Note: so is there a "peace plan" that does not involve surrender to
cartels?
Ex-PAN boss: End Mexico's 'war experiment'
by Marisela Ortega Lozano / El Paso Times
Posted: 05/20/2011 12:00:00 AM MDT
http://www.elpasotimes.com/juarez/ci_18097304
Manuel Espino Barrientos, former national president of the National
Action Party, or PAN, in Mexico spoke to the La Red organization's
breakfast meeting at a West El Paso restaurant Thursday. (Rudy
Gutierrez/El Paso Times)
Ex-PAN leader to visit El Paso, says Mexico strategy fails
A former supporter of Mexican President Felipe Calderón on Thursday
called on Calderón to end his "war experiment" against the drug
cartels because it is causing the loss of too many people.
Manuel Espino Barrientos, a former congressman in Mexico and former
leader of the ruling National Action Party, known as PAN, also said
Calderón suffers from "presidential deafness" because he refuses to
listen to his closest advisers.
Calderón "must redefine his strategy against organized crime," Espino
Barrientos said. "Deployment of federal police and Mexican troops is
not the answer, since that approach has carried out a huge bloodshed
in Mexico."
Calderón, a member of PAN, will be in Juárez today. His term ends in
2012.
Espino Barrientos spoke Thursday at the monthly meeting of La Red
México-El Paso (The Network), a group of businessmen and
businesswomen now established in El Paso after fleeing violence in
Juárez. The meeting was at a West Side restaurant.
He warned that Mexico may become dominated by narco-politics -- that
powerful narcotics traffickers will impose their candidates for
public office and not bribe the people in office already.
"We think Calderón suffers from presidential deafness," said Espino
Barrientos.
Espino Barrientos, founder of Starting Over (Volver a Empezar) a
social movement aimed at putting an end to the violence in Mexico and
Juárez, urged Calderón to end "a war experiment at the expense of
people's lives and pain."
As a result of Calderón's war against drug cartels, Espino Barrientos
said, 40,000 people in Mexico have been killed, and 5,400 have
disappeared since 2006.
Those are government figures, Espino Barrientos said.
"Mexican federal police are rude, arrogant and have no regard about
citizens' well-being or lives," he said. "They don't care who will be
killed during a chase against suspects or criminals."
In Juárez, 21,000 people had been displaced from that city between
2008 and 2010 because of the drug violence, he said.
About 8,000 have been killed in Juárez since the Juárez and Sinaloa
drug cartels began a vicious war for lucrative drug-trafficking
routes into the U.S.
One of those killed in 2010 was Espino Barrientos' nephew, Hugo
Francisco Zamora Ochoa, 24, a Coronado High School graduate.
The ex-PAN leader wants Calderón to come up with a peace plan to end
the war during his visit to Juárez today to celebrate the 100th
anniversary of the Battle of Juárez, a milestone in the Mexican
Revolution that led to the resignation of Porfirio Díaz as president.
"We are not asking President Calderón to step down," Barrientos said.
"We want him to sign a peace plan to end this war without aim that
has caused so much pain, sorrow and deaths in Mexico."
Marisela Ortega Lozano may be reached at mortega@elpasotimes.com;
542-6077.
Note: interesting background
The narco militia
José Gil Olmos
http://www.proceso.com.mx/rv/modHome/detalleExclusiva/91426
MEXICO CITY, May 18 (approved) .- One of the characteristics of the
Zetas is violence and terror to mark and dominate their territory.
This could happen as a way to act in any organized crime
organization, is actually part of military training that the members
of this cartel and Mexico had increased with the inclusion of other
groups with military training: the Guatemalans kaibiles, the
marasalvatruchas Salvadorans.
On integration, one could say that Los Zetas are the first
group of organized crime with a military structure, since its origins
are entwined members who were once in the respective armies of
Mexico, El Salvador and Guatemala, which makes cartels one of the
most dangerous of all those in the drug trade.
The first to incorporate in Los Zetas were Mexican military
from counter insurgency and terrorism experts trained in the U.S..
