Arms stolen from SSP Armory in Chuhuahua El Debate (Culiacan, Sinaloa) 9-27-10 Chihuahua, Chihuahua – Early this morning, a commando unit attacked an installation belonging to the Chihuahua Public Security Police and took away dozens of government firearms. The agency confirmed the raid on its command center but cannot confirm the number of rifles and pistols taken from the armory. Unofficial reports are that at least 20 masked men surrounded the facility, threatened the guards and ransacked the offices where State Police weapons are stored. It is unknown whether documents or computers containing official information were taken. The installation is guarded by Federal Police. All personnel found in the building were deposed by the Attorney General’s Office. Two unknowns decapitated in Mazatlan Mazatlan, Sinaloa – Two unknown people were decapitated early Sunday morning in different parts of the city. The first was found in Colonia Independencia. The head was on the right side of the body. No identification or other documents were present. The second unidentified body was found in Colonia Benito Juarez. The body was wrapped in black plastic and the head was nearby in a water container. Both incidents are under investigation by the Public Ministry. Four dead, two hurt in confrontation in Coahuayana Morelia – At 10:39 this morning, forces connected to the VI Naval Zone confirmed the deaths of four civilians and the wounding of two marines as a result of a confrontation this morning in a Colonia known as “El Ranchito” in the City of Coahuayana. At least 500 members of the Mexican Armed Forces, who are stationed in this district, searched all types of vehicles and private homes for the criminals who fled and hid after engaging the forces in a fire fight. First reports are that four civilians are dead and that two wounded marines were transported to the State of Colima for medical attention. Los Zetas Cell Leader Arrested in Cancun <http://www.borderlandbeat.com/2010/09/juarez-car-bomber-arrested.html> <http://www.buggsphotography.com/pics/date.png> Monday, September 27, 2010 | <http://www.buggsphotography.com/pics/user.png> Borderland Beat Reporter Smurf Mexican Army forces have detained José Ángel Fernández de Lara Díaz, alias El Pelon, who was the leader of Los Zetas in the state of Quintana Roo, and whose base of operations was Cancun. The office of the Secretary of National Defense (SEDENA) released a statement that indicated the arrest of El Pelon occurred this past Friday Sept 24th as part of an ongoing operation in the area against drug trafficking. Fernández de Lara confessed to being a member of Los Zetas and since July of this year the leader the cartel, Heriberto Lazcano, alias El Lazca, named him as the one responsible for drug trafficking, human smuggling, and kidnapping in the southern state of Mexico. El Pelon has admitted that his group also extorted all kinds of businesses such as nightclubs, restaurants, casinos, spas, hotels and tour guides. The proceeds of these activites were used to fund the war against the Gulf cartel in the north part of the country. Fernández de Lara also admitted to taking part the incendiary attack on the Castillo del Mar bar on the 13th of August along with another sicario alias El Humm, an order handed down from a regional Zeta chief Lucio Hernández Lechuga, alias El Lucky for failure to pay protection money. Along with EL Pelon, the army detained three members of his cell, among them Jorge Alberto Contreras Hernández, alias El Gordo or Conta, who was in charge of administrative duties and communications. Also found was $143,000 dollars, communications equipment and four vehicles. Reporters Suffer in Mexican Mayhem <http://www.borderlandbeat.com/2010/09/reporters-suffer-in-mexican-mayhem.html> HE was 21, a photojournalist, shot several times at close range in broad daylight. His colleague, an 18-year-old intern, was wounded. By: Matthew Clayfield <http://www.theaustralian.com.au/> The Australian <http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_uQt7YfFGA3U/TKAqqEJQUyI/AAAAAAAAHgY/JFCxjkoHtLs/s1600/journalists01.jpg> Luis Carlos Santiago Orozco and Carlos Manuel Sanchez Colunga were parked in a shopping centre carpark when the bullets hit them. Santiago, who had only been working at the paper for two weeks, died soon after. It was September 16, and Mexico had celebrated its Bicentenary of Independence the night before. On Sunday, when Santiago was buried, the newspaper he worked for, El Diario de Juarez, ran the usual image of the country's flag alongside its masthead. On that day, however, the flag was dripping with blood. "Que quieren de nosotros?" the