56 police killed in Guanajuato in six months, the grim outlook as El Mencho advances across Mexico

By Chivis Martinez Borderland Beat
Homicides have tripled in Guanajuato.  Attributed to Mencho’s advancement

Young boy killed by CJNG when sicarios detonated dynamite taped around his neck

Last Friday five Guanajuato Public Security police officers were shot to death in the Municipality of Jerécuaro. This brings the total of those killed in Guanajuato from January to July to 56.

The 2020 total may surpass the 2019 total of 78.  The cities with the most police killings, at the hands of organized crime, are Celaya, with 16, and Silao, with eight. Last year, Guanajuato ended the year with the largest number nationwide.

Five days ago, a security commander, was walking with his wife to a store on Guadalupe Victoria Street in Celaya. They were approached by men who were on motorcycles and they were gunned down with assault rifles. The state police officer, who was on his day off, passed away; his wife survived her injuries.

On June 29, four elements of Public Safety in the municipality including a commander was ambushed by a narco commando while patrolling near the La Joya shopping center in Silao, of which three policemen died and one more was seriously injured.

The killing was attributed to the Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel, (CSRL), whose leader is José Antonio Yépez Ortiz, (El Marro) who accepted responsibility through audio that circulated on social media.

Silao---3 officers killed this week

El Marro said the Silao police massacre was in response to having stopped the motorcade when his mother left the Puentecillas prison last Sunday. According to El Marro, the agents were following orders from the Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación  (CJNG) and threatened to act against police from Silao and other municipalities. 

The same Monday afternoon, a San José Iturbide police commander was assassinated.

At the time of the ambush in last five killings;  "In the face of this criminal attack perpetrated by members of Organized Crime, the Secretary of Public Security of the State reiterates that this attack will not go unpunished, which is why at the moment it supports and contributes to everything necessary before the competent authority for the total clarification,  of the facts but also so that all the weight is applied against the alleged perpetrators," reported the State Public Security.

                          Police vehicles in the Municipality of Jerécuaro, where 5 police were killed

High profile executions involve municipalities in collusion, police and city hall

The sad fact is that these crimes absolutely go without punishment or justice.  If perpetrators are arrested,  typically they are quietly released, especially high-profile cases.

In high profile cases, large showy arrests are conducted before a press pool.  An example is the case of the 43 student teachers that were massacred in Iguala.  A mass arrest transpired.  
But in time, one by one each was released.   Quietly, and without press fanfare.

The only subjects who remain in prison is the corrupt mayor and his wife.  They genuinely were not involved in the case of the 43 but were charged with organized crime crimes. 

An illustration of a police force,  a narco order, and the execution

Eduardo “Lalo” Moreira was a great young man.  I was honored to know him after Hurricane Alex hit in 2010.  He contacted my office about working together on relief efforts.  

Which we did.

Lalo was the son of one of the most hated politicos in Mexico, former Coahuila governor Humberto Moreira.  One good thing can be said about Bert, he loves his children.  Lalo was a love child whom he always visited and during Lalo’s teens, Bert publicly acknowledged as his son.  Lalo never lived with Bert in the mansions of Saltillo.  He lived with his mother in the dusty border town of Acuna, Coahuila.  He was raised differently than his sibs.  And it showed by his compassion and concern for those in need.

Lalo’s uncle Rubén became governor after his brother Bert left Coahuila with the presidency in his eyes.  There was a rift between the brothers.  Which may or may not have led to the decision by the governor to take away Lalo’s armored car and security detail.  

In October 2010, Lalo was on his way to an opening of a sports center when the police chief called him asking to meet at Santa Eulalia, in southern Acuña. 

Lalo called his assistant and said, “I am on my way, but first I am meeting Rodolfo”.  Rodolfo Castillo (police chief).

Those were the last words heard from the new, first-time father.

His body was discovered in the driver's seat of his unarmored truck with two gunshot impacts to his head. 

The “hit” was ordered by Los Zetas.  By Lazca.  Retaliation for the shoot-out death of Miguel Treviño’s nephew in Piedras Negras by state police.

Lalo was an easy hit, a sitting duck.  

“Nephew for Nephew,” said the message.

After the killing, there was a big showy group arrest of the entire police force and the sending of them to the state capital.  The mayor, chief of police were both in collusion. 

