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UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY

INSTITUTE FOR THE STUDY OF VIOLENT GROUPS (www.isvg.org)DAILY BORDER NEWS REPORT FOR 14 NOVEMBER 2011

COMPILER, INSTITUTE FOR THE STUDY OF VIOLENT GROUPS (www.isvg.org)EDITOR, JOINT TASK FORCE NORTH (www.facebook.com/USA.JTFN)

(U) This document is UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY and portions may be exempt from mandatory disclosure under FOIA. DoD 5400.7R, "DoD Freedom of Information Act Program", DoD Directive 5230.9, "Clearance of DoD Information for Public Release", and DoD Instruction 5230.29, "Security and Policy Review of DoD Information for Public Release" apply.

(U) FAIR USE NOTICE. This document may contain copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making it available to recipients who have expressed an interest in receiving information to advance their understanding of threat activities in the interest of protecting the United States. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

(U) Use of these news items does not reflect official endorsement by Joint Task Force North or the Department of Defense.

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Compiled By: Mr. Tom Davidson, Institute for the Study of Violent GroupsEdited by: Mr. Jonathan KauppApproved for Release by: Dr. Rodler Morris CONTENTS: (Note: All active EXTERNAL hyperlinks have been removed)

Table of ContentsCONTENTS..............................................................................................................................1

1. CANADA AND NORTHERN BORDER STATES...........................................3A. B.C. Fisherman Held in Drug Bust Again (BC)..................................................................3

2. INNER UNITED STATES..................................................................................5A. Mexican Meth Operation Busted in Two Central Valley Counties (CA)...........................5B. Suspected Terrorist Charged in U.S. with Supporting Al-Qaeda (NY/GE)........................6C. 138 Arrested in Oakland during Multi-Agency Sweep (CA)..............................................6

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D. Crime Connection between Valley and Mexico (CA).........................................................7E. Feds: Mexican Cartel Planned Attack against US (IL/MX)................................................8

3. MEXICO AND SOUTHERN BORDER STATES.............................................9A. A Leader of Mexico's Caballeros Templarios Gang Arrested (GTO).................................9B. Zetas Cartel Paymaster Arrested in Northern Mexico (NL)..............................................10C. Mexico Detains a Top Operator of Sinaloa Cartel (SIN)..................................................12D. University Researcher Gunned Down in Central Mexico (MOR)....................................13E. Mexican Army Arrests Top Tijuana Cartel Lieutenant (BC)............................................14F. Would-Be Killeen Bomber Gets Additional, Harsher Charges (TX)................................14G. Calif. Budget Cuts Threaten To Cut Elite Special Agent Units (CA)...............................15H. Mexican Democracy Tested by Drug Lords in Politics (MICH)......................................17I. Official Says Shootout Revealed Communication Issues (TX)........................................20J. Mexican Legislators: Punish Those Who Glorify Drugs, Violence (DF).........................21K. Campaigning Ends Ahead of Election in Violent Mexican State (MICH).......................22L. Battle for the Border: Cartel Insider Speaks (TX).............................................................23M. Battle for the Border: Cartel Safe Zones (TX)..................................................................25

4. CARRIBEAN, CENTRAL, AND SOUTH AMERICA....................................26A. Brazilian Cops Nab Rio’s Most Wanted Drug Kingpin (BR)...........................................26B. DEA Commando Teams Deployed in Central America (DR/GT/BZ/HN).......................27C. With Lorenzana Arrest, Guatemala Raises Game against Old-School Traffickers (GT)..29D. Kidnapped Washington Nationals Catcher Wilson Ramos is Alive, Police Say (VE).....31

5. OPINION AND ANALYSIS.............................................................................33A. EDITORIAL: Central America Elections Prove We Are Stuck in the Past (GT/NI).......33B. Operation Cancun Fugitive Lands in Mexico To Buy Airline (US/MX)..........................34C. NGOS to Washington: Cut Military Aid to Mexico (DC)................................................36D. Success Plan Colombia 'Greatly Overstated': Study (US/CO)..........................................37E. Bureau Recommends: Torture Used by Army in Mexico’s ‘War on Drugs’

(BC/NL/TAB/GRO/CHIH)...............................................................................................39F. Curing Central America’s Crime Epidemic Is Up to Latin America, Not the U.S.

(HN/GT)............................................................................................................................39G. Mexico: Anonymous Shifts Sights from Zetas to Government Corruption (NL).............41

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1. CANADA AND NORTHERN BORDER STATES

A. B.C. Fisherman Held in Drug Bust Again (BC)

11 November 2011Seattle Times

A Canadian fisherman and drug smuggler who escaped prosecution after authorities seized his boat and cargo of 2 ½ tons of cocaine off the Washington coast in 2001 is now suspected of trying to smuggle 400 kilograms of cocaine from Colombia by boat.

The 18 Oct. arrest of John Philip Stirling, a gruff 60-year-old fisherman from Vancouver Island, marks the third time in a decade that he has been caught red-handed smuggling large quantities of drugs, according to court records. Until now, he has managed to avoid prosecution on both sides of the border, although nobody has ever said on the record how.

He remains unabashed and unapologetic, according to charges filed in the recent case in Miami.

While being transported to the Federal Detention Center in Miami, Stirling is alleged to have remarked that "there was nothing wrong with cocaine trafficking and that the United States should mind its own business."

The charges say Stirling's sailing vessel, the 58-foot Atlantis V, was intercepted 300 miles off the Colombian mainland by the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Confidence on 17 Oct. The boat, which was in international waters sailing under a Canadian flag, was shadowed by the cutter while the Coast Guard awaited authority from Canada to board her.

The next day, while still awaiting permission, an Atlantis V crewman identified as Luigi Barbaro jumped into the sea and was picked up by the cutter.

"Barbaro informed the USCG that narcotics were on the Atlantis V and that he feared for his life." He claimed the remaining crew members were preparing to scuttle the boat. In the meantime, a second crewman jumped and was rescued, according to the charges.

After Canada provided permission to board the boat, a team from the Confidence found 358 bundles of suspected cocaine, weighing roughly 880 pounds, hidden behind woodwork. Two of the bundles were later found to contain heroin and methamphetamine, the charges say.

In 2006, Canadian authorities boarded another fishing vessel captained by Stirling in the Strait of Juan de Fuca and found $6.5 million worth of marijuana. Stirling was charged in British Columbia. However, the prosecution was "stayed" — without explanation — and Stirling and his crew went free.

But the 2001 case involving Stirling and another boat, the Western Wind, still sets eyeballs rolling in federal law-enforcement circles.

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Stirling was master of the 88-foot tuna boat, which was stopped by the U.S. Coast Guard entering the Strait of Juan de Fuca off Cape Alava. Under several tons of frozen fish, searchers found nearly 5,000 pounds of cocaine in bags marked as sugar. At the time, it was considered the largest cocaine seizure in Northwest history.

U.S. Customs took Stirling and four crewmen into custody, only to release them to Canada a few days later without official explanation. He was never charged.

Stirling, in an interview with The Seattle Times the following year, admitted he was smuggling the drugs but said he had been caught in a squeeze-play between the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and an international motorcycle gang.

Stirling said the RCMP backed out of a deal to pay him $1 million to set up a drug sting of the motorcycle gang. Stirling said he had been approached about the deal by a biker intermediary he met in prison in the early 1990s while serving time for smuggling drugs.

The bikers helped him buy the Western Wind, he said, but then the RCMP pulled out of the deal. He claimed he was left owing money and drugs to the bikers, and said they would kill him if he did not deliver.

Law-enforcement sources on both sides of the border told a different story.

They said Stirling told the RCMP the deal had gone south — so to speak — and that he had simply gone fishing. However, while at sea, he said, he received a threatening email from the bikers telling him to go to Colombia and get the drugs, or else.

Either way, it was a double-cross, said a retired senior agent with U.S. Customs who was running the investigation onboard the Western Wind that day.

The Canadians refused to provide information about Stirling, citing a law that offers complete and unqualified protection to police informants. Nor would they cooperate with any plan to try to salvage the drug delivery in British Columbia, even though it gave the RCMP a chance to crack the biker bang.

Canadian officials also refused to let armed — or even unarmed — U.S. agents on Canadian soil, the agent said.

"The way things worked is that the Canadians had to protect their informant, even if he went sideways on them," he said. "It was frustrating. We hit several roadblocks. We were in international waters, and a lot could have been done, but it was not."

Calls left with the RCMP media office in Vancouver were not immediately returned.

"All I can say is I hope that nobody is stupid enough to use him in any fashion as an informant," said the agent, who now runs an investigative agency in Gig Harbor.

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Stirling did make overtures, according to the Miami charging documents.

"Stirling waived his right to an attorney, but stated that he would not provide information unless he was going to be released from custody," wrote an FBI Special Agent. "However, when Stirling was notified that an immediate release was not possible, he decided to invoke his right to counsel."

Source: [seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2016739941_drugbust11m.html]Return to Contents

2. INNER UNITED STATES

A. Mexican Meth Operation Busted in Two Central Valley Counties (CA)

Editorial note: please see story 2D for related information.

10 November 2011Crime Voice

FRESNO – A dozen people were arrested in connection to a meth ring that traces back to a notorious drug cartel in Mexico.

The Madera County Sheriff’s Office announced this week that an operation carried on Nov. 4 resulted in 12 arrests and the seizure of large amounts of meth and cash. Authorities say the meth ring has ties to “La Familia,” a violent drug trafficking organization in Mexico that smuggles methamphetamine into the United States.

Nearly 70 agents carried out the police operation, serving five warrants in Madera County and four warrants in Fresno County. Among those arrested were a 36-year-old Hispanic man and his wife, 31. The two suspects, who were arrested in their home, are believed to be the head of the local faction of “La Familia.”

Authorities say that the home, located in a new subdivision in Madera County, served as a supply center to carry out the drug business. Agents found four pounds of meth at the home, and six more pounds of meth in a storage locker.

The Madera County Sheriff said that this operation was “a highly organized syndicate believed to be one of the most violent factions, responsible for money laundering, and trafficking mass quantities of methamphetamine.”

He said that the drugs were not made locally.

“This meth is being imported,” he said, and the trail leads down to Mexico.

