Bar Heaven Mass Kidnapping: The Tepito 12

Borderland Beat Posted on BB Forum by "K" Mennem

Written by K.Mennem
Twelve young Mexico City citizens disappeared in the morning hours from the Zona Rosa district on Sunday, May 26. It is believed the group was at the bar "Heaven", which is an after-hours bar that youth often frequent after a night of partying.

Several days passed before much noise was made of the crime. It took family members blocking a street in protest to get the attention of authorities.

Those kidnapped were not from just any neighborhood in Mexico City, they were from the infamous Tepito. The rough and tumble neighborhood that is sharp as nails is known for drug corners, bootleg property, and Santa Muerte devotees. Hard working families set up makeshift street stalls every day, hoping to make enough sales to put food on the table.

While the barrio may be famous for its criminal activity, the hard work ethic of the neighborhood should not be downplayed. The barrio is one of the oldest in Latin America and has proven it can withstand the trials of time. The neighborhood seems to be almost forgotten by the local government, but has always found a way to provide for itself.

Tepito consists of 72 blocks, holding an estimated 120,000 people. Many residents live in apartments and makeshifts home for free. Residents often pay no rent to building owners, who gave up on collecting rent decades ago.

 

The colorful tianguis (open air marketplaces often noted for bright colored tarps) begin to take form as soon as the sun comes up across Tepito. The complete marketplaces are taken down and put up daily. Shelves, make-shifts roofs, and complete product lines are compacted and carried home after each day of hustling. Some may question the hard work that goes into making a few pesos a day, yet the locals who own their own mini-business usually do not.

Details of the kidnapping were scarce for over a week. Authorities claimed that the case of the missing was purely a disappearance, not a kidnapping. Three suspects were eventually arrested in connection with the crime. The suspects, Gabriel “El Diablo” Carrasco Llizarriturri, Andrew Henonet, and Brenda Contreras Angelica Casas, were all believed to have been present during the kidnapping. El Diablo worked as security for the bar and at times served as a driver for the owners. During the arrest, the three were found with narcotics and weapons.

Another associate of the bar was arrested on June 6. Mario Alberto Rodríguez Ledesma, a 40 year old partial owner of the bar, is being held in connection with the disappearance of the 12. Mario's brother, along with another owner of the bar, is currently wanted in connection with the mass abduction. The group of men have numerous alleged ties to drug trafficking and money laundering.

One man has came forward who claimed he was present during the kidnapping. The witness states he escaped from the captors by fleeing from the roof. The witness gave a fake number, address, and name when talking to police. After making statements at the police station, he was not located again until June 7.

Police pulled video footage from the whole area, looking for any evidence. The video cameras at the bar showed nothing. Cameras on the streets show a few large vans with tinted windows in the area at the time of the incident. The evidence is not clear enough to build a case.

A source, who is allegedly involved in the case, has made statements regarding the reason for the mass kidnapping. His identity has not been revealed, but a recorded telephone conversation was given to some members of the press.

In the conversation, the informant claims the kidnapping was in retaliation for a murder. Allegedly two days before, a drug dealer was killed in the Condesa area. The drug dealer, Angel Vite “El Chaparro” Horacio, was robbed and killed. Apparently Horacio has strong ties to the Caballeros Templarios (Knights Templars).

The informant goes on to say that the Caballeros Templarios asked permission from La Unión to seek revenge against those responsible for the murder. Permission was granted.

La Unión is the most dominant organized crime group in Tepito. The group has been labeled everything from a street gang to a cartel. Regardless, the group moves a good amount of drugs. Tepito is known as the easiest neighborhood to pick up narcotics on the go. The area has at least 100 known narco-tiendas (illegal drug stores/stops). Youths on mopeds and motorcycles buzz up and down the streets, delivering drugs to consumers and dealers.

La Unión rose to prominence in the neighborhood in 2008. Gangs in this area have always existed, as has violence. However, gangs are not usually seen a nuisance, but more as a necessity. The gangs rarely prey on their own, and often help with day to day life in Tepito. Without the gangs, most citizens would be more concerned for their safety from outsiders.

Other noteworthy gangs in Tepito are Los Villafaña, El Fortis and El Conejo. The focus of all street gangs here are to profit from drug sales and to provide protection for their homes. Ties have been made over the years with La Familia Michoacana and with the Sinaloa cartel of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman. The ties were necessary to provide cheap prices on bulk narcotics.

The drug of choice in the area is marijuana. A marijuana joint will sell between the price of 20 and 35 pesos. Cocaine and various pills are sold on a smaller level in the area as well. Higher end marijuana is available on the street and flaunts names such as “Tomate de Sinaloa” and “Mango Etigua”.

The Caballeros Templarios, the group who some think are behind the kidnappings, are a splinter of La Familia Michoacana drug cartel which is based in the state of Michoacán. The group has been portrayed as highly religious and as giving strict rules to its members. The group was formed in 2011 and has since spread further into central Mexico. The cartel is known for methamphetamine trafficking, but dabbles in all aspects of the drug trade. The group may not have huge numbers in Mexico City, but with connections and money, they can mobilize for needed tasks quickly.

