Borderland Beat |  |
- Mireles Reaches an Agreement with the SEGOB in Regards to His Freedom
- Sinaloa: El Chiquilin Avendaño captured
- Michoacan: the fight of padre goyo against organized crime
- : After his betrayal and spilling the beans, El Jr. Cardenas still gets 20 years
| Mireles Reaches an Agreement with the SEGOB in Regards to His Freedom Posted: 19 Nov 2014 09:11 PM PST 
- Talia Vázquez Alatorre and Salvador Molina Navarro Dr. Mireles and his family have decided to accept the political agreement conditioned with the Secretariat of the Interior (SEGOB), in order to obtain his freedom. In order for this to happen, they have entrusted Father Gregorio López Jerónimo to head these talks. Such agreement does not include the more than 370 autodefensas who are still locked up in various prisons. The pact marks the exit of Dr. Mireles to some; to some this seems embarrassing. We deeply regret the decision of Dr. Mireles and his family. We will continue to lead efforts to obtain the release of all of the autodefensasthrough the Amnesty Law that is already being discussed in the Senate. Given that the causes that gave rise to the autodefensamovement remain in force, we are absolutely committed to the cause, and with the others that unite the people of Mexico in regards to the tragedy and impunity taking place. The proposed Amnesty Law at the time will benefit Dr. Mireles, who we have a lot of respect for, and unfortunately, who we are sure that once again will be betrayed by Commissioner Alfredo Castillo Cervantes. Source: Michoacán 3.0 | ||
| Sinaloa: El Chiquilin Avendaño captured Posted: 19 Nov 2014 08:51 PM PST Borderland Beat from Reforma and Azteca  Personnel from the Navy of Mexico, managed to secure in Sinaloa two suspected members of the Sinaloa Cartel, in two different operations. Initial reports indicate that the first operation occurred early on Sunday in the city of Culiacan, resulting in the arrest of Jesús Beltran León, alias " El Trebol " or "Chuy Raul" . Beltran León is the alleged leader of escorts for Archivaldo Ivan Guzman , son of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman . The governments of Mexico and the United States have maintained investigations against him for organized crime and drug trafficking. Also, in the early hours of November 16ththe operation and arrest was conducted in the Canaries residential area of the capital of Sinaloa, which resulted in the capture of Martin Avendano Ojeda Gaudencio , alias "El Chiquilin Avendaño " . The federal record states that this subject is known as one of the financial operators for Sinaloa cartel working for Capo, Ismael " El Mayo" Zambada . Note that the Treasury Department of the United States in October 2011, revealed it had launched an investigation against "The Chiquilin Avendaño " for his alleged links with the criminal group operating in Sinaloa, and overseeing money laundering operations. The two were arrested and taken to Mexico City and made available to the Attorney General of the Federation. No shots were fired in either operation. | ||
| Michoacan: the fight of padre goyo against organized crime Posted: 19 Nov 2014 08:06 PM PST Borderland Beat Posted by Bjeff and "Jorge" from The Daily Beast  MORELIA, Mexico — If you want to know about the Mexican priest Padre Gregorio López, first of all you need to know that his parish is located in the small city of Apatzingán, at the heart of a region in southern Mexico known as a fiefdom of the Knights Templar drug cartel. Then you need to know that he considers it his religious obligation to drive the cartel out of the city and out of the state of Michoacán. The lengths to which the padre is willing to go to achieve that end have carried his reputation far beyond the rough-and-tumble region known as Tierra Caliente, so named for an average annual temperature that rounds down to 95 degrees. Land theft, the extortion of farmers, and the rise in kidnappings and murders were grievances left to simmer for years in the countryside. A year ago, in the fall of 2013, the frustration boiled over. Farming communities across the region rose up in arms, in some cases with guns and four-wheel-drive vehicles more in keeping with the army or a drug cartel than poor farmers. In January, the president of Mexico put the law enforcement of Michoacán in trusteeship and a federal commission, once in place, began exerting pressure on the leaders of the self-defense movement to disarm and incorporate their ranks into a new rural police force. Most of the groups obliged. But the most authoritative spokesman for the movement, a surgeon named Dr. José Manuel Mireles, refused and continued to rally forces until the commission had him and 80 of his