Deep Politics Forum

Previous Emails (Narco News) --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------this is what I was working on-----------------------------------


"Ranch one location: (GPS hand held location) N 31 46' 49.96 W 107 01' 59.94 MX Ranch 1/2 mile south of new border fence. (3.5 miles south from NM hiway # 9 at mile marker #125 going to the south to new border fence ( #20 thru # 27 fence markers) Be careful its a very dangerous place.

note; S/E of this ranch about two or three miles is the place know as the "Crater". Its a volcanic mountain and on the north side is the crater. On the other side of the mountain (south) is another ranch in question... it could be the 'compond' you asked about.

It would be inside Mexico about four miles south of border ( at fence marker approx #17 on border road):

Before you get to the crater going S/E from ranch one, there is a fork in the road... the east fork goes to the crater and the other goes south around the mountain to the ranch.., from the ranch the south road goes to MX hiway # 2. At the fork in the road (north side of mountain) is where the Mexican Army is using two backholes and ground radar looking for bodies. I was told they found two last week.

... their cover story is they are digging a pipeline in that area. However, sensitive Mexican Army Task Force Intel reports they think aprox 200 bodies could be buried in this are from a shoot out south of Juarez a few weeks ago (or month perhaps 21 killed) They are going back into the area next week. ...".





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Interview with a hitman
Todd Bensman interviews a former Mexican soldier who changed sides,
joining a drug cartel.
By Todd Bensman
Published: May 8, 2009 07:39 ET
Updated: May 9, 2009 09:20 ET
-A +A

SAN ANTONIO , Texas — Through Department of Homeland Security contacts,
Texas journalist Todd Bensman arranged in November 2008 to interview a
former Mexican special forces soldier who went AWOL and joined the
Gulf Cartel's notoriously brutal The Zetas enforcement gang. The Zetas
are responsible for thousands of murders and for operating houses of
torture all along the Mexican side of the Texas border.

The cartel foot soldier had left the organization several years prior
to the interview, and had become a cooperating witness for the U.S.
government in the upcoming trial of extradited Gulf Cartel leader
Osiel Cardenas Guillen in Houston .

The former gunman was produced for Bensman to interview on strict
condition that his name and other revealing details not be publicly
disclosed, for his protection. Bensman questioned the Zeta about how
his gang procured American weapons.

How long were you in the military?

Seven years.

Then in the cartel, what was your job? What did you do?

Basically, I was a hitman.

Your job was to do what?

Bodyguard and things like that. Kill people, kidnap, all kind of stuff
like that.

That's an interesting change from the military.

Yeah. It's almost the same, but without permission.

What does it pay? How much did you make?

About $500 per week.

You would be an expert from your military training. Were you ever
involved in the procurement of weapons?

Not directly, but I saw little things of how they introduced the
weapons in the country, into Mexico .

How did it work?

The same person that works for the organization here in the United
States, they get the weapons and they carry them to Mexico ... They
never had any problems to cross them into Mexico at the border.
Sometimes they use secret compartments to hide the weapons, but not
all the time. The principal way was crossing the river or by the
international bridges.

Who would buy the weapons?

I'm not sure about that because I never was there. But the same people
that work for the organization here in the U.S. , I don't know how to
explain in English, they have to be U.S. citizens to buy the weapons.
They get some people to buy the weapons, every kind of them, and then
pay them for it ... . The people who was working here in U.S. selling
the drugs, they were the same that get the weapons. It was people who
was working directly for my boss, so he said "don't bring me money,
bring me weapons."

What kinds of weapons did you have, did you carry?

When I was in the organization, we asked for them to bring weapons
like Heckler and Koch, MP5, and M-16 or something like that, AR-15,
but the most we wanted Heckler and Koch and Colt AR-15 'cuz they were
the better weapons. We knew about weapons, so we ask them for the best
weapons we could use for that work.

<!--pagebreak-->

Who would you ask?

The leader of the escort. He was a nearby person, close person. We ask
them to bring us Barrett rifles, .50 caliber, 'cuz we have them in the
military, so we knew about them. Grenades and all kinds of stuff.

You knew how to use the weapons?

Actually, the escort leader, he had been a sniper in the army, in the
military, so he knew exactly what he wants.

When you would receive an AR-15, would you convert it to automatic?

Sometimes, yeah. There was a person in Mexico that could do that
change. Just adding a little piece of metal. In Spanish is the safety
thing. Don't know it in English.

So you always had American weapons?

Yeah, actually, the MP5s we got were made in Germany , but they brought
them from the U.S.

Always automatic?

Yes sir.

What do you do now?

Manual job. I'm a craftsman or something like that.

How long did you work for the organization?

Three years.

When you received these weapons, did you take away the serial numbers?

No sir. It isn't necessary ... Most of the times, the local
authorities, the state police or the municipal police, they protect us
all the time, so we don't need to erase nothing. We don't cover the
parts or nothing.

Did you keep your weapon, the same one, all the time, or was there a
central warehouse, where were these weapons kept?

When we were in service, because we had days off too, we kept the
weapons all the time with us. But when we were tourists, there were
safety houses, each small group have their own safety houses to keep
the weapons and vehicles and every kind of stuff. So before you go to
the home, you have to pass through the safety house, leave all your
equipment, weapons and everything, and then you go to the home.

It's interesting to me because there was a ban on these kind of guns,
you couldn't buy these guns very easily, how did you get these assault
weapons?

I don't have no idea.

Where did you get the military weapons?

We received hand grenades all the time. From the U.S. , we don't know
where they came from. One time we got some oldie machine guns, this
one with three-foot stand, it was brought. There were two of them.
They were Browning, I guess. Caliber 7.62. And some grenade launchers,
Just the grenade launcher, that you can put on the guard-hand to the
rifle. That kind of grenade launcher.

<!--pagebreak-->

How did you get ammunition?

When we need some ammo, just cross somebody who can come here to the
United States legally. They would go to the store and buy some ammo.
Whatever the caliber because you don't need an ID or be a citizen or
resident or nothing.

How much ammunition did you see?

Buckets filled with it. You could enter into the safety houses and see
buckets full of ammunition. So you could go and see whatever caliber
do I need and take your own ammunition, magazines and everything.
There's no restriction for buying. There weren't, but I don't know if
there is already.

What did you use these weapons for?

Oh, (to) kill people, or hurt people. Use them as a tool for kidnap
and for escort drugs.

After you hurt or killed somebody, did you keep the weapons or throw them?

Yes sir. The same gun to kill persons in different events. If you are
caught with the weapons, they never noted that the weapon was used in
so many crimes. They don't do the investigation, how do you say the
CSI things, tests for the weapons to match the crimes. They don't do
that in Mexico , so it was no problem to keep the same weapon.

How many people in your group?

In my escort group, about 40 persons.

Was everybody armed better than the local police or the military?

Yeah, but a lot of, for the first thing, we got uniforms. The local
police didn't have uniforms. Many times, they couldn't afford them. We
had better vehicles. Better radio communications, and much better
weapons because we had automatic and the same weapons and we had ammo
in it. Sometimes we cuff some cops and take their weapons and they
don't have ammo. I remember one time we took a pistol from a guy who
tried to stop us, so when we take the weapon, I show it to my boss and
I told him, he has no ammo and he tried to stop us. What is he
thinking about? The most times, we were better armed than the local
police. Not the army, just the local police.

