Interview with Cuitláhuac Garcia, Governor-elect of Veracruz

Translated by El Profe for Borderland Beat from La Silla Rota

                         

Despite the degree of corruption and insecurity, the governor-elect advised that the armed forces will not be on the streets, only in exceptional cases

by MIGUEL ÁNGEL LEÓN CARMONA

Xalapa, Ver.- For Cuitláhuac García Jiménez, Veracruz experienced two transitions in recent years marked by corruption and insecurity, to the extent that it is necessary to declare the state a "humanitarian crisis" in order to create a savings and spending program for victims.

In addition, the governor- elect says the violence will not be faced with the Armed Forces, except in exceptional cases in which he will ask for the help of President-elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

It is 4:30 p.m. in a liaison office of Movimiento Regeneración Nacional (MORENA) in Xalapa. The elected leader gets ready for an interview with LA SILLA ROTA and at the same time organizes with four collaborators -no older than 30 years- his next event on the agenda, a talk with Sara Ladrón de Guevara González, rector of his alma mater, the Veracruzana University (UV). 

Already settled in an office decorated with photographs of his meetings - always taken by the hand of López Obrador - Cuitláhuac sits behind a desk to talk about the challenges he will face starting December 1, 2018. The images on the walls foretell a close link of the state with the federation. 

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Chapitos vs Guanos: Violence Unleashed in Sinaloa, 11 killed on Wednesday

Posted by Char for Borderland Beat from Sinaloa Press

Violence rips in Sinaloa as “Chapitos” war against  “Guanos”  for control.

During the last hours 11 people have been found or executed, the majority in the state capital, among the victims is a woman.

There were 8 dead in the city of Culiacán and 3 in  Sinaloa de Leyva.

In the early hours of Wednesday,  the body of a man wrapped in blankets was located by the International Highway Mexico 15, at the height of El Limón de Los Ramos

Later another man was found in the Derivadora Dam of the Culiacán River, he was half naked, and he had visible marks of torture, his hands handcuffed and with a shot to the head.

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“If there’s not a change in Mexico with Andres Manuel, then God help us.”

OP/ED by DD for Borderland Beat

There can be no doubting that a major shift has taken place in Mexican politics.  

Andrés Manuel López Obrador (better known by his initials as AMLO) is no longer one of the four candidates for President of Mexico, he is President Elect AMLO.  Some are calling his election a "landslide".  I think it is bigger than that - it was a 'Tsunami'.  He won by over 53% of the vote, twice as many as his nearest competitor, the Pan candidate, and the PRI candidate only got 14%.  

A map showing his election victories state by state drives home the immensity of his victory.  Moreno is the party that AMLO created just 4 years ago and it's color is purple.

In a sea of maroon lies a single, small island of blue: Guanajuato, the only state in Mexico where Andrés Manuel López Obrador didn’t win the popular vote in Sunday’s presidential election.

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Nephew of El Chapo killed, son of "El Guano", who is in a power struggle with Chapo's sons

Posted  by Mica for Borderland Beat  from Altavoz

Culiacán, Sin.- One of the people who died during a fierce confrontation in the municipality of Badiraguato, between two groups of drug traffickers of the Sinaloa Cartel, is supposedly Aureliano Guzmán Araujo, aka El Pelón or El Guanito, who is the son of Aureliano Guzmán Loera, alias El Guano, brother of drug trafficker Joaquín El Chapo Guzmán.

The confrontation was recorded yesterday afternoon around 18:00 hours on one of the main streets of the municipal capital of Badiraguato.

Neighbors and police reported that two armed groups that had been pursuing each other,  from one of the communities nearby, a  confronted each other there.

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La Paz BCS: Beltran Leyva “Jefe del Plaza“ Falls

Translated by Yaqui for Borderland Beat from: El Mundo Digital

                                                                 Andres Ulloa Márquez
   "El Parajo":  Identified as the main generator of violence in the state capital city of La Paz, BCS
                     His arrest was announced by the Ministry of the Interior in Mexico City

As a result of intelligence, investigation and field work, elements of the Intelligence Division of the Federal Police, in coordination with State and Municipal authorities of the government of  Baja California Sur, captured Andrés  "N", alias "El Pájaro" , identified as one of the main objectives in the state and generator of violence in the state.

