Matamoros mayor warns about "grave risks"' in her city

Leticia Salazer, foto de Twitter

By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com

The mayor of the northern Mexican border city of Matamoros is warning residents about extreme risks associated with traveling in the city, according to Mexican news reports.

Leticia Salazar took to Twitter Monday afternoon to warn her constituents about risks from road blocks and presumably shootings in the city.  According to a news account which appeared in the online edition of Milenio news daily, four photographs which were taken Monday afternoon and posted to Twitter, showed two roadblocks and students inside a classroom ducking to the floor, presumably to avoid gun fire.

A check of Twitter showed very little in the way of information about the elevated risk in Matamoros, mosly reactions to Señora Salazar's warnings.  Two events in the last three days may have been a factor in any elevated risk.

Friday a hand grenade was detonated in Ciudad Victoria, state capital of Tamaulipas, which did some damage to a metal overhead door at the residence of father of Alejandro Etienne, mayor of Ciudad Victoria.  Later a painted banner, colloquially known as a narcomanta or narcopinta said to be from a local Los Zetas commander in the city appeared, as a warning to the government.

Another incident took place in Brownsville Texas, directly across the border from Matamoros,  Monday when a young woman identified in a ValleyCentral.com English language report as Dayna Velasquez, 21, was allegedly caught with 12 kilograms of cocaine inside the vehicle she was driving.

A news account which appeared in the online edition of El Diario de Chihuahua news daily said that shootout began at noon in San Carlos colony and the spread to other sectors of the city including on Avenida Pedro Cardenas.  No reports have emerged as to casualties, which is not unusual in shootouts in Tamaulipas border cities.

Starting in 2010 some of the worse intergang fighting between the Los Zetas cartel and their bitterest rivals, the Gulf Cartel took place in Matamoros, Nuevo Laredo and in Reynosa as shooters fought openly against one another, the fighting of which often produced  roadblocks.  Much of the violence at the time went unreported because, reportedly local press were under death threats from local drug gangs not to publish news about the activities.

During those years local Twitter users  as well as local government officials used Twitter to report gunfights and shootings and shootouts.

With the election of president Enrique Pena Nieto almost two years ago, the government got into the news spiking business by stopping the practice of reporting on individual incidents and compiling series of incidents into one, thereby reducing -- and improving -- crime statistics.  According to Tijuana, Baja California based Zetas magazine, only one part of the new anti crime strategy has worked: the statistics have improved, but not the violence, which is as bad as it has ever been.

Señora Salazar has run afoul of Mexico's Secretaria de Gobernacion (SEGOB), or interior minister Miguel Osorio Chong before, last December, when she suggested she may call for a curfew in the city after a series of shootout between rival criminal gangs, which left 13 dead.  At the time Osorio Chong said it would be illegal for her to impose a curfew, which may not be completely true.

Curfews in Mexican localities have been called for or imposed by local government officials because of drug and gang related violence, including, reportedly in Piedras Negras in Coahuila state in 2012 and Jimenez in Chihuahua state in late 2013 because of the extreme violence from local drug gang rivalries.

Lately the federal government's anti crime strategy has undergone a transparent shift as former head of Mexico's Comision Nacional de Seguridad, Manuel Mandrgon y Kalb has left his post, and was replaced by Monte Alejandro Rubido.

According to a news report last week in Milenio, several Mexican senators have noted that the new appointee signals a strategy shift more towards then strategy of former president Felipe Calderon  Hinojosa.

It remains to be seen if Calderon's hands off strategy with regard to the press will be followed as well.

Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War nad national political news for Rantburg.com and BorderlandBeat.com He can be reached at grurkka@gmail.com

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PRI prepares to gut Fox era security reforms

By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com

After a speech given by Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto at a forum hosted by The Economist (UK), Miguel Osorio Chong, Peña's Secretaria de Gobernacion (SEGOB), or interior minister spent time in the press last week clarifying Pena's remarks.

SEGOB Osorio Chong

According to a news report posted on the website of Yancuic.com, president Peña told the forum that a reduction of violence has occurred in Mexico since the end of 2012, but, according to a news account Peña gave no details.