Why is all this happening, all this shooting and killing, decapitations?

It's a big war. Many organizations started war in two or three
different fronts at the same time, so they are making alliances with
another group who has money to get weapons and to get supplies for
keep the war. I mean there are groups who has the training because all
the members are military, but there are groups that have the money
because they are working more often with drugs here to the U.S. so
they are receiving more money. These groups are working together to
fight their enemies.

Why not just stay in the military?

I told you, I had a problem in the military, so I left the military.
About a couple of months then I met him and he offered me the work ...
.. It was a legal problem. I was working on a special commission and I
had a legal problem over there.

Were there a lot of military people like you who were going to the cartel?

Yeah.

What were their reasons?

Many reasons. Some for the money. Some for they have nothing to do ...
.. As your work, you know a lot of people. As you go to one part, you
say, I know this guy and I know this guy. And that guy knows another
two. It's a long chain.

<!--pagebreak-->

And they only paid you $500 a week? That's a lot of money to you?

It wasn't too much for me, but it was enough in that moment. When I
started to work for him. Then some of us got a raise $1,000 per week.

Did you ever get bonuses?

Sometimes, yeah.

What were your favorite weapons you always got in America ?

M-16, AR-15 and HK.

How were they kept or stored?

We get them in safety houses. We have a little storage for the
weapons. They were not a main storage, but each group had their own
safehouse. There were a lot of little storage of weapons around the
cities where we were working at. The same way the ammo. You could find
buckets full of ammo, divided by calibers. For rifles or for hand
weapons.

They never told you to go easy on ammunition?

No, 'cuz it's a tool for that work. You can't limit the use of that
'cuz it's a tool. It's a tool for the job.

You were always more powerful?

The police in most of the cities of Mexico are bad armed, so we had
better power of fire than them. They are getting stuff, even the
grenades, on the Internet and asking them to be sent to Mexico City .
They bring it to your house, there's no inspection, theres; nothing,
cuz in Mexico , nothing happens.

Read more about Mexico 's drug war:

Clash of the cartels: a guide

Meet the drug lords

Investigation: US retailers fuel Mexico 's drug wars
Source URL (retrieved on May 11, 2009 12:14 ):
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/mexic...iew-hitman

What the Hell is going on down here? The media will not even look at what is hapening this is the Mexican epidemic. how do we stop the killings?... how do we let the American people know what we just found?... Two of these bodies have been ID as missing America's..., Washington DC and Homeland just told this Task Force crew... 'We are looking into this".., same thing they told them in March before the Swine flu outbreak... that is what they Told us last month when we received a phone from the Gov of NM. That is what Senator John Kerry told the media when he was down here in March.

We were in Columbus New Mexico across from Palomas Mexico yesterday (Sunday May 10 09.., and the town people told us they are scared to even talk about what is going on in Columbus... they said they have begged Homeland Security to come down so they can show them... The only respond they have received to date is "We are looking into it and we have a plan". A fricking forum letter.

People die and its not from the flu. boy what a can of worms our elected officials are.

note: Released today Palomas Mexico/Columbus NM 3:57 P.M. to be media release review: ........

10 BODIES FOUND UP TO NOW IN TWO GRAVES
- SOME OF THE BODIES ARE INTACT
- COYOTES AND OTHER SCANVENGERS SPREAD REMAINS THROUGHOUT THE DESERT AREA (IT WILL BE DIFFICULT TO IDENTIFY THOSE REMAINS)
- THE CLOTHING ON SOME OF THE BODIES IS STILL INTACT (MEANING THEY MAY HAVE RECENTLY BEEN BURIED)
- PIECES OF DETERIORATING CLOTHING, DUCT TAPE AND BULLET SHELL HAVE BEEN FOUND AT THE SITE
- THE HEAD OF ONE OF THE BODIES WAS COMPLETELY WRAPPED WITH DUCT TAPE
- POLICE LOOKING INTO MISSING PERSON CASES IN PALOMAS AND NEARBY AREA TO SEE IF THEY MAY BE SOME OF THE BODIES FOUND AT THE SITE

Tosh Plumlee Wrote:[image posted mentioned that Los Zetas was comprised of ex-military men in Mexico that makes up enforcement arm of the Gulf drug cartel.

http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/vie...01f6df8d2f


http://www.elandar.com/bush/amigos.html

Quote:by Julie Reynolds
Research assistance by Victor Almazán and Ana Leonor Rojo

Those who say that George W. Bush has scant knowledge of foreign affairs don’t understand his family’s relationship with Mexico.

If one event could be said to make that relationship visible, it had to be the state dinner given eleven years ago by President Bush for Mexico’s president, Carlos Salinas. It was an elegant yet boisterous gala, where the biggest movers and shakers in Texas and Mexico congregated and celebrated. This group was to become W’s Mexican legacy, a gift of ties and connections passed on from the father to his son.

What was not visible was that the group included two men with numerous links to drug cartel figures. These men helped George W. Bush win the Latino vote in Texas. Which raises a few questions: How did these guys get into the Bush circle? What else do they do for him? And, to rephrase a famous query, what did the presidential candidate know and when did he know it?

A glance around the fourteen tables at the 1989 dinner showed that pains were taken to arrange them so that no one appeared more important than the others. There was a smattering of celebrities — Anthony Quinn, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Barbara Walters and Larry King. Bush’s son Jeb and his Mexican wife Columba joined the soirée, too.

The Mexican president had spent a long day with President Bush signing trade pacts, the precursors of NAFTA. Salinas brought his so-called Dream Team: his commerce secretary, finance minister, and his personal Machiavelli, Jose Córdoba. It would later be astounding to see, as the decade unfolded, how many of that administration’s proud men and women fell shamefully from grace — some exiled, some imprisoned and some assassinated.

No one knew it then, but many at that banquet would survive to one day help young W beat a path back to the White House. There were loyal “Bushfellas” who were old friends of the family: Commerce Secretary Robert Mosbacher Sr., General Colin Powell, and George Bush Senior’s ever-present friend, Secretary of State James Baker. Gary Jacobs, whose Texas bank was about to be bought by the son of Mexico’s billionaire-politico Carlos Hank González, was also a guest. Tony Garza, then a young judge, is now a Bush cabinet contender. Today, all are advisors or contributors to W’s campaign.

Hidden among the glitterati were two relative unknowns. They were, however, familiar to the group at hand. They were the loyal “Amigos de Bush” from San Antonio: criminal defense lawyer Roy Barrera Jr. and car dealer Ernesto Ancira Jr. In contrast to the Salinas group, the ties of Barrera and Ancira to drug cartels would remain unnoticed for another decade. Their ties to George W. would grow stronger.


In the Name of the Father

George Bush Sr. began his family’s relationship with Mexico in the 1960s, when his Zapata Offshore Oil Company was partner in a border-region oil company called Perforaciones Marinas del Golfo (Permargo), with Jorge Díaz Serrano.

In 1988, the financial newspaper Barron’s reported that the two Jorges — Bush and Díaz Serrano — used prestanombres (“name-lenders”) to hide Bush’s investment in Permargo from the Mexican government, skirting Mexican foreign-ownership laws. Barron’s also accused the Securities and Exchange Commission of destroying related documents after Bush became vice president in 1981.

