Borderland Beat |  |
- Another principal suspect captured in the Iguala Normalista case
- Dressed as Mexican Marines, US Justice Department Pursues Capos
- Mexicans: "How are you?" ..."F***** but happy!"
- Castillo says there is no agreement to release Dr. Mireles
| Another principal suspect captured in the Iguala Normalista case Posted: 22 Nov 2014 12:27 AM PST Chivis Martinez Borderland Beat  The Federal Police captured in Colima, Cesar Nava González, former deputy director of Public Safety Cocula and considered one of the principals involved in the disappearance of the 43 normalistas Ayotzinapa on September 26th . He was considered Iguala Mayor Abraca's right hand man. Nava was wanted on an arrest warrant issued by the First District Judge in Criminal Proceedings of Matamoros, Tamaulipas, on charges of organized crime and kidnapping in the criminal case resulting in the disappearance, and assumed murder of 43 Normalista (students) of Ayotzinapa. Nava is accused of being paid 13,000 pesos per month by the Guerreros Unidos as protection money.  After delivering the students to El Gil, Nava fled the city and was not seen again until his capture last Sunday. The former police commander was captured with his wife last Sunday in Colima, but the announcement was not made public until today. Authorities first notified the parents of the missing students at a meeting held in Chilpancingo.  Outside the meeting, frustrated parents threw water bottles at van carrying the PGR director of the Criminal Investigation Agency Thomas Zerón, and officer Jaime Ramos Rivera. Two bottles hit the vehicle. The incident caused no damage, but it was enough to frighten the General Commissioner of the Federal Police, Enrique Galindo. After being notified of the bottle incident, the general decided to wait until the parents left before leaving in his SUV. The General managed a death-defying escape and safely exited the garage, avoiding the lethal plastic water bottles. |
| Dressed as Mexican Marines, US Justice Department Pursues Capos Posted: 21 Nov 2014 07:50 PM PST Borderland Beat posted by aguiniga, republished from WSJ By Devlin Barrett  U.S. Justice Department personnel are disguising themselves as Mexican Marines to take part in armed raids against drug suspects in Mexico, according to people familiar with the matter, an escalation of American involvement in battling drug cartels that carries significant risk to U.S. personnel. Both the U.S. and Mexican governments have acknowledged in the past that American law-enforcement agencies operate in Mexico providing intelligence support to Mexican military units battling the cartels. The countries have described the U.S. role as a supporting one only.  The risks became clear on July 11, when Mexican Marines and a handful of U.S. Marshals personnel dressed as Mexican Marines were fired on as they walked through a remote field in Sinaloa state. One American was shot and wounded, and in the gunfight that followed, more than a half-dozen suspected cartel soldiers were killed, according to people familiar with the incident. It is unclear whether U.S. Marshals personnel shot anyone. The secret missions are approved by senior U.S. Marshals executives and by leaders within the Mexican Marines, the people familiar with them said. It isn't clear who else in either government may have given authorization. The Marshals Service referred questions to the Justice Department, of which it is a part. A Justice Department spokeswoman said, "The U.S. Marshals have an important—and sometimes dangerous—mission of capturing fugitives and facilitating extraditions in the United States and around the world." One U.S. official said the missions are approved at a high level of the Mexican government. The Mexican embassy in Washington denied that Mexico's government gave U.S. agencies permission to go on armed raids. "Members of foreign law enforcement agencies or foreign military, including those from the U.S., are not authorized to carry weapons within the Mexican territory, and none of them are authorized either to participate in any raids or other armed law enforcement operations,'' said a spokesman, Ariel Moutsatsos-Morales. The missions represent a new example of risks the Justice Department is taking in pursuing Mexican cartels. A 2010 program called Fast & Furious, in which the U.S. allowed the purchase of weapons by suspected "straw" buyers in an effort to track them to cartel figures, led to a scandal when one of the guns was linked to the killing of a U.S. Border Patrol agent. In the aftermath, the head of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives was forced out and others were punished or resigned. Attorney General Eric Holder has said he wasn't aware of the plan until later. The new disclosures are likely to strike a raw nerve in Mexico, where the presence of armed U.S. agents on its soil has long been a contentious issue. In Washington, the shootout in July sent shock waves through the select circle of law-enforcement officials aware of the operation, people familiar with the matter said. Generally, U.S. law-enforcement agents overseas are prohibited by local laws from carrying weapons, and they have no arrest powers outside the U.S. The State Department declined to discuss law-enforcement cooperation between the U.S. and Mexico. The Marshals Service operations in Mexico are carried out by a small group sent for short, specific missions. The goal is to help Mexico find and capture high-value cartel targets.  