followers arrested in June for carrying unlicensed firearms. Padre Goyo, as he is known to parishioners (Goyo is short for Gregorio), soon grew famous in the midst of this turmoil because of his straight talk and the occasional disclosures he made about public officials and the criminal underworld. At a moment when Mexico is pretty desperate for heroes, when the disappearance of more than 40 students, allegedly at the hands of corrupt politicians, cops and the cartels has inflamed the country, Goyo is just the kind of figure to capture the public imagination. He is an animated, energetic man in his late forties, of average height and sturdy build with a high forehead, tan face, and dark hair winged with gray at the temples. He speaks in emphatic bursts, with the parish priest's fondness for parables and jokes that bring a quick smile and a twinkle to his dark eyes when he sees he is understood. He was born to a humble family of farmers in a village of 500 not far from Apatzingán, majored in philosophy in Morelia and studied theology for four years at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. He speaks with the authority of a native of this land as well as the authority of priest. On same the day that Mexican security forces arrived in full force in Tierra Caliente earlier this year, Padre Goyo disclosed to the media that the two biggest narcos associated with the Knights Templar, Nazario Moreno and Servando Gómez, had had a meal together that day at a ranch a couple of miles outside of Apatzingán, and that the government knew about it. Goyo's claim attracted a lot of attention, not least because Nazario Moreno was supposed to have died in a firefight with the Mexican army three years prior. None other than the Mexican president at the time, Felipe Calderón, had announced Moreno's death. Two months after Goyo's revelation, the Mexican government announced that Moreno had been killed for a second time. Such was the modus operandi of Padre Goyo, to reveal sensitive information that, however sensational it appeared at first glance, was later confirmed. He publicly condemned the mayor of Apatzingán as a criminal associate of the cartel and three months later the mayor was in custody for extorting money from his own city council on behalf of the criminals. He fulminated against the cartel and its associates from the pulpit and began feeding intelligence to the federal security forces about who the criminals were and where they lived. Padre Goyo survived two assassination attempts (he says there is a bullet hole in the wall of his office from one would-be assassin), numerous death threats, and incurred the wrath of the Archbishop of Morelia, who at the height of the violence publicly reprimanded Padre Goyo, telling reporters at a press conference, "We must help him to become more serene." Padre Goyo fired back at a rally in downtown Apatzingán, declaring that, "I myself cannot continue speaking of God when here it reeks of death." On January 23, a photograph of Padre Goyo graced the front pages of the daily newspapers in Mexico City: he was wearing a bulletproof vest over his black shirt and white clerical collar. The news reports quoted him as saying he wore the vest to celebrate Sunday mass in Apatzingán. (He says he later saw a print of the photo blown up and hung on the wall of a cardinal's office in the Vatican.) The photograph remains an emblem of the turbulence in Tierra Caliente among armed citizen militias, Mexican security forces, and the Knights Templar. In February, at around the time the Vatican was sending queries about the situation in Apatzingán, Padre Goyo enlisted local business owners to form a brigade he called the CCRISTOS, a Spanish acronym for a citizens' council responsible for promoting a healthy social fabric. The Mexican journalist Alejandro Sánchez accompanied Padre Goyo at the head of a joint operation of CCRISTOS and federal security forces and chronicled the dramatic expulsion of the Knights Templar from their lairs in downtown Apatzingán: "It was eight in the morning when the priest Gregorio López in a beret from the Vatican, a white guayabera, and a bulletproof vest, gave instructions to more than 100 men with pistols in their belts put under his charge to enter Apatzingán to raid the homes and hunt down members of the Knights Templar. 