El Paso CBP Officer Arrested for Allowing Smugglers & Trafficking into Texas

"Socalj" for Borderland Beat

Customs and Border Protection officer Manuel Perez, Jr. was arrested in El Paso, Texas on criminal charges related to his alleged involvement in a conspiracy to smuggle undocumented noncitizens for financial gain and alleged drug trafficking activity.

Perez Jr. is charged with one count of conspiracy to bring aliens to the United States for financial gain, three counts of bringing aliens to the United States for financial gain, and one count of conspiracy to possess a controlled substance with intent to distribute.

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Tabasco State Police Sound Off on Crimes and Severe Mistrust Within the State

 "Enojon" and "Char" for Borderland Beat

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The Letter of La Barbie

By Buggs for Borderland Beat
Segment 3

In the last segment we touched a little on Alfredo Beltran Leyva El Mochomo and Sergio Enrique Villarreal Barragán El Grande, who were both extradited to the US. Both have a lot of knowledge about corruption with the Mexican government and could sink Genaro Garcia Luna during his trial if they chose to testify against him. It is believed that El Grande is possibly a protected witness and most likely will testify in the trial of Garcia Luna. Today we will talk about another high-level capo, La Barbie.

Edgar Valdez Villarreal La Barbie is a US citizen and was a high-ranking lieutenant of the once powerful criminal cartel, the Beltrán Leyva Organization (BLO). Valdez was born and raised in Laredo, Texas and his nickname La Barbie was derived due to his white skin, blue eyes and facial features. La Barbie was the leader of the security detail of Arturo Beltran Leyva. 

La Barbie managed to corrupt high level officials of the government of former President Felipe Calderón who are accused of having links with the Sinaloa Cartel and the Beltrán Leyva Organization. It was revealed through Mexican Journalist Anabel Hernandez that La Barbie was an informant for the DEA and the FBI in the United States while at the same time he was a participant in the corruption of Calderón. In essence, La Barbie was described in US court documents as a "two-sided coin with the same face."

He was a collaborator with officials of the Government of Felipe Calderón, who are alleged of providing confidential information to the Sinaloa Cartel and BLO. The information leaked to organize crime included the identities, photographs and locations of DEA agents who were working undercover in numerous parts of the Mexican territory, thus putting their lives at risk.

In 2009 the federal Mexican government of Felipe Calderon turned against the BLO and started to dismantle the organization. Mexican police raided his rental homes where they located grenades, automatic weapons and police uniforms. In June of 2010 La Barbie was indicted in a US court on charges of trafficking thousands of kilos of cocaine from Mexico into the US. It is believed he was trafficking about one ton of cocaine per month. 

On August 30, 2010, La Barbie was arrested by Mexican Federal Police near Mexico City. On September 30, 2015, he was extradited to the USA. In June of 2018 he was sentenced to 49 years in a US federal prison. In November of 2022 Borderland Beat was the first to report that La Barbie was no longer listed in federal prison custody. The website of the Federal Bureau of Prisons listed him as "not in BOP custody."

There was speculation that perhaps he was set free. I am certain that is not the case. La Barbie is most likely housed in an undisclosed facility and with full protection, as he will most likely play a central role in the trial against Garcia Luna. The US government has a vested interest in ensuring that nothing happens to their star witness.

Borderland Beat has known for years of the corruption between these cartels and the Mexican government, but not until his arrest by Mexican authorities, that he was ready to talk. In November of 2012, La Barbie wrote a letter.

***

THE LETTER

Below is the full text of the letter delivered on November 27 2012 to Grupo Reforma (diarios El Norte, Reforma, Mural) and subsequently made public. The letter was also sent to Journalist Anabel Hernandez.

"I want to state, first, that I did not agree to take part in the protected witness program. Likewise, I categorically deny the accusations and statements made by the arresting governmental agencies regarding the manner in which my detention was carried out and that the truth of the facts is the following: 

My arrest was the result of a political persecution by (president) C. Felipe Calderón Hinojosa. Calderon initiated an attack against me, because I refused to form part of the agreement that Mr. Calderón Hinojosa wanted to have with all the organized crime groups. He personally held several meetings, to have talks with various groups of organized crime.