Sometimes the Marshals Service targets a person Mexico would like to apprehend but who isn't wanted by U.S. authorities, the people familiar with the work said. Marshals personnel on the ground dress in local military garb to avoid standing out and are given weapons to defend themselves. When a mission goes badly, as on July 11, one of the people familiar with the work added, "it can turn into a flat-out kill mission." Some of them worry that U.S. personnel could be charged with a crime and jailed in Mexico if a mission went particularly badly or if they ran afoul of the wrong local official. The Marshals Service works closely with the Mexican Marines because the U.S. agency has expertise at finding fugitives, in part through technology that detects cellphone signals and other digital signatures. That includes airplane flights operated by the agency carrying sophisticated devices that mimic cellphone towers, as reported last week by The Wall Street Journal. That technology works better with a ground presence. Responding to the Journal article last week, a Justice Department official said that "any investigative techniques which the Marshals Service uses are deployed…only in furtherance of ordinary law enforcement operations, such as the apprehension of wanted individuals." The people familiar with the matter described the Marshals Service as a police agency affected by mission creep. More than five years ago, the Service flew small planes along the border to detect cell signals and locate suspects inside Mexico. About four years ago the flights crossed deep into Mexican airspace, the people said. They added that, more recently, some flights have been conducted in Guatemala. U.S. Marshals Service director Stacia Hylton, shown in 2012, emailed colleagues after a July firefight in Mexico's Sinaloa state saying that a Marshals inspector injured in the incident was in stable condition and recovering. The plan for the July mission in Sinaloa, hundreds of miles from the U.S. border, was typical, said those familiar with it—but quickly went wrong. Members of the FBI, DEA and Marshals Service met with a group of Mexican Marines in preparation for a Friday raid. The goal was to apprehend a senior member of Los Mazatlecos, a gang of enforcers with ties to the Beltran Leyva drug cartel. A handful of Marshals specialists dressed themselves as Mexican Marines and took Marines weapons. As they and the Mexican Marines set off on foot, a small plane flown by a U.S. Marshals employee kept an eye on the target site, advising colleagues on the ground who in turn guided those on foot. DEA and FBI personnel remained a mile or so away in an armored vehicle, observing and advising. The men walked through a field toward the site. As they approached a line of bushes, hidden gunmen opened fire. A U.S. Marshals employee with the rank of inspector was shot in the arm and fell. A Mexican Marine rushed to carry him to safety and was also hit. Then another shot struck the American in the torso. After the firefight, the wounded American was airlifted to a hospital in Culiacán, (foto at top) where he was kept under guard until he could be moved to a hospital in San Antonio. U.S. officials scrambled to keep the incident quiet, people familiar with the operation said. One senior U.S. official in Mexico told the other law-enforcement personnel to "forget they were here," those familiar with the matter said. The official was told that would be difficult because one person had already notified superiors in Washington of the shooting. The U.S. Marshals pilot who provided reconnaissance was told by superiors to leave Mexico in the middle of the night, people familiar with the operation said.  She added: "The laser-focus in which you accomplish the mission in your area of expertise is valued tremendously from our law enforcement partners, just as it is throughout our investigative programs domestically." The Marshals Service hasn't said anything publicly about the inspector's shooting. Spokesmen for the FBI and DEA declined to comment. The July clash hasn't altered the agency's position on such raids, according to the people familiar with it. In recent weeks, the Marshals Service has been planning another covert mission in Mexico, they said. |
