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+--- Thread: America's Mexican Border Wars (/thread-989.html)
America's Mexican Border Wars - Tosh Plumlee - 13-07-2009
from the LA Times July12
The 2 1/2-year offensive has uncovered deep corruption and sparked violent gang wars, presenting a stark reality: The longer and harder the war is fought, the more complex and daunting it becomes.
Reporting from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, and Mexico City -- In the baddest precinct of Mexico's most violent city, Jose Manuel Resendiz is the law.
The army officer packs two pistols and a semiautomatic rifle as he patrols the Delicias district of Ciudad Juarez, the bullet-scarred border city that is the emblem of Mexico's drug-war mayhem.
Riding in a Ford pickup with five gun-toting soldiers, he pulls over suspicious-looking cars, sets up impromptu roadblocks to search for drugs and weapons, and tends to the nuisance calls that make up a cop's life: robberies, street fights, fender benders.
"I am an army lieutenant colonel," Resendiz said. "But now we're all police."
Ciudad Juarez resembles a city under military occupation as President Felipe Calderon ratchets up his war against drug traffickers.
Calderon launched the military offensive 10 days after assuming office in December 2006, saying it was necessary to restore government authority in parts of the country. Today, 2 1/2 years later, Calderon and Mexico face a stark reality: The longer and harder the war is prosecuted, the more complex and daunting it becomes.
The offensive has exposed corruption so widespread that key institutions, from police forces to city halls, appear rotten to the core. And a battered society has grown increasingly worried about the effects of the massive military deployment on its democracy.
A cascade of setbacks -- prison breakouts, kidnappings of federal officials, killing of priests -- has led to questions about whether Calderon was prepared for the breadth and depth of the problem.
By disrupting the cartels' operations, the offensive intensified turf struggles among the traffickers. About 11,000 people, some of them bystanders, have died in the violence.
"They hit a wasp nest, and the wasps are stinging," said Jose Luis Pineyro, an expert on national security at Mexico City's Autonomous Metropolitan University. "There definitely wasn't a well-structured plan to know what kind of threat they were confronting."
Government forces have scored victories, almost all credited to the military: They've arrested more than 66,000 suspects, seized tons of cocaine and marijuana, and intercepted guns, grenades, airplanes -- even drug-laden, submarine-like vessels.
But every success is offset quickly by a fresh surge in violence, sometimes in unexpected places such as the tourist magnet of Acapulco. No state has been spared bloodshed or scandal. To date, the government has not gone after major money-laundering operations, the fuel that keeps the cartels going, and none of the current leaders of the main cartels has been captured.
"It's very hard to stop this trend," a senior military official in Ciudad Juarez said, speaking of the unyielding bloodshed. "We are fighting an enemy we don't know and don't see and only feel their results."
The drug gangs appear as strong and as vicious as ever as they fight not just for smuggling routes but for shares of the growing domestic market. Mexican cartels are now the dominant force in an industry once led by Colombians.
More than 45,000 troops have been deployed in these 2 1/2 years to hot spots across the nation. It's not just boots on the ground: Army generals and colonels have taken command of law enforcement in seven states and, from Juarez to Tijuana to Cancun, have supplanted civilian authority.
Ciudad Juarez, a city of 1.3 million, remains the test case, embodying the reach of Calderon's strategy and its risks. The military buildup in Juarez came after months of extraordinary violence. About 1,600 people were killed last year, including more than 200 in November alone.
In February, the police chief quit after several officers were shot dead and signs appeared threatening that more would be killed unless he stepped down. Other posters threatened the life of Mayor Jose Reyes Ferriz. The governor of the state, Chihuahua, was ambushed in the state capital. (He survived, but his bodyguard was killed.)
Juarez officials appealed for federal help, and in March, Calderon's government sent 5,000 troops and 1,900 federal police officers -- adding to the 2,500 soldiers and police already there.
Reliance on army
A retired general, Julian Rivera Breton, was appointed public safety chief, and an active-duty colonel, Alfonso Cristobal Garcia Melgar, was installed as police director. In all, 30 current or former military officers now hold supervisory roles in the police department.
At the height of the violence, in February, there were 10 or more killings a day. The number has dropped to an average of four to eight a day, and bank robberies and car thefts are also down, authorities say. Still, the homicide rate for the first six months of 2009 is higher than it was last year, according to media tallies. Kidnapping and extortion remain rampant.
Hit men in Juarez, who used to ambush enemies with AK-47 and AR-15 assault rifles fired from fancy SUVs, have had to change their tactics. These days, most killings are done with pistols, and the getaway car is often a beat-up Honda. But the bloodshed goes on.