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The amount of meth found during the operation is worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, authorities said. Meanwhile, the husband and wife were collecting federal and state public assistance, including financial aid and affordable housing help. The couple has four children ranging in ages from 3 to 13 years old. They are now with Child Protective Services.

Eight other suspects who were part of the drug ring were also arrested. Also arrested during the police operation were two of the drug ring’s customers.

Source: [crimevoice.com/mexican-meth-operation-busted-in-two-central-valley-counties-9494/]Return to Contents

B. Suspected Terrorist Charged in U.S. with Supporting Al-Qaeda (NY/GE)

11 November 2011The Hindu

A 30-year-old Moroccan has been indicted here on charges he helped the al-Qaeda network plot terror attacks.

Abdeladim El-Kebir was charged with conspiring to provide material support, including personnel, training, lethal substances and explosives, to al-Qaeda.

A federal grand jury in Brooklyn returned an indictment against El-Kebir, who was arrested by German law enforcement officials on 29 April 2011, and is currently in custody there.

He was living in Germany illegally after having lived in the country on a student visa.

If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

Moroccan native El-Kebir and two other men arrested in Germany were making a bomb on al-Qaeda’s order that could be used in a crowded place.

According to authorities, El Kebir received training in an al-Qaeda camp near the Afghanistan-Pakistan border after which he returned to Germany to carry out the attack.

Source: [www.thehindu.com/news/international/article2617599.ece]Return to Contents

C. 138 Arrested in Oakland during Multi-Agency Sweep (CA)

10 November 2011KALW News

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A six-day joint operation between Oakland Police and nine other federal and local law enforcement agencies netted 138 arrested, seized 13 guns, two bulletproof vests and $32,000 in cash along with assorted narcotics and a stolen vehicle. Suspects were arrested on outstanding felony warrants including murder, attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon, robbery, and narcotics trafficking, in addition to 14 sex offenders who were found in violation of their conditions of release.

The interim Police Chief announced the conclusion of the sweep, which began on 4 November this morning alongside the U.S. Attorney for Northern California, the Mayor, the City Administrator, the U.S. Marshal, the Alameda County District Attorney and the director of the Northern California High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area.

The law enforcement collaboration was a direct response to the violence Oakland has suffered through this year, with almost 30 percent more murders this year than at this point in 2011. “There are two Oaklands,” said the Mayor. “One is very thriving and very successful, but we also have big pockets of poverty, our 100 toughest blocks,” where much of this six-day operation took place.

Over the better part of last week, more than 100 law enforcement agents from OPD, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms, the U.S. Marshals, the California Highway Patrol, the Drug Enforcement Administration, U.S. Secret Service and the California Department of Corrections & Rehabilitation conducted more than 385 searches throughout the city. One such operation near 8th & Washington Streets in downtown Oakland raised fears in the Occupy Oakland encampment of another police raid – neither the Mayor nor the Chief would comment on plans for a rumored eviction of the camp in the immediate future.

Among the weapons seized were a heavily-modified 12-gauge Mossberg shotgun with a laser sight and a fully-automatic Sten Gun, a World War II-vintage 9mm machine pistol that had been repaired by hand.

The District Attorney said the six-day sweep, which took two months to plan, is the first of a serious of collaborations between Alameda County and federal law enforcement.

“This is just one of many operations where we’re taking individuals off the street,” she said.

Source: [informant.kalwnews.org/2011/11/138-arrested-in-oakland-during-multi-agency-sweep/]Return to Contents

D. Crime Connection between Valley and Mexico (CA)

Editorial note: please see story 2A for related information.

10 November 2011CBS TV47

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In the last week, drugs from Mexico have been found in the valley, tied to a violent Mexican cartel. And weapons purchased here have ended up in Mexico.

Wednesday, Federal authorities announced the arrests of three people tied to a firearms trafficking ring based in Madera. The guns were purchased in Madera and re-sold in Mexico.

It is part of the cycle of guns going to Mexico and drugs and money coming back.

“Virtually all of the heroin, cocaine, and methamphetamine that comes through the Central Valley is controlled by Mexican drug trafficking organizations on both sides of the border,” said the Drug Enforcement Administration.

“The perception that maybe you can get away with something in a smaller community as opposed to one where there is a lot of law enforcement is something that they (the criminals) believe. But both times now they’ve been caught,” said the Madera Sheriff.

Twelve people were arrested in the drug bust.

And three are in custody for the weapons trafficking. And authorities are looking for eight others.

Source: [www.cbs47.tv/mostpopular/story/Crime-Connection-between-Valley-and-Mexico/Qf0sUWOILUeLjVfz-a6C7Q.cspx]Return to Contents

E. Feds: Mexican Cartel Planned Attack against US (IL/MX)

11 November 2011Pantagraph

Federal prosecutors in Chicago say the leaders of a powerful Mexican drug cartel once planned a military-style attack on a U.S. or Mexican government building.

Prosecutors say the cartel members were upset about American law enforcement interfering with their drug business and sought dozens of American-made weapons for an attack in Mexico City.

Prosecutors say a cartel leader said the attack was intended to "send the gringos a message."

The possible targets included government buildings, an embassy or consulate or media outlet.

The plot was allegedly hatched during a 2008 meeting at a mountaintop compound in Mexico.

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Prosecutors described the allegations in documents filed Thursday in the case against Vicente Zambada, who they say is a top lieutenant in the Sinaloa cartel. He is in custody in Chicago awaiting trial.

Source: [www.pantagraph.com/news/state-and-regional/illinois/feds-mexican-cartel-planned-attack-against-us/article_02b7f2ea-efac-54bd-8cd6-3a06bb88076b.html]Return to Contents

3. MEXICO AND SOUTHERN BORDER STATES

A. A Leader of Mexico's Caballeros Templarios Gang Arrested (GTO)

10 November 2011Fox News Latino

Leon – A leader of the Los Caballeros Templarios drug gang was arrested in the central Mexican state of Guanajuato along with nine associates, including three former police officers, prosecutors said.

Samuel Reynoso Garcia, who is suspected of being Los Caballeros Templarios's leader in the state, served as a police officer for 14 years in the neighboring state of Michoacán, Guanajuato Attorney General Carlos Zamarripa Aguirre said.

Reynoso Garcia, who went by the alias Inocencio Carranza Reynoso, was arrested by police on Monday in the city of Celaya, Zamarripa said.

The suspect's cell, which controlled street sales of drugs in the area, is suspected of being behind at least 15 murders, the attack in June on police in Celaya that left an officer and two civilians dead, and numerous kidnappings and extortion rackets, the AG said.

The gang received assistance from Celaya officials, including police officers and land registry employees, who provided information about victims' assets, Zamarripa said.

The suspects carried out kidnappings, ran extortion rackets and committed murders in Celaya and nearby cities, targeting business owners, professionals and transport company operators, among others, the AG said.

A list of more than 500 people who assisted the gang was found at one of the 15 safe houses raided by authorities, Zamarripa said.

The gang documented all of its activities, keeping detailed records on the people it tortured and beheaded, the AG said.

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"We were able to secure the files, both physical and electronic, on all the criminal organization's members, including the resumes of each one, the organization chart, communications codes, a log of their activities (and) a description of each member's daily activities," Zamarripa said.

The suspects revealed important information to investigators that will allow authorities to dismantle the gang in Michoacán, the AG said.

"Samuel Reynoso Garcia revealed that he played soccer last weekend in Michoacán with Servando Gomez Martinez, alias 'La Tuta,' founder of Los Caballeros Templarios," Zamarripa said.

Police found 250,000 pesos ($18,385) in cash, marijuana, 460 doses of cocaine, 72 doses of crack cocaine and 10 vehicles at the safe houses, the AG said.

Jorge Gallardo, Carlos Ricardo Lara and Arturo Rodriguez, all former police officers, were arrested along with Reynoso Garcia.

The other suspects detained in the operation were identified as Cuautli Gonzalez, Juan Edgar Valdez, Martin Ivan Valdez, Miriam Isabel Torres, Horacio Francisco Guerrero and Miguel Angel Medina.

Los Caballeros Templarios was created by former members of the La Familia Michoacana drug cartel.

La Familia has been badly weakened by the arrests and killings of several of its top leaders, and the creation of Los Caballeros Templarios.

The cartel began unraveling after top boss Nazario Moreno's death in a shootout with the Federal Police in December 2010, officials and analysts say.

Servando Gomez Martinez shares the leadership of Los Caballeros Templarios with Enrique Plancarte.

The La Familia faction led by Jesus Mendez, who was arrested in June, has been fighting the group led by Gomez and Plancarte, who formed Los Caballeros Templarios in March.

Source: [latino.foxnews.com/latino/news/2011/11/10/leader-mexicos-caballeros-templarios-gang-arrested/]Return to Contents

B. Zetas Cartel Paymaster Arrested in Northern Mexico (NL)

11 November 2011Latin American Herald Tribune

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MEXICO CITY – Five suspected Los Zetas cartel members, including a man who allegedly served as the criminal organization’s paymaster in about 20 cities in the northern Mexican state of Nuevo Leon, were arrested by marines, the Navy Secretariat said Thursday.

Marines received a tip about the “suspicious movements of armed people” in the Hacienda Las Palmas section of the city of Escobedo, the secretariat said.

An armed man got out of a vehicle parked outside a house, spotted the marines and tried to hide in the dwelling.

The marines went after the subject and arrested several individuals, the secretariat said.

Juan Carlos Morales Magallanes, suspected of being a Los Zetas financial operator, Karla Viridiana Santos Mar, Monica Maribel Parra Mendoza, Jose Refugio Lopez Reyna and Luis Enrique de la Garza Lopez were detained by the marines.

The 26-year-old Morales Magallanes is an accountant who “was in charge of preparing and disbursing the criminal organization’s payroll, mainly in the metropolitan area of Monterrey,” the capital of Nuevo Leon and Mexico’s largest industrial city, the secretariat said.

Morales Magallanes was in charge of the payroll for Zetas members in the cities of Cienega de Flores, China, Santiago, Monterrey, Villa Garcia, General Escobedo, Allende, Marin, Apodaca and Montemorelos, among others, the secretariat said, citing military intelligence reports.

The 28-year-old Santos Mar was apparently responsible for renting buildings for the cartel, acquiring vehicles, paying for services and working on the payrolls for Nuevo Leon.

