morelos, Sergio Estrada Cajigal, and long before with Enrique Álvarez del Castillo in Jalisco or Víctor Manuel Tinoco in Michoacán.
Also with generals Jesús Gutiérrez Rebollo, Ricardo Escorcia, Cuauhtémoc Antúnez Pérez, head of the 7th Military Region in Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Chiapas; Juan Manuel Rico Gámez, Commander of the 35th Military Zone based in Chilpancingo, Guerrero; Roberto Aguilera, retired Major General and head of the Narcotics Intelligence Center (CIAN) during the administration of Vicente Fox; Luis Rodríguez Bucio, head of CIAN during the early presidency of Felipe Calderón and former commander of the 64th Military Garrison in Cancún, Quintana Roo, and Brigadier General Moisés García Ochoa, former director of the Secretariat of National Defense (SEDENA).
No legislators and mayors escape such as the PRD representative Julio César Godoy Toscano, who is currently a fugitive; the mayor of Ixtapan de la Sal, Ignacio Ávila Navarrete; the PRI mayor of Apatzingán Uriel Chávez Mendoza; Aldo Macías Alejandres (PRI-PVEM), the Major of Uruapan; Gildardo Barrera (PRI), the major of Churumuco; Arquímides Oseguera (PRD), of Lázaro Cárdenas; Martín Arredondo (PAN), of Jacona; Jesús Infante (PAN), of Ecuandureo; Juan Hernández (PRI), of Aquila; Jesús Rivera (PRI), of Tumbiscatío; Rosa Hilda Abascal (PAN), of Zamora, and Elías Álvarez Hernández, former Secretary of Public Security of the state of Michoacán.
The list goes on, and it’s long. The Narco State was forming for years in an environment of corruption, impunity and injustice; cultivated by governors of all parties to the levels we have today with its terrible consequences such as the 2010 San Fernando Massacre; the executions in Tlatlaya; or the recent disappearances of the normalistas of Ayotzinapa.
In the Narco State, the new group in power, the narco-politicians, control territory to establish their own empire of taxation, extortions, and kidnappings; its own economy with laws of the global market, with partners from other groups in other countries who not only sell drugs, but other agricultural products such as precious metals, minerals, and hydrocarbons. Its own law.
That’s what we clearly see in Michoacán and Guerrero, the formation of the Narco State, where the two governors, Ángel Aguirre Rivero and Fausto Vallejo (former governor), have been accused of receiving money for their campaigns by organized crime and then allowing criminal gangs to rule and control the territory above everyone, and with the collusion of all other authorities.
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Tijuana: Businessman attempts to cross 10 kilos Posted: 22 Oct 2014 09:50 PM PDT Acclaimed Tijuana businessman arrested with 10 kilos
Manuel Almada Gaxiola, 44, a prominent Tijuana businessman, was stopped by US Customs, (ICE) at the San Ysidro point of entry, on October 16th, 2014. He was driving a red Dodge Ram Truck, in which was allegedly concealed 10 kilos of cocaine.
Gaxiola, and his son, own and operate, by most admissions, a successful glass company in Tijuana. He has not been seen or heard from since the day he was stopped at the border, fueling speculation he had been kidnapped. It is likely he has been in federal custody in San Diego, at the Metropolitan Correctional Center, temporary custody for defendants awaiting trial, and not yet sentenced.
Protocol for federal cases involving smuggling attempts through the international border, is dependent upon the the size and scope of the matter. It is likely without cooperation with authorities that Gaxiola would be released anytime soon, given the amount of cocaine in his vehicle. It is also likely Gaxiola, as many failed smugglers do, is claim he was under duress, or threat.
In Tijuana, and across the border, there are cases of 'blind mule' smuggling, where unknowing and unwitting mules have drugs secretly attached to their car, which are covertly removed after the crossing. The recorded cases are usually pounds qualities of marijuana, which costs roughly $150 a kilo in the Sinaloa mountains, and 300-500 upon entry to the US, depending upon quality. 10 kilos carries a value of between 25-28k after the cross, making it an easy 200k worth of product.  | | Eugenio Velazquez, Tijuana architect |
This would likely not be a load entrusted to a 'blind mule', but likely a result of an arrangement between the businessman and drug smugglers, reached for financial reasons, or more manipulative ones. Businessmen such as Gaxiola are assets to smugglers because they cross the border often, and are considered 'clean' some even possessing Sentri passes, allowing for a cross in 15 minutes, without inspection. It is unknown if Gaxiloa possessed one at this time.