"The killings we're seeing right now are young people that are trying to get started in a life of crime," said Reyes, the mayor. "The whole change in the city has created circumstances that are much more favorable for us to get everything under control."
The military presence in Juarez is striking. Police pickups and military trucks packed with troops are everywhere. Soldiers answer 911 calls, arrest drunken drivers and respond to shootings. Factory warehouses have been converted into makeshift encampments, full of colorful, store-bought dome tents.
In November, killers were able to break into the police radio frequency and play narcocorrido music as a sign an officer had been killed, or was about to be. Now, officials are developing a secure radio system.
Mistrust of police had been so high that residents were reluctant to call 911 out of fear that their names would be leaked to gangsters. Now, Reyes said, a hotline is being established to route calls to a center in an undisclosed Latin American country.
Graft-ridden police
Reyes said the military deployment is a temporary measure to give city officials time to clean up the police force. "We all knew there was police corruption," he said, but "nobody knew how deep it was." He plans to nearly double the size of the force, to 3,000 by the end of the year, and to use a strict vetting process.
Calderon's administration says troops are likely to remain deployed throughout Mexico for the rest of his tenure, which ends in 2012, because it is believed it will take that long to purge and retrain the police.
"This fight is not viable without the army," said Monte Alejandro Rubido, a senior security official in Calderon's government. "What has surprised us is how quickly the business of street sales, and the violence from it, grew and spread, in areas where there had not been trouble from organized crime. Corruption and intimidation, that's how they penetrated."
Troops were dispatched in February this year to the northern border state of Nuevo Leon, Mexico's wealthiest and long a symbol of relative stability. Traffickers quickly mobilized low-level dealers and their families to protest the military presence and to create the impression that the traffickers had a broad social base. Monterrey, the capital, and other cities were paralyzed for days.
Then the army started arresting police in Monterrey and other Nuevo Leon municipalities. In early June, troops backed by federal agents rounded up dozens of police officers and several commanders. When the police got wind of what was happening, they challenged the troops and tried to block roads.
As punishment, the federal authorities ordered the police to turn in their rifles. A day later, they confiscated their cellphones, suspecting the cops were using them to pass intelligence to traffickers.
A politician from the Monterrey area's richest district was caught on tape describing the power of the drug lords. Mauricio Fernandez is heard saying that the area was relatively peaceful because the Beltran Leyva cartel wanted it that way.
"Their families live here," he said. "You don't think it's the police [that maintain order], do you?"
In the central state of Zacatecas in May, prison guards were caught on videotape watching unperturbed as 53 traffickers, gunmen and other inmates casually walked out of a maximum-security jail.
In Calderon's home state, Michoacan, army and federal agents swept into city halls and police stations in May, arresting 10 mayors and 17 other officials accused of aiding an especially violent cartel called La Familia ("The Family"). Traffickers in Michoacan, who specialize in methamphetamine, choose candidates for elections and force residents to pay tribute to the cartel rather than taxes.
The army's role has expanded to such an extent that this month troops staged raids in the capital, Mexico City. Soldiers can enter homes and businesses without warrants and detain people without charges.
Critics worry that this could undermine the country's fragile democracy. Others fear that the military, one of Mexico's most respected institutions, will fall prey to the corruption that has corroded so many police departments. Ten army officers were arrested in June for allegedly passing information to fugitive drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman.
Army abuses cited
Activists say soldiers trained for combat, not police work, have run amok at times.
Margarita Rosales, a laundry worker in Juarez, said her son, Javier, 21, was found dead in April after he and a friend were seized by soldiers and federal police after a night of drinking. His body bore marks of a severe beating, she said. Rosales said the friend told her that Javier, an X-ray technician, was singled out because he was heavily tattooed.
"He didn't sell drugs. He wasn't involved in that kind of thing," she said. "If they had found kilos of drugs, kilos of cocaine -- but why? There is no reason why."
Gustavo de la Rosa Hickerson, human rights ombudsman for the state of Chihuahua, said his office has received 200 complaints of abuse by the military, including allegations of suspects being tortured to extract information, wrongful detention and seven killings. Nationwide, complaints against the army tripled between 2007 and 2009.
Army officials say hitmen are dressing in military-style garb to abduct rivals. Soldiers in the Juarez area recently arrested 25 armed men, most of whom were wearing army-type uniforms.
Enrique Torres, spokesman for the joint military-civilian operation in Ciudad Juarez, said the government takes allegations of abuse seriously and will prosecute offenders in military courts. He said the army in Juarez was investigating 126 reports of abuse.
For all the improvements in Ciudad Juarez cited by the mayor, many residents are unconvinced that much has changed.
