Wikileak Memo: Obama Refused DEA Permission to Assassinate Chapo

BorderlandBeat.Com Posted on Forum by Siskiyou Kid

 

Stratfor Memos Leaked By WikiLeaks Show US DEA Was Refused White House Permission To Kill Drug Kingpin Joaquín Guzmán Loera

By David Iaconangelo,

If one high-ranking employee with the global intelligence firm Stratfor is to be believed, not only did the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) once know the whereabouts of Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán - the Sinaloa drug cartel kingpin and fugitive from justice in Mexico - but the agency even asked the White House to go into Mexico to kill him.  

 

Among the 5 million "Stratfor memos" published by WikiLeaks in 2012 are several messages from Fred Burton, vice president of intelligence and top expert on Mexican drug cartels for Stratfor, describing classified interactions from 2007 to 2011 between Mexican and US intelligence and even President Barack Obama's response to the 2010 DEA query.  Guzmán, one of the most powerful of Mexico's cartel capos, was sentenced to over 20 years in prison in 1993 on drug trafficking charges but escaped by bribing a prison guard.  He remains a fugitive from justice.

The first of the messages from Burton came on November 2, 2007.  "If the DEA can specifically locate the Sinaloa boss El Chapo, he will be assassinated," Burton wrote.  "A decision memo has been authorized to take him out, as a national security threat."  WhoWhatWhy, an investigative journalism website, writes that the "decision memo" could refer to a decision within the DEA pending approval from the National Security Council, or a memo indicating the Bush administration - still in office at that time - could have approved the plan.

Whatever the case was, a DEA operation was never carried out.  But Burton later says, in a February 2010 email, that the DEA "had a window of opportunity to render El Chapo" but the White House "would not let them do it", quipping, "God forbid we upset our lovely MX neighbors".  In a July 2010 email, he expounds a bit on what happened, writing, "DEA Special Ops submitted a finding to go into MX to whack El Chapo. Obviously, the decision came back as no. Never made it past the deputies committee."

The intelligence VP ends the email striking a pose of nonchalance toward the Obama administration's apparent rejection of the DEA request in that message.  "As Gomer Pyle would say, 'Surprise, surprise'" he writes.  That attitude might be explained by the last of the memos on El Chapo, coming in April 2011, when Burton says, "Obama won't approve a finding for covert action inside MX based on 'moral ground'", adding that then-Mexican President Felipe Calderón "has told a few that violence has reached a point that he would turn a blind eye to unilateral CIA or DEA actions, if they wanted to go down that path, as long as he has 'plausible deniability.'"

Close cooperation between US and Mexican intelligence agencies has been a politically sensitive one in Mexico.  Under the Calderón administration, the agencies were known to have collaborated to an unprecedented degree - though perhaps not to the extent that the Stratfor memos suggest.  But the administration of current president Enrique Peña Nieto, who came into office in December 2012, has tried to wedge out old space.  And the opposition on the Mexican left denounces such collaboration as an incursion on Mexican sovereignty, a claim which Obama dismissed in a May trip to Mexico as "a distortion".

Burton also details ways in which the DEA might have gone about killing the Mexican drug lord. "One of the scenarios discussed to kill El Chapo or other Zeta HVT's [high-value targets] was a 1000 yard head shot by a U.S. shooter, to plant the seed of paranoia in the minds of the narcos as to who pulled the trigger.

"CIA 'Ground Branch' assets and/or DEA SO [Special Operations] have stated they have the ability and intelligence to pull it off without getting caught."

 

WIKILEAKS:

 

Re: INSIGHT - Mexico/Guatemala - cartel activity

Released on 2013-02-13 00:00 GMT

Email-ID	1135481
Date	2010-02-24 15:27:59
From	burton@stratfor.com
To	reva.bhalla@stratfor.com, secure@stratfor.com

Very good report.

DEA also believes El Chapo is in the same area, so that could be
"circular information".

DEA had a window of opportunity to render El Chapo but the WH would not
let them do it. God forbid we upset our lovely MX neighbors.

I've never seen the wife of the Guat Prez alleged links to the Zetas. I
can verify that if desired?

Reva Bhalla wrote:

> PUBLICATION: Background/analysis
> ATTRIBUTION: STRATFOR source
> SOURCE DESCRIPTION: MX defense/intel source
> SOURCE RELIABILITY: B
> ITEM CREDIBILITY: 3
> SUGGESTED DISTRIBUTION: secure
> SOURCE HANDLER: Reva..........continues on next page

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8 die in prison brawl in Nuevo Laredo

A total of eight inmates at a prison in Tamaulipas state were killed in a brawl Wednesday, according to an official government news announcement.

A news release posted on the website of Tamaulipas state government said that the fight took place at the Centro de Ejecucion de Sanciones (CEDES) in Nuevo Laredo at around 1800 hrs in the observation area of the prison.  The victims were stabbed with homemade stabbing weapons.

