Blog dedicated to reporting on Mexican drug cartels
on the border line between the US and Mexico
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Friday, October 31, 2014

Viagras now in control of Michoacán

Borderland Beat Chivis with Video information translation by Vato
Pricilla of Grillonautas interviews  Autodefensa Leader Jorge Vázquez  

Pricilla interviews Vázquez and questions him over points highlighted in the latest rant by  Servando  Gómez  Martínez ,  alias  La  Tuta sent on Wednesday via audio to social media. Jorge  Vázquez  spokesman  for  the  Michoacán  legitimate  self-defence  groups  (coastal autodefensas) says  that  the  alias  La  Tuta ,  in  audio  that  was circulated  today  -through networks


The video is very long at over 25  minutes, so we present an overview of the interview highlighting key points….notable on the Tuta interview is that Tuta said in respect of autodefensas, there are real autodefensas, and there are those who are organized crime, that hid behind the AD banner.

1. He agrees with Tuta that there are many ex-Templarios in the Fuerzas Rurales (FR) He does not believe that it is 50% or the rank and file, but he agrees with Tuta that 50% or more of the commanders of the FRs are either former Templarios or people very closely allied with La Familia and the Templarios, or are members of Los Viagras. He tried to get the names of all the FR commanders' names but the Fed Govt would not release the names, so Vazqez says he has to agree with the numbers given by Tuta regarding the commanders and their Viagra affiliations. He does not know of  Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generacion members who are in FRs.

2. Castillo has been told repeatedly that his commanders are ex-Templarios or current Vigras, but he won't do anything about it. Castillo does not have to appoint these Viagras as commanders; there are honest people for the job. He says that in his town's case, they have gotten rid of the commander that Castillo wanted to appoint, the Fructuoso character. When Interviewer asks for names, he says he only knows the ones from his own town, Aguililla, but all the Viagras are known and he will get her the names.

Priscilla asks if he agrees with Tuta when he calls Papa Pitufo el "lame huevos" of Chango Mendez? Vazquez agrees with Tuta on this. He says that Papa Pitufo is related to Chango Mendez, brother in law, or something. He promises he will provide Priscilla a "genealogical" chart to explain all the relationships.

3. He says that the seven Sierra Santana brothers, except the one they call the Ingeniero, are commanders with the FRs. He reminds Priscilla that Castillo had stated that the FRs would only have authority within their own towns, but he says the Viagras brothers must come from several towns because they act as FR commanders all over Michoacán.

4. According to Vazquez, Commissioner Castillo brought the Viagras to Michoacán. All that Castillo did was to substitute one cartel for another, which is not what the autodefensas were doing. He says, "We call them los Viagras, although they may call themselves something else".

He says that the Sierra Santana brother, the Viagra known as "El Gordo", appears with Papa Pitufo in the video, although El Gordo denied being a Viagra.

He says that the people in Michoacán cheered when the Viagras attacked the Caballeros Templarios, but the Viagras simply replaced the CTs, they never helped the people. But the Viagras quickly showed they were the same as the CTs.......

How Nicaragua Deals With Drug Traffickers

Borderland Beat Republished from NPR

Back in the day, the city of Bluefields inspired poets. In truth, it should be paradise, because it sits in an enviable position along Nicaragua's Caribbean coast.

But as history unfolded, Bluefields became a forgotten city, cut off from the rest of the country by a vast jungle and different culture. As you walk its main street, you feel a struggle: Utility cables crisscross the streets, framing buildings, making them look like they're sagging under the weight of history. It rains so much that when paint peels off a piece of concrete, it doesn't take long for moss to set in. And no matter where you are, you're hit by the stench of open sewers.

Eight out of 10 people in this city are unemployed, yet there are stores everywhere and business seems brisk.

Roberto Campbell, a storekeeper who's hanging out on a wooden cart, says this place depends fully on the the drug trade.
"It's not no secret. Everybody knows that," he says in English. "The big businesses from here, if there are no drugs around, they cannot sell their articles. So when you see things are good, that means drugs are around."

The drug trade is this city's blessing and its curse. It's a city that's part of a country that has managed to remain relatively peaceful despite being in one of the most dangerous regions in the world. Analysts say one of the explanations for that relative peace is that Nicaragua has taken a different approach to fighting drug trafficking.

Whether by circumstance or choice, it has foregone its neighbors' military approach for a less confrontational — and some would say more opportunistic — strategy. It's an approach that has helped the country avoid the kind of violence that makes international headlines, but also suggests an uncomfortably close relationship between the people, the government and the drug dealers.

Back in 2012, the citizens of Bluefields took to the streets to protest the arrest of a notorious kingpin. News footage showed hundreds of people marching around demanding "justice" and "freedom." The government alleged that Ted Hayman was involved in the drug trade, so they confiscated his home — a huge, gaudy structure in the hills surrounding Bluefields.

