ON THE SOUTHWEST BORDER When Violence Hits Too Close to Home

The kidnappings, beatings, and murders that mark the drug-related violence of Mexican border cities like Tijuana and Juarez have increasingly spilled over the border.

Emerging from the port of entry’s administrative offices into a sunny San Diego morning, Special Agent Dean Giboney spoke in fluent Spanish with the man whose temporary U.S. visa he had just helped renew. The man was smiling, happy to be out of Mexico, even though he understood that being on U.S. soil was no guarantee of safety from the Tijuana drug cartel that has put a price on his head.

The kidnappings, beatings, and murders that mark the extreme drug-related violence of Mexican border cities such as Tijuana and Juarez have increasingly spilled over the border. Agent Giboney is hoping the man—we’ll call him José —can provide information that will help in the Bureau’s efforts to dismantle the cartels and the criminal enterprises they fuel.

A few years ago, José started working for the Arellano Felix Organization (AFO) in Tijuana to earn extra money. But when he saw how routine the act of murder was for the cartel—leaders thought nothing of having even their own people killed for real or perceived insubordination—he started to fear for his life and contacted the FBI to help him flee the country.

Sources like José are just one of many ways the Bureau gathers intelligence to combat border crime. Agent Giboney is particularly interested in gaining information regarding fugitives in the Los Palillos case, one of San Diego’s most notorious examples of so-called “spillover violence.”

Los Palillos—the “Toothpicks”—was a rogue spinoff from the AFO. From 2004 to 2007, the San Diego street gang carried out a brutal crime spree in which 13 people were abducted and nine were killed. Bodies turned up in cars, on jogging paths, and inside houses in quiet, residential neighborhoods.

The group’s leader, Jorge Rojas-Lopez, is serving a life sentence without parole for the crimes, and several of his henchmen are also in prison. But five members of the gang are still at large.

Rojas-Lopez—a former AFO member—was fighting the cartel for a piece of the billion-dollar drug trade, but he was also fighting for revenge, because the AFO had ordered the murder of his brother.

This level of extreme violence is very typical of the way the cartels operate south of the border,” Giboney said. Unfortunately, Los Palillos is not an isolated case north of the border, either.

What explains this level of brutality? “The cartels and the gang members they employ want to be Al Pacino in the movie Scarface,” Giboney said. During raids on the homes of cartel members, he has seen movie posters of the machine-gun-wielding Pacino, who played a vicious drug kingpin. “They want to live that lifestyle—the nice cars, going out to clubs, throwing money around. But once you’re in that lifestyle,” he explained, “it’s hard to get out, even if you want to.”

José understands how difficult it is to get away from the cartel. The “narcos,” as he calls AFO members, are powerful as well as ruthless, and their influence is felt at every level of Mexican society. “Whatever they want to know about you they can find out,” he said. “They will stop at nothing to protect their interests, even if it means crossing the border.”

Kidnappings by the cartels and the gangs who work for them have become a serious problem in several U.S. cities on the Southwest border. In the past, kidnap victims were usually rivals in the drug trade. Sometimes victims were kidnapped for revenge, sometimes to intimidate. And paying a ransom was no guarantee the victim would be released.

But when the gangs realized how easy—and profitable—kidnapping could be, they started abducting anyone who looked wealthy enough to command a hefty ransom, and that included Americans on either side of the border.

In the Texas border town of McAllen, for example, the rate of kidnapping has nearly quadrupled. Between October 2008 and September 2009, 42 people were kidnapped in the McAllen area, compared with 11 the previous year. And many kidnappings go unreported because the victims may be involved in illegal activity and don’t want to contact authorities.

Latest NAFBPO Foreign news report follows:

El Universal (Mexico City) 8/12/10 20 police resign in Manzanillo After the assassination of three of their companions and because of the grenade attacks that security offices have suffered in the past few days in the port city of Manzanillo, Colima, around 20 officers of the police force have resigned their positions. The wave of violence by the war of organized criminals in their struggle for control of the port area is causing fear among the security forces. “We do not have sufficient equipment like firearms, patrol vehicles, protective vests and radio equipment,” the police charge. The Manzanillo city officials have remained silent about the resignations. —–

Armed encounter in Durango leaves 11 dead A gun battle between a group of organized criminals and the Mexican Army in the town of Santiago Papasquiaro, Durango, left 11 people dead and 3 soldiers wounded. —–

US Ambassador suggests anti-crime strategy US Ambassador to Mexico, Carlos Pascual, proposes a security strategy in the border area that consists of Army vigilance perimeters that will gradually be increased to include complete residential areas. The plan includes a two way strategy where the US accepts as imperative the reduction of arms traffic. The ambassador recommended that police at the three levels of government, with the support of the Mexican Army, participate in a strategy of vigilance to make people feel more secure. ——————– El Financiero (Mexico City) 8/12/10

