Drugs, Murder and Mexico

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

http://www.cnn.com/2016/02/03/americas/mexico-baby-murdered/index.html

This stupid fucking world we live in. Jesus Christ.

HE GONE (again)

or maybe not? no reportage on it beyond the daily mail and a shitload of tweets, could be bullshit

I presume you refer to Joaquin Guzman, aka "El Chapo." Enough money buys one a lot of things.

i do indeed refer to joaquin guzman loera. not seeing any actual news outlets report that he's escaped tho

it wouldnt surprise me in the fuckin slightest, seeing as he a. continues to get government help regardless of who's in los pinos and b. is on the verge of being extradited to the U.S.

Looks like someone got in before that wall got built.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/19/world/el-chapo-extradited-mexico.html?_r=0

for a while there was a lot of news about cartel violence in mexico

has it slowed down? did we stop caring? or did all the journalists get killed?

and a few minutes googling seems to indicate, no, the violence hasn't slowed down

also that, like this thread, the drug war in mexico is officially 10 years old

this was the big scuttlebutt at my workplace yesterday

https://www.propublica.org/article/allende-zetas-cartel-massacre-and-the-us-dea

^^Amazing level of reporting on the Allende massacre.

It was a very hard but necessary read, that.

https://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Cartel-Hit-Martin-Corona/dp/1101984627

upcoming cartel memoir from a guy who's now in Witness Protection

OTOH, the propublica article mostly just says many at higher echelons in the DEA remain oblivious to how compromised Mexican law enforcement is.

Its hard to imagine how the DEA intended to use those Zeta phone locations without informing at least some level of the Mexican government. The DEA itself isn't really outfitted for large scale covert ops in foreign nations, and Delta + MC-130s would require some level of cooperation.

i read this book last year, wanted to recommend it.

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51R3mBhwCPL._SX324_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

it really gets at the daily life of a reporter who just happens to occasionally cover cartel issues and the effect it has on his family and friends.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/20/world/americas/mexico-drug-war-dead.html?emc=edit_ta_20171120&nl=top-stories&nlid=57981500&ref=cta

I just don't get the US at all - it's like, a country with whom you share hundreds of miles of border with is being completely destabilized by your policies and your response is to...do nothing? stick your head in the sand? idgi.

― dayo, Tuesday, August 31, 2010 5:16 PM (seven years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

it's not just the US...and it's not just Mexico either...

― rotting-month story (Drugs A. Money), Tuesday, August 31, 2010 5:50 PM (seven years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah that's the big problem there. every move is just baby steps in the right direction rather than a solve-all-problems move.

― ('_') (omar little), Wednesday, September 1, 2010 5:16 PM (seven years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah I know. it's just that it's like, you live in a pretty nice house, you have a nice life. the house next door is a crackhouse. what are you gonna do, build a higher fence?

― shorn_blond.avi (dayo), Wednesday, September 1, 2010 5:21 PM (seven years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

:(

https://www.yahoo.com/news/mexican-gangsters-dissolved-bodies-three-095326591.html

Three missing students are dead after criminals in Mexico beat them to death and dissolved their bodies in acid, according to police.

Mexican authorities in Jalisco state announced that the mystery around the three students’ fate had finally been solved weeks after their disappearance triggered massive protests. The film students went missing in the municipality of Tonala after they were forced into a car by between six and eight gang members.

“Subsequently their bodies were dissolved in acid so that no trace of them remained," the state prosecutors office said, according to Reuters.

Drug cartels have used the violent tactic to erase evidence in the past and police believe gang members falsely assumed the three victims were from a rival gang.

According to witnesses, heavily armed men posing as police officers accosted the students after their car broke down. They were never seen again, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The victims—Salomon Aceves Gastelum, Daniel Diaz and Marco Avalos—journeyed outside the city of Guadalajara to shoot a project for the University of Audiovisual Media, AFP reported. Police have stressed that the students had no known link to organized crime.

that is some scary shit ! I haven't traveled around mexico since the late 90s and up until recently I was of the minds that I would do it again sometime soon but I think i'd rather not now.

Merida is safe :)

incredibly hot about 9 months out of the year though

Lots of protests planned for Thursday marking 43 months since 43 students were murdered in collaboration with the Ayotzinapa police:

https://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/43-Three-Months-Without-the-43-Ayotzinapa-Rural-Students-20180422-0011.html

Anabel Hernandez has a book about it coming out in October.

The 111th murder of a political candidate in the last nine months:

https://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Mexico-Congressional-Candidate-Murdered-After-Debate-20180609-0002.html

Election is three weeks away.

https://worldjusticenews.com/news/2018/10/18/marbella-ibarra-mexican-womens-football-pioneer-killed/

One of the main promoters of women’s football in Mexico, Marbella Ibarra, has been killed.

Ms Ibarra, 44, was the founder of Mexico’s first professional women’s football team, Xolas de Tijuana.

Her body, which showed signs of torture, was found wrapped in plastic sheeting in Rosarito, a beach resort south of the border city of Tijuana.

She had disappeared last month and her family believe she was kidnapped. The motive behind her murder is unclear.