"There are still a lot of killings," said Magda Duran, a 45-year-old factory worker. She stood on the porch of her home in the city's ramshackle Delicias section as soldiers and police searched houses, including hers, for the victim of a reported kidnapping.
"They scare me," Duran said of the troops. "They intimidate me."
On this evening, a squad of 16 soldiers and police from Lt. Col. Resendiz's precinct prowled in a pair of pickups past darkened beer joints and concrete shanties that hunker behind gates made of bedsprings and freight pallets. In grass-less yards, children grinned and waved. The soldiers waved back. Grown-ups stared, but none waved.
The rolling army patrol was summoned to a bleak neighborhood called Rancho Anapra. In the waning desert light, a man lay lifeless in the dusty street. He had been shot four times, in full view of a dozen houses.
Residents regarded the arriving troops with bored expressions, amid a cacophony of barking dogs.
There were many bystanders, but few witnesses. "Puro mirón," grumbled a military police officer. "All just onlookers. We could ask them, but nobody will know anything. Nobody saw anything."
The scene encapsulates one of the government's biggest challenges in the drug war: overcoming the deep mistrust of ordinary Mexicans. "Only when something happens -- that's when they come," said one of the bystanders, Laura Valdivia, 36, who works in a factory that makes fake Christmas trees.
Other than his name, Daniel Chavez, and age, 35, no one seemed to have much to say about the victim, whose torso was a spider's web of tattoos.
The crowd slowly evaporated. In darkness, the body was hauled away and the soldiers clambered back onto the pickups, knowing as little as when they arrived.
America's Mexican Border Wars - Tosh Plumlee - 13-07-2009
Associated Press July 13,09
THE BORDER REPORT
The government of Chihuahua seems to find it appropriate to turn its Anglo residents into weapon-toting vigilantes and let them deal with any future kidnappings or murders that come down on the Mormon communities in the state.
The attorney general stepped up to offer training in the polygamist community of LeBaron after a brutal execution earlier this week. Benjamin LeBaron was kidnapped along with a relative, taken from his home under threat of a grenade attack. He was beaten of his family, some reports say the killers attempted to rape his wife; the two bodies were found on a dirt trail outside of town on Monday. In response, his brother Julian says the community’s cut a deal with the state.
“The governor is telling us that he can make it happen if we give him people that know how to use weapons. … that if they already have a knowledge of how to use weapons that he could train them and give us at least a couple of guys in 30 days,” LeBaron told The Associated Press.
Chihuahua state Attorney General Patricia Gonzalez says: “We are taking the necessary steps to make them community police.”
It’s a deadly crucible and one, I predict, that’s going to turn sloppy fast. The Mormon community is spoiling for a fight, the problem is the whack-jobs who are giving them one are feral and violent, backed by a corrupt police force and an apathetic government that’s done little to stem the flow of violence anywhere else in Mexico’s biggest state. As some of you astutely noted, those being blamed for the murder job are members of La Linea. The obvious question needs to be raised, why aren’t Mexicans who deal with the same type of situations every day, in Palomas, in Nicolas Bravo, in Ciudád Juárez, having the same courtesies extended to them? Mexico has some of the toughest gun restrictions in the world, it’s illegal to carry more than a .32 caliber pistol or a hunting rifle and even for those, you need stringent Army permissions. The Anglos receive blessings from the government to arm themselves and mobilize. Mexicans are simply cursed.
The message I’m getting is loud and clear: Mexicans caught up in violence, kidnapping and murder probably deserved it. It’s the same rationalization we hear every day: the cartel violence only affects those who are involved, wealthy and powerful Anglos with dual citizenship cannot possibly be involved.
I’ve often wondered at Mexico’s relationships with the Mormon communities in Chihuahua and Sonora. Colonia LeBaron was founded nearly a century ago by Latter Day Saints churchmembers who wanted to continue practicing polygamy. In 2002, the state of Arizona raided the small northern state community of Colorado City, searching for Mormon leaders wanted on child polygamy charges. Some of those fled to Chihuahua where, we’ve always been told, they weren’t accepted because polygamy is one thing and child exploitation an entirely different matter. Some 15 percent of Colonia LeBaron’s married folk are in polygamous relationships, a status that is as illegal in Mexico as it is in the U.S. Yet the communities are mostly left alone, untouched and unmonitored, its populace working as farmers, businessowners and ranchers.