Marines seized a handgun, two rifles, three fragmentation grenades, nine ammunition clips, 249 rounds of ammunition, a silencer, 249 doses of cocaine, two vehicles, 2.06 million pesos (about $152,600) and $2,000 in cash.

The suspects were handed over to the Attorney General’s Office for prosecution.

Los Zetas, considered Mexico’s most violent drug cartel, mainly operates in Tamaulipas, Nuevo Leon, Coahuila and San Luis Potosi states.

Los Zetas has been battling an alliance of the Gulf, Sinaloa and La Familia drug cartels, known as the Nueva Federacion, for control of the Monterrey metropolitan area and smuggling routes into the United States.

Heriberto Lazcano Lazcano, known as “El Lazca,” deserted from the Mexican army in 1999 and formed Los Zetas with three other soldiers, all members of an elite special operations unit, becoming the armed wing of the Gulf drug cartel.

After several years on the payroll of the Gulf cartel, Los Zetas went into the drug business on their own account and now control several lucrative territories. EFE

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Source: [www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=442228&CategoryId=14091]Return to Contents

C. Mexico Detains a Top Operator of Sinaloa Cartel (SIN)

10 November 2011Google / Associated Press

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexican soldiers detained a top operator for the powerful Sinaloa drug cartel, a man for whom the U.S. government had offered a reward of up to $5 million, the army said Thursday.

Suspect Ovidio Limon Sanchez is one of the most-wanted U.S. drug fugitives in Mexico, sought "for importing and distributing hundreds of tons of cocaine into the United States within the last two decades," according to a U.S. State Department notice announcing the reward.

An army spokesman, Col. Ricardo Trevilla, described Limon Sanchez as "one of the most important operators" for the Sinaloa cartel. The gang, headed by Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, is considered Mexico's most powerful trafficking organization.

Trevilla said Limon Sanchez was detained without a shot being fired in a carefully planned raid Wednesday in the city of Culiacan, the capital of Sinaloa state, which has long been considered the cradle of Mexican drug trafficking.

The stocky, unblinking Limon Sanchez, 48, was paraded before journalists in handcuffs, with masked soldiers standing on either side of him.

Limon Sanchez's detention "significantly affects the Guzman Loera criminal organization and its capacity to ship and traffic cocaine," Trevilla said.

He said Mexico detained Limon Sanchez on a U.S. extradition request and he had been turned over to civilian prosecutors.

Extradition can often be a lengthy legal process lasting years in Mexico because of appeals.

Trevilla described Limon Sanchez as a sort of all-purpose cocaine shipper based in Culiacan, who bought cocaine, shipped it through Mexico for distribution in California in the Los Angeles area.

The State Department reward notice said Limon Sanchez "organizes, manages, and distributes multi-ton quantities of cocaine from Mexico into his distribution hubs located in southern California; from there his drug trafficking organization distributes cocaine throughout the United States."

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"The Limon-Sanchez trafficking organization is also responsible for transporting millions of dollars of drug proceeds in bulk currency from the United States into Mexico," it states.

The notice said he faces an indictment issued in the Central District of California in 2009.

Source: [www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gdRwPURof2hTV9-H5cVLJf8w5WsA?docId=2735b1f68512407288a02fbdad06f879]Return to Contents

D. University Researcher Gunned Down in Central Mexico (MOR)


Mexico City – A National Autonomous University of Mexico, or UNAM, biotechnology researcher was gunned down in Cuernavaca, a city in central Mexico, the university said.

Ernesto Mendez Salinas was a "victim of the climate of violence and social erosion" that the country is experiencing, the university said.

The 51-year-old Biotechnology Institute researcher was murdered on Tuesday night, the UNAM, Mexico's leading university and one of the most prestigious higher education institutions in Latin America, said.

Mendez Salinas, a member of the Mexican National Researchers System, was attacked while driving in Cuernavaca, the capital of Morelos state.

The researcher, who had earned chemistry, pharmacy and biology degrees, had studied at Washington University, in St. Louis, Missouri.

The UNAM called on the "authorities to conduct an investigation to punish the individual or individuals responsible, and to offer results as soon as possible."

Mexico has been dealing with a wave of violence since December 2006, when President Felipe Calderon declared war on the country's drug cartels.

On Aug. 8, the UNAM, Latin America's largest university, released a report calling for a broad political and social pact to deal with the violence plaguing Mexico.

The 36-point report, "Elementos para la construccion de una politica de Estado para la seguridad y la justicia en democracia" (Elements for the Creation of a State Policy for Security and Justice with Democracy), was prepared by 88 experts who met in June at the UNAM.

The report calls for, among other measures, "crafting a broad political and social pact that reorients security and justice institutions to deal with the crisis of violence," the university said.

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The government, however, has not adopted the report's recommendations or those of other sectors of society that have criticized the militarization of the war on drugs.

Source: [latino.foxnews.com/latino/news/2011/11/10/university-researcher-gunned-down-in-central-mexico/]Return to Contents

E. Mexican Army Arrests Top Tijuana Cartel Lieutenant (BC)

7 November 2011CNN US

Authorities have arrested a top lieutenant of the Arellano Felix cartel, the Mexican defense ministry announced Monday.

Juan Francisco Sillas Rocha, 34, "is considered one of the most violent subjects responsible for countless killings," defense ministry spokesman Col. Ricardo Trevilla Trejo told reporters.

Sillas, also known as "The Wheel," has been one of the key lieutenants in a brutal turf war over drug-trafficking territory with the Sinaloa Cartel, the defense ministry said in a statement.

Last year he ordered the kidnapping of three women who were related to one of the rival cartel's leaders, the defense ministry said.

Authorities arrested him in Tijuana Saturday. They presented him to the media Monday.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Organization has said the Tijuana-based Arellano Felix Organization, also known as the Tijuana Cartel, is "known for its violence and ruthlessness."

Source: [articles.cnn.com/2011-11-07/americas/world_americas_mexico-cartel-arrest_1_arellano-felix-cartel-sinaloa-cartel-tijuana-cartel?_s=PM:AMERICAS]Return to Contents

F. Would-Be Killeen Bomber Gets Additional, Harsher Charges (TX)

11 November 2011GSN Magazine

The 21-year-old man who was arrested in July for plotting an explosives attack on a restaurant near the U.S. Army base in Killeen, TX, was slapped with additional charges that could net him a prison term of more than 100 years.

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Federal prosecutors in Texas said on 8 Nov. that a federal grand jury in Waco had indicted the soldier on new charges in connection with the July plot.

He was charged with one count of attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction; one count of attempted murder of officers or employees of the United States, two counts of possession of a firearm in furtherance of a federal crime of violence; and two counts of possession of a destructive device in furtherance of a federal crime of violence, said prosecutors.

The six-count indictment alleges that on 27 July 2011, he planned to make and detonate a bomb to kill military personnel at an unspecified restaurant and shoot any survivors of the blast. He is also alleged to have had a .40 caliber semi-automatic handgun to use in the aftermath of the explosion.

At the time of his arrest last July, he was absent without leave (AWOL) soldier from Fort Campbell, KY, had a gun and instructions on how to build a bomb and bomb-components, said the FBI. Court documents also allege that he intended to detonate the destructive device inside the restaurant, which was a favorite of soldiers from Fort Hood. The soldier was nabbed after he tried to buy bulk black powder in the same Killeen gun store where another Army Major had bought the gun he used in a bloody attack on Fort Hood in 2009.

The soldier was initially indicted last August on possession of a destructive device and unregistered weapons charges. While those charges remain in effect, prosecutors said they would make their case on the new counts.

He remains in federal custody and if prosecutors are successful, he could face up to life in a federal prison on the WMD charges; up to 20 years on the attempted murder charges; a mandatory 30 years for each destructive device charge and a mandatory five year term on the firearms charges, according to the FBI.

Source: [www.gsnmagazine.com/node/24964?c=military_force_protection]Return to Contents

G. Calif. Budget Cuts Threaten To Cut Elite Special Agent Units (CA)

10 November 2011KABC News

RIVERSIDE, Calif. (KABC) -- From drug kingpins to serial killers and sexual predators, California's secret crime-fighting special agents go after the worst of the worst.

Some of the elite agents even protected the then-Attorney General, now-Governor after a drug cartel threatened to kill him. So why are these agents now being pulled off our streets?

. . . .

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But cuts to California's state budget are eliminating two elite, statewide law enforcement bureaus: 171 special agents are about to be laid off.

But it's their fight against Mexican drug cartels that worries these agents the most.

So why are these special agents being laid off?

"We're dumbfounded. It makes no sense at all, it doesn't affect the state budget," said the president of the Association of Special Agents.

California's final budget made $71 million in what is known as "allocated cuts" to the state's Department of Justice.

That means these two bureaus, these particular agents, get the ax.

"This is unprecedented," said the director of Division of Law Enforcement, state Dept. of Justice. "I believe it is a threat to public safety.

"I believe the attorney general should be able to allocate funding within her own department," said the director.

But that is not the way the state legislature and the Governor crafted the cuts.

"They opted to specifically target us. And by the way, no other state enforcement agency was cut," said the agent.

Some suspect the cuts are political payback by the governor because the agents' two unions did not endorse him in the race for governor.

Eyewitness News caught up with him Thursday.

"I don't understand this 'allocated cuts' business," said the governor.

He wouldn't answer questions about possible political payback, but seemed to signal there may be room for compromise.

"Someone will have to show that to me, because within a budget there's always flexibility to move things around," he said.

The governor was the state attorney general in 2009 when he announced a take-down of the Sinaloa drug cartel.

"A tremendous body blow to the Sinaloa cartel," he said at the time.

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"That was my operation, I was the undercover officer that infiltrated the Sinaloan drug cartel, befriended them," said an undercover agent.

Eyewitness News has confirmed the Sinaloa drug cartel put a hit out on the man who is now governor soon after that bust.

And it was agents from the now-gutted Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement that then protected him around the clock.

Source: [abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/state&id=8427903]Return to Contents

H. Mexican Democracy Tested by Drug Lords in Politics (MICH)

11 November 2011Crescent News

MORELIA, Mexico (AP) -- Three major political parties are campaigning in the Mexican president's home state, but it is the groups that are not on Sunday's ballot that have everyone worried: the drug cartels.