According to the news account, president Peña used the term appreciably with regard to the drop in violent crime in Mexico, and even when asked about what metric could used to show any decline in violence, Peña did not answer.

One criticism from the publisher of The Economist news weekly, unidentified in the article, was that when president Peña spoke of the reduction of crime he failed to make note of events in Michoacan, easily one of the most violent states in Mexico, and one which potentially threatens Pena's security strategy.

Another problem with president Peña's claims is that, according to the news account, if the drop in homicides in Mexico state only are taken into account, then Peña told the truth.  Which means that Peña likely lied to the forum in his claims.

President Peña Nieto

According to the data supplied by The Economist,  officials in Mexico state had changed the methodology of reporting statistics for violent crime, which showed a steep drop the year Peña's term as governor ended in 2011.  Now, two years later, Peña is applying apparently similar methodology by eliminating drug related deaths from statistical compilations.  That statistical trick has indicated a dramatic reduction in violent crime starting in August -- when the new method went into place -- by 20 percent.

Osorio Chong responded to critics the next morning by claiming Peña's anti crime strategy deals with people not statistics.  Osorio Chong before a senate committee last week combatively also denied a conspiracy of silence existed between the federal and state governments in reporting violent crime in Mexico.

That statement by Osorio Chong may well be the epitaph of transparency laws in place since 2005 under the Vicente Fox presidential administration.

Having pushed an across the board income tax increases as well as levies on other items including sugary drinks, Peña is now pushing to eliminate transparency reforms dealing with security policy in place since 2005.

An editorial which appeared earlier in the week in El Siglo de Durango news daily  written by Jorge Perez Arellano said that the new national expenditure law, approved in the Chamber of Deputies and now being considered by the Mexican senate, was passed without Article 9 or Article 15, two 2005 reforms which forced state and municipal governments to report certain classes of spending back to the federal government.

The Presupuesto de Egresos 2014, or Expenditure Act of 2014 is set for a vote November 16th in the Senate when it is expected to pass, then go to the plenary session for final approval.

State and municipal governments in Mexico are severely restricted in how much of their own revenue they can raise and spend.  The Mexican federal government provides the lion's share of money for state and local police corporations.  Under the current law any monies provided by the federal government for security not spent 90 days after the funds are originally transferred, must be reported and any use of those funds by state of municipal entities must be publicly available for anyone to see.

Another reform expected to be removed from 2014 spending program is the requirement that state and municipal public servants must report to the Chamber of Deputies and to the national auditor's office any complaints against those officials.

For the average Mexican citizen, the reform meant that any complaints pressed against an errant officials would be sent to the Chamber of Deputies and to the auditor.  With the new reform, now the average Mexican citizen will be forced to go to Mexico City to press complaints since municipal and state officials will no longer be required to send them on to the federal government.

According to Perez Arellano, the gutting of the reforms will allow public servants to grant themselves and their subordinates  salary increases, presumably without any legislative oversight.

According to a separate report in El Diario de Chihuahua news daily, Veracruz Partido Accion Nacional (PAN) deputy Juan Bueno Torio warned that the elimination of the reforms will give state and local officials a "big spoon", and that gutting reform could lead to increased indebtedness in states and municipalities.

Bueno Torio, formerly a senator, had spent some time towards the end of his term warning about the dire condition of Mexican municipalities with indebtedness.  At the time in 2012, he warned that 80 percent of all municipalities in Mexico were having dire economic problems due to increased amounts of debt.

It was a massive increase of public debt from 2005 to 2011 that led the populist former Coahuila governor and former PRI president Humberto Moreira Valdes to resign.

Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com and BorderlandBeat.com

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5 die in southern Chihuahua

By Chris Covert
Rantbrug.com

Five members of a family were shot to death Monday night in far southern Chihuahua state, according to Mexican news accounts.

According to a new report posted on the online edition of Milenio news daily,four armed suspects staged an ambush along a dirt road at around 1930 hrs in Guadalupe y Calvo municipality in Baborigame.