| Mexicans: "How are you?" ..."F***** but happy!" Posted: 21 Nov 2014 08:00 PM PST Borderland Beat republish from Proceso translated by Brittany for Mexico Voices  First. Obviously, our country is the most unstable of all the members. Brazil and Russia are positioned slightly better. In contrast, Japan is the most stable. While in the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, Canada, and Poland the number of people who claim to have suffered any crime is under 2%, in Mexico, it's 12.8%, reflecting the severe problem that shakes the Republic, which is also one of the countries lowest in income and equality. In Mexico, according to the OECD, annual family income is $12,850. That is, of course, if the wealth were shared equally. Since it's not, the gap between the richest and poorest is very large: the top 20% receive at least 13 times more than the bottom 20%, making Mexico a severely unequal nation. By that same logic, Mexicans work 2,226 hours a year—the OECD average is 1,765 hours—to make a far lower salary than the other members of the organization. Although Mexico devotes a large part of its budget to education, the results are extremely low. In fact, only 36% of citizens between the ages of 25-64 have a middle school education, which is far from the average: 75%. This is the country with the lowest education levels in the OECD, while Finland has the highest. Regarding the quality of reading and math levels, the Mexican Republic achieved 417 points, while the average is 497. An important fact is that Mexican women leave school at one percentage point higher than men. Second. In Mexico, life expectancy has gone up to 74 years; even so, it is less than the average of 80 years. Women have a life expectancy of 77, while men's is 71. Regarding air contamination, Mexico also fares poorly. The level of PM10 atmospheric particles—those are contaminants in the air that enter the lungs and can damage them—is at 28.9 micrograms per cubic meter, much higher than the average of 20.1 micrograms. Don't even mention the quality of the water: 20% less drinkable than the average of OECD countries. Even in personal relationships, Mexicans trust less (as Samuel Ramos and Octavio Paz have documented) than in other parts of the world. In fact, 68% of nationals say they have someone whom they can confide in as needed, while the average is 84%. One of the great contributions of Mexican simulation is the voter card that one gets because it serves as identification and is free, rather than to exercise the right to vote. Not having a voter's card is almost like civic death. Nonetheless, Mexico has a participation in elections of 63%, below the 72% average. Third. Although the previous indicators emphasize that our country has a large window of opportunities for improvement, surprisingly the OECD study confirmed that Mexicans are more satisfied with their lives (82% say they have positive experiences on a normal day—feelings of peace, satisfaction with their achievements, etc.) than the average of 76%. This fact is worrisome because it reflects either a problem in the survey sample taken by the Gallup polling company or a serious state of denial or avoidance of reality by Mexicans, a large discrepancy between objective quality of life and perceived quality of life. If what Gallup affirmed for the OECD is true, we will have the PRI [Party of the Institutional Revolution] around for awhile, because the most important thing is not the living truth, but the perceived truth. Mexicans could use the following saying when asked "How are you?", responding between jokes and glances: "Fucked, but happy." Could it be? |
| Castillo says there is no agreement to release Dr. Mireles Posted: 21 Nov 2014 11:54 AM PST Chivis Martinez Borderland Beat  The federal commissioner in Michoacán, Alfredo Castillo, today denied, the former leader of the AUC in Tepalcatepec, Dr. José Manuel Mireles, has negotiated with the Interior Ministry his release. The report was initially published on November 10th in the news outlet Cambio de Michoacán. News of an agreement was reported first by Michoacán's Father Goyo, and confirmed yesterday by Thalia Vasquez, the now the former lead attorney of Dr. Mireles. Vasquez resigned from the defense team because of the reported agreement. The agreement supposedly calls for Dr Mireles to go into exile and not run for political office until the year of 2018. The agreement was said to be between Dr Mireles and Interior Ministry, Miguel Angel Osorio Chong. "There is no such arrangement, agreement, discussion, management in this regard," Castillo told Milenio TV. It is difficult to believe there was not an agreement on the table since Vasquez cited Dr. Mireles acceptance of the agreement, the reason for her resigning from the case, along with the other attorneys on the defense team. Pricilla of the news agency Grillonautas once a close friend of Dr Mireles, made her discontentment known by referring to the agreement as "a shameful pact". If true, it appears that Dr Mireles is now alone, without an agreement, his defense team, and his strongest advocate. |
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