They were soldiers following the Indian uprising in Chiapas received
special training in the United States and formed the Special Forces
Airmobile Group (GAFE) Amphibious Special Forces Group (Ganfe) and
Rifle Brigade Parachute (BFP).
By 1999, a group of 40 of these soldiers were taken to
Tamaulipas and police to combat drug trafficking. Since that time,
they were known in the then Federal Police as Los Zetas, but the Gulf
cartel leader Osiel Cardenas Guillen, almost immediately co-opted to
become his private army of assassins.
For nearly a decade, the armed wing of Osiel Cardenas grew
rapidly in power and presence, becoming independent by March 2010 and
attracting other two groups also trained in the military, as the
Maras Salvadorans and Guatemalans kaibiles, also trained in the
United States in counterinsurgency.
In the case of Salvadorans, since in 1991 peace was signed
at Chapultepec Castle in Mexico City, many of the country's military
became unemployed and migrated to Los Angeles, California, where they
joined gangs that his countrymen had already formed on Calle 13 by a
character known as El Flaco Stoner.
The former soldiers trained by the military schools of the
American Union was given a military structure to gangs and patented
the use of terror to control territory in the city of Los Angeles,
creating a problem so strong that in the nineties the U.S. government
deported hundreds of Maras to El Salvador.
With this action they thought they had solved the problem, but it
actually increased. In El Salvador emerged new gangs and, of course,
many of them began to migrate back by land to the United States and
left many seeds of terror as it passes through Guatemala and Mexico.
The presence of the Maras caught the attention of Los
Zetas, due to its expansion in Tamaulipas, Nuevo Leon and Coahuila,
and in Nayarit, Sonora, Sinaloa (Los Mochis), Puebla, Zacatecas,
Aguascalientes, San Luis Potosi, Durango, Tabasco, Campeche,
Guanajuato, Queretaro (San Juan del Rio), Veracruz, Oaxaca and
Tlaxcala, needed to strengthen its ranks with new elements.
Maras then hired to continue the business of alien smuggling and at
the same time, the soldiers also attracted school grads of the
Guatemalan counterinsurgency unit Kaibil, called in honor of the
Mayan king of the jungle of El Petén, Kaibil Balam that could never
be subdued by the Spanish.
Established since 1975, the school Kaibil distinguished
from its beginnings in Guatemala to train troops first, and then
other countries - including Mexico - under the terrifying technique
to combat the insurgency, with the use of special weapons as knives
to behead enemies and civilians.
After peace was signed in 1996, the Guatemalan army was
minimized and many kaibiles soldiers were left jobless. Some went to
private initiative and more are moved to organized crime. Hence the
Zetas attracting them to its ranks to dominate the Mexican and
Guatemalan territory. And since the end of 2005 were located kaibiles
among Los Zetas.
Perhaps there is no example in the world of a militia
turned into a group of organized crime such as Los Zetas. From their
experience in the Army, they have the capacity to operate in the
field and in the city.
In addition to drug trafficking, they have also dabbled in illegal
trade in extortion and kidnapping, trading music, films and clothing
pirated. Their presence is detected in Mexico and Central America,
and Europe reach commercial leagues.
The implementation of the 72 migrants found last year in
the ejido El Huizachal, municipality of San Fernando, Tamaulipas, the
120 found in mass graves this year in the same municipality, and the
27 people killed in the Finca Los Cocos, located in the municipality
of La Libertad, Guatemala --- 25 of them beheaded - show that Los
Zetas are willing to do anything to keep their empire of terror.
Their existence is a clear example of the most serious
mistake that has had the government of Felipe Calderón, to put the
army in the war on drugs, showing their vulnerability and weakness to
an enemy that was born from his own ranks, emerging as his nemesis .