The victims were identified as  Vicente Hernandez Cervantes, Hector Gabino Cruz, Eduardo Cortes Fernando, Rogelio Valero Quiroz, José Garcia Najera, Alfonso Navarro Morato, Manuel Ruiz Martinez and Pablo Luna Domingo.  All had been admitted to the prison less than 24 hours before the fight.  The victims had been detained August 15th in Zaragoza  colony in Nuevo Laredo for a variety of offenses.

The press release said that five inmates, identified as Lorenzo Quiroz Acosta, Luis Alberto Corral Soto, Hector Torres Ortega, Mario Alberto Gil Ibarra, Pablo Garza Carranza and Gilberto Lopez had admitted their roles in the deaths of the inmates.

Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com and BorderlandBeat.com. He can be reached at grurkka@gmail.com

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Mexican Mayhem in southern Chihuahua: 5 die

By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com

A total of five individuals have been killed in ongoing drug and gang violence in southern Chihuahua after a city mayor imposed a curfew in his city to discouraged travel in the region at night, according to Mexican news accounts.

Two men were found dead on a road in Guadalupe y Calvo municipality Wednesday, according to a news report which appeared in the online edition of Tiempo news daily.

The victims were found near Alto de Pilares near the Guadalupe y Calvo to El Vergal road, shot to death and in an advanced state of decomposition.

One victim was identified as Víctor Manuel Gutierrez Villar, 17.

Meanwhile in Batopilas municipality a man in his 30s was found shot to death in an arroyo, according to a separate news report in Tiempo.

José Valentin Avitia Lopez was found Tuesday evening near the village of Rodeo, apparently shot with AK-47 rifles.

Another attack took place in Parral Wednesday evening when two individuals were shot in Che Guevara, according to a news report which appeared on the website of El Diario de Juarez.

Wilfrido Revuela Espinoza, 40, died while on his way to receiving medical attention, while Gloria Bustillos Maria Payan, 30, was wounded in the attack.

Further west in Guachoochi municipality a man was found stabbed to death, according to a news report on the online edition of El Sol de Parral.

Mateo Perez Guevara, 43, was found near the village of Santa Anita by local residents.

Mexican Army and Chihuahua state police have been combining resources in the region to conduct checkpoints along road in Guadalupe y Calvo and in El Vergel municipalities, roads considered to be high value commercial routes, according to a news report in El Sol de Parral.

The area of operation is expected to include much of southern Chihuahua including the Durango-Chihuahua borderlands.

The report tracks an announcement earlier in the week by Chihuahua state Fiscalia General del Estado or attorney general southern delegate Jesus Chavez.

Chavez said that the region was being reinforced as a response to increased violence between local rival drug and criminal gangs which operate in southern Chihuahua.

The violence in southern Chihuahua including in Guadalupe y Calvo and in Ciudad Jimenez prompted the mayor of Ciudad Jimenez to discourage travel at night in his city, according to a news report in El Diario de Chihuahua news daily.

Marco Chavez

Marcos Chavez said in the  report that his police are closing down bars and "asking" people to go home, effectively imposing a curfew in Ciudad Jimenez.  His reason is the recent death of local criminal jefe, Uriel Canton AKA El Doctor, last week.

Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com and BorderlandBeat.com. He can be reached at grurkka@gmail.com

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Fonseca Carrillo One Step Away From Release

Chivis Martínez BorderlandBeat.Com

Jornada is reporting that Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo is one step away from  gaining a release from prison as Mexico’s Federal Supreme Court of Justice agreed to hear his appeal. 

 

Upon the controversial release of Rafael Caro Quintero on August 9^th, Fonseca’s attorney, Jose Luis Guizar, had predicted his client would be free within 15 days.

Fonseca and Caro Quintero were both convicted for the 1985 kidnapping, torture and murder of DEA agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena, 40 year sentences were imposed on the convicted murderers.    When Fonseca Carrillo was arrested, he quickly turned on his friend and partner in crime , blaming the murder on Caro Quintero.  It was at Fonseca's home that the Camarena torture tapes were discovered.

Caro Quintero’s release stemmed from a victory in the appellate court of Jalisco, based on a procedural technicality, not on a basis of innocence.  The 3 judge panel heard the appeal and agreed that the prosecution was not in jurisdiction compliance, having been tried in federal court instead of state court, a violation of due process.

Guizar filed an appeal for his client based on the same grounds that gained Caro Quintero his freedom.

 

"The appeal will soon be determined.  We believe that the judges will adhere to the law," Guizar said. "Fonseca Carrillo should already be free. He should be home. At its core, the issue is identical as Rafael's. "

Guizar also stated that his client is in very poor health, that brings to mind the 2008 campaign of Fonseca's daughter Araceli and his attorney to free Fonseca because he was near death and prison officials were refusing proper medical care for the inmate. (daughter center at left)

The federal attorney general's office, which oversees all security matters, and the presidency, insist they didn't know that Caro Quintero was being released.  President Enrique Peña Nieto has failed to make a public statement on the matter. 

Proceso reported that the attorney general’s office, well aware of the appeal,  never took action against it.

