Zetas ain’t so tough
Since I expect the Mexican Army will be dispatched to Louisiana in the next few days (after Hurricane Katrina, they went by truck… and showed up a lot sooner than FEMA, but so did just about everyone and everything), I thought I might say something about the annoying tendency in all U.S. news reports to claim “los Zetas” are all former military people, or — laughably — “special forces troops who went over to the dark side.”
Mexico doesn’t have a very large Army (about the same number of soldiers as Chile, a country of 16.5 million … and Mexico’s soldiers also perform a lot of non-military roles — disaster relief, forestry services and medical care in disadvantaged communities among others). However, it does have national service, and being an “ex-soldier” is no particular distinction. And a lot of what are probably called “ex-soldiers” are kids who put in their time in the Servicio Militar (sort of a junior home guard that usually plants trees and does some calethenics) or were among the large number of guys who just quit the service, with or without official permission. In other words, not exactly professional, disciplined military careerists.
I don’t know how the story started that the Zetas were rogue Special Forces guys in the first place. Mexico’s entire Army Special Forces is only about a hundred guys — about the same number of troopers in the Papal Swiss Guard. That’s a weird comparison, I know, but even the Swiss Guards — who have the probably the strictest personnel vettings on the planet — every once in a while have a rogue member (they had a barracks murder a few years ago). It’s within the realm of possibility that a special forces guy joined the gangsters , but given this photo which was in several Mexican papers today, not likely that there’s more than one, or two of what would be very scary gangsters.
Here are some particularly nasty “zetas” — self-confessed as such — presumably responsible for chopping off a dozen guys’ heads down in the Yucatan. Stripping them down to their skivvies for their mug shots is usually to show that they haven’t been beaten (at least not so you can see it)… but these are not any “special forces” veterans… unless they’ve really gone to seed.
I’ll have more to say on this later, but the myth of a “criminal force” makes them harder to control… and more likely to lead to real abuses than if they are seen for what they are. Stripped down, they’re just thugs… and out of shape thugs at that.
mexfiles.net 
The first Zetas were ex-GAFEs (Special Forces). Most of those guys are dead or in jail now.
I’ve heard those stories too, but if it was true, there would be names attached to these mythical ex-GAFE’s … or at least semi-reliable numbers. Mexico has a draft for those who don’t find an alternative social service project, which means most draftees are from the poorer, less educated background that is also the recruiting ground for future gangsters. I don’t find it at all unusual that so many gangsters are “ex-soldiers” but I don’t find any hard evidence of GAFE-Zeta connections.
“Most reports indicate that the Zetas were created by a
group of 30 lieutenants and sublieutenants who deserted from the Mexican military’s
Special Air Mobile Force Group (Grupo Aeromovil de Fuerzas Especiales, GAFES)
to the Gulf cartel in the late 1990s.”
Click to access RL34215.pdf
whatever that means
Someone more professional than these guys is responsible for the dozens of heads of informants and cops rolling into local police stations (seriously I think that’s a semi regular occurrence)..and that’s just one of the infinite horrors allowed thanks to Mexico’s policy of leaving the cartels alone in exchange for like .1% or less of the drug profits in bribes.
By the way I don’t think you have the probably the most strictest editing in the world.
As to my crappy self-editing, nolo contendere.
You “think” heads rolling into local police stations is a” semi regular” (shouldn’t that be “semi-regular”?) occurrence. As with that 0.1 percent (with fractions of less than one percent, one writes the zero in front of the decimal point) bribery payback, your claims don’t seem to be based on any factual data, but are either complete guesses or based on figures pulled out of your ass.
I don’t know….but I’m pretty sure they’re not exactly “professional” killers. Theyre definitely out of shape!! Someone should kill those cock suckers!!
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