Donald Byers, who runs a museum about this region's history, says Hayman was Bluefields' Pablo Escobar, the Colombian drug lord who pumped his drug money into his hometown economy. There were entire neighborhoods that were on Hayman's payroll, so when he and a couple dozen of his deputies were imprisoned, the economy essentially collapsed.

"That Christmas you could feel Bluefields wasn't the Bluefields that I know," Byers says. "You could feel a big difference. You could see a lot of people with no work on the street. People were complaining, 'This damn government. It's just messing up. They don't give us work. This guy came and give us work and now they put him in jail.'"

Byers says when the clock struck midnight and Christmas Eve turned into Christmas, there were no fireworks like previous years. Instead, it was quiet; it was sad.

The Management Of Crime

On the surface, it seems like the Nicaraguan government is doing quite a bit to fight the drug war and that Bluefields is a place of perdition.....

Damaso Vs Chapo Isidro in La Paz

Chivis Martinez and Tijuano for Borderland Beat translated from Zeta Magazine
On 12 October, the conflict between members of the Sinaloa Cartel and the Beltrán Leyva Organization became one of the worst battles between criminal cells, led by Dámaso López Núñez alisas "El Licenciado" and Fausto Isidro Meza Flores alias "El Chapo Isidro".  They are engaged in a war for control of the drug retail territory. At press time, the dead toll was 22, raising terror among citizens, who are especially fearful of the shootings that have occurred in the main urban area of La Paz.

As the level of violence escalated this week,  the kidnapping, torture and murder of three members of organized crime who were dumped in a rented vehicle, then torched at kilometer 38 of the LaPaz ciudad Constitution Federal Highway is, according to some members of the Coordination Group PublicSecurity of Baja California Sur, "the bloodiest act yet in this drug war".


The crimes, which illustrate complete impunity, were committed at the same time of the arrival of a group of the Special Unit of the Deputy Attorney Specialized Investigation of Organized Crime (SEIDO) and a contingent of about 200 soldiers from the Secretary of Defense National.

On the morning of October 12, the three members of the Beltran Leyva cartel cell,  were kidnapped, tortured, beheaded and burned, at the time  they were unknown victims.

However, two days later, on October 14, a video was uploaded to YouTube, lasting 6 minutes, 2 seconds, entitled "Gente de René de La Paz" and uploaded by a user named Claudia Dominguez.
In the video, the faces of the executed trio was revealed.

 

According to preliminary investigations by the Attorney General of the State (PGJE), based on existing photographs, physical characteristics, type and color of clothing and the respective reports of the disappearance of three people, it is believed they are; 
 

Mario Alberto Garcia Lopez, aka “EL Junior”, Tomas Antonio Rico Castro, aka “El 3”, and Carlos Antonio Mayoral Hernandez, aka “El Mayoral.  The latter was a state police officer until last year.

Relatives of three victims filed a report of their disappearance the same day that news broke of the discovery of the burnt car and knew they had found three charred bodies, so the following preliminary investigations were opened: LPZ / 747 / AMP10 / 2014 , LPZ / 748 / AMP10 / LPZ 2014/749 / AMP10 / 2014.

The relatives agreed that "the last time they had been seen, was aboard a gray late model Volkswagen Jetta,"


The Video Recording 
The video recording which was uploaded to YouTube  around 11 am on October 14 begins with the "narcocorrido" "Damaso" (left) and mentions the main protagonists are people from "El Rene" or "00".  Continuing; they are ashamed that the men previously belonged to the Sinaloa Cartel, this before internal conflicts erupted following the capture of former leader Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman.

Then it is mentioned they are now under orders of  Fausto Isidro Meza Flores aka "El Chapo Isidro", who recently has been mentioned by national and international media as the successor to Hector Beltran Leyva aka "El H".

The recording displays a sequence of photographs of a deceased man in a car wearing blue shirt with white stripes, who is identified by the PGJE as Francisco Javier Pérez Chávez alias "Pancho" or "Chinola".  He was murdered on October 8th in a shooting on the streets of Guillermo Prieto, between Callejon de Acceso and Luis Donaldo Colosio in the Inapala neighborhood of  La Paz.

The strongest part of the video is the interrogation the victims were subjected to.  From left to right they are:

1. Mario Alberto Garcia Lopez alias "El Junior", who appears naked, only with black shorts, but in one of the pictures he is wearing a red shirt and black pants.

2. Tomas Antonio Rico Castro alias "El 3", wearing a pair of black jeans and an olive green polo shirt with white stripes.

3. Carlos Antonio Mayoral Hernandez alias "El Mayoral", wearing an orange shirt and torn blue jeans.

The three victims are cuffed, and appear tortured, and bloodied.

The following is a video narrative transcription, with the interrogation being conducted by sicarios of Dámaso López Núñez from CDS, of cell  members who work under orders of  Fausto Isidro Meza Flores alias "El Chapo Isidro" of the Beltran Leyva cartel.  The kidnapped men say the leader in La Paz,  is a man identified as "El Rene" or "00". ( Continues next page )