Militarization of Mexico by "Common Citizen"

A while back we had posted a story of a shooting that happened in Anahuac concerning a shootout where ten people were killed. The information was sketchy and the military had said through the local media that they had killed a total of eight sicarios and also that two soldiers had died during the confrontation.  Here is part of the story:

"There is a woman with an identification badge from Delphi and a man that lives in Anahuac," said Garza and Garza. "Each one of them was carrying a weapon, one was carrying a "cuerno de chivo" AK-47 and the other had an AR-15. They had in their possession between 400 and 500 rounds for the AR-15 and "cuerno de chivo."

We eventually got pictures of the sicarios and we immediately started to question the segments of events while getting many e-mails that among the sicarios there were two innocent people killed. Eventually the Mayor of Anahuac would claim in a press conference that the couple that were killed were innocent bystanders.

One of the many e-mails that caught our attention early on from the incident came from a "common citizen" who had figured out some inconsistencies about the events leading to the shooting. Through follow up investigation we were able to determine to a degree that perhaps on that day, two innocent people were killed by soldiers in the heat of battle. Perhaps we will never know what really happened that day, but it sure is nice to find out.

Anyhow, my whole point of all this is that some people do have legitimate concerns about what is happening in Mexico and the people who suffer the horrible violence that is gripping Mexico.

I present to you Gerardo:

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The Rise of Makaveli Interview on the Gulf and Zetas

The Interview (via e-mail)

RiseMakaveli is a person who lives in Mexico and is in the middle of the waging war of the two cartels, as are many people living in the border towns of Mexico. Because of his geographical location, RiseMakaveli has personal knowledge and has known some of the principles. He is not involved in any drug cartel activity (as far as we know) but has known some of them as a matter of living among them. He has a vast knowledge of what is going on, almost like an insider look of what is happening.

Because of his present situation and we that follow these matters know that these things can be dangerous, he has chosen to remain anonymous to protect himself and his family.

Borderland: How have the people (el puebo) mamanged to interact with the Gulf cartel?

RiseMakaveli: At first, people were skeptical.. People did not know if it really was for the better, but so far, it seems like the CDG has been doing a good job at earning the peoples trust and respect…

You see, it’s hard to believe that this war will end anytime soon. The plague of Los Zetas has pretty much injected itself into the very arteries of Mexico.. These guys are everywhere, politics, small businesses, restaurants, newspapers, media..

Literally, Zetas are cops. It used to be that you got stopped by city police and some of them were bought by the group, but others where legit but still had to respect their “commandante” who was and always has been bought by los Zetas…

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A Citizen's Plea to the Capos

The streets of Mante, Tamaulipas are spilled with blood as two people are executed.

From the mail

A while back there had been some e-mails circulating from drug cartels, telling citizens not to panic while they “cleaned the streets of Los Zetas.” But a couple of days ago another e-mail made its rounds. What made this one different was that it came from citizens of a town in Mexico pleading to the drug cartel to leave. The town of mante has been a battle ground for the drug cartels where they recently executed two police commanders. There is real fear in some of these places in the northwest plazas of Mexico that only the ones who live there really know.

"Gulf Cartel, Familia Michoacana, Sinaloa Cartel, Zetas Cartel; your armed commandos that are patrolling our community are causing panic among our people when we hear the roar of gunfire from heavy weapons or the explosion of grenades that have us terrified. The Government have only showed us their back, the military does nothing for us, and the news media does not report what is happening. What is really happening here is real fear of reprisals. The last thing left to do is to entrust our lives to God and plead with you to leave us live in peace. Heriberto Lazcano Lazcano, Joaquin Guzman Loera, Ezequiel Cárdenas Gullen, Familia Michoacana take your sicarios out of our City and our neighboring towns.

Att: Inhabitants of Cd Mante and the Region."

