Blog dedicated to reporting on Mexican drug cartels
on the border line between the US and Mexico
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Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Coahuila: The Disappeared

The state of Coahuila borders southwest Texas, from Eagle Pass to the Big Bend. The ruler of this beautiful land, Humberto Moreira, is known by his opponents as “el Gobernador Zeta”

In the uninhabited arid plains of Coahuila, where often the only sign of man is a power line on the horizon, danger lurks, ready to swallow up strangers passing through.

Mexico’s Highway 57, descending from the border city of Piedras Negras, and the gravel roads that connect to it are notorious as the site where many people disappear without a trace.

But the families of the disappeared do not forget. They travel the same route looking for their missing, calling on the authorities to investigate and asking among those who could have see them one last time.

Almost always the response ranges from indifference to intimidation.

A common denominator in these disappearances is the impunity that characterizes them as the authorities refuse to initiate preliminary investigations, abuse the families of the missing, and threaten them when they make their own inquiry and cause too much attention.

Many of the missing are itinerant workers and salesmen, offering handcrafted goods and other products for sale or on their way to the border to try their luck in the maquilas. A few are professionals, journalists or public security officers that avoided collusion with the underworld.

Most are poor and possess scarce resources, and no ransom is asked for their return. Some families cling to the hope that they are still alive and are being used as forced labor.

Some are poor workers like Pablo Ponce, father of three children who left behind a farmer’s life to travel as a seller of handmade furniture through the streets of unfamiliar cities. José Luis Hernández Gómez, his companion that also fled the plow, had spent 10 years visiting northern cities, over a thousand miles from his ranch in Michoacán.

It is thought that both passed through
Monclova on October 20, 2010 and since then their families have lost track of them. In all, seven men from the small town of Santiago Undameo, Michoacan disappeared that day in Monclova.

The Attorney General of the State of Coahuila (FGE- Fiscalia General del Estado) has made no progress in their investigations.

There are already many cases of collective, or group, disappearances. Of the 104 victims documented by Forces United for Our Missing and Disappeared in Coahuila (FUUNDEC), only 17 people went missing as individuals.

According to the Coahuila human rights activist Blanca Martinez, director of
Saltillo’s Catholic Diocese Center for Human Rights “Fray Juan de Larios”, collective disappearances are characteristic of Coahuila.

From exchanges with other human rights agencies documenting cases of disappearances in other states, it is seen that Coahuila, by far, is the state with the most cases of group disappearances. Human rights activists say that the situation is more serious than the public knows.

The historical record indicates that such high levels of group disappearances occur only in countries ruled by dictatorships.

Zero progress
The information collected by FUUNDEC has established that the vast majority of disappearances are perpetrated by groups of armed civilians.

On board luxurious late model pick-up trucks, the heavily armed groups of civilians known as comandos establish perimeters and with coordinated precision easily hunt their frantic victims down then quickly disappear.


In several of these cases uniformed members of police forces or the military are directly suspected of participation in abductions.

The most recent case of a group disappearance is that of the seven men from Michoacan on
October 20, 2010, somewhere in the vicinity of Monclova. Little information is known and the investigator for the state prosecutor’s office, Domingo González Favela, has only recently confirmed the disappearance and that no ransom has been demanded, facts that the families of the missing men have been pressing in the media for months.

Blanca Martinez discusses the lack of results or movement in the Fiscalia General de Coahuila’s investigation (disappearances of this type are investigated by state and federal authorities in
Mexico).

"Their response has been very limited. The Fiscalia General has only now started moving due to pressure from FUUNDEC and the families of the missing. They are just now beginning to move the inquiry, to implement procedures that should have started from the first day of the complaint”

“This speaks loudly of the irresponsibility and inefficiency in Coahuila."

From the pressure of reports, marches and protests sponsored by FUUNDEC, Governor Humberto Moreira has promised to speed investigations, but the result is the same: nothing.

The cases are multiplying and according to data from FUUNDEC of the total of 104 missing, there are five women, one child and one teenager. The rest are men.