Subsequently, numerous meetings were held through General Mario Arturo Acosta Chaparro, who met by order of the President and Juan Camilo Mouriño, with two of the leaders of the Familia Michoacana. Later, the general also met in Matamoros with Heriberto Lazcano El Lazca and Miguel Ángel Treviño El Z-40 (leaders of Los Zetas). Sometime later, Acosta Chaparro and Mouriño met with Arturo Beltrán Leyva, El Barbas, (leaders of the Belytran Leyva Organization) and also met with El Chapo Guzmán, leader of the Sinaloa cartel.

Calderón wanted to forge agreements with all the cartels: Los Zetas cartel, the Gulf cartel, with me, the Juárez cartel, with Vicente, and Mayo and Chapo of the Sinaloa Cartel. Since he did not receive a response from me and because I did not want to have collaborations with any other criminal groups, Calderon initiated a directed persecution against me. He ordered several searches of my homes without a legal warrant. They stole money, jewelry, cars, as well as numerous other belongings.

Genaro García Luna, head of the Federal Public Security Secretariat (SSP) since at least 2002, first in the AFI and then in the PFP, received money from me in various occasions as a result of drug trafficking and having knowledge it was coming from organized crime. A select group that included Armando Espinosa de Benito, who was collaborating with the DEA and provided me sensitive information. Other government officials that received money from me were Luis Cárdenas Palomino, Edgar Eusebio Millán Gómez, Francisco Javier Garza Palacios (PF Colombia), Igor Labastida Calderón, Facundo Rosas Rosas, Ramón Eduardo Pequeño García and Gerardo Garay Cadena.

Among them, they claim that they were tasked in "arresting me in some operation," but in reality, they had the instructions to kill me. At the time of my arrest, which was carried out at my home as reported by the media, I was alone. They say that I was arrested without firing a single gunshot on that day, but the truth was that there was gunfire. A federal policeman who was the same one who took me in custody, urged me to run so that he could shoot me, and be able to claim that he was repelling an attack. They intended to kill me just like they did to Arón Arturo Gines Becerril. Gines Becerril was killed in the vicinity of the Perisur Shopping Center. He was shot nemrous times in the back on the same day I was arrested.

Everything was covered up by the PF. It is worth mentioning that despite the background of Genaro García Luna, who is looking at numerous criminal charges and of which the American government is already aware of, was directly involved. They even have knowledge of other issues that were talked about during the review of the Mérida Initiative. I already have access to the most recent testimony of the collaboration of protected witness Mateo (Sergio Villarreal) that is being held by President Felipe Calderón without criminal charges being brought against him (prior to his extradition).

It should be noted that in all the arrests made by the Federal Police, nothing is confiscated as evidence, everything is stolen (money, watches, vehicles, drugs, etc.). It is necessary to point out that both the Mexican Army and the Secretary of the Navy tend to be more honest. They detain who they are supposed to and make them available to the proper authorities. I could had easily done what they do, but they, the Mexican governmental public officials I mentioned, are also part of the criminal structure of this country."

Signed:
EDGAR VALDEZ VILLARREAL

Segment 1
Segmant 2

Sources: Grupo Reforma, Journalist Anabel Hernandez and US court documents.

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VIDEO: Dr. Mireles Describes Agreements Made With the Government

By: Ernesto Martínez Elorriaga | Translated by Valor for Borderland Beat

Morelia, Michoacán—A video message recorded in April 2014 by the former leader of the autodefensas, José Manuel Mireles Valverde, was released in social networks.  The video message was intended to be spread after his death.  According to Mireles, organized crime groups, federal and state governments, and even his wife, intended to eliminate him.

  Some parts of the message had already been released, however on the Grillonautas2 YouTube channel, the entire video, with a duration of 46 minutes, was released where it is clarified that Mireles lost all the support of the federal government after taking Tancítaro with a group of autodefensas, on November, 16, 2013.

In early November 2013, Mireles says, he met with several federal officials in Mexico City, including Miguel Ángel Osorio Chong and the director of the Center for Research and National Security (CISEN), who approved his proposals:

To clean up organized crime throughout Michoacán; restoring the rule of law; liberate all imprisoned autodefensas; to appoint a single spokesperson on behalf of all autodefensa groups, which would be Mireles, and the arrest of 20 organized crime leaders, of which seven main ones operated in the region of Tepalcatepec, from which Mireles was born.

He said that there was an unwritten agreement whereby the federal government committed to provide them with an armored unit, and “another agreement: that we would no longer move to other municipalities,” and in the case that they would progress to other municipalities, it would have to be jointly with the federal government.