Much of the talk of the kidnappings has centered on Jerzy Esli Ortiz Ponce, at 16, the youngest kidnapping victim. Many regard him as a young street smart criminal, who has attempted to push his way into the narcotic trade of central Mexico City.

Jerzy’s father is Jorge Ortiz Reyes, better known as "Tanque". Tanque is a massive drug dealer who was dominant in Tepito at the time of his arrest in 2004. He is currently serving a 23 year prison sentence for drug and extortion charges. He is said to have strong ties to La Unión, raising questions as to why La Unión would authorize the kidnapping of a family member.
Continues on next page....

Read More

Michoacán Citizens Speak: Caught in the Crossfire

Borderland Beat

On April 28^th, 2013, just before 5AM, a convoy of 30 trucks travelled on the Los Reyes Highway, through the town Buenavista, Tomatlán.  The armed men in the trucks were members of the Knights Templar.  The people of the town became alert to possible pending trouble and begun to gather between the houses.  When the “Templarios” noticed the movement of the people, they began open fire catching the inhabitants of 40 homes  in the crossfire.  The following is the account of the nightmare, as told by residents of all ages, and their perspective of the terrifying situation that has become life in Michoacán.  Paz, Chivis

"As the saying goes, I prefer to die standing, than to live on my knees.

We don’t want the Knights Templar here, we want to work freely."



  

 

Caught in  the Crossfire [click any image to enlarge]

A perfectly planned extermination is being perpetrated in Michoacán

The government is doing their part, which is to stay away

Please help us spread this video!

It is extremely grim what is happening

Alert!

Between the line of fire

Narrator:

It is difficult to think that a town can rise up in arms against the town itself. Where families that had always lived together thorough out the years, are now separated by the contrast of a struggle that seems unbelievable.

It is the case of Michoacán, where government comes and goes.

Voice of Fausto Vallejo, Governor of Michoacán:

"The priority in my government will be employment; to defeat delinquency, we require generating many jobs. We need Jobs for the children, but also for the parents. For me, you are top Michoacán people and we have to destine more resources for these towns."

Narrator:

Everybody and Nobody dare to direct a speech in favor of all of those that live on the line of fire, those that are cannon fodder, and those that are only remembered in times of vote harvest

At almost three months of the rise up in arms by auto defense groups in Michoacán, the municipalities of Tepalcatepec and Buenavista seem to be forgotten. With absent municipal governments, there are no more jobs in the field since according to the villagers; it does not belong to them anymore. They cannot sell their product freely

First Commander [Community Guard of Buenavista]

We qualify ourselves as an auto defense groups. Why auto defense group: Well so that we can survive, take care of our families, society in general, senior citizens, women and children. And also we want to advance; we don’t want any more injustice here in our town.

Why did we rise up as an auto defense group? Actually, because  the government, military and federal ignored us, they sometimes helped us very little. It should be clarified that Federal Government has been helping us more every day, and also the army is putting in a little more interest in us because they see the reality we are going through

Community Guard of Apatzingán:

We are protesting on behalf of the town of Buenavista. We are against the citizens that are affecting the town of Apatzingán, because those people are withholding the merchandise of the town of Apatzingán that go over there to sell.

We are people that ask for peace, we are not delinquents, you can see, we only have sticks and the other men have weapons, and that is why we are asking the government to unarmed those people.

Because I think that a person that has a goat horn, R-15 and grenade launchers is a criminal and it is not named a Community Police.”

Community Police is a person like us. We are not doing any wrong to the community of Apatzingán. The people should not think that. On the contrary, we want to take care of the people of Apatzingán.

We want peace and quiet and avoid the entrance of people that want to harm the citizens, because if we were not here, many delinquents would have entered already. We wouldn’t be able to live peacefully; people wouldn’t have been able to go out the streets, because all those people are financed by who knows which cartel.

It is true that we are withholding provisions that heads that way because the people there are not going to receive it with good intentions. These provisions that are headed that way; people want them to steal it, not to buy it to the people

First Commander [Community Guard of Buenavista]

We allow them to pass their merchandise, everything that comes from there, we let it pass. But why do the community guards from Apatzingán, Cuatro Caminos and Francisco J. Mújica don’t let provisions pass to Buena Vista.

If they are really community guards, then why do they do that, if we are from the same team? They are Knights Templar disguised as community guards. Knights Templar is who are staying in Apatzingáan, Francisco J. Mújica and Cuatro Caminos. All of them are Knight Templar.

 

Narrator:

The production of lemon, the main generator of resources on this zone of Tierra Caliente  is abandoned. The villagers say that they are unable to sell it anymore.

Inhabitant of La Ruana:

All the lemon packers are being threaten to get killed if they get one lemon from this zone, by orders of Nazario Moreno González aka El Chayo, the craziest of the entire world.

Interviewer:

What are the people that are not cutting doing?

Inhabitant of La Ruana:

What do we do? Look over in the state of Colima, (pointing out to one direction). If you go to Coalcoman and you see only Knights Templar. It’s like this (showing a handful) in Coalcoman.