Bush Sr. met Carlos Salinas’s father, Raúl Salinas Lozano, back when the latter was Mexico’s commerce secretary. The families’ friendship has continued through the years. Raúl Salinas, the president’s brother, has told investigators that Jeb and Columba Bush joined him three times for vacations at his hacienda Las Mendocinas. It was the same estate where he reportedly hosted an infamous 1990 party for the cream of Mexico’s drug cartels, which Jeb and Columba did not attend.

Twelve years ago presidents-elect Carlos Salinas de Gortari and George Bush Sr. met in Texas in a meeting that was called “The Spirit of Houston.”

“That meeting shaped the relationship between both countries for years to come,” Antonio Ocarranza, former Zedillo aide and president of the consulting firm Public Strategies Inc.(PSI) office in Mexico City told the Dallas Morning News. PSI is owned by several generous George W. Bush supporters, including Bush pioneer Roger Wallace.

Today, as governor of Texas, George W. Bush has assumed the role his father once had as president. He meets regularly with Mexican officials, from President Zedillo to Secretary of Energy Luis Téllez, to discuss joint energy pacts and trade issues.

“I’ve had foreign policy as the governor of Texas, and that is with Mexico,” George W. Bush said during the New Hampshire primary.

While he is in public shaking hands, Bush’s friend Ernesto Ancira works backstage in the international energy sector. Which comes naturally: Ancira’s family and their partners practically own the energy business in Mexico. The Bushes, of course, know everyone in the oil business in the US. It’s a nice match, the Bushes and the Anciras.

Let me make one thing clear: there is no evidence that Ernesto himself runs afoul of the law. Ancira is, rather, a point man in what Mexican journalist Juan Ruiz Healy calls “El Grupo Texano de George W. Bush.” He happens to have quite a few friends who are connected with drug cartels. In addition, there are some disturbing links between Ernesto’s group of friends in San Antonio and the assassination of Mexican politician José Francisco Ruíz Massieu. Since Ernesto has been a friend and a helper to the man who may be president, I believe they are connections worth exploring.


“ERNESTO IS VERY FRIENDLY, very fun-loving,” a real estate agent told me as we cruised Ernie Ancira’s turf, “The Dominion,” a securely-gated San Antonio development where a number of Mexico’s elite have invested in million-dollar homes.

Ernie, she said, loves to barbecue. Has money. Likes to socialize.

Ernie — auto dealer Ernesto Ancira, Jr. — is one of San Antonio’s most popular and respected business leaders. Every year, he’s in the lists of top Latino entrepreneurs. Last April, his Ancira Enterprises Inc. made the number two slot — with $575 million in revenue — in Hispanic magazine’s list of the fastest-growing Latino companies.

“My mother was paranoid about her kids’ success,” he once said. “It’s like there was a tremendous hurry to accomplish.”

Truly a binational man, Ernesto Ancira Jr., was born in San Antonio in 1944, but spent his formative years close to his industrialist cousins in Mexico, who are in-laws of the Salinas family. In the 1960s he rose to become the top assistant to his mentor, Claudio X. González, one of the country’s most powerful businessmen. González later became President Salinas’s foreign investment advisor.

Ancira’s family in Mexico has long been part of the power elite. The Ancira name is prominent in the city of Monterrey; that northern commercial center’s most elegant old hotel bears the name of Hotel Ancira.

But in the 1970s, the Ancira family ran into problems back in Texas. Ernie’s father was implicated in a money laundering scandal at his company, San Antonio Foreign Exchange. The elder Ancira moved back to Mexico, but there he was named by US authorities as a participant in an $8 million tax fraud scheme.

Ernie Junior, however, chose to return to Texas and prosper. In San Antonio, he hooked up with an ex-FBI agent and former city manager, Ralph Winton, and in 1972 they started a used car business together. Within a scant six years, Ancira bought out his partner, and Ancira Winton Chevrolet was earning $150 million and growing.

Ernesto became a civic leader and a Republican heavyweight. He chaired the Alamo Bowl and still heads the Southwestern Bell PGA Golf Tournament. He was LULAC’s 1987 Empresario of the Year, and he received a MALDEF Corporate Responsibility Award the same year.

And he met the Bushes. He co-chaired “Adelante con Bush” when George Senior ran for president, and along the way, he befriended George W. He is one of the folks George W. Bush’s people call his “100 closest friends,” a group that kicked off W’s presidential campaign last year with $1000 donations.

Ancira learned to schmooze with politicians big and small, sometimes annoying local Republicans when he supported an occasional Democrat. He paid for a 1994 trip for Congressman Henry Bonilla to meet Mexican officials in Ciudad Victoria. Twice he bestowed travel gifts on Bush’s Commerce Secretary Robert Mosbacher, Sr. He reportedly piloted his Cessna to host airborne meetings so that Mosbacher and his Mexican counterpart, Jaime Serra, could privately discuss NAFTA. Young Ernie was a millionaire, a friend of the Bushes, and he was literally flying high. His family — movers and shakers all — would have expected no less.


Early Cartel Connections

As he developed business and political contacts, Ernesto Ancira also cultivated friendships with men connected to Mexican drug cartels. One of the first was financier Guillermo Ávila.

As early as 1987, Ávila was part of an Ernesto Ancira troika, a flashy threesome-about-town starring Ancira, Ávila and developer Gustavo García. The three were often seen together in San Antonio in the late 1980s, until Ávila and his partners were busted for drug money laundering.

Ernesto wrote to the US Attorney in the case and said that Ávila was a “responsible individual” who had a “positive impact on our community.” Their kids even went to the same private school.

But Ávila and his partners had transferred $500,000 of supposed drug money — provided by a law enforcement sting — in and out of accounts in the US, Mexico, the Cayman Islands and the British Virgin Islands. In addition, Ávila owned an El Paso house that was raided in connection with the seizure of 21 tons of cocaine from his brother-in-law’s Sylmar, California warehouse, an all-time international record. The Juarez cartel’s Carlos Tapia Anchondo was living in Ávila’s home, and the drugs belonged to one of the cartel’s top men, Rafael Muñoz Talavera.

When he entered the courtroom, Ávila winked at friends and family. But when the prosecutors played tapes of the defendants accepting “dirty” money, the party was over.

Ávila was found guilty of conspiracy to launder monetary instruments on behalf of drug traffickers. Incredibly, he served a little over a year in prison. Afterward, he was banished from the US and moved to San Luis Potosí. The boss, Rafael Muñoz Talavera, was gunned down on a Juarez street in 1998.

Ávila got off easy. He could credit his astute attorney, Roy Barrera Sr., whose son and partner Roy Jr. was a guest of the Bushes at the White House dinner. “Little Roy” is now a top-notch trial lawyer and a close Bush advisor.

Though Roy Senior is a Democrat, Little Roy is a staunch Republican who has been in the trenches with W and Ernesto Ancira ever since they all campaigned for President Bush in the late 1980s, under the banner of “Adelante con Bush.”

It was during those campaign years that George Junior bonded with many of his Latino allies in the state and made the friends he would later lean on when his political ambitions got into gear. By and large, the Latino alliances Bush touts so loudly these days are not social workers or school teachers, and they are certainly not working-class. Like most in W’s circle, they are Texas heavy-hitters who got rich from their astute blending of business and politics.

