Drugs, Murder and Mexico

Another one of those times that makes me realize that by the time news ("news") reaches people like us, it is OLD NEWS. I wonder what's really going on.

I was watching the Pablo Escobar novela for a while, but then I fell behind and lost track of what was happening. It's fascinating how much networks have changed, and how the landscape has changed when the product is the same, more or less.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/02/26/world/americas/mexico-disappeared/index.html?hpt=hp_t3

More than 26,000 people have gone missing in Mexico over the past six years as violence surged and the country's government cracked down on drug cartels.

Mexico's Interior Ministry announced the staggering statistic on Tuesday but noted that authorities don't have data about how many of the disappearances are connected with organized crime.

The 26,121 disappearances occurred during former President Felipe Calderon's six-year administration, which ended on December 1 when Enrique Pena Nieto assumed the presidency.

Pena Nieto's government has formed a special working group to focus on finding the missing, said Lia Limon, deputy secretary of legal matters and human rights for Mexico's Interior Ministry.

Locating people "is a priority for this government," Limon told reporters.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/03/01/world/americas/mexico-young-assassin/index.html?hpt=hp_t3

(CNN) -- A 13-year-old boy who had confessed to being an assassin for a Mexican drug cartel was among six people found murdered execution-style, authorities in the central Mexican state of Zacatecas have confirmed.

The boy's body was found Thursday alongside a highway in the municipality of Morelos.

The bodies of five other people, four females and one male, were also found at the same location. Officials say they had all been shot execution-style with high-caliber weapons.

"They all appeared to be young people, but we're still in the process of positively identifying the bodies," Nahle Garcia said.

Speaking about the most recent incident, Nahle Garcia said he's not surprised. "It's really unfortunate, but we're seeing more and more young men who drop out of school and end up selling drugs on the streets," he said. "They all end up the same. They either end up in jail or the cemetery."

:(
i'm always wondering if someday one of these kids is going to filter through my class
at least he would still be alive!

speaking of kids,

The proportion of the Mexican population that is literate is going up, but in absolute numbers, there are more illiterate people in Mexico now than there were 12 years ago. Even if baseline literacy, the ability to read a street sign or news bulletin, is rising, the practice of reading an actual book is not. Once a reasonably well-educated country, Mexico took the penultimate spot, out of 108 countries, in a Unesco assessment of reading habits a few years ago.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/06/opinion/the-country-that-stopped-reading.html?nl=opinion&emc=edit_ty_20130306&_r=0

:-(

h8 this thread. My family are all middle-class & living safely in querétaro, & all my experience of mexico is overwhelmingly positive (although of course I was aware of all this stuff the whole time I was there). Such a great country being betrayed, I could cry

Is there any further news on El Chapo and whether or not he was killed?

i'd be really shocked if he actually was

Yeah, seems to be bogus from digging around a bit.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/03/27/world/americas/mexico-violence/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

http://www.texasmonthly.com/story/mistress-and-narcotraficante

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-202_162-57593865/mexican-army-captures-zetas-drug-lord-miguel-angel-trevino-morales/

of interest:

http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/independent/narcocultura/

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-09-17/heroin-pushed-on-chicago-by-cartel-fueling-gang-murders.html

a decent summary of the connection between guzman and chicago/its many murders

‘Logistical Genius’
Law enforcement officials say Guzman chose Chicago for the same reasons Sears, Roebuck & Co. once centered catalog sales in the city: It’s a transportation hub where highways and rail lines converge and then fan across the Midwest. The disappearance of factory jobs and the struggle of public schools on the city’s South and West sides also give Guzman tens of thousands of willing salesmen who are jobless and poorly educated.
In 2009, a Guzman distributor ran 11 warehouses and stash houses in Chicago and southwestern suburbs. One was in Bedford Park, steps from a facility used by FedEx Corp., operator of the world’s largest cargo airline.
“He’s a logistical genius and a hands-on guy,” Riley says, adding that Guzman is also a billionaire. “If he had turned his talents to legitimate business, he’d probably be in the same situation moneywise.”
The Chicago police strategy of saturating high-crime areas with patrols appears to be cutting the homicide rate. Murders through Sept. 8 fell 21 percent -- to 297 from 377 -- from the 2012 period. Yet the authorities have made scant progress in cracking Sinaloa’s supply chain.

Different version of above story:

http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/October-2013/Sinaloa-Cartel/

Hey, has anyone else seen The Counselor? Because it feels like it really is about trying to comprehend cartel violence, instead of just using it for a pulpy story.

