Drugs, Murder and Mexico

floppant, son

Oh man is there ever a movie in this

phew, every time I see this thread pop up in bookmarks, my stomach sinks like a pit

"Mexican" hero-een Music

heard this on the radio yesterday about veracruz
mata-zetas are either
a) vigilantes sick of relying on govt/military to protect them
b) sinaloan cartel members getting mad and getting even
c) something else
d) who knows
e) wtf at dumping *more* bodies in the street

http://www.npr.org/2011/10/26/141727973/drug-violence-swamps-a-once-peaceful-mexican-city

Matching bottles of mineral water are lined up in front of each of them.

that part was notable, wasn't it

i also liked the lengthy description of what the seafood woman sold

On the eve of a convention for Mexican prosecutors

Pretty audacious idea in itself.

I keep reading their name as Meta-Zetas, which in terms of "violent gang" is kind of accurate.

http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Online-hackers-threaten-to-expose-cartel-secrets-2242068.php

lol? :\

Wow.

Apparently a politician's hacked website:

http://gustavorosario.com/

http://sdpnoticias.com/nota/216899/Anonymous_hackea_sitio_de_presunto_funcionario_involucrado_con_el_narco

all i'm seeing here is a rash of (coverage of) vigilante efforts in the wake of years of government and military boobery
does anyone who studies this conflict think this is going to amount to anything? (serious q)

apparently they did it
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/05/us-mexico-drugs-hackers-idUSTRE7A408C20111105

hm, that is a somewhat misleading post -- "they" = zetas, "did it" = released hostage and threatened to kill 10 people for every name released, should any names ever be released

In a post written in Spanish on the group's Latin American blog, the members said they had called off the action after the Zetas met a demand to release a kidnapped group member, and that: "We can say that, while bruised, he is alive and well."

The hacker group said the person was freed with a note warning that if information were released, the cartel would make the kidnapped member's family suffer, and kill 10 people for each exposed name.

Anonymous members previously threatened by video to release names and addresses of taxi drivers, journalists and police officers who they said acted as "loyal servants" to the cartel to see if that would prompt arrests.

They said they were "fed up" with the cartel's actions, particularly the alleged kidnapping. For much of the week, people claiming to be Anonymous members have gone back and forth saying the hacker action was canceled or would go ahead.

Anonymous, a loosely knit group that has attacked financial and government websites around the world, had in September claimed responsibility for orchestrating the shutdown of several Mexican government ministries, but did not give a reason for that action.

Barrett Brown, a Texas hacker who posted details about the planned action, said via his Twitter account: "I will be continuing the fight against the cartels."

Brown said via a post on Pastebin he would avoid revealing names that would trigger the ire of the Zetas but still intended to send information to the German newspaper Der Spiegel for confirmation.

"In the meanwhile, I will be going after other cartels with the assistance of those who have come forward with new information and offers of assistance," he said.

my students went from comatose to talking over each other when we started talking about this yesterday btw.

Talking about the Anonymous threat or the whole situation?

seems increasingly likely that the entire anonymous story was bullshit from the start

how you mean?

i mean has any single thing that barrett brown said been corroborated by any other person, reputable or not?

its like when your friend is all "oh my canadian girlfriend isnt visiting anymore, we broke up"

like remember when anonymous had 40,000 emails from news corp/the sun? what happened to those?

Wasn't it LulzSec who had them, and did they get pinched?

yeah sorry it was "lulzsec." iirc only some of them got arrested, there were wild claims of the emails being hosted on a server in china, still no word

Gang sends message with blogger beheading

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/12/world/americas/top-mexican-official-among-8-dead-in-helicopter-crash.html?pagewanted=all

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/17/us/us-mexico-tunnel-leads-to-tons-of-marijuana.html

am I bad for thinking that they should have burned the marijuana in the tunnel and made the world's most awesome hotbox

Meanwhile, in Chicago... (just posting this in case it escaped anyone's eyes last week)

http://www.fbi.gov/chicago/press-releases/2012/latin-kings-nationwide-leader-augustin-zambrano-sentenced-to-60-years-in-prison-for-rico-conspiracy-and-related-gang-crimes

CHICAGO—The highest-ranking leader nationwide of the Latin Kings street gang was sentenced today to 60 years in federal prison, the statutory maximum, after being convicted at trial last April of racketeering conspiracy (RICO) and related charges involving narcotics trafficking and violence that plagued numerous neighborhoods on the city’s north, south and west sides. The defendant, Augustin Zambrano, 51, a “Corona” of the Almighty Latin King Nation, who was responsible for overseeing the illegal activities of all factions of the powerful street gang with some 10,000 members in Illinois alone, has been in federal custody since 2009 and must serve at least 85 percent of his sentence.