At that meeting, Mireles said that he planned to take Los Reyes, Aquila, Coahuayana, Uruapan, Ario de Rosales and Apatzingán.  They asked him to wait a week.  There was no response.  “We chose to take Tancítaro (November 16, 2013) in response to the request for help.  The day we decided to enter, the body of a seven-year-old girl, the daughter of an avocado farmer, appeared and her nine-year-old sister disappeared, even though they had paid 23 million pesos.”

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Due To Lack of Evidence, Former Mayor of Temixco Is Released

Miguel Ángel Colín Nava

Articles by: Jaime Luis Brito (Proceso), David Monroy (Milenio), Benito Jiménez (Reforma) | Translated by Valor for Borderland Beat

A state judge ordered the release of the former mayor of Temixco, Miguel Ángel Colín Nava, who is charged with the alleged diversion of more than 80 million pesos ($4,219,300 USD).

Colín Nava was released at the end of the trail-related hearing held on Thursday, in which the judge considered that the evidence provided was not sufficient enough to bring him to trial and send him to custody.

Jesús González Otero

This would have been the second arrest of a former mayor because last month his Cuautla counterpart, Jesús González Otero, was arrested under the same accusations.  Both belong to the PRD party.

The former official was mayor of the Morelos municipality during 2012-2015 and was apprehended yesterday afternoon when he left the hospital ‘Dr. José G. Parres’, located in Cuernavaca, where he currently works.  He was then taken to the Social Reinsertion Center of Atlacholoaya, in the municipality of Xochitepec.

Juan Jesús Salazar Núñez

According to Juan Jesús Salazar Núñez, head of the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, there was an investigation against Colín Nava carried out by the Superior Audit and Inspection Entity (ESAF), whereby a judge granted the arrest warrant against the former mayor, predecessor of Gisela Mota Ocampo, also belonging to the PRD party, who was assassinated a few hours after taking office on January 2, 2016.

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OPINION: Mireles Is Dead! (To The Media)

Father Gregorio López Gerónimo | Translated by Valor for Borderland Beat

My primary intention when I first translated the article wasn’t to create misinformation or write a “fake news” piece or “clickbait” as other websites have done and as I have been accused of.  I know I should’ve added a disclaimer the first time I published this piece but I forgot to and I posted it in a hurry and for that, I apologize.  I was hoping that readers would read the article and make sense of the metaphors Father Goyo was alluding to. - V

 

Today, February 24, 2017, four years after the surgeon, in the repletion of violence and impunity, he left his practice and joined the men and women who decided to leave their anonymity and cowardice to be the voice of those “without voice”; after his heroic deed, José Manuel Mireles Valverde is dead and nothing could be expected from the criminal government of Enrique Peña Nieto, who has murdered him as he did with the 43 young men of Ayotzinapa, and as with other innocents in Tatlaya, Tanuhato y Apatzingán.

Only a state crime of such magnitude is possible, when the government is usurped by those who do not possess the slightest intuition of law, justice, dignity, or human rights.  Foolishness is abused when someone is condemned to life imprisonment when that person is recognized for his innocence and courage, leaving in exchange seven free and covered up former governors in payment for political favors and who have plunged 39 million inhabitants, from the states that they have stolen from, into misery.

An outrage is also committed when the privileges of house arrest is granted to Elba Esther Gordillo, who today has 20 million children falling behind in education; as well as when in Michoacán, it releases another scum of the same party of the institutionalized corruption for seven thousand pesos.

For the current administration, it is not a crime to steal education and the future of a generation, to wring out jobs and the livelihood of a people, nor to collaborate with criminal organizations in the disappearance of more than three thousand Michoacanos.  However, it takes a weapon, to defend itself in a failed state, where there was no law, no justice, and no rule of law; only corruption, impunity, kidnappings, uprisings, and deaths.

Four years after the historic February 24, 2013, Mireles has died for defending life.  His agony began on June 27, 2014, when Alfredo Castillo took him to jail so that he wouldn’t interfere with the Port of Lázaro Cárdenas, where the juicy businesses of the dominant cartel are.  From that moment, Mireles began to be veiled by the Mexican people; unaware that that’s how it was done while he reviewed the media obituary in the police sections of the newspapers.