In hilly, rural Michoacán, a state known for its avocados, marijuana and meth, the mobsters are putting Mexico's halting democracy to a test, using violence and bribes to influence elections for governor, the legislature and all 113 mayors.

While many other Mexican states have been penetrated by narco-politics, nowhere is that influence as overt as in Michoacán, where the electoral season so far has featured the kidnapping of nine pollsters, the gunning down of a mayor, and the withdrawal of at least a dozen candidates frightened off the campaign trail by organized crime.

"Organized crime is getting involved in discouraging candidates, to force (elections) with only one candidate," said Fausto Vallejo, gubernatorial candidate for the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI. "And that is happening not only to the PRI, but in all the three political parties."

The stakes in Sunday's vote are heightened by the fact that President Felipe Calderon is from Michoacán, and made his home state the launch pad for his war against the drug cartels five years ago. His sister, Luisa Maria "Cocoa" Calderon, is running for governor and pledges to deepen her brother's offensive.

She is running for Calderon's conservative National Action Party, and is leading in most polls on what is seen as a highly symbolic race, the last state election before the presidential ballot next July.

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So far, the reigning Knights Templar cartel, along with the remnants of the La Familia cartel, have threatened candidates, run for office themselves, and sponsored protests, sometimes paying residents in return for their loyalty.

The PRI, which ruled Mexico for 71 years until it was unseated in 2000, is running an energetic campaign to reclaim the presidency next year, and a victory in Michoacán would be a huge boost. Calderon accuses the PRI of promising to make deals with drug cartels in exchange for peace.

Accusations that some candidates are cartel members in disguise have prompted many candidates to ask federal prosecutors for letters stating there are no criminal charges or investigations against them - a sort of 'proof of purity' letter now in fashion.

Michoacán both produces drugs and is a key trafficking route, and the cartels have focused much of their attention on mayoral offices, notes political analyst Raymundo Riva Palacio.

The traffickers "have understood that it costs less, and guarantees them more, to control local politics and local police," he said.

Given the cartels' power, it is hard to see why anyone would risk being a mayor in Michoacán.

When the mayor of Apatzingan was pressed by local media about a string of kidnappings in his town, he practically broke down.

"I want to go away, I want to resign this job, because I wasn't made for this. I can't even ensure the safety of my own children, who are also in danger," Mayor Genaro Guizar said in an emotional interview with the Milenio television station.

On Nov. 2, Ricardo Guzman, mayor of La Piedad, was gunned down outside a fast-food restaurant while handing out fliers for Luisa Maria Calderon, the gubernatorial front-runner. Four candidates for local posts immediately asked for increased protection.

Those who knew him say Guzman resisted the cartels and paid a price for it. In March, gunmen killed La Piedad police Chief Jose Luis Guerrero, just a couple of months after he took the job.

His successor, Miguel Angel Rosas Perez, was recruited from the better trained federal police, but he too came under attack, when more than 40 men drove to his police station in a 10-vehicle convoy in July, sprayed it with hundreds of rounds of gunfire and then lobbed grenades at it. Rosas Perez survived.

Protected only by underpaid, poorly armed local police, mayors make easy targets. Nationwide, 25 have been killed in the past five years.

German Tena, leader of the National Action party in Michoacán, says six of his party's candidates have dropped out of mayoral races.

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"In those six, there were some threats, warnings not to run, and in others, fear ... . In all six cases there was fear of drug cartels," Tena said. "The criminals are supporting PRI candidates. In some towns and cities they are protecting them, supporting them, and inhibiting our candidates and those of the PRD," the leftist Democratic Revolution Party which currently holds the governorship of Michoacán.

The PRD has seen two mayoral candidates drop out. "They resigned for personal and health situations, but of course there is a version that it could have been because of pressure from these organized crime groups," said the party's state leader, Victor Baez.

The PRI denies its candidates are the favorites of drug cartels, and Vallejo, the party's candidate for governor, says all the PRI state and municipal candidates hold new 'proof of purity' letters.

But such letters are no guarantee of anything. Saul Solis, a former police chief in Michoacán, had one when he ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 2009 as a Green Party candidate despite being an alleged cartel lieutenant. Solis is now under arrest, accused of various attacks, one of which killed an officer and four soldiers.

Julio Cesar Godoy Toscano of Michoacán was elected to Congress in 2009, only to turn fugitive after being charged with aiding drug trafficking and money laundering.

Federal efforts to arrest narco-politicians here in the past have been an embarrassing failure. In 2009, prosecutors ordered the arrest of 12 Michoacán mayors and 23 other state and local officials on allegations that they had protected the La Familia cartel. But by April, every one of them had been acquitted. Prosecutors filed a complaint against one judge for improperly acquitting the officials, but mayors say the charges were weak and often based on a single informant.

Average citizens do not see the federal government making much headway in Michoacán. "Safer? Every day we feel less safe, but we cannot even talk about it, because they are always listening," said a mechanic named Josue sitting at a small restaurant in Maravatio, a farming town. Josue asked his last not be used for fear of reprisals.

The remote mountain town of Arteaga is the hometown of Servando Gomez, alias "La Tuta," founder of the Knights Templar cartel, a pseudo-religious drug gang known as a major trafficker of methamphetamine. But residents here know Gomez as a former grade-school teacher and a humble man who is said to have helped people pay their medical bills.

Vallejo, the PRI candidate, says Michoacán cartels try to win over residents by casting themselves "in the social angle, like Robin Hood."

"Sometimes they will punish a guy who beats his wife," Vallejo said. "They'll tell the money lender, even 'you're charging too much, it's not fair what you're charging. And you, lime grower, pay your workers better.'"

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In places like Apatzingan the cartel is so strong it has rallied hundreds of supporters to demand the withdrawal of federal police, ostensibly for abusing townspeople with unjustified shootings and searches. Some marchers painted "Templars 100 percent" on their clothing.

Gen. Manuel Garcia, Michoacán’s public safety secretary, said the cartels paid people to protest. Their control, he said, "is by money, or fear, or both."

Source: [www.crescent-news.com/ap%20international/2011/11/11/mexican-democracy-tested-by-drug-lords-in-politics]Return to Contents

I. Official Says Shootout Revealed Communication Issues (TX)

10 November 2011KRGV News

STARR COUNTY - Starr County sheriff deputies are finished investigating a Mexican national found after a shootout on the Rio Grande.

Deputies say they turned the investigation over to Border Patrol because the only crime the man committed was crossing illegally into the United States.

Border Patrol reported smugglers on Tuesday. More than a hundred officers from four different departments responded. Starr County sheriff's deputies led the investigation. One deputy says it can be difficult to keep track of that many officers. Officers came from all over, Department of Public Safety, Border Patrol, Mission police and Starr County.

“Sometimes you are bumping into each other, but it's always good to see fellow officers that got your back,” says the Starr County sheriff’s Deputy.

He says talking to those officers is the hard part. Responding departments usually get their information from the radio.

“You're going to have radio coverage, people talking over each other, messages not going through,” he says.

Officers are not the only ones listening to the scanner. Smugglers are known to track law enforcement plans on the radio waves.

“More and more often officers are using their cell phones to transmit information,” he says.

A hundred officers cannot dial their phones at once. It is easy to lose contact with other departments; some officers find themselves in strange areas with no sense of direction. Tuesday’s call led them into miles of thick brush and unknown territory.

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“The majority of our calls that come through our dispatch don't have cross streets or don't have a labeled number on the residence, so it's much more difficult to locate that area,” says Rios.

Officers will set up a command center to organize if there is time. Smugglers do not usually wait. It is not clear who shot the Mexican national. It is another example of violence on our border.

Source: [www.krgv.com/news/local/story/Official-Says-Shootout-Revealed-Communication/-PUsV9QKcU2CNEU-OAIGRw.cspx]Return to Contents

J. Mexican Legislators: Punish Those Who Glorify Drugs, Violence (DF)


MEXICO CITY – Mexican lawmakers want to punish those who promote violence and drug trafficking in films, on the radio, on television and over the Internet, including composers of the “narcocorridos,” or ballads, that praise drug traffickers, with prison time, Congressman Oscar Arce told EFE.

The goal is to punish those convicted of glorifying the illegal drug trade with up to four-and-a-half years in prison, Arce, who is sponsoring the legislation, said.

The current punishment for a conviction is just a fine.

The Federal Criminal Code and the Federal Criminal Procedure Code will have to be overhauled to add prison time to the offense, Arce, a member of the conservative governing National Action Party, or PAN, said.

Praising drug trafficking leads people to become involved or indirectly approve of the criminal activity, the congressman said.

Those who publicly incite others to commit a crime would be punished with prison terms of one to three years, with the term rising to four-and-a-half years if a crime is actually committed, Arce said.

The bill cites the increased air time given to ballads about drug lords, messages from drug cartels left alongside victims’ bodies and the posting of violent videos on Web sites.

A provision introduced by Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, Congressman Armando Corona would prohibit the publication of images of murdered, mutilated or bloodied people to avoid helping criminals terrorize society.

The provision “does not seek to limit freedom of expression but to make the contents of the Law on Publishing Crimes more clear,” the lawmaker said. EFE

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K. Campaigning Ends Ahead of Election in Violent Mexican State (MICH)


Morelia – The gubernatorial candidates in the western state of Michoacán have wrapped up their campaigns ahead of Sunday's election in one of Mexico's most violent regions.

Luisa Maria Calderon, the sister of President Felipe Calderon, Silvano Aureoles, of the leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution, or PRD, and Fausto Vallejo, of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, are vying for the governorship.

A total of 133 mayoralties and state legislative seats are also up for grabs in the election.

The three gubernatorial candidates concluded their campaigns Wednesday in the wake of the murder of La Piedad Mayor Ricardo Guzman Romero and the withdrawal of several candidates from mayoral and legislative races due to the drug-related violence in the state.

Michoacán has been the scene of a turf war between the La Familia Michoacana and Los Caballeros Templarios drug cartels.

Calderon, known as "Cocoa" and the candidate of her brother's conservative National Action Party, or PAN, and the New Alliance Party, or PANAL, spent her last day on the campaign trail in La Piedad, where her fellow party member was gunned down last week.

"On Sunday, our votes will break the silence and fear, they will let us live safely and with certainty," Calderon, who several polls indicate is the favorite, said in a posting on social-networking sites.