Mexican authorities are inspecting the financial records of the three judges that gave  Caro Quintero his freedom, investigating possible payoffs. Another big question is the atypical rapid pace of the release, which normally takes a few weeks after winning on appeal. 

Atty. Gen. Jesus Murillo Karam and Foreign Minister Jose Antonio Meade have said the decision was a huge mistake and they would work to reverse it.  A warrant for Caro Quintero’s re-arrest has been issued.

The US was outraged at the release, causing further strain on the US-Mexico relationship since EPN has taken office.  On August 14^th the US has filed for Caro Quintero’s arrest and extradition.  The US will need an abundance of luck in recapturing the man, who many think most likely headed for Costa Rica or elsewhere outside of Mexico.

Video below contains an interview with Alfredo Corchado about US-Mexican Relations

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"Z40" Intel May have been Attained Through US Drones in Operation "Lowrider"

BorderlandBeat.Com

 Inside the Pentagon’s top secret spy plane operation against the Mexican drug cartel

It was one of the most gruesome periods of Mexico’s drug war. In the spring of 2011, Mexican authorities discovered a series of mass graves holding a total of 183 corpses near the southwest Texas border. The victims had been killed—some after rape and torture—by one of the country’s most brutal drug gangs. Weeks later, investigators exhumed more than 200 additional bodies buried hundreds of miles west.

As the death count climbed, the Pentagon decided to launch an unprecedented intelligence operation. Vocativ has learned that the U.S. military began a series of surveillance missions into Mexican airspace, using techniques and equipment refined in Iraq and Afghanistan. The goal: to track the cartels and their kingpins using aircraft with live pilots and crews, not just remotely controlled drones.

The operation was initially code-named "Lowrider," but officially known as the Northern Command Aerial Sensor Platform. And like so many military enterprises since 9/11, the contract was privatized: Without a bidding process, the government farmed it out to a large private defense company, Sierra Nevada Corporation, to provide the planes, pilots and crews for the classified missions.

For years, in response to the mounting violence, the U.S. and Mexican governments have been secretly sharing intelligence on drug traffickers. But the previously unreported spy-plane operation underscores how deeply involved the U.S. military has become in the war against the cartels, even as the general public has remained largely unaware of the extent of its operations.

In private, because of the classified nature of the program, insiders raise a number of questions, not just about the effectiveness of the missions, but also about the way a secret intelligence contract was awarded, and about the potential risks to American flight crews.

According to a source involved in the surveillance program, the manned spy planes take off from Texas and cross the border, flying deep into Mexico to conduct “pattern of life” reconnaissance missions. It’s a technique the U.S. military has used in the wars in the Middle East and elsewhere.

 

The pilots quietly watch from the air and learn the schedules and itineraries of America’s adversaries. Sources say this program employs just two aircraft, which are outfitted with sophisticated electronic-intercept technology and cameras capable of tracking a suspect from 6 miles away.

 

Drones (“unmanned aerial vehicles,” the military prefers to call them) can be useful for this sort of work, but they aren’t interchangeable with piloted planes. It may be relatively easy to fly drones out of a military field in Yemen or Afghanistan, but it’s far more difficult—if not impossible—to steer clear of civil aviation in more populated areas. Live humans can also notice things that the best remote-controlled cameras will never catch.

 

U.S Customs and Border Protection officers’ conduct an $860,995 outbound cash seizure this month at the Calexico West port of entry. The currency was hidden in a vehicle.

Yet manned flights can put pilots and crews in danger, and given the cartels’ military-grade weaponry, critics particularly worry about one of the planes, which uses a single engine. The program’s original contract, according to individuals who were involved, called for only twin-engine planes—and with good reason. If one engine fails, the other can still fly everyone home safely. With a single-engine plane, there is no backup. Any sort of engine failure could result in a crash landing somewhere in Mexico.

The fear is not merely hypothetical. In two separate incidents over the span of a month and a half in 2003, single-engine American surveillance planes on contract to the U.S. military crashed in Colombia. In the first incident, the engine failed and the plane was forced to crash-land. Marxist guerrillas killed the American pilot and a Colombian soldier aboard before taking the three U.S. crewmen hostage. Their captivity continued for more than five years until they were rescued. In the second crash, everyone died.

Given that history, it’s understandable that some acquainted with the Lowrider program aren’t entirely comfortable with its risks. “Especially after the lessons learned in Colombia, seems like they are doing the same thing,” says one source familiar with the Mexican operation. Another source who is also familiar with the program disagrees, saying despite initial concerns, the single-engine aircraft has worked well in this case.

An estimated 60,000 or more people have been killed since President Felipe Calderón declared war on the cartels in 2006. As the carnage ensued, the cartels made war not only against the government, but also against one another, setting in motion a cycle of violent turf wars and revenge killings. At times, enforcers for the cartels flaunted their brutality, killing police, torturing or beheading competitors, and occasionally posting the bloody evidence online.