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“We Became War Photographers Without Ever Having Gone To Syria”

By: Rodrigo Hernández | Translated by Valor for Borderland Beat

Violence against the press in Mexico, as told through Veracruz photojournalists

Three men come out of an old building in the neighborhood Narvarte, a middle class neighborhood in Mexico City.  They had just finished raping, beating, and killing four women, Nadia Dominique Vera Pérez, Yesenia Quiroz Alfaro, Milla Martin, and Alejandra Negrete Virginia, in one of the apartments.  It’s August 2015, and according to reports from various organizations, their objective was a fifth person also found dead in the same place: Rubén Espinosa, a young photographer who had taken refuge in the Mexican capital in the face of threats that he suffered.

Although authorities speak of “clean areas of drug trafficking”, for some time the deaths by organized crime know no boundaries within the country.  The hole left by a 9mm bullet in the head of Rubén attests this.  His crime was being a journalist in one of the most dangerous states of Mexico: Veracruz.

The riddled body of a youth on a bus in Veracruz.  The battle between the Zetas and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel had led to an increase in violence.  Félix Márquez.

Veracruz: Camera Shots

An old snack bar near the harbor is the meeting place of photographers and reporters to take a break from the day.  Worn out walls and plastic tables are witnesses of the changing conversations among local journalists.  Some have spent decades telling what happens in their state, but the violence makes them observe every day more, and to count each day less.  Others are youths with miserable wages, and they live awaiting a national press or an international agency to take notice of their work.  Rubén Espinosa and one of his best friends, Félix Márquez, belonged to that group.

When they started working as photojournalists a decade ago, Veracruz was a tourist town.  There was poverty and contrasts were seen, but the bloodletting of drug trafficking was focused at that time in northern Mexico.  This was a passageway for drugs and for thousands of migrants traveling to the United States.  “When we started, we were used to shooting accidents and brawls, but suddenly we began to photograph dismembered bodies and shootouts.  It was a very fast and hard change,” Félix recalls while walking along the pier of the city.  A few years ago, tourists and locals were concentrated in this area at dusk.  But now, the last rays of the sun have become a warning: the streets at night long ago ceased to belong to the people of Veracruz.

From this place, the real cause of this nightmare that the region is living through can be seen.  A treasure becoming the reason of so much death.  The port.  With it, Veracruz became a strategic area: in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico, in the east of the country and with maritime access for drug output from Latin America to points such as Europe or the United States.  Many containers were loaded with cocaine, and sometimes, they came full of weapons.

Los Zetas

“We see dead.  It looks like a car accident on the road towards Jalapa.”  It was a normal message that a journalist wrote in the mobile messaging group that is shared by many reporters.  It was August 2008.  Félix took his camera and came with another colleague to the place.

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Mireles:"I Will Die Fighting"

Tepalcatepec, Michoacán

By: Sanjuana Martínez

The president of the Council of Autodefensas of Tepalcatepec, one of the first towns that took up arms, on February 24 of last year, is not willing to sit around waiting, after the government decided to start disarming the groups of civilians.

“War has not yet begun in Michoacán.  It will start now that the so-called commissioner Alfredo Castillo Cervantes leaves.  And the war will be hard, because not only do we have to fight against the declared Templarios, but also against those who were ‘forgiven’ and those who ‘repented’, and as well as the false autodefensas”, he says in an interview with La Jornada.

Many Scorpions

The betrayal of the arachnid is not the only thing he is worried about.  For the past three weeks, he knew that his companions, who were allegedly allied with Commissioner Castillo, were preparing to ambush him.  That is why he decided to come forward, to go to the City of Mexico, to meet with human rights defenders and record a video addressed to Enrique Peña Nieto, calling him for a direct dialogue, a request that has finally been answered, as interpreted by the threat of sending him to jail for the murder of five people; a crime, he says, he did not commit and whose testimonies were fabricated.

Mireles defends himself and counters: “There are five deaths because the people of Castillo go out and block us from entering the coast so that we don’t lead the movement forward to Lázaro Cárdenas.  Why?  There are many millions for Castillo in Lázaro Cárdenas, for Smurf, for Los Viagras, and for El Cinco?...And I’m the crazy one, right?  We are working for the good of Michoacán.  They are not.  If Castillo is also attacking us it’s because that bastard is also a Templario.  If they don’t let us enter Morelia, Zamora, Lázaro Cárdenas, it’s because it also belongs to the criminals and because they have an agreement with the organized crime.”