Ten cases of disappearances involve two people. Nine cases involve three to six individuals.

One case involves 12 individuals, all co-workers at pinturas Atlanta Duramex, from Ecatepec in the state of Mexico. All were last seen in Piedras Negras and Monclova on March 21, 2009.

Just like the missing victims, most of these cases also vanish from the public. And it is important that these are only the cases of disappearances that are reported to state and federal authorities.

How many remain hidden due to families too intimidated to act is, of course, unknown.

Foreigners at risk

Just to continue along Highway 57 can be reckless. There are no checkpoints, only municipal police patrols that in routine checks inquire about identities and destinations and waylay the unlucky traveler with a police extortion, or mordida.

In November 2010, a Canadian rider uploaded a video on Youtube showing scenes of an extortion committed by members of the Castaños Coahuila municipal police force.

The traveler paid $100 after he was threatened with jail. Certainly too much was paid but the situation could have been much worse, and lethal.

Armed civilian roadblocks manned by organized crime gangs, also known as narcobloqueos, are a danger from time to time. Even politicians in their journeys must obey orders and submit to these criminals or face the consequences.

Encounters with these gunmen can be deadly, as occurred with a group of Canadians and Americans on
June 9, 2010, who entered Coahuila on board two SUV’s. They belonged to an international mountain biking organization, dedicated to raising funds for, and building, eco-tourist mountain bike projects.

The men were on their way to the Muzquiz, Coahuila, where they would try to buy a ranch to build a mountain bike park. It was later revealed by statements from friends and family of the group that they wanted to work together to combat violence in
Mexico through environmental/sport ventures of this type.

About 50 kilometers from the border on Highway 57 they stopped at the regionally famous "Machacado Dona Herlinda" for lunch, entering as several men were leaving in those large, ostentatious pick-up trucks that are synonymous with narcos.

It was around

Klowak's vehicle overturned. The young executioner left with the convoy. A second person accompanying Klowak was mistaken for dead by the gangsters but was rescued by four other men claiming to be
U.S. citizens who dropped him off at the Piedras Negras border crossing. Once in Eagle Pass, Texas, he reported the incident to authorities.

His version of the incident matches the information obtained by the Fiscalia General, whose investigation into the murder has gone nowhere.

Another infamous case of a missing U.S. citizen is that of Felix Batista, a Cuban-American anti-kidnapping expert and security consultant who was abducted December 10, 2008 outside of a restaurant in Saltillo, Coahuila’s capitol city.

Batista was participating in an anti-kidnapping seminar for businessmen in Saltillo and may have also been negotiating the release of a kidnapping victim.

Batista had been credited with the successful resolution of almost 100 kidnap-and-ransom cases in Latin America. His wife, Lourdes Batista, has said that the family was never contacted by the abductors and never received a ransom demand.

The federal Public Security Ministry (SSP) attributed the disappearance to German Torres Jiménez, alias Z-25 or “el Tatanka”, based on evidence found after he was arrested in April, 2009 in Poza Rica, Veracruz. At the time of Batista’s abduction Torres Jimenez was reported to be the head of the Zeta plaza in Saltillo.

In spite of the SSP’s statement, no one has yet been charged with Batista’s abduction and murder.

No Man's Land
On occasion a Federal Police patrol visits the area but they never see anything. Surveillance cameras at gas stations, businesses or toll road booths have never been used in the investigations of the missing. If any eyewitness ever mentions an important fact, it is done hidden in anonymity and never as official testimony in a state investigation.

On
March 22, 2009, a group of 12 Atlanta Duramex employees from Ecatepec, estado de Mexico, traveling in 2 vehicles disappeared without a trace while selling vinyl automobile paints in Piedras Negras. The men in one of the vehicles called from a gasoline station in the Villa de Fuente colonia stating that the employees in the other vehicle were missing. None of the men were seen or heard from after that call.

