Mexican 42nd Military Zone gets new commander

By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com

The new commander of the Mexican 42nd Military Zone said last week that the Mexican Army will permanently be deployed to the sierras to fight drug trafficking and cultivation, according to Mexican news accounts.

According to a news account which appeared last week in Norte Digital news website, General de Brigada Ricardo Diaz Palacio attended a drug incinerating ceremony in Cuauhtemoc municipality, attended also by Chihuahua state governor Cesar Duarte Jaquez.

According to reports, General Diaz Palacio took over command of the Mexican 42nd Military Zone July 1st, which is a normal date for command shuffling in the Mexican Army, after having been commander of the 29th Military Zone in Minatitlan, Veracruz in 2011 just before he received his second star, thru 2012.  He had been intelligence chief in the Matamoros army garrison in Tamaulipas before being assigned to the 29th Military Zone  As a Brigadier General he was also chief of operations for the Mexican Army general staff in 2008.

General Diaz Palacio takes over command of the 42nd Military from General General Miguel Andrade Cisneros, who was appointed as commander last December.

The July 1st date in this context means that new appointments to military regions and zones are the first under the new Secretaria de Defensa Nacional (SEDENA), so actions taken by the army after this date will could set the tone for the army for the rest of the term of newly inaugurated president Enrique Pena.

General Diaz Palacio's remarks about a permanent army deployment mirror remarks made by other army commanders, including the statement that the Mexican Army "works alone" and in coordination with state and local security forces.  The remarks about permanent army deployments seem to reverse a campaign promise made by President Pena about the military being sent to the barracks as a measure to reduce violence.

Indeed in remarks he made while he was in Mexico City on SEDENA's general staff in 2008, he discounted the charge long made by the Mexican left that the presence of the army in a region increases violence in the region

Violence in southern Chihuahua state, part of Mexico's Triangulo Dorada or Golden Triangle has seen a sharp increase since the end of spring.  One of the worst problems in Guadalupe y Calvo municipality has been that of criminal groups forming road blocks, especially between Guadalupe y Calvo municipal seat and Parral de Hidalgo.  At least two ambushes involving armed criminals against civilians have taken place in just the last 45 days along that stretch of road.

According to a news account which appeared last week in El Diario de Juarez, at least four roadblocks have been reported by armed groups on the road between the two municipalities, specifically near Mesa de San Rafael, despite an increase in the numbers of federal security forces in the region.  Criminal groups at those blocks are allowing only the elderly, women and children through, which indicates those groups may be using the roadblock for recruiting purposes for men.

The fear of roadblocks in the area is so acute, according to a separate news account which appeared in El Diario de Juarez, an air service had been established between the two points for passengers only.  Also bus drivers are refusing to take on any male passengers because of recruiting efforts in the region.

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

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7 die in Tamaulipas state

By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com

A total of seven armed suspects were killed in a gunfight with a Mexican Army road patrol in Ciudad Victoria in Tamaulipas state Monday evening, according to Mexican news accounts.

In a news item posted on the website of Vanguardia news daily, the gun battle took place near the intersection of calles 16th and Olivia Ramirez, where gunfire between armed suspects travelling aboard four vehicles an an army unit took place at around 1730 hrs.

The dead were all males between the ages of 25 and 35.  A number of weapons were also seized in the aftermath as well as the four vehicles.

Tamaulipas is very much in the midst of violent Mexican gang turmoil where the Los Zetas criminal gang has been undergoing a split.  The criminal group has also been under considerable pressure since last spring from the Sinaloa cartel, now aligned with the Gulf Cartel, in its very front yard in Nuevo Laredo in Tamaulipas.

Last month leaders with Los Caballeros Templarios drug cartel also declared war on Los Zetas in western Mexico.

In a related development, Animal Politico reported on its website Tuesday afternoon that a number of roadblocks have been put up by criminal gangs in the border city of Reynosa in Tamaulipas.

Among the roads affected include Bulevar Morelos , Avenida Colosio, the Puente de la Muerte and Calle Rodhe. Policia Federal units are said to be involved in road clearing operations.

Criminal gangs hijack heavy vehicles such as buses and tractor trailer rigs, and disable the vehicles to use them to block roads.  The tactic is meant to slow reaction times and block intervention by local security forces, and sometimes are used to punish the local population for a sharp reverse at the hands of Mexican security forces.

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

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2 shooters die in pursuit in Zacatecas -- UPDATED

Updated with new information; Update II: again with new information

By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com

Two armed suspects were killed by Mexican security forces as criminal groups said to be elements of a local drug gang blocked several  access roads to a major Mexican federal highway in Guadalupe municipality  and in Zacatecas, the capital of Zacatecas state, according to Mexican news reports and Twitter posts.

According to a news report released by Notimex, the Mexican national wire news service, roadblocks began at about 0800 hrs with armed suspects carjacking trucks and other vehicles, disabling them to make roadblocks.

