Record Breaking Month for Murders in Jalisco

The settling of accounts between elements of organized crime have reached never before seen levels in the state of Jalisco, in the last year alone there were 1,001 violent deaths, 85% of them related to the settling of accounts between elements of organized crime, or related to the control of drug dealing, according to information provided by the PGJE of the state of Jalisco.

If last year was the most violent seen in this region, 2011 has begun in an even more aggressive fashion considering that 26 executions having a nexus with the drug trade have taken place in just the first nine days of the year.

In January of last year by the 31st of the month 29 violent deaths were recorded having to do with everything from gang problems, disputes and random settling of accounts, that translated to 60 percent of those crimes being related to mafia turf wars. In the metropolitan area in the middle of the state, in the first nine days of the month 26 people have already been murdered, and if this pace is maintained the number of violent murders in Jalisco will easily surpass that of last year.

Furthermore, according to data maintained by news agencies, 80% of the executions occurred within the metropolitan area of Guadalajara.

The turf war began with a fierceness with the capture and incarceration of the brothers Juan Carlos and Oscar Orlando Nava Valencia last Februrary in Tlajamuco de Zuñíga. As a result the criminal cell they led fractured in two. Each faction was supported by a different mafia, between the Sinaloan Cartel and the armed faction of the Familía Michoacana, La Resistencía. After the capture of the Brothers Valencia, the dispute turned to all out war. According to authorities, this is what is responsible for the crime wave in Jalisco which has spread to Colima.

Later came the fall of Ignacio Nacho Coronel Villarreal which led to a loosening of his grip on the turf of the Cártel del Pácifico. The situation was further aggravated when a group allied with Los Beltrán Leyva and Los Zetas kidnapped Alejandro Coronel, Nacho Cornel’s son, in the first week of April of 2010.

According to government data, it was the 27th of May of 2010 when in Jalisco the bodies began to appear inside black bags, in blankets, dismembered, decapitated or hanging from bridges, where the factions of organized crime such as Los Valencia, Cártel de Sinaola and La Familía Michoacana, amongst others, began to heat up the turf or “calentar la plaza.”

Torture is one of the commonalities of the bodies found in different parts of the city. The methods of torture employed range from beatings, to electric shock to the extremities, to mutilations. This last method of torture is known as “Chinese Torture,” which consists of tying a wire to the extremities of the victim. Little by little the wire is tightened and twisted, causing great pain to the victim, cutting of the flow of blood, until eventually the extremity is severed.

But this torture does not end with the mutilation of just one body part, in some cases victims suffer the amputation of two or more extremities, including the genitals.

Translated and submitted by BB collaborator