Meanwhile:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/28/mexican-militias-vigilantes-drug-cartels

can't see that ending well

not Mexico but good ol' Mexico style drug violence

http://m.bleacherreport.com/articles/1830745-brazilian-footballers-decapitated-head-reportedly-sent-to-wife-by-drug-lords?utm_source=cnn.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=editorial

http://www.avclub.com/review/narco-cultura-explores-mexican-drug-cartels-and-th-105858

http://www.vocativ.com/11-2013/avocado/

This one's especially sad/fascinating.

it seems like they're bleeding everyone dry. even the waiters and bartenders in Cancun (who may not even make $15k a year) have to pay a fee or get burned alive.

great photo essay about grupos autodefensas that are disarming cartels (and others) in various mexican states
http://www.businessinsider.com/mexican-vigilantes-battle-drug-cartel-photos-2014-1

el chapo -- arrested! http://www.latimes.com/world/worldnow/la-fg-wn-mexico-drug-arrest-20140222,0,4503693.story#axzz2u4Q6KWth

MEXICO CITY -- Joaquin Guzman, "El Chapo," the most wanted drug lord in Mexico and a multibillionaire fugitive, has been captured, a senior U.S. official said Saturday.
Few details were available. But Guzman has long been considered the top prize and most elusive figure in an extensive, ongoing drug war that has left tens of thousands of Mexicans dead.
Guzman led the Sinaloa cartel, the most powerful, richest and oldest of the drug-trafficking networks in Mexico. The group is responsible for the shipment of tons of cocaine and marijuana to the U.S.
The senior official said Guzman was captured early Saturday in the Sinaloa city of Mazatlan and was being transported to Mexico City. No shots were fired in the capture, the source said, which was based on information from an informant.
In recent days, the Mexican marines have been raiding numerous properties in Sinaloa belonging to close associates of Guzman.
Guzman was arrested in Guatemala in 1993 but escaped from prison in 2001 and has been on the lam ever since.

wow

Story on the Sinaloa cartel's start in Chicago in the 90s:
http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/25849267-418/drug-cartels-the-doctor-helped-run-chicago-operation.html

this has been all over the news lately. seems like people are finally starting to sort of understand/care about how the international drug trade has operated for the last bazumpteen years?

For a good primer, try this radio series. The text that accompanies the segment pretty much says it all
http://revealradio.org/tracing-chicagos-heroin-supply-chain/

Tracing Chicago’s heroin supply chain

Ever wondered how heavy narcotics such as heroin make it to America’s streets? Where it comes from, how it’s distributed and who it hurts?

That was the focus of a yearlong investigation by WBEZ and the Chicago Reader, which tracked the heroin supply chain from Mexico to Chicago and across the Midwest.

In our feature segment on “Reveal,” reporters Chip Mitchell and Natalie Moore explain the economics behind the heroin resurgence and paint a detailed picture of how the drugs end up in American communities.

According to the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Sinaloa cartel is responsible for 70 to 80 percent of the narcotics moving through Chicago. On Feb. 22, its leader, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, was arrested in Mexico.

Explore the full series from WBEZ and the Chicago Reader here.

The zetas' IT man:

http://www.popsci.com/article/technology/radio-tecnico-how-zetas-cartel-took-over-mexico-walkie-talkies

I don't know what to say about this other than it's awful and upsetting

https://news.vice.com/article/how-a-mexican-cartel-demolished-a-town-incinerated-hundreds-of-victims-and-got-away-with-it?utm_source=vicenewsfb

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/10/missing-mexico-students-mass-graves

Mass graves of protesting students, 26 police officers now in custody on suspicion of murder.

yeah i heard about that on the radio on my way to class, where i handed back a beautifully written student paper about her family ranch in guerrero.
horrible

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/mexican-drug-cartel-killed-journalist-posted-pictures-dead-body-twitter-account-article-1.1984657

The mayor of Iguala has been charged with six murders connected to the student protests.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/nov/14/mexican-mayor-jose-luis-abarca-charged-murder-students

He can probably expect another forty three to be added to that at some point. The theory is that he feared students would try to disrupt an event promoting his wife's political career so he colluded with the police and one of the cartels to have them kidnapped and killed. She has strong ties to the Beltran Levya group and appears to have been running her own gang in the city.

http://thenewinquiry.com/essays/a-country-disappeared/

At least 60,000 people have died since Calderón had taken office in 2006, and around 22,000 are presumed missing. The government stopped releasing figures in 2011 and put a 30-year lock on them, meaning that we’d never really be sure what the toll was.