Anti-immigrant activities drive Latino bloc Los Angeles, California (Notimex) – Anti-immigrant activities are making US Latinos aware of the importance of participation and the necessity of finally creating a Latino bloc, asserted a union leader, Eliseo Medina. ”Measures like SB 1070 in Arizona and those of denying citizenship to children of undocumenteds are only awakening them,” he said. In California there is a total of 3.3 million Latino registered voters and some million and a half who can register to vote “and to this group we are going to focus,” he emphasized. ——————– -end of report-

http://m3report.wordpress.com/

More by way of Nafbpo:

Calderon lies

(An editorial)

El Diario – The triumphant statements of President Felipe Calderon that the government is winning the war on organized crime shows that the federal authority does not pay attention to the reality the country is living. The stubbornness of maintaining such a lie embarrasses our civil leaders, businessmen and lawyers here on the border.

Yesterday the Presidential address stated that, contrary to general opinion, we are winning the war against organized crime.

Journalists have confirmed that during the last two and a half years confrontations with criminal groups have resulted in more than 6,000 deaths on the border. The perception is that the government has failed to contain the violence.

Calderon assured leaders of political parties in Mexico City, “Despite the cowardly acts, like executions of soldiers and federal police officers, the truth is that in the great majority of confrontations between federal authorities and criminal groups, the government has won.”

Calderon asserted at the same time that the increase of violence is not an indicator of whether the strategy is working, although the number of homicides is spectacular, (according to CISEN, the number is 28,000) Calderon says the number is not a method to measure.

We, on a day to day basis, witness how crime is beating the government

http://www.diario.com.mx/nota.php?notaid=afc505954171cc47525e174387391107

Cambio de Michoacan (Morelia) 8-11-10

Cartels dispute the area of Colima

Colima – Two simultaneous attacks on Pubic Security forces in Manzanillo prompted the Governor of the state to convene an urgent meeting of State Pubic Security Police forces.

The State Attorney General (PGJE) said that three police officers lost their lives and another was seriously wounded in the attacks which prompted an intense response of several different police agencies in this port city.

In the first attack, henchmen armed with AK-47’s and AR-15’s fired upon uniformed officers who were patrolling in the tourist zone. In that attack, two policemen fell.

In the second attack near Salahua, one policeman died and another was wounded.

After those attacks, authorities deployed checkpoints around the city in an effort to catch the henchmen.

The port (of Manzanillo) is the principal point of commerce on the Mexican Pacific coast but has been turned into a Port of Entry for massive amounts of illicit chemicals and cocaine.

The size and intense commercial activity of Manzanillo facilitates the movement of illicit cargo to the east and eventually into the United States. This has aroused the intense interests, not only of big businessmen, but of the criminal organizations and cartels who move drugs. They are fighting for control of this transportation network bringing in products from Asia and South America. This fight has cost the lives of 31 people, and wounded 22 just this year. And, this fight has caused the kidnapping of 15 innocent people, the seizure of hundreds of munitions, arms, grenades, vehicles and narco-laboratories.

Authorities are afraid that in the coming days the fight for control of this area between Los Zetas, La Familia and others will escalate.

http://www.cambiodemichoacan.com.mx/vernota.php?id=131383

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El Financiero (Mexico City) 8-11-10

Intimidation and corruption of judges a continuous concern

Mexico, D. F. – The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Mexico (SCJN), Guillermo Ortiz Mayagoitia, said that protecting judges from intimidation and corruption are the two major concerns that there are within the jurisdiction of Federal Judicial Power.

In addressing the security of the political body of the state with representatives of the judiciary, Ortiz said that the struggle against crime in the community and the judiciary must be with absolute adherence to the law and the rights of the state.

He said that in exercising judicial power, there must be no illegal action or obligation to outside influences and that all indictments must be fully investigated in his address to all 42 district judges and magistrates.

“The fight against organized crime must be conducted in absolute adherence to the law under effective prosecution while observing individual rights,” stated Judge Ortiz Mayagoitia.

Ortiz stated that the struggle against threats to the security of the Republic requires that all judges in the nation be on the same side which is the side of citizenship and democracy.