For all the harrowing violence, the U.S. military overflights could be a touchy issue in Mexico, where the country’s sovereignty is never taken for granted. Most people in the United States may forget the two countries’ troubled past, but Mexicans know all too well how the southwestern U.S.—from Texas to California—used to be theirs.

 “Mexico’s military doctrine has posited that their number one threat is the United States,” says Adam Isaacson, who follows security developments in the Western Hemisphere as a senior associate at the Washington Office on Latin America think tank. “And it’s been that way since 1848.” On hearing about the Northern Command program, he says: “Traditionally, this would be a hypersensitive thing for the Mexicans.” A spokesman at the Mexican Embassy in Washington declined to comment on the program.  continues on next page

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CDS: " El Mayito" Captured at Juárez Safehouse

BorderlandBeat.Com posted on forum by LaLa

The Governor of the State, César Duarte, explained that the alleged financial operator of the Sinaloa cartel was wanted by the PGR, DEA, and Interpol.

On Tuesday Mario Núñez Meza, aka 'El Mayito' or 'M10' evening was arrested at a safe house in Ciudad Juárez together with 3 other people.  Agents of the State police captured the Sinaloa Cartel’s operator for the states of Chihuahua and Durango.   Núñez Meza was wanted by the PGR, DEA and the Interpol, said Chihuahua gov. César Duarte Jaques.

"The first elements we have to link to this character are very bloody events in the State of Durango and in the State of Chihuahua, and according to their statements he is linked to hundreds of killings, mostly in Durango for more time," he explained.

Unofficial data indicate that elements of the PEU intervened in a safe house where drug was being prepared for  retail sales,  officers broke into the building, arresting those inside, including the aforementioned Núñez Meza.

According to the United States, through an indictment put before the Federal Court of the district west of Texas, Meza Núñez was part of a group of former policemen that traffic drugs, kidnap and extort.

Formal announcement of the arrest will follow this evening or Thursday, apparently, according to the sources consulted.

The capture of Mario Núñez 'Mayito' or 'The M10' Meza, motivated a meeting at the facilities of the unique state police (PEU), where the detainee is being held.

The site, located at the junction of the eje vial Juan Gabriel and avenida Sanders, has been surrounded by elements of all police corporations, and even members of the Mexican army with tanks, to prevent any attempt of removal of the suspect.

The Commander of the garrison, Mario Valencia Robledo, and State delegate of the Attorney General's Office (PGR), César Augusto Peniche Espejel, arrived to the place as well as commanders of the PEU and the Ministerial police.

State agents are touring the streets adjacent to the police facilities to monitor and detect any suspicious movement.

Off the record reports indicate  it is the intention of the local authorities is to send Núñez Meza to México city and put him at the disposal of the federal authorities.

Note:

 The location where he is being held is the Policia Estatal Unica at the intersection of Juan Gabriel and Avenida Sanders, Juárez .  According to reports and constant updates, the state and federal police and military are taking extreme measures to make sure he's not rescued, with armored vehicles on the streets, patrol vehicles constantly going up and down the streets in front of the police installations where he is being held, and police snipers on the roofs of the cop shop and surrounding buildings.

Sources used to create this post: Diario-Milenio-BorderlandBeat-Grillonautas

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Infighting Hurt the Barrio Aztecas Who Worked for Juarez Cartél

BorderlandBeat.Com Posted by "K. Mennem"

Eduardo "Tablas" Ravelo, the leader of the Barrio Azteca gang in Juarez, had least 50 bodyguards protecting him at all times, lived in a mansion, and often traveled across the border to discuss contract killings with his counterparts in El Paso, according to federal court documents.

Ravelo, who has been on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list since 2009, is believed to have survived the drug cartel war in Juárez and last week the FBI office in El Paso had a press conference to reinforce to the public that Ravelo may be in the area and is wanted.

A review by the El Paso Times of past federal court transcripts involving Barrio Azteca members give some insight to the workings of the gang and to Ravelo's life.

Gustavo "Tavo" Gallardo, formerly a leader of the Barrio Aztecas in El Paso, testified in court that long before the drug cartel wars began in 2008 in Juarez, the Carrillo Fuentes drug cartel wanted to kill off the Aztecas because they were suspected of stealing millions of dollars from the cartel.

Ravelo, who was under pressure from La Linea, a group of enforcers who work for the Carrillo Fuentes cartel in Juarez, came to El Paso to ask the Barrio Aztecas in El Paso for helping in finding a gang member who was suspected in the stealing, documents state.

One such gang member was Chato Flores, who was abducted in August 2005 from El Paso and taken to Juarez, where he was to be questioned by La Linea. Flores, one of several gang members that La Linea claimed was ripping off the cartel, was killed in Juarez. Gallardo testified that he did not know in advance that Flores would be killed.

"They wanted to know where all their merchandise (was) that they were stealing," Gallardo testified back then.

Gallardo said he met Ravelo in El Paso, when Ravelo asked for help in finding another Barrio Azteca member who was under suspicion. He testified that Ravelo was protected in Juarez by 50 bodyguards and lived in a mansion.

