Mexican cartels splinter, branch out as drug war rages

The news just gets grimmer in Mexico as the drug war nears the end of its fifth year and claims more and more innocent lives. On Thursday, gunmen burst into a casino in the northern city of Monterrey and set fire to the place, killing more than 50 people, Ken Ellingwood reports in The Times.

The attack was described by the federal government as an act of terror. President Felipe Calderon has ordered three days of national mourning, but no official decree was needed to observe a palpable sense of gloom among ordinary citizens on Friday morning even here in Mexico City, far from Monterrey.

In Mexico's current armed conflict, when a night-life or entertainment establishment is attacked, authorities assume an extortion deal gone wrong. A business owner refuses to pay a hefty "tax" to an organized crime group, or is being extorted by more than one group, a deal frays, and eventually, innocent lives are lost. In other instances, a business might be attacked out of sheer competition between cartels.

In the past year, Monterrey has seen such attacks more than its people probably care to count. In early July, more than 20 people were killed when gunmen assaulted a crowded bar in downtown Monterrey on a Friday night. The hitmen even killed the hot-dog vendor outside.

The violence in Monterrey is presumed to be a result of the localized war between the two major cartels that seek control over Mexico's wealthiest city -- the Gulf cartel and their former armed wing, the Zetas -- which were founded by ex-members of an elite Mexican military unit.

The Zetas in particular are known for their brutal attack techniques, so much so that late last month a new self-described cartel announced its debut with the online video: the Mata Zetas, or "Zeta Killers."

The Spanish-language video link shows a group of men in flack jackets, hooded masks or helmets, and holding high-powered military-grade assault rifles. They stand in silence as a voice-over announces the group's fight against "these filthy Zetas" in the state of Veracruz. The image achieves its goal, striking fear in the observer. The group looks fierce, cold-blooded and trained.

The Mata Zetas identify themselves as a subgroup of the so-called Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion. If that's the first time you've heard of that cartel, you're likely not alone. Even journalists these days have trouble keeping track of all the organized-crime groups.

As Mexico's military and federal police seek to arrest or take out top cartel figures, the drug groups inevitably splinter in the subsequent power vacuums, and new self-described "cartels" are formed, although it is practically impossible to know how large or organized the new groups can be. Out of those, subgroups branch out, often seeking to claim new territory or "clean up" against a rival. Since last year, for example, three new cartels have emerged in the battle over the southern port and resort city of Acapulco.

In the western state of Michoacan, a new cartel giving itself the medieval name of Knights Templar has begun terrorizing communities there. That group is said to have splintered off from the fearsome La Familia. As Tracy Wilkinson reported in The Times, the June arrest of the reigning La Familia leader ensures only one thing: "Removing the top capos, which is Calderon's stated strategy, provokes violent power struggles as potential successors compete for their share of the ever-lucrative drug trade."

Yet the U.S. and Mexico governments argue the fight against Mexico's transnational organized crime groups must continue, despite more than 40,000 dead in Mexico alone.

How many more new cartels can form before the conflict runs its course?

-- Daniel Hernandez in Mexico City

Image: Screen-grab of video announcing the formation of the so-called 'Zeta Killers.' Via YouTube

'Narco tank' is latest find in cartels' armored vehicles

Authorities in the Mexican state of Jalisco have discovered a so-called narco tank, an abandoned armored vehicle believed to have been used by drug cartels. It looks as though it belongs in a "Terminator" movie.

The "narco tank" was seized after a series of deadly shootouts (link in Spanish) between local police and unidentified gunmen over the weekend near the border with Zacatecas state. The central-western region of Mexico has seen an uptick in drug-related violence in recent months due to an internal split in the powerful Sinaloa cartel.

The "narco tank," reportedly a 2011 Ford F-Series Super Duty truck, was radically altered, with plates of armor and a gun turret. From the website PickupTrucks.com:

As you can see, it's a one-of-a-kind armored up-fit. The front bumper has a folding battering ram -- which we call the "man-ram" -- and sloping metal plates have been welded to almost every surface. The cargo box is fully enclosed with gun ports and a protected turret that can rotate to spot rival drug cartels or Mexican government troops.

The vehicle found in Jalisco is similar to other heavily armored trucks and cars that have been used by the Zetas and Gulf cartels in confrontations with the military. One recently seized in Ciudad Mier, in Tamaulipas, was nicknamed "El Monstruo 2011."