headline asked. "What do they want from us?" No suspects had been named in the case and no one had taken responsibility for the shooting. A Chihuahua state attorney's office spokesman claimed the murder was not related to Santiago's journalistic work, but rather to "a personal problem", a line heard before in relation to such cases. Start of sidebar. Skip to end of sidebar. .End of sidebar. Return to start of sidebar. But there was no question who it was the paper's headline referred to when it said "they". What followed was a passionate and highly unorthodox open letter from the paper's editorial staff to Ciudad Juarez's rival drug cartels, which are jostling, with bloody results, for control of the infamous border city's coveted drug trafficking routes into the US. Juarez, Mexico's most dangerous city, borders El Paso, one of the safest in the US. "We don't want to see more dead," the open letter read. "We don't want to see more wounded nor do we want to be intimidated. It is impossible for us to do our job under these conditions." It has been impossible for quite some time. That the most remarkable thing about the murder of Santiago was not the brazen manner in which it took place, but rather the paper's subsequent editorial, is telling. In Juarez, where between eight and 12 killings are recorded every day -- this is, for many people's money, the murder capital of the world -- and where the bicentenary celebrations were cancelled in case the cartels tried anything, a brazenly committed murder is unremarkable. For that matter, so is a dead journalist. Indeed, not only was Santiago not the first journalist to be killed in Juarez, he wasn't even the first from El Diario. In 2008, the paper's crime reporter, Armando Rodrguez, was gunned down in his driveway while preparing to take his daughter to school. Two prosecutors investigating the case were later killed within a month of each other. None of these murders has been solved. <http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_uQt7YfFGA3U/TKArPrKd0JI/AAAAAAAAHgc/CWBY3JvVVpw/s1600/periodista_asesinado-ok_0.jpg> The carnage is not limited to Juarez either. In July this year, Hugo Alfredo Olivera Cartas, the editor of El Diem, a small paper in the western state of Michoacan, was found sitting in his pick-up truck one summer morning with three bullets in his head. The death of Santiago brings the number of Mexican journalists killed this year to nine. Chillingly, with over three months left of the year, last year's deadly total of eight bodies has already been surpassed. The US-based Committee to Protect Journalists released a report this month dealing with the impact of the drug wars on the country's journalists and press freedom. The conclusions reached were as negative as the journalistic death toll was high. "Twenty-two journalists have been murdered since President Felipe Calderon Hinojosa took office in December 2006, at least eight in direct reprisal for reporting on crime and corruption," says the report, Silence or Death in Mexico's Press. "Three media support workers have been slain and at least seven other journalists have gone missing during this period. In addition, dozens of journalists have been attacked, kidnapped or forced into exile." The report also details the more subtle -- which is to say, less bloody -- effects of the drug wars on the country's press. Primary and most insidious among these is the culture of self-censorship that has arisen, with numerous newspapers, as well as radio and television stations, flatly refusing to cover drug-related violence, either as a result of cartel bribes or else without any prompting at all. In February, The Dallas Morning News reported that more than 200 people had been killed in the border city of Reynosa as Los Zetas, a northeastern cartel, did battle with their former bosses, the Gulf Cartel, for control of the state of Tamaulipas. Not a word of this was so much as mentioned in the local press, which Los Zetas more or less controls. Forget bribes. The allure of not being beheaded on videotape can often be currency enough in such matters. * Home <http://www.borderlandbeat.com/> * Forum <http://www.borderlandbeat.com/2009/04/forum.html> * Links <http://www.borderlandbeat.com/2009/04/links.html> * Narco Terms <http://www.borderlandbeat.com/2009/04/narco-terms.html> * Pictures <http://www.borderlandbeat.com/2009/04/pictures.html> * Map of Cartels <http://www.borderlandbeat.com/2010/01/maps-of-mexico-cartels.html> * Info on Mexican Cartels <http://www.borderlandbeat.com/2009/04/test.html> * Time Line <http://www.borderlandbeat.com/2009/04/timeline.html> * Events <http://www.borderlandbeat.com/2009/04/events-of-organized-crime.html> * History <http://www.borderlandbeat.com/2010/02/mexican-drug-war.html> * Cartels Structure <http://www.borderlandbeat.com/2009/04/mexican-drug-cartel-structure.html> This Blog Linked From Here Other Blogs This Blog Linked From Here Other Blogs State Police Arsenal Raided in Chihuahua City <http://www.borderlandbeat.com/2010/09/state-police-arsenal-raided-in.html> <http://www.buggsphotography.com/pics/date.png> Tuesday, September 28, 2010 | <http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_gsNEfSLsA8A/TKDSya9FgwI/AAAAAAAAAHA/bxxRQvPO_ZU/s1600/c4+complejo.jpg> CHIHUAHUA, Chihuahua – Around 02:00 on the morning of Monday, September 27, at least 6 men dressed in CIPOL state police uniforms with tactical gear & riding in a white Dodge Ram entered the State Security Complex (CIPOL compound) & raided the arsenal. The group entered by the main (south) entrance. They first took control of the radio room. In the process, they disarmed 5 guards & handcuffed their hands & feet (one news source said it was 2 police & 3 security guards). The commando then entered the arsenal after breaking 2 locks to get through the steel doors. They took 43 H&K G36 assault rifles (.223 caliber), 26 9mm pistols, bulletproof vests & grenades. They left the way they came with no resistance. Official reports admitted there was insufficient security for the complex. It was also apparent from how the commando conducted their operation that they knew how to enter the complex, how to access the radio room & where the arsenal was located. Authorities are reviewing security cam videos to learn more about the perpetrators. Agents from the State Attorney General's office (PGJE) arrested the officers who were guarding the CIPOL facilities when the raid occurred. The main reason for the arrests was to investigate why the the officers did not take any action to repel the attack. Several days ago unknown assailants entered a garage where several CIPOL vehicles were located and destroyed them. No suspects have been arrested in that incident. [Sources: La Omnia, La Opcion, El Tiempo, El Pueblo] Share it: <http://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=5195137745759962560&postID=7866662584535093094&target=email> Email This <http://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=5195137745759962560&postID=7866662584535093094&target=blog> BlogThis! <http://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=5195137745759962560&postID=7866662584535093094&target=twitter> Share to Twitter <http://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=5195137745759962560&postID=7866662584535093094&target=facebook> Share to Facebook <http://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=5195137745759962560&postID=7866662584535093094&target=buzz> Share to Google Buzz <http://www.buggsphotography.com/pics/comments.png> <http://www.borderlandbeat.com/2010/09/state-police-arsenal-raided-in.html#comments> 14 Borderland Beat Comments <http://www.buggsphotography.com/pics/folder.png> Labels: <http://www.borderlandbeat.com/search/label/chihuahua> chihuahua, <http://www.borderlandbeat.com/search/label/cipol> cipol <http://www.blogger.com/email-post.g?blogID=5195137745759962560&postID=7866662584535093094> <http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=5195137745759962560&postID=7866662584535093094> Los Zetas Cell Leader Arrested in Cancun <http://www.borderlandbeat.com/2010/09/juarez-car-bomber-arrested.html> <http://www.buggsphotography.com/pics/date.png> Monday, September 27, 2010 | <http://www.buggsphotography.com/pics/user.png> Borderland Beat Reporter Smurf Mexican Army forces have detained José Ángel Fernández de Lara Díaz, alias El Pelon, who was the leader of Los Zetas in the state of Quintana Roo, and whose base of operations was Cancun. The office of the Secretary of National Defense (SEDENA) released a statement that indicated the arrest of El Pelon occurred this past Friday Sept 24th as part of an ongoing operation in the area against drug trafficking. Fernández de Lara confessed to being a member of Los Zetas and since July of this year the leader the cartel, Heriberto Lazcano, alias El Lazca, named him as the one responsible for drug trafficking, human smuggling, and kidnapping in the southern state of Mexico. El Pelon has admitted that his group also extorted all kinds of businesses such as nightclubs, restaurants, casinos, spas, hotels and tour guides. The proceeds of these activites were used to fund the war against the Gulf cartel in the north part of the country. Fernández de Lara also admitted to taking part the incendiary attack on the Castillo del Mar bar on the 