"Nobody saw anything, nobody knows anything. How can that that be if something happened in a place where so many people pass through and is so secure?" said Reyna Estrada, wife of one of the missing men, "When we call the Fiscalia General in Coahuila to request information, they tell us the disappearances have been registered but they have not even opened preliminary investigations. All we ask is that they stop deceiving us."

Tired of the indifference of state authorities, the families went to the federal Attorney General’s Office and were referred to the Office of Special Investigations on Organized Crime (SIEDO). A PGR/SIEDO preliminary investigation was opened but no progress was made and the file was archived.
The families have sent letters to President Felipe Calderón, the Governor of Coahuila, Humberto Moreira, and the Governor of the state of Mexico, Enrique Peña Nieto (currently the frontrunner for the PRI presidential candidacy). No one has sent them a reply.

Nancy Lorena Rojas Morales, wife of Vicente Rojo, one of the missing men from Ecatepec says that after the disappearance of her husband she has to leave their children alone each time she gets get temporary work or when she looks for employment. The children have also suffered from the absence of his father, they are depressed, no longer show interest in school and have become aggressive.

"He was our livelihood, we do not have anyone to support us, " said the girl, who was last working a temporary job at a gas station.

On April 17, 2009, Jose Flores, Agustin Nunez and Sergio Cardenas, gold and silver jewelry salesmen from Guadalajara, Jalisco, left by automobile to visit clients in northern Coahuila. The last time they were seen was on April 22 at the roadside hotel Don Alberto in Nava, Coahuila, where they vanished.

Agustin Nunez Sr, the father of one of the missing men, spent two months in Coahuila searching for his son. He learned that an armed group had abducted the three men from the hotel. One witness heard the abductors say they were SIEDO agents and the three men were under arrest.

State police refused to open a preliminary investigation on the grounds that the men were never seen leaving the hotel.

The PGR opened a preliminary investigation but refused to act because, according Nunez Sr., a PGR official told him these investigations are too expensive, they needed a direct order from the Attorney General, which was never given, and there was a backlog of missing persons cases from Coahuila including one where 20 people were missing, “and my case was low priority with only three missing”

Joel Cardenas, a farmer and Sergio's father, explained, "The boys went to work and disappeared. Nobody saw anything, nobody knows anything. Their route was from Saltillo to Piedras Negras and I think that the police or a customer abducted them, because they still had three kilos of gold and 1 million pesos they had already sold.. The Army stopped them at a checkpoint in Nava and released them because they brought documents to prove ownership of the merchandise. After that they were swallowed up.”

On August 29, 2009, the head of security at the Cereso prison in Saltillo, Esteban Acosta Rodriguez disappeared, along with his 9 year old son Brandon and his two brothers Gerardo and Gualberto, both naturalized U.S. citizens. To this day nobody has learned of their whereabouts.

It was rumored that Esteban Acosta had been solicited to provide special privileges to a Zeta federal prisoner in his custody but he had refused.

According to Esteban’s wife, Lourdes Herrera, he was on his way to the airport in Apodaca, Nuevo Leon to drop of his brothers who were returning to their homes in
Los Angeles after spending their vacation with the family in Saltillo. On their way they were surrounded by a group of armed civilians in three vehicles and were abducted.

She is still stunned by the disinterest of federal and state authorities in investigating the case. After every inquiry she is told that no advances have been made.

In May 2010, Elba Delia Tovar and Delia Padilla from Los Angeles spent three days in Mexico City visiting the Interior Ministry (Gobernacion) and the PGR looking for answers in the disappearance of their husbands Gerardo and Gualberto Acosta. They returned disillusioned by the same disinterest. At the PGR offices they were not even attended to. “Attorney General Arturo Chavez cannot see you, you need to leave” was the response they received.

There is also the case of Jesús Verastegui Escobedo y Antonio Verastegui González, father and son who disappeared while returning to Parras de la Fuente after returnung from a religous retreat. Jorge Alberto Verastegui Gonzales, a university student, has searched for his father and brother and investigated their disappearance, accumulating more evidence than the Fiscalia General’s preliminary investigation (the authorities refused to include any of his findings).