'Don't shoot unless you're attacked,' he ordered with the attitude of an army major." Last week, Padre Gregorio López returned to the public eye with a rather statesmanlike public appearance at a university in the state capital of Morelia. He had set aside the clerical attire (and the bulletproof vest) for a modest black jacket, a striped button-down shirt open at the neck, and navy trousers. "I've moved on to the next step, unarmed," he said. "Peaceful active resistance, unarmed, nonviolent, no more blood, no more deaths, with clear ideas and proposals." Padre Goyo got back to Mexico in May from a three-month hiatus that he called a self-imposed exile in Europe. Speculation at the time was that he had been recalled by the Vatican, and he does not deny it now. Of his sojourn in the Rome, Padre Goyo will say only that he was called on to answer for his actions and his motives during the heady days in Apatzingán, and that the Vatican emphasized to him the virtues of prudence. He met twice with Pope Francis and referred to the pontiff as a role model. "He hasn't made any comments about my work to me directly but his advisors have. One of his closest advisors, every time he calls me he tells me, 'I admire you, Padre! Keep up the good work!'" The security situation in the city has cooled off considerably in Michoacán thanks in part to the constant presence of federal troops in the city. The situation in the countryside is less clear, and Padre Goyo says the Knights Templar and another group, Los Viagras, have infiltrated the rural police force. La Tuta, the leader of the Knights Templar and the highest-profile narco in Mexico, remains at large, and according to Padre Goyo the manhunt for him is "very weak." He said the authorities are afraid to launch an all-out search because La Tuta has videos of senators, congressmen, mayors and businessmen doing deals with the drug lord. La Tuta already has released videos of himself with mayors and prominent journalists in Michoacán. "If you corner a dog he'll bite you," Padre Goyo said. "The authorities know this man [La Tuta] has many means of attacking important figures in the government, so it's better to go about it nice and easy." Last month, the ex-wife of La Tuta was arrested. Padre Goyo, claims knowledge of sensitive details of her interrogation, and he told the press that the Mexican army provides La Tuta an escort and moves him around the state disguised as a soldier, a service he pays hundreds of thousands of dollars a month in bribes to maintain. Padre Goyo's work is ever more overtly political as he tries to win the freedom of Dr. José Manuel Mireles, a paramilitary leader who play an important role in Michoacán, perhaps even as an elected official. "Mireles is someone capable of moving the nation, and moving it toward justice," says the padre. But the federal prosecutor is going ahead with the case against Mireles. "I'll never be a friend to the government, but I can be an ally," Goyo told The Daily Beast. As for the cartels, "They're still there, but they walk around with their tails between their legs." The clergy in Padre Goyo's diocese is behind him with a few exceptions whom he calls "hidebound" for believing the Church has to be a retrograde institution. "No, the Church has to be on the side of the most disadvantaged, of the poorest, of the helpless," the padre tells us. "Pope Francis says that he does not want pastors with the scent of incense, he wants pastors with the scent of sheep, truly committed, elbow to elbow, arm in arm with the people." "In the church schools last summer I met with kindergarteners and I like to asked them what they want to be when they grow up. Who wants to be a doctor? Two or three raise their hand. Teacher? Two or three more. Then one boy raises his hand and I ask him what he wants to be and he says he wants to be a sicario," a hired killer. " Then 20 of the 50 kids in the room raise their hands and say they want to be sicarios, too, because that is the model," says Padre Goyo. "In 10 years we will have a generation of young people who have known only death, kidnappings, disappearances, and they grow up thinking it's better to be the one committing the crime than the victim."* Padre Goyo has reorganized his CCRISTOS as more of a community service group, he says. He and the diocese are putting together a youth basketball league, a youth filmmaking workshop, and a symphonic orchestra of a thousand boys and girls who were once lookouts and runners for the cartel. He is also soliciting funds for university fellowships in agronomy and engineering. Meanwhile, the epicenter of cartel violence and official collusion in Mexico has shifted in recent months from Michoacán to the neighboring state of Guerrero, where police in the city of Iguala as well as the mayor are in custody and charged in the murders of three students and the abductions of an additional 43 from the Ayotzinapa rural teachers college. The whereabouts of the 43 remain unknown. Padre Goyo criticized Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto's "ineptitude" waiting a month before