Gallardo said in court during a federal trial against Barrio Azteca members in 2008 that he was "tight" with Ravelo and that Ravelo was close to the leader of La Linea at the time, Juan "JL" Pablo Ledezma, who reported directly to Mexican drug kingpin Vicente Carrillo Fuentes.

U.S. officials previously indicted Carrillo Fuentes in connection with drug-trafficking and several murders in Juarez in the 1990s.

In Mexico, Ledezma is a fugitive who is wanted in connection with various alleged crimes, including drug-trafficking and other slayings.

Gallardo testified that back then the Carrillo Fuentes cartel was using enforcers from La Linea to kill Aztecas who betrayed the cartel.

He also said he knew where 50 to 100 bodies were buried in Juarez, but he was not asked to testify about where the bodies were located or when the slayings had occurred.

Gallardo further testified that he had predicted to the FBI in 2007, a year before the cartel wars in Juarez began, that there was going to be more trouble because Joaquin "Chapo" Guzman (leader of the Sinaloa cartel) was coming to Juarez to challenge the Carrillo Fuentes cartel.

At the same time, the Barrio Azteca in El Paso was in disarray because of a power struggle between David "Chicho" Meraz and Miguel Angel "Angelillo" Esqueda. Meraz was killed in Juarez in 2008.

"It was always all - all this struggling, fighting against each other," Gallardo testified.

Aguirre testified that the feud was driven by "envy, money problems (and) power." Each one, Meraz and Esqueda, wanted to run the gang in El Paso.

Gallardo testified that the Barrio Aztecas in El Paso and the Aztecas in Juarez are one and the same gang except with different leaders in El Paso and Juarez.

He said the gang collected approximately $100,000 per week from drug-trafficking, and that the money was turned in to cartel operatives at the Juarez Cereso prison.

Aguirre testified that there is a big difference in how the gang operates in the two cities; he testified that the Aztecas in Juarez are required to commit a murder in order to join the gang there.

Mexican authorities said that Ravelo began working for the Mexican drug cartel since the mid-1990's, which is when the late Amado Carrillo Fuentes, brother of Vicente, took over the Juarez smuggling corridor.

The FBI is offering a $100,000 reward for information that leads to the arrest of Ravelo.

The FBI said that one of the birth dates provided for Ravelo is Oct. 13, 1968. There is an Eduardo Ravelo with the same birth date who was charged with forgery in El Paso in 1991, according to court records, and he was also sought in connection with a bond forfeiture.

U.S. investigators said Ravelo, who was born in Mexico but had U.S. legal permanent residency (a green card), survived the drug cartel wars and may be hiding somewhere in Mexico. The FBI said he might have had plastic surgery to alter his appearance.

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6 die in southern Chihuahua

By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com

A total of six individuals were killed in ongoing drug and gang related violence in southern Chihuahua in two separate incidents, according to Mexican news accounts.

A news account which appeared in the online edition of El Diario de Juarez news daily, five men were  shot, four of them found dead near the village of San Ignacio de los Almanzan in Guadalupe y Calvo municipality Sunday.

Citing the source of a spokesman from the Chihuahua state Fiscalia General del Estado, or attorney general, state police were advised via an anonymous phone call that the victims had been wounded near the San Ignacio de los Almazan river Sunday.

The victims were identified as Gonzalo Alvarez Lopez, 38, Obier Macías Carrillo, 30, Saul Lopez Macias, 28, Jesus Noel Cardenas Macías, 43 and a fourth unidentified man.  Cardenas Macias was not present at the scene because reportedly his family had taken him to receive medical care, but Cardenas Macias died before reaching help.

The five victims were all shot with AK-47 rand AR-15 rifles.

A separate account in El Diario de Juarez southern Chihuahua Fiscalia Jesus Chavez said that the five were killed in  an armed encounter between two local rival criminal groups

Meanwhile elsewhere in Guadalupe y Calvo municipality a 60 year old man was found strangled and beaten to death, according to a news account which appeared on the website of El Sol de Parral news daily.

Tomás Garcia Zuñiga was taken from a residence in a home invasion in  Hiela Mucho Sunday and was later found dead nearby.

The news report said that four armed suspects carrying AK-47 and AR-15 rifles broke into the residence and threatened to take everyone present prisoner.  The family members instead fled, so the suspects took Garcia Zuñiga.

Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com and BorderlandBeat.com. He can be reached at grurkka@gmail.com

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Auto Defense Video Translation:" The Governor is going to fabricate offenses to incarcerate all of you”

BorderlandBeat.Com

Dr. José Manuel Mireles Valverde, general counsel of the citizen Council of self-defense of Tepalcatepec, flatly rejects the versions published that self-defense and community guards of the Ruana, Buena Vista, Coalcoman, Los Reyes, Aquila and Aguililla groups warned Jesús Reyna that paralyzed Michoacan's Government if their detained colleagues last Wednesday are not freed soon.

Likewise, they flatly reject the versions that are being spread  that they have issued an ultimatum of rising up against the State Government.  This is a August 19th video.

