Blog dedicated to reporting on Mexican drug cartels
on the border line between the US and Mexico
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Friday, June 6, 2014

Tamaulipas: Déjà vu

Borderland Beat
Reforma: Eduardo Guerrero Gutiérrez
Translated by Leila English

In Tamaulipas, it seems, history is indeed condemned to repeat itself. The violent episodes that have shaken the state over the last two months—shoot-outs, narcotic blockades, business places set ablaze—are sadly familiar to Tamaulipas’ residents. Since 2010, months of relative calm alternate with dramatic surges in violence. The novelty is only that this year the crisis attacks a weaker state. The rise in criminal activity, especially the increase in kidnappings, has since 2010 promoted the massive exodus of the corporate community and the closure of many businesses.

A despondent article published recently by The Guardian newspaper describes how the buildings of the Historic Center of Tampico were left vacant as finding new lessees became impossible, and have been slowly overtaken by vegetation. Due to the continuous siege of media communications [by cartels], the reporting of criminal activity is very limited, which reduces the visibility of the state’s crisis, and leaves it at a disadvantage when competing with other regions for support from federal security agencies.

Geography condemns Tamaulipas. The majority of illicit substances that reach the United States from Mexico pass through this state [bordering Texas], or at least that is what the available statistics from confiscated shipments suggest. (For example, of the cocaine confiscated by the Army from 2007 to 2013 in states along the northern border, 56 percent was in Tamaulipas.) For any cartel, then, controlling this lucrative corridor becomes an attractive proposition.
Mier 2010, an entire town was told to get out causing a mass exodus

When it began its conflict with Los Zetas in 2010, the weakened Gulf Cartel withdrew its forces to Matamoros and Reynosa, with the aim of collecting on the transit of drugs through both border cities. Los Zetas, for their part, took control of Nuevo Laredo. The towns of the “Little Border” (like Mier and Miguel Alemán City) became part of a territory of constant conflict between both organizations, and have been the site of some of the bloodiest confrontations.

Nevertheless, the violence was merciless in Reynosa and Tampico in April and May of this year, as they registered 64 and 45 executions respectively, or a total of 109. In Reynosa, the April 1st arrest of the leader of the “Los Metros” faction, “El Simple” Jesús Alejandro Leal, precipitated an incursion of “Los Ciclones,” another faction of the former Gulf Cartel. Traditionally, the most successful businessmen in the state reside in Tampico, and it is there where criminals find the greatest potential for kidnapping and extortion. In this second city the dispute is also between groups who previously formed part of the Gulf Cartel. (Today the two gangs are known as “Sheyla” and “Fresitas”.)

After six years of exacerbated violence, the authorities of our country have not developed the capacity to contain upsurges of violence, including when those upswings are foreseeable. The capture of the principal leaders of Los Zetas and the Gulf Cartel, which occurred over the last year, promoted the fragmentation of both organizations.
 
This fragmentation, in turn, generated an elevated risk of confrontations in Tamaulipas, as the number of actors disputing control over income generated by narcotrafficking also increased. Additionally, the fighting groups do not act discretely. The frequent movement of convoys of trucks with armed persons occurs in broad daylight. It is very likely that the bloodiest confrontations could have been avoided with opportune reinforcement of the security of roadways and strategic points in the cities principal to the conflicts.

[When we arrived in 2010 with these supplies ,at the Mier refugee shelter in SMA,  we met a mother who we had seen in a news report, she was 9 months pregnant when forced to leave with her husband, she had the baby three days before we arrived. We heard the baby had arrived so we bought special gifts for him]

Within this tragic story, Tamaulipas does have one important asset. The criminal groups there do not seem to enjoy an ample social backing, as occurs in regions of Michoacán and Sinaloa, for example (where criminal organizations maintain tight links with local authorities and some communities perceive them as benefactors).
Perhaps because of the tendency of Los Zetas to favor intimidation and brutality as strategies for territorial control, in Tamaulipas the vast majority of the population only feels fear and rancor towards the criminals. For this same reason, it is foreseeable that any authority that demonstrates an authentic disposition and efficacy for facing them will also rapidly promote an ample coalition of citizens’ resistance which has until now been absent from Tamaulipas.

30 comments:

  1. Typo in heading ;

    Se te antoja Tamales?