Two months ago, a 17-year-old from the community was abducted for ransom. That led to some 25 arrests in nearby Nicolas Bravo. Then Meredith Romney, a powerful maquila owner and LDS leader, was kidnapped about two weeks ago. That little piece of news was kept out of the media until BorderReporter.com readers dragged it out of the shadows. The Mormon community, perhaps not realizing the level of corruption and ineptitude they were dealing with (??!), staged protests, demanding better security measures from the Mexican government. That’s something Mexicans have screamed ad nauseum from Baja California to Nuevo León to D.F. – and mostly ignored. Here’s a story out of Culiacán from today’s protest of an unsolved massacre of nine people a year ago. Benjamin LeBaron led many of those protests; his murder was the result.
What we’re left with is an enraged community of Mormons with powerful allies north of the border and the backing of the state government preparing to defend itself against armed gangs. And if that’s not the beginning of a new chapter in this desmadre of a drug war, I’m not a border reporter.
America's Mexican Border Wars - Tosh Plumlee - 14-07-2009
Police find 12 tortured bodies in Mexico
MEXICO CITY -- Prosecutors said they found the bound, blindfolded and tortured bodies of at least a dozen people Monday on a roadside in the western state of Michoacan, which has become a flash point in Mexico's war on drugs.
Initial reports indicated that 11 men and one woman were likely killed elsewhere at least a day earlier and dumped near the town of La Huacana, officials in the state attorney general's office said.
It was one of the largest execution-style slayings since the killing of 24 men whose bodies were found bound with duct tape and shot in the head in September in a rural area west of Mexico City. In August 2008, the decapitated bodies of 12 men were found outside the southern city of Merida.
The officials, who spoke on customary condition of anonymity, said the number of victims could increase as police continue investigating the scene.
Also in Michoacan on Monday, the bodies of two men who had been tortured and executed were found near an airport in the state capital, Morelia.
In both cases, the methods used by the killers were those often used by drug cartels to eliminate rival traffickers.
In the Michoacan port of Lazaro Cardenas on Monday, gunmen attacked a hotel where federal police stay, wounding at least one officer, the officials said.
Michoacan, President Felipe Calderon's home state, is at the center of his drug war and has been wracked by a wave of killings and arrests in recent weeks.
In May, federal authorities arrested local Michoacan mayors in an unprecedented sweep against politicians accused of protecting cartels, specifically the La Familia cartel. Eight mayors remain jailed on organized-crime charges.
On Saturday, authorities arrested Arnoldo Rueda Medina, a reputed important La Familia operative.
Since then, gunmen have repeatedly ambushed federal forces and opened fire on police patrols and stations. Attacks across western Michoacan state over the weekend left five police officers and two soldiers dead.
Calderon has sent more than 45,000 troops to drug hotspots across Mexico, including Michoacan, since taking office. Cartels have responded with a vengeance. More than 11,000 people have been killed by drug violence nationwide since 2006, when the federal offensive began.
Drug violence has also plagued Mexico's northern border region.
Gunmen in Tijuana opened fire on a police patrol car on Sunday, killing one officer and wounding three others amid drug violence that has seen at least 18 policemen slain so far this year in the border city.
The attack happened less than a day after another drive-by shooting targeting police left two bystanders injured, according to a Tijuana police statement. Tijuana, located in Baja California state, is located across the border from San Diego, California.
State Attorney General Rommel Moreno announced Monday that he is creating a special investigative group to stem the attacks on police, which he said are part of an intimidation campaign by organized crime gangs.
"Today, unfortunately, the criminals are trying to pressure authorities by killing police officers," Moreno said.
Also Monday, authorities reported the abduction of the police chief of the rough northern border city of Piedras Negras, in the state of Coahuila.
Rogelio Ramos was pulled from his patrol car and kidnapped Monday morning, state Public Safety Director Jose Castillo said.
Officials said the kidnapping could be related to efforts to curb corruption by militarizing the police force in Piedras Negras, across the border from Eagle Pass, Texas.
Castillo's predecessor, Arturo Navarro, was shot and killed in April - less than three weeks after he took over the local force with the aim of purging alleged corruption.
America's Mexican Border Wars - Tosh Plumlee - 14-07-2009
Mexico-Drug War, 0127 July 14,09
URGENT Release, Mexico AP
Mexico identifies 12 slain as military officials
Eds: APNewsNow.
MORELIA, Mexico (AP) - A state prosecutor says officials have
identified 12 people who were tortured, killed and dumped along a
mountain highway as military intelligence officials.
Interim Michoacan state prosecutor J. Jesus Montejano says the
case has been handed over to the federal attorney general's office.
The bound, blindfolded and tortured bodies of the 11 men and one
woman were found late Monday near the town of La Huacana. Such
killings in the past have been blamed on drug gangs.
