Drugs, Murder and Mexico

If you can read Spanish, this is a really beautiful statement from the founder of the (first and only) juarez women's shelter
http://www.casa-amiga.org.mx/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=94&Itemid=114

She died in 2009 and I was disappointed to find that she has no wikipedia entry. Googling for her yielded the casa amiga website and a bunch of really disturbing beheading photos.

btw happy mexican independence day, everyone

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/09/17/mexico.journalist.killed/index.html?hpt=T2

journalists killed. possibility discussed: the gunman did not actually intend to kill them -- "sorry dudes we actually intended to kill a human-rights activist!"

http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_upshot/20101020/wl_yblog_upshot/college-student-named-police-chief-in-violence-plagued-mexican-town-after-no-one-else-would-apply

^^^ that is so goddamn sad. came here to post that.

not to mention: the epic insanity regarding that jet skiing couple along the border who got shot up

i really hope this police chief manages to survive her term

theres a long article in this week's newyoker about the army office who became police chief in tijuana. it was depressing because it a) made clear that any 'gains' against the cartels are coming at horrific cost in lives and civil liberties and b) how much money the u.s. govt is spending on helping the mexican army to torture its own citizens in the war on drugs

murder city was easily one of the most depressing books i have ever read, and i have read A LOT of depressing books about latin america and depressing books about crime.

I don't think I can even keep up with the news on this anymore, it's just so fucking depressing.

murder city is incredible & like 2666 really manages to provide some small sense of the mundanity of the horror, of how commonplace and numbing it is through sheer aggregation

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/2010/10/27/2010-10-27_entire_police_force_in_los_ramones_mexico_quits_after_gunmen_attack_headquarters.html

El Blog del Narco

que horror

Did you guys/gals read this?

(it's the article Lamp mentioned above)

Normally, in Mexico, narco-traffickers don’t tolerate aggressive law enforcement—least of all from city police, who lack the formal power to investigate serious crimes (state police do that), let alone combat drug trafficking (that’s for the federal police). Local police chiefs who annoy them are simply killed. It happened to the Tijuana police chief in 2000. It happened to the chief in Tecate, the next border town to the east, in 2007—he was murdered in bed, while lying next to his wife, with fifty shots to the face and chest. It happened to the deputy police chief in Tijuana in January, 2008, when a large contingent of gunmen surrounded his house and killed him and his wife and two daughters.

dang

15 people shot dead at a car wash

jesus

'Saint of Death' religion probed

Chandler detectives are investigating whether Mexican drug-cartel members who pray to the "Saint of Death" are responsible for the stabbing and decapitation of a man earlier this month.

"Certainly they are looking at the role that Santa Muerte (Saint of Death) played in this as that is a religion that drug cartels follow because they believe it will protect them from law enforcement," Chandler Detective David Ramer said Tuesday.

The three suspects and victim had been visiting from Mexico, according to police reports.

Candles and an Ouija (spirit) board were found in the central-city apartment. Beheadings have been known to be used as part of the Santa Muerta religion, police said.

Additionally, neighbors reported the four visitors and a neighbor of the apartment in the 300 block of West Fairview Street spoke drunkenly of the religion as they talked until the early hours of Oct. 10.

"While inside (the five men) were all talking drunk about Santa Muerte, which means the Saint of Death in Spanish, and were acting so strangely that (a resident) felt uncomfortable enough to leave the apartment a few minutes later," a police report reads.

The report released Tuesday describes the last minutes of a man who was stabbed, decapitated and left in a pool of blood. It also provides details about the four men who had been drinking with him, as well as claims by neighbors that the men practiced Santa Muerte.

The murder victim has been identified as Martin Alejandro Cota-Monroy, 38.

Police have arrested one suspect, a neighbor who was renting a bed for $100 a month in the apartment across the way. They are searching for three suspects they alternately describe as being from Mexico and California in a case they say is drug related.

"Was this guy killed as part of the religion? They are looking that this might be drug-cartel related, and we know that drug cartels practice this religion," Ramer said of Santa Muerte.

story continues at link

that New Yorker article is wild...it's as if the false dichotomoy that Bush & friends presented to us (torture & suspended habeas corpus for public safety) became a frightening reality

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/11/03/mexico.us.students.killed/index.html

(CNN) -- Two students from the University of Texas at El Paso were shot and killed Tuesday night in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, Chihuahua state investigators said late Wednesday.

The students, identified as Manuel Acosta Villalobos, 25, and Eder Diaz Sotero, 23, were gunned down in a hail of more than 30 bullets while driving a Nissan Sentra with Texas plates, Chihuahua State police spokesman Arturo Sandoval said.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/11/05/photographers.journey.below.border/index.html?hpt=C1

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-11703663

how long can this war burn this hot?

I don't know why I keep on clicking this thread

my students were talking about santa muerte in class the other day. as for your question about how long?
as long as it's permitted to last imo. it's a billion dollar business.