The leftist alliance formed by the PRD, Convergencia and the Workers Party is trying to keep Aureoles in power, accusing Calderon, a psychologist, of using federal funds in her campaign.

Michoacán has been a PRD stronghold since 2002, when Lazaro Cardenas Batel, the son of former presidential candidate Cuauhtemoc Cardenas, won the governorship.

Vallejo, mayor of Morelia, the state, is trying to win Michoacán for the PRI and continue the party's streak of victories ahead of the 2012 presidential elections.

Michoacán, located on the Pacific coast, is used by drug cartels to smuggle drugs from South America into Mexico.

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The drugs are then moved via the Pacific corridor or through central Mexico into the United States, the world's largest consumer of illegal drugs.

Michoacán has been experiencing a wave of drug-related violence blamed on the break-up of La Familia, which was considered one of Mexico's most powerful drug cartels.

La Familia has been severely weakened in recent months by infighting and government operations targeting the gang.

The cartel began unraveling after the death of one of its top bosses, Nazario Moreno, last year, officials and analysts say.

Moreno, known as "El Chayo" and considered La Familia's ideological leader, was killed in a shootout with the Federal Police in December 2010.

The La Familia faction led by Jesus Mendez, who was arrested in June, has been fighting the group led by Servando Gomez and Enrique Plancarte, who formed the Los Caballeros Templarios cartel in March.

Michoacán was the first state where President Calderon deployed federal security forces shortly after taking office in December 2006 and declaring war on Mexico's drug cartels.

Source: [latino.foxnews.com/latino/politics/2011/11/10/campaigning-ends-ahead-election-in-violent-mexican-state/]Return to Contents

L. Battle for the Border: Cartel Insider Speaks (TX)


WESLACO - Cartels only care about getting their product from Mexico into the U.S. One cartel member tells CHANNEL 5 NEWS they will not let anything stop them, even if it means torturing people.

"I've never killed," the man tell us. "I've seen how they do it. They kill anybody."

He wants out of the cartel, but death is almost always the only way out. He's telling his story from the shadows.

"They never let you move up. You are just working, working, working, and that's it," he describes. The man tells CHANNEL 5 NEWS the cartel bosses make the big bucks, and everyone else makes next to nothing. He says it's a hard way to live.

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He tells us he got into the cartel as a child living in the Rio Grande Valley. He was lured by the promise of living the high life. The promises never paid off. He says he spent the last few years living his idea of hell.

"I heard from a guy who used to work there. He was a Zeta and he was drugged up day and night. He wouldn't sleep. They don't sleep," he says. "I saw them. They take newly-born babies. They put them in a stew, and they eat them."

He says these unimaginable acts of cruelty are meant to inflict control. CHANNEL 5 NEWS can't verify what he tells us, but we have heard other first-hand accounts just like this.

"The Zetas were causing a lot of damage," he says.

Common enemies make strange bedfellows. The man tells CHANNEL 5 NEWS the Gulf Cartel and La Familia teamed up to try to wipe out the Zetas a few years ago.

All three are fighting for the money-making drug routes into the United States. They are willing to spend the dollars to buy their way through the bridges and the waters. He says the price is never too high to buy a Mexican military member.

"Four thousand dollars to $5,000 a week, everybody on the bridge makes that," he says, "Every week 600 or 700 kilos of drugs cross the river. Daily, it was 200-300 kilos."

He says the drug lords own the pilots of the Mexican Military choppers too. He says the incursions we have seen into the U.S. are not innocent mistakes.

"They're coming to drop off merchandise," he says.

Military divisions not on the cartel's payrolls are on their watch list.

"Wherever they come, they are being followed every movement they make," he says.

The man tells CHANNEL 5 NEWS the corruption is not confined to Mexico.

"In some parts, Border Patrol sees. In some parts, they do not. In some parts, you are looking at them. But in most parts, I've heard and I've seen, we pass right in front of their eyes. They let it go through. They are also paid $20,000 every three to four days," he says.

A recently-released Texas Border Security report says two South Texas sheriffs and 70 Customs and Border Patrol agents and officers were convicted for cartel-related corruption.

The cartel member tells CHANNEL 5 NEWS even without corrupt U.S. law enforcement, the cartels are doing business on the U.S. side.

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"They have a lot of money coming here. There is millions, same with the firearms. Somebody thinks they're untouchable, because you're on this side. You're wrong. They'll knock you out," he says.

The man claims the cartels are paying bank presidents in the U.S. to launder money. Business owners are not given a choice. The hitmen move in if you do not cooperate.

He does not think he has a choice either. The life that sounded sexy and rich is now his black hole of endless evil.

Source: [www.krgv.com/news/local/story/Battle-for-the-Border-Cartel-Insider-Speaks/a7-XIsTz4kStk26eYJKSIg.cspx]Return to Contents

M. Battle for the Border: Cartel Safe Zones (TX)


AUSTIN - Two retired generals say the cartels are building safe zones along the Texas-Mexico border. They are going to operate on whichever side offers the best security. The more the Mexican government cracks down, the more the cartel will need to operate out of the Rio Grande Valley.

The retired generals say the cartels have a clear plan to build a sanctuary zone one county deep inside the state of Texas. They want safe spots in every Texas border county where they can control operations.

The retired General says the plan is "to use Texas as a launch point into the heartland of America for their distribution of drugs."

He says cartels need our territory because of the crackdown south of the border.

"The foot soldiers - we have learned through our research - are criminal gangs, many in Texas prisons, that are essentially throwaway material," he says.

The Texas Department of Public Safety Director thinks this is more than tough talk.

"You look at it from a military standpoint. What you're talking about is a military front," he says, "You cannot have six of the seven Mexican cartels that have butchered over 40,000 people living in Texas and operating command and control networks in border counties, and leveraging the Barrio of Azteca, Mexican Mafia, Texas Syndicate, on both sides of the border and death squads moving back and forth and everything be safe."

26

The gangs here in Texas are referred to as trans-national. They form in our state and federal prisons but cooperate with the cartels in Mexico.

"I'm quite confident that enough people, if you call it like this is, they'll be action down the road," he says.

People like the director and the generals stand by their claims that certain areas of the border are under cartel control.

"It's going to get worse in the coming years," says the retired General.

The generals wrote in their military analysis, "In a curious twist of irony, the more successful the Mexican military becomes in confronting the cartels, the greater likelihood that the cartels will take the active fight into Texas, as they compete against each other in the battle to control distribution territories and corridors."

A Texas Congressman believes his fellow federal lawmakers are in deep denial.

"Well the idea that these cartels have bought up ranches on the other side of the border, so they can easily pass because they own the property. That's what they do," he says.

They're worried the situation will get worse without federal help. So far, the feds have ignored calls for backup on the border.

The Texas Legislature called for the military report. The Texas Department of Agriculture and Department of Public Safety commissioned the study.

The generals claim their analysis is non-partisan.

Source: [www.krgv.com/news/local/story/Battle-for-the-Border-Cartel-Safe-Zones/mC7t-YCLzkqh1wVexgJTJg.cspx]Return to Contents

4. CARRIBEAN, CENTRAL, AND SOUTH AMERICA

A. Brazilian Cops Nab Rio’s Most Wanted Drug Kingpin (BR)


RIO DE JANEIRO – Antonio Bonfim Lopes, reputed boss of the drug gang that controls the sprawling Rio slum of Rocinha, was arrested by Brazilian police in the wee hours of Thursday.

Lopes, known as “Nem,” was taken to prison in an armored vehicle and streets were closed to traffic as the police convoy made its way through Brazil’s second-largest city.

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“It is a victory for everyone,” the commander of the Rio de Janeiro state police, Col. Erir Ribeiro Costa Filho, said of the arrest, while state Gov. Sergio Cabral announced that security forces will move into Rocinha on Sunday to re-establish the rule of law.

Lopes was apprehended after a car carrying two of his men was stopped at a police checkpoint in Lagoa, an affluent area neighboring Rocinha.

Claiming to be employees of the Congolese Consulate in Rio, the two men invoked diplomatic immunity and refused to allow a search of the vehicle, Costa Filho said.

Cops then escorted the car to the regional headquarters of the Federal Police, where the men’s story was checked and found to be false.

Police searched the car and discovered Lopes hiding in the trunk.

Lopes and his men offered the police up to 1 million reais ($571,000) to release them, Costa Filho said.

“The detainee arrived at police headquarters apparently calm and aware of his situation,” Victor Poubel of the Federal Police told a press conference. “Later, he called his mother to tell her he had been arrested and asked that his children be taken to school today.”

Authorities started preparing days ago for the planned occupation of Rocinha, a “favela” of some 70,000 people perched on hilltops amid several upscale neighborhoods.

As the siege tightened, five suspected drug dealers and an equal number of retired and active-duty police thought to be working for the traffickers were arrested as they tried to flee Rocinha.

Security forces have driven drug gangs out of a score of Rio favalas since late 2008 as part of a strategy that calls for the permanent stationing of large police units in the reclaimed areas.

In each case, the occupation has been preceded by raids to arrest dealers and seize drugs and guns, a measure aimed at averting deadly shootouts when the main body of the police arrive.

With Rio de Janeiro set to serve as a venue for the 2014 soccer World Cup and to host the 2016 Olympics, Brazilian authorities are anxious to end the drug gangs’ dominance in the favelas and bring crime under control. EFE


B. DEA Commando Teams Deployed in Central America (DR/GT/BZ/HN)

11 November 2011 00:01InSight Crime

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In an effort to increase its capacity to crack down on Latin American drug syndicates, the U.S. government has set up a handful of DEA commando teams to carry out attacks across Central America and the Caribbean.

As The New York Times reported earlier this week, the so-called FAST teams, which is short for Foreign-deployed Advisory Support Team, were initially established in 2008 to go after drug traffickers in Afghanistan, but have since been deployed much closer to home.

“The DEA [Drug Enforcement Administration] now has five commando-style squads it has been quietly deploying for the past several years to Western Hemisphere nations — including Haiti, Honduras, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, and Belize — that are battling drug cartels, according to documents and interviews with law enforcement officials,” the newspaper writes.