 

The following is a video narrative, translated into English.  Dr. Mireles being interviewed by a reporter named “Priscila” after the intro.  The intro is what was said in the referenced video.

“We do not agree in the participation of the army and  the absurdities what the governor of the state does, because for 12 years we have filed denounces, many times anonymously because if the people dare to show their faces, the report would be found tore in pieces left on the front door of their houses and then people would disappear or found death. We have always filed a report for rapes, executions and abductions in our region which have never been investigated. We had been warned by a member of the parliament of the congress of the state, the president of the justice commission of the state. She came to see us last week. ”The temporary governor is planning a way to stop you, incarcerate all the community leaders.”

"I replied but why I am going to be incarcerated if I have not committed a crime or any offense? “

“He is going to fabricate offenses to incarcerate all of you”

And we are noticed that he has already begun. He started with our brothers of Aquila because they want the leaders and the people that tried to defend their leaders. We are noticing that it’s true what the member of the parliament said and the same thing is going to happen to us. Even if we don’t have an offense to be incarcerated for; they are going to make one because that is the intention of that jerk that calls himself ‘substitute governor’ but that never in his life has done something for his town, nevertheless for the state of Michoacán.”

“We are not living in a state of right. We are in war and in what Chucho Reyna is provoking by asking the support of the army to abduct some people. That is causing more fury and making us wanting continue fighting. We do not want to fight against the state; we do not want to fight against the army or confront the federals.

We do not lack of courage, because if we have already thrown out the bastards that came into our houses, do you think that we are going to allow that this stupid person with his people come to abduct more people?

I want to make it clear to the gentleman that if he is not thinking of coming to help his state in the situation it is in, he should go somewhere else, he should resign and leave this state. There are people more capable that loves the state of Michoacán and that is willing to support it. We would all be happy to cease all our actions, if the new people that arrive to the state guarantee us that we will not have the problem that we have been having for 12 years.”

“We have developed the strategy and we will give a time limit to the representative of the state that came, for the release of our companions of Aquila and also the companions of La Ruana which have been more than 5 months arrested.

They are poor, humble, hardworking people that were arrested. We can’t conceive that the government of the state is justifying the abduction of more than 40 community guards in Aquila, because apparently they had fire arms exclusive use of the army and the state and national newspapers only mention five arms. Then if only five arms of exclusive use of the army were found, why do they arrest 45 people?

That does not justify the abduction and according to the videos that we saw, which we are going to pass to you, you will see that there was blood even though they are denying it. Poor people beaten down by the army itself and the state police that goes to those arrests. See it, that is the true and we want you to help us to spread the truth. We do not trust the communication media that comes to make a circus and drama out of us. We are seriously fighting and we want that you people fight with us but by helping us spread the truth.”

“Two fundamental options exist. The first one: we are going to paralyze every one of the functions of the government of the state of Michoacán in our municipalities.”

“If that first step does not succeed , we will absolutely not recognize the government and power of the state of Michoacán and we will create a free independent zone. That is why we cared so much that our brothers of Aquila will stand up in arms because Aquila occupies 60% of the Michoacán coasts and way we have free pass towards all the international economy, which forcedly has to arrive to Lázaro Cárdenas, which including the customs are of absolute control of “La Tuta” and also the other location that is very distant for us and for our products which is Manzanillo.

Here straight ahead we can make our international industrial corridor. You know that now the Chinese are very desirous of everything that we produce in Mexico. They are able to create their own port in Las Brisas or in San Juan de Lima and take out those places, all the production that they need from us and if we are in peace and producing, there is no way someone can beat us producing.”

Priscila:

Dr. Mireles, good afternoon, we want to know what is your reaction regarding what has been published by several communication media after the appearance of a video on the social networks which shows you saying that you would be calling to unrecognized the powers of the state government, encouraging the villages to stand up in arms. All of this due to the events occurring last Wednesday on the municipality of Aquila, here in Michoacán. What can you say about this, Dr. Mireles?

Dr. Mireles:

“I think there has been a wrong interpretation of the concepts that we were reviewing with direct questions made by a group of people which identified themselves as reporters of a non commercial newspaper.

That is how they presented themselves. They wanted to know the opinion of every one of the general counselors that had the meeting yesterday to analyze and give a concluding answer to the situation that presented the day before yesterday in the municipality of Aquila when the state supported by the army and navy arrested more than 40 community guards of the region that had internal issues and apparently related, first with 5 arrest warrants and secondly, the government of the state expressed that the rest of the people were taken because they were carrying arms of exclusive use of the army....continues next page...

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63 percent of all Mexican state's police have been certified

Miguel Osorio Chong

By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com

With a little more than two months to go to November, 63 percent of all state police police in Mexico have been certified, according to Mexican news accounts.

According to data supplied by Animal Politico news website, 98 percent of all federal police agents have been certified, while 34 Mexican states and entities have lagged behind.