Home Yuriria Sierra vs The drug money. narco
Vs narco money. narco
THURSDAY, MAY 19, 2011 22:37 Yuriria SIERRA
Sierra Yuriria
http://www.eldiariodesonora.com.mx/index.php?
option=com_content&view=article&id=14877:el-dinero-del-narco-vs-el-
narco&catid=111:yuriria-sierra&Itemid=327
On Monday morning, President Felipe Calderón instructed his closest
to seek dialogue with Javier Sicilia and anyone connected with the
organization of the March for Peace held the last weekend, the theme
we wrote yesterday. By midafternoon, he wrote in his Twitter account
that he was interested in hearing the reasons for the call walker:
"We must talk in order to express all points of view, where we agree
and where we disagree. "And another tweet almost immediately:" I'm
interested to hear the reasons that exist, and are aware of my
government, so that together define what is best for the country. "
A response that reaches nearly 24 hours after the big rally that
began in Cuernavaca and ended at the Zocalo of Mexico City and that
is starting, step one to respond to the demands made. As I wrote
yesterday, the event must be done each time deserving causes, but
always embraced proposals and reflection. And, today, already have a
proposal for dialogue open. What the country requires, rather than
division, is consensus on the best for your future. And that is a
dialogue that must be done urgently, because it is urgent that new
strategies are plotted.
Above this, come to issue the agreement signed yesterday by 22
countries, including ours, for a fund that can run anti-narco part of
the money they are seized from criminal groups engaged in cocaine
trafficking. And it has a certain logic
The agreement signed by the G-8 plus fourteen other countries, seeks
to diminish the trafficking of cocaine, a drug considered a global
threat. And why not. Annually, cocaine traffickers gives her an
outlay of 84 billion dollars, according to numbers from the United
Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. Much can be done with that money!
How to get programs going for the prevention and rehabilitation.
Extremely important issues with regard to end the climate of violence.
The truth is that raising this agreement is that the funds will come
from the drug is thinner fare then seizing power that is more than
anything else, the main reason they exist. And it would use those
resources for the implementation of new strategies, the most sensible
way, to call it somehow. Harnessing the Power of offenders, in order
to go after them.
And there is a very wrong idea. As we discussed yesterday when we
talked about the possibility of legalization of marijuana, today we
say that it is necessary strategies, new focus more toward economic
weakness and, better yet, to suit the type of traffic being treated.
Different strategies for the same purpose: the vulnerability of
criminal groups.
Necessary and urgent, because we continue to count casualties. Now it
was in Durango where clandestine graves forced to open the file, one
heavier than that of San Fernando in Tamaulipas were 193 bodies
found, more than any other time. But we understand that violence will
not come down until the action plan goes beyond the arrests,
resignations and forfeitures.
Listen
Read phonetically
Home Yuriria Sierra El dinero del narco vs. el narco
El dinero del narco vs. el narco
JUEVES 19 DE MAYO DE 2011 22:37 YURIRIA SIERRA
Yuriria Sierra
http://www.eldiariodesonora.com.mx/index.php?
option=com_content&view=article&id=14877:el-dinero-del-narco-vs-el-
narco&catid=111:yuriria-sierra&Itemid=327
El lunes por la mañana, el presidente Felipe Calderón instruía a sus
cercanos que buscaran diálogo con Javier Sicilia y todo aquel
vinculado con la organización de la Marcha por la Paz realizada el
fin de semana pasado, el tema del que escribíamos ayer. A media
tarde, escribía en su cuenta de Twitter que estaba interesado en
escuchar las razones de la convocatoria marchista: "Debemos dialogar
para que se expresen todos los puntos de vista, tanto en los que
estamos de acuerdo como en los que estamos en desacuerdo." Y otro
tweet casi enseguida: "Me interesa escuchar las razones que se
plantean, y que se conozcan las de mi gobierno, para juntos definir
lo que es mejor para el país".
Una respuesta que llega casi 24 horas después de la gran
manifestación que comenzó en Cuernavaca y terminó en el Zócalo del DF
y que es, de inicio, el paso número uno para responder a las
exigencias hechas. Tal como lo escribíamos ayer, la manifestación
debe hacerse cada vez que las causas lo ameriten, pero siempre
abrazadas de propuestas y reflexión. Y, hoy, tienen ya una propuesta
de diálogo abierta. Lo que el país requiere, más que división, es
consenso sobre lo mejor para su futuro. Y ese es un diálogo que debe
hacerse con premura, porque urge que se diagramen nuevas estrategias.