The Zetas and Gulf cartels are known to move around the territory they are warring over in military-style uniforms that often make them indistinguishable from actual soldiers, confusing local residents. In addition to armored vehicles clearly built for battle, cartels employ homemade submarines to move narcotics from South America, as well as ultra-lightweight aircraft to smuggle drugs across the border into the United States, as reported by the Los Angeles Times' Richard Marosi.

Here's a video report in Spanish from Milenio TV  on the cartels' outfitted rides, including one that is referred to as a "narco Pope-mobile" for its tall and narrow armored shooting turret.

-- Daniel Hernandez in Mexico City

Photo: An armored 2011 Ford F-Series pickup discovered by authorities in Jalisco state, Mexico. Credit: PickupTrucks.com

Ecuador 'coup attempt' draws attention to Rafael Correa's presidency

What happened in Ecuador last week? On Thursday images ricocheted across the world of President Rafael Correa stumbling through a storm of tear gas and violent police officers, after he had stood at a window in a barracks and defiantly told them: "If you want to kill the president, here he is! Kill him, if you want to! Kill him if you are brave enough!" (Here's a short clip.)

By nightfall, a spectacular military operation at a police hospital freed Correa, who had claimed that his government was victim of an "attempted coup." In the span of the violent day, five people reportedly died.

Dramatic stuff. Yet in some ways, a spontaneous revolt against some of Correa's recent policy decisions wasn't too surprising, the BBC reports. "Correa can't act as a victim right now and say there's been a coup attempt," Lourdes Tiban, an opposition politician, told the news organization. "There's been no coup attempt whatsoever. What's happening now is his responsibility, he's calling for a confrontation."

Ecuador's armed forces remained loyal to the president throughout last week's chaos, and indeed, no figure or group has come forward to claim responsibility for igniting violence with the intent of toppling the government.

The rebel police who roughed up their president in Quito on Thursday were protesting Correa-backed austerity measures that would have seen their benefits substantially curtailed. In recent months, Correa had also threatened to dissolve Congress and rule by decree because of persistent deadlock on his proposed reforms. Ecuador is severely strapped for cash, and has defaulted in $3.2 billion in global bonds.

Yet at a news conference he held shortly after addressing his supporters from the Palacio de Carondelet, the presidential palace, Correa blamed the police uprising on allies of his chief political foe, the most recent former president, Lucio Gutierrez. Correa's government repeated the claim on Sunday. (Incidentally, Gutierrez also ruled during a period of political instability that saw massive protests against him, forcing Gutierrez to eventually seek asylum in Brazil.)

As volatile as some of that might sound, oil-exporting Ecuador has seen relative stability under Correa. He was elected in late 2006 and, in 2009, became the first Ecuadorean president to be reelected in 30 years.

On Friday, after the violence, Correa's government suggested it would back off the idea of dissolving Congress and revisit the austerity measures that sparked the police revolt. The president, his profile raised considerably with those dramatic images from Thursday, may attempt to use the police revolt as a political weapon to help consolidate power.

Meanwhile, the chief of the national police resigned on Friday, and three commanding colonels are under investigation for possibly inciting last week's violence. For more, Reuters has a fact-box with key political risks to watch as developments unfold in Ecuador.

-- Daniel Hernandez in Mexico City

Photo: Ecuador's President Rafael Correa, in his presidential sash, holds a news conference in Quito after a violent police revolt last week. Credit: Reuters

Unrest grips Ecuador, threatening President Rafael Correa

 

In a violent day of chaos, Ecuadoran security forces protesting cuts in their benefits took to the streets and are threatening the government of President Rafael Correa.

The government declared a state of emergency after Correa was confronted by angry police officers.  He  shouted defiantly from a window to demonstrators: "If you want to kill the president, here he is! Kill him, if you want to! Kill him if you are brave enough!" When Correa attempted to leave the site, tear gas was fired and the president was seen in televised video struggling through a large outdoor scuffle.

On Twitter, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said, "They are trying to topple President Correa. Be on alert people of the Bolivarian Alliance!" Readers can follow live Twitter updates on the unrest at #Ecuador.

Members of the armed forces took over and shut down the airport in Quito, the capital, and clashes were reported in several cities between security forces and civilian Correa supporters. Several news organizations are also reporting that their reporters have been attacked and their equipment damaged.

Ecuador's government has launched an emergency news site tracking the unrest and response in the international community. As of this afternoon, Correa is reportedly in a police hospital, but it is unclear whether he is holed up there or being held against his will. The Los Angeles Times will have more updates soon.