Jorge Alberto found that on January 29, 2009 his brother and father were abducted, along with five other men, by state and municipal police with connections to an organized criminal group.

“The prosecutor in charge of the investigation, Jorge Aguilar, advised us not to create any scandals, that my brother and father had been taken in error due to some confusion. They were a little battered but would be released soon”

Months passed and the men were never handed to their families. Jorge Alberto says that there is a theory that the missing men are being held to work in factories run by organized crime packaging drugs. Some of the missing are said to have been taken to other states to work for organized criminal gangs, some have even been forced to work as sicarios.

Another cases of missing persons is that of the veterinarians Isaias Hernandez and Juan Pablo Alvarado Oliveros, in Torreon,Coahuila. On the evening of June 5, 2009 they left the Colonia Ciudad Nazas for a stop at an Oxxo convenience store but ran into a military roadblock. Their truck was found with bullet holes and blood.

“More than a year has passed and the investigation the Army began has made no progress. They have not sent for any of the witnesses. State authorities and the National Human Rights Comission have told me they have no information.” said Claudio Soto, Isaiah's wife who was left alone with two children.

“The fact is that most of the victims are workers and common laborers such as masons whose average age is between 28 and 29. They are people of working age.” Says Blanca Martinez.

"One of the hypotheses of these families is that they may be using them as forced labor, to do some work. It is a hypothesis that gives them hope. In all these cases there is no ransom request. Since there is no request for money or other equity they are not considered kidnappings, and there is no evidence that these abductions are due to the settling of scores or the like” adds
Martinez.

"The disappearances are the deployment of terror that serve as a mechanism of social control”

The human rights acivist says that besides the known kidnappings, dozens of Central American migrants have reported multiple disappearances to the Fray Juan de Larios center. "If the cases of missing Mexican nationals prove the difficulty of obtaining justice, with immigrants this is practically impossible."

Besides the lack of results in the investigations, the families of the disappeared have faced intimidation. The missing are treated as criminals and not victims by authorities.

As a father of one of the missing men from Ecatepec complains “We all have the same pain. We have requested support from the PGR, the SIEDO, the Governments of Mexico and Coahuila, Televisa and TV Azteca, and all they do is send us in circles. If we were somebody important they would be searching, "

He explained that complaints have been lodged with law enforcement authorities at the federal and state levels and the national commission for human rights, but everywhere they say the same thing: “is is not our jurisdiction", " re-submit your statements ", and " bring us more information."

Blanca Martinez concludes that the problem is not a lack of legislation but a refusal by authorities to investigate these cases, "That is the common denominator: that families do not get answers, and authorities recommend that they leave everything alone and not look for trouble. They are an obstacle to people who demand their rights to justice, and the cases prove official inaction as a policy of the state government.”

Update on Saul Vara’s murder
The latest victim abducted and murdered on the roads of Coahuila was Saul Vara Rivera, the well regarded mayor of Zaragoza, a municipality of 15,000 residents reported to be the least infiltrated by the Zetas in the northern part of the state. Saul Vara was reported missing on Wednesday, January 5, after leaving a political event in the state capitol of Saltillo.

His body was discovered on Friday, January 7, outside the city of Galeana in the neighboring state of Nuevo Leon.

Authorities, in the method often used to initiate a coverup, at first announced that the murder may have been a result of disagreements with someone close to the victim and not related to organized crime.

However, the Fiscalia General has announced that on Tuesday, January 11, an unnamed Coahuila state police agent was in custody and charged with the abduction and murder of Saul Vara.

On Wednesday, January 12, a second state law enforcement official, Enrique Zavala Mendoza, identified as an investigator with the Fiscalia General, was arrested and charged with the kidnapping of a businessman from a bar in Saltillo on the evening of November 19, 2010. The businessman, who has not been found, is now another disappeared person.