Barrera Jr. quickly got close to the Bush family, and has stayed close. Both Bushes campaigned for him when he ran for state attorney general in 1986. In ‘88, he was part of a group of eight Bush allies called the “Victory Squad.” During the president’s 1992 campaign, Little Roy and Barbara Bush even teamed up and drove a mobile home from Austin to San Antonio to stump for the candidate. That same year, Barrera became head of the Bexar County (San Antonio) Republican party and has chaired it ever since.

Once one of the youngest judges in Texas, Roy now fancies himself as Bush’s right arm. He recently passed business cards around at a national conference of credit unions, saying that he represented the governor’s office. Last winter, Barrera braved the ice with W to knock on New Hampshire doors before the primary, and this summer he was one of the few Latino delegates at the Republican National Convention.

Ernie Ancira was among the friends and fans at Roy Jr.’s fortieth birthday bash at San Antonio’s Macaroni Grill, reported in detail by the San Antonio Express News. The group took turns roasting each other: handsome, charismatic Ernie almost stole the show from Roy. He was jokingly named “the new wet dream of the Republican party, Otto von Ancira,” by Republican Judge Tom Rickhoff. Roy and Ernie, both good-looking, became hot young GOP legends. They were touted as part of the “Republican Comeback,” said to embody the New Republican: young, wealthy and Hispanic.

But old ghosts have repeatedly blocked the course of Little Roy’s political life. During Barrera’s ill-fated 1986 attorney general’s race, Vice President Bush hailed him as an “outstanding young Texan,” and said Barrera would “stand up to the drug pushers in our schools and in our state.”

But the fact is, Roy has earned a slice of his income from the drug pushers’ bosses, and he’s done a decent job of keeping them out of prison, too. The Barreras, father and son, have a unique distinction: they are among Texas’s best narco-lawyers.

And we’re not talking school-yard pushers. Along with Corpus Christi attorney Tony Canales, the two Barreras represent the cream of criminals from Mexican cartels when they have the bad fortune to get dragged before US courts.

Among the choice clients the Barreras have defended are the Juárez cartel’s US “coordinator” Juan Chapa Garza (now serving thirty years for drug trafficking and money laundering), and Mario Alberto Salinas Treviño, a cocaine runner and alleged murderer, whom the FBI also links to the 1985 murder of Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent Enrique Camarena. But there is one Barrera client who stands out as the most fantastic and treacherous of all: the “consigliero” of the Gulf cartel, Enrique Fuentes León.

“There are going to be more deaths, eh?”

Fuentes León, the cartel’s lawyer arrived in San Antonio in 1991, a time when, financially and politically, the Anciras were on top of the world. They were building their empire in Mexico under Salinas and in Texas under the Bushes.

Enrique Fuentes León joined the Ancira and Gus García troika, replacing the now-exiled Ávila.

It was during this time that Ernesto and his cousins began to invest in luxury real estate, and the others — the Mexican industrial elite — joined him. Ernesto got in on the new gated golf course development north of San Antonio, The Dominion, where Guillermo Ávila once sat on the board, and Ernie still sits.

Behind the imposing stone arch, the Ancira family’s neighbors are a who’s who of Mexico’s corporate and government power structure. The Zambrano-Treviños of the giant cement firm CEMEX bought property there, as did the head of Mexico’s Hotel-Motel Association and half a dozen other big shots. Many of them paid cash. Even the new President of Mexico’s brother, Rodolfo Zedillo, bought his Dominion house for cash in October 1994, right around the time he started an $8 million business deal funded by the Juárez cartel.

But by far the biggest piece of acreage in Dominion was bought by Enrique Fuentes León, a fugitive sought in Mexico for bribing judges on behalf of a rich Acapulco playboy who raped, tortured and killed a six-year old girl. Fuentes León fled to Chile, then Argentina. Then he arrived in Texas with a visa that said he was an investor.

Invest he did. Fuentes León bought some one hundred-plus acres in Dominion in the early 90s, and he soon acquired over $6 million in San Antonio real estate.

The DEA reportedly grew interested in him when he represented Gulf “capo” Juan García Ábrego in a Matamoros trial. Though he was still wanted in Mexico, Fuentes León somehow traveled in and out of the country often, using brand-new Mexican passports. A law enforcement investigator in charge of Fuentes León’s arrest told me that Ancira sometimes flew Fuentes León in his private plane, but Ancira says he never met him.

The investing continued. In 1993, Fuentes León, and a group of investors attempted to purchase the San Antonio Light newspaper, but the Hearst Corporation — or perhaps the Justice Department, which usually looks into major newspaper sales — never accepted the offers. Fuentes León did buy the popular disco Planeta Mexico owned by Ancira’s friend in the energy sector, Rogelio Gasca Jr. A new partner, Manuel Pacheco, came in on the deal but was later arrested and given a fifteen-year sentence for money-laundering.

With his visa about to expire, Fuentes León made fruitless pleas to America’s high and mighty — including George W. Bush, who called his father, the president, on Fuentes León’s behalf (see El Andar Winter ‘99). Fuentes León was finally arrested, and attempted bribery and drug money-laundering charges were ready to be filed against him, too.

The Barreras took the case.

At the hearing, a remarkable tape was played, recorded while Fuentes León arranged to bribe an undercover INS agent. The tape was made in the summer of 1994, a few months after the assassination of presidential candidate Luis Donaldo Colosio. Fuentes León bragged that his son Enrique, also a lawyer, was “one of Zedillo’s people.” In a moment of bravado, Fuentes León told the INS agent, “I know how they killed Colosio.” And he said something even more chilling: “In the end, in August... there are going to be deaths and all that shit, eh? ... There are going to be more deaths.”

And so it was: José Francisco Ruíz Massieu, the Guerrero governor who had wanted Fuentes León to face charges in Mexico, was assassinated soon after. El Financiero columnist Jorge Fernández reported that Ruíz Massieu was scheduled to be killed in August, but because of a problem with one of the would-be hit men, the event actually took place in September.

Raúl Salinas, the president’s brother, was eventually convicted for authoring the murder. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) agents insisted that another man wanted for orchestrating the assassination’s logistics was with Fuentes León moments before his arrest in San Antonio. The man, Manuel Muñoz Rocha, simply walked away, because at the time the agents didn’t know he was a fugitive with a $1 million price on his head. The INS official in charge of the arrest, Gary Renick, says that all three agents who were present separately identified Muñoz Rocha from photos. Now retired, Renick still says he is convinced that Muñoz Rocha was present at Fuentes León’s arrest.

An employee of Fuentes León then testified she overheard her boss talking with a man she was sure was Ernesto Ancira’s friend Gustavo García, just a few days after the murder occurred. The employee said that she believes she heard the men talk about the murder and she is sure that they said they needed to send more money to “Muñoz.”

The DEA has reportedly found that a top drug enforcement officer on the Gulf cartel payroll met with Fuentes León and Muñoz Rocha in a “city in the United States” a few weeks before the killing. And an FBI report noted that one witness told agents that Fuentes León “has a lot of information about Ruiz Massieu.”

Manuel Muñoz Rocha disappeared at the very moment of Fuentes León’s arrest, and was never officially seen again. But one curious footnote to his San Antonio stay lingers: Muñoz Rocha’s visa, which he used to enter and leave the US a few weeks before and after Ruiz Massieu’s assassination, listed a conspicuous address: “The Dominion, San Antonio.”