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  2. that is true to close to the US

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  3. the zetas r just waiting to come back and take over. Pretty smart guys. let the Gulf kill each other

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    1. Zetas aint taking over shit. They weak too.

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  4. Blame the corrupt government for taking bribes! They are ruining a beautiful Mexico!!! Ten years ago paisanos used to go back to Mexico and visit with their trucks and have a good time in their former hometowns, now all I hear of on the grapevine is that people are scared to go back because of the countless stories of people getting extorted, mugged, kidnapped, and just a general sense of hopelessness and paranoia!!!!

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    1. I've been going from Los Angeles to Guadalajara in a truck wit the pops since 2000 and haven't stopped our annual drive. You are the hopelessness one 9:35

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    2. what an idiot, yeah your lucky to not have been fucked with yet? so that automatically makes mexico safe? say that to those that are in narcofosas. pendejo...the day they have you kidnapped is the day you will say, I should've listened. fuck driving to mexico...ni que estuviera loco.

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    3. Dont push your luck. Flights to GDL are cheap now a days. Ive had relatives get jacked for their shit, kidnapped and then killed after their fam paid in tamaulipas on their way to Michoacan. Fuck all those lazy fucks.

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    4. You all are pathetic morons , I make more money then you morons but I chose to take the drive for the adventure . There's less then 1% chance of your car being one that gets mugged on the way , and to be on the safe side only drive in the day time to see the beautiful country side good.

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    5. Haha you wish you made more money than us, you keyboard warrior. People that show off online that they make money are bigger posers than pedophiles...

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  5. Now that is funny...thank you

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  6. The top picture is pretty old but those bodies are Gulf Cartel members that were shot down by a passing convoy of the Zetas.

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  7. Top picture is old those are Gilf cartel members that were shot down by Zetas.

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  8. Only the ppl that live there know the true story not the fake social junkies that say they r victims and posting fake stories tamps is going thru some drama so let's respect the true victims of it will come to an end when quintero n cjng gets a hold of tamps

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    1. Hay gente de chapo en MATAulipas....

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  9. 12:34
    Did you even read the article or know what Déjà vu means? the pic clearly states circa 2010.

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  10. 2:58

    I live in Mexico and have had many friends that have been stopped and had everything they owned, including their vehicles stolen at gunpoint. I have had friends killed for absolutely no good reason. One for dancing with a girl in a bar, that was connected with a Narco. He did not know. He and his two friends were shot outside the bar after exiting. It is just a matter of time, and you are taking the safer routes I would guess. I know of Paisanos that have been stopped and paid the price. When I tell Mexicans in the USA, illegal or otherwise that I live in Mexico. They ask me why I would live there, let alone drive into Mexico. There is definitely a fear even among Mexicans to return. I talked to a young girl at the dollar store on Doniphan Drive in El Paso, and she said she came from Juarez 10 years ago. She said she has lost 19 members of her family to violence there. Their only problem was that they owned businesses and were successful. Maybe you are like me. I do not worry so much about dying, but I worry for my family and friends here everyday and wonder who will be next.

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  11. June 7, 2014 at 9:56 AM
    "I have had friends killed for absolutely no good reason. One for dancing with a girl in a bar, that was connected with a Narco"
    Thanks for your thoughts bro,you as a Mexican will know more than most the real feeling of the people,,be safe bro....

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  12. Readers, I appreciate the support, but I have to answer some of these whiners for my own well being :)
    the person was mostly nice, but then became so critical. why not this, or that, or that that, or bla bla bla. I say why not help out. that was why I wrote back.

    but we would not post the stuff he speaks of. Gossip with no supporting facts, from BDN etc. We try to get it right. That keeps us reputable.
    today I wrote about two current stories, it may not look like it but it took quite a bit of time, I began last night. I am trying to post a variety.

    Anyway, thank you. I still have company for another week...so I many not be at BB so much. Paz

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  13. I know this is off topic but can someone explain to me who became boss of los antrax when chino went away? Was is EL20 Julio Cesar Lopez Verdugo or El20 Jesus Pena? cause one is dead and one is in jail suposedly. Or are people getting the names mixed up like when Fantasma was caught. Who are both of them and why are they working with the same clave in the same organization?