State police posts are highly valued by members of organized crime because of the protection, access to intelligence and impunity that these positions carry. Both of the officers will be held for 45 days during which an investigation will determine if enough evidence exists for their prosecution for the crimes they have been charged with.

On the morning of Friday, January 14, an unidentified young male driving Saul Vara’s Lincoln 2008 pickup was shot and killed by state police officers during a pursuit on the Saltillo-Torreon highway. According to Jose Angel Herrera, head of the homicide division for the Coahuila state police, the driver of the pickup was shot after he fired on the state police with an AK-47.

(This post was mainly written using 2 articles authored by Arturo Rodriguez Garcia for the Proceso news weekly on the state of the missing in Coahuila. The articles were published one year apart. Additional information was included from other media sources.

The disappearances began in 2007, 2 years after Humberto Moreira was elected Governor. Coahuila had previously been one of the least violent states in Mexico)

Sources
Desapariciones masivas…y silenciociosas
Los desaparecidos que a nadie importan
Desprecia PGR a familiares de desaparecidos en Coahuila
Cae el Tatanka
Los desaparecidos no celebres
Implican a policia en crimen de edil

30 comments:

  1. Here we go with the Slandering of the governor again.
    all i have to say is, if
    moreira lied, no one died
    Bush Lied, hundreds of thousands died.

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  2. what does bush have to do with this? explain please

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  3. What does this article have to do with Bush?

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  4. **Moreira just announced he would leave his post as governor to seek the presidency of the PRI in Mexico City, he is the only candidate being considered for the position.** Moriera has the backing of Mexico State Governor Enrique Peña Nieto, the candidate most likely to be the PRI's presidential candidate in 2012, implying that the party will be a unified force heading into next year's ballot, and reinforcing the likelihood of a resounding PRI victory.

    The people of Mexico should be very concerned about this man.

    Here is a post from BB from 7/2010 including a letter from concerned citizens of Coahuila.

    http://www.borderlandbeat.com/2010/07/family-of-parasites.html

    And another interesting piece that was posted in 6/2010 (I pressume by the same people)

    http://www.borderlandbeat.com/2010/06/voices-of-people.html


    My own research has led to Moreira connections with a Texas based banking chain that has been named in money laundering schemes as well as political figures (who are friendly with said bank) who also invest heavily in real estate and industry.

    The man made sure that all of his family were given fat government jobs after he was elected governor, jobs none of them held before is election. If you can't trust your family who can you trust?

    I find it odd that anytime something is posted about Moreira on BB there is always one little bird that is quick to jump up and defend the governor, or former governor.

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  5. Mexican military/government of course have ties to organize crime, and this case with the Zetas. I have family in the state of Coahuila, and have traveled state Hwy 57 many times. Recently due to a death in my family, on a trip coming back home to texas, my brother & I were detained by the Mexicant' Military at one of their checkpoints on HWY 57 near Pierdas Negras. Upon pulling us over, the soldier began saying that the (fairly new Ford F150) we were driving, reek'd of marijuana. Of course my brother were not in position of any dope of any kind, but the POS soldier insisted that we were, even went as far as smelling our finger tips and accused of being potheads. He then proceed to empty are pockets and begin questioning the amount of a "few" hundred dollars we had, and began questioning how much was our rent,truck payment, bills, etc...in order to justify the few hundred dollars we had on our person. After about 30 minutes of the BS, I started to show my frustration by going from being polite to irritable, which then the POS soldier shoved his M16 in my chest, to show he was now in charge of my brother and I's destiny. Ultimately what saved us on that day, was that I just happen to be in position of "MY" military ID, once he realized I was US Army and indeed were only in mexico for a family funeral, he released us. I will never place foot in the Mexico again, unless it's with the 1st Calvary Division of Ft. Hood and I am in "MY" fuckin US Army uniform!!! Hoooah!

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  6. WTF? And how do you know it's slander? People living in Saltillo call Moreira "Governor Z". As usual, some idiot still wanting to jail Bush for the same shit their boy Obama is doing!