 

I don’t know if the government already entered, on this side of Catalina, I don’t know if they [Knights Templar] are still there but in the days before, you could see them everywhere, as if they were real federals. We saw one of those clone Army vehicles but it was beige. It was distinguished because the clone truck had roll bars and the army doesn’t put those on their vehicles

First Commander [Community Guard of Buenavista]

The mafia of the Knight Templar has control over the packing (lemons). First, the Knight Templar sold all the products to the packing factory and then they let the peasant sell their product, their fruit, at a lower price. They would charge the lemon cutter 20 pesos daily or 100 pesos weekly

Interviewer:

How much does a cutter earn, approximately?
 

Answer:

They earn around 100 pesos daily.

Narrator:

Tired of working to deliver accounts to a de facto government, on February 24^th, hundreds of villagers come out of their houses to demand freedom, peace and employments. Their voice which was the last thing they had left were changed for weapons. Now the towns of La Ruana, Tepalcatepec and Buena Vista look deserted. There is no other way than to survive in a struggle in a no man’s land.

Woman Speaking:

We don’t have anybody but ourselves, our bodies, our hearts. We want to work, I support myself by having an enchilada stand, and you support yourselves with the lemon, others with meat markets. Where is the government? We want a government that does not sell out, this is not about politics!

Narrator:

This fighting cost dozens of lives, now it just needs to keep counting deaths among Michoacán people.

Woman crying:

I don’t know for how long  this is going will keep going? They left without weapons. My husband said that they just needed, to confront them with their chest in front. [Bravely]
 

Inhabitant of La Ruana:

It was said that they were all community guards but it’s not true, they were not community police, they were all peasants. 32 peasants were massacred.

Interviewer:

Did you know the people that were from here?

Answer:

Yes, and we want it to be investigated. All those that were massacred in Cuatro Caminos when the governor was going to come, it was a total of 32 deaths.

Interviewer:

Why does it say here 16 [pointing to the newspaper]

Answer:

It says 16 because till that day it was 16, then the injured people died. Children that came from Guerrero that spoke dialect [native language non Spanish] died. Those children did not speak Spanish and were begging in their dialect to not be killed but still they were murdered. They massacred children, pregnant women; they did not care who they were

 

Narrator:

Their fighting, they say, would be until the government gives them security and stops criminal groups that extort, kill and kidnap the town

Inhabitant:

This military quarter that is here in Apatzingán is there for a reason. They are sell outs. The general that is there also is a sell out. I am rural and he prohibited us to be in that riot. I tell him (pointing to a friend) he (general) says that because he is secured with the entire squad. I was born here and I am going to be buried here. I have to defend my life. Why am I going to allow them to kill me

Interviewer:

Are the people afraid?

Answer:

More than you can imagine, go ask house by house so you get an idea.

Interviewer:

What I see is that the town looks abandoned

Answer:

For the same reason, because the people are afraid to go out, you should’ve seen Monday or Sunday during daylight, you wouldn’t see a soul out, just like today. Since Sunday is like that

Interviewer:

Do you think this will keep going like this?

Answer:

Yes, as long as they don’t apprehend that crazy guy. Apparently he was going to go enter town this Monday, I went to this camp and several friends of Punta de Lago that have friends in San Blas know that they are gathered here.

 

There are about 20 or 30 trucks and they were going to enter on foot and were going to destroy everything, they were not going to respect anything. Houses that they get or people they get on the streets, they were going to kill them but apparently many government forces of Jalisco arrived. The government of Apatzingán is just like the governor.

Interviewer:

Will the guard abandon their weapons, if the government asked them to?

Answer:

If that person is captured, they will

 

Interviewer:

Not if he isn’t captured?

 

Answer:

We are working people; we will give up the weapons. We are not people that use arms but we had to arm ourselves for self-defense.

Narrator:

Now, they live in anxiety, the nights are not the same; their life is to live in heighten alert. They mistrust every one that behaves differently.   It is better for them to live fighting than to live at the mercy of the criminal group The Knights Templar

First Commander [Community Guard of Buenavista]

I prefer to fight for my people, my family and the entire society. We want to leave a good image of us. I prefer to die, as the saying says, I prefer to die standing than to live on my knees. We don’t want the Knights Templar here. We want to work freely

Interviewer:

If you know that they [Knight Templar] have all that armament and all those people, don’t you think that they would be able to finish off the community guards?

Answer:

They will not be able to finish us off. To do  that they will  have to finish off the whole town, La Ruana, Tepalcatepec; they have to kill all the people but that would be impossible. La Ruana and Tepalcatepec are very united.

First Commander [Community Guard of Buenavista]

What La Tuta says on the recent video, that another cartel is managing here, Cartel Jalisco. That is a vile lie.

Here in Buenavista, La Ruana and Tepalcatepec, we support ourselves with the sale of corn that we have for survival. Sometimes we don’t even have anything to eat. If we were supported by a cartel, as La Tuta says, we would be much better financially speaking. In reality, we sometimes don’t even have for gasoline.

Interviewer:

In some photos, we can see that you are holding goat horns and those types of weapons, which are army exclusive

Answer:

Those weapons are not exclusive of the army and besides the army has never given us weapons. How we managed was by  selling corn, we have been buying things with the little that we gain.

Obviously we cannot fight against the Knights Templar with sling shots. They have very powerful weapons; they even have grenades and bazookas, weapons that are illegal.