Nearly 2 years ago, in December 2012, Eugenio Velazquez, a prominent architect in Tijuana was sentenced in San Diego Federal court to 1 year imprisonment, 6 months to be served in a halfway house, for attempted to cross about 5 kilos of cocaine. In court filings and briefs presented to the judge, by his high priced, federal defense attorney, Jeremy Warren, Velazquez outlined a story of deception, friendship, and betrayal.
 | | Packed for smuggling |
He was contracted to do some design work on a ranch in Tijuana, several weeks into the job he observed suspicious individuals following him, and his client offered to provide security, on the job, and to and from work. In Tijuana, where brutal kidnappings are common, and few are safe, Velazquez accepted. Months later, the client informed him his bill was past due. 40,000k for the bodyguards and protection, or he could cross the cocaine, and the debt would be forgiven. He and his family would be killed, in any other version of the proposition.
Not having the money, and being the loser of a coin toss, between him and a associate, Velasquez drove the kilos up to the inspection point, on his wife's birthday, in their minivan, where the smugglers had concealed the drugs. Velazquez, as will Gaxiola, faced a mandatory minimum of a 10 year sentence, but the judged ruled in favor of leniency, based on his clean record, and likely his cooperation with federal prosecutors, allowed for a much lower sentence.
If the story of Gaxiola follows the same trajectory as Velasquez, he will be released on a small bond, and receive a downward departure for his cooperation. It's a murky world of promises, deceit, greed, and for some death, and tan jumpsuits in federal prison.
Sources: AFN Tijuana, Ut San Diego, Huffington Post
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Normalistas: Record Breaking March in Mexico City Posted: 22 Oct 2014 09:33 PM PDT Chivis Martinez for Borderland Beat
Supporters of the missing normalistas lead a massive march to the angel of Independence at the Zocalo, the main plaza of Mexico city.
Leading the march were the families, and colleagues of the 43 students missing since the face an attack by police in September.
This is the second massive march in Mexico City in the past two weeks. Leading, the families held a banner and image posters representing each of the missing student.
Supporters are demanding that Guerrero and federal authorities find the location of the victims.
Some are calling the march, “record breaking numbers”, journalist Ioan Grillo, attended the march and reports that the massive march was far greater than reported in the press. He estimates more than 100k.
Father Alejandro Solalinde, was among the attendees, who this week revealed that, according to testimony given to him, students were incinerated, some dead, some alive and some wounded but alive when burned. The activist Catholic priest internationally recognized for his work with migrants, and the impoverished, and civil rights causes confirmed that tomorrow at noon he will be go to the Attorney General's Office (PGR) to give his statement
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Iguala: "We've found about 300 bodies in two years" Posted: 22 Oct 2014 08:07 PM PDT Borderland Beat Chivis and Lala
The story that began on September 26th, with the attack on the buses carrying the normalistas and one bus with a futbol team, took time but eventually became a huge global story. But this story is not the big story and journalists should not be satisfied with this event and not dig further.
This reporter went back 6 months in Iguala regional newspapers hunting for stories about fosas. I restricted my search for 6 months and only in the area where the recent fosas were found. In April and August I posted articles of two fosas found, one had 28, the other 32 bodies. The total for 6 months was over 100 bodies. 100 bodies in and near a town with just over 100k population. If there were 100 bodies discovered, many times that figure are yet to be found. The photo above is from one of those discoveries.
The government could and should bite the bullet and ask for assistance of countries with technology and skilled personel to search for bodies. People of Iguala report that the killings have been transpiring for over 4 years Below is a translation by Lala MilenioInhabitants of Las Parotas, the closest community to the area where the clandestine mass graves were found, tell us how they live.