Initial reports indicated the 12 were likely killed a day
earlier.
The massacre is one of the heaviest blows to federal forces in
President Felipe Calderon's war on drug gangs. Since Calderon took
office, more than 11,000 people have been killed by drug violence.
America's Mexican Border Wars - Tosh Plumlee - 15-07-2009
From the secret American/ Mexican Joint Task Force TF-7N operations from Feb 2009 until June 2009:
Some details are still Classified as to these operations. However one 26 year old Capt in the Mexican Army Intel who I rode with while in Juarez last Spring, was one of the bodies found Monday in a mass grave. He had been kidnapped while on patrol and his body found a week later. He had been tortured and murdered and the body burned. He was such a nice kid and had a damn good future.... what a shame.
From Mexico City: July 14, 2009
Security/Human Rights News
International Peace Brigades for Chihuahua?
A well-known Mexican border state politician and social activist called
this week for international human rights observers to come to the state of
Chihuahua.
Interviewed on CNN’s Aristegui program, Victor Quintana, Chihuahua state
legislator for the center-left PRD party and advisor to the Democratic
Campesino Front, said the Mexican government’s anti-drug Joint Operation
Chihuahua failed to end narco-violence, encouraged human rights abuses and
left the citizenry defenseless, as evidenced by the kidnap-murders this
month of Mormon community activist Benjamin LeBaron and his brother-in-law
Luis Widmar in northern Chihuahua.
“This is a sign of the failed state we are living in,” Quintana contended.
In a 24-hour period from the afternoon of July 14 to 15, seventeen people
were reported slain gangland style in Ciudad Juarez and other parts of the
state of Chihuahua.
According to the longtime political leader, people uninvolved in the fight
between rival drug cartels are increasingly falling victim to bands of
criminals on the one hand and Mexican security forces on the other. The
National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) does not have investigators
specifically assigned to monitor Joint Operation Chihuahua, Quintana told
host Carmen Aristegui.
“We need peace brigades and people from the international community to act
as witnesses,” Quintana said. “It is not a (political) party, ideological
question but a profound, ethical one, and the first step is to rescue the
principle of the sacredness of life, even the lives of those who don’t
respect it.”
Recent developments including the LeBaron-Widmar murders have led many in
Chihuahua to urge a rethinking of Joint Operation Chihuahua, Quintana
said.
“A generalized clamor exists in Chihuahua to change the model of Joint
Operation Chihuahua,” Quintana added. “It’s time that Felipe Calderon
render an accounting to the people ofChihuahua.”
The lawmaker’s comments coincide with a rising tide of public opinion in
Mexico that views President Calderon’s drug war as literally going down in
flames.
Backed by Washington, Operation Joint Chihuahua and similar campaigns rely
on massive deployments of army troops and Federal Police, militarization
of civilian police functions, restrictions on the constitutional right to
free transit, and random searches of the citizenry. The result, according
to the CNDH and independent human rights organizations, is the widespread
violation of human rights.
Alleged human rights abuses by federal forces prompted the US-based Human
Rights Watch this week to request US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
suspend 15 percent of the funds destined for anti-drug, binational Merida
Initiative, or Plan Mexico as it is called by some, in reference to a
similar US aid package for Colombia.
Human Rights Watch’s appeal was seconded by the All Rights for All
network, a grouping of leading Mexican human rights groups. Edgar Cortez,
executive secretary for the organization, joined others in recommending
that the Calderon anti-crime strategy see a “revision.”
Cortez suggested that curtailing money laundering and cross-border arms
trafficking could be a more effective strategy than the current one of
displaying overwhelming shows of force and making entire communities
suspect. “Perhaps there would be more damage to these (crime) groups,”
Cortez said.
Recent gun battles and other manifestations of extreme violence in
Michocan and other states have likewise encouraged key Mexican lawmakers
to call for revamping the drug war strategy.
While agreeing it was necessary to keep the army involved until adequate
police forces are available, Sonora Senator Manlio Fabio Beltrones of the
PRI party said the anti-crime fight should be subject to constant
reevaluation and updating. The success of federal operations, Beltrones
said, should not be measured solely on the basis of daily body counts.
Supporters of Operation Joint Chihuahua and the broader drug war were also
outspoken in recent days. Ciudad Juarez Mayor Jose Reyes Ferriz told
reporters that the military operation has reduced crimes including auto
thefts, commercial robberies and bank heists.
“We have to make adjustments, but there is no radical change in the method
of operating,” Reyes said, adding that the municipal government was
examining whether to request a six-month extension of the army’s presence
until March 2010. “We can’t say the operation has been a failure, because
it hasn’t concluded,” the mayor said in separate comments.