The role of the groups, which each number ten agents, is not one of passive observation. As the Times reports, one of the FAST teams participated in a recent gunfight in Honduras in which two alleged drug traffickers were killed, and one Honduran security official was wounded.

The U.S. government has long played a direct, though covert, role in combating drug traffickers in their home countries, and the FAST teams are in many ways the heir to that tradition.

As the author documented in his book Killing Pablo, soldiers with the U.S. Army were instrumental in the effort to track down and ultimately kill Pablo Escobar, the erstwhile head of Colombia’s Medellin Cartel and considered by many to be the most powerful drug trafficker in history. More recently, the DEA played a significant role in the tracking of Mexican boss Arturo Beltran Leyva, who was killed in a shootout with Mexican marines in December 2009. Additionally, a program similar to FAST was used in Peru and Bolivia in the 1980s.

Despite the long history of similar efforts, the deployment of the FAST teams is not without its risks. One is that of a nationalist backlash. While the nations mentioned may not be as automatically suspicious of American designs as Mexico, reports of U.S. agents running around the country are likely to inspire resentment, especially if there is any collateral damage.

U.S. security agencies also have a long history of abuse in Central America. The U.S. military was instrumental in training the death squads that terrorized much of the isthmus during the 1980s, but the widespread ill repute of the gringo empire extends back far longer; American troops carried out scores of occupations of different Central American nations during the 20th century. In one of the more recently disclosed examples of American misconduct, government scientists infected more than 700 Guatemalans with syphilis during the 1940s. The lingering cloud of such a history could make local populations more suspicious of the FAST teams.

Since the FAST teams are also carrying out a training function, it is worth asking what kind of vetting process will accompany the enhanced skills imparted to the local agents. In the past, U.S.-trained units in Mexico and elsewhere have subsequently deserted so as to work for illegal gangs. The Times report offers no indication of any defections, but nor does it say that there have

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not been any such incidents. Furthermore, the program has only been in place for three years, so this is a problem that could emerge well into the future.

It is also not clear that the FAST teams represent a significant attempt to address the deeper defects in state function that allow the drug trade to flourish in Central America. While the ability to track a wanted trafficker or win a firefight against superior numbers is both exciting and useful, these are ultimately insignificant compared to the larger obstacles, such as an inefficient trial system, a dysfunctional prison network, a weak labor market, and paltry tax collection. The FAST teams’ training could play a role in creating marginally more capable local security forces, but even in a best-case scenario, with such small teams, the overall impact would be negligible.

Finally, as analysts have pointed out, the lack of openness of the FAST program continues an unfortunate pattern. Time and again in recent years, official schemes to crack down on organized crime have been initiated in a veil of secrecy that is eventually breached, leaving everyone involved with egg on their face. Sometimes, the plan itself is not so horribly conceived--the U.S. drone flights over Mexican territory, which were made public earlier this year, is a good example of that. In other cases, such as the ongoing Fast and Furious scandal, the programs were ill-planned, and the secrecy allowed a poor idea to become a reality.

But in all of the cases, the fallout is worse because the governments initially tried to keep them secret. A bit of secrecy is certainly required in counter-drug operations, but too often, the clandestine nature of a given program stems more from habit than necessity.

Source: [insightcrime.org/insight-latest-news/item/1831-dea-commando-teams-deployed-in-central-america]Return to Contents

C. With Lorenzana Arrest, Guatemala Raises Game against Old-School Traffickers (GT)

9 November 2011 InSight Crime

Guatemala has now captured more top-level drug traffickers in the past two years than in the previous decade, no doubt thanks to pressure from the U.S., with the latest arrest being a member of the Lorenzana crime family.

On November 8, police announced the arrest of Elio Lorenzana, the youngest son of the Lorenzana clan. A network of contraband-runners and drug traffickers, the Lorenzanas are among Guatemala's most influential families, deeply involved in both legitimate and illegitimate businesses.

Like his father Waldemar, arrested in April, Elio Lorenzana was detained peacefully in what appears to have been a low-key operation supported by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). He is now awaiting extradition to the U.S., where the government placed

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a $200,000 reward on his head. According to Guatemala's anti-drug prosecutor, he is believed to have coordinated the handover of Colombian cocaine to Mexico's Sinaloa Cartel.

Elio's quiet arrest and surrender is a marked difference from the previous five failed attempts by Guatemalan authorities to apprehend members of the Lorenzana family. Guatemalan security forces only began to pressure the clan after a U.S. court indicted the Lorenzanas for drug trafficking in March 2009.

What followed was a succession of botched raids that pointed to the Lorenzanas' influence in Zacapa, a department some 130 kilometers east of the capital. Elio was arrested in the same Zacapa town where, in July 2009, the government launched a huge raid involving police, army and DEA officials, as well as several helicopters.

Nobody from the Lorenzana family was arrested and the operation was deemed a failure. Even more embarrassingly for the government, the Lorenzanas orchestrated several mass protests in Zacapa that summer. Demonstrators declared support for the family, who are known for donating lavishly to local causes, and brandished signs critical of the DEA and the government.

That authorities were able to capture both Elio and his father this year shows that their new strategy is working. In 2011, the government has favored top-secret operations involving a small Guatemalan task force, shying away from the overt participation of the DEA (who still play a key advisory role). So far, this strategy has apparently kept intelligence from falling into the hands of the Lorenzanas, and allowed Guatemala to successfully detain the Lorenzana "patriarch" and his youngest son on their home turf.

But while the arrest of Elio is evidence of progress, the operation also points to ongoing institutional failings in Guatemala's battle against organized crime. Neither Elio nor his father has been indicted for crimes in Guatemala. If it was not for the pending indictments in U.S. courts, and the U.S. Treasury's designation of the Lorenzanas as significant drug traffickers, it is likely that Guatemalan authorities would be moving much more slowly against the crime family.

The Lorenzanas are still able to operate their 15 legitimate businesses within Guatemala, even though all family assets have been frozen in the U.S. According to el Periodico, Elio has various businesses registered in his name, including two transport companies, an agribusiness, a gas company and a construction firm. Other construction firms owned by the Lorenzanas have won highly profitable government contracts. The Lorenzanas are even believed to own land in Guatemala's bio-reserve in the northern Petén department, according to think tank the International Crisis Group.

Until authorities move to undercut the Lorenzanas' economic base, the government will have a tough time arguing that they are truly growing less tolerant of Guatemala's traditional contraband families. The government has apparently stepped up operations against these old-time traffickers -- which include figures like the Lorenzanas and Juan Chamale -- just as a foreign crime wave is moving in, in the form of the Zetas.

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Elio's exit from the scene represents a victory for the government against traditional organized crime. It is also a clear indication that Guatemalan forces are growing more competent at successfully carrying out arrests of top-level operatives. The downside is that it may yet give the Zetas another lucrative opening in Guatemala's underworld.

Source: [insightcrime.org/insight-latest-news/item/1823-with-lorenzana-arrest-guatemala-raises-game-against-old-school-traffickers]Return to Contents

D. Kidnapped Washington Nationals Catcher Wilson Ramos is Alive, Police Say (VE)

Editorial note: this is a follow-up on a previously reported story. 10 November 2011Washington Post

VALENCIA, Venezuela — Police Thursday discovered the four-wheel-drive vehicle armed men used to kidnap Washington Nationals catcher Wilson Ramos, an important clue that the country’s Justice Minister said could help authorities track down the young ballplayer a day after he was abducted from his family’s home.

The Ramos family had yet to hear from the kidnappers, a close family friend said. But a Venezuelan police Twitter feed reported without elaboration that Ramos is alive. “State law enforcement officials confirm ballplayer Ramos alive,” it said.

The Nationals and Major League Baseball said the league’s Department of Investigations was working in concert with Venezuelan authorities.

“Our foremost concern is with Wilson Ramos and his family and our thoughts are with them at this time,” MLB and the Nationals said in a joint statement. The statement said the ballclub and league had “been instructed to make no further comment.”

The vehicle was found in the town of Bejuma, about 25 miles west of this industrial city in central Venezuela, Justice Minister Tareck El Aissami said.

“Right now, we are in an investigative phase, collecting evidence, to try to find him,” El Aissami said.

El Aissami made his comments just hours after the gunmen arrived at Ramos’s family’s home in the Santa Ines district of Valencia, forced him into their vehicle and sped away. The abduction of the 24-year-old catcher, a promising player who had recently returned to his homeland to play in the winter league, has garnered broad media attention in a country obsessed with its baseball stars and also painfully aware of the growing scourge of kidnappings and other violent crimes. Ramos’s salary is the league minimum, $415,000.

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The justice minister said that evidence-collection teams had been at the scene of the abduction through the evening and that “the best kidnapping investigators” were searching for a lead that would take them to Ramos.

“We have the duty to find who is responsible and to rescue this countryman of ours, safe and sound,” El Aissami said.

Outside the Ramos family home, Gustavo Marcano, identified as the ballplayers’ agent, told reporters Thursday morning that the family has had no information and no contact with the abductors. “We have been waiting for information since 7 p.m.,” he said.

He said the kidnapping occurred about 7 p.m. when three suspects – on Wednesday others close to Ramos said it was four – arrived at the house. “Wilson was with his brother and father, and I understand that the car passed several times, checking things out,” he said. “And when they saw him outside, they took him away.”

Late Thursday morning, family friend Marfa Mata said on her Twitter account the family had yet to hear from the kidnappers and urged the public to stay calm.

“We don’t have any information,” wrote Mata, who helped Ramos adapt to the United States when he arrived here to play in the minor leagues for the Minnesota Twins. “The kidnapers haven’t called yet. Please, we must keep calm.”

The U.S. State Department is monitoring the case but has not been contacted by Venezuelan authorities or Major League Baseball, a State Department spokesman said. Ramos is not a U.S. citizen. “We are certainly aware of the case . . . monitoring it closely,” a spokesman said.

Ramos’s kidnapping was a blow to the Venezuelan baseball league, which is in the midst of its winter season, when a number of Venezuelan players who are on Major League teams return to play in their homeland. The kidnapping of Ramos, the first of a Major League player here, led some Venezuelans to call for the suspension of at least Thursday’s games.

“Turning off the lights is not the solution,” Jose Grasso Vecchio, the president of the league. “The professional baseball league is not planning it.”