The victims were identified as Adelina Carrillo Gutierrez, 61, Jesus Chaparro Loera, 63, Wenceslao Chaparro Carrillo, 36 and two unidentified children ages 11 and 7 were traveling aboard a GMC Sierra pickup truck when the shooting took place.

Several AK-47 and AR-15 spent cartridge casings were found at the scene by investigators.

Guadalupe y Calvo has seen an increase of violent security incidents in recent weeks, the last incident an apparent ambush in a remote part of Guadalupe y Calvo, which claimed the lives of four individuals.  A previous incident of the kidnapping of a political candidate just a week before that shooting preceded a renewed deployment of Mexican federal security deployments including army and naval infantry troops to the region.

Miguel Osorio Chong

Meanwhile Mexico's Secretaria de Gobierno (SEGOB) or interior minister Miguel Osorio Chong, formally announced the training of the first of the news Gendarmaria Nacional, totaling 5,000 effectives, according to Mexican news accounts.

The Gendarmaria Nacional which will operate under the auspices of the Policia Federal, was the centerpiece of the new security strategy by the recently elected President Enrique Pena Nieto.  The emphasis in the  new strategy was to reduce drug and gang related violence which has plagued Mexico for the last several years.

According to a news report posted on the website Animal Politico, Osorio Chong in a radio interview with Joaquin Lopez Doriga, reiterated his government's commitment "in the coming years" to a "news justice model".  The aim, according to several new accounts is to reduce the involvement of Mexico's military in counternarcotics operations, long an objective with Mexico's political left.

The news is a seeming reversal since mention of the Gendarmaria Nacional was omitted from the Plan Nacional de Desarrollo or National Development Plan last May, a move Mexican press claimed was a reneging of a campaign promise Pena made a year ago, despite reepated announcements since Pena's inauguration.

According to a separate news account, in the first stage of the Gendarmaria Nacional plan, a total of 8,500 soldiers and 500 naval infantry troops would be included in the new security force.  It is unclear in Osorio Chong's latest announcement if that part of the plan has been followed.  Osorio Chong has said in the past the the new Gendarmaria Nacional would have both police and military training, which suggests that SEGOB has been or will be moving some elements from the army and navy into the GN.

Currently, Mexico's military and federal police appear to be operating in counternarcotics operations under the command of SEGOB, the Policia Federal under its direct control.  For years during the administration of Felipe Calderon Hinojosa, the Policia Federal had operated as a separate cabinet level agency.  During the legislative honeymoon last December, the Policia Federal were moved as a sub-agency of SEGOB.

When the elements of the Gendarmaria Nacional are ready to be deployed, they will likely go to the worst of Mexico's trouble spots, mainly on the northern border where the most intense of the drug and gang related violence has taken place over the years. 

One likely location will be southern Chihuahua state.  Earlier this year Chihuahua governor Cesar Duarte Jaquez had announced that Gendarmaria Nacional troops would be deployed to the region which can now be seen as a rather premature announcement.

Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com and Borderland Beat.com. He can be reached at grurkka@gmail.com

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Policia Federal to reinforce Zacatecas

By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com

Mexican Policia Federal units will continue to patrol the roads and highways of Zacatecas and more reinforcements are coming, according to Mexican news reports.

Miguel Alonzo Reyes

In a news account published in the website of El Sol de Zacatecas news daily, Zacatecas governor Miguel Alonso Reyes was quoted saying that Mexico interior minister, Miguel Osorio Chong has promised to keep Mexican federal security forces patrolling the state.

Govenor Alonso Reyes recounted a meeting with Osorio Chong last Thursday in which the Secretaria de Gobernacion (SEGOB), the official name for the interior minister, iterated federal support for security operations in the state.

SEGOB Miguel Osorio Chong

Two weeks ago in a required report, SEGOB said that Policia Federal units would be dispatched to the border area between Jalisco and Michoacan states in the wake of a spike in violence in that area.

The area to be reinforced is well south of Zacatecas state.  Another trouble spot for Zacatecas state has been the border area with Jalisco state to its south.  Already Mexican Army troops patrol the area and maintain a large base.

