Fausta's Blog

American and Latin American Politics, Society, and Culture

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Mexico: Police confess to handing 3 Italian men to the CJNG cartel

Raffaele Russo, 60, his 25-year-old son Antonio, and his nephew, Vincenzo Cimmino, 29, disappeared on January 31 in Tecalitlán, in the western state of Jalisco.

The state’s governor said the officers had confessed to handing the Italians over to a local criminal gang.

The police had allegedly arrested them at a petrol station beforehand.

What is alleged to have happened?
Raffaele Russo, 60, his 25-year-old son Antonio, and his nephew, Vincenzo Cimmino, 29, had stopped at a petrol station in Tecalitlán, an agricultural town.

The last relatives back in Italy heard from them was a Whatsapp message from Mr Russo saying they had been approached by police officers who arrived on cycles and in a van.

The police told them to follow them, according to the message.

The son of one of the disappeared earlier told Italian radio that the men had been “sold to a gang for €43” ($53; £38), but regional officials said they could not confirm that information.

And the police? (emphasis added)

Four police, including a female officer, have been detained and charged. The Mexican authorities say three more police are being sought in connection with the disappearance.

Following the trio’s disappearance, the town’s entire police force was sent for retraining, although some local media speculated that they were sent away so that they could not be intimidated by local cartel members into changing their story.

As you may recall, the state prosecutor in the 43 missing Iguala student teachers alleges that they were handed by local police to a criminal gang, who killed them and burned their bodies.

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Mexico: AMLO in sheep’s clothing

Andrés Manuel López Obrador, best known as AMLO, is running for president of Mexico.

The thing is, communism doesn’t sell, so he’s wearing moderate clothing,

Mr. López Obrador does not seem to have given up on his dream to revive Mexican corporatism, in which government intervenes heavily in the economy. But he does recognize that his economic instincts are a liability in a national election. So he’s playing them down and marketing himself as a moderate who will defeat crony capitalism and champion social justice.

The promise to fight corruption strikes a chord with Mexicans, and Mr. López Obrador leads with a plurality in early polling in a race that is likely to feature more than three candidates.

But!

But he has two important vulnerabilities. First, there are major contradictions between his economic agenda and the aspirations of the young nation. Second, he is not always viewed by Mexicans as the squeaky-clean messiah he makes himself out to be.

Oh, that.

Remember the 43 missing Iguala students?

Residents of Iguala told La Opinión that the gang moved into the town only after José Luis Abarca became its mayor with Mr. López Obrador’s backing. One local told La Opinión that Mr. López Obrador ignored warnings from townspeople that Mr. Abarca had ties to the cartel.

As if that were not enough, AMLO has proposed amnesty for drug kingpins in exchange for peace with the cartels.

The election is in July. What could possibly go wrong if he wins?

Cross-posted at WoW! Magazine.

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Mexico: Mass grave with 253 skulls found in Veracruz UPDATED

Grieving Mothers Lead Authorities to Mass Grave in Mexico. Amid soaring violence in Veracruz, Mexico, a group founded by mothers of missing people discovered what may be the country’s largest mass grave. More than 250 skulls have been recovered so far. Horrible:

Last Mother’s Day, a few dozen women, all mothers, marched through the central square of this picturesque port city, demanding local authorities find family members who had disappeared, suspected victims of the country’s drug violence. Suddenly, two men dashed out of an SUV, ran up to the women, and jammed crudely drawn maps into their hands.

The maps pointed to a field just off a main highway near a gritty housing project a few miles outside of town. One corner of the map was covered by a forest of crosses. “Bodies,” the map said, with an arrow pointing to the crosses.

And, if that was not horrible enough, it was the women themselves who hired the diggers and had to persuade forensic authorities to look into it while body parts kept turning up. In an area where bodies had been dumped for at least the last four years.

Think about that for a moment.

Is that what would happen in a narcostate?

253 skulls found, only two victims identified:

Pedro Huesca, an agent from the public prosecutor’s office who was 29 when he was kidnapped by armed men four years ago, and his assistant, Gerardo Montiel, who was taken the same day.

And by the way, this is not the Ayotzinapa case, where 43 student teachers are missing and only one man’s remains have been identified.

Cross-posted at WoW! Magazine.

UPDATE
Veracruz: Report Unveils Mexico’s ‘State of Terror’

The report produced by the International Crisis Group (ICG), a non-governmental organization that conducts research and proposes policies for dealing with conflict zones, suggests that before Veracruz can be reformed, there is a need to obtain accurate data revealing the full scope of the violence and corruption, and the government needs to do an overhaul of state institutions.

Full report at the link.

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Mexico: Demonstrators want respect

Headline from El País:
Mexicans take to the streets to protest against Donald Trump. Non-partisan demonstrations throughout the country bring thousands out to demand “respect” and “dignity”

Marchers demanded “respect” and “dignity” from Trump and his government, with an estimated 20,000 people pouring onto the streets of Mexico City, with students from the capital’s UNAM state university joining in protest for the first time since 1968, when dozens were killed and injured in demonstrations. Among the intellectuals at the march were Enrique Graue, Enrique Krauze, Héctor Aguilar Camín, and Enrique Ochoa, presidents of the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).