Grasso Vecchio said that players and administrators were “anguished and saddened” by what had happened. “We are praying for a quick resolution to this case,” he said, “and that he return safe and sound to his home.”

About a dozen players who played in the Nationals’ organization in 2011, mostly minor leaguers, remained in Venezuela, where they are playing for their winter ball teams.

Minor league pitcher Ryan Tatusko, one of the Nationals’ players in Venezuela, said the Nationals called him first thing Thursday morning to ensure he was safe. The Nationals are going to inform him “ASAP” if he’s staying or leaving the country, Tatusko said.

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Kidnappings have become a growing problem in Venezuela. Crime in general is a major concern for Venezuelans, who complain that under President Hugo Chavez’s government homicides and drug trafficking have flourished. Cocaine trafficking from Colombia through Venezuela is rife, US administration officials say, and big cities like Caracas have become among the most violent in Latin America.

Source: [www.washingtonpost.com/sports/nationals/kidnapped-washington-nationals-catcher-wilson-ramos-is-alive-police-say/2011/11/10/gIQAVrb88M_story.html]Return to Contents

5. OPINION AND ANALYSIS

A. EDITORIAL: Central America Elections Prove We Are Stuck in the Past (GT/NI)

10 November 2011Middle East North Africa - Financial Network / The Tico Times - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services

This week, Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist and author Andres Oppenheimer noted before a crowded conference room at the Double Tree Hotel Cariari that Latin American countries are falling behind because their leaders are too focused on the past.

As he held up a Singapore dollar, which is designed to promote education, Oppenheimer delivered a message that was right on the money

Last Sunday's elections in Guatemala and Nicaragua show that our region's political leaders -- and voters -- have much to learn about thinking in future tense.

Novelists could not capture a better storyline: A retired right-wing Guatemalan general rises to power, while a former leftist guerrilla -- who helped dethrone the Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio "Tachito" Somoza -- bludgeons democracy to death.

Gen. Otto Perez Molina began his political ascent in Guatemala a decade ago with his Patriot Party and its fascist-looking logo of a clenched fist. Given Guatemala's past, it is hard to associate that fist with anything other than the brute force that has always dominated the land of the Mayans, where the murder rate is one of the highest in the hemisphere.

A strategic thinker, Perez Molina has consolidated his power by making deals with shadow forces that run the country. He prospers from the collective amnesia of a populace whose youngest generations are taught nothing about a civil war that killed a quarter of a million people.

Unlike Singapore, there are no schools on Guatemalan currency. Instead, army General Jose Maria Orellana stares out from the face of a quetzal note.

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In Nicaragua, President Daniel Ortega and his Sandinista hierarchy have made a mockery of the electoral process. As reported by The Nicaragua Dispatch, the Carter Center warns that, "The questions surrounding the recent electoral process are one consequence of institutional weakness.Other consequences include undermining citizen confidence in the ability of the state to carry out all of its functions effectively and in representation of the rights of all citizens. ... After more than 20 years of elections, it is distressing that electoral institutions remain so weak in Nicaragua."

While Sandinistas celebrated, an EU elections observation team blasted the lack of transparency in the electoral process. Ethics and Transparency called the Nicaraguan elections a failure.

Say hello to the new Ortega Dynasty. Oppenheimer was right: We are obsessed with the past.

Here's a little taste of the present: After Haiti, Nicaragua is the poorest country in the hemisphere. It ranks 112th on the U.N.'s Human Development Index. Its per capita gross national income -- a measure of all the products and services a country generates in a year, plus its income from abroad -- is $1,010. Along with Guatemala, its infant mortality rate is among the highest in the region.

In Guatemala, only 1.5 percent of crimes reported to the Attorney General's office reached sentencing in 2009, according to the United Nations Development Program. In the first seven months of this year, 42 murders a week were committed in Guatemala City. Uncontrolled drug and human trafficking is wreaking havoc on the country, particularly in the northern departments near the border with Mexico. More than 12 percent of Guatemalans live below the international poverty line, earning less than $1.25 a day.

If there is a way out of this quagmire, it's through investment in human development, education and access to better health care services. It requires political leaders to respect the rights of citizens. And it takes a commitment to creating a better future for our children.

What we do not need are backwards-thinking ghosts from a past we would rather forget.

Source: [www.menafn.com/qn_news_story.asp?storyid=%7B4bc91f8f-04a4-4a13-9148-0ae5dfe7defb%7D]Return to Contents

B. Operation Cancun Fugitive Lands in Mexico To Buy Airline (US/MX)

10 November 2011APTN National News

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Michael Chamas, the alleged “banker” for a Mohawk-based marijuana smuggling ring, is a wanted man in Canada, but recent RCMP efforts to nab him internationally have not slowed his globe-trotting ways.

Chamas said in a recent interview with APTN National News that RCMP investigators contacted Lebanese authorities through Interpol as part of their efforts to track him down.

He said Lebanese authorities contacted his family trying to glean information about his movements.

“They contacted uncles, they contacted family members, they contacted (my) father and mother,” said Chamas. “They went to the most sacred, my family, and now they are going to have to answer to that.”

Chamas, however, said he’s unfazed by the RCMP’s efforts to catch him and told APTN National News he travelled from Dubai to Mexico City this week to shore up his bid to buy Mexicana, Mexico’s oldest airline which is currently in bankruptcy protection.

According to Mexican media reports, Chamas is now in the middle of a national spectacle around the future of Mexicana which was punctured this week with protests by pilots and airline employees followed by arrests. There were also reports of threats aimed at pushing investors out of the running for the airline’s restructuring.

Chamas said he is using a “diplomatic passport” from a country he wouldn’t name to travel between Dubai, Mexico and Switzerland.

“I never committed any crime, I never committed any fraud,” said Chamas in a phone interview he said was from Amsterdam where he had recently landed on a flight from Mexico. “I did not touch drugs, I did not touch arms.”

A Quebec judge issued a warrant for Chamas’ arrest in October after he failed to show up for a trial date.

He is facing nine weapons charges stemming from a March 26, 2008, search of his house where police found two Arizona-bought handguns and ammunition.

The raid was part of Operation Cancun, a two year-long police investigation into a drug smuggling organization that moved Quebec-grown marijuana across the Canada-U.S. border through Akwesasne and onto New York City.

Akwesasne, a Mohawk community about 120 kilometers west of Montreal, straddles both sides of the Canada-U.S. border.

RCMP investigators believe that individuals linked to the drug-smuggling network transferred money to some of Chamas’ companies. Police documents referred to him as the “banker” for the smuggling organization.

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Chamas denies he has anything to do with laundering drug money.

Chamas’ former assistant, a Mohawk woman named Juanita Cree, says the police found the guns in his home because she planted them there at the suggestion of a Surete du Quebec officer.

She claims the officer said planting evidence was the only way to nail guys like Chamas who are usually too slick to get caught.

Cree says she was also an informer for the SQ in Kanesatake, the Mohawk community at the center of the Oka crisis, and did consulting work on Aboriginal community policing for the RCMP from 1994 to 2000.

Cree says she came forward with her story because she wanted to come clean on her actions.

The RCMP and the SQ said they would not comment on Cree’s allegations.

Chamas claims he is being hounded by the RCMP because they believe he is an international money launderer with links to a foreign entity trying to infiltrate Canada.

He says that if detained abroad at the request of Canadian authorities, he will claim political asylum.

Reports from Mexico indicated Chamas was in the country this week but his bid to refinance Mexicana airline hit a major roadblock Wednesday.

Federal authorities overseeing the company’s restructuring said he did not do enough to prove he had the capital for the deal, the El Economista reported.

Chamas was required to prove he had $400 million US on hand to inject into Mexicana.

. . . .

Source: [aptn.ca/pages/news/2011/11/10/operation-cancun-fugitive-lands-in-mexico-to-buy-airline/]Return to Contents

C. NGOS to Washington: Cut Military Aid to Mexico (DC)

10 November 2011Global Post

A group of influential NGOs in Washington on Thursday called on the U.S. government to reduce military aid to Mexico and replace it with more help building Mexico’s institutions.

37

Presenting a joint report, entitled “A Cautionary Tale,” the NGOs argued that the U.S. help to Mexico has been too centered on support of its army and marines.

While the soldiers have been shooting down drug cartel capos and hit men across the country, they have also been accused of widespread human rights abuses, including torture, murder and forced disappearances.

“The only way out is for citizens to live with a government—not just a military, but a government,” said the report co-author of the Washington Office on Latin America. “And that includes a justice system with the tools to stop that government’s representatives from abusing citizens or working with criminals.”

Since the Merida Initiative was signed in 2007, the U.S. government has underwritten the war on drugs in Mexico with some $1.8 billion worth of training and equipment, including Black Hawk helicopters.

However, during this time there have been more than 40,000 drug related murders as cartels fund death squads to fight each other and the security forces.

The NGOs argue that the Merida Initiative is fast resembling Plan Colombia, in which the U.S. eventually spent some $8.5 bolstering the Andean nation.

While Plan Colombia helped reduce the power of drug traffickers and guerrillas, it also supported an army that killed hundreds of civilians.

“The right choice is not to fund an abusive army,” said the report co-author of the Latin America Working Group.

On Wednesday, the New York-based Human Rights Watch released its own report, in which it documented cases of abuse by Mexican security forces in five states.

In total, it found 170 cases with credible evidence of torture, including waterboarding and electric shocks, 24 cases of extra-judicial killings and 39 forced disappearances.

Source: [www.globalpost.com/dispatches/globalpost-blogs/que-pasa/ngos-washington-cut-military-aid-mexico]Return to Contents

D. Success Plan Colombia 'Greatly Overstated': Study (US/CO)

10 November 2011Colombia News

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Plan Colombia should not be seen as a model for US foreign policy in Mexico as its success in Colombia is "greatly overstated," a group of Washington-based think tanks on Latin America said Thursday.

The report, compiled by the Center for International Policy, the Washington Office on Latin America and the Latin America Working Group, issues a warning against the temptation for policy makers and politicians in Washington to see Plan Colombia as a success to be replicated in U.S. policy in Mexico.

According to the study the "successes" of Plan Colombia have been greatly overstated, with many improvements in security, drug production and human rights being incorrectly attributed directly to U.S. foreign policy in the country.