Officials said a post-mortem examination would be carried out to determine the exact cause of her death, but the case was being treated as murder.

Her hands and feet had been tied and she had been severely beaten. She is believed to have been killed on Friday but her body was not found until Monday.

‘The best coach’

Investigators say they think her murder is unrelated to her role as coach and football promoter.

Most recently Ms Ibarra had dedicated her time to a foundation helping young female footballer players financially so they could have trials with teams other than their local ones.

There was an outpouring of grief on social media, with many players recalling the influence Ms Ibarra had had on them and the support she had offered.

Her niece Fabiola Ibarra, who plays for Guadalajara-based football club Atlas Femenil and the Mexican national women’s team, wrote that she would “hang on to all the beautiful moments I had with you and all that you did for me, you are the best friend, the best aunt and the best coach!”

Ms Ibarra had not been a player herself but used her income from the beauty salon she ran to first fund an amateur women’s team, Isamar FC.

She then founded the professional team Xolas de Tijuana, which first played across the border in the US women’s league as there was no professional women’s league in Mexico at the time.

Ms Ibarra fought hard for women’s football to be recognised and played a key role in the creation of the professional women’s league in 2017.

Her sister Mabel described her as being “football mad”.

While Tijuana, the city where she was based, has long suffered from violence it has recently seen an upsurge in murders.

July of this year was the most violent month in the city’s recorded history, with 251 homicides.

Many of the murders are linked to the dugs trade but kidnappings and extortion are also common.

nbd just 250 murders in ONE MONTH

Coatzacoalcos (Mexico) (AFP) - Gunmen burst into a Mexican strip club in a hail of bullets and killed at least 26 people as they trapped revellers inside and started a raging fire, officials said Wednesday.

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador condemned the "shameful" attack in the city of Coatzacoalcos, and said federal authorities would investigate evidence it may have stemmed from collusion between local authorities and organized crime.

The Tuesday night attack, which officials said also left 11 people badly wounded, is the latest to rock the state of Veracruz, a flashpoint in bloody turf wars between Mexico's rival drug cartels and a hotbed of political corruption.

Survivors said gunmen sprayed bullets as they descended on the bar, the Caballo Blanco (White Horse), then blocked the exits and set the club alight.

Because of the loud reggaeton music pounding inside, many patrons and dancers did not even notice the attack until the bar was in flames, they said.

Authorities said many of the victims died of smoke inhalation. It was not immediately clear whether some died of gunshot wounds.

"They arrived in several vehicles, with rifles and pistols. They threatened the security guards at the door and took control of the entrance," one survivor told an AFP reporter, speaking on condition of anonymity, as frantic relatives gathered at the bar looking for their loved ones.

Veracruz Governor Cuitlahuac Garcia tweeted that authorities had identified one of the attackers as Ricardo "N" -- Mexican law bars the release of suspects' full names -- adding that he was a repeat offender known as "La Loca" ("The Crazy One").

The suspect was previously arrested last month, but was released by state prosecutors within 48 hours, Garcia said.

President Lopez Obrador said federal authorities would investigate why.

"There's a problem there that needs to be investigated regarding the actions of the Veracruz prosecutor's office," said Lopez Obrador, a leftist elected last year on an anti-corruption platform.

"There are two things going on here: one is this shameful act by organized crime, the most inhuman thing possible; the other, which is also reprehensible, is a possible conspiracy with the authorities," he told a news conference.

The Veracruz prosecutor's office denied wrongdoing, and said in a statement that it was in fact the federal prosecutor's office that released Ricardo "N."

Veracruz is one of the most violent states in the country.

Its location on the Gulf of Mexico coast makes it a strategic route for drug cartels and for human traffickers bringing undocumented migrants to the United States.

Coatzacoalcos, a port city of 235,000 people, has been among those hardest hit by the resulting violence.

The governor told reporters the group that attacked the White Horse was vying for control of the drug trade there.

Some survivors said the attackers doused the nightclub in gasoline to set it alight. Others said they threw Molotov cocktails.

The interior of the bar was wrecked and charred, with chairs overturned and debris littering the floor.

The naked body of a woman who had been mid-routine was sprawled on the dance floor next to the striptease poles.

Outside, anguished relatives cried and embraced as they waited for news, while soldiers, police and paramedics worked the scene.

"I just want to know if he's OK," said a mother looking for her son, an employee at the bar, after searching for him in vain at local hospitals.

"Have you seen my daughter? She was a dancer," said another.

Mexico, the chief supplier of narcotics to the United States, has been hit by a wave of violence since declaring war on drugs and deploying the army to fight its powerful cartels in 2006.

Since then, more than 250,000 people have been murdered, including a record 33,753 last year.

The situation in Veracruz has been particularly grim. Jailed ex-governor Javier Duarte (2010-2016) is accused of presiding over a rash of corruption and human rights abuses.

Two former state police chiefs and a string of ex-officials have been charged with running hit squads that abducted and presumably killed unwanted individuals during Duarte's administration.