This person is designated as alleged coordinator of illegal activities for the criminal group of the Beltrán Leyva Cartel, dedicated to the sale and distribution of drugs in Baja California Sur, particularly in the municipality of La Paz, where he was responsible for the plaza.

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Monterrey: 15 Dead In One Night but AMLO has a Plan

Posted by Yaqui for Borderland Beat from: Occrp.org

By: Jesse Chase Lubitz  June 9, 2018
Additional Material from Universal, MND, El Horizonte

Extortion is believed to have been behind a night of violence Saturday in three municipalities in Nuevo León in which 15 people were killed. Twelve of the victims died in attacks on bars and cantinas. Ten people were wounded as suspected organized crime gangs launched attacks on six bars.

Three more people were assassinated in the municipalities of Cadereyta and Linares. More attacks followed in Juárez, Monterrey and Apodaca.

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Luxury transportation bus drives through Nuevo Laredo shootout on route to Monterrey

Chivis Martinez for Borderland Beat from Zocalo...thank you BB Fren

After a bus received gunfire, during a shootout that broke out Tuesday in Nuevo Laredo, a driver drove the unit with several passengers, from the conflict, to the safety of  Monterrey.

Unit 5248 of the company Enlaces Terrestres Nacionales (ETN) arrived at midnight at the company's headquarters located in Churubusco and Miguel Aleman, safeguarding the passengers.

This morning the authorities of the General Prosecutor's Office and the Monterrey Police inspected the bus.

According to a police source, the events occurred on Monday afternoon at Reforma Avenue, in Colonia Concordia in Nuevo Laredo, where the bus passed through the site where a shootout was occurring. 

The bus received at least six impacts, four on the front windshield and two on the sides.

After being shot at, passengers were seized by hysteria, who asked the driver not to stop driving.

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Weaponized drone with grenades targets home of Baja California security chief

Chivis Martinez for Borderland Beat for Zeta Tijuana

After  07:00 hours on Tuesday, July 10, two drones were directed to  fly over the house of the Secretary of Public Safety of Baja California, Gerardo Sosa Olachea, located in the Los Laureles neighborhood, in Tecate, near the road to Cove.

Shortly before 07:30 hours witnesses could see when the devices descended on the property, which at that time was occupied only by the family housekeeper.

The headquarters  of the State Preventive Police (PEP) received two reports regarding the drones, first, of the drones  flying over and the second indicating that in the house of Sosa Olachea they had located at least one of the drones equipped with camera and audio. In this device, fastened with adhesive tape,  were two fragmentation grenades that failed to  detonate when they descended.

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"Tuitera" reports receiving telephone death threat from CDN

Chivis Martinez for Borderland Beat

A young woman using the name of @ loba_indomable "tuitera” who tweets narco news and at risk situations in the northern area of Tamaulipas, says she has been threatened death through her telephone. 

She reports that she was contacted by the people of Juan Gerardo Treviño Chávez, aka "El Huevo" through ATT number 8282813827 from Cadereyta Nuevo Leon. Treviño reportedly has family in Cadereyta. "Huevo Treviño" is the leader of the Northeast Cartel aka CDN.  CDN is the Treviño faction of the Zetas Split, the second faction is Old School Zetas.

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CJNG Announces “ Limpia “ of Pueblo Huachicoleros

Translated by Yaqui for Borderland Beat from: Proceso

July 12, 2018 Puebla, Puebla

In a video circulating on social networks, alleged members of the Jalisco Nueva Generación Cartel (CJNG) warn of a "cleaning" in the municipalities of the so-called Red Triangle of this entity.

Armed men, dressed in dark colors, hoods and masks, warn that they will act against alleged thieves, specifically huachicoleros, ie hydrocarbon thieves whom withdraw products from clandestine sources who are  operating in the municipalities of Tlacotepec, Palmar de Bravo and Esperanza.

One of the subjects, who appears to be the leader, reads a statement where he mentions nicknames such as "El Miki", "El Chimbombo", "El Chinamite", "El Cochiloco", as well as a commander of the threatened group whom he does not  name. He then warns that they had already sent a message to this group, although he does not specify what kind of warning.

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Jalisco: How powerful is "Nueva Plaza", CJNG's enemy splinter group?