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    1. Its a female and they call her la emperatriz de los antrax

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    2. Emperatriz antrax

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  14. 2:23 lol chivis for cussing. dont mind those people they are idiots. leave chivis alone the reporters do a very good job at keeping up with the news. that claudia story about her being the emperatiz of the antrax is pure bullshit. im glad that chivis didnt post that story. ive noticed that this blog doesnt post all the gossip that is talked about in other blogs which is good becuase its all nonsense. if you guys want to read that bullshit go on blogdelnarco or historiasdelnarco.

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    1. How is it bs? Because she is a female? Present evidence that she isnt

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  15. there is a "los zetas infiltran al gobierno, la pgr, la pf, la afi..." report, where it says zetas apparently retired gafes or deserters from the mexican armed forces went to work for the gulf cartel, it looks to me like the zetas infiltrated the gulf cartel and took them to the cleaners, and if they didn't finish with them is because they must have very powerful godfathers way up there, but the bottom line is all the cartels PAY to the police and military brass, bigwigs and politicians, to the point that the criminals have to diversify, and kidnap and extort, and murder each other because they need to kick each other out of business, or in the case of genaro garcia luna, he wants more and more money, and he is not good enough as a businessman, and he could not sell enough private security, kidnappings and murders, by police officers under him sure drove a lot of business to his side, and i'm sure he caused the problem in the first place, for greed...
    now protected by the US, living his golden retirement sticking it to the US in and from FLORIDA, where the republicans and drug traffickers alike are working eagerly for the jeb bush for president campaign...there you go, mariconadas from the US and mexican governments, protecting such a big whale of a big fish, luckily, la señora isabel miranda de wallace, ggl's partner in crime is being investigated, and she will deliver his nasty ass , i don't expect that there will be much room in the Plataforma Slim for ggl later on...
    --somebody should send DR MIRELES texcoco's report on the most crooked crica from mexico, "la señora de wallace"...

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  16. The picture on top is not that old. It's from february or march of 2010 when z and cdg broke apart. R1 was leading a convoy of his troops from reynosa all the way down to guerrero. He stop by miguel aleman and they kill most if not all of los zetas. They then went to mier where the military was waiting because someone snitch out and zetas were afraid and were running away. The people that were kill were kill by military not by zetas. Look and the video of ciudad mier. All the pictures are there. It was a confrontation between military and cdg. Am not sure but rumors were that r1 was injured in this fight. Then in april, R1's people capture some zetas and they made the video with the 4 zetas in black shirts. The leader of los zetas said that his leader was comandante charolas and bebe. Charolas was kill later that year in mier. His girlfriend went into a website that was grupo reforma where everyone left messages. She wrote how much she miss him and loved him and how sad she was that he had been kill. R1 then lost some people too in mier. In september of 2010 zetas enter mier and kill most of the cdg in the run away. Zetas capture 4 guys dress in military clothing. One of them was an ex marine, the other one from central america. They were all shot. That video is still in youtube, without the execution. Then came the m3 killing by his own people and R1 was blame for that. After M4 was kill by orders of x20, everyone knew that R1 was inocent of m3 dead. Another split happend when x20 was capture and now another split with this shaila and frecitas. Everyone from this old school cdg is mostly gone, z1, osiel, cachetes, hummer, wicho, gringo, m3, tormenta, coss, x20 ect...ect. I think that R1 is about the last one from this group that is still out there. I think that La tuta and R1 are the smartes of all, because everyone has fallen from cds (chapo), la familia and templarios (chango, plancarte, chayo) tuta is till out there, cjng, juarez (except viceroy), beltran leyva ect.....ect.....

    Last I read was that R1 is still fighting zetas in tamps. Who know if he has any say in this mess with cheila and fresitas.

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    1. M4 was not killed by X20 orders he was killed by el gringo from reynosa he even went to X20 telling him what happened and a few weeks later gringo was killed along with several commanders in reynosa by X20's orders in retaliation to M4's death.

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  17. the real emperatiz de los antrax is from durango. claudia is just a antrax groupie.

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  18. June 14, 2014 at 10:38 AM <<<< off-topic but most people that show off online that they make money, how everybody else is wrong cos they not "got a life" etc. etc. mostly *are* the pedophiles of the world... how else they gonna lure vulnerable immature kids into their mothers' dank basements? Not that I'd know or even want to know, of course. js.

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