Tijuana: Morning brings narco mantas across the city

Narco Mantas hung across the city

The banners hang in the sun's earliest light, gently swaying in the light breeze, it is not an uncommon sight in Tijuana. A striking contrast of beauty, the awe of sunrise, and the ugliness that lurks within it, written out in black letters across white cloth. Threats, taunts, information, accompanied by battered, beaten, bloodied bodies of men, and women, often in handcuffs, bound at the wrists, gray and black tape across their mouths, telltale signs of torture.  

The banners went up in Lazaro Cardenas, in Otay Mesa, another on a pedestrian bridge in Zona Rio. Found in Zona Rio was a black trash bag, assumed to be human remains, blood, sticking and smearing the inside of the bag.  The message was addressed to Jose Maria Gonzalez Martinez, the Deputy Attorney General of the Attorney General's office dedicated to organized crime.  

The message accuses Martinez of working with "lacras", (La Rana and Aquiles) and failing his obligations to the messages sender, who released a kidnapping victim, he had apparently been given permission to take.  It's signed by Enrique Andrade, likely dead, as it's signed "I hate you in hell", the message seems to be assigning blame to Martinez for the death, and more importantly publicly announcing his ties to Los Aquiles.  

Banners are likely from CTNG, who have locked onto Aquiles, leaving mantas and body parts across the cities, as shootings occur on a daily basis across the colonias which are the forefront of the battle in Tijuana.  Sunrises and sunsets across a city, with each day there is another message, another body wrapped with tape, executions in Sanchez Tadoada, bullet holes through clothes, leaving the scent of fresh death in the air, a smell of blood and pavement, exhaust fumes, and a city at war. 

Sources: AFN Tijuana, Zeta Tijuana