Y, sobre esto, viene a tema el acuerdo firmado ayer por 22 países,
incluido el nuestro, para un fondo antinarco que permita utilizar
parte de los dineros que les son decomisados a los grupos criminales
dedicados al tráfico de cocaína. Y tiene una gran lógica:
El acuerdo firmado por el G-8 más otros catorce países, busca mermar
el tráfico de cocaína, una de las drogas consideradas amenaza global.
Y cómo no. Anualmente, la cocaína da a sus traficantes una derrama de
84 mil millones de dólares, según los números de la Oficina de las
Naciones Unidas contra la Droga y el Crimen. ¡Cuánto puede hacerse
con ese dinero! Cuánto para lograr programas que vayan por la
prevención y la rehabilitación. Temas sumamente importantes en lo
relativo a acabar con el clima de violencia.
La verdad es que lo que plantea este acuerdo es que los fondos que
vienen del narco se vayan adelgazando para entonces irles arrebatando
ese poder que es, más que otra cosa, la principal razón por la que
existen. Y sería el uso de esos recursos, para la ejecución de nuevas
estrategias, la forma más sensata, por llamarlo de alguna manera. La
utilización del poder de los delincuentes, con el objetivo de ir tras
ellos.
Y no es una idea tan equivocada. Así como lo expusimos ayer cuando
hablábamos de las posibilidades de legalización de la mariguana, hoy
decimos que es necesario que las estrategias, las nuevas, se enfoquen
más hacia el debilitamiento económico y, mejor aún, que se adapten
según el tipo de tráfico que se está tratando. Estrategias distintas
para un mismo fin: la vulnerabilidad de los grupos criminales.
Necesario y urgente, porque seguimos haciendo conteo de víctimas.
Ahora fue en Durango donde las fosas clandestinas obligaron a abrir
expediente, uno más pesado que el de San Fernando en Tamaulipas:
fueron 193 los cuerpos encontrados, más que en cualquier otra
ocasión. Pero entendemos que la violencia no bajará sino hasta que el
plan de acción vaya más allá de las detenciones, renuncias y decomisos.
Note: We can't make this stuff up.
Juárez to add 'heroic' to name
By Alejandro Martínez-Cabrera \ EL PASO TIMES
Posted: 05/18/2011 10:03:19 PM MDT
http://www.elpasotimes.com/juarez/ci_18092133?source=most_viewed
This Saturday, Juárez will become heroic.
The state congress of Chihuahua has approved permanently changing the
official name of the city to Heroica Ciudad Juárez, or Heroic City of
Juárez. The change will become official Saturday during a ceremony in
Juárez -- a city in the midst of a severe image problem created by a
three-year drug cartel war that is playing out daily in its streets.
The name change was proposed by Chihuahua Gov. Cesar Duarte, who said
it is in honor of the celebrations this month commemorating the 100th
anniversary of the battle of Ciudad Juárez, which is considered the
defining moment in determining the outcome of the Mexican Revolution.
"A lot of people call the city 'Juaritos,' but in every official
document it will now have to be called 'Heroic Ciudad Juárez,' " said
Chihuahua state Rep. Francisco González Carrasco, who presented the
proposal to Congress and is helping to coordinate this month's
festivities.
According to the official decree to be read Saturday, the name change
will be "in virtue of the compromise and courage that the inhabitants
(of Juárez) have shown during each of the political stages of the
country."
In 1865, Ciudad Juárez served as a refuge for President Benito Juárez
and the temporary headquarters for the federal government during the
French invasion of the country.
And in May 1911, a battle between the Mexican army and the forces of
Francisco Villa and Pascual Orozco helped expedite the resignation of
then-President Porfirio Díaz, a significant point in the revolution.
González Carrasco said the name-change initiative underscored
Juárez's crucial role throughout Mexico's history and was more than
justified.
"This is only a small payment for what Juárez has done for Mexico,"
he said.
The official resolution makes no mention of the brutal violence
occurring in Juárez today, or of the city's current attempts to
change its image.