13th of August along with another sicario alias El Humm, an order handed down from a regional Zeta chief Lucio Hernández Lechuga, alias El Lucky for failure to pay protection money. Along with EL Pelon, the army detained three members of his cell, among them Jorge Alberto Contreras Hernández, alias El Gordo or Conta, who was in charge of administrative duties and communications. Also found was $143,000 dollars, communications equipment and four vehicles. Source <http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2010/09/27/index.php?section=politica&article=010n1pol> La Jornada, Share it: <http://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=5195137745759962560&postID=795665275309460745&target=email> Email This <http://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=5195137745759962560&postID=795665275309460745&target=blog> BlogThis! <http://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=5195137745759962560&postID=795665275309460745&target=twitter> Share to Twitter <http://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=5195137745759962560&postID=795665275309460745&target=facebook> Share to Facebook <http://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=5195137745759962560&postID=795665275309460745&target=buzz> Share to Google Buzz <http://www.buggsphotography.com/pics/comments.png> <http://www.borderlandbeat.com/2010/09/juarez-car-bomber-arrested.html#comments> 3 Borderland Beat Comments <http://www.buggsphotography.com/pics/folder.png> <http://www.blogger.com/email-post.g?blogID=5195137745759962560&postID=795665275309460745> <http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=5195137745759962560&postID=795665275309460745> Reporters Suffer in Mexican Mayhem <http://www.borderlandbeat.com/2010/09/reporters-suffer-in-mexican-mayhem.html> <http://www.buggsphotography.com/pics/date.png> | <http://www.buggsphotography.com/pics/user.png> Borderland Beat Reporter Buggs HE was 21, a photojournalist, shot several times at close range in broad daylight. His colleague, an 18-year-old intern, was wounded. By: Matthew Clayfield <http://www.theaustralian.com.au/> The Australian <http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_uQt7YfFGA3U/TKAqqEJQUyI/AAAAAAAAHgY/JFCxjkoHtLs/s1600/journalists01.jpg> Luis Carlos Santiago Orozco and Carlos Manuel Sanchez Colunga were parked in a shopping centre carpark when the bullets hit them. Santiago, who had only been working at the paper for two weeks, died soon after. It was September 16, and Mexico had celebrated its Bicentenary of Independence the night before. On Sunday, when Santiago was buried, the newspaper he worked for, El Diario de Juarez, ran the usual image of the country's flag alongside its masthead. On that day, however, the flag was dripping with blood. "Que quieren de nosotros?" the headline asked. "What do they want from us?" No suspects had been named in the case and no one had taken responsibility for the shooting. A Chihuahua state attorney's office spokesman claimed the murder was not related to Santiago's journalistic work, but rather to "a personal problem", a line heard before in relation to such cases. Start of sidebar. Skip to end of sidebar. .End of sidebar. Return to start of sidebar. But there was no question who it was the paper's headline referred to when it said "they". What followed was a passionate and highly unorthodox open letter from the paper's editorial staff to Ciudad Juarez's rival drug cartels, which are jostling, with bloody results, for control of the infamous border city's coveted drug trafficking routes into the US. Juarez, Mexico's most dangerous city, borders El Paso, one of the safest in the US. "We don't want to see more dead," the open letter read. "We don't want to see more wounded nor do we want to be intimidated. It is impossible for us to do our job under these conditions." It has been impossible for quite some time. That the most remarkable thing about the murder of Santiago was not the brazen manner in which it took place, but rather the paper's subsequent editorial, is telling. In Juarez, where between eight and 12 killings are recorded every day -- this is, for many people's money, the murder capital of the world -- and where the bicentenary celebrations were cancelled in case the cartels tried anything, a brazenly committed murder is unremarkable. For that matter, so is a dead journalist. Indeed, not only was Santiago not the first journalist to be killed in Juarez, he wasn't even the first from El Diario. In 2008, the paper's crime reporter, Armando Rodrguez, was gunned down in his driveway while preparing to take his daughter to school. Two prosecutors investigating