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  7. I love the people of Coahuila, I have been treated well. But I do know that Zs run the state, and every municipality. There is no justice, no investigations, it is another state of impunity.

    Humberto, is one of those people that you either feed into his well crafted bullshit and love him, or you hate him. No one is left without a strong opinion. When I have attempted to show the collusion of Zs and the governor people defend it saying "but he has done more for poor people than any other governor. I come back with "isn't he the governor for all people?, isn't that what he says?" What they are speaking of is his shtick of giving loud and huge...examples below;
    100K lap tops for students ...while schools have little materials and few accredited teachers and disabled kids have no transportation to school. as it turns out many of the laptops were not given to students.
    flood damage....swept into town giving away furniture, refrigerators, even houses, all for PR and not even touching or visiting the poorest areas which were heavily damage. I know, because when I gave these people aid they said no one had come to help them.
    Giving each student a uniform and shoes and school supplies....for all unless your child is disabled then you did not receive this gift.
    this is what he does, buys loyalty, and admiration so people would be controlled and look away and ask few questions. As one told me "we know it is Z money, we are not stupid, how does one go from being a poorly paid teacher to having private jets and 10K custom houses in Mx and the us?"
    Want to know what this hypocrite says about kidnappers? here is his quote..."These are people who won't be rehabilitated in jail," said Coahuila Gov. Humberto Moreira, whose cattle ranching state borders Texas. "Let's get real and let's start executing the kidnappers."
    If I could get over my nausea I would lol at this unintended irony. He may be the biggest hypocrite in politics today (Mx) well on second thought his bro Rueben may upstage him.
    BUT HOLD YOUR HORSES: Humberto is now the new federal chief (pres) of the PRI party and has moved to DF, resigning his post as governor and giving it to Jorge Torres Lopez for a year. While his bro Rueben amps up for the election in 2012 for the governorship. Then after Humberto gets his feet wet in DF he will make a run for the presidency of Mexico...

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  8. Guero.....IBC? that's what I hear...

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  9. How does the asshole talking about Bush know that if the Gov lied no one died???
    Sounds as if the idiot doesn't know how to read and is just rambling!

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  10. Stupido....many died, many cried...
    under moreira's rule..
    I have no clue how Bush got in there, another far lefty blaming Bush for everything...

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  11. i missed the part where chango chico ..bush was gob de Coahuila..when was that?

    i was under the impression that foriegn nationals couldn't participate in Mexican politics

    urny ..is this you somehow trying to cast some hate on the USA

    and i though this article was about Mexico

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  12. yeah right pendejos,
    ill stand up for the Governor any day any night at any time,
    so while your country is bending over for a few morew dollars from the Chinese
    at leadt i still can say Moreira never killed as many as your Ex president has.
    hoaaah my nads.

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  13. @ anon

    yeap and we prob'ly gave them the m 16's

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  14. @Buela

    Yes indeed, there seems to be a connection...in my opinion. See, Chad Foster is the former Eagle Pass mayor, Foster is very tight with Moreira and also dabbles in real estate, then of course Foster is also very tight with folks at IBC, namely D. Nixon...the president of IBC. Here is a rather helpful diagram of the relationships. It really connects the dots!

    http://www.corporationwiki.com/graphs/roamer.aspx?id=30232821

    Here is another interesting piece I found where Foster was a guest at Moreira's wedding.

    http://www.newspapertree.com/features/1947-the-commotion-in-coahuila

    "Not all the recent news coming from Coahuila had a somber streak. Ample coverage was devoted to the Dec. 21 wedding between ****Governor Moreira**** and Irma Vanesa Guerrero Martinez in the ruins of the St. Bernard Mission south of the border town of Piedras Negras. Bride Guerrero is a relative of prominent TV Azteca personality Paty Chapoy.