Gus García: The Third Man

With the third member of Ancira’s San Antonio troika, developer Gustavo García, the Grupo Texano became a multinational operation.

García has been under investigation by the DEA for cocaine trafficking in Florida and Venezuela, and by local police for money laundering in San Antonio. He has not been charged.

He’s head of the Brita water purification franchise in Mexico, and he owns around a hundred million dollars’ worth of San Antonio real estate along with his partner, Lebanese-Mexican businessman Anuar Name (pronounced nah-may).

The only visible sign of Name’s presence in San Antonio is the gleaming office tower he and Gus García own together. The Mercantile building is an impressive, mirrored ribbon of a building, and García wanted to buy it for several years but couldn’t come up with the money. Then, after a lengthy trip to Mexico, he returned victorious, representing Anuar Name, a multi-million-dollar financier of the Salinas campaign.

Name, too, had blemishes on his reputation, but they weren’t well-known. Newspapers reported that Name co-owned a Tijuana disco together with a member of the Caro-Quintero drug cartel of Sonora. Name is also an associate of Egyptian arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi, a friend of Raúl Salinas, and a partner of PRI king-maker Carlos Hank González, whose family has been investigated in the US, Costa Rica and Mexico for links to drug cartels, murder and money laundering (See El Andar Summer/Fall ‘99).

García bought the Mercantile building for Anuar Name in February 1992 for $5 million — in cash. “I have some major tenants looking at it,” García told reporters. Soon after, Name’s friends the Hank family moved in, leasing the entire ground floor for Carlos Hank Jr.’s Laredo National Bank. There, too, Ernesto Ancira installed campaign headquarters for his 1992 run for Texas State Senator.

Anuar Name’s circle also includes Joseph Audi, of the Lebanese Bank Audi, a “private, personal bank” with branches in Beirut, Geneva, Paris, Luxembourg and New York that has been involved in a multi-million dollar arms running and money-laundering scandal. The bank was not charged, but a $6 million account was frozen and one of its depositors was charged with arms running and money laundering.

In late 1993 and early 1994, Name and García re-financed their building several times over (for $1 to $5 million each time), a large part of which came from none other than Name’s friendly neighborhood banker, Bank Audi.

But Bank Audi has a more auspicious claim to fame: its Geneva branch was the issuing bank of a $599,985 payment that made its way through several banks until it landed in an account belonging to Manuel Muñoz Rocha and a hit man convicted in the assault that killed Jose Francisco Ruiz Massieu.

Investigators have never determined who owned that original account in Bank Audi.

The Amigos de Bush

Ernie and Roy Barrera campaigned for President Bush in 1992, and they celebrated what looked like an easy re-election with George W at a “Super Tuesday” rally for the Texas primary. Ancira also thought he was a shoo-in in his run for the state senate, especially when both Bushes came out to campaign for him. George W. optimistically greeted Ernie as “Mr. Senator” well before the election took place.

But Ernesto and President Bush lost on the same depressing day in November, 1992 — Ancira lost the state senate and Bush, the presidency of the United States.

1994 was a turbulent year for the Grupo Texano. Things happened quickly, and so dramatically that the scene was brutal, intoxicating. NAFTA, the jewel in the crown of all involved, from Salinas to the Bushes to Mosbacher to the Anciras, became reality on January first. The same day, Zapatista rebels declared war on the Mexican government, followed by bloody massacres and international outcry. By fall Mexico had suffered the assassinations of Colosio and Ruiz Massieu. Ernesto Zedillo — a Yale man just like the Bushes — was elected President. Then the peso collapsed. Lucky for them, most of Mexico’s wealthy class had already put their money into dollar-based investments — such as San Antonio real estate. So things were looking up, especially after George W. was elected.

The Bush for Governor campaign was easy. The Amigos de Bush — W’s Latino support group — rallied heavily for their man. Bush’s people were elated that he had garnered 29 percent of the Latino vote, approaching the record 38 percent Roy Barrera had earned in his bid for state attorney general. Back in that 1986 race, both Bushes had stumped for Barrera, holding “Voy Con Roy” barbecue fundraisers and rallies. In ‘94, Roy was more than happy to return the favor and celebrate George W’s victory, and especially his coup with the Hispanic vote. After all, Roy and the “Amigos” helped him win it.

Ancira, another “Amigo de Bush,” was feeling good, too. He was rewarded with two Bush appointments: first to the Texas State Workers Comp Board, then to a coveted advisory board position at the University of Texas School of Business. George W.’s influential friend James Leininger gave Ernie a board position in his new conservative think tank, the Texas Public Policy Foundation.

Almost immediately, Governor Bush had to tackle a problem presented by Ernesto’s young cousins from Mexico. The Anciras had teamed up with an old school chum, pharmaceutical heir Xavier Autrey, during President Salinas’s privatization free-for-all of the late 1980s. The “A” kids maneuvered six million dollars of other peoples’ money into billions, buying up mining and energy companies, as well as Mexico’s largest steel company, Altos Hornos de Mexico (AHMSA). Soon their companies were accused of being fronts for the drug trade, and were described as such by analyst R.C. Whalen at a 1993 US congressional hearing. Together with a secretive binational strip-mining operation called Dos Republicas, the Anciras tried to get a Tex-Mex energy deal going by re-vamping a decrepit coal-burning power plant on the border, named Carbon II. They convinced the World Bank, Citibank and Southern California Edison to invest over $250 million in the project. It was a disaster.

The Anciras’ reputation sank as fast as a rust-eaten bucket, and partners and investors began to look for ways out. The Ancira family was accused by shareholders of wasting extraordinary amounts of money on corporate jets, limousines and other luxuries. Not to mention their extensive purchases of San Antonio real estate. Just last year, while the company amassed nearly $2 billion in debt and had to suspend payments, the Anciras began quietly moving property titles to Cayman Island holding companies, with the help of their front man Marcelo Sánchez.

Carbon II should have been the kind of project Governor Bush would have embraced: a model energy venture between Mexico and the US. But as environmentalists’ complaints about air pollution grew louder, Bush’s comments grew guarded. By the time of the project’s final demise in 1995 — due to mismanagement as well as the fact that its approval by Salinas had been blatantly illegal — Bush was given credit for heeding environmental concerns.

By the time his 1998 re-election rolled around, W was already said to be working on his run for the White House, and in Texas he once again relied on the Latino vote. He was also working to strengthen energy ties with Mexico. That fall, he held a press conference with Mexico’s Secretary of Energy Luis Téllez. Together they promised a new era in which Texas and Mexico would essentially erase the border and create a “common market” for gas and electricity production and consumption, as well as an integrated electrical network.

One month later, with help from the Amigos de Bush, George W. surpassed Roy Barrera’s record and pulled in a hefty 39 to 49 percent of the Latino vote. He won in a landslide. He was already counting on the Republican presidential nomination.

Still Running with Wolves

It’s been a wild ride since the 1989 White House dinner. Bush Sr. lost the presidency, and he and his wife Barbara are now campaigning for their son. Carlos Salinas is self-exiled in Ireland and Cuba. His brother Raúl is in prison.

This year, Roy Barrera Jr. is on the campaign trail with W. He has “rumbled,” say the papers, about running for governor. But the shadow of past relationships continues to haunt him.