the case were later killed within a month of each other. None of these murders has been solved. <http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_uQt7YfFGA3U/TKArPrKd0JI/AAAAAAAAHgc/CWBY3JvVVpw/s1600/periodista_asesinado-ok_0.jpg> The carnage is not limited to Juarez either. In July this year, Hugo Alfredo Olivera Cartas, the editor of El Diem, a small paper in the western state of Michoacan, was found sitting in his pick-up truck one summer morning with three bullets in his head. The death of Santiago brings the number of Mexican journalists killed this year to nine. Chillingly, with over three months left of the year, last year's deadly total of eight bodies has already been surpassed. The US-based Committee to Protect Journalists released a report this month dealing with the impact of the drug wars on the country's journalists and press freedom. The conclusions reached were as negative as the journalistic death toll was high. "Twenty-two journalists have been murdered since President Felipe Calderon Hinojosa took office in December 2006, at least eight in direct reprisal for reporting on crime and corruption," says the report, Silence or Death in Mexico's Press. "Three media support workers have been slain and at least seven other journalists have gone missing during this period. In addition, dozens of journalists have been attacked, kidnapped or forced into exile." The report also details the more subtle -- which is to say, less bloody -- effects of the drug wars on the country's press. Primary and most insidious among these is the culture of self-censorship that has arisen, with numerous newspapers, as well as radio and television stations, flatly refusing to cover drug-related violence, either as a result of cartel bribes or else without any prompting at all. In February, The Dallas Morning News reported that more than 200 people had been killed in the border city of Reynosa as Los Zetas, a northeastern cartel, did battle with their former bosses, the Gulf Cartel, for control of the state of Tamaulipas. Not a word of this was so much as mentioned in the local press, which Los Zetas more or less controls. Forget bribes. The allure of not being beheaded on videotape can often be currency enough in such matters. <http://www.borderlandbeat.com/2010/09/reporters-suffer-in-mexican-mayhem.html#more> Read more » Share it: <http://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=5195137745759962560&postID=9157908884859247340&target=email> Email This <http://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=5195137745759962560&postID=9157908884859247340&target=blog> BlogThis! <http://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=5195137745759962560&postID=9157908884859247340&target=twitter> Share to Twitter <http://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=5195137745759962560&postID=9157908884859247340&target=facebook> Share to Facebook <http://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=5195137745759962560&postID=9157908884859247340&target=buzz> Share to Google Buzz <http://www.buggsphotography.com/pics/comments.png> <http://www.borderlandbeat.com/2010/09/reporters-suffer-in-mexican-mayhem.html#comments> 1 Borderland Beat Comments <http://www.buggsphotography.com/pics/folder.png> <http://www.blogger.com/email-post.g?blogID=5195137745759962560&postID=9157908884859247340> <http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=5195137745759962560&postID=9157908884859247340> Threats from Narcos Force Mexican Mayors to Live in U.S. <http://www.borderlandbeat.com/2010/09/threats-from-narcos-force-mexican.html> <http://www.buggsphotography.com/pics/date.png> | <http://www.buggsphotography.com/pics/user.png> Borderland Beat Reporter Buggs <http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_uQt7YfFGA3U/TKAmixVPEAI/AAAAAAAAHgU/Y8W9zrcZrXs/s1600/mayors01.jpg> 15 mayors have been killed since President Felipe Calderon declared war on Mexico’s drug cartels shortly after taking office in December 2006 including the murder of the mayor of Santiago, Nuevo Leon, Edelmiro Cavazos. Several Mexican mayors have been forced to move to the United States for reasons of personal and family safety in the face of threats from drug traffickers and the killings of 10 mayors this year in Mexico. Mayors from the northern border states of Tamaulipas, Chihuahua and Nuevo Leon have moved to the United States, with some taking up residence in that country permanently and others splitting their time between U.S. and Mexican residences, municipal officials said. The mayors of at least six border cities in the northeastern state of Tamaulipas have been forced to move to neighboring