Posted by Char for Borderland Beat from La Opinion 

Facing protests and outrage over the deaths of three film students, the Jalisco state authorities blamed the events - and later ones that have occurred Guadalajara, the country's third largest city - on a deadly dispute between the powerful Cartel Jalisco New Generation Cartel and an antagonistic CJNG splinter cell, named “Nueva Plaza”.

The leader of Nueva Plaza, according to the authorities, is Carlos Enrique Sánchez, aka 'El Cholo', 38 years old. He is accused with multiple antecedents of violence and capable of being released from jail with great secrecy, He did not stay in prison, not even when charged for the murder of a rival.  When arrested Sanchez had one million pesos.  

Neither the judges nor the state prosecutor (whose head, Luis Carlos Nájera, recently suffered an attack and resigned) has explained, how 'El Cholo' managed to achieved his freedom, after he killed a man in Tlaquepaque in 2007 who tried to defend a woman the scoundrel was arguing with.

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Jalisco: masked men kill 7 inside a farm

Chivis Martinez for Borderland Beat material from LaCornica and Zeta

Below:The journalist Ricardo Balderas reports that a commando entered a farm and fired at its inhabitants, in the Francisco I. Madero neighborhood. 

A group of heavily armed individuals entered a building, on a farm,  where a meeting was taking place and fired leaving seven people dead.

Upon arrival of municipal and state policemen, they found 5 women and 2 men killed by gunshot.

The farm located in Colonia Francisco I. Madero, Tlaquepaque, is now under the protection of the authorities, the number of fatalities was confirmed by the Tlaquepaque Police. 

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AMLO: Legal Poppy Production for Pharmacueticals

Translated by Yaqui for Borderland Beat from: TeleSur

June 9, 2018
Part 2, below from Milenio

Mexico's president-elect, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, is open to the idea of selling opium for pharmaceutical use, a senior aide said on Wednesday.

The move would be a sign of the deep changes the next government is considering over the U.S.-led ''war on drugs'' approach.

"Why not sell it to pharmaceutical companies?" said Olga Sanchez Cordero, a former Supreme Court judge who is the incoming president's pick to run the Interior Ministry.

She said the next president, a 64-year-old former mayor of Mexico City, supported a public consultation on the possibility of regulating opium and decriminalizing marijuana.

Sanchez said the newcomers were also exploring decriminalizing marijuana for recreational use, saying it no longer made sense for Mexican authorities to engage in a violent struggle against the drug when Canada and several U.S. states have already adopted more lenient policies.

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US Citizen Shot Dead in Mexico City Restaurant

Translated by Yaqui for Borderland Beat from: Milenio

June 9, 2018
By: Jorge Becerril

Mexican gunmen on a motorcycle shot and killed a female U.S. citizen as she dined at a popular taco restaurant in Mexico City. The two gunmen rode up on a motorcycle and stopped in front of the business and began shooting. The intended target was a man who was injured but survived the attack. 

The murder took place on Saturday early morning at an upscale taco restaurant in the ritzy Miguel Hidalgo section of Mexico City, information released by Mexico City’s Attorney General’s Office revealed (PGJDF).  

The woman died after being shot outside the taqueria restaurant ''El Califa''  in Paseo de las Palmas, near Sierra Gamón, in the Lomas de Chapultepec neighborhood of Mexico City on July 7, 2018. "El Califa"is part of a chain of popular upscale taco restaurants. 

The two gunmen were reportedly attempting to kill a 46-year-old man who was the doorman at a swanky bar in the Polanco neighborhood. 

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El Chapo seeks continuance of trial, scheduled for September 5th

By Chivis Martinez for Borderland Beat

Due to the government’s recent production of discovery, of over 117k recordings and thousands of pages of documents, the defense in the case of El Chapo is asking the court for a continuance.

The influx of this recently produced material, must be reviewed in preparation of the scheduled September 5^th trial.

“Just like any other person, Joaquín deserves a fair trial.  The government’s conduct - whether intentional or inadvertent - deprives him of that right,” says lead defense, Eduardo Balarezo.

Balarezo filed the request for continuance last Friday.

In total, so far, the government has provided, according to the government, more than 320,000 pages of documents and thousands of intercepted and recorded audio communications and dozens of videos.

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