Mexico’s ruling class has ignored the plight of the rest of the country for as long as Mexico has been a country, and I include the period where Mexico was under the French. I have said before, for decades Mexico has not even protected its own citizens from the cartels’ deadly human trafficking business; Jason Poblete writes,

Mexico and other Central American nations need to get serious about border security within their region, as well as fixing the primary reason people try to leave: poverty and lack of economic opportunities, as well as rampant corruption and crime, lack of rule of law, among many other indicators that make life tough in these countries. This latter issue is a more long-term issue (one that the U.S. companies can help with), but border security within Central America can start today.

Ricardo Valenzuela agrees [my translation]

Our anguish at Trump ought to be an opportunity, and, rather than continue riding this mass hysteria, let’s change our attitudes, let’s focus on identifying this chance that the event presents, and which we are not seeing. We are enraged that Trump threatens to deport millions of our countrymen. Let’s identify the real problem. Why did those millions were expelled by Mexico? Trump wants to build a wall. How come tons of drugs cross the border each year? Why are millions of young girls kidnapped by the same mafias who, after getting them across illegally sell them to the sex traders? Why has the border become a war zone where weapons and illegal money are exchanged, and even ISIS members are crossing?

Lest we forget,

Mexico had a major role in fostering guerrilla groups in Central America during the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, backing off only when it became a hindrance to the NAFTA deal with the United States, and when some of the groups began operating in Mexico. Mexico is feared and resented throughout Central America as a bully and for its mistreatment of Central American migrants. The horror stories these migrants tell of their passage through Mexico are hair-raising and heartbreaking.

Peña Nieto’s popularity plummeted (and has not recovered) following the 2014 disappearance of 43 student teachers killed in Guerrero, a crime yet not resolved. The remains of only one student have been identified. In Mexico,

Only 4.5% of reported crimes in Mexico are ever investigated and just 1% ever go before a judge, according to a recent study by Mexico’s National Autonomous University. The criminal conviction rate in Mexico is 1.8%.

Headline from the WSJ:
Thousands March in Mexico City to Protest Trump, Peña-Nieto

Thousands took to Mexico City’s central thoroughfare to protest U.S. President Donald Trump and his plans to build a 2,000-mile border wall, while also blasting Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto and the ruling PRI party.

Meanwhile, Andrés Manuel López Obrador gains in polls amid backlash against new U.S. administration, because electing a far-left candidate and blaming the U.S. has worked so well elsewhere.

Again: Respect is earned. When Mexico and the Central American countries stop seeing the U.S. as a pressure-release valve for their own countries’ problems, they won’t need to be asking for respect, they will be earning it.

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Mexico: Peña Nieto and the Juarez cartel

In the flurry of news and criticism over the cancelled Peña Nieto visit, Ildefonso Ortiz and Brandon Darby remind us that the Juarez Cartel used shell companies to finance Peña Nieto’s presidential campaign; their article from March last year explains how,

The bombshell revelation was made this week by the independent news outlet Aristegui Noticias who claim that top officials of the Juarez Cartel financed thousands of cash cards that were handed out by Mexico’s Revolutionary Institutional Party (PRI) during the 2012 political campaign that resulted in the victory of Enrique Pena Nieto. According to the Mexican journalists, the cash cards were provided by a company called Monex. They were reported to be financed through a series of shell corporations by key players with the Juarez Cartel.     

Through a three part series, the Mexican news organization identified Rodolfo David “El Consul” Avila Cordero as a key figure in the financial scandal that implicates the leading figures in Mexico’s ruling party the Revolutionary Institutional Party (PRI).

Avila Cordero was arrested in 2005 in Mexico City in connection with the seizure of almost $750,000 in cash. At the time authorities had identified him as a top tier operative with the Juarez (Carrillo Fuente) Cartel who worked as their financial operator an a key figure in their connections with Colombian drug lords.  Avila Cordero had earned the nickname “The Consul” because of his links to high ranking officials within the Mexican government and acted as an ambassador of sorts, Aristegui Noticias reported.

Eight years after his arrest, Avila Cordero became a contractor for a government funded program called Crusade Against Hunger. Using a company called Conclave SA de CV and Prodasa SA de CV, Cordero was able to secure more than $396 million pesos or $25 million in government contracts through rigged bidding processes by government officials.

The Crusade Against Hunger is a pet project of Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto who claimed that with that program he would improve the quality of life for his people.

According to the investigation by the Mexican journalists, Conclave and Prodasa are shell companies that do not have real offices or staff.

Ortiz and Darby posted yesterday that

Mexico’s President Cancels White House Visit After Trump Hits CartelsMexican President Enrique Peña Nieto has cancelled his planned visit to the U.S. where he was expected to meet with President Donald J. Trump. The cancellation comes after Mexico’s government denounced Trump’s new border security measures aimed at interfering with the cash flow of the very Mexican cartels believed to have financed the current Mexican president’s campaign.

There’s room for discussion on whether or not the cancellation is directly related to this.