    Protected by hundreds of federal police and soldiers, the guest list read like a Who’s Who of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and its allies. Enjoying champagne and whiskey, hundreds of invitees danced to the live sounds of Camila, Grupo Pesado, Rondalla de Saltillo, Napoleon, and Celso Pina. Overwhelming the Piedras Negras airport with dozens of private jets, the wedding was an economic boost for area hotels including businesses in the Texas border cities of Eagle Pass and Del Rio.

    Well-known PRI politicians topped the list of guests, including Senator Manlio Fabio Beltrones, Chihuahua Governor Jose Reyes Baeza and Mexico state governor Enrique Pena Nieto. El Universal publisher Francisco Ealy Ortiz, ****Eagle Pass Mayor Chad Foster**** and businessman Alfonso Ancira Elizondo attended the festivities. Former Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari served as a witness for the enamored couple."

    I find the real estate, banking, aircraft connections to be very interesting. For some reason the word "middleman" and the term "go-between" come to mind. We already know Moreira owns millions worth of real estate in Texas, not bad for a former teacher. Hell he's even got himself a jet.

    I can't help but wonder what a courhouse search of the documents pertaining to Moreira's real estate purchases in Texas would reveal. What banks were involved and who the agents were.

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  15. Guero...exactly what I have learned, I know all about the Foster connection. Yes, Vanessa's cousin is the TV personality, and yes Foster was a guest at the wedding along with a few hundred interesting folks. Lots of private jets.

    You took the Q right out of my head...about the san antonio house..

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  16. Guero...
    correction 2 private jets. and home in Aspen.
    They built a custom 10K home in Saltillo last year. How does one go from zero to millions in just a couple of years?
    What do you know about Vanessa's family...namely her dad? I like her, she really has a sweet personality. And really cares for the disabled children. Or she is an incredible actress. They were building a compound for disabled persons who had no one to care for them, such as when a parent died. I am not sure if they completed it, but I saw the architectural concept and is was huge, with a main house and many smaller group houses.

    I wonder if the real estate is under Humberto's name or Vanessa's or both

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  17. how did Sarah Failin go from po-dunk triler trash redneck? to rich po-dunk trailer trash redneck?

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  18. The comment in the article regarding the danger to the Canadian who paid a 100 dollar bribe or faced jail, is a common tactic played upon foreigners traveling in these areas. There is no real threat of death or violence. It is a play of whether one pays or not. Don't over-exagerate the issue.

    As for Moriera, many people are talking out of their rear ends. Any good politician in any country including the good ole U.S. of A., goes from zero to millions in a few years. If that were not the case, there would be no politicians. Don't use having money as an excuse for being a corrupt politician and accusing him of having links to cartels. Not fair.

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  19. @ Buela

    Neither, I would imagine they set up trusts as fronts. Oddly enough the Dominion neigborhod of San Antonio has a long history of being the place where the "wealthy" Mexican nationals like to purchase property, many of them have ties to the cartels and the PRI. There were many homes purchased here prior to the collapse of the peso in the mid 90's as Mexican elite sought to put their monies into dollar based investments. It appears the cycle is starting up again.
    Here is a list, it is a little old but you get the idea.

    "MEXICAN MOVERS AND SHAKERS IN “THE DOMINION”

    Moises Saba
    Property financed by Laredo National Bank, which is owned by Carlos Hank Rhon. Moises is son of PRI finacier Isaac Saba, PRI financier and one of the richest men in Latin America. Investor in TV Azteca, second-largest TV network in Mexico. Isaac Saba recently took over a large share of the Anciras’ business in Mexico.


    Alonso Ancira
    CEO of AHMSA, Mexico’s largest steel company. Accused of business fraud (Fertimex, Carbon II), NOT CHARGED. Property in Dominion transferred in December 1998 to Cayman Island corporation.


    Guillermo Ancira
    CEO of AHMSA mining subsidiary. Paid cash for Dominion home.


    Carlos Ancira
    Son of Guillermo. Paid cash for another home with Guillermo Ancira, title transferred to Cayman Islands corporation in 1999.


    García Lourdes Brothers
    One brother is head of Mexican Hotel-Motel Association, paid cash.