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Warning for this Friday

This e-mail had been circulating:

Brackets with [English] translation

COMO DICE EL ALCALDE .. !! AQUI NO PASA NADA !! .. POS YA ME TOCO UNA
ALUSINACION EL VIERNES ... PARA QUE ESTEN AL TIRO EN LAS CALLES ..
[LIKE THE MAYOR SAYS..!!NOTHING HAPPENS HERE!!
WATCH OUT FRIDAY....THIS IS SO YOU CAN BE CAREFUL IN THE STREETS]

 NO SALGAN DESPUES DE LAS 7 DE LA NOCHE Y MNOS POR EL RUMBO DE SENDERO O POR LA AURORA, GALERIAS O DISCOS POR ESTOS LUGARESY EN ESPECIAL POR SORIANA SAN ISIDRO
[DO NOT GO OUT AFTER 7PM AND ESPECIALLY IN THE DIRECTION OF SENDERO OR THROUGH LA AURORA, OR DISCOS (NIGHT CLUBS) IN THESE PLACES, AND IN PARTICULAR SORIANA SAN ISIDRO]

ESTE CORREO ESTA CIRCULANDO FUERTE .. TOMEN SUS PRECAUCIONES ESTAMOS EN TIEMPOS EN QUE TODO PUEDE SUCEDER!!
[THIS E-MAIL IS GOING AROUND STRONG .. TAKE PRECAUTIONS, THIS IS THE TIME WHEN ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN]

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Photo of Juarez Assassination

Ok, here are more interesting notes from the e-mail on the Ciudad Juarez consulate execution.

Email sent:

Sent: Monday, March 15, 2010 8:06 PM
Re: EP Times photo of the US Consulate employee assassination says everything...

Keep in mind that in the photo below, El Paso is just to the right of the bridge as is Juarez to the left (if the photo didn't copy into this email, go to today’s http://www.elpasotimes.com/ and click on the 3rd photo).

Given cartel hits are done to drive home a message, can there be any doubt about what it means when a US Consulate employee and his wife are assassinated within eyesight of US Customs officials?

NBC’s Nightly News got that part right tonight; but Bryan Williams buying into the Obama Administration’s ‘splaination that it was potentially a case of mistaken identity, is the height of journalistic malfeasance in Williams not challenging that absurd possibility with the facts: 2 separate and coordinated assassinations on 2 different US Consulate employees (the other was killed in his Toyota Rav 4 in another part of Juarez, while trying in vain to evade his killers).

My question to Bryan Williams: If the assassinated Consulate employees had been Anglos, would he have taken the Obama Administration’s explanation at face value, without throwing it back at the Obama Administration’s face with the facts?
 

NOW IN CASE ANYONE HAS ANY DOUBTS ABOUT THE LOUD AND CLEAR MESSAGE DELIVERED YESTERDAY BY THE MEXICAN CARTELS, LET ME JOG YOUR MEMORY WITH A PORTION OF MY FEBRUARY 21 WARNING…BUT BEFORE I GO THERE, YOU ALL SHOULD KNOW THAT A DPS TROOPER TOLD ME AT 5:50 AM AT STARBUCKS, THAT HE HAD JUST READ A STATEWIDE “BOLO” (BE ON THE LOOKOUT) FOR POSSIBLE DRUG CARTEL HITS.

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E-Mail from the Anonymous

We at Borderland Beat receive a few e-mails from all over the place. With 7,000 hits a day, it’s not surprising that people from both sides of the border are reading the posts. We attempt to sort through the e-mails and digest the information based on recent events reported by the media, as we get most of our news from open sources.

We recently got some information from one person who appears to reside in the Mexican side of the border and seems to have a direct knowledge of what is going on. We had asked to expand a little more on what is happening with the Gulf cartel and Los Zetas in the northeast part of Mexico.

From RiseMakaveli in the e-mail:

Ok, the people they are mainly looking for is Miguel Treviño Morales aka ZETA 40.. And Heriberto Lazcano aka Lazcano or Lazcas.. What you have heard is sort of true..

The war was started by The Zetas, and it was because of a murder that happened late February of a high ranking officer belonging to ZETA 40.. Supposedly the deal is that the Zetas and the Gulf Cartel have never been mixed.. In the current leaders section you have Lazcano and Miguel along with Costilla and Tormenta.. That's not exactly correct..

For a couple of years there's been bad blood between them, they have always had their very own ranks. Thing is that once Ociel was taken in, the Zetas decided to go on their own path.. Working alongside the Gulf Cartel and charging them fees to do their dirty work and secure locations..

Later on los Zetas started to do their own business, jumping the gulf cartel. For that reason there has always been bad blood between them.. Now, the war started and that's the reason Sinaloa, la Familia and the CDG got together.. They are losing a lot of shipments because of Calderon.. Even though I don't know if you knew this, because it wasn't very widely known.. BUT..

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