addressing the tragedy. He also ridiculed the Mexican attorney general's version of events, that the missing students were burned to ash and disposed of in a river. "Children in Mexico may believe in Santa Claus, but they don't believe in The Mexican Justice Department," said the padre. "I believe we are in the hour of the debacle of the institutions, they cannot be any more rotten," said Padre Goyo. "What is happening in Ayotzinapa is a symbol of the total corruption, of the total ineptitude and worse, because the cartels are inside the government." *Chivis Note: This hit home with me, I have written multiple times about my own experience on this subject. I have interacted with more than 100 schools in Mexico over the decade of my work, in 8 states. When I arrived in Mexico, narcos were never spoken about openly, children would not emulate them, or even speak about the narco life. 10 Years ago, children had typical dreams of becoming teachers, and other honorable professions. Around 2010, that all changed. Children began speaking about cartels in much the same way American children speak about sports figures. I noticed on Halloween children began taking on narco characters or sicarios as a costume choice. When I visit a school I typically spend at least half my time hanging with children, listening to them, about their world, and the world outside their world. On a 2010 visit to Monclova, I was with a group of about 50 children, 12 year olds. I asked about their aspirations, and on that day, most boys answered that they wanted to be a capo, or "big sicario", and most of the girls wanted to marry one "and be rich". One girl said "I want to be a teacher". A couple of girls laughed at her saying "well then you will be poor", and then most of the group joined in on the laughter. I was very sad that day in 2010, but now it is worse, it is no longer a subject something spoken about in whispers, but talked about openly. As though cartel work is out of the closet wrapped in a shroud of acceptance. It was one of the most heartbreaking realizations for me. I am leaving a Mexico that is in a worse social condition, than when I when I arrived. | ||
| : After his betrayal and spilling the beans, El Jr. Cardenas still gets 20 years Posted: 19 Nov 2014 01:46 PM PST Borderland Beat material from BB archives, The monitor and valley central Below is a detailed account of the case, from the archives and his recent appearance. For those not familiar with the history this is a good account...... A former Gulf Cartel leader faced a judge on Monday morning where he learned that he will spend a  Cardenas-Vela admitted to moving large amounts of cocaine and marijuana across the border and into several American cities. Judge Hanen sentenced Cardenas-Vela to 20 years in federal prison and ordered that he pay a $100,000 dollar fine. The sentence is already imposed on top of an agreement where Cardenas-Vela would forfeit $5 million dollars in drug cash as well as a home off Bluewing Circle in Brownsville. The 41-year-old drug cartel leader had been in custody since his October 2011 arrest in Port Isabel. Cardenas-Vela is the nephew of jailed Gulf Cartel kingpin Osiel Cardenas-Guillen as well as slain Gulf Cartel leader Ezequiel "Tony Tormenta" Cardenas-Guillen. Plea Deal Court records show that "El Junior" was facing up to life in prison but got a reduced sentenced due to a plea deal and his cooperation with federal investigators. During his sentencing, Judge Hanen heard how Cardenas-Vela had testified for three days in the drug trafficking trial of Juan Roberto Rincon-Rincon. Rincon-Rincon was a former high-ranking plaza boss for the Gulf Cartel in Rio Bravo, Tamaulipas. During that trial, Cardenas-Vela described the command and control structure of the Gulf Cartel between 2002 and his arrest in 2011 as well as the creation of the Zetas drug trafficking organization and its' split from the Gulf Cartel. Plaza Boss Cardenas-Vela occupied a position as a "plaza boss" for the Gulf Cartel over the last several years in various cities south of the border such as San Fernando, Rio Bravo and Matamoros. A "plaza boss" is the top Gulf Cartel leader in a particular region or town and who is in charge of maintaining control of the region for to ensure the safe passage of the cartel's drug shipments. The plaza boss also extracts a "piso," or payment by others who want to transport drugs or operate criminal businesses in that region. A plaza boss is also responsible for making recurring bribe payments to Mexican law enforcement and local officials, as well as recruiting, outfitting and maintaining command and control of the Cartel's employees in that region. According to the factual basis in