Narrator:

On April 28^th, a quarter to 5 am, an armed commando aboard trucks was driving on Los Reyes Highway – Buenavista. Crew members tried to connect with the caravan, coming out of the backyards of the houses at a ranch.

When the Knights Templar of the trucks realized the movement of people, they began shooting against the companions that were between the houses, leaving more than forty homes of a small town between the cross fire.

 

Interviewing Elderly Men
 

Interviewer:

How many trucks were there

Old man 1:

30

 

Interviewer:

What time did it happen?

Old man 1:

Around 4 or 4:30 am

Taking the interviewer to show some of the bullet holes, he keeps saying: here it is already repaired, but you could see by the patches were the holes were. See how this is destroyed – pointing to a light meter-

Pointing out to several other holes, the old man says, Here is one, here is another one, and another one

Interviewer:

What do you do for a living?

Old man:

We are dedicated to working

Interviewer: - pointing to a bed-

Who sleeps here?

Old Man 2:

I sleep here, I was sleeping here, but my wife called me to go inside. You can see the bullet holes here and another one here. See on the wall there are other bullet holes

Interviewer:

Did you hear the tires when they were approaching or how did it happen?
 

Old man 2:

I went out a little before everything happened, I was sitting at the edge of the bed when the trucks came passing by very slowly, and a man that was close said “turn off the lights dumbasses” and then my wife comes and says “come inside because there’s going to be a conflict

Old man 1:

There’s another bullet hole –pointing besides the bed-.and on the pillow case where he had been lying down

Old man 2:

Come inside so you will see

Old man 1:

Look, look how it is, all around look – pointing to the ceiling- and over there in the inside also is like this – pointing to another room

Interviewer:

What do you do for a living sir?

 

Old man 2:

We have two cows on the corral

[They walk  to the other room and show other bullet holes on the ceiling

Inaudible speech]

She was the one that was hit on the arm

Interviewer:

You were?

Old lady:

Yes, just don’t show my face
 

Interviewer:

No, I’m not showing your face

 

Old lady:

Look just that I just took a bath and I can’t move the arm that much

Continues next page........................

Read More

Mexican Army rescues 165 migrants in Tamaulipas

By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com

A total of 165 migrants from central and south America were rescued Monday by a Mexican Army unit in the northern Mexican state of Tamaulipas, according to Mexican news and official sources.

A news account in Milenio news daily of a press conference conducted by the Mexican Secreteria de Gobierno (SEGOB) or interior ministry said a Mexican Army road patrol was dispatched to Diaz Ordaz municipality Monday on an anonymous tip about the presence of armed suspects in the area.

On arriving in the area, a lone armed suspect was observed, who then tried to escape only to be detained at the scene.

The migrants, among them 77 Salvadorans, 50 Guatemalans 23 Hondurans, 14 Mexicans and one Indian, had been kidnapped and were being held captive in a safe house in Las Fuentes colony.Included in that number were 20 children and two pregnant women.

The kidnappers had forced their captives to call home and demand ransom while they were at the safe house.  According to the report, migrants were afraid they would eventually be turned over to local drug cartels gangs that likely operate in the area.

The fear is well founded.  Three years ago 72 migrants from central and south American were massacred by a local Los Zetas group in San Fernando when some of the migrants refused to give ransom.  That murder was a precursor to an even more gruesome mass murder which took place over six months ending in June, 2011 which took the lives of 193 in San Fernando municipality.  The San Fernando mass murder is one of the worst is Mexican history.

One suspect was detained at the scene, identified as Juan Cortez Arrez.

The Mexican government plans to move the migrants to a holding facility in central Mexico.

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

Read More

La Wera Loka

Borderland Beat

Mundo Narco or Blog del Narco uploaded a video where four females are interrogated and; ultimately decapitated and dismembered alive. All four are kneeling, three are exposed breast from the top and their hands are tied behind their backs. There is a suggestion by Mundo Narco that one of the females (the woman on the right) is "La guera loca" or "Comandante Wera," or "comandante blondie," of the Gulf cartel or CDG.

"Comandante Guera" of Altamira yes or no? Some say the sicaria on the right might be another person from CDS.

 

In the video she admits to being comandante guera and gives her name as Yesenia Pacheco Rodríguez. The young girl on the left says she is the niece of José Guadalupe López "El Ostión" or "Oyster." The older lady, second to left, says that she is sister in law of "Ostion." They describe themselves as "Halcones" (lookouts) for CDG. They also talk about working with "Comandante Gallo" boss leader of Altamira who might have already been killed.

 

His head was displayed on a video that was uploaded on Youtube.

There has been some doubt that this might be "Commandante Guera," as there is a rumor that she had already been killed previously.

Someone from the BB Forum (Tamaulipeco Mexikano) posted that "Valor por Tamaulipas" reported the abduction of "La Comandante Borrada" of Altamira and her dismembered body was left in Altamira along with other victims. It is possible that this "Comandante Guera" might be another person as that of the infamous "Wera Loka."