The allegations of collusion between organized crime and government authorities that Mireles has made in the past have been compelling, as in the case of former Governor Jesús Reyna and several now imprisoned Michoacán mayors.  “We will fight criminals, the Templarios, wherever they may be, even if they have the shirts of the autodefensas on.  Those, Los Viagras, El Cinco and Papa Smurf are the bastards who are with Castillo.  At one time Papa Smurf and Los Viagras were part of La Familia; at another time, with La Tuta, all of them, I also have reports that José Alvarado, El Burro, the chief hidden among them all, was one who would take money from La Tuta to give it to ‘Chucho’ Reyna.  They are all from Buenavista”.

Outraged, Mireles fixes his gaze, he moves his long fingers and points at the infinite.  He says he would’ve never thought that Peña Nieto would be so bothered about asking for direct dialogue.  He is president of the Republic, he can easily solve the problem in Michoacán; primarily by not bringing in bastards who ally themselves with the criminals.  We are worse than before.

He notes that he will continue his fight because he ensures that he has control over 70% of those in Michoacán who have taken up arms, an area which increases because every day, more and more people are united with him.  “The people know that this group of Smurf, Los Viagras, El Cinco, and El Burro Alvarado are from the new cartel H3, they are pure ex Templarios, ex La Familia, and some ex Cartel de Jalisco.  They forgave them and now they are the general coordinators of the whole movement.  No way!

The Five Dead

Mireles, a surgeon, walked down the street and people expressed their affection, they offered him support.  Every morning, neighbors come to him from different municipalities of Michoacán to tell him their problems.  They are people who continue to suffer from the violence of the Templarios, in very different ways: kidnappings, extortions, murders, robberies.

More than 300 complete families disappeared in Tepalcatepec; from some, they only left us pieces of body parts.  The last complete family that was disintegrated recently was of some cheese makers whose quota rose to 50,000 pesos and they couldn’t pay anymore.

An ambulance tried to enter the town last night, shielded by autodefensas: “They brought a psychiatrist because they were going to take me tied up and all.  When I arrived, they had just left because the people said: “don’t come here to fuck things up, if you return, we will welcome you with bullets.”

—Do you think they will kill you?

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Autodefensas and Federal Forces Arrest 187 Autodefensas of La Mira Michoacán

Towards the late hours of Friday night, hours before the deadline of the registration and integration of the Rural Police, armed forces detained 187 people, secured 25 trucks, and hundreds of large caliber weapons in La Mira, located in the municipality of Lázaro Cárdenas.

It was reported that the autodefensas led by Estanislao Beltrán “Papa Smurf” and Alberto Gutiérrez “Comandante 5”, were transferred via three helicopters of the Navy of Mexico and Federal Police to the Serrana (mountain) area of Arteaga.

This occurred to engage them in what was the alleged disarmament of groups of civilians who did not belong to the Council of Autodefensas of Michoacán (CAM) or those who did not agree with Alfredo Castillo on the dismissal of Dr. Jose Manuel Mireles.

Although there is no official information to indicate whether the group of detainees carried out autodefensa roles as part of an autodefensas group or if they were a group allied with organized crime.

As stated by Proceso before the transferring of the autodefensas groups via helicopter, the federal commissioner in the state, Alfredo Castillo, held a closed-door meeting with coordinators and commanders of the autodefensas and of the Federal Police and Ministerial Police, as well as with members of the Mexican Navy and Army.

Near 16:00 hours, the agency says, the autodefensas –who were carrying high-powered weapons, helmets, and armored vests- boarded helicopters, and took off towards the Naval Base of Lázaro Cárdenas and later, towards the mountains.

Some of the policemen who were interviewed said that they didn’t know what the operation was about.  “We don’t know if they’re going after La Tuta or for “El Plátano”, or after the autodefensas of Caleta, who are people of José Manuel Mireles”.

Community Police from the Sierra/Coast Support Mireles

Meanwhile, Valor Por Michoacán, via their Twitter account, announced that Community Police from the municipalities of Aquila, Coahuayana, Chinicuila and Caleta de Campos support and recognize José Manuel Mireles Valverde as a member and spokesperson of the autodefensas groups of Michoacán and expressed their full support.