Murder is one crime that definitely has not gone down since the initiation
of Joint Operation Chihuahua. The latest press accounts report more than
1,000 people murdered in Ciudad Juarez alone during the course of 2009- a
rate much higher than in 2008 before the reinforcement of the army and
federal presence in the border city.
In multiple declarations this week, President Felipe Calderon vowed to
stay the course. Mexico, Calderon said, “won’t take and should not take a
step backwards.” The anti-drug offensive, the Mexican president insisted,
was touching off “desperate reactions” by crime groups feeling the
pressure of the federal boot.
Despite the president’s upbeat assessments, drug cartels significantly
escalated their confrontations with Mexican security forces this week. In
a broad swath of attacks in Michoacan and other states, La Familia drug
cartel in particular demonstrated a sophisticated level of coordination
and tactical ingenuity.
As of July 15, at least 15 members of the Federal Police had been slain in
Michoacan since the arrests last week of two mid-level La Familia leaders,
“La Minsa” and “El Chivo,” in Morelia, Michoacan, and Petatlan, Guerrero,
respectively. In one fiery attack, dozens of police vehicles were torched.
Elsewhere, pitched daytime battles that included explosions and resembled
scenes from Gaza or Baghdad erupted in Nuevo Leon and Veracruz, leaving at
least 8 suspected gunmen dead.
Since President Calderon assumed office in December 2006, more than 11,000
Mexicans have perished in narco-related violence.
Monte Alejandro Rubido Garcia, technical secretary for the National
Security Public System, said this week that approximately 90 percent of
the victims were delinquents, with the remainder belonging to the security
forces. Citizens who are not involved in drug trafficking or other
criminal activities should rest assured that they are not “the target of
violent actions of delinquent groups,” Rubido said.
The federal official’s body count ignored the growing number of civilians
killed or injured in cross-fire, including the man and his 10-year-old
daughter who were recently slain in Chihuahua City when the truck they
were riding in was strafed by bullets from gunmen blasting away at each
other on the street.
America's Mexican Border Wars - Tosh Plumlee - 15-07-2009
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AP – FILE - This Saturday, July 11, 2009,file photo shows police escorting Arnoldo Rueda, an alleged coordinator …
By JULIE WATSON, Associated Press Writer – 26 mins ago
MEXICO CITY – It was the boldest, most widespread coordinated offensive ever mounted by drug traffickers against the Mexican government.
Within minutes of the weekend arrest of the La Familia drug cartel's operations chief, the gang launched deadly attacks in President Felipe Calderon's home state. In the worst, 12 federal agents were killed execution-style, their tortured bodies piled along a roadside as a warning for all to see.
The attacks following the weekend capture of Arnoldo Rueda spread quickly to at least 10 cities, including towns in two neighboring states. Officers' hotels were shot up. Grenades were tossed at police posts.
At least 18 federal agents and two soldiers were killed in the attacks and ambushes. Nearly two dozen officers were wounded.
Near the bloodied bodies of the 12 agents dumped in a heap Monday off a mountain highway near La Huacana was a message: "Let's see if you try to arrest another one."
It was a blatant challenge to Calderon, who has deployed federal police and troops in an attempt to halt the country's escalating drug trade.
Calderon insists that the backlash to Rueda's arrest proves the cartel has been hurt.
"The arrests of dangerous leaders by the federal government in recent months is seriously affecting their operations and generating chaos in their ranks," Calderon said. "Thus the violent and desperate reaction that we've seen these days."
Government critics said the offensive revealed that federal forces are unprepared for the battle against heavily armed crime syndicates with extensive intelligence networks embedded within police forces.
They also said it undermines Calderon's repeated claims that violence shows the thugs are on the run.
A cartoon in the left-leaning La Jornada newspaper Wednesday depicted a bound and blindfolded policeman with a gun to his head. "Don't worry," says a tied-up colleague kneeling beside him. "It's just another desperate action by organized crime because they're cornered."
Mexico's national security spokesman, Monte Alejandro Rubido, said a La Familia suspect detained Monday told authorities gang leaders had sent an order to attack federal forces within minutes of Rueda's arrest in the Michoacan state capital of Morelia.
Dozens of gunmen carrying high-powered weapons and grenades attacked the station where Rueda was held. They failed to free him, but three federal agents were wounded by grenade fragments.
Convoys of other hit men fanned out across Michoacan and the neighboring states of Guerrero and Guanajuato.
Assailants gunned down two soldiers riding on a bicycle in their off hours outside their base in the town of Zamora. In Apatzingan, federal agents came under fire while sleeping at a hotel in a farming town ringed by mango orchards. Others were ambushed in patrol cars on lonesome highways. Three federal agents were fatally shot as they raced to a reported car accident, which turned out to be an ambush.