There have been other low level bosses that have come up from time to time with the name of "Guera." To mind comes the case of the Zeta that was captured attempting to heat up a plaza controlled by the CDG. There was an execution video in 2010 of a zeta by the name of David Rivera Álvarez, Zeta 43, plaza boss of Tenosique, Tabasco. His eyes are covered with tape and  is asked who is his boss, and he responds: La Comandante “Güera” Liliana, alias “La Puma.” So the possibility of two different people in this case is very possible.

"La Wera Loka" supposedly decapitated a Zetas in 2011 on video that was particular gruesome, they are seen peeling the skin of the face of the victim. If this is "Comandante Wera Loka" this is another blow to CDG that had been gaining strength but in the last couple months the violence seems to have escalated, although we don't see a lot reported by the Mexican media and certainly not the Mexican government.

There were two other videos posted by Mundo Narco where CDG decapitates a young teenager of 15 years of age and a girl of 17 years of age, both admit working for Los Zetas.



This is the profile of La Guera Loca of the CDG

• Originally from Mazatlan, Sinaloa.
• Active members of the CDG where she held the title "commander."
• Started as an "Halcon" and rose up the ranks to commander.
• Worked under Tony Tormenta and M3
• In November of 2011 she participated in a confrontation with the Mexican Marines in San Fernando.
• Known to have participated in a confrontation with Los Zetas in Reynosa.

We are posting the video for news worthiness, but be warned, video is extremely graphic showing decapitation and dismembering of bodies (click below).

Read More

7 die in Tamaulipas

A total of seven unidentified individuals were found dead in southern Tamaulipas state last week, according to Mexican news reports.

A news report which was posted on the online edition of Grupo Informador said the victims were found in three narcofosas, or burial pits in Abasolo municipality May 30th in Guadalupe ejido. 

A unit of the Mexican 8th Military Zone located the graves last Wednesday. The victims had been dead for about a year.  One of the dead was reportedly a woman.

Abasolo is roughly halfway between Ciudad Victoria, the capital of Tamaulipas and San Fernando.  It is on Tamaulipas Highway 38.

Meanwhile in Ciudad Victoria, an intergang firefight had led to the securing of weapons and ammunition, according to Mexican news accounts.

A news account which appeared on the website of Milenio news daily said the gunfight took place Monday at around 1655 hrs near the intersection of Calle 5 Ceros and Bulevar Praxedis Balboa between armed suspects.

The news report said he shooters were in two different vehicles, one Chevrolet Silverado pickup truck and a compact sedan.

The gunfight took place in Horacio Teran colony and ended in Moderna colony.  A Mexican Army road patrol located a GMC Acadia where weapons were found.

Two rifles and six weapons magazines as well as a quantity of ammunition were seized.

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

Read More

New Juarez Cartel leader identified: "Ugly Betty".

Borderland  Beat

Narco Banner signed by the New Juarez Cartel

Mexico D.F. (PROCESO).- At the end of last century, after the death of Amado Carrillo, leader of the Juarez Cartel, the leadership of the criminal organization went to his brother Vicente aka “El Viceroy”. Lately the power of the organization fell and there are signs of Vicente being sick and practically in retirement. But that doesn´t matter, the criminal groups restore themselves. Nowadays a new generation of the Carrillo family has created alliances with the Beltran Leyva (former lieutenants of Amado Carrillo) and “Los Zetas”(this according to a PGR file accessed by PROCESO) in order restore Juarez in the criminal map. This is the New Juarez Cartel, led by a man nicknamed “Betty La Fea (Ugly Betty)”.

They call him “Ugly Betty” even if he´s no heroine like the Colombian soup opera character made famous in the 90´s. His name is Alberto Carrillo Fuentes, an up and coming capo and leading actor in the bloody cartel wars taking place in the states of Chihuahua, Sinaloa, Sonora, Coahuila and Durango.

According to files from the PGR accessed by PROCESO, “Ugly Betty” is the leader of the New Juarez Cartel, as the old criminal group calls itself now, this group is allied with Los Zetas and the Beltran Leyva Cartel who are fighting for their territories against the Sinaloa Cartel.

“Ugly Betty” is Amado Carrillo´s brother aka “El Señor de los Cielos”, founder and former boss of bosses in the Juarez Cartel, and of Vicente Carrillo Fuentes aka “El Viceroy”, who, according to authorities began leading the Juarez Cartel in 1997, after Amado´s death.

“There are versions” pointing to the poor health of Vicente, for this reason he is more of a “moral leader”, he doesn´t take any more decisions, nor he helps in the structural design of the New Juarez Cartel, this according to the PGR files.

To this day -according to those same files- the New Juarez Cartel leaders are: “Ugly Betty” as the top leader and Amado´s sons Julio Cesar and Juan Carrillo Leyva, younger brother of Vicente Carrillo Leyva, currently in prison. 

Even though authorities still don´t know where the nickname generated, they do know that the war he wages alongside Miguel Angel Treviño aka “Z40” and Hector Beltran Leyva aka “El H” against Joaquin Guzman Loera aka “El Chapo” has taken thousands of lives.

This is part of a full article published in PROCESO magazine.

Vicente Carrillo Leyva, Amado´s son and brother of the new leaders of the Juarez Cartel.

