3 Sides war for La Paz

Translated by Otis B Fly-Wheel for Borderland Beat from a Zetatijuana BCS Report

Subject Matter: Fight for the plaza of La Paz, BCS
Recommendation: No prior subject matter knowledge required

In the last crime map elaborated by authorities both Federal and Military, they confirmed the presence of  cells from the Cartels of Sinaloa, Beltran Leyva Organization in a de facto alliance with Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada and Los Zetas, and the Arellano Felix Organization, who are all fighting for control of the narco trafficking plaza of La Paz, Comondu and Mulege.

Reporter: Zeta Investigations

Nothing slows the bloody war between criminal cells of the cartels of Sinaloa, Beltran Leyva in a de facto alliance with Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada and Los Zetas, and the Cartel Arellano Felix, neither the meetings of the Group for Coordination, nor public safety summits, or triumphal speeches made of the merit or the operations carried out the length and breadth of the State of Baja California Sur.

These criminal organizations, with the backing and protection of Police Chiefs, live in an intestinal fight for control of the narco trafficking plaza, according to declarations made by Melissa Margarita Calderon Ojeda "La China" to SEIDO.

In all the number of violent crimes and intentional homicides has risen to 35 in the first seven months of the administration of Governor Carlos Mendoza Davis, at the last recount.



The spiral of violence has particularly been centered on the city of La Paz, but day by day, it has extended, since 28th of September 2015 to 22nd of April 2016, to Comondu and Mulege, which, provoked the Government of the United States on Friday the 15th of April, for the second consecutive year, to emit an alert to persons travelling to and those that planned to travel to the State.

"The State Department of the Government of the United States advises United States citizens of risk of travel to certain places in Mexico, due to security threats from the organized crime groups in the country. United States citizens have been victims of violent crimes, like homicide, kidnapping, car theft, and robbery on the part of organized criminal groups in various States of the country", read the alert.

On the official website of the State Department of the Government of the United States expound that " this travel advice substitutes the travel alert given out on 19th of January of 2016, in order to actualize the security information, the assessor of public restrictions to personal travel", list the dangerous States for travel:

* Baja California
* Baja California Sur
* Sonora
* Chihuahua
* Coahuila
* Nuevo Leon
* Tamaulipas
* Sinaloa
* Jalisco
* Queretaro
* Mexico City
* Oaxaca
* Guerrero
* Yucatan
* Quintana Roo

(Otis: that will be a serious problem for holiday makers, at least Quintana Roo and BCS, also surprised that Veracruz is not on the list.)

In the case of BCS, according to the Department of Interior in Mexico, Baja California Sur registered a peak of homicides at the end of October of 2015. Many of those homicides had occurred in La Paz, where they have produced an augmentation of acts of public violence between these rival criminal organizations.

The alert was down played by the Secretary for Tourism, Genaro Ruiz Hernandez,  who said he had expressed his disagreement before the Consul of the United States in Tijuana, William A. Ostick in respect of this alert.

From his point of view, Baja California Sur is a quiet region, secure and free to travel to each one of its five Municipalities.

The Crime Map

Notwithstanding the vitriolic argument about the travel alert, in the last crime map elaborated by both Federal and Military authorities, confirm the presence of criminal cells of three drug trafficking Cartels. The most visible chiefs are:

*Jose Guadalupe Rivera Lopez "El Javier" or "El Javy", and the brothers Damian and Eduardo Vilaavicencio Arce, of the Sinaloa Cartel. The former operates in San Jose del Cabo, and the latter in Vizcaino and Guerrero Negro.

*Luis Antonio Montoya Beltran "Don Carlos" or "El Montoya", representing the de facto alliance between the Beltran Leyvas, Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada and Los Zetas.

*Julio Cordero Duarte "El Julion" on the part of the Cartel Arellano Felix.

In parallel, according to a member of the Group for Coordination of Public Security, they have information on the presence of a group of criminal cells of the Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generacion, headed by a subject with the nickname "El Noly", though this data has not been corroborated.

The Director of the State Ministerial Police, Bibiano Rigoberto Burgoing Garcia, alleged to be linked to the Sinaloa Cartel, during a week when the violence levels have been intensifying, was authorized to take vacation by the PGJE prosecutor Palemon Alamilla Villeda, who in the middle of a gun battle, suspiciously disappeared from the public scene.

The attacks

The first attack was registered around 8pm on Friday the 15th of April, when an armed commando chased and attacked with gunfire 3 men in a white Volkswagen Jetta.

The three occupants had been travelling along Calle Independencia, between Jaime Bravo and Jalisco, in the well populated Francisco Villa en La Paz Colonia, and according to preliminary investigations of the PGJE, the sicarios chased their victims aboard a rented automobile, and when they closed with the vehicle, one of them opened fire on the three occupants.

Of the three occupants, two of them ran, the driver and a rear passenger, the front passenger was killed in his seat, the sicarios jumped over the vehicle and chased the two fleeing men, leaving 20 spent 9mm cartridge cases.