The mayor spoke of the 7 police officers suspended due to the investigation.  That number quickly amended to include every member of the force and 4 dispatchers on duty the day of the murder.  (very telling was the absence of the mayor at Lalo's funeral, his uncle the governor also a no-show)

A total of 48 police  were transferred Thursday evening to Saltillo, the state capital of Coahuila, along with Rodolfo Castillo (photo at left) and José Trinidad Sifuentes (possibly Sifuentes) and Victor Sifuentes.    Victor was reported as first on the scene of the murder on the road to Santa Eulalia, in southern Acuña, and discovered Lalo dead with two gunshot wounds to the head.  Victor the supervisor on duty the day of the murder.

Zetas took 4 of the police involved, including Victor shot at least two and tied the extremities of all four.  They threw the bodies in Rio Bravo.  However, Victor was still alive although handcuffed.  He floated to the Del Rio side where he was spotted and picked up by BP.  He was taken to the Del Rio Hospital.

That is where my friend Lacy put the facts together.  No one wanted to become involved on the DR side.  But I began calling federal authorities about Victor who was using the last name “Lima”.  He was transferred to GEO and deported quickly before agencies could get their “stuff” together.  At the time Obama had implemented the fast track deportation program.  

Victor, the "wanted murderer", disguised as a police agent, was sent back to Mexico, where he disappeared into the landscape.

Victor was subsequently picked up in Monclova, Coahuila.  When he was arrested his face still bore the signs of his injuries when he was roughed up and tossed into the Rio. (arrest foto above)

The aforementioned is an example of how collusion works in Mexico municipalities.  From city hall down.

The government is culpable for the state of Mexico’s police agencies, federal, state, and municipal. 

100% of all municipal police in drug plazas are narco-complicit.  How can they not be?  There is no protection or incentive not to become in collusion with narcos.  A refusal is a death warrant.  No matter how honorable the mindset when a person enters the police force, that mindset is quickly changed.

Not only police are in collusion but city hall. And the press takes its orders from organized crime, those brave reporters who dare publish the truth are putting their lives on the line.

Mexico is consistently named as ground zero for the abysmal world title of “Nation with most reporters killed”, sometimes in tandem with places such as Afghanistan.  Last year Mexico surpassed Syria and was first place again as “The Most Dangerous Country for Journalists”.

Journalists, regional reporters, and bloggers must be protected.  It is well beyond time for “remote reporting”.  Such as Zeta Tijuana did after they came under deadly attack.  With the technology that exists today, there is no reason that reporters cannot safely report remotely. 

In over a decade I have not seen a change except for the worse.  

I believe a change must come from the federal level, beginning at the ground level of municipalities.  Beginning at border much can be done, for example rotating teams of police, and remote reporting. 

But nothing will be done until the mindset of Mexican citizens change from apathy to one of being willing to forsake oneself for the betterment of Mexico and future generations.

Escalating CJNG advancement

Homicides have tripled in Guanajuato.  Attributed to Mencho’s advancement.

In fact, I believe the climate of violence today in Mexico is at an unprecedented level.  In the past, there would be 2 or 3 "off the charts" hotspots.  Today it is a half dozen, at least.  So large a number, that the Borderland Beat all-volunteer staff, can’t possibly cover all the “big” news, leaving us in a position of having “to choose” which we report, leaving other important stories unreported.    

The majority of the increase comes from the advancement and power growth from El Mencho and CJNG.  Mencho has changed the dynamic of the drug war, that does not and will not cease, subsequent to any logistical and geographical “win”. 

Over six years ago, I suggested thatMencho is a different kind of leader and the biggest threat to the security of Mexico.  My position is unchanged.  My biggest fear is the massive cache of war weaponry he collects.  There is only one use for those types of weapons.  

Hopefully, he is stopped.  But it won’t be easy.  He is not El Chapo. He is low key, cunning, decisive, perceptive.  Similar to Chapo Isidro but taking evil to the highest level.  He appears to have no boundaries. 

Such as blowing up a kid with dynamite in 2015. This was discovered by authorities when arresting 4 sicarios.  

The footage was on their confiscated cell phones.

In one of them, there is an adult subject, with a boy of about 10 who is crying terrified, with dynamite attached around his neck.  Another video depicts the child being killed when the dynamite was detonated.

A few steps away from a fence, two men kick and shoot a man on the ground, hands tied, who screams in pain, just before the dynamite,  adhered to the chest is detonated.

Consider the fact these videos were not to flood social media and terrorize enemies and citizens.   These were filmed and kept for the enjoyment of the twisted minds who conducted the executions.

In Guanajuato, an elderly lady told the press, “it was peaceful here before the strangers came.”

There is no end in sight or in the foreseeable future.   Mencho is setting up for the “golden ticket”, the one that eluded El Chapo....Tamaulipas, especially Nuevo Laredo.  CDN vs CJNG, such a war will be a blood bath to the magnitude we have not seen before.