SOURCE: PROCESO

BACKGROUND INFO

Click HERE to read more about Cesar Carrillo Leyva and the New Juarez Cartel.

Read More

Mayhem in Monterrey: 12 die

By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com

A total of 12 individuals have been killed in ongoing drug and gang related violence in or around Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, including a lynching in Monterrey, according to Mexican news reports.

Late Friday night four unidentified individuals were killed and a fifth was wounded in Juarez municipality, according to a news report which appeared on the website of Milenio news daily.

The shooting took place at around 2330 hrs at  residence on Calle Flor de Belen in Valle de San Juan colony, where a lone armed suspect fired an AK-47 rifle into a gathering of five young men who had been drinking. The armed suspect exited a taxi and immediately started firing at the gathering

The dead were identified in a separate report as Alan Joseph Beltran Mora, AKA "El Popeye", 19, Edgar Gerardo Pedroza Cardona, 26, David Adrian Garza Vargas, 23, and José Roberto Perez Estevez, 18.  The wounded was identified as Alan Ramiro López, 19.

After the shooting, the shooter remounted the taxi and fled the scene.

Earlier in the evening a fifth unidentified man was shot to death and two others were wounded in Independencia colony, according to the same Milenio report.

The shooting took place near Loma Larga near San Pedro Garza Garcia in an area called Camino a las Antenas.

Seven other individuals were killed in or around Monterrey since Friday.

• An unidentified police agent from Guadalupe municipality was killed and two others were hurt in a rollover accident in San Nicholas de la Garza municipality Saturday night, according to a Milenio news account.  A police unit was in pursuit of a taxi cab on Avenida Romulo Garza when the driver lost control near the corner of Avenida Roberto Garza Sada.
• A woman was found shot to death near a bar in San Nicolas de los Garza municipality early Saturday morning.  Angela Gabriela Rodriguez, 39, was found by a taxi driver at around 0400 hrs near a drinking establishment called La Taberna on  Avenida Universidad, bleeding from a gunshot wound to the abdomen. The victim died a short time later while receiving medical attention.
• A mother and her son were found shot to death in southern Monterrey Saturday night.  Ana Cecilia Hernandez Robledo, 50, and Claudio Simon Hernandez Arriaga 15, were found in their residence in Cerro de la Campana colony near the intersection of calles San Isidro and Raul Chapa Zarate.  Reports are armed suspects with rifles burst into the residence then started firing as the victims slept.
• Two men were found aboard a taxi cab shot to death in Monterrey Friday night, according to a Milenio news account.  The victims were identified as  Victor Manuel Bonilla Piña, 30, and Fernando Gonzalez Piña, 44, who were found near the intersection of calles Mina and Juarez in Topo Chico colony.  The report said that armed suspects had driven by where the taxi was, and fired into the vehicle killing the two passengers.  The taxi driver was unharmed.

And now a feel good crime story...

One unidentified individual died and two of his accomplices were beaten in a lynching in Independencia colony in Monterrey Friday night, according to a Milenio news report. 

Three hooded suspects attempted a home invasion at a residence, but when the mask of one of the attackers was removed, somehow a call went out, and a total of 120 local residents fell upon the group, beating them. 

Before units of the Policia Federal and Fuerza Civil could arrive, one of the alleged attackers was dead and two others were severely wounded.  According to the report, the colony was where a number of kidnappings and extortion crimes had taken place.

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

Read More

Rage and helplessness; "Los desaparecidos"

Marcela Turati El Diario de Coahuila/Proceso (June 2, 2013)

Translated by un vato for Borderland Beat

Mothers and fathers have confronted the administrative disorder of morgues and cemeteries, where cadavers decompose underground in total anonymity because of the incompetence, the bureaucracy and the institutionalized negligence.

MEXICO, D.F. (Proceso).-- Beatriz Mejia Diaz returned for the nth time to a Mexico City morgue to ask them to show her the records of all unidentified bodies they had kept in their vaults.

"Ma'am, you've already been here several times, your daughter is not in the records," an employee told her when she asked for the files. Stubbornly, she insisted on being allowed to personally inspect every one of the files beginning on November 4, 2011, when her daughter Alejandra Viridiana Osornio Mejia disappeared, whether the files were on men, children or old people.

When she was reviewing documents dated January 27, 2012, she found her. They had kept her there as "NI" (No Identificado: unidentified) and sent her to a mass grave.

"I found my daughter's clothing. They told me they only had her cranium, for me to go to the Medical Examiner's Office (Semefo: Servicio Medico Forense)  at Izcalli. But over there, they had lost the file with her information. Neither could they find her clothes in the (Semefo) amphitheater. I don't understand; how is it possible that they sent her to a mass grave when I filed so many reports and had been looking for her so long?," says the woman outside the Attorney General's Office building (PGR) where she had gone to yell in rage and disgust at the Attorney General, Jesus Murillo Karam, and the Secretary of the Interior, Miguel Angel Osorio Chong, for the torment she had undergone since her 21-year old daughter had been kidnapped from the Victoria's bar/pool hall in Cuautitlan.

She yelled at them when they announced, once again, the creation of a Investigations and Search Unit for Disappeared Persons.