The message from Valor Por Michoacán indicates that the commander Semeí Verdía, coordinator of the autodefensas of the coast/Sierra Nahua Michoacana, announced the support for Mireles Valverde via a telephone call from Apatzingán, rejecting the dismissal of the spokesperson.

This occurs because the autodefensas of the coast/Sierra Nahua Michoacana weren’t invited to the meeting in which José Manuel Mireles was dismissed and because of their absence, did not approve of anything.

Below is a post from Valor Por Michoacán SDR that says:

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Autodefensas Accuse Each Other Of Being Narcos

The differences between the two blocks that make up the General Council of Autodefensas have escalated into accusing one another of being linked to organized crime

By: Laura Castellanos

Lázaro Cárdenas, Michoacán— The roadblock that blocked the advancement of the autodefensas towards the port of Lázaro Cárdenas ended up showing the differences between the two blocks that make up the General Council of Autodefensas.  The roadblock that was set up on the coastal road of the village of Chuquiapan prevented the liberation of the port, considered to be the main financial stronghold of the Caballeros Templarios.

This roadblock was set up on February 26, two days after a front of farmer guards and Nahuas indigenous peoples from the municipalities of Aquila, Coahuayana, Chinicuila and Coalcomán would take off to the opposite end of the coast and in nine days, would advance 260 kilometers to Caleta de Campos.

A skirmish, which occurred on April 27 when the autodefensas of Caleta tried to cross the roadblock, with an outcome that left five people dead, caused the two main blocks that make up the autodefensas to accuse each other of having links to organized crime.

The group that Papa Smurf leads is part of the main leaders in the area of Tierra Caliente, who include agricultural farmers, and ex “forgiven” Templarios; the other side is led by Manuel Mireles, who is supported by autodefensas of the purépecha plateau and the coastal communities, who refused to let “forgiven” Templarios integrate with them.

On May 1, Adela Micha broadcasted an interview with Papa Smurf on Televisa, which asked about the autodefensas of Caleta.

—Are they from the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG)? (Originally from the state of Jalisco)

—[Yes] from the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, they were going with another purpose: the port of Lázaro Cárdenas— Papa Smurf responded.

Meanwhile, Mireles states on the same incident that: “None of the dead were from Chuquiapan, they were only Templarios from Lázaro Cárdenas and from La Mira”.

The autodefensa leader of Caleta, Gabriel Caballero “El Plátano”, stated during an interview with El Universal that Caballero Templario leaders in the region, such as El Chabelo and El Quinientos, who funded the militia of the roadblock, are allied with Papa Smurf.  “And they have told me through the phone that they want to fuck me up”, “El Plátano” says.

The Attack

On April 27, at 15:30 hours, 200 autodefensas from Caleta, on dozens of trucks and accompanied by a convoy of Federal Police (PF) towards the end, commanded by Chief Valerio, headed towards liberating Lázaro Cárdenas.

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Coastal Communities Report Links between “Papa Smurf” And the Caballeros Templarios

All Photos Courtesy of Regeneración Radio

Updated: Translation of Document

By: Regeneración Radio / Tejemedios

Gabriel Caballero Farías, known as “El Plátano”, was born and raised in Caleta de Campos, and underwent emergency surgery on December 3, 2013 because of a condition on his cervical spine. 

 The operation went smoothly and the doctor, as is in other cases, prescribed him a year of rest.  On January 14, 2014, a little more than 30 days after the operation, “El Plátano” joined the autodefensas of Aquila.  “I went to Aquila because they had risen up in arms, I became an autodefensa because of the violence that my town was suffering through, people couldn’t even go outside, the Templarios were just doing stupid things in the town; they had threatened us all.”  Such was the level of extortion for people living in Caleta de Campos; that is why Gabriel opted for the safety of his family and left his hometown to move to the city of Colima for three long years.  On his exile, he left his life as a rancher, his ranch, and orchards of mango and papaya.  “Here everyone knows my from when I was a little kid, they know that I’m a hardworking person and know that I’ve never been around thugs”.

Gabriel makes this explanation because recently Estanislao Beltrán "Papa Pitufo" (Papa Smurf), leader of some of the autodefensas of Tepalcatepec, has spoken criticism to the press about “El Plátano” and the autodefensas of Caleta de Campos being pseudo autodefensas, this occurred after the shootout that occurred on Sunday August 27 in the town of Chiquiapan.