support of his plea, Cardenas-Vela was the plaza boss for the San Fernando region for several years leading up his transfer to Rio Bravo back in June 2010. San Fernando is an important thoroughfare in northern Mexico and narcotics commonly pass through San Fernando on their way to Cartel collection points along the Rio Grande River. In June 2010, Cardenas-Vela assumed plaza boss leadership of Rio Bravo, an area along the Rio Grande River east of Reynosa. Rio Bravo's location on the United States-Mexico border has made it a common collection point for a good share of the Gulf Cartel's narcotics prior to passage into this country. Cardenas-Vela maintained command and control of the Rio Bravo Plaza until March 2011. Power Struggle The internal struggle for power that began after the death of his uncle, Ezequiel Cardenas Guillen, in November 2010 continued within the Gulf Cartel. Cardenas-Vela and elements allied with him began to fight with elements associated with Jorge Eduardo Costilla Sanchez - aka El Cos. It was during this struggle that Cardenas-Vela ousted Jose Luis Zuniga, aka "El Wicho," from leadership of Matamoros and assumed control. During this feud, the Zetas unsuccessfully attempted to gain control of the Control-Ramirez and Reynosa Plazas. Cardenas ultimately fled into the United States in May 2011 to escape the power struggles in northern Mexico and was able to maintain control of the Matamoros Plaza through the use of daily emails to key leadership within the Cartel. The History Spilling the beans in 2012; "Everyone from cops to strippers worked for me" In 2012, in a Texas federal courtroom, "Junior" described how he ruled over the city in Tamaulipas, where even topless dancers were on the take, paid to spy on drunken players leaking drug-world secrets. As for U.S. authorities, there always was a Border Patrol agent or Customs officer to be bought, he said, adding: "All of them had to work for me." The nephew of the now U.S.-imprisoned Gulf Cartel kingpin, testified how he had to "put his own people" in City Hall and police headquarters, and make sure the Mexican newspapers didn't "meddle" or "publish anything of me." Cardenas Vela, a heavyset man now of 41, hoped his testimony against cartel rival Juan Roberto "Primo" Rincon-Rincon will save him prison time, laid out the workings of the cartel in a matter-of-fact, at times jovial, tone. Prosecutors wanted the testimony to aid a conviction of Rincon-Rincon as a high-ranking Gulf Cartel operative who trafficked in a cross-border cocaine and marijuana operation between 2002 and 2011. His lawyer attempted to show he was just a "low-level player" who fled for his life after Osiel successor Jorge Eduardo "El Cos" Costilla Sánchez put him in charge of the Rio Bravo "plaza," or trafficking corridor. Cardenas Vela seemed unfazed about detailing the underworld to the jury. "That's the way it is over there," he told them. "The one in charge of the plaza is the one who is going to control the city." That meant a monopoly over every bale of marijuana and brick of cocaine that came through a key zone north of a federal drug checkpoint where frequent leadership transfers made bribing difficult. Cocaine came from the port city of Tampico in planeloads of 500 kilograms, landing at airstrips Cardenas Vela had carved into the brush of remote ranch and hunting lands. Caravans of armored Suburbans carried bosses from the northern plazas, lieutenants of Costilla's that he said included Rincon-Rincon. The highways were cleared for the passage, part of the cooperation that earned the head of a local police force about 100,000 pesos, or $7,800 a month, a low-level officer the equivalent of $388 a week and a member of the media $1,550 to $3,876 monthly. "Soldiers" were recruited from the police and highway patrol, from the military, and from the street, trained for months in "academies," and outfitted with weapons and garb that cost about $8,000 each. The cartel funded mayoral campaigns, "so if you want to change this one in police, this one in traffic, he would be under my orders." Marijuana, code-called "nacional," came by river. Cocaine came over bridges. Illegal immigrants were crossed in separate areas than drug shipments. Plazas" were color-coded so as not to reveal goings-on over radio or phone conversations — of which the top guns never partook. The busiest, and most lucrative, ones were by the border: Matamoros, Control, Rio Bravo and Reynosa. On a giant magnetic bulletin board, Cardenas Vela put pictures of faces in place on the cartel hierarchy starting in 2002, when Osiel ruled over three main divisions led by Costilla, Ezequiel "Tony Tormenta" Cárdenas Guillén, and Heriberto "El Lazca" Lazcano Lazcano.