Life in las Parotas, the town closest to the clandestine graves in the vicinity of Iguala. The peasant village of thirty shacks built between small fields in the foothills of the mountains where an unknown number of human remains were found. Las Parotas and its gigantic clandestine cemeteries in the middle of thick vegetation: "Here, to tell you the truth, in all these hills we have found about 300 bodies in the last two years," says a commander of the Guerrero Ministerial Police, while smoking a cigarette. He guards the paths leading to the crime scene.
But, how is life for the rural families living in the vicinity? Some of the settlers, fearful, tell stories like this...
A mother and her two daughters chatting outside their humble home. The oldest and more vivacious daughter speaks first, she is in her twenties, dressed like an urban girl rather than a young peasant woman:
"At night and in the morning we used to hear cars heading up. Armored cars (with tinted windows). We thought it was people going to check their fields, we didn't think they were coming to throw dead people. At night we would hear shootings. Since there are deer up there, we thought it was hunters. But it wasn´t deer. The blasts could be heard and, yes, we were scared, but bah... - makes a dismissive gesture."
The mother reveals:
"It didn´t happen daily, just now and then." We thought they were coming for the deer, because at night they come down to drink water. It is ugly to live close to where they bury the dead, but we have nowhere else to go. Here a bit further they threw a dead body. Two years ago some human bones were found. And up in the hills, clandestine graves. We want peace already.
A mother of three children who play all around, among ducks, chickens and goats, lets us inside her home. One of the children hangs two rattlesnake skins from a nail on the wall. They grind the insides of snakes to feed their cows. So they give better milk. The woman tells us:
"We sometimes hear the shots, but not always because I turn on my music, the dogs bark and I fall asleep. They are not from here, they come from elsewhere, and here they make their mess. I close my door and that's it. Six months ago they came from Iguala following a guy at five am. A boy went outside, he had no bathroom inside his home, and those who were following the other guy thought it was him and shot him. Yes, it is dangerous. And then down there they threw a body and buried it. The police said that the man was all tattooed.
How did they know that, if they were yet to retrieve the body?
They (the police) were the same ones who came to throw it. My children are afraid of the police. When the trucks pass by my husband says to me: ' whatever you see or hear, don´t come out of the house. Do not go out, they are throwing them (bodies), and they will shoot you to keep you silent '.
So, yes, the mere truth, yes, we live in fear. And then right there, where that rancho is, a band came about a year ago. And from here they were removing them, the dead bodies, to take them up there (to the hills where the graves are). My husband said to me: ' Don´t even think in talking, don't talk, because if you do they will come for us '.
All day they were up and down. When they were caught, we tored down the house they had put up. They kept their abductees there. Young men. Three months ago some local men went up there to fetch firewood (to the area where the graves were found), but they weren´t allowed to go up there. The first and the second time they were warned not to go there again, and the third time they were beaten up badly so they wouldn´t go there again.
These men were going to hunt deer, but the two legged kind", the woman giggles nervously.
His son, who is a preteen, wants to talk. He says:
"They kept them also in the caves up in the hills. There are pots, cans of beans, fish (tuna) in there. They beat them. There are ropes hanging too (where the kidnapped people were tied, the boy presumes). You can see blood on the floor. Spread all over (he moves the hands pointing out a large portion of the soil). You can see up there where they were thrown. We don´t go there anymore". The mother chides him and insists him to not go to the hill anymore.
Life in las Parotas, there, at the foot of the hills with clandestine graves and caves of blood...
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Iguala Mayor and Wife Allegedly Behind Dissapearance of Student Posted: 22 Oct 2014 08:06 PM PDT The Attorney General of Mexico, Jesús Murillo Karam, announced today that warrants for the arrest of the fugitive mayor of Iguala, Guerrero, José Luis Abarca Velázquez, and his wife, Maria de los Angeles Pineda, have been issued as they were likely the masterminds of the disappearance of 43 students on September 26.