"This clearly shows federal forces are vulnerable," said Jorge Chabat, a Mexican drug expert. "The government needs to rethink its police protection scheme. If they don't, no one is going to want to be a police officer or soldier. There is not enough protection for them."
The government has not said whether federal agents are quitting out of fear, although several towns have seen local police leave in droves after feeling threatened.
Calderon has sent an estimated 45,000 soldiers and tens of thousands of federal agents to drug hot spots — from Mexico's steamy Gulf coast to its colonial mountain villages to its desert outposts.
Many wear ski masks as they ride through the towns in army vehicles and in the back of federal police pickups with their assault rifles drawn.
But at the end of the day, many federal agents retire to hotels in towns so small that everyone knows everyone else's business. While soldiers stay on military bases, gunmen have picked them off when they go on leave.
Experts say cartels have an extensive spy network that includes police, politicians, taxi drivers, waitresses, hotel employees and others paid to track the movements of soldiers and police.
Federal forces in Michoacan arrested 10 mayors and 20 state and municipal officials in May for allegedly protecting La Familia. Many were from the towns targeted in this weekend's attacks.
The success of such networks was evident in the offensive: Near the Pacific coast, gunmen fired on a private tour bus carrying federal officers who were trying to conceal their identities. The driver and one officer were wounded.
The 12 federal agents whose bloodied bodies were found Monday piled just off a mountain highway near the town of La Huacana were believed to have been kidnapped Sunday on their day off. A message left nearby read: "Let's see if you try to arrest another one."
The agents were in a remote region of Michoacan to gather intelligence.
Mexico's federal attorney general's office announced Wednesday the former mayor of La Huacana, who finished his term in 2007, allegedly gave information to La Familia about operations of federal forces in the area.
"The government was overly confidant drug traffickers would not react so violently," said Jose Luis Pineyro, a drug expert at Mexico's National Autonomous University. "It's another sign that Calderon's strategy is flawed because it is reactive and does not try to prevent the possible hits by drug traffickers."
Congressman Juan Francisco Rivera, of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, said the United States shares the blame by feeding cartels high powered weapons bought easily north of the border.
"As long as they don't suspend the indiscriminate sale of arms in 10,000 stores along the U.S. border, Mexican police and soldiers are going to keep dying," said Rivera, the head of Congress' security commission.
Pineyro says the government needs to rotate its forces more often, alert agents to take precautions after a major arrest and limit their movements during their off hours.
Gen. Rodolfo Cruz, who oversees federal forces, said relatively few police and soldiers were killed, given the number of attacks — showing they are adequately prepared.
The cartel, however, may have succeeded in convincing the public otherwise.
Ciro Gomez Leyva, a columnist for Milenio newspaper, called the ambushes a "Tet offensive," referring to the offensive by the North Vietnamese army that failed but created a perception among the American public that the war could not be won.
Voters showed they are growing tired of Calderon's battle by delivering a stinging loss to his National Action Party in midterm elections July 5, though it campaigned as the only party willing to take on cartels. The drug war has left more than 11,000 people dead since Calderon took office in 2006.
"These attacks are demoralizing police and terrorizing the population into not helping officials," Pineyro said. "The government's war is flawed."
America's Mexican Border Wars - Tosh Plumlee - 15-07-2009
Where in the Hell is the United States government on this?
It might get opened up when the details come out on the Florida killings and the DEA report on this matter... rumor.. "one of the Mexican Cartel is connected to this".. (not confirm as yet... I,m working on it and will post my findings even if classified...) I am trying to do my part... is there anyone else out there? If true... the Mexican cartel has struck the first blow here in the United States.
America's Mexican Border Wars - Magda Hassan - 16-07-2009
Tosh Plumlee Wrote:Where in the Hell is the United States government on this?I'm here Tosh. I'm trying to get this out where I can. Cross posting and trying to bring it to people's attention. Thanks for all you do Tosh and for persisting with it.
It might get opened up when the details come out on the Florida killings and the DEA report on this matter... rumor.. "one of the Mexican Cartel is connected to this".. (not confirm as yet... I,m working on it and will post my findings even if classified...) I am trying to do my part... is there anyone else out there? If true... the Mexican cartel has struck the first blow here in the United States.
America's Mexican Border Wars - Tosh Plumlee - 16-07-2009
Thanks Magda... your a "doer" and a fine asset to this forum and to the truth. Thanks for being a positive instrument in the fight.