-- Daniel Hernandez in Mexico City

Photo: Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa is carried away after being overcome by tear gas. Credit: AFP/Getty Images

Report: Mexico is not Colombia, here's why

Comments made by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton comparing Mexico's drug war to a Colombia-style "insurgency" touched off a flurry of debate over the parallels between the two conflicts. Seeking out the facts, L.A. Times foreign correspondents conclude that the secretary's comments were like comparing "apples and oranges."

Here's the full story from Sunday's paper. At issue is whether the U.S. will seek to model the Merida Initiative aid package to Mexico on Plan Colombia, the deal that has supplied Colombia with more than $7 billion in aid to combat rebels and drug traffickers.

In their reporting, correspondent Ken Ellingwood, Mexico City bureau chief Tracy Wilkinson and special correspondent Chris Kraul in Colombia break down the two conflicts into basic areas. Here's the La Plaza summary:

The nature of the foe: Colombia's decades-long conflict with the FARC rebel group and with powerful drug cartels is motivated, at least on the rebel side, by a Marxist ideology aimed at overthrowing the state. In Mexico, the drug war is motivated by the cartels' basic goal of moving narcotics into the U.S. without government interference, and collecting profits.

Territory: At the peak of its power, the FARC controlled a "Switzerland-size chunk" of Colombia's territory, with identifiable borders, plus other land. In contrast, Mexican drug gangs' sway over certain regions of Mexico remains fluid, and there is "no zone the Mexican army cannot reach when it wants."

Targets and tactics: Terrorist-style attacks have occurred in Mexico's drug war (a remote-controlled car bomb in Ciudad Juarez, a grenade attack on civilians in Michoacan) but they have not occurred with the frequency and scope as such tactics in Colombia. The Mexico drug war is mostly a conflict between feuding cartel groups.

State weakness: This is where the line is fuzziest. Colombia had a weakened army when the FARC began attacking the state, but a relatively strong civil society that eventually rose up and demanded solutions. Mexico sent 50,000 troops head-on to combat its drug gangs, but it has so far fallen short in pursuing desperately needed reforms in the justice system, for example, and in money laundering.

What's the proper prescription for Mexico then? One unnamed U.S. official in Mexico told The Times: "Institution building, institution building, institution building."

The U.S. recently signaled it would drastically boost funds to Mexico but held back a fraction of a previously pledged amount over doubts on progress over human rights allegations. Human rights abuses remain the darkest mark on Colombia's advances over the FARC and traffickers, as reported recently by the left-leaning Washington Office on Latin America, in an extensive analysis on Plan Colombia titled "Colombia: Don't Call it a Model."

On the 10th anniversary of Plan Colombia's start, Kraul reports in The Times that the country is more secure and that the military has made advances over the FARC. Still, coca eradication efforts have not been as successful as hoped, and have pushed some cocaine production over to neighboring Peru. Kraul notes that the Colombian military is believed responsible for 3,000 extrajudicial killings between 2002 and 2009.

On Thursday in New York City, U.S. President Barack Obama congratulated Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos over the confirmed death of a major FARC leader in a military operation on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, in Mexico, a mayor in a town in the Monterrey metropolitan area was assassinated late last week, the fourth mayor killed by suspected drug hitmen in the last six weeks, Wilkinson reports. A mayor-elect in Chihuahua state was also shot on Friday and was in critical condition.

In another troubling and slightly Colombia-esque development here last week, a lawmaker-elect with suspected ties to the La Familia drug organization was sworn into office after evading police. The newly sworn-in federal deputy, Julio Cesar Godoy of Michoacan, now has immunity from prosecution.

-- Daniel Hernandez in Mexico City

Photo: The body of Prisciliano Rodriguez Salinas, mayor of the town of Doctor Gonzalez, northeast of Monterrey, Mexico, lays near his truck after gunmen assassinated him on Sept. 23, 2010. Credit: Reuters

Columnist: Immigrant rights community must react to Mexico migrant massacre

The massacre in Mexico of 72 migrants bound for the U.S. should be met with outrage and introspection by immigrant-rights groups, but has so far been met mostly with silence, Hector Tobar argues in a Thursday column in The Times. The columnist writes that people in the immigrant-rights community readily protest anti-immigrant legislation in the United States but rarely address the root causes for illegal migration from Latin America.

The migrant massacre (which La Plaza has covered here, here, and here) was an "act of psychological warfare" by suspected members of the Zetas drug gang, the columnist writes, and it exposes multiple failures in immigration reform in the U.S., Mexico's drug war, and the lack of economic opportunity across the region. An excerpt:

Most of the country's leading immigrant rights groups haven't even bothered to issue a news release.