La Silla Roja reported Saturday afternoon that a Policia Federal (PF) patrol unit had confronted a convoy of armed suspects beginning in the village of  San Nicolas in Villa Gonzalez Ortega municipality at around 0600 hrs.  Villa Gonzalez Ortega is about 30 kilometers due east of Zacatecas municipality on Zacatecas State Highway 144.

In a Sunday morning post on the website of El Sol de Zacatecas news daily, three rifles, two handguns and communications gear were seized following the end of the pursuit.  Three vehicles were also damaged in the pursuit, including a vehicle belonging to the Zacatecas ministerial police.

The blocked access roads in Zacatecas municipality included avenidas Sauceda de la Borda, Bulevar Bicentenario and the highway to San Ramon.  The report says those roads block access to Mexico Federal Highway 45 which links the state of Aguascalientes to the south with Fresnillo municipality and Durango state to the northwest.

Further east of Zacatecas, in Guadalupe municipality, roadblocks were reported in the village of Santa Monica, while to the north of Zacatecas roadblocks were reported in the village of La Pimentas.

Wire reports say the roadblocks were removed within a half an hour.

An earlier Notimex report also presented a redacted compiled  statement by Mexican security forces in the area that they did not know why roadblocks were taking place.  However, Notimex later said the roadblocks were local criminal groups' reaction to a pursuit and gunfight between federal security forces and armed suspects

Three days ago, news news reports were that rival armed criminal groups were engaged in firefights in the hills between Villanueva and Sombrerete municipalities, as well as in Fresnillo.  Even so, no reports have been published as to casualties in those firefights.  Mexico Federal Highway 45 runs to the north of that area.

Mexico Federal Highway 45 between Sombrerete and Durango city is one of the most dangerous stretches of road in Mexico.  It is also used by Los Zetas to move shooters and munitions north to Coahuila and Tamaulipas states.

Roadblocks are a tactic used by criminal groups to block security forces from intervening in fights with rival groups, whenever criminal groups suffer a sharp reverse and to cover criminal groups' movement in an area.  The tactic is in routine use in Nuevo Lardeo as well as other border cities in Tamaulipas.

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

© Copyright 2012 by Chris Covert
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Cartel bad guys block roads in Jalisco state during army operations

By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com

Harking to tactics of their Los Zetas rivals, armed suspects with the Jalisco Nuevo Generacion drug cartel spent several hours Friday afternoon blocking roads and setting vehicles alight in Jalisco state as two of their top leaders were arrested, according to Mexican news accounts.

Erick Valencia Salazar, AKA El 85,  was detained along with another top leader of the Jalisoc Nuevo Generacion drug cartel, Nemesio Oseguera, AKA El Mencho, in an operation involving Mexican Army troops and about 1,700 state as well as local police agents Friday.

Soldiers also seized about 30 rifles and undisclosed quantities of munitions following the arrests.

According to news reports 25 vehicles and several blocks were reported in and around Guadalajara following the arrest of Valencia Salazar.  Most of the blocks involved vehicles which were hijacked and torched to block roads.  Some report say as many as 13 block were put up in Guadalajara.

Roadblock in Guadalajara

Locations that were blocked included calles Miguel Blanco and Rayon in Zona Centro and Calle Enrique Díaz de León and Avenida. Maestro.

Los Zetas operatives in Monterrey in early 2010 used blocked roads whenever they had a sharp reverse, such a a capture of a top operative, to block security forces from intervening in gunfights, or to prevent security forces from intervening in other drug gang operations.  In confrontations with Gulf cartel operatives, Los Zetas also made use of roadblock later that summer in Reynosa and Matamoros in Tamaulipas state.

La Familia operatives blocked roads in a similar fashion early 2011 when several of their top leaders were captured or killed in Michoacan state by Policia Federal agents.

According to press accounts, Partido Accion Nacional governor of Jalisco, Emilio Gonzalez Marquez, said that as of 1800 hrs most of the blocks had been cleared. Local media,however said that ten roads were still blocked.  A local TV news station said that one unidentified truck driver had been killed in a hijacking to make a roadblock.

Army troops and cartel shooters exchanged gunfire at about 1400 hrs in a remote area of Zapopan municipality in Lomas Altas near the intersection of calles Leo and Cancer, but no reports have emerged concerning the outcome of that firefight.  It is presumed that that gunfight ended with the capture of the two Jalisco Nuevo Generacion leaders.  Reports say gunfire was heard for two or three minutes.

Roads were also blocked in neighboring Michoacan state, in San Jose de Gracia, where three vehicles were set afire to block a road.  No injuries were reported in the Michoacan state roadblock.

News reports say Valencia Salazar was responsible for the formation of the Matazetas group, which at first tried to pass itself off to Mexican press as a vigilante group. It was later learned the Matazetas were in fact a criminal group.  Valencia Salazar  allegedly masterminded the murder of 35 Los Zetas operatives in Veracruz state last fall.







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

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