The Associated Press
Mexican President Felipe Calderon said Friday that the violence-plagued Gulf coast state of Veracruz had been left in the hands of the brutal Zetas drug cartel.
Calderon has complained in the past that previous governments allowed Mexico’s cartel problems to grow and didn’t do enough to stop them. But he hasn’t previously suggested a state was largely turned over to traffickers.
In comments to a meeting of crime victims’ groups in Mexico City, Calderon did not say specifically who he thought was responsible.
“I believe Veracruz was left in the hands of the Zetas, I don’t know if it was involuntary, probably, I hope so,” said Calderon, who added that “if we hadn’t taken on organized crime, they would have taken over the country, I assure you.”
There have been persistent accusations against former Veracruz Gov. Fidel Herrera Beltran, who left office in December 2010. While his term was relatively calm in terms of violence, adversaries accuse him of allowing the Zetas to operate freely in the state, which is lucrative route for migrant and drug traffickers.Herrera Beltran has denied those accusations, claiming they are politically motivated.
Since mid-2011, Veracruz has been hit by dozens of murders and shootouts, including a grenade attack on a boulevard that killed one Mexican tourist. The state has been the scene of bloody turf battles between the Zetas and gunmen apparently linked to the Sinaloa cartel, and in recent weeks there have been two mass killings in which 67 bodies were found.
In recent weeks, Miguel Angel Yunes — who made an unsuccessful run for governor in 2010 elections, which he lost to the candidate from Herrera Beltran’s Institutional Revolutionary Party — told local media that the former governor had “handed over the police and police command to these criminal groups, and everyone in Veracruz knows it.”
In late July, masked gunmen claiming to be from a group allied with the Sinaloa cartel posted a video on the internet, in which they accused the former governor of protecting their rivals, the Zetas, and called Herrera Beltran “Zeta Number One.”
In an interview with MVS radio earlier this month, Herrera Beltran “energetically rejected” the allegations, and accused Yunes of being behind the anonymous video, and attributed the accusations to “perversity, hatred, rancor.”
Herrera Beltran did not immediately respond to an email request for comment.
Is he really blaming someone else? What a crock of shit! This guy is in deep, just like the rest of them who take kickbacks and bribes to pass laws and look the other way! Mexico is dishonest, and that is the bottom line! All the ones with any honesty are running to the US, and leaving it to assholes like this to spin it. Amazing. A forensic accounting of this guy would come up with all sorts of red flags. When the countries biggest resources comes from illegal activities, there is no way to keep your hands clean! May as well blame Santa Clause and BUSH like everyone else!
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ReplyDeleteI'm assuming you don't speak Spanish? Or did you not listen to the last video? The proof is there.
In other words Veracruz belongs to the Zetas and Calderon and Chapo want it. Like always the "bad cartels" are the Zetas and their allies. If Chapo is the one out of control and causing most of the troubles why aren't they in Sinaloa and Durango trying to find him. Want another state? Just call Chapo and have him stir up some trouble and bring in the troops. Its getting boring.... Fox let him out and Calderon lets him do as he chooses. Every now and then they make an arrest and say "we're going after all of them and winning"? Winning what? People in the U.S can still go to the hood and find what they're looking for. Not much has changed. You will never convince people to stop harming themselves. The more you tell them something is bad for them the more they want it. Hell Big Macs and Jelly donuts will kill you eventually... Not to mention alcohol and tobacco. Should we start sewing people's mouth shut? Or just keep letting the Mexican Army kill theirs because ours can't control themselves. Calderon fell for it and he will most likely be remembered as Chapo's bitch. No hero here. Just another derranged person thinking that using violence against violent people was gonna solve the worlds hunger for drugs. Who did he think he was a picking a fight with? Business men? Boy scouts? lol Veraceuz belongs to the Zetas... Wow he finally figured that out. Now can he grow some and tell the U.S this is not working?
ReplyDeleteIt's sad that the president has to justify why he took on the cartels. I don't agree with how he planned it and did it, but I fully agree with him that the cartels had grown too powerful and became a major threat to a sovereign nation. I don't think things were so calm in the past as many claim though they were calmer for sure. I'm not a fan of closing a blind eye to stuff, but if they shut things down on the drug business too fast, many people will be out of a source of income and things will really spiral. I don't know what the right answer is, but things really are bad in Mex.
ReplyDelete9:06 PM...10:17 PM...You are both right. Veracruz has been as dirty a state as any, especially for the last 7 years. That governor is dirty as hell, even more than most. But Calderon is just now making it there? Come on !!! Real funny that Chapo made a move on Veracruz 6 weeks ago and now here comes Calderon and the military to clean it up for him. I said when Sinaloa first made their move, Chapos' boys will poor gas all over the streets, light a match, run, and let the military clean up his mess for him.
ReplyDeleteTodos absolutamente todos en mexico sabemos que los Z vienen de veracuz and i confirm that with a daugther of a leutenent of the mexican army at 7a zona militar she told me an amazing story about this group of deserters of the Mexican Arm Forces.but back then on 2007 she just call them unos zetillas because there were just kids but,she didn`t know how bad this kids were y ahora she just don`t want to talk about the Zs anymore she said anyone can be a Z and its better to keep her mouth shut.
ReplyDelete12:16 AM...Thank you for sharing about your daughter. I am sure she is right. It is better not to talk. I also suspect that the Z continues to pick up a lot of military deserters.
ReplyDeleteTo all the people saying that Calderon backs Chapo, if you don't know don't ramble. What do you expect the government's (Calderon's) response to be when the crime of murder spikes in an area? Rely on a knowingly corrupt police force to intervene?Calderon doesn't back Chapo in his endeavors. Calderon backs the best interest of the citizens in a region where from one day to the next the murder rate rises tenfold, twenty-fold, abnormal rise!! Should he sit back and spare himself of the nonsensical accusation mindless, myopic morons will make? No!! His best interest is the population. He goes after any seen criminal, Chapo or Zeta, or any other. But of course it's going to look like he targets the Zetas more because they harass the common population on a more extensive scale with far more members. Remember, the Zetas are your common street thug, your common wannabee gangster. While Chapo's people are more select to a certain purpose not just to accumulate numbers and members to lay claim to a region.
ReplyDeleteExactly what happened in Coahuila with the damed Moreiras. And now, his brother is the new governor. 12 years of Zeta goverors in Coahuila. Worst part is that Humberto Moreira--the exgovernor who orchestrated all this, the same guy whose father-in-law is widely known as a top Zeta operative--is now the president of the PRI party! A vote for the PRI is a vote for the Zetas.
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