On the morning of February 13, 2014, “El Plátano” took his AK-47 and rode on a truck along with his autodefensa comrades; the community of Ostula, 30 minutes from Aquila, had just been liberated barely three days ago by a group of locals who had also been forced to migrate from the area and now returned as autodefensas.  The autodefensas, led by Semeí Verdía, had called on all of the communities and landholders of the area for a meeting to address the issue of the movement.  The meeting was a high calling and was attended by many of the coastal Nahua communities from the municipality of Aquila.  The decision was emphatic; full support for the autodefensas and authorization to displace along Highway 200, which connects Lázaro Cárdenas to Manzanillo, installing checkpoints in order to expel the Caballeros Templarios in the area.

Some 60 trucks, filled with autodefensas from the municipalities of Aquila, Cohayuana, Chinicuila and Coalcomán took off to clean the coast.  Within two weeks, they had already fulfilled their mission.  They checked village by village, house by house, hill by hill, but found no one; the Templarios had already escaped.  While this advancement was occurring, checkpoints were placed along the road: El Duin, Cachán, Tizupan, Huahua and finally, on February 24, Caleta de Campo, establishing the autodefensa border with territory not yet liberated, about 70 kilometers from the port of Lázaro Cárdenas.

Gabriel had acquired sufficient experience during the operations of the coast and as well as being a native of Caleta; he was elected as the coordinator of the barricade.  “When we arrived, people felt kind of scared, but then they saw that I liberated Caleta and said; oh, well he’s ‘El Plátano’.  By the time we arrived, we gathered about 400 people, then we made the assembly and the people began to rise up in arms, they saw that we were people from Caleta, all of the people support us”.

The barricade of Caleta de Campo can’t survive without the support of the people.  The kitchen we have that feeds the volunteers is supplied by donations from the community, “without them, without the support of the people, we wouldn’t exist,” says “El Plátano”.  In its borderline condition, the roadblock hasn’t been without its tense moments.  “Who is helping here is the Federal Police; they arrived and set up within a few days.  Who we distrust is the Mexican Navy; they have come here repeatedly and tried to disarm us, if we didn’t ring the bells, they would disarm us.  We have the people on our side; they came out and defended us in front of the Navy.  They couldn’t mess with us”.

Courtesy of Tejemedios

Coastal Communities Report Links between “Papa Smurf” And the Caballeros Templarios

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EPN, 14 Months: 23,640 Deaths

In the first 14 months of this administration, violence is concentrated in five states: Guerrero, State of México, Chihuahua, Jalisco and Michoacán.  Osorio Chong declared a decrease in intentional homicides between 60-67%; 2013, is just as bloody as 2012.  Acapulco remains the most violent city, and Monte Alejandro Rubido continues to record “preliminary investigations”, not victims

Mexico City, March 17 (SinEmbargo/ZETA) — In the first 14 months of the administration of Enrique Peña Nieto, 23,640 deaths have been reported.  The highest incidents have been centered in Guerrero, State of México, Chihuahua, Jalisco, and Michoacán, as reported by the weekly magazine ZETA.

Although the narrative of the Government of the Republic and propaganda announcing a supposed “decline” in intentional homicides related to federal crimes, deaths have accumulated in the thousands during the first 14 months of the presidency of Enrique Peña Nieto, similarly to the presidency of Felipe Calderón Hinojosa.

On February 21, 2014, Miguel Ángel Osorio Chong, head of the Secretary of the Interior (SEGOB), presumed that in January of this year, the federal government recorded 567 intentional homicides linked to organized crime.

The official noted a decline in executions, since in previous months there occurred “between 1,400 and 1,700 deaths that were related to organized crime; in January there were 567, a thousand less.  567 is serious, but a thousand less, that shows why there is a decline in violence.”

But the figures from the Secretary of the Interior were not based on hard data, or reflect the cruel reality of life in the country.

ZETA documented, only in January 2014, there were 1,425 intentional homicides related to organized crime, which include “executions”, “shootouts”, “homicide-attacks”, and those that are a product of vendettas by narcomenudistas (“stew” makers) who belong to different drug cartels or drug cells throughout the country.

The count made by the weekly baja-californian magazine ZETA is one of the latest to be held in the Mexican press.  The printed newspapers of the Federal District, some of which had counts of dead and missing during the administration of Felipe Calderón, have already removed them from their covers.