When the administration of President Enrirue Pena Nieto came into office last December, the new Secretaria de Gobierno (SEGOB) or interior minister Miguel Osorio Chong decreed that all police in Mexico, from the federal level to the municipal level would be certified by October 31st or would lose their jobs.

According to the news report, the deadline was extended by the national Chamber of Deputies last year after having been imposed  for the same month in 2012.

The Mexican state with the highest percentage of police agents certified is tiny Colima on Mexico's west coast with 3,194 police  at 99.53 percent of the total  The Mexican political entity with the highest number of police with the best percentage if Distrito Federal with 105,334 police at 89.34 percent certified.

Only one northern border state is in the top five percentage with Nuevo Leon at 84.73 percent certified of the 15,623, at number four. Sonora state is seventh with 82.86 percent certified with 11,424 police.

On the other end of the scale, two border states are in the bottom ten with Tamaulipas dead last at 39.19 percent certified of the 10,303 police, and Chihuahua state with 51.47 percent certified 15,405 police.

Rounding out the border states, Coahuila stands of 11th with 74.79 percent and 7,250 and Baja California at 16th with 68.92 and 13,804 police.

The data on police totals are certification percentages come from Mexico's Secretariado Ejecutivo del Sistema Nacional de Seguridad Publica (SESNSP).

Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com and BorderlandBeat.com. He can be reached at grurkka@gmail.com

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Group says Coahuila government fudged homicide stats

Coahuila state attorney general kicks the ball onto the fairway and hopes no one notices.

The Coahuila state Procuraduria General de Justicia del Estado (PGJE) or attorney general changed statistic of homicides for the first six months of 2013, effectively lowering the number by 44 total, according to Mexican news accounts.

A news report which appeared on the website of Animal Politico quoted Marco Zamarripa, director of Consejo Civico de las Instituciones saying that the state government had retroactively changed homicide totals reported to the Sistema Nacional de Seguridad Publica to show a decrease for the first half of 2013.

The news account cited three months in which numbers reported do not "correspond with reality".  For example in January the total murders reported went from 43 to 24, in February, 26 to 21 and March 31 to 25.

According to a separate report which appeared on the online edition of El Siglo De Torreon news daily, the Coahuila state, PGJE only reported incidents of murder, not the total who have actually been killed.

Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com and BorderlandBeat.com He can be reached at grurkka@gmail.com

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Advice for the gullible Mexican citizen

Proceso (8-23-2013) By Sabina Berman

Translated by un vato for Borderland Beat

MEXICO, D.F. (Proceso)-- The good, gullible citizen, he of good faith, unending like the ocean, should not twist his mouth when he learns that Mr. Raul Salinas de Gortari has been tried again and found innocent.

Not even when the judge adds that the poor man has been the victim of injustice. Nor when the judge confides and explains that his fortune, accumulated during the six year administration of his brother, President Carlos Salinas, and calculated in the hundreds of millions of pesos, was obtained in such a brief period as a result of "brilliant" entrepreneurial  activities, which the judge does not specify, much less could demonstrate.

Above all, he should not make his own connections. To think, for example, that with the return of the PRI to the Presidency, the style of impunity from the past has returned. An impunity granted from the Highest Power: a stick for rebels, and, for the faithful, a license to steal.

No, none of this twisting of the mouth. The gullible citizen must reserve that expression until the moment that he learns that this financial genius, this particle of God incarnate where air is transformed into dollars, this Higgs Boson, where ambition is transformed into bank accounts in the Cayman Islands,  will not be appointed to head Pemex, so the country can prosper thanks to his ability to perform miracles.

Neither should the good gullible citizen connect that exoneration with the Energy Reform. He should not laugh bitterly when, a week after the exoneration, president Pena Nieto explains that the invitation for investment in Pemex does not mean its privatization, not even partially.

On the contrary, he should believe that the same government that exonerated the genius Raul Salinas, is, with respect to reforming the operation of Pemex, not lying or covering up with words actions harmful to the Country. That this government is simply not capable of malice.

He should interrupt doubts, this good gullible citizen. Against these doubts, he should raise a small portrait of Mr. Arturo Montiel and expect that they will vanish. Or lift with both hands a small statue of Mr. Humberto Moreira, to show it to these doubts. Or a small bust of the "Gober Precioso" ["Precious Governor" of Puebla, Mario Marin Torres]. Or of the Green Boy [Nino Verde, Jorge Emilio Gonzalez Martinez, President of the Green Party].  Or....(insert here the names of powerful untouchable crooks). "Back, malignant suspicions, vanish!!"

The good gullible citizen should then drink a potion to forget: he should hypnotize his rationality with a high dose of TV advertisements in which a child (that is, the incarnation of of the gullible citizen's innocence), shows his hands stained with black tar, if not stained with corruption.

Oh, and about that oh! so ugly word: the gullible citizen should then eradicate the very word "corruption" from his vocabulary.   