That doesn't surprise me. Generally speaking, the U.S. immigrant rights movement doesn't have much to say about the social and political conditions that lead so many to leave their native countries and place themselves at the mercy of an increasingly violent smuggling industry.

Indeed, the United Nations released a condemning statement just days after the migrant killings, but major immigrant-rights organizations in the United States apparently did not.

An Amnesty International report released in April says Central and South American migrants seeking to cross Mexico to reach the U.S. embark on "one of the most dangerous journeys in the world," as human smugglers and corrupt officials routinely expose migrants to abuse and violence, including the rape of female migrants. Those who survive the trek across Mexican territory then face the increasing risk of death along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Mexico's national human rights commission estimates that 20,000 migrants are kidnapped each year in the country, a startling figure. On Wednesday, as U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton likened violence tied to Mexican drug trafficking groups to a Colombian-style "insurgency," sparking rebukes in Mexico, authorities said they arrested seven gunmen suspected of participating in the Aug. 23 massacre in Tamaulipas state.

Tobar, an author and most recently an L.A. Times foreign correspondent in Mexico and Argentina, writes a regular column in the paper.

-- Daniel Hernandez in Mexico City

Photo: Coffins of victims of the Mexico migrant massacre return to Honduras. Credit: Agence France-Presse

Controversial Georgetown gig for Colombia's Alvaro Uribe

The arrival of former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe at Georgetown University is sparking campus debate on the two-term leader's legacy in security and human rights. Uribe starts work this semester as a "Distinguished Scholar in the Practice of Global Leadership" at Georgetown's School of Foreign Service, where he will conduct seminars and other programs, the university said.

"We are thrilled that [Uribe] has identified Georgetown as a place where he will share his knowledge and interface with Washington, and I know that our students at the School of Foreign Service will benefit greatly from his presence," said the Georgetown school's dean, Carol Lancaster, in a university statement.

But not everyone in the Georgetown community is reacting with such enthusiasm. In comments on the personal site of university professor Anthony Clark Arend, one commenter identified as Charity Ryerson, a Georgetown law student, wrote:

I am a student at the law center and have worked extensively with the Colombian human rights community. While he was Governor of Antioquia, Alvaro Uribe was instrumental in the creation of the Convivirs, private self defense organizations that later morphed into the Colombian United Self Defense Forces, a paramilitary organization that has killed tens of thousands of Colombian civilians with the support of the Colombian state. As recently as 2006, the paramilitaries and the Colombian military ate together at the same military bases and carried out joint operations.

He routinely publicly denounced human rights defenders in his country, falsely claiming that they had ties to the guerrilla organizations in order to undermine their work. His party continues to work with illegal armed groups in the country, a situation which he, at a minimum, tolerated. He spied on opposition leaders and human rights defenders. His own DAS (similar to the FBI) passed hit lists to the paramilitaries containing names of trade unionists and human rights defenders, many of which were later killed.

And now Georgetown has legitimated him and his legacy by making him a “Distinguished Scholar in the Practice of Global Leadership.” This is an offense to the thousands of victims of his administration, to the human rights community in the US and Colombia, and is an embarrassment to Georgetown University. This decision should be reconsidered.

The commenter added a link to a tough-worded letter the group Human Rights Watch sent to U.S. President Barack Obama over Uribe's human rights record during his government's crackdown on the leftist FARC guerrillas.

Nevertheless, Uribe left Colombia's presidency with a high approval rating, and in June, Colombian voters elected Uribe's chosen successor, Juan Manuel Santos, by a margin of more than 40 percentage points.

"The legacy of Uribe, I think, is huge," said Myles Frechette, former U.S. ambassador to Colombia, in The Washington Times. "He restored Colombians' confidence in their own country. He showed them that if the government put its mind to it, it could — with assistance from the United States — beat back the guerrillas."

Colombia is the United States' closest ally in Latin America, receiving more than $7 billion in military aid since the implementation of "Plan Colombia," the equally contested aid agreement that helped Uribe's government in its efforts against drug-trafficking and terrorism.

Santos now takes up pending negotiations to allow the U.S. to use Colombian military bases and for a free-trade agreement between the two countries, which is also being protested on the Georgetown campus.

In addition to his new university job, Uribe will be busy this fall in the U.S. as vice chair of a United Nations panel on Israel's deadly raid on the Gaza-bound flotilla in May.

-- Daniel Hernandez in Mexico City

Photo: Alvaro Uribe, former president of Colombia. Credit: Associated Press

Shining Path founders marry in prison

The founder of Peru's violent Shining Path guerrilla movement married his long-time partner and former second-in-command at a maximum security naval prison in Peru on Friday. Abimael Guzman, 75, married Elena Iparraguirre, 62, in a 15-minute civil ceremony that was permitted after President Alan Garcia affirmed that even "the most despicable criminal" has the right to wed.