However, Peña Nieto’s approval ratings last week were at 11%. Every minute the media in the U.S. and in Mexico spend berating Trump and/or what Trump may or may not do is a minute they don’t spend examining the reasons why Mexico’s government has failed – and continues to fail – its own citizens.

Remember also that Peña Nieto’s popularity started its precipitous decline after the 2014 disappearance of the 43 Ayotzinapa students. Only the remains of one student have been found.

The Ayotzinapa massacre, not Donald Trump, is emblematic of Mexico’s failures.

Related:
Southern exposure: The costly border plan Mexico won’t discuss

UPDATE
Linked to by Maggie’s Farm. Thank you!

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Mexico: 1 body identified, 1 suspect in, on #Ayotzinapa investigation

News breaking this week on the 43 disappeared students:

Mexico Captures Alleged Gang Member Linked to Student Disappearances. Gildardo López Astudillo, nicknamed ‘El Gil,’ said by authorities to have incinerated bodies

Authorities say alleged members of the gang known as Guerreros Unidos testified that Mr. López was in charge of the operation to incinerate the bodies of the 43 students, who were mistaken as members of a rival gang, according to the official investigation.

Guerreros Unidos and rival Los Rojos operate in Guerrero, a center for heroin production. Numerous members of the Guerreros Unidos have been taken into custody and charged. Some of those arrested had originally confessed to the crimes but later recanted, while others have denied any wrongdoing.

#HastaEncontrarlos

Mexico Says More Remains Identified from Student Killings. Government says experts identify second teachers college student from among 43 reported killed in Guerrero

Prosecutors say the students, who had commandeered long-haul passenger buses to travel to Mexico City for a planned demonstration, were mistaken as members of a rival drug gang.

More than 100 people have been detained as part of the investigation and some of them were later charged with various crimes.

The Inter-American group of experts said forensic evidence suggests such a massive fire never took place in the landfill.

Although government officials said they would review the investigation and take into account the Inter-American experts’ report, several senior Mexican prosecutors have defended the initial conclusions.

Ms. Gómez, the Attorney General, said Wednesday that she has ordered the formation of a team of experts to study more than 63,000 fragments of remains recovered from the dump and the river for viable DNA samples, and that experts of the Inter-American group could join that team.

Odds are this will take years to resolve, and it’s very likely the guilty will not serve time: 

Only 4.5% of reported crimes in Mexico are ever investigated and just 1% ever go before a judge, according to a recent study by Mexico’s National Autonomous University. The criminal conviction rate in Mexico is 1.8%.

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Mexico: A fifth bus on the Iguala students case

42 student teachers have been missing in Mexico for nearly a year.

Authorities had previously identified the remains of 1, out of the 43 students from a rural teacher’s college in Ayotzinapa who traveled to Iguala in four buses.

Now the Discovery of ‘fifth’ bus adds to mystery of Iguala missing students case. OAS says Mexican authorities did not probe key vehicle that may have been carrying heroin

Experts commissioned by the OAS say there was a fifth bus at the scene of the crime and, despite the fact that there were students on it, it was never attacked. Armed police stopped the vehicle and the students ran off into the hills, the report says. Mexican officials considered the vehicle an insubstantial piece of evidence and failed to mention it in their report.

OAS experts now think the fifth bus was in fact an important part of the case. The organization believe that it may have concealed a shipment of heroin, the main drug trafficked in Guerrero, which feeds the United States black market.

The plot thickens while the authorities waffle:

OAS experts say the students probably took the vehicle from the bus terminal to travel to an event in Mexico City commemorating the 1968 Tlatelolco massacre without being aware of the hidden cargo. And that this fact was fully known by those who did not want that bus to make it to the march.

The problem for the commission was that the Mexican Attorney General’s Office (PGR) had not considered the bus an object of its investigation. Although the bus had been “recorded” in the report, it was given scant consideration.

The article has much more, but one thing remains clear: Somebody – most likely at the PGR- doesn’t want the truth to come out.

In other Mexican drug news, a doctor would lose his license for prescribing medical marihuana.

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Mexico: @Leon_Krauze looks at the big White House

León Krauze reports on Mexico’s Telenovela First Lady
Angélica Rivera may have dazzled on the TV screen, but her shady relationship with a government contractor has wreaked havoc on her husband’s presidency.

The disappearance and apparent brutal slaying of 43 students from Ayotzinapa in Guerrero State started the downward slide. The government’s clumsy response, including the president’s reluctance to handle the issue personally, made things much worse. 

A couple of months later, Peña Nieto’s image was damaged even further by the publication of a blockbuster investigation into a luxurious residence owned by Mexico’s first lady, the actress Angélica Rivera. Known as the “Casa Blanca”—the White House— for its imposing white walls and interiors, it was built and financed by one of Peña Nieto’s favored government contractors, and it had a $7 million price tag, which is an excessive figure even for Mexico City’s swankiest neighborhoods.

Read the whole thing, and watch León’s report,
“A year ago I asked @EPN [Enrique Peña Nieto] if he would commit to ensuring that #ElChapo would not escape again. ‘It’d be unforgivable.’”

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There’s no Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean this week due to server issues.

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