RIP Don Alejo Garza Temez

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGsQJt94qVc

http://www.borderlandbeat.com/2010/11/mexican-marines-reconstruct-death-of.html#comment-form

How do you translate 'Santa Muerte' as Saint of Death? Shouldn't it be 'Saint Death' or 'Holy Death'?

iirc it would be like saying 'death saint' and thus 'saint of death' would be a more english-appropriate translation...pero my spanish is pretty weak

i'm in the middle of reading The Daughters of Juarez, which focuses on the "femicides" of Juarez over the past couple of decades. the book seems to suggest that the murders could be partially the work of both the police and drug cartels, but overall it's all part of a general culture of juarez that has crept up in which people are unafraid of law enforcement b/c of the heavy crime rate and the corruption of the justice system. i was also surprised to see how much of what has actually transpired there was taken rather directly by roberto bolano for 2666, which isn't a criticism but just an observation. there's one particularly chilling bit where a girl has disappeared and they discover her body in an open field along with 7 other bodies in various stages of decomposition.

http://d.yimg.com/a/p/ap/20101203/capt.8b15c906419c4e7bb3fefc5851df5c4f-8b15c906419c4e7bb3fefc5851df5c4f-0.jpg

CUERNAVACA, Mexico – The Mexican army has detained a 14-year-old U.S. citizen suspected of acting as a killer for a drug cartel. The boy said he had been working for the cartel since he was 11.

The much-rumored alleged young assassin nicknamed "El Ponchis" was captured late Thursday at the airport near Cuernavaca with his 16-year-old sister as they tried to catch a flight to Tijuana and flee the country, said an army official, who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the case.

The sister told reporters that they planned to cross the border to San Diego, California, to go to their stepmother's house. She said their mother had sent money for the tickets, but she did not specify where the mother lives.

Morelos state Gov. Marco Adame Castillo said at a news conference that the boy was born in San Diego and that Mexican officials are researching whether he is a citizen of Mexico as well. Although state courts usually handle crimes by juveniles in Mexico, state authorities have asked the federal government to take over the case because of the gravity of the crimes.

The teen told reporters early Friday he has worked for a drug cartel since he was 11 and that he participated in at least four decapitations. The source said his sister was accused of getting rid of the bodies by dumping them on streets and freeways.

"I participated in four executions, but I did it drugged and under threat that if I didn't, they would kill me," said the boy, who appeared calm and showed no remorse.

Another teenage sister accompanied the two, but officials said she was not suspected of being involved in the cartels.

"El Ponchis" wore blue jeans and a T-shirt and the detained sister jeans and a sweater when they were apprehended. Their airline tickets were already purchased.

The army did not specify where they were detained in the airport or whether they had already passed through security checks.

The attorney general for Morelos state said the two would turned over to state authorities, who handle crimes committed by minors in Mexico.

The two were suspected of helping the South Pacific Cartel headed by Hector Beltran Leyva, brother of Arturo Beltran Leyva, a top drug lord who was killed by Mexican marines in Cuernavaca a year ago.

The boy said Friday he had been employed by the cartel since he was ll years old.

Rumors that have circulated for weeks of a killer named "El Ponchis" as young as 12 years old.

Hector Beltran Leyva's fight for control of the cartel has caused a major spike in violence in the state just south of Mexico City, and in neighboring Guerrero state, where the resort of Acapulco is located.

The siblings were living in a poor neighborhood of Jiutepec, a working-class suburb of Cuernavaca, known as a weekend getaway for Mexico City residents. The area has an industrial area with Nissan, Unilever and other factories, rustic single-level concrete homes and some farms.

Neighbors said the mother has worked in the San Diego area for some time, but none had information about the teenagers' father.

last remaining police officer in border town guadalupe kidnapped
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-12085405

friend of mine is in mexico city taking photographs on the crime beat

http://milkyblacks.blogspot.com/2011/01/notes-from-crime-beat.html

http://www.borderlandbeat.com/2011/02/chicas-kalashnikov.html

I couldn't even read all the way through that. It was just too much.

“Not really. I am saving money for my kids. I want them to study, to be something in life. They are still little and they don’t know what I do. At least if one day they find out, if I don’t spend the money, they might forgive me.

jesus

la guera's bravado seems really really ott to me -- not ott in that she is not doing and saying those things -- she clearly is -- but in that she doesn't believe it

living in that sort of environment seems just like having permanent incurable ptsd

: (

a few days ago the brother, sister, and sister-in-law of a murdered activist were also all murdered. presumably one of those "we'll kill you and then kill your family later on if they dare discuss it" sort of things.

How much longer can this shit go on with no one stopping it? Its just so insane.

this particular phase has been going on hardcore for at least 3 years
i do wonder when it will become a priority

i was in mexico last week

Did you get murdered?

He's posting from más allá.

the thing is that when countries declare war on druglords shit generally tends to get worse & stay worse for a long time

He's posting from más allá.
the solitary lol on this thread :(

Well, it's a mexican thing to mock the dead, y'know?

I live in Mexico(Monterrey) by the way.

http://www.turnoffyourtv.com/commentary/war2004/posada8.gif

true
are you mexican are just living there?