Guzman and Iparraguirre, who are serving life sentences in separate prisons for terrorism and treason, had not seen each other since their last trials in 2006. Their lawyers said they will be allowed to see each other every one or two months as a married couple.

Nearly 70,000 people -- an estimated half of them rebels -- were killed in the 20 years that the Maoist group, Sendero Luminoso in Spanish, was active, beginning in 1980.

In a related development in Peru this week, American Lori Berenson, who acknowledged collaborating with another guerrilla group, the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement, was sent back to prison after losing a parole bid.

-- Daniel Hernandez in Mexico City

Photo: Elena Iparraguirre and Abimael Guzman during a trial in 2004. Credit: AFP

Colombia court rules against U.S. military agreement

A high court in Colombia has voided an accord with the United States that would allow an increased U.S. presence on seven Colombian military bases. The ruling on Tuesday by the Constitutional Court declared the agreement signed by outgoing President Alvaro Uribe unconstitutional because it bypassed approval of the Congress.

The agreement was signed in October and faced intense criticism from Colombia's more left-leaning neighbors, including Venezuela and Bolivia. President Juan Manuel Santos (pictured above right), who was inaugurated on Aug. 7, enjoys a wide political majority in Colombia's Congress and told reporters Wednesday that the ruling would have no effect on cooperation between the U.S. and its closest ally in Latin America.

It remains unclear whether Santos will seek ratification of the pact by lawmakers, says the website Colombia Reports.

"What's important is the cooperation is going to continue. The fight against drug runners, the fight against terrorism does not let up," Santos said, according to Reuters. "And this decision by the court is not going to affect what we've been receiving from the United States."

Colombia has received more than $7.3 billion in U.S. aid since former President Clinton signed the Plan Colombia pact in 2000. The funds have helped Colombia disrupt the FARC rebel group and narco-trafficking operations, primarily cocaine production. But there have also been increasing human rights claims against Colombia's military and 21,000 combat-related deaths since Uribe took office in 2002, according to a recent report by the Washington Office on Latin America.

The entire report is here. It cites human rights groups' estimates of an additional 14,000 deaths of non-combatants and a rise in so-called "parapolitics," or the elections of leaders with known or alleged ties to paramilitaries or drug traffickers.

Santos, a former defense minister, was elected in a vote for continuity after eight years of Uribe's get-tough approach against the FARC and other rebel groups. The new president is seeking to restore deeply strained ties with Venezuela while also maintaining Uribe's strategy for the country's security challenges, Times special correspondent Chris Kraul reports from Bogota, the Colombian capital.

Uribe's government frequently accused Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez of harboring FARC rebels in his country's territory, a charge Venezuela's government has denied. Colombia remains the world's biggest supplier of cocaine, but Peru may soon overtake the distinction as coca leaf production rises in the neighboring Andean nation.

-- Daniel Hernandez in Mexico City

Photo: Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez meets Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos days after Santos assumed office. Credit: Reuters via The Christian Science Monitor.

A poet's death lingers bitterly in El Salvador

Who killed the celebrated Salvadoran poet Roque Dalton? And should those accused of executing him be brought to justice now, or be granted unofficial clemency under President Mauricio Funes' "philosophy of change"?

The questions are challenging El Salvador after a month of commemorations examining Dalton's legacy, reports L.A. Times special correspondent Alex Renderos from San Salvador. A "bitter and very public spat" emerged, reminding us that El Salvador's decades-long leftist resistance was never neat and unified. One of the fellow guerrillas believed to have ordered Dalton's killing for insubordination is now a senior member of the Funes administration, elected a year ago as El Salvador's first leftist government. 

Dalton's sons, a journalist and a filmmaker, are asking that prosecutors try Jorge Melendez and Joaquin Villalobos, two former members of the People's Revolutionary Army, or EPR, for the 1975 killing of their father. The Catholic Church in El Salvador and a university human rights institute are calling on the government to fully investigate the killing. Funes has said he won't dismiss Melendez.

The EPR eventually merged with other guerrilla groups to form the FMLN, which later morphed into a political party, and in 2009 led former journalist Funes to his election as president. Dalton, who once wrote, "To have faith is the best audacity and audacity is beautiful," would have turned 75 on May 14.

Read the story in The Times here.

-- Daniel Hernandez in Mexico City

Photo credit: Los Angeles Times