VISITING SEMEFOS

"From November 28, 2011, I began to visit semefos (medical examiners facilities. I went to the one in Tlalneplantla, which is the main one for the State of Mexico, then to the one in Texcoco, then to the one in Ecatepec, the one in Amecameca, and even to the one in the Federal District, in Colonia Doctores. They never let me review the files personally; the people in charge would input the characteristics into the computer and they would perform the so-called search, until I demanded that I be allowed to look for myself, and there she was. That's what I came to tell the PGR: that how was it possible that my daughter had been buried for so long in a mass grave without anybody telling me anything," says Beatriz Mejia, who just a few minutes ago had been yelling with pain and fury.

With her were other mothers and fathers who have confronted the administrative disorder of morgues and cemeteries, where cadavers decompose underground and in total anonymity due to the incompetence, the bureaucracy and the institutionalized negligence. At least 24,000 bodies remain buried in mass graves awaiting a decent burial, but, because of the administrative chaos, they suffer a double disappearance; the first one when they were kidnapped, the second when forensic investigators misclassified them, lost the personal belongings they had on them, entered their personal information incorrectly into the computer or sent them to a mass grave mixed up with other bodies, and many times didn't even record their last location.

Abril Selena Caldino Rodriguez suffered the same fate. She disappeared on May 26, 2011, and was found dead a few days later in a "municipality close to Tecamac" and sent to a mass grave. Two years later, this past Mothers Day, authorities discovered that the fifteen-year-old's cadaver had been classified as that of a 45 year old woman, and it took weeks to find it because they lost the investigation file that showed the cemetery where it was buried.

DISORDER

Instead of having a fifteenth birthday party, young Bianca Edith Barron Cedillo had a funeral ceremony, because this past April, the family identified the clothing and physical characteristics of a cadaver sent to a mass grave in May of last year, a week after it was found, when a forensic investigator classified the body as that of woman 25 to 30 years old. Because of that, when her mother asked them to look for the body of a fifteen-year old, they could find no records even though the body had been found the day after her disappearance.

Or the case of Barbie, Barbara Reyes, a 17-year old girl who disappeared on August 8, 2011, in Tlalnepantla, whose remains were found 18 months later in a mass grave after her mother did the same thing: personally review each file.

Her mother, Lourdes Muniz, had initiated a campaign to find her; she even got the authorities in the State of Mexico to assign a team to the search and to offer a reward for any information that would help find her, but it didn't occur to the officials to compare the records from the morgues.

Another mother with the same problem suggested that she go to the Semefo where she found her: she was registered -- in pencil, because there was no computer-- as an 18-year old woman, whose body was found miles from where her disappearance was reported.

"I started with the Semefo at Cuautitlan Izcalli, then I went to the one at Cuautitlan,  and there I discovered there was an unclaimed body with matching age, sex and other characteristics. They told me to go to Barrientos to look at the photographs and that's how I identified my daughter's clothes, her blouse and her tennis shoes. I also took with me the plaster moldings of her teeth, which were also similar. Then we went to the La Loma state cemetery in Cuautitlan, where it took them three days to find her because there was total disorder: there were bodies that were mixed up, they had taken some from private graves to the mass graves, or they shouldn't have been there. They estimated that they would find her in the first few square yards, but they ended up digging up 64 square yards, and when it got complicated, they told me they could only find the cranium," says Lourdes, outside the PGR building, where she also demanded justice for her daughter in a loud voice.

ONLY THE BONES

"All I recovered were my daughter's bones, no clothing or anything else. Nobody knows anything," she says with annoyance and resignation. She addresses her daughter:

"Today, after 20 months of arduous searching, of frustration, pain and tears... my little girl, we have found you, not like we --dad, mom, sisters, family and friends -- wanted... Forgive us for our ineffectiveness and for taking 19 months to find you... but other bastard bureaucrats, who didn't do their jobs and sent you to a mass grave, obstructed us... But it didn't matter, we finally found you and recovered you, like we promised, and soon you'll lie beside your grandmothers, your grandfathers and uncles."

The Barbie scandal unplugged the sewer in the State of Mexico, it was a faithful reflection of what is happening throughout the country. Because of pressure from mothers, they had to show the photographs of all the bodies. "All that process of looking at bodies wears you out, it's devastating," says Mrs. Guillermina Hernandez, mother of 14-year old teenager Selena Giselle Delgado, who disappeared on April 29, 2010, in Ecatepec.

"The semefos don't have a well-built system; they put in the age that they believe the body has, without investigating. They don't have an infrastructure, they don't record dates. If they store clothing, they lose it, they don't keep it with to the body," says the woman, who has also searched cemeteries like the one in Texcoco, where she discovered that bodies classified as "Unidentified" were buried in the pathways between the graves, and grave sites that were identified only with a file number on a piece of paper wrapped in a plastic bag. She has already been to Naucalpan, Texcoco, Iztapalapa and Barrientos. And nothing...

She feels that if her daughter was disappeared by a woman dentist, who she believes is responsible, the government has disappeared her for a second time with its lack of organization, its incompetence, its negligence.

