DEA warns of "Circle of Hell" in Mexico

Translated by Otis B Fly-Wheel for Borderland Beat from an El Debate article

Subject Matter: Recent violence in Sinaloa
Recommendation: No prior subject matter knowledge required

The country recently recorded its highest number of murders in a month for the last 20 years.

They found the bodies of the Martinez children in bloody soil, curled up next to their parents in a leased hut. Officials believe the six member family was massacred by Los Zetas, because they suspected that the father of the family had played a role in an attack by a rival gang in which a member of Los Zetas died.

The event leaves on the table the strategy without warning of the drug cartels, who are experiencing splits and wars for control of territory in much of Mexico. The country recorded its highest number of murders in a month in at least 20 years.

The violence has even surpassed the darkest days of the war on drugs launched by predecessors. "It has acquired the proportions of the circle of hell that could appear in "Dante's version of Hell",said Mike Vigil, former director of International Operations for the US Drug Enforcement Agency and author of the book "Deal".

"His strategy was to only go for the capo, El Chapo, of course that is not the way to do it , you know, because of the "Hydra Effect", you cut off a head and three more appear. "There are weak institutions, weak rule of law, weak justice, huge corruption, especially in the municipal and state police forces, all contributing to growing violence.

In the first five months of 2017 there were 9916 murders throughout the country, an increase of around 30 percent compared to the 7638 killed in the same period last year. In 2011, the bloodiest year of the war on drugs, the figure for the same period between January and May was 9466.

In some places, the bloodbath has accompanied the rise of the CJNG and rupture of the formerly dominant Sinaloa cartel in factions, faced after the arrest of capo Joaquin El Chapo Guzman, extradited in January to the United States.

At least 19 people were killed late last month in battles over the territory between the son of Guzman, his brother and former allies in the western state of Sinaloa, according to investigators.

The northern state of Chihuahua, at the border with the United States, at least 14 people were killed last week in gunfire between armed men from Sinaloa and the gang known as La Linea.

In the oil city of Caotacoalcos, in the Gulf of Mexico, Veracruz Governor Miguel Angel Yunes said that the assassination of an important hit man in late June, led Los Zetas to kill the entire Martinez Family: Clemente, his wife, Marimana, and his sons Jocelin aged 10, Victor Daniel, 8, Angel 6, and Nahomi 5. All of them died in a house where they washed cars for a dollar each.

"They had nothing, not even furniture, they slept on the floor", said grandmother Flora Martinez sobbing. " They had nothing, I do not understand why they did that to my children. They are innocent, they do not know anything".

For years it was understood that Los Zetas were untouchable in this part of the state. All you have to do is ask Sonia Cruz, who son was killed in Coatzacoalcos in July of 2016, in a case that remains unsolved.

The electoral victory of Yunes, who last year became the first opposition Governor in a traditional fiefdom of the PRI, could have broken old alliances between criminal networks and corrupt officials.

The new Governor has shown a certain willingness to pursue Los Zetas: the local leader of the cartel known as Commander H, allegedly ordered the massacre of the Martinez family, and was arrested a few days later.

Yunes said the man has been operating in Coatzacoalcos since 2006 with absolute freedom and accused members of the business sector in the city as acting as a front, pretending to be the owner of goods that actually belonged to the trafficker.

Raul Ojeda Banda, a local anti-crime activist said that some were forced to participate in the plot and that he knew that in some cases they were coerced and or threatened.

Violence in the area has also been aggravated by the incursions of the CJNG, and other pressures that have threatened key sources of income for the Zetas.

Part of Commander H's business model involved large scale kidnapping for quick bailouts. Among the targets were local oil workers or Central American migrants, who were tortured by members of the cartel to obtain payments from their relatives in the United States.

However, the Zetas kidnapped so many local people that those who could moved out of the city, and those who stayed began to block their neighbourhoods at night to keep the kidnappers out.

Low oil prices depressed the sector, implying that there were fewer energy workers to kidnap and then there were fewer migrants moving through. Donald Trumps electoral victory in the United States deterred some from attempting to reach the US, while some avoided Veracruz for fear of being attacked.

The majority of them were assaulted, and only the lucky ones were not, said priest Joel Ireta Munguia, head of the Coatzacoalcos migrant shelter run by catholic church. He estimated that the number of Central Americans passing through the city has reduced by two thirds. The wave of violence has also reached regions that have long been considered quiet.

It is believed that the CJNG has allied with a Sinaloa cartel faction in a war for the city of Los Cabos and in the nearby port of La Paz in the State of Baja California Sur.

Dismembered bodies, heads cut off and clandestine graves have become almost routine in these previously quiet tourist areas. Dwight Zahringer, born in Michoacan and living in a luxury Los Cabos neighbourhood, said he recently found a victim at the entrance to his sub division.

"It was more like a message that drug traffickers wanted to deliver, like saying we can go inside your Beverly Hills and leave dismembered bodies at your door", Zahringer said, "I'm from Detroit, we are accustomed to seeing delinquency, but heads left in ice coolers, that's a little extreme".

Original article in Spanish at Debate