Sidronio Casarrubias Salgado, the leader of Guerreros Unidos who was arrested on October 16, confirmed the rumor that the mayor and his wife had commanded two municipal police officers to stop the students from arriving at a speech to be given by Maria. Acting upon those orders, the police officers rounded up the students and turned them over to members of Guerreros Unidos, whom, fearing that they were members of their enemies, Los Rojos, summarily executed them. Sidronio claims to have not ordered the killings, but admitted that he did not act to prevent it when consulted.  |
CDG: 19 Gunmen Killed in Tamaulipas Clashes Posted: 22 Oct 2014 04:07 PM PDT Borderland Beat posted by Computer JA
A series of clashes in Tamaulipas left 19 alleged Gulf Cartel members killed. The incident occurred in the municipalities of Matamoros and Rio Bravo, where armed civilians clashed with members of the Ministry of Defence, Navy Department and Federal Police.
The first incident took place in the ejido Lucio Blanco, in Matamoros, where officers of the Federal Police were attacked by gunmen. In that incident, the federal forces killed three offenders and secured three assault rifles, 16 stocked chargers, two charger carriers, four ballistic vests, and a pickup truck reported as stolen.
In the town Nuevo Progreso, Rio Bravo, the second confrontation between elements of the Navy and several armed civilians originated and resulted in the death of nine armed civilians. The Navy secured nine assault rifles, several rounds of ammunition and two vehicles (one of them was armored).
The third incident occurred at 14:00 pm between the municipalities of Matamoros and Rio Bravo, where the Mexican Army were attacked by armed civilians. To repel aggression, they shot down seven gunmen and seized seven assault rifles, two high caliber Barrett rifles, and seven vehicles.
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El Recodo: Aldo Sarabia's body found, wife and alledged boyfriend arrested Posted: 22 Oct 2014 08:44 PM PDT Alma Delia Chavez Guerrero, the wife of Aldo Sarabia, and and Alfredo Yahir Sandoval, have been arrested, as suspects in the murder. The reports say there was a love triangle involving the two men and Sarabia's wife.
Aldo Sarabia, a member of fabled Mexican Banda El Recodo de Don Cruz Lizárraga, who had been missing since Oct. 13, has been found dead on a rural road in Mazatlan, Mexico. News reports from Mexico indicated that he had been beaten and shot in the neck.
Authorities report that Chavez Guerrero, took Sarabia out on Octomber 13th on the pretense of dining at a seafood restaurant, but in reality he was taken to his murderer, Yahir Sandoval. “He was our partner and inspiration in a thousand battles and all those moments we shared will live in the heart of those who knew him,” reads a statement released today by El Recodo on Twitter.
"Aldo Sarabia García was a great friend and family man. A person with a great sense of humor, a musician who mastered harmony and percussion and a human being of exceptional qualities.”
Sarabia was last seen Oct. 12, after the group played a show in San Jose, CA, and returned to Mazatlan. “Once everybody gets home, everyone gets on with their lives and with their families,” said Poncho Lizarraga in an interview. “But on Tuesday, my cousin asked me to call Aldo because he hadn’t heard from him at all.”
Sarabia was a trumpet player with El Recodo, the 18-man troupe that’s long been referred to as “the mother of all bands.” Those “bands” are the traditional banda sinaloense -- or band from the state of Sinaloa -- which are fully acoustic and brass and percussion-based. Although today’s Mexican music landscape is chock-full of bandas, El Recodo led the pack as the first such group with commercial appeal, the first group to modernize the banda sound, the first banda to experiment with genres like pop and tropical and the first banda to gain international recognition.
"In the history of El Recodo, we have never been threatened or intimidated anywhere and not anywhere inside Mexico,” bandleader Poncho Lizárraga told Diario Basta in Mexico yesterday, before the body was found. “On the contrary, we have already received unwavering support and affection."
Founded 76 years ago by Don Cruz Lizárraga, the group today is led by his sons, and was honored last year with Billboard’s Legado Musical -- Musical Legacy Award -- at the third annual Billboard Mexican Music Awards. El Recodo have placed more than 25 singles on the Top 20 of Billboard’s regional Mexican airplay charts.
Used material from Billboard, Borderland Beat Archives and SDP |