The Imaginary Percentages

Enrique Peña Nieto began his government on December 1, 2012, with the promise that “in a year” we would start to see the results of the strategy against organized crime, that violence and insecurity would diminish.

Fourteen months later, like during the beginning of the peñista government, the Secretary of the Interior again began to presume, on February 21, 2014, a “decline” in violence:

“The first commitment made by the President, on the 1^st of December of 2012, was that violence had to decline.  And that violence has decreased to a low term”, announced loudly during the meeting “Governance and Rule of Law as a Development Strategy” organized by the National Chamber of Industry (Canacintra).

The truth is that in the first 14 months in office, what abounds in the peñista speech is a disparity in the percentages  of the alleged decline in executions that occur daily in the country.  Obviously, the percentages of “reduction” vary according to the opinion of the federal official with the microphone in hand, everyone suggests different averages:

On October 13, 2013, Monte Alejandro Rubido García, executive secretary of Mexico’s National Public Security System (SNSP) presumed in an interview with ZETA a conjecture on the decrease of intentional homicides related to federal crimes to 12%.  Also in 2013, the President supposed a decrease in apparent intentional homicides related to federal crimes between 18-20%.

The disparity in the percentages that each federal officer presumes without providing hard data is evidence of a manipulation of statistics or at least a lack of coordination in the supposed percentage of “decrease”.

The Most Violent States

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Phil Jordan: Chapo funded EPN's Campaign

El Chapo contributed money to the campaign of Enrique Peña Nieto in order to become a candidate for the presidency, a former director of intelligence for the DEA revealed.

Phil Jordan said that something bad happened between the PRI and El Chapo because of his capture.  He says that it was a triumph for Mexico, that the president allowed the apprehension of El Chapo.

El Chapo Guzman contributed financial resources to Peña Nieto’s campaign, denounced Phil Jordan, former director of intelligence for the DEA in El Paso, Texas.

“Something bad happened between the PRI and the narco,” he said when being interviewed on a special segment on Univision.

The interviewer asked him: What evidence is there to confirm that El Chapo supported the campaign of Peña Nieto?

“That is documented in past campaigns of the PRI. El Chapo, Caro (Quintero), everyone gave money to whoever was running for president.  I don’t have the papers but there are intelligence reports indicating that the cartel of El Chapo is very involved in politics.”

 Wouldn’t it be contradictory that the government of Peña Nieto was the one who captured El Chapo but he received money from him?

“Something bad happened between the PRI and El Chapo Guzmán.  What I can’t tell you now, because I don’t know why they arrested him, when he was paying millions of dollars to not arrest him, like how he paid millions of dollars to let him out the previous time.  He has all the money in the world.”

Jordan said that the relationship between the narcos and Mexican politicians is well known; the ones they need to operate and create their empires.

The interviewer then asks: If Chapo talked about his ties with Mexican politicians, would we have a big surprise in the political landscape of this country?

“There won’t be any surprises because the PRI and Chapo know very well that he was well involved in politics with money,” he replied.

Another question asked was that if Chapo also bribed officials from the United States.  Jordan replies:

“With the money that El Chapo has anything is possible.  Corruption just doesn’t occur in Mexico, it also occurs in the U.S.”

 He warned that the jail that El Chapo ends up in, he can also run his business.

He didn’t rule out, however, that El Chapo negotiated his capture.

He stated that with Mexican narcos, there shouldn’t be more than one king, and with Caro Quintero free, he may be the new king.

Here’s a conversation that’s been circulating social media. It’s an excerpt from Rafael Loret de Mola’s book: Nuestro Inframundo: Los 7 Infiernos De Mexico released on January 1^st, 2010.  It’s a book written by a journalist who after 32 books, no one can deny it.  Rafael Loret has won many awards including: Medalla Libertad de Expresión, Premio Jesús Romero Flores, El Chimalli de Oro, El Azteca de Oro, and Premio Quetzal.

-“Governor is that you?”

-“Yes, who’s calling?”

-“Take note governor.  I’m Joaquín Guzmán Loera.  Does the name ring a bell?  I know that you protected the hitmen of Arturo Beltrán.”

-“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” said Peña Nieto.

-“From this moment on, I’m going to reserve your life for myself.  You will never reach the presidency.”

Loret notes that on the day of his wedding with Angélica Rivera, on November 27, 2010, Peña Nieto seemed very anxious.

Source:  Revolución 3.0

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