The following is others who put their efforts and time and money into this matter of the Border Drug wars: God knows the mainstream media does not want this can of worms on their plate. Duck and Run, mentality. My Thanks go out to 'Carlos" a fine journalist and investigative reporter from the El Paso area for keeping me up to date on events in and around Juarez.
From El Paso July 15,2009
"...Philadelphia radio staffers visit on border security tour
Dom Giordano, a veteran radio talk show host for The Big Talker 1210, WPHT, CBS Radio in Philadelphia spoke to his listeners from within sight of the border fence on the 17th floor of the Doubletree Hotel in downtown El Paso Wednesday. (Rudy Gutierrez / El Paso Times)
EL PASO -- Members of a Philadelphia radio show have traveled 2,500 miles in an RV to get a firsthand look at immigration and border-security issues in El Paso.
"While you see these issues discussed in the news all the time, it's different once you get down to the area itself and see how the situation really is," said talk-show host Dom Giordano, of radio station WPHT.
Sponsors helped Giordano and his crew make the trip. Joey Vento, owner of Geno's Steaks in Philadelphia, contributed $30,000.
Known for the controversial sign asking his restaurant customers to order in English, Vento is on tour with the show. He will be on the air today.
"I think we should get rid of all the illegals and let the people in that have paid their dues," Vento said in an interview. "You have people trying to get into this country by the rules, and they have to wait 15 to 20 years or more."
Other guests will include artist Abel Saucedo, Juárez Mayor Jose Reyes Ferriz, Border Patrol agents and ranchers along the U.S.-Mexico border. Former U.S. attorney Johnny Sutton, known for prosecuting U.S. Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Campeon, who shot a drug smuggler in 2007, will also be on the show.
Giordano said he would like to speak with U.S. Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas.
"The congressman says things aren't as bad as we in the media report or make it seem," Giordano said. "We are open to hear what he has to say and what his perception of the El Paso-Juárez area is so that
we can know whether or not the media is part of the problem or part of the solution."
The Philadelphia crew is broadcasting from the Doubletree Hotel in Downtown El Paso.
It has already visited Charlotte, N.C., and Dallas. After the El Paso broadcasts end today, Giordano and his crew will head to Phoenix before driving back to Philadelphia....'.
Alex Hinojosa may be reached at ahinojosa@elpasotimes.com
America's Mexican Border Wars - Tosh Plumlee - 16-07-2009
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AP – In this image released by Mexico's Federal Police, police officers stand at attention during funeral …
By MARK STEVENSON, Associated Press Writer – Thu Jul 16, 8:13 am ET
MEXICO CITY – The Mexican government is vowing never to cut deals with drug traffickers after a man claiming to be the leader of a violent cartel called a television station to suggest a pact.
A man who identified himself as drug cartel leader Servando "La Tuta" Gomez called a local television program in the western state of Michoacan on Wednesday to say his gang's wave of deadly attacks on police are only a response to police action against cartel members' family and friends.
"What we want is peace and tranquility," the man told the CB Television station in Michoacan. "We want to achieve a national pact."
"We want the president, Mr. Felipe Calderon, to know that we are not his enemies, that we value him, that we are conscientious people," the caller said.
Officials have named Gomez as the leader of the La Familia cartel who ordered a series of attacks on federal police this week in which 18 federal agents and two soldiers were killed.
Neither Michoacan nor federal officials would comment on whether the caller was indeed Gomez, the government quickly reacted, issuing a formal statement ruling out any such deals.
"The federal government does not ever dialogue, does not negotiate, does not reach deals with any criminal organization," Gomez Mont said. "There is no other alternative for their members but to submit to the law."
The caller issued a rambling defense of the La Familia's actions, saying federal police and prosecutors "come and fabricate guilty charges; they are picking innocent people in Michoacan state."
Federal police have arrested and charged eight mayors in Michoacan for aiding the drug cartel, and have arrested some leading cartel figures at events like baptism parties for relatives. The arrest of another gang leader earlier this week apparently set off the reprisal attacks.
Gomez Mont denied traffickers' families were being targeted, saying "authorities act against those people who are arrested and put on trial because of their actions, not because of their family ties."
The caller said the La Familia had rules and standards, like kidnapping only politically connected people and "those who refuse to pay" — a reference to extortion. He acknowledged, "We know our work is disliked by the public."
Gomez Mont said "the criminal groups that the Mexican government are fighting are made up of criminal cowards without scruples" who "try to mask or justify their acts with all sorts of justifications."
The violence in Michoacan has become so bad that on Wednesday, the U.S. Embassy issued a statement advising U.S. citizens about attacks in the state and warning them to avoid large crowds.