Last year, Barrera Jr. landed in the hot seat. He represented millionaire Allan Blackthorne after the contract-style murder of Blackthorne’s ex-wife, Sheila Bellush. The case made national headlines because Bellush was stabbed to death in front of her toddler quadruplets, and they crawled in her blood until they were found.

The hit man, José Del Toro, fled to Mexico and was represented by none other than Barrera’s old Gulf cartel client, the prestigious office of Enrique Fuentes León. Barrera was dropped as Blackthorne’s lawyer, and the US Justice Department began investigating who paid Del Toro’s presumably high-priced legal bills. Del Toro said, in a taped interview, that he was told by his U.S. lawyer that Barrera had hired Fuentes León. Roy’s father admits that the Barreras and the Fuentes León family have remained close through the years. The Justice Department’s findings have not been revealed.

Roy Barrera, however, is rumored in the press to be hoping for a ride with W. to Washington, his eye on a cabinet position. Bush aides say it’s premature to talk about it, but Texas is all a-buzz with murmurs.


ERNESTO ANCIRA’S car dealership is expected to top $600 million in sales this year. Ancira was one of the first to donate to Bush’s presidential exploratory committee, but lately has remained behind the scenes. Surprisingly, the Republic National Committee and Bush campaign people in charge of Hispanic outreach say they’ve never heard of Ancira. “He must be very grass roots,” a spokesperson told me.

Well, not exactly.

Ernie can’t stop getting involved with guys who get in trouble. He’s now one of the “heavy hitters” paying $1,000 each to host a September fundraiser for State Senator Frank Madla, who is under investigation by a federal grand jury. Apparently Madla accepted inappropriate favors from Eddie “The Bingo King” García, murdered in 1998 in what prosecutors called a contract hit.

The Ancira name surfaced again in August when former Mexico City mayor Oscar Espinosa became a fugitive, under an arrest warrant for embezzling $45 million of the people’s money. Mexican newspapers reported he was last seen under the protection of armed guards, provided by the Anciras in their company town in Coahuila.

Gus García’s patron Anuar Name has been named by Mexican law enforcement as the business partner of a ex-governor running from charges of taking Juárez cartel payoffs.


RIGHT AFTER MEXICO’S July elections, some members of the winning PAN party have clamored for the country to re-open investigations into the assassination of Ruiz Massieu and Muñoz Rocha’s activities in San Antonio. Private investigator J. Alberto Villasana told the PAN president in a July 15 letter, “I believe that since Fox and the PAN have won, we should be aware of a very delicate matter: we will soon be facing binational criminal groups to which the previous administrations have been accomplices.”

In Mexico today, there is a changing of the guard. But president-elect Vicente Fox has made it clear that the trend toward massive privatization of industries will continue at full speed — even Robert Mosbacher has hinted he’d like the national oil company Pemex to hurry up and privatize, and he might like a job there, too.

If he is elected, Bush has promised there will be a “special relationship” with Mexico. In his family, the special relationship has long been there.

So — goes the logic — if Ernie has a few unpleasant friends and partners, what of it? Ditto for Bush’s self-proclaimed “representative,” Roy Barrera. As long as he hasn’t touched the dirty goods himself, Bush has been able to benefit from these men’s vote-winning and trade-promoting influence. Does this make Bush guilty by association? If he didn’t know about their cartel connections, probably not. (I called his campaign office and asked if the Governor knew about these relationships, and did not receive a response by press time.) But the question has to be asked: if some of us far outside of the Bush camp know about those connections, how come Bush didn’t?

George W. Bush has made his lust for the Latino vote clear. “If you say a million, I want you to spend two million. If you say you need four million, I want you to spend eight,” W told Lionel Sosa, head of the Bush Latino media campaigns.

What is not clear is who Bush will be willing to consort with to earn that vote. And, if he wins the presidency, what is the true nature of the special relationship he will forge between our two nations, the US and Mexico, in the coming years?

Julia Reynolds is the editorial director of El Andar.

© 2000 El Andar Media Inc.

We don't hear much about this flu epidemic... everday many die of this type of the border flu from the Mexican cartels... Its already here in the USA Columbus New Mexico is a good example; six dead two Americans died last week.



Mexican Drug Trafficking by Air in Costa Rica

Authorities in Costa Rica released information this past week regarding the investigation of a May 1 helicopter crash in which nearly 900 pounds of cocaine were recovered. The cause of the crash is still undetermined, but government officials have identified the two bodies found at the scene as a Mexican passenger reportedly from Sinaloa state and the Costa Rican pilot, who flew for Costa Rica’s Public Security Ministry for 15 years before reportedly working as a private pilot for various hotels and businesses.
At the crash scene, investigators recovered three cellular phones, a briefcase, documents and the cocaine. Noticeably absent were the aircraft’s global positioning system and a small amount of cocaine, which led investigators to suspect that a third passenger may have been on board and survived the crash. Officials said that the removal of the navigational equipment has made it very difficult to trace the aircraft’s path before the crash, although there are reports that it took off from San Isidro and was headed to Turrialba, a town some 50 miles away, where the pilot was expected at a hotel.
Authorities have also said that they suspect the drug shipment was intended for the Sinaloa cartel, though it is unclear what evidence is being used as the basis for that assessment. Costa Rican immigration authorities have confirmed that three weeks before the crash, the pilot had spent a week in Mexico, though it is not known where he went or whom he met with. However, there are reports that several Mexican nationals — described as “investment partners” of the pilot — had been waiting at the hotel for the helicopter’s arrival.
While this appears to be the first documented case of Central American drug trafficking involving a helicopter, it matches many of the other characteristics of narcotics trafficking in the region. More specifically, the smuggling route appears to be composed of several short legs that employ a variety of vehicles and are apparently managed or coordinated by a Mexican national who has secured logistical support from locals. As more information is uncovered during this investigation, it may ultimately be possible to trace more closely the helicopter’s point of origin and ultimate destination, as well as the various actors involved along the way. Such information will be key to better understanding the new role that Central America is playing in the Western Hemisphere drug trade.
[URL="http://www1.stratfor.com/images/interactive/Mexico_Weekly_05_11_09.htm"]

[/URL]
May 4

• Authorities in Queretaro, Queretaro state, found the body of a former police chief and another police officer, each with a gunshot wound in the head.
  
• A firefight between police and alleged kidnappers left three people dead, including one officer, in Tequila, Jalisco state.
  
• Police in Santa Ana, Sonora state, found the body of an unidentified man in a trash receptacle with a single gunshot wound in the head.
  
• Authorities in Jesus Maria, Jalisco state, discovered a medium-sized methamphetamine production facility and recovered barrels of various chemicals and assorted weapons and ammunition.
  
• Authorities in Pilcaya, Guerrero state, reported recovering at least 11 bodies from a river. The bodies had been placed in plastic bags and were presumed to have been thrown into the river from a bridge.
  
• A federal police officer died in Mexico City when he was shot multiple times by two men in what appears to have been a targeted killing.
  

May 5

• One soldier died and six were wounded while pursuing a vehicle that failed to stop at a checkpoint and attempted to evade the military patrol. A second suspect vehicle joined the chase and opened fire on the military vehicle, causing its driver to lose control and crash into another vehicle.
  
• A soldier assigned to a battalion in Veracruz state was kidnapped in Culiacan, Sinaloa state, where he was reportedly on vacation. Authorities found the soldier’s body two days later.
  