Tormenta, Osiel's brother and Cardenas Velas' uncle, was assassinated in 2010. Laczano broke off to form the Zetas, turning Osiel's branch of special forces into a ruthless competitor that has since taken over San Fernando and other smuggling areas. Cardenas Vela and Rincon-Rincon had been childhood friends, but Rincon-Rincon was loyal to Costilla while Cardenas Vela sought to wrest control over a camp he said was pulling stunts, such as stealing armored bank cars, that he said was putting heat on what had been a well-organized drug business. The board emptied of faces as battles with the Zetas and the Mexican military under Mexican President Felipe Calderón raged in the years leading up to 2011, when both Cardenas Vela and Rincon-Rincon, by then allegedly the Rio Bravo plaza boss, found themselves fleeing to the United States. Cardenas Vela, caught in a traffic stop in Port Isabel, entered a plea deal in March 2012. The government was really after me, chasing me, wanted to catch me," Cardenas Vela said of his reasons for leaving Mexico. "I couldn't find any place to hide." Osiel Cardenas Guillén Gulf Cartel rivals now squaring off in U.S. courtroom  Rafael "Junior" Cárdenas Vela is the nephew of toppled kingpin Osiel Cárdenas Guillén and the assassinated Ezequiel "Tony Tormenta" Cárdenas Guillén. Cárdenas Vela was frank about hopes that testimony against alleged Rio Bravo plaza boss Juan Roberto "Primo" Rincon-Rincon would land him the low range of a 10-year to life prison sentence. In testimony Thursday, he recalled how Rincon-Rincon was a neighbor in Matamoros, Mexico, with whom he went swimming in nearby canals and played marbles, at which he said Rincon-Rincon tended to cheat. The son of a factory worker, he returned to Matamoros after a stint as an illegal immigrant working in U.S. mushroom fields and chicken plants. His uncle, Osiel, only reluctantly let him join the cartel, where he took over the San Fernando "plaza," a key trafficking corridor due to its location north of the last major drug checkpoint before the Texas border. His testimony on Rincon-Rincon's two charges of drug trafficking conspiracy dating back to 2002 was to continue today. Both Cárdenas Vela, 39, and Rincon-Rincon, 41, fled to the Rio Grande Valley as factional warring within the cartel and the threat of the encroaching Zetas escalated. Neither hid out very long. Cárdenas Vela, who had been being watched by U.S. authorities, was caught Oct. 20 in a traffic stop in Port Isabel, across the bay from South Padre Island. He pleaded guilty in March.Rincon-Rincon, meanwhile, opted at the last minute Monday to back out of a planned plea deal and go to trial. Richard Zayas, attorney for Rincon-Rincon, pledged to prove his client was a low-level player who got in over his head. A succession of U.S. federal agents testified how Rincon-Rincon was caught Oct. 26 after he and four others bailed out of a pickup truck near the banks of the Rio Grande. Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent Moises Gonzalez described being called out late that night to interview someone border agents suspected was a big name in the underworld. Rincon-Rincon was able to chart the division between Cárdenas Vela and recently arrested rival Jorge Eduardo "El Cos" Costilla Sánchez, to whom Rincon-Rincon was loyal. That morning, Rincon-Rincon had been in what he thought was a winning skirmish against about 100 of "Junior's" men, only to get word that 100 more were coming to outflank him, Gonzalez said. Costilla, by cellphone, said it would be days before he could send reinforcements. Rincon-Rincon, along with alleged fellow plaza boss Jose Luis "Wicho" Zuniga Hernandez, decided to take refuge across the Rio Grande but were caught. Rincon-Rincon quickly gave up his guise of being a run-of-the-mill unauthorized immigrant and farmer, Gonzalez said. "He took a deep breath ... and he said, 'I am Juan Roberto Rincon-Rincon, and I am comandante of the Gulf Cartel,'" Gonzalez remembered. "I said, 'Thank you. We know who you are.'" |
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