Since 2008, when a drug cartel war broke out across Mexico, more than
8,000 people have been slain in the streets of Juárez, leading some
to proclaim it the deadliest city in the world.
But for the past five months, city officials and business leaders
have been working to change that image. City officials adopted a new
song that promotes the city, and two groups, Plan Juárez and
Competitive Juárez, are setting up events to showcase the city's
manufacturing and business capabilities, as well as its arts and
culture.
Juárez Mayor Héctor Murguía Lardizábal said residents should be glad
their city is now heroic, historic and on its way to a better future.
"We are very proud of our city being named as Heroica Ciudad Juárez,"
Murguía said in a written statement. "That way, we can move forward
and be even more patriotic. That also means we are being reassured as
true Mexican nationals."
But for Felipe Talavera, the custodian of Juárez's historical
archive, the name change was rushed.
"I don't agree with it at all. The revolution was heroic, not the
city. One would have to make a thorough analysis and see what's the
definition of heroic in the dictionary," he said.
Talavera thought the name change was politically motivated and
underscored the efforts from the local, state and federal governments
to repair the city's blood-smeared reputation.
Talavera said this will be the fourth name change in the history of
the city.
The first settlement in the region was named El Paso by Spanish
explorer Juan de Oñate in 1598. The name of the outpost south of the
Rio Grande was changed for the first time upon the foundation of the
Misión de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe de los Mansos del Paso del Río
del Norte, by Fray García de San Francisco in 1659.
The city was renamed Villa Paso del Norte in 1826, and once again
changed to Ciudad Juárez by President Porfirio Díaz in 1888.
From May 8 to 21, the city has been holding a series of cultural
events to commemorate the battle of Ciudad Juárez, including the
unveiling of new monuments and the restoration of hundreds of public
spaces.
On Friday, Mexican President Felipe Calderón is expected to attend
the grand opening of the Museum of the Revolution, at the site of the
former customs office.
The port city of Veracruz is the only other city in Mexico to share
the moniker "heroic."
Alejandro Martínez-Cabrera may be reached at
a.martinez@elpasotimes.com; 546-6129.
La milicia narca
José Gil Olmos
http://www.proceso.com.mx/rv/modHome/detalleExclusiva/91426
MÉXICO, DF, 18 de mayo (apro).- Una de las características de Los
Zetas es la violencia y el terror con los que actúan para marcar y
dominar su territorio. Esto, que podría pasar como una forma de
actuar de cualquier organización del crimen organizado, en realidad
es parte del adiestramiento militar que los integrantes de este
cártel mexicano tuvieron y que se acrecentó con la inclusión de otros
grupos con formación militar: los kaibiles guatemaltecos y los
marasalvatruchas salvadoreños.
Por su integración, bien podría decirse que Los Zetas son
el primer grupo del crimen organizado con una estructura militar,
pues en sus orígenes están entrelazados miembros que alguna vez
estuvieron en los respectivos ejércitos de México, El Salvador y
Guatemala, lo que los convierte en uno de los cárteles más peligrosos
de todos los que hay en el narcotráfico.
Los primeros que integraron a Los Zetas fueron militares
mexicanos expertos en contrainsurgencia y terrorismo entrenados en
Estados Unidos.
Se trataba de soldados que a raíz del levantamiento indígena en
Chiapas recibieron entrenamiento especial en Estados Unidos y
conformaban el Grupo Aeromóvil de Fuerzas Especiales (GAFE), Grupo
Anfibio de Fuerzas Especiales (Ganfe) y Brigada de Fusileros
Paracaidistas (BFP).
Hacia 1999, un grupo de 40 de estos soldados fueron
llevados a Tamaulipas como policías para combatir el narcotráfico.
Desde aquel tiempo, se les conocía en la entonces Policía Federal
Preventiva como Los Zetas, pero el líder del cártel del Golfo, Osiel
Cárdenas Guillén, casi de inmediato los cooptó para convertirlos en
su ejército particular de sicarios.