ARDUOUS TASK

That's why she went to the PGR with other mothers who are also looking for their disappeared sons and daughters, just about the time they announced the formation of the specialized team that Osorio Chong had already announced in February, but which, as provided in the legislation, assigns only 12 agents from the Public Ministry to look for thousands of persons reported disappeared or "not found" -- 27,000 from the previous administration--, and that does not yet have legal recognition, mandate, offices or a budget.  

The work in the Semefo amphitheaters and in the cemeteries is arduous. Between 2006 and 2012, the PGR's national database of genetic profiles (DNA database) received 15,618 (genetic) profiles of unknown persons who died violently, of whom only 425 were identified, according to the report that the La Jornada newspaper published on January 2nd.

In thirteen states (Baja California Sur, Sinaloa, Durango, Coahuila, San Luis Potosi, Queretaro, Colima, Guerrero,  Tabasco, Campeche, Yucatan, Quintana Roo and Oaxaca) there are no genetics [DNA] laboratories to identify cadavers. In addition, in some of them, forensic autopsies are performed in privately-owned funeral homes or in cemeteries and, in many cases, unidentified bodies are sent to mass graves with incomplete files and without comparing their fingerprints, photographic files or DNA with national databases kept by the PGR or the federal Secretariat of Public Security. Criteria for exhumations and for the handling of cadavers have not been standardized.

Milenio reporter Victor Hugo Michel disclosed in October, 2012, that municipalities reported that they had sent 24,000 unidentified bodies to mass graves during the previous six-year period. According to official figures, only 3% of murder victims who are classified as "NI" in cemeteries are subsequently identified, as in the cases of Bianca, Barbie and Viridiana.

Currently, each state has its own time limits, which range from one day to six months, in which to send an unidentified body to a mass grave.  Each municipality has its own regulations for classifying the body and determining how many bodies may be buried in a grave. Some remains are incinerated.

HUMANITARIAN INTERVENTION

The humanitarian crises caused by the disappearance of persons forced the federal government to ask the Red Cross International Committee (CICR: Comite Internacional de la Cruz Roja) for help by intervening in Mexico and, among other things, dealing with the disorganization that exists in the Semefos and in the cemeteries, which is an important obstacle in finding people.

On February 21, an agreement was signed to allow this international entity, founded in 1863, to provide advice to Mexican authorities.

Romanick Ferraro, legal counsel for the CICR delegation in Mexico, begins the interview with Proceso by stating that the committee's principles are neutrality, impartiality and independence, and that in countries where it works bilaterally (with agreements with governments or known armed groups), they maintain confidentiality. Whatever reports it produces will not be made public if the Mexican government does not wish.

He explains that the thematic hubs of the humanitarian organization with respect to the disappearance of persons are prevention (to prevent disappearances), clearing up the person's fate (by promoting mechanisms for establishing the truth), processing information (collection and production of clear information), forensic identification and support for all of a family's needs, as well as encouragement so they will participate with authorities in he search. The Mexican government will decide on which of those subjects it will need guidance.

When asked what his function will be, he insists: "The content is part of the confidential dialogue, we will provide advice to the Mexican government on whatever it asks."

BETWEEN CEMETERIES

While authorities draft new protocols that may take years to implement, Mr. Jose Serrano travels the country looking for his son, David Serrano Sandoval, a 38-year old lawyer who was kidnapped on June 16, 2012, in Lerma, State of Mexico, by a cell of the La Mano con Ojos criminal organization, which later became part of the Acapulco Independent Cartel. Although from the beginning the family had help from the Federal Police anti-kidnapping unit, the lawyer's freedom was never obtained.

This year, the PGR's Human Rights Section has been advising this father to verify whether his son was processed through some semefo, whether in the Federal District, the State of Mexico, or in Guerrero. On one occasion, the prosecutor Rosario Sandoval, with the SEIDO (specialized unit for investigating organized crime), mistakenly told him he had been found in Mexico City.

"Since August 15, when the negotiations with the kidnappers ended, I began to go to semefos; those in Mexico City, Cuernavaca and Toluca; to hospitals, to see if he was wounded, I went from bed to bed looking at patients. I've continued to to visit those places, I've seen bodies they've shown me in Lerma, Toluca, Zihuatanejo, Acapulco and Chilpancingo," recalls Mr. Serrano.

His search has become an agony.  

Read More

The War In Michoacan: Peña Nieto's Version

By: José Gil Olmos

May 26 2013

Coalcomán, Michoacán

The mayor’s words strongly thundered like rockets on Sunday, May 19 setting the public on alert when the military arrived to try to disarm the people:

“The situation was unbearable!  We were all being extorted.  Even in the municipality we had to give them 10% of the budget each month and they were already starting to ask for 15%.  This happens with all the municipalities in the state and the governor even knows about it.  We accepted it at first, but when we stopped was when they started to mess with our families; they raped and took our wives, our daughters.  That’s when we said—Enough! This is a matter of dignity.”

Self-defense Group in Buenavista, Michoacán
Photo: Octavio Gómez

It’s Tuesday morning on May 21^st.  Outside the town hall is a group of armed soldiers.  They arrived in armored vehicles parking on the corners of the main square as if it were a war zone.

 

Military Surveillance on the Roads of Michoacán
Photo: Octavio Gómez

Read More