"If you look at Plan Colombia's impact on the total tonnage of drugs that go to the market of international consumers, or the total number of hectares of coca in Colombia, I think that without risk of angering our Colombian friends we can say that Plan Colombia has not had an impact on the mitigation of production or trafficking," The study quoted the Mexican ambassador to Washington as saying.

The report also argues that the U.S. needs to devise policies that prioritize the protection of local populations and the preservation of human rights.

"The success of the past several years in Colombia is only a partial, and fragile, victory at best and it has come at an exceptionally high human and institutional cost," says the report.

The report argues that the voracious appetite for cocaine in the U.S. has made off shore drug eradication policies particularly inefficient and that it is essential "to clean your own house." An ongoing failure by the U.S. to invest in prevention and treatment to reduce domestic drug demand has served to seriously undermine anti-drug policies in places such as Colombia and Mexico, the think tanks said.

The report, titled "A Cautionary Tale: Plan Colombia's Lessons for U.S. policy toward Mexico and Beyond," argues that the very different political and social contexts of Colombia and Mexico would make the application of the Plan Colombia policy to Mexico ineffectual and potentially destructive for the lives of thousands of Mexicans.

According to the report, "The blueprint and strategy behind the Colombia aid package makes little sense when applied to Mexico."

Plan Colombia is a multi-million dollar, multi-faceted drug eradication program implemented in 2000 with the intention of combating drug trafficking groups, insurgencies and paramilitary groups in the country. It has been largely hailed as a success in reducing drug violence and reducing coca production.

Source: [colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/20391-success-plan-colombia-greatly-overstated-study.html]

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Return to Contents

E. Bureau Recommends: Torture Used by Army in Mexico’s ‘War on Drugs’ (BC/NL/TAB/GRO/CHIH)

11 November 2011The Bureau

The Bureau recommends an investigation by Human Rights Watch into the conduct of the Mexican Army and municipal police officers in the fight against drug cartels in Mexico.

The 212-page report examines, in-depth, five of Mexico’s most violent states, and has found evidence that strongly suggests the participation of security forces in more than 170 cases of torture, 39 ‘disappearances’, and 24 extrajudicial killings since Calderón took office in December 2006.

President Calderón declared ‘war’ on organized crime shortly after taking office. More than 50,000 soldiers are now focused on the fight against drugs, along with thousands of members of the Navy, the federal police, and state and local police forces.

The report found that instead of reducing violence, Mexico’s ‘war on drugs’ has resulted in a dramatic increase in killings, torture, and other appalling abuses by security forces, which are making the climate of lawlessness and fear worse in many parts of the country.

The report also alleges that widespread human rights violations committed by the forces are not being adequately investigated. In all five states surveyed – Baja California, Chihuahua, Guerrero, Nuevo León, and Tabasco – Human Rights Watch found that security forces systematically use torture to obtain forced confessions from detainees or information about cartels.

And while the incidence of grave human rights violations has increased dramatically in the context of Mexico’s counter-narcotics efforts, the effective investigation and prosecution of such abuses has not, Human Rights Watch found.

In the five states surveyed, military prosecutors opened 1,615 investigations from 2007 to April 2011 into crimes allegedly committed by soldiers against civilians. Not a single soldier has been convicted in these cases.

Source: [www.thebureauinvestigates.com/2011/11/11/bureau-recommends-torture-used-by-army-in-mexicos-war-on-drugs/]Return to Contents

F. Curing Central America’s Crime Epidemic Is Up to Latin America, Not the U.S. (HN/GT)

40

11 November 2011World Crunch

SANTIAGO - Each year, the tiny nations of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador – the so-called ‘northern triangle’ – have more violent murders than all of the 27 members of the European Union combined.

According to the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime, Honduras leads the world in violent killings, with 82.1 murders per year per 100,000 residents, followed by El Salvador, with 66 per 100,000. The two Central American states beat out countries in the Middle East and Africa that are in the middle of armed conflict. Guatemala comes in seventh, with 41 homicides per 100,000 (for comparison sake, the comparable figures are 1.4 per 100,000 in France and 5 per 100,000 in the United States).

The havoc wrecked by the drugs war is readily apparent in all three countries. Governments are weak, as are the police systems, and the principal state institutions are riddled with corruption. There are hordes of jobless young people who live on the fringes of society, in poverty. In short, it is fertile ground for drug cartels.

A violent death awaits those who dare oppose the drug barons. But those who join the cartels often meet the same fate. Drug lords hand out weapons to criminal gangs, creating small, autonomous armies. The gangs are then free to make “personal” use of their weapons when not on “official” cartel business. A hit costs about $500.

Private companies spend an average of 20% of their operating budget on staff security. The violence seriously discourages investment in the region, and threatens to further erode progress towards the construction of a solid, institutional democracy that the region’s countries have been building since shaking off dictators and civil war. Recent surveys have shown that more than half of Central Americans would accept a coup d’etat if the new government were able to improve security.

Time for a southern solution

Politicians have been taking steps to improve the situation. For example, new (and badly-needed) tax reforms will allow the governments to fatten the public coffers. In the current system, tax revenue in the most violent Central American countries is extremely low, only about 10% of GDP. Increased revenue will allow the states to increase their security measures.

The political party system is also seriously in need of reform, since its current form leaves a vacuum that criminal groups can easily take advantage of – increasingly having direct influence on politics. Major reforms are also needed in the military, police and judiciary systems.

The problem has gotten so large, however, that to adequately address it requires far more financial backing than what these small Central American states can provide. Historically, this kind of help would come from our friend up north. But today, there are many indications that the

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United States is not prepared to launch another “Plan Colombia,” the all-out effort to end drug trafficking and violence that began in 1999.

Right now, America’s most important security threats come from outside the Western Hemisphere. And with cocaine consumption in the United States having dropped substantially in the past decade, several states toying with the idea of decriminalization, and a crippling economic situation, it hardly seems like the right moment for a new military campaign like the one in Colombia. Additionally, U.S. authorities are primarily interested in stopping drugs headed north. Much of the drugs trafficked in Central America end up being shipped east to Europe or back toward South America. From the U.S. perspective, that makes it someone else’s problem.

The answer to Central America’s serious problems, therefore, needs to come from inside Latin America, which as a region, has the money and the resources to solve the drug violence. Brazil, which has been increasing its presence on the isthmus, should join Mexico, traditionally an influence in the area, in taking a leadership role. The two countries should then push the rest of Latin America to get involved.

It would be an appropriate first project for the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), a regional block formed in February, 2010. Unlike the Organization of American States (OAS), the CELAC does not include the United States and Canada.

By taking on the Central America conundrum as its own, the Latin American states would also have an opportunity to confront the problem creatively – to not, in other words, replicate the ‘prohibition and criminalization’ tactics favored by Washington. The policy should not be imposed from the outside, and should be adapted to Central American realities. But the clock is ticking. It is not overstating the case so say the situation in Central America is the most urgent topic in Latin America today.

Source: [www.worldcrunch.com/curing-central-america-s-crime-epidemic-latin-america-not-us/4084]Return to Contents

G. Mexico: Anonymous Shifts Sights from Zetas to Government Corruption (NL)

10 November 2011National Anonymous Examiner

Operation Cartel (#OpCartel) morphs into Operation Corrupcion (#OpCorrupcion)The nebulous and notorious international Internet hacktivist collective known as Anonymous has switched targets from the dangerous and deadly drug cartel Los Zetas to the government corruption within Mexico that allows drug cartels like Los Zetas to flourish. The switch in tactics was signaled by a YouTube video released Tuesday, November 8. The switch came after Los Zetas released a kidnapped Anonymous enthusiast per demands made by Anonymous via Operation Cartel (#OpCartel). Anonymous had threatened to expose the identity

42

of Los Zetas drug cartel members as well as cartel collaborators and other pertinent information if their fellow Anon was not released by 5 November. According to reports, that Anonymous enthusiast was released November 4.

After some days of debate and discussion between various factions within the bowels of the Anonymous hive mind, a decision was made to call a truce with Los Zetas, and instead target government corruption within Mexico. Many both inside and outside Anonymous circles had counseled against going up against the Zetas because of their well-known penchant for murder and mayhem of the most heinous nature. The following is a Google translation of an announcement from Iberoamerica Anonymous - Official Blog:

Government of the Federal Republic of the United Mexican States During these days we have been aware of the plight of a people forgotten by their leaders. A town battered by gratuitous violence, corruption, indifference of their government, the passivity of its security ... We have found that Mexicans are not alone. They have nobody on their side no one to believe. From Anonymous have tried to raise awareness among the people to change this. We tried to make the government listen and take appropriate action to fix the situation. But we realize that you get to the point of corruption and fear, that nobody wants to do anything to change things. Therefore, we appeal to all the world's Anonymous, the entire global hacker community, putting aside our differences, ruthlessly attacking all government agencies in Mexico. A hack their webs, their email, their servers. To bring to light all the hidden information that demonstrates that Mexico is corrupt rulers. Officially declare the war against corruption in Mexico. Mexican people are not alone. Difficult times ahead but it is time to change things. We are with you. The posters do not scare us, only we took decisions to help you. Be brave. We ask that colaboréis.That denunciéis. That you manifestéis. You go out into the street without fear. You feel that in Mexico there is no fear and wants to change things. We are with you but cannot do it alone. We need your help. It's time to change things. Each in its own sphere, each with their level of commitment, so that together we can destroy the corruption, abuse of power and can live in freedom of expression and decide our future and our children. It is time to say what we think and show that the people have the power. It is your anger. Go out. Fight for your rights.

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People of Mexico, are not alone. Anonymous and the world is with you. We are AnonymousWe are LegionWe do not condoneDo not forgetEspérennos

Update: Thursday, news broke that “a Mexican blogger and social network moderator has been found tortured and killed by the Los Zetas drug cartel. The victim is believed to have been a moderator on local social networking site Nuevo Laredo en Vivo, and is the fourth apparent victim of the ruthless Los Zetas drug cartel to have been murdered in the town over the last two months.”

In addition, several news outlets are now reporting that the sometimes self-appointed speaker for the Anonymous hive mind and a very vocal promoter of Operation Cartel has gone into hiding, fearing for his safety.

Source: [www.examiner.com/anonymous-in-national/mexico-anonymous-shifts-sights-from-zetas-to-gov-corruption]Return to Contents

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