Does anyone have any thoughts about this rash of prison breaks? Things are looking extremely ugly in the department of law and order in Mexico these days.
Here's what the NYT has to say: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/22/world/americas/guards-implicated-in-mexico-prisons-deadly-gang-attack.html

Additionally, here's an argument about legalization from a more pan-Latin American (or at least Central American) perspective
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/02/should-central-america-legalize-drugs/253707/

http://www.texasobserver.org/cover-story/the-deadliest-place-in-mexico

^^ Bumping this good read.

That is so scary. When we traveled Mexico by train in the 70's I remember Presido,TX being pretty scary just across the border from Ojinaga, Chihuahua. All of Chihuahua at the time was more less scary. Once in Marfa, the train took off too Mexico with guards sitting on top of the train car with huge weapons. I thought that memory was a scene from a movie until my grandmother told me it was something that really happened on a trip into Mexico.

We stopped taking the train by 1979 and switched to Mexicana. The early 80's in Sinaloa felt safe despite all the Federales with shades and big weapons riding in groups of 6 on the back of small pick-up trucks.

My mom still travels to a dubious spot in Sinaloa to visit my grandmother twice a year. It may not be obvious to those around me but inside I am a nervous wreck for her, not to mention conflicted and resentful. While I know it is very hard to not see loved ones knowing the dangers and going anyway, at this point, just seems so irresponsible and asking for trouble. I wish she would stop.

Summit of the Americas kicks off today -- Guatemala is offering up a formal proposition to introduce a discussion of decriminalization. It's a step. Here's a link en esp http://noticias.lainformacion.com/policia-y-justicia/narcotrafico/guatemala-propondra-en-cumbre-comision-que-analice-despenalizacion-de-drogas_vr7Tv0Qs6Vhj9U455hOmK5/

http://www.cnn.com/2012/05/03/justice/mexico-journalists-killed/index.html

Again.

this also, as mentioned briefly in the above story:

http://www.borderlandbeat.com/2012/05/federal-government-asked-to-help-solve.html

not sure if this was posted but this is a series of cartel maps of mexico:

http://www.borderlandbeat.com/2010/01/maps-of-mexico-cartels.html

http://www.borderlandbeat.com/2012/05/nine-bodies-found-hanging-off-nuevo.html

warning: graphic pix

there were 23 in total (including decapitated heads left in ice boxes behind the city hall): http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/may/05/bodies-bridge-23-mexico-drug

seriously, i don't know how many times i can read a story about all this and say 'fucking hell'.

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/18-headless-bodies-mexico-tourist-area/story?id=16320937#.T6wsTuh8CSo

http://www.borderlandbeat.com/2012/05/police-find-37-mutiulated-dead-near.html

Milenio reported late that six women and 43 men were among the dead. Previous reports had said a narcomanta left at the scene had been removed, but reportedly said "100 percent Zetas" Another Associated Press dispatched said that the victims were migrants heading to the United States. A late revised report on the website of Milenio said the some of the victims had the facial features of individuals from South America. The report also said the narcomanta had the symbol of Los Zetas only, probably the letter Z, suggesting Los Zetas likely committed the crime.

i started reading about this today, read about the dude who got his face cut off and sewn onto a soccer ball, and then stopped

really hard to say what to do about this, i imagine them doing something like just suspending the (mexican) constitution and due process and full-on declaring shoot-to-kill no questions asked war on these guys, but then again i imagine the corruption is so rampant that drug dudes have infiltrated the army already and who would know who to shoot in the first place

the other idea people are always throwing out is sealing the border but i don't see that as economically feasible

i mean we could legalize weed and we probably will at some point but i doubt we'll ever legalize meth and heroin and coke and i figure that's where the real money is for the cartels anyway

also guns

(also zetas are former military)

you do sort of have to wonder whether this will ever start to creep north of the border, if not why not and if so what we might do about it

MS-13 is north of the border

yeah i know and i know they've done some crazy stuff like put out a hit on an ICE agent in NY but i was more referring to the level of violence, afaik they haven't done anything like killed 30 people on a bus yet

From what I understand, the cartels don't want to risk the full wrath of the US, so they mostly try to do things on the quiet north of the border.

Familiar URL, but some context in this article:
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local_news/article/Drug-gangs-resort-to-horrific-killings-3535925.php

Hanna speculates that Guzman may be hoping to gain control of Nuevo Laredo before the July 1 presidential elections in Mexico, which seem poised to return the former ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, to power.

Reverand, El Paso and Nuevo Laredo have had their share of problems.