Texas. “The advantage for them is that they cross the Rio Bravo (Rio Grande) and they are in their city hall or their home,” an official of the ruling National Action Party, or PAN, said on condition of anonymity. Most of the mayors use nondescript vehicles to avoid drawing attention to themselves and do not drive long distances, the official said. Another large group of mayors from Tamaulipas decided to abandon their cities in the last year of their terms and hide out in other places in Mexico, where drug-related violence has surged since the start of this year. Two of them left their communities and govern “with the telephone in their hand,” the PAN official said. “The case of the mayors is not restricted to the PAN. Mayors from the PRI (Institutional Revolutionary Party) have also had to take measures to protect their security,” the official said. The PAN refused to run candidates in the last municipal elections in some cities where organized crime groups have extensive control. The threats are continuous in some cases, while the criminals go beyond threats in other cases. A mayor in Nuevo Leon state was murdered last week and another was seriously wounded in Chihuahua state. Five mayors have been murdered in the past six weeks, with a total of 10 killed this year. About 15 mayors have been killed since President Felipe Calderon declared war on Mexico’s drug cartels shortly after taking office in December 2006. Chihuahua, one of the country’s most dangerous states, is home to Ciudad Juarez, Mexico’s murder capital. Some mayors from Chihuahua have decided to live in El Paso, Texas, which is just across the border from Juarez, crossing daily to work, municipal officials said. The situation has also worsened in Nuevo Leon, where Doctor Gonzalez Mayor Prisciliano Rodriguez was murdered last Thursday, a month after Santiago Mayor Edelmiro Cavazos was killed. Crime has surged in some cities in Nuevo Leon and people are moving to other parts of Mexico and the United States, a state legislator said on condition of anonymity. Drug cartels threaten officials to keep them from interfering with their criminal activities. Many of the cities have only between two and five patrol cars for the average of 30 police officers on the payroll, and officers have few firearms to take on criminals, officials said. Some high-level officials and their families have also been forced to flee to the United States. Baja California state’s public safety secretary and the director of the Tijuana police department, as well as some officers, were forced to send their families away for their own safety. Tijuana Mayor Jorge Ramos said the goal was to allow the officials to fight criminals during their terms in office, which end in late November. Why Mexico is not the new Colombia when it comes to Drug <http://www.borderlandbeat.com/2010/09/why-mexico-is-not-new-colombia-when-it.html> Cartels <http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_TUJriOsi8Xk/TJ_DkebtQxI/AAAAAAAAAF8/3vfhX6idhq4/s1600/56354376.jpg> A press member walks over signs depicting missing or dead journalists during a protest against violence in Mexico City, Aug. 7. Photo by: Marco Ugarte, Associated Press, Sept. 25, 2010. by Ken Ellingwood, <http://www.latimes.com/> Los Angeles Times Car bombs. Political assassinations. Battlefield-style skirmishes between soldiers and heavily armed adversaries. Across big stretches of Mexico, deepening drug-war mayhem is challenging the authority of the state and the underpinnings of democracy. Powerful cartels in effect hold entire regions under their thumb. They extort money from businesses, meddle in politics and kill with an impunity that mocks the government's ability to impose law and order. The slaying of a gubernatorial candidate near the Texas border this year was the most stunning example of how the narco-traffickers warp Mexican politics. Mayors are elected, often with the backing of drug lords, and then killed when they get in the way. Journalists are targets too. After a young photographer was gunned down in Ciudad Juarez Sept. 17, his newspaper, El Diario de Juarez, issued a plaintive appeal to the cartels in a front-page editorial. "We ask you to explain what you want from us," the newspaper said. "You are at this time the de facto authorities in this city because the legal authorities have not been able to stop our colleagues from falling." As the death toll from drug-related violence nears 30,000 in four years, the impression that Mexico is losing control over big chunks of territory — the northern states of Tamaulipas, Chihuahua, Nuevo Leon and Durango at the top of this list — is prompting comparisons with