Almost exactly eight years to the day Los Zetas did exactly the same thing in Monterrey, killing 50+.

https://time.com/5700543/police-ambushed-mexico-aguililla/

(MORELIA, Mexico) — State police expected the worst when they ventured into the wild township of Aguililla to serve a single warrant. Commanders sent 42 officers in five trucks.

It wasn’t enough. More than 30 suspected drug cartel gunmen were waiting for them Monday, some in vehicles that were apparently armored, prosecutors in Mexico’s western state of Michoacan said.

Officials said the gunmen opened up on the police convoy with .50 caliber sniper rifles and AR-15 and AK-47 assault rifles.

Thirteen officers were killed, some of their bodies still inside the patrol trucks when the vehicles were set afire. Nine other officers were wounded.

The attack — the worst on Mexican law enforcement in years — came in a state where violence blamed on drug gangs has jumped in recent months.

Authorities said the state police convoy was ambushed as it sought to enforce a judicial order at a home in El Aguaje, a town in the municipality of Aguililla, which is the reputed birthplace of Nemesio “Mencho” Oseguera, leader of the hyper-violent Jalisco New Generation cartel.

“No attack on the police will go unpunished, and this was a cowardly, devious attack because they laid an ambush in this area of the road,” Gov. Silvano Aureoles said.

Images published in Mexican media showed vehicles burning in the middle of a highway and messages apparently signed by Jalisco New Generation, one of Mexico’s most powerful and rising cartels. Aureoles said their authenticity was under investigation.

Later in the day, an Associated Press journalist saw two gutted patrol cars at the entrance to El Aguaje surrounded by hundreds of bullet casings. Two police trucks were towed away.

Streets were nearly empty as people apparently decided to stay indoors after the violent events.

After the attack, the area in western Mexico’s so-called “hot lands” was reinforced by federal and state security forces, which set up checkpoints to hunt for the assailants.

Michoacan, an important avocado-growing state, has recently has seen a spike in violence that has brought back memories of the bloodiest days of Mexico’s war on drug cartels between 2006 and 2012.

In August, police found 19 bodies in the town of Uruapan, including nine hung from a bridge. Later, an area roughly 45 miles (70 kilometers) north of Aguililla was the scene of fierce clashes between members of Jalisco New Generation and regional self-defense groups.

In 2013, civilian groups faced with what they said was state inaction armed themselves in Michoacan to fight the Knights Templar cartel, one of whose bases was Aguililla. They said they took up arms to defend themselves from kidnappings, extortion and killings by cartels. But some of the self-defense or vigilante groups later became infiltrated by cartels and gangs.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/oct/18/el-chapo-son-ovidio-guzman-lopez-release-amlo

AMLO will get criticised for this but idk what else they can realistically do short of sending half the army in to lock down a city of 800k people.

another terrible story which of course leads to an idea from DJT that would probably end poorly.

https://news.yahoo.com/trump-mexico-cartels-mormons-killed-ambush-145807595.html

President Trump on Tuesday offered to help Mexico “wage WAR on the drug cartels” after a shootout left at least nine Americans dead.

Initial reports indicated the victims were women and children traveling in at least three cars who may have been targeted by mistake or caught in a crossfire between rival gangs. All the victims were believed to be Mormons with dual American-Mexican citizenship.

A relative of one of the victims said his cousin was on her way to the airport when she was shot and killed in her car along with her four children near La Mora, a decades-old religious settlement about 70 miles south of the Arizona border. Her car had been set on fire with the bodies of the victims inside, according to Agence France-Presse. Two other vehicles, containing the bodies of two more women and two children, were found several hours later.

According to the Arizona Republic, at least a dozen people remain missing.

This story is completely bananas. The victims were part of the LeBaron family cult, whose late patriarch was responsible for 25-40 murders from the 1970s on and there is a rumoured link to NXIVM.

This story is like The Wire on acid to me:

The death truck: how a solution to Mexico's morgue crisis created a new horror.

The tale of how a truck trailer containing almost 300 bodies got stranded on the outskirts of Guadalajara.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/16/us/goshen-california-massacre-six-dead/index.html

not Mexico but seems like it's related to the cartel industrial complex, since drug violence is not exclusive to that country.

but obv this kind of thing is happening every other day in this country for reasons not related to "strictly business" so who knows

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/03/magazine/mexican-journalists-assassinations.html

good piece here. the life of a journalist covering the crimes of the drug industry in Mexico seems like nightmare fuel, not to mention the fear many there probably feel on a daily basis being surrounded by those who might kill them just for not going along w/the cartels. this story mentioned in the piece still really shakes me:

And in 2014, police officers in the rural city Iguala kidnapped 43 students on buses headed for a march in Mexico City and handed them over to a drug cartel that mistakenly assumed they were part of an attack from a rival. This year, a trove of text messages showed that nearly every branch of government in the region — including soldiers, the police and a local mayor — were communicating with the cartel, which killed the students and incinerated some of them in a crematory.

Don Winslow chillingly dramatized that anecdote in The Border.

this post upthread from Euler resonates:

& 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".

This is an interesting long read on chemical supply for synthetic drugs in Mexico.

https://insightcrime.org/investigations/brokers-lynchpins-precursor-chemical-flow-mexico

Thought this revive was gonna be about Kerry Cartel