As I went walking on the street of (Nuevo) Laredo

I’m posting the entire story from today’s Laredo Morning Times, not so much because I really care about gangsters rubbing out their rivals, but because I want people to understand what border reporting entails, and what this means to Mexico and the U.S.

05/12/2007

Executions resume: Feds find 4 dead; officials fear cartels at war again

LAREDO MORNING TIMES

NUEVO LAREDO — Barely a day after federal officials raided a Zetas safe house in the Sister City, four men were found executed in what observers fear may signal a new round of bloody fighting between the Gulf and Sinaloa drug trafficking cartels.The bodies of three men, who had been badly beaten and then shot, were found below a graffiti-stained bridge in the 150 Aniversarios neighborhood at about 6:30 a.m. Friday near a well-worn shrine to the “santisma muerte” — Saint Death. Taped to a bridge support near the men were two bright-orange poster boards with handwritten, obscenity-laden, dire warnings to the Sinaloa Cartel and traitors to the Gulf Cartel. It was signed in Spanish, “Atentamente ‘Cartel del Golfo’ ” (Attentively, the Gulf Cartel). The Zetas, paramilitary enforcers, are connected to the Gulf Cartel. Another bright-orange poster board was taped to a wall near where the fourth body was found, at about 7:30 a.m., some three miles away at the entrance to the TStech factory close to the highway leading to the airport at about the 6.5-kilometer marker. Like the others, the sign warned against betraying the Gulf Cartel and said the deceased was a man who had been reported missing and was a traitor to the Gulf Cartel. And like the other victims, he also had been badly beaten and shot. None of the four victims found Friday had identification; all were believed to be Mexican nationals. The three found at 6:30 a.m. were handcuffed, two of them at both their wrists and ankles. Víctor Alejandro Loredo Pérez, the state police agent in charge, declared the men dead and ordered their bodies sent to a local funeral home for the legally required autopsy. He declined to make any statement, providing only the details that could readily be seen with the naked eye. The men had been shot in the head; one was also shot in the torso. Of the three found together, one was wearing an orange T-shirt, blue jeans and brown shoes; the second was wearing only a pair of boxer shorts and was barefoot; the third was wearing jeans and also was barefoot. The fourth victim was wearing boxer shorts. His ankles were tied together by his pants, and there was a blue shirt-jacket found lying in a heap by the body. Several state and federal investigators worked the crime scene, recovering evidence and seeking ways to determine positive identification of the deceased. Officials who asked not to be identified suggested the four executions were in retaliation for a raid conducted Wednesday, when more than 100 federal officers and Mexican Army soldiers surrounded a house in the 7000 block of Santa Eduwiges Avenue, one of dozens of safe houses believed to be scattered throughout Nuevo Laredo. Armed with a search warrant, the officers and soldiers rescued two men who were being held captive at the house and arrested three other men. Those three were Miguel Saavedra Pérez, 22, of Nuevo Laredo; Héctor Jesús Torres Pérez, 40, of Mexico, D.F.; and Gustavo Mariano Martínez, 20, of the state of Veracruz. The three men were whisked to the nation’s capital, where they were to be questioned. During the raid, officers and soldiers confiscated a machine gun on a tripod, silencers, some 1,700 rounds of ammunition, handheld radios, police uniforms, Army uniforms, several vehicles and an unspecified amount of illegal drugs. The war for control of the lucrative drug-trafficking routes on the border between the Gulf and Sinaola cartels has been going on for several years, sparking a seemingly endless streak of homicides in this border town. In 2005, there were at least 176 violent deaths and there were no signs of that slowing down for most of 2006. A police chief was killed and numerous city and state officers were slain. Then a well-known, popular city councilman was gunned down just blocks from City Hall. The violence all but shut down the tourist trade in Nuevo Laredo, and hundreds of small businesses were forced to close. But the river of death slowed to a trickle last December, and there have been few major incidents this year — until Friday.

Notice the story is unsigned. It’s great reporting, and if the reporter is sending out clips, they’d be sure to include it. But, it’s not worth getting tortured and murdered for your career. The author is going to remain anonymous. And alive. He (or she) has enough information in there to piss off either the Gulf or Sinaloa cartel. The only officials named are people like the coroner… and those whose names are public records, like the guys who were arrested. And, you’ll notice, they’re not being held locally.

The killers dumped the bodies, but the crimes occured somewhere else. Those not connected in some way (like policemen and reporters) weren’t at any immediate risk from the Zetas. This is the kind of incident that’s used to claim Mexico is dangerous to visit, but I don’t see how tourists figure in here at all.

The army uniforms could be stolen, or for that matter, purchased in any army surplus store in Mexico. There’s plenty of them. It’s very troubling that gangsters are likely to impersonate the army, but the wacky stories you sometimes read about the army “protecting” drug smugglers, or smuggling drugs themselves, or some covert “Mexican invasion” are just that… wacky.

The guns didn’t come from Mexico. As the reporter noted, this is a “war for control of the lucrative drug-trafficking routes on the border” and these mercenaries are being supplied by those who want the drugs. While we’re focused on the theoretical possibility of “weapons of mass destruction” coming from south to north, the weapons of (selective) destruction are flowing south. I’ve said before, if you are bothered by Mexican gangland violence, don’t do drugs.

The people being killed are Mexicans. Mexican soldiers, Mexican prosecutors, Mexican reporters… in our drug war. These executions were allegedly in retaliation for attacks on the gangsters by military units, but the arrests were a police operation. There are serious problems with using military forces for police work (besides getting soldiers killed needlessly) and serious questions being asked throughout Mexico if the “war on the cartels” isn’t like our “war on terror”, a convenient way of also cracking down on dissent, and of justifying hard-line extralegal remedies for social problems.

I don’t see any mention of drug users. How long the Mexicans will put up with OUR drug habits causing deaths in their country (and scaring off the tourists, as well as making life difficult for ordinary people in towns like Nuevo Laredo) is an open question. Probably dealing with the narco-leaders is necessary, but whether the military will continue to be involved is questionable.

Finally, notice that this is local news from Laredo’s “sister city”. Why should ordinary people in Nuevo Laredo put up with the danger and inconvenience of drug dealers, and cops and soldiers? Why should their businesses (and Laredo’s) be destroyed because of because of somebody else’s bad habits? They did not create the problem, and can’t be blamed for OUR bad habits.

I complain about the military folks on my side of the border who are here to keep the rest of the country’s conservatives safe from brown people. I don’t appreciate the extra state control, and the folks on the other side of the border want to get on with their lives too.

The GOOD NEWS is that this was a state police operation. Yeah, the cops in Mexico are crappy, but it’s a good sign when they are going after real criminals.