He should believe that such a thing does not exist in Mexico and the leader of the petroleum workers' union, the honorable Romero Deschamps, and his hundreds of millions of dollars, and the $2 million Ferrari that he gave his son, and the apartments in other countries that he gave his daughter, as well as the number of workers on the Pemex payroll, twice more than is needed, twice the size of the Exxon payroll, are not corruption, neither is the milking of petroleum pipelines, nor the diversion of funds to the PRI, nor etcetera and etcetera.

And, in continuation, the good gullible citizen should do what a majority of our political "experts"  are doing: dress like a Swiss, with leather shorts, or as an Englishman, with a tweed coat, and with the limpid spirit of a mathematician or a watchmaker, analyze the pros and cons of the Energy Reform, in purely market terms.

As I said, this is what a majority of political analysts are doing, these graduates of very high class institutions, they downplay the significance of the corruption, and for that reason, their predictions are very respected in the first circles of Power, although they never get it right.

But getting it right is not the objective: the good gullible citizen should know that the objective is a noble peaceful coexistence. 'I don't see others' thievery and I wait for my turn to steal from the Nation'. Or, if that is not possible, to steal from my partner. Or to kidnap my neighbor. Or to extort a fellow citizen. Or to "disappear" whoever is bothering me.

The good gullible citizen should understand that this is how corruption grows, from the top down, but he should never speak its name, because everybody's corruption is nobody's in particular, it is now a culture, a clouded way of life, confused, it is the death of meritocracy, the exaltation of injustice, the fog in which the good and the bad are indistinguishable, and where words no longer mean anything. A culture of fog, yes, but one that we are proud to call our own.

And lastly, the good gullible citizen should show great deference towards his superiors in power.

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News from Zac: CDG Claiming they are Cleaning the Plaza and Other Reports

BorderlandBeat.Com reports from "Zac"

A woman and women are being interrogated by CDG-they admit to work for the zetas, for "el Tigre", "Shakira", "Vallarta" and comandante Morán, this last one a comandante of the Federal police, like the people in the other video they claim the Federal police is working with the zetas and admit to have taken part in 2 kidnappings, the  2 owners of seafood restaurants in Zacatecas, el Marlin and el Feo, very well-known people locally, and were preparing to kidnap a man who works in Peñoles (a silver mining company)

The description of the video says: "Now we left them alive so the government judges them. People from Zacatecas, now ask answers from the Federals who are the ones that set these pieces of shit free."

Another 4 who were left beaten tied and wrapped in a message near the mercado de abastos the night before, apparently also were zetas  and the message signed by CDG accusing them of being kidnappers and killers and saying they were leaving them there so they would give information to the authorities, this according to accesozac, since information in the press doesn´t give any data about the contents of the message. (video at bottom)

 

Zac also reports last night there were three persons hanged, but they  were left alive.  This  photo from AccesoZac , however "Zac" questioned if the photo was really related, I think it may because the bodies are not limp indicating they are alive when the photo was taken.  In a image search it is a never before used photo.  There was a message left, contents not made public.

On Wednesday 2 were hanged  (below) in Valparaíso by the zetas, with a message saying something like "greetings to the hanged ones" referring to the 2 youngsters that had been hung in Zacatecas in Saturday night,  it was in the testigo nocturno page  they are very reliable with the info and images they post  and focus on the area around Fresnillo only

 

 

and ...last Saturday a young couple later identified as the 2 bodies left hanging (above photo from interrogation video) were identified as Jhonatan Eduardo Espinoza Esquivel and Karla San Juana Guadalupe Villasana Acuña.  The young teens were seen on the video below being interrogated by CDG.  Tijuano found a report of the background of Karla as follows:

In those days in 2007, nobody would have believed that angel-faced teenager full of life would end up her life in the middle of scandal and public scrutiny, murdered in a spiral of violence that even thou tamed (according to the source, NOT ME) still takes away innocent lives, also from those  who aren´t innocent.

There are just a few who know the truth behind Karla San Juana Guadalupe Villafana Acuña´s tragedy, maybe only those close to her.

What is known is she left two orphans 2 little boys no more than 2 years old. And a pair of bereaved parents who gave everything for her: their only child.

By 2007 Karla was in Tecnica No. 1 middle School, she was part of the generation that first used the blue uniform.

She didn´t stand out for her grades, but she was consistent on her studies, worried about her appearance and fun. She loved “groupero” parties.

She was a lucky teenager, she had friends and no economical limitations, her parents always gave her anything she needed, she had no worries aside from her studies and making those around her happy.

After finishing middle school, she enrolled on Colegio de Bachilleres High School but dropped out soon after.

A few months ago she gave birth to her first baby and married a young boy who earned his life washing car windows on the streets, she had another baby; she lived the life of a teenage mother. Her parents always gave her anything she or her babies needed.

The nightmare began Sunday at 5:40 AM, when an emergency call alerted the Police Agencies about 2 hanging bodies in bridge located on CTM neighborhood, Karla was already death when police and army personnel arrived at the scene.  

Along her was Jhonatan Eduardo Espinoza Esquivel, 19, just like her, he was still alive.

The young man died on route to the hospital. Close to them, their murderers left a message signed by the Gulf Cartel.

 

 

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