the Colombia of years past. Under the combined onslaught of drug kingpins and leftist guerrillas, the South American country appeared to be in danger of collapse. The Colombia comparison, long fodder for parlor debates in Mexico, gained new energy this month when Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said the tactics of Mexican cartels looked increasingly like those of a Colombia-style "insurgency," which the U.S. helped fight with a military and social assistance program known as Plan Colombia that cost more than $7 billion. But is Mexico the new Colombia? As the Obama administration debates what course to take on Mexico, finding the right fix depends on getting the right diagnosis. Clinton cited the need for a regional "equivalent" of Plan Colombia. After 10 years, the rebels' grip in Colombia has been reduced from more than a third of the country to less than a fifth. Violence is down and, with improved security, the economy is booming. However, tons of cocaine are still being produced and there have been widespread human rights abuses. Clinton acknowledged that the program had "problems" — but said that it had worked. Irked Mexican officials dismissed Clinton's Colombia comparison as sloppy history and tartly offered that the only common thread was drug consumption in the United States. And while the two cases share broad-brush similarities, there also are important distinctions, including Mexico's profound sensitivity to outside interference. Here is a breakdown of the two experiences: The Nature of the Foe Colombia's main leftist rebels, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as the FARC, waged war in the name of Marxist ideology, calling for an overthrow of the traditional ruling oligarchy. Separately, the country faced a campaign of violence by drug cartels. To fund the insurgency, the rebels first took a cut from coca producers and traffickers – and then starting running their own drug labs and forming partnerships with the traffickers. In contrast, the main aim of Mexican drug gangs is to move merchandise without interference from authorities. In many places, traffickers manipulate governors and mayors — and the police they control. Their ability to bully and extort has given them a form of power that resembles parallel rule. But the goal is cash, not sovereignty. Drug lords don't want to collect trash, run schools or pave the streets. And very often, the violence the gangs unleash is directed against each other, not the government. Mexico also is a much bigger country. While its social inequities are glaring, there is no sign of a broad-based rebel movement with which traffickers could join hands. "We've got a criminal problem, not a guerrilla problem," said Bruce Bagley, who chairs the international studies department at the University of Miami in Coral Gables. "The drug lords don't want to take over. They want to be left alone. They want a state that's pliable and porous." Territory At the peak of Colombia's insurgency, the FARC controlled a large part of the country, including a Switzerland-size chunk with defined borders ceded to it by the government as a demilitarized zone known as the despeje, or clearing. Mexico's drug gangs have relied on killing and intimidation tactics to challenge government control over large swaths by erasing a sense of law and order. In the border state of Tamaulipas, a gubernatorial candidate who was heavily favored to win a July election was gunned down less than a week before the vote. Violence in neighboring Nuevo Leon state prompted the U.S. State Department last month to direct employees to remove their children from the city of Monterrey, a critically important and affluent industrial center. In Clinton's words, U.S. officials worry about a "drug-trafficking threat that is in some cases morphing into, or making common cause with, what we would consider an insurgency." But there are no borders defining any drug cartel's domain, making it difficult, even within regions, to say how much of the country lies outside effective government control on any given day. There is no force that appears anywhere near capable of toppling the government and, so far, no zone the Mexican army cannot reach when it wants. Instead, cartel control is more fluid. It is measured in the extent to which residents stay indoors at night to avoid roving gunmen; the degree to which Mexican news media steer away from covering crime so they don't anger the trafficking groups. The sense of siege hopscotches across Mexico like windblown fire across a landscape. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? 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