• Police in Veracruz, Veracruz state, found the bodies of a former Petroleos Mexicanos spokesman and his wife in the couple’s apartment. Police are investigating a possible motive.
  
• An attorney and newspaper journalist in Santa Maria del Oro, Durango state, was reported to have been killed by being shot three times in the head.
  

May 6

• Authorities in Maravatio, Michoacan state, found the body of an unidentified man who appeared to have been tortured and castrated alive before being shot once in the head at close range.
  
• The body of an unidentified man was found in Acambaro, Michoacan state. Next to the body was a note, presumably from organized crime group La Familia, that read in part, “This is what happens to soldiers and rapists, there are still more, take care or get out, avoid this happening to you.”
  

May 7

• Police in Tijuana, Baja California state, found the bodies of two men, one of whom had been beheaded and wrapped in a plastic bag.
  
• Seven suspects were arrested in Las Choapas, Veracruz state, when they clashed briefly with police officers. The arrests occurred after police responded to a kidnapping attempt in which the suspects, presumed members of Los Zetas, reportedly entered the wrong home.
  

May 8

• Soldiers and federal police in Yucatan state arrested Rafael del Angel “El Fayo” Velez Morales, who allegedly is a Gulf cartel member in charge of activities in Cancun, Quintana Roo state. Five of Velez’s accomplices also were arrested.
  

May 9

• One man died in Arteaga, Michoacan state, when he was shot several times in what appeared to be a drive-by shooting.
  
• Gunmen traveling in two vehicles attacked a police building with fragmentation grenades in Lazaro Cardenas, Michoacan state. This is the second attack against the building in 2009.
  

WHO CARES? AMERICANS DON'T .... WE"RE TO LAZY TO CARE! KILL UM ALL AND LET GOD SORT UM' OUT!

Killings of 4 Americans in Tijuana sow fear


AP – A man walks through an empty Pasaje Gomez, a commercial corridor in Tijuana, Mexico, Friday, May 15, …



By GUILLERMO ARIAS and AMY TAXIN, Associated Press Writers Guillermo Arias And Amy Taxin, Associated Press Writers – 48 mins ago
TIJUANA, Mexico – The slayings of four young Americans in Tijuana sowed fear in Southern California on Friday as Mexican prosecutors tried to determine whether the youths were involved in the country's violent drug trade or innocent victims of a brutal crime.
The victims, two men and two women in their teens and early 20s, said they were headed for a night of partying across the border only to be found strangled, stabbed and beaten a few days later.
Mexican officials are investigating whether any of the four San Diego-area victims had ties to the drug trade, after a toxicology report tested positive for cocaine on the body of Brianna Hernandez, who was either 18 or 19.
Another victim, Oscar Jorge Garcia, 23, was apprehended in the San Diego area in January 2008 with six illegal immigrants in the car, but never charged in the case, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Lauren Mack said.
The parents of 20-year-old victim Carmen Jimena Ramos Chavez on Friday described a vibrant Chula Vista High graduate who worked at an amusement park for children and planned to become a hair stylist.
"She was a happy girl, with a desire to explore the world," said her father, Rogelio Ramos Camano, of Chula Vista. "Young people are like that. They think nothing will happen. I was like that, too."
Mexican prosecutors said the victims had been bound and tortured — common tactics by Mexican drug gangs — before being left in a van in a dusty slum on the outskirts of Tijuana.
Jose Manuel Yepiz, a spokesman for the Baja California state prosecutor's office, said investigators were examining a threatening letter to one of the victims from a jail inmate in San Diego.
Prosecutors said they had ruled out the possibility that the killings were a case of drug gangs targeting tourists.
Tijuana, which sits across the border from San Diego, has a reputation as one of Mexico's most violent border cities. Authorities said 843 people were slain there in 2008, many in drug-related violence.
Since taking office in December 2006, President Felipe Calderon has sent more than 45,000 soldiers to combat drug cartels in the country whose turf battles have killed more than 10,750 people over the last two-and-a-half years.
Violence had diminished in Tijuana in recent months, only to pick up a few weeks ago with seven police officers killed in brazen attacks on one day.
Victor Clark, a professor at San Diego State University's Center for Latin American Studies, said criminal ties with any one of the Americans could have spelled disaster for the group.
"Maybe they broke the rules, which means death" when dealing with Mexico's drug cartels, said Clark, a Tijuana resident and native. "And they dragged their friends down with them."
Relatives said the victims were familiar with both sides of the border and navigating the area's bilingual culture — but may have taken their safety for granted.
Ramos said he had often told his daughter, who was born in Tijuana but raised from a young age in the U.S., that Tijuana was too dangerous, and she assured him she was always careful.
But Ramos said he didn't offer any warnings as his daughter got ready ready to go out with her friend Brianna on May 7, even as he watched a news program about killings in Tijuana on Mexican television.

"I think God put that out there so I would do something, but I didn't dare," he said in Spanish, shaking his head, recalling how they were already primped and ready to go.
U.S. tourists, already warned by the U.S. State Department to be cautious in Mexico because foreign bystanders have been killed, now appear even less likely to visit once-popular destinations like Tijuana.
"I'm not going to T.J. unless it's absolutely necessary," Amelia Lopez, a friend of a victim told television station San Diego 6. "Before, you know, you go to eat or have a good time or shopping. Nothing like that."
___ Associated Press Writer Solvej Schou in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

This will perhaps be my last post on this subject. We have been pulled back from the border and the Task Force has been called back to Ft. Huchuca. The Mexican Army is being slowly pulled back, 1000 to go back to Mexico City next week and 3000 out by Sept.... The cartels have moved back into the old huants and have won this battle along the border. Homeland Security has their head in the sand.

Who cares? It does not effect us Americans. Right?

Fm,..TF 7 Intel Report... one of the last for me... disgusted at apathy... same ole' same ole'..

in Juarez this weekend: classified Task Force field report and recap xxxxxxxxxx xxxxxx Compare this to the flu outbreak.....

".... A very violent weekend across the border with at least 2 dozen homicides reported.
[size=12]O[/SIZE]ur Juarez media partner Channel 44 tells us there were 13 homicides across the river on Friday alone , two of those murders involved beheadings, police say the bodies of two men were found handcuffed , their heads laying on the ground near by, the gruesome discovery was in the small town of Porfirio Parra in the Juarez lower valley across from Fabens, on Saturday six persons were gunned down in Juarez , the six homicides included the shooting death of a 15 yr old Coronado High School student. On Sunday another 5 persons were found shot dead in different parts of Juarez. Big question is what happened to the Mexican army presence being a deterrent?

XXXXXXX



NOW FOR THE REST OF MEXICO:

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MEXICO SECURITY MEMO: MAY 18, 2009



Zacatecas Prison Break
More than 50 inmates were freed from a prison in Cieneguillas, Zacatecas state, in the early morning of May 16. The inmates reportedly were serving sentences for crimes relating to organized crime, and some of their identities were released as police released public safety bulletins during the ensuing manhunt. Several government officials stated that the group behind the prison break could be linked to the Gulf cartel or Los Zetas, though the basis for that assertion remains unclear.