    Rodrigo Treviño
    CFO of Cemex, third largest cement company in the world.


    Hector Burgos
    Accused of stock market fraud, NOT CHARGED, partner Eduardo
    Legorreta convicted. Legorreta was implicated in money-laundering with Enrique Fuentes León in Texas, NOT CHARGED.


    Rodolfo Zedillo
    Paid cash for first home, just built second in Dominion. Brother of Mexican president Ernesto Zedillo. INVESTIGATED for accepting $8 million from a Juárez cartel-funded company, NOT CHARGED."

    I would imagine that some of the names on the wikicorporation link I posted earlier would show up on the documents related to real estate purchases of San Antonio hmes sold to Mexican nationals.

    I've been doing homework on this matter for some time and lately I've discovered that many of the webpages I had saved in my favorites folder have been taken offline, seems a bit odd.

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  20. @ 6:41am, 1:43pm, 4:13pm, 7:07 PM

    I use the phrase "in my opinion" or phrases closely related that clarify my position. I also use quotations for any material I source from the internet or otherwise so as not to violate any libel/slander laws. Generalizations and straw man arguements don't carry to much weight with me. To those who question the things I've posted, I would suggest you tell us just how he got so rich, rather than say "it just happens".

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  21. I guess I don't understand the point of your post regarding Mexicans living in the Dominion. How many politicians and businessmen in other countries pay cash for properties? Is this illegal? I don't think so. It is just picking on Mexico.

    Maybe we need a similar blog about the U.S.? Afterall, who is receiving money to allow 40 billion dollars worth of drugs into the U.S.? That would be an interesting find, but one that no one seems to be interested in. Hmmm.

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  22. @ 8:28

    This site IS about Mexico, the US and the drug wars along the border. The discussion is damned relevant to people who have alleged ties to the cartels, the PRI and money laundering, I harldy call that picking on Mexico. Again, I have little patience for straw man arguements, if you have read anything I've posted and researched it you would find several Americans to also be involved. The fact that there are many folks tied to the cartels and the PRI living in The Dominion is relevant to the fact that Moreira also owns a 6 million dollar home in San Antonio, and in case you have forgetten the headline it is about Coahuila/Moreira! You might want to read the WHOLE thread as opposed to just part of it before drawing conclusions. My apologies for not reading the rule that says my posts have to be equally critical of our US politicians as they are of those in Mexico. Ay tonto.

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  23. I know a few families contemplating selling out of The Dominion for the reason that the "climate" has become polluted with cartel folks. It is a very well-known fact that no one tries to hide, and is quite obvious to anyone who frequents the area.

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  24. Dang Guero...Giant Kudos to you...

    ok..here is what I have heard from more than one source, but have no confirmation of title etc. I heard it is in Vanessa's name and or her family. I don't know how a trust would be a benefit in their particular case. However it would if, one is a US citizen and the non-us citizen "gifted" thru a trust, or out right paid cash with the same set of circumstance. Then it is free of tax. I know Vanylu is US born...in San Antonio, but do you know about Vanessa?

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  25. any mouses best not cross swords with guero

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  26. WTF? Two people mention my name disparagingly on a thread that I had not even commented on at all, I then take the trouble to write a comment finally about why the BB folk here hate a PRI state governor, Moreira, so.... and then it just flat out does not get published???? Why this game playing?

    Let discussion occur rather than pushing only one side of an issue. Really.

    E1

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  27. Time for another US military intervention to put a lid on the mess in Mexico.

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  28. This problem could be quickly solved. Issue a .357 magnum pistol to every Mexican citizen with 5000 rounds of ammo. Put the narcos on the run. This is a good example of why we have to have gun rights in America and why Obama, Clinton, and other criminals do not want U.S. citizens to have guns.

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  29. What if you know where your son is in Mexico I just found out who can I talk to or get in touch with them what email can I email them just to get to my son if anybody can help me please reply back getting a number from Mexico or email thanks

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