Narco Banners Flood Coahuila and Veracruz

By Chivis Martinez Borderland Beat

Acuna Mantas

For the past week, narco banners have flooded Coahuila and parts of Veracruz.  The first reports of mantas  were in Piedras Negras, Coahuila where they were displayed in several parts of the city which sits adjacent to Eagle Pass, Texas.

Subsequently, reports of mantas bearing the identical message were revealed in the following Coahuila:

Acuna, Monclova, Sabinas, Rosita, Saltillo, Torreon and parts of Veracruz.

Saltillo, Coahuila's capital city

Text Translation by Cristero and Chivis-Punctuation added for clarity-
 

Marines of mexico how is it possible that if you are fighting and spending so much in fighting the drug traffickers and cartels yet you  permit or fail to check the federal police or FPF, to see  if they have in their trucks a sicario.

Here is an example [picture]

We don’t know the unit number in which “el tukan” is in, but he is riding around without a worry. After so many deaths that he has committed. 

Where is you obligation as public servants, combatants of delinquency, if you are a delinquent yourself?  Kidnapping  and killing innocent people, while wearing  a [police] badge of the PFP.

Mr Guillermo Sanchez this is “El Tukan” who kidnapped and assassinated your grandson Gerardo Heat Sanchez.

And the Commander Pelos of the PFP, is working with them as godmother here in Piedras Negras. He is in Posada Rosa  He was arrested in saltillo by gunpoint but then he was released.

[note: Posada Rosa is a hotel where federal police are housed and it was attacked a few days prior to these mantas]

Piedras above and Veracruz below

The narco-banner speaks of the nephew of the 1st councilman of Piedras Negras and who is responsible for the murder. The young Gerardito Heath Sanchez was visiting with friends at the home of Victor Cruz when he and the entire Cruz family was kidnapped and never seen again.

In March, 2011 Los Zetas Cartel reigned a week of terror in Piedras Negras and “los cinco manantiales”, the towns of Allende, Morelos, Zaragoza, Villa Union and Nava.  Reports of over 100 people kidnapped of all ages including an infant.  The homes were destroyed by fire, as firefighters were prevented from conducting their duty. 

Gerardo Heath Sanchez, then 15 years of age, was a victim of being at the wrong place at a time of horror.  His “crime” was visiting the home of his friends Victor and Guillermo Cruz Saldua and their parents, Victor Cruz Requena and Brenda Saldua Dovalina when sicarios burst into the home. The Cruz family and their guest Gerardo were abducted. The home of the Cruz family was  set ablaze soon after the abduction.

Brenda and Victor Cruz

It was known to local residents that  Victor Cruz, a local businessman, had links to organized crime. It was reported that the Cruz family was killed directly after the kidnapping, although hope remained strong for Gerardo’s family when his mother received a message that he would be released within 72 hours.  72 hours passed with no other communication, he was not released, nor located.

The lone remaining son of Victor Cruz escaped the abduction and sought refuge with his extended family in Eagle Pass.

It was guessed that an  “ajuste de cuentas” - settling of accounts- was ordered by  Zetas.  This included several local businessmen involved in money laundering, used as frontmen  for investments and surreptitious businesses, was ordered by the Zeta leadership.  People under the slightest suspicion of a betrayal such as being informants, were targeted.

These agreements are services by businessmen in return for protection.  The precarious pacts are fragile covenants whereas once made their lives and that of their families are completely reliant on the notions of the cartels, especially the plaza chiefs.  This was the scenario that lead to the fate of Cruz, his family and the visiting teen Gerardo.

After abducting the targeted victims, Zetas destroyed dozens of  homes and businesses owned by the victims, below are photos of some of the destruction.

 

 Sources used to compose this post: Borderland Beat Archives-Zocalo-Vanguardia