SEGOB last December folded the old Secretaria de Seguridad Publica (SSP) -- the controlling agency for the Policia Federal -- into a separate sub agency of SEGOB, while discussions in Mexico City among legislators continue with President Enrique Pena's newly proposed Gendarmaria Nacional continue.  What form and what mission the new police force will take remains a mystery.  Despite its new role in SEGOB, Policia Federal units are constantly being shifted to trouble spots in Mexico, much as they was used during the term of former president Felipe Calderon.

Alonso Reyes also said that SEGOB has committed to keeping Mexican Army and Naval Infantry troops in the state.  Zacatecas currently houses three Mexican Army rifle battalions in the state in the form of several rifle company sized installations.

Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com

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Pena's Security Plan starts to take form

By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com

President Pena

Barely in its fourth week, the security strategy of newly inaugurated Mexican president Enrique Pena Nieto is slowly becoming apparent. 

Going by Mexican press accounts now and in the past it is possible to detail at least some elements of Pena's new security strategy in dealing with organized crime.

One of the first acts of the incoming president Pena was to make a proposal which would disband and fold the federal cabinet level Secretaria de Seguridad Publica (SSP) into the Secretaria de Gobierno (SEGOB), or interior ministry.  Originally that proposal was met with a great deal of resistance especially with the Mexican left including the Partido de la Revolucion Democratica (PRD), with many top leaders of which calling the move a throwback to the old days when Mexico's SEGOB was one of the most powerful security agencies in Mexico, especially during the Dirty War of the 1970s and 1980s.

Miguel Osorio Chong

As that change moved through the legislature, the new SEGOB, Miguel Osorio Chong, met with several governors, the latest of which included Coahuila governor Ruben Moreira Valdes, as well as the governors of Durango, Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas.

In a news story posted Saturday on the website of El Diario de Coahuila, Governor Moreira told reporters that a new federal security strategy was about to be implemented to including the "cleaning" of police and help with the proposed Gendarmeria Nacional, which is a campaign promise President Pena made throughout the campaign season last spring and summer.  Then as now, how this new police force would be used is shrouded in mystery.  Little indications exist that the current national police, the Policia Federal (PF), has had their mission  diminished so far.  PF units still patrol many of Mexico crime trouble spots in the north including in Tamaulipas, Coahuila and Zacatecas.

But there is little mistake that the violence level already has been reduced since December 1st, by virtue of the sheer drop in reported incidents.  Such a drop may not mean anything, however.  Confrontations between Mexico's military units and organized crime, at least in the last three years, have historically had their ups and downs.  The Mexican Army changes zone and regional commands in June, and promotions for colonels and higher ranks, a precursor to command shuffling, usually takes place in November.  Commanders in both instances usually need some time to get up to speed.  The new Secretaria de Defensa Nacional (SEDENA), both the controlling agency for the Mexican Army and the cabinet level job now held by General Salvador Cienfuegos Zepeda, will also likely need some time to get up to speed as well.

However, some regional commanders have already attended regional security conferences since November, in Mexico where governors and representative from regional gather to discuss their plans for new security arrangements.

One example was a regional conference, the second of it s kind, which took place two weeks ago including commander of the Mexican V Military Region,  General de Division Genaro Fausto Lozano Espinoza, and the governors of Jalisco, Michoacan, Nayarit, Colima, Zacatecas and Aguascalientes, according to a news item posted on the website of EL Sol de Centro news daily.

The purpose of the meeting was to discuss implementing the Mando Unico Policial or Single Police Command, a federal security scheme which has been partially implemented since 2010.  The idea behind the Mando Unico Policial is for the states to use individuals which have been trained and are usually better paid than municipal or even state police commands to deal more effectively with organized crime.

The news article reported that agreements between the federal government and Aguascalientes and Mexico state have already been signed, which indicates that changes are going to take place which will likely shift resources from supporting the current police agencies in support of a more federal response to organized crime.

Miguel Alonso Reyes

The end game for the new security arrangement has been revealed by Zacatecas governor, Miguel Alonso Reyes, who said the main objective was to return Mexico's military "to the barracks" and allow  police forces to take over security work against organized crime.

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