From Al-Jazeera US: Mexican drug cartels are worse than ISIL: Western obsession with the Islamic State is fueled more by bigotry than any genuine assessment of risk or atrocities

i watched the 48 hrs on this dude, p interesting

http://www.mexicogulfreporter.com/2014/11/bruce-beresford-redmans-prison-diary.html?spref=tw

conditions cant be that bad, hes reading david foster wallace

http://i.imgur.com/zi45joB.jpg

id say his case should be the next serial but seems like mexican authorities destroyed most evidence altogether

el chapo -- arrested! http://www.latimes.com/world/worldnow/la-fg-wn-mexico-drug-arrest-20140222,0,4503693.story#axzz2u4Q6KWth

MEXICO CITY -- Joaquin Guzman, "El Chapo," the most wanted drug lord in Mexico and a multibillionaire fugitive, has been captured, a senior U.S. official said Saturday.
Few details were available. But Guzman has long been considered the top prize and most elusive figure in an extensive, ongoing drug war that has left tens of thousands of Mexicans dead.
Guzman led the Sinaloa cartel, the most powerful, richest and oldest of the drug-trafficking networks in Mexico. The group is responsible for the shipment of tons of cocaine and marijuana to the U.S.
The senior official said Guzman was captured early Saturday in the Sinaloa city of Mazatlan and was being transported to Mexico City. No shots were fired in the capture, the source said, which was based on information from an informant.
In recent days, the Mexican marines have been raiding numerous properties in Sinaloa belonging to close associates of Guzman.
Guzman was arrested in Guatemala in 1993 but escaped from prison in 2001 and has been on the lam ever since

Escaped again.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-33497301

Reading Don Winslow's novel The Cartel right now - he's the author of Savages (along with many other books) but this one is much broader in scope and much less pulpy, and is dedicated to dozens of journalists who've been murdered covering the drug war. I guess I'd compare it to James Ellroy's The Big Nowhere in the way it blends fiction and real events, changes names but leaves it pretty obvious who they're based on, etc. A very interesting book.

read Murder City and then El Sicario last week, kind of in a spin about them now, to put together some reflection on what Bowden means to say that this is "the future". I think he means something about :

the corruption of legal authority by money

the erosion of "natural" limits on violence
by drugs

the desire to be gods

but it's neither one of these nor the other but rather all together.

& the erosion of limits on violence is key ; because you see men who are not psychopaths in any usual sense become professional killers, for whom it seems that the first kill is the crucial one, because to do so breaks a taboo that then permits the killer great power thereafter, power that is otherwise thought beyond reach. and it makes you like a god. I've been reading books on the Holocaust and anti-Semitism prior to this & there too you see torrents of violence following the first kills by "ordinary men".

I can't get my head around this yet.

I also read murder city and what struck me most was the hopelessness for some people in certain areas who could be killed by the cartels, the police, or the army, and that all three parties have elements that are either in cahoots with one another or at war with one another. And if you need help, you don't know if the police or army sent to help will protect you or hand you over to people who will kill you. also spooked by those Juarez party houses where they'd just torture and kill people and bury them in the backyards. And they're just houses in a regular subdivision.

Just the idea that the violence is coming from all elements of power directed at everyone almost arbitrarily, like the story he tells about the massacre at the rehab clinic.

has anyone seen "cartel land"

it looks really interesting but i'm a little suspicious of bigelow's involvement (in that it might spend a little too much time on the macho vigilantes bringing evil to justice and not, like, on the completely horrifying effects the war has had on the general populace)

might be concern-trolling myself, tho

Chapo vs. ISIS, coming soon from Electronic Arts:

http://nypost.com/2015/12/10/el-chapo-tells-isis-his-men-will-destroy-them/

probably the closest we'll ever get to a real life Alien vs Predator tbh

I think the proper term is "undocumented immigrant."

Censor or Die: The Death of Mexican News In the Age of Drug Cartels

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/gunmen-kill-mexico-mayor-gisela-mota-one-day-after-taking-n489206?cid=sm_tw&hootPostID=9e9b4efb61ffd9eb2a5c2b0e4bf902d5

Also, the U.S. consulate in Tijuana was set on fire:

http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/2016/jan/04/fire-consulate-tijuana-deliberately-set/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPhFWHJsgkc
the raid which recaptured El Chapo