According to the PGJE, the victims were identified as Sergio Sanchez Estrada and Jose Alfredo Castro Escobedo, the first was wounded the second died at the time.

According to an investigating agent of the PGJE, the deceased turned out to be an alleged sicario recently recruited by the Sinaloa Cartel, of who, four days earlier, that is to say the 11th of April, was detained in possession of 58 cartridges of 9mm ammunition, when driving on board a green Chevrolet Avalanche.

He was put at the disposition of agents of the Federal Public Ministry of the PGR.

However, as happens in these cases, an Agent of the Federal Public Ministry of the PGR, suspiciously authorized his release, and four days after he was executed.

The second armed attack, was to happen two days after, on the night of the 17th of April: the narco trafficker Samuel Beltran Garcia "El Sammy" or "El Teco" had gone into an Oxxo convenience store with his wife in the Paraiso del Sol Colonia, in the south of La Paz.

The sicarios were travelling on board a white rented automobile, and as observed, attacked the victim, killing him in the main doorway of the establishment.

In the middle of this bloody war, during a reconnaissance of the Serrana zone of Comondu, the Mexican Army reported the discovery of eight plantations of marijuana at a point known as Las Minitas.

Elements of the 17th Regiment of Motorized Cavalry moved into this zone after reports of armed people and location of the plantation, of which there 37,000 plants, in a total of 5760 square meters, which were later cut down and incinerated.

Another Security Alert

Because of the problems of insecurity that have presented themselves recently in Baja California Sur, in particular La Paz, the State Department of the United States gave out a new alert for visitors to the various municipalities of the State; mentioning two of the principal tourist destinations of the State, La Paz and Cabo San Lucas in Los Cabos, stressing that the capital had maintained the violence provoked by criminal groups headed by cells of organized crime.

They refer as well that, since October of 2015, La Paz had been counted in the highest indices of violence, for the American Union to recommend that visitors take maximum care. The Mayor of La Paz, Armando Martinez Vega, lamented the new alert given out on Friday the 15th of April.

"It is a complicated issue, we have made the effort to give a personalized attention to Cruise Ship lines that have been coming, with good relations, we have been with the Ambassadors, the Consuls, attending to them directly, and are abiding with their suggestions".

"But lamentably this is out of our hands, we are planning a strategy with the Governor, and today La Paz is waking up", mentioned the Municipal President, he then recognized that unfortunately this weekend there were two violent acts that continue to affect the security of the city, he remains confident in the arrival of the Police Mando Unico, that in his perception, will give respite to the citizens in questions of security, as the current strategy had failed at the moment to keep the peace.

Martinez has respect for the Group for Coordination of the State that is presided over by the Governor Carlos Mendoza Davis, " with the agreement that was signed to bring in the Mando Unico, we have been following the strategy advised to us, we have been reinforcing each sector, we are moving forward, unfortunately its a complicated topic but as Municipal Government we will be following strategies that the State Government advises us to.

Already there is one sector, sector 2, that operates under this Federal disposition. However, these are not the only problems they are presented, recently armed attacks have soared, which concerns the citizenry.

On the morning of Monday the 18th of April they registered an assault on a person who was about to deposit $200,000 in a bank, those responsible fled on a motorcycle. Talking about the subject of the theft, according to official data issued by the PGJE, in almost 15 days of the month of April, they reported 31 vehicle robberies in La Paz, in the same time frame, in January there were 43, in February 82, and in March 51 reports of the same crime, that adds to 207 from the start of the year until 15th of April which gives an average of two vehicles robbed per day.

"We have been doubling our efforts with what we have, today we are aiming to support SUBSEMUN which is now FORTASEG, which cannot full deploy, last year half were deployed by default, today were are asking for a full deployments, to have better units, better equipment and join the State strategy", said the Mayor of La Paz.

In a similar manner, Lorena Hinojosa Olivas, President of the Camara Nacional de la Industria de Restaurantes y Alimentos Condimentados of La Paz, lamented what these alerts represented, already they are principally affecting the economy.

"Its lamentable that they issued these alerts, above all because its our principal market, North American tourism is our principal market, speaking of divisions, that they do not desire any of these alerts, we understand, that in the case of the United States authorities, they have obligations to issue alerts to their citizens, but we here in Baja California Sur will enjoy our moment of tranquility in inverted commas".

He remembers those facts have reached some businessman, especially in Los Cabos, who have asked him to turn a deaf ear towards the current situation in the capital, since events have decreased in large proportion, but to date still continues, they have suggested that we need to act before it becomes unstoppable.

"We don't want, for any reason, to be a State like many in Mexico, where the criminal organizations charge piso de cobro to businessman and we are talking mainly of the restaurant sector, extortion's, kidnappings, which are already well known here in the southern part of our State, this is a focus of attention, when they should be saying La Paz is in permanent peace, but there are crime hot spots and they have to be attended to, warned the restauranteurs representative.

Original article in Spanish at Zetatijuana