Based on available information, the rescue occurred at 5 a.m. local time, lasted less than 10 minutes and did not involve a single shot being fired. It began when a group of armed men — some reportedly dressed as federal police officers — arrived at the prison in some 15 vehicles. According to one report, a helicopter also was involved in the rescue. Authorities said these and other details of the rescue suggest that prison officials were complicit in the escape, and nearly all prison guards and directors on duty at the time are in custody. That the prison officials appear to have been bought off also raises questions regarding the accuracy of their description of the rescue.

Though by no means the first such prison break in Mexico, this particular prison break is certainly noteworthy in terms of the coordination involved and the number of prisoners rescued at one time, as well as the fact that a helicopter may have been involved in the rescue (though it is unclear exactly what role it played). Regardless, prison breaks such as this one are an inevitable symptom of Mexico’s rampant corruption and weak judicial system, and can be expected to continue to play a role in the country’s cartel war.

ERPI: A Guerrilla Group's Re-emergence?
Reports surfaced this past week about the May 9-10 appearance of Comandante Ramiro (aka Omar Guerrero Solis), leader of the People’s Insurgent Revolutionary Army (ERPI), a left-wing guerrilla group based in Guerrero state. Ramiro appeared with some 30 ERPI comrades in a remote location in Guerrero, where he gave an interview to several journalists brought there by ERPI members to cover his statements and take photographs. It was Ramiro’s first such public appearance since his 2001 escape from prison.

In his statements, Ramiro accused the governor of Guerrero and the leader of the state’s cattle ranching union of creating paramilitary organizations to fight insurgents like those of ERPI. He claimed that ERPI for several years has battled these paramilitaries along with organized criminal groups, and he provided details of specific engagements as corroboration. These engagements already were well known, though Ramiro said authorities always described them as involving drug traffickers or organized crime, not insurgents. Ramiro also sought to distance himself from organized criminal groups such as drug-trafficking organizations, and accused President Felipe Calderon of protecting Sinaloa cartel leader Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman Loera — a common assertion among El Chapo’s enemies.

Based on these statements, very little appears to have changed in ERPI’s ideology, especially compared with the online communiques the group often releases. ERPI shares a similar ideology with the more well-known left-wing guerrilla group the Popular Revolutionary Army (EPR), from which its leaders split in 1998. While both groups carried out small-arms and sniper attacks on police and soldiers in the 1990s, EPR has more recently shifted its tactics to bomb attacks on buildings and infrastructure designed to limit the possibility of casualties. ERPI, on the other hand, claims to have continued using the same tactics to kill its enemies.

Even though STRATFOR cannot corroborate Ramiro’s claims that it was ERPI members — and not drug traffickers — involved in the firefights he cited, it is nonetheless significant that Ramiro has resurfaced. This development could suggest, for example, that his organization and support network have grown to the point where he is now able to make such appearances without jeopardizing his security. In this context, ERPI warrants a closer look in the coming weeks and months.




May 11

The bodies of two people were found inside a vehicle in Zihuatanejo, Guerrero state, each with several gunshot wounds.
Authorities in Acapulco and Zihuatanejo, Guerrero state, removed several banners hanging from highway overpasses directed at President Felipe Calderon and signed by La Familia.
A group of armed men surrounded and ambushed a patrol, killing three police officers and wounding two in La Huacana, Michoacan state.


May 12

Authorities at Mexico City International Airport seized more than 1,300 pounds of cocaine hidden in cargo on a flight from Colombia.
Two men died after being shot multiple times while driving in Navolato, Sinaloa state.
Soldiers in Ziracuaretiro, Michoacan state, seized more than 8 tons of methamphetamines from a production facility.


May 13

An alleged drug trafficker was wounded during a firefight with soldiers that began after an army patrol came across several men hauling a load of marijuana in Apaxtla de Castrejon, Guerrero state.
A police officer in Mocorito, Sinaloa state, was abducted from his home and later found dead. Police and soldiers responding to the kidnapping exchanged gunfire with the suspects, killing one.


May 14

Several armed men shot and killed a police officer and seven members of his family, including four minors, in Cunduacan, Tabasco state.
Police in Tijuana, Baja California state, identified three people killed May 9 as U.S. citizens. The victims were found wrapped in blankets and bearing signs of torture.
Several men killed a police commander and his bodyguard after opening fire on the pair in Aguascalientes, Aguascalientes state.
At least seven people were reported killed in separate organized crime-related violence in Sinaloa state, including a police officer shot dead near Los Mochis.


May 16

At least five people were reported dead in separate incidents in Sinaloa state, including a 74-year-old man found shot dead in Badiraguato.
A federal police officer was wounded after being shot several times while driving in Tarimbaro, Michoacan state.
A high-ranking police official in Tijuana, Baja California state, died after being shot multiple times while driving to work.

xxxxxxxxxxxx
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Tosh..... We will be pulling out June 1st.XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Well things are getting back to normal in Juarez now tthat the army is pulling out.

Also. Another person died in American from the Swine flu I think that makes four?





2 men shot to death, another wounded in south Juarez yesterday, witnesses told police the 3 were shot by a group of heavily armed
men , investigators say the suspects fired at least 30 rounds at the victims --counting the guy found in a drum inside a car trunk , thats at least 3 homicides yesterday in Juarez, ---once again Juarez is averaging between 3 and 5 homicides a day, more on weekends-,
if last Fridays 13 is any indication--cr

Dos hombres ejecutados y uno más herido de gravedad fue el saldo de un ataque perpetrado por un comando armado ayer en La Cuesta.

El incidente se registró aproximadamente a las 19:30 horas en las calles Cordillera de los Andes cruce con Sierra de Picacho, donde los tres hombres de entre 20 a 25 años se encontraban en el exterior de una vivienda.

De acuerdo a la versión de testigos los agresores viajaban en una camioneta Pathfinder gris y un Stratus blanco desde donde realizaron al menos 30 disparos.

Los balazos hicieron blanco en los tres hombres de los cuales dos murieron y uno más resulto herido.

Al darse el ataque las víctimas intentaron resguardarse de los disparos por lo que uno de ellos quedo debajo de un automóvil Linconl Town Car.

Tras la agresión dos hombres quedaron sin vida, mientras que uno de ellos recibió los impactos en una de las piernas, por lo que familiares lo llevaron de manera inmediata al Hospital Juárez que se encuentra a unos metros del lugar del incidente sobre la Cordillera de los Andes y Oscar Flores.

Una de las personas sin vida vestía una playera color naranja, pantaloncillo corto negro y tenis blancos, mientras que el otro una camiseta oscura y pantalón de mezclilla.

Después de unos minutos de ingresado al Hospital Juárez, familiares solicitaron el traslado del herido a otro nosocomio.
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The murder rate in Juarez is about equal to that in Houston, Texas.

http://www.khou.com/topstories/stories/k...3e2ce.html
January 3, 2009
HOUSTON -- For the second year in a row, the number of murders in Houston has declined. HPD believes the extra academy classes and overtime has put more of their men and women on the streets, resulting in a safer city. But one veteran homicide detective said there's another reason they are seeing less murders. He said it has to do with Houston’s EMS and their medical skills.

“Unfortunately, there is more violence going on. But we have an efficient system between the police department, the fire department, the hospitals and the trauma centers, so we're doing a better job of keeping those folks alive,” said Dr. David Persse, Director of Houston EMS.

In 2006, there were 376 homicides within the city limits. In 2007, the number dropped to 347, and in 2008, it dropped again to 292. ...