Durante casi una década el brazo armado de Osiel Cárdenas
creció rápidamente en poder y presencia, independizándose hacia marzo
del 2010 y atrayendo a otros dos grupos igualmente entrenados en la
milicia, como los Maras salvadoreños y los kaibiles guatemaltecos,
también entrenados en Estados Unidos en la lucha contra la insurgencia.
En el caso de los salvadoreños, desde que en 1991 fue
firmada la paz en el Castillo de Chapultepec, en la Ciudad de México,
muchos de los militares de ese país se quedaron sin empleo y migraron
hacia Los Ángeles, California, donde se unieron con las pandillas que
sus paisanos ya habían formado en la Calle 13 por un personaje
conocido como El Flaco Stoner.
Los ex soldados entrenados por las escuelas militares de la
Unión Americana le dieron una estructura militar a las pandillas y
patentizaron el uso del terror para controlar el territorio en la
ciudad de Los Ángeles, creando un problema tan fuerte que en la
década de los noventa el gobierno estadunidense deportó a cientos de
Maras a El Salvador.
Con esta acción pensaron que se había resuelto el problema, pero en
realidad lo acrecentaron. En El Salvador surgieron nuevas pandillas
y, luego, muchos de ellos comenzaron a emigrar por tierra nuevamente
a Estados Unidos y dejaron muchas semillas de terror a su paso por
Guatemala y México.
La presencia de los Maras llamó la atención de Los Zetas
que, debido a su expansión en Tamaulipas, Nuevo León y Coahuila, así
como en Nayarit, Sonora, Sinaloa (Los Mochis), Puebla, Zacatecas,
Aguascalientes, San Luis Potosí, Durango, Tabasco, Campeche,
Guanajuato, Querétaro (San Juan del Río), Veracruz, Oaxaca y
Tlaxcala, necesitaban reforzar sus filas con nuevos elementos.
Entonces contrataron a los Maras para seguir con el negocio del
tráfico de indocumentados y, al mismo tiempo, también atrajeron a los
soldados guatemaltecos egresados de la escuela de contrainsurgencia
conocida como Kaibil, en honor al rey maya de la selva de El Petén,
Kaibil Balam, que nunca pudo ser sometido por los españoles.
Creada desde 1975, la escuela Kaibil se distinguió desde
sus inicios en entrenar a soldados de Guatemala, primero, y de otros
países después --incluido México--, bajo la técnica más terrorífica
de combate a la insurgencia, con el uso de armas especiales como
cuchillos para decapitar a los enemigos y a la población civil.
Después que se firmó la paz en 1996, el Ejército
guatemalteco se redujo al mínimo y muchos soldados kaibiles se
quedaron sin empleo. Algunos se fueron a la iniciativa privada y
otros más se metieron al crimen organizado. De ahí los atrajeron Los
Zetas metiéndolos a sus filas para dominar el territorio mexicano y
el guatemalteco. Y desde finales del 2005 fueron ubicados kaibiles
entre Los Zetas.
Quizá no haya un ejemplo en el mundo de una milicia
convertida en un grupo del crimen organizado como son Los Zetas. Por
su experiencia en el Ejército, tienen capacidad para operar en el
campo y en la ciudad.
Además del tráfico de droga también han incursionado en tráfico de
ilegales, en la extorsión y el secuestro, en el comercio de música,
películas y ropa pirata. Su presencia se detecta en México, Estados
Unidos y Centroamérica, y sus ligas comerciales alcanzan Europa.
La ejecución de los 72 migrantes descubiertos el año pasado
en el ejido El Huizachal, del municipio de San Fernando, Tamaulipas;
los 120 encontrados en fosas clandestinas en este año en ese mismo
municipio, y las 27 personas asesinadas en la finca Los Cocos,
localizada en el municipio La Libertad, Guatemala ---25 de ellas
decapitadas--, muestran que Los Zetas están dispuestos a todo para
mantener su imperio de terror.
Su existencia es un claro ejemplo del error más grave que
ha tenido el gobierno de Felipe Calderón, meter de lleno al Ejército
en el combate al narcotráfico, mostrando su vulnerabilidad y su
debilidad ante un enemigo que nació de sus propias filas, emergiendo
como su Némesis.
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