In respect to judicial power, he said that every person needs to be sure that every judge is doing his duty according to judicial standards in everything he does in conducting the business of the state.

http://www.elfinanciero.com.mx/ElFinanciero/Portal/cfpages/contentmgr.cfm?docId=279060&docTipo=1&orderby=docid&sortby=ASC

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El Diario de Juarez (Cd. Juarez, Chihuahua) 8-11-10

Gunmen kill two men in a medical clinic

Cd. Juarez – Two men, one of them already wounded, were shot down by hit men in a medical clinic as part of a violent journey yesterday that ended with 11 dead.

Early in the morning there were five dead, by noon there were six.

First there were two brothers killed by gunshots, then the police found dead bodies on the street, killed by gunfire. Later, a body of a woman was thrown onto the street from a vehicle by several men in an industrial park.

Earlier, two men appeared at a medical clinic where one sought treatment for a gunshot wound. Later an unknown man entered the hospital and shot both of them dead.

Finally, a man riding a bicycle was shot down and his companion was kidnapped.

http://www.diario.com.mx/nota.php?notaid=e1d12ac52eaa8f4df775fb20540ff881

http://m3report.wordpress.com/2010/08/12/cartels-fight-over-colima/

Take a look at this crappola:

El Diario de Juarez (Cd. Juarez, Chihuahua) 8-10-10

Border insecurity a myth

Washington – The results of a poll taken among U.S. border residents released today concludes that border insecurity is a myth perpetrated by U.S. political conservatives in order to put troops on the border.

This myth is propagated by political personalities, such as Republican Governor Jan Brewer, who recently spoke of “murderers, chaos and terror” in the region, but “statistics show that the border region is among the most secure areas in the nation where there has been no demonstrable rise in crime in several years,” according to the pro-immigrant organization Border Network for Human Rights in poll results released today.

The poll was taken in July from more than 1200 border residents in California and Arizona.

The results were released to the U.S. House of Representatives which approved 600 million dollars to improve security along more than 3000 kilometers of U.S./Mexico border. The House also approved the deployment of 1200 National Guardsmen to Support the U.S. Border Patrol. Since the bill with be forwarded to the U.S. Senate in September, pro-immigrant groups have labeled this action a “deceptive” and “ineffective.”

http://www.diario.com.mx/nota.php?notaid=6fa77ef7f2dbcb5201c2b19093cc53dd

El Imparcial (Hermosillo, Sonora) 8-10-10

Calderón confirms gain

Mexico, D. F. – President Felipe Calderón says that contrary to popular belief, we are winning the war against organized crime.

“I understand perfectly that the general perception is that we are losing the war (against crime), but I also understand the general perception is that we are obligated to fight,” he said.

The number of dead reflects the disputes between the cartels and criminal groups and does not indicate that we are losing the war against criminal organizations, according to Calderón.

http://www.elimparcial.com/EdicionEnLinea/Notas/Nacional/10082010/
462713.aspx

Cambio de Michoacán (Morelia, Michoacán) 8-10-10

Calderón challenges parties to decide if Mexico should withdraw from fighting crime

Mexico City, D.F. – President Felipe Calderón challenged political party leaders to proclaim publicly if Mexico should withdraw from its war against organized crime.

In a dialogue with all the political parties in Mexico, the PRI, PRD, PAN, Convergencia, Nueva Alianza and the Partido Verde, and Senator Arturo Escobar, Calderón challenged the leaders to decide if the federal mandate and the strategy against crime should be questioned. And, he (Calderón) asked them to express their commitment with clear objectives and proposals.

“Declare openly and publicly if the state (of Mexico) should continue to fight and complete what needs to be done to preserve the foundation of the republic. If anyone feels that the government is in error in its fight against criminality, now is your opportunity to declare that openly and sincerely,” says the presidential mandate.

http://www.cambiodemichoacan.com.mx/vernota.php?id=131281

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El Debate (Culiacan, Sinaloa) 8-10-10

Five undocumented Guatemalans captured

Los Mochis – Five undocumented Guatemalans were arrested by Federal Highway Police this morning on a bus, among them was the smuggler.

The Guatemalans were destined to Altar, Sonora, but were turned over to the state prosecutor for disposition after their sworn statements were taken.

http://www.debate.com.mx/eldebate/Articulos/ArticuloPrimera.asp?IdArt=10095494&IdCat=6087

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Three Sinaloans jailed in Nicaragua

Managua – Judicial spokesmen publicly stated that a Nicaraguan judge has ordered three Mexicans jailed for money laundering for narcotics traffickers. The men were arrested in two vehicles containing 202 million dollars north of Managua.

The judge scheduled a preliminary hearing for the 17th of August.

http://www.debate.com.mx/eldebate/Articulos/ArticuloPrimera.asp?IdArt=10095494&IdCat=6087

http://m3report.wordpress.com/2010/08/11/calderon-challenges-political-parties/

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