Mexican drug traffickers find ready assistance in mules carrying American passports

MGR News Analysis -


Guadalajara -
Drugs move north, while guns and obscene amounts of cash move south.

That's the way the Mexican drug war - correction, the U.S. drug war being played out on Mexican soil - works.

Mexico and its Central American neighbors contend that 90% of the drugs moving through their sovereign territory are U.S. bound, a proposition with which the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime concurs (Guatemalan ambassador warns of growing Los Zeta drug cartel presence in his country). And it's long been clear that American arms provide the vast amount of firepower in the hands of drug cartels and organized crime (The Second Amendment, NRA leave their mark in Mexico). Some traffickers enjoy such global presence that they conduct operations north of the border like legitimate business entities (Mexico's Sinaloa Cartel has 90% market domination in U.S., even licensing sales territories).

Washington Post has high praise for Enrique Peña Nieto, Mexican congress

American legislators should take their cue from Mexico's, say editors


Guadalajara -
In a lead editorial published yesterday, The Washington Post praised the policies of Institutional Revolutionary Party president Enrique Peña Nieto, and suggested the U.S. Congress would benefit by emulating Mexico's pragmatic, task oriented federal legislature.

Mexico's Grand Bargaining, which appeared March 29, is being heavily reported in the national Spanish press this weekend.

Confidence checks for local police forces still far behind schedule in 60% of Mexican states

*Updated May 6*
Guadalajara -
One of the hallmarks of Mexico's National Security Strategy, implemented by former president Calderón in December 2006, was the substitution of local police forces with federal military units in the war against drug traffickers and organized crime.

Reliance on troops was necessary because internal corruption in police departments, especially at the municipal level, had reached staggering proportions. Thousands were on criminal payrolls. Mexico has about 450,000 state and local officers, and now all must pass lie detectors and background checks (Weeding out corruption is daunting task in Mexico - polygraphs await half a million). The project has proceeded much slower than anticipated, but it's critical in a country where an average police salary is $300 dollars a month (Honesty checks for Mexican local, state police proceed at a snail's pace).

Two Canadians, two Mexicans and a bar tab of $9,415

Fraud takes many forms in tourist hot spots


*Updated May 7*
Cancún, Quintana Roo -
The troubles in this city just don't end. Cancún woes.

It began simply enough, as many Riviera Maya escapades do. But it ended with two Canadian tourists and their new Mexican buddies standing before the Public Ministry for the customary perp shot.

The group decided to visit a local watering hole called The Executive Tuesday afternoon. There they freely imbibed, although how much no one seems quite certain. A Spanish press account reports the men ordered "several rounds."

Barack Obama will visit Mexico in May

Guadalajara -
Mexico's Office of Foreign Secretary announced yesterday that president Barack Obama has accepted an invitation from president Enrique Peña Nieto to visit the country the first week of May.

Same sex marriage arrives at the U.S. Supreme Court - and at the Mexican Supreme Court

MGR Legal Analysis -
Same issue, but very different technical questions confront American and Mexican judges



*Updated June 26 - U.S. Supreme Court on gay marriage, in a nutshell*
Guadalajara -
The United States Supreme Court heard arguments yesterday and today on gay marriage issues. A summary of the legal questions in the two cases under consideration north of the border can be found in this MGR article: Mexico's Supreme Court takes another step towards nationwide recognition of gay marriage.

Although both countries by chance are grappling with the controversial subject at the same time in history, the issues are decidedly different. American constitutional law and history varies dramatically from Mexico's. The United States is a common law nation, which means it follows the legal traditions and reasoning processes employed in British Commonwealth courts for hundreds of years. Mexico's legal system was inherited from Spain and thus bears all the hallmarks of continental (European) law, which developed along very different avenues while Anglo-Saxon notions of justice were being worked out on the other side of the English Channel. It's logical that the highest tribunals of the two nations would see contemporary social issues in a rather different light.

Mexico's Sinaloa Cartel has 90% market domination in U.S., even licensing sales territories to other traffickers

Drug cartels utilize modern business models to saturate American markets


*Updated Mar. 29*
Guadalajara -
On Feb. 14 the Chicago Crime Commission named Sinaloa Cartel boss Joaquín El Chapo Guzmán "Public Enemy # 1."

It was the first time the Commission had invoked the term since the Prohibition-era struggle against American gangsters in the early 20th century. The CCC, which follows crime trends, picked Al Capone for its newly created award of dubious distinction in 1930.

"Since the Commission was founded 94 years ago, no other criminal has so merited the title," said its president J.R. Davis last month. "In my opinion, Guzmán is the new Capone," said Davis. "But by comparison, really, Capone was an amateur." Chicago calls El Chapo Guzmán "Public Enemy # 1."

American death reported in Guadalajara suburb

Guadalajara -
MGR has learned of the murder of a U.S. citizen in Zapopan in February.

Kyle Eugene Kester, 38, was found shot to death in his partially completed home in Colonia Bosque de la Capilla on Feb. 10. Investigators concluded he had been killed more than two days before.

Zapopan is a sprawling suburban community which encircles most of Guadalajara proper.

Seven Federal Police officers executed in Guerrero

Guadalajara -
Seven Federal Police officers were executed early today in Guerrero state, northwest of Acapulco.

The off-duty officers were drinking in a bar in Ciudad Altamiran when a commando team entered the establishment and opened fire, killing all the men before they could respond. The assailants fled after firing at several houses in the town of about 30,000.

Cancún under first "Red Alert" in its history, while authorities focus on local Los Zetas-Gulf Cartel links

Military units, state and local police will be under integrated control to confront Q.R. regional violence


*Updated Apr. 13*
Cancún, Quintana Roo -
The entire city of Cancún was placed under a municipal security "Red Alert" yesterday morning for the first time in its history. The action followed two drug war murders in the preceding 24 hours, and a brutal machine gun attack at a bar last week which left seven people dead.

The alert means that military forces and federal, state and local police will operate under integrated control.

Quintana Roo prosecutor confirms: expanding Gulf Cartel likely behind three recent Riviera Maya atrocities

Los Zeta defections show that endlessly shifting alliances are the only constant in Mexico's drug war


*Updated Mar. 25*
Cancún, Quintana Roo -
The state motto of this tropical Caribbean paradise is the "Free and Sovereign State of Quintana Roo."

And while the words may conjure up patriotic sentiments, some might argue that the name bears little relationship to the reality of daily life in the gateway to Mexico's Riviera Maya.

On May 9, 2012, a 26 year old waitress - a single mom trying to make her way in life - was killed instantly by deadly .9 mm rounds when AK-47 wielding assassins arrived at the Sports Bar Harem 95 at 2:30 a.m. The target of the attack was Graham Anguiano Interián, a Los Zetas drug wholesaler who delivered narcotics to the bar almost every day. There is some evidence that local police might have had advance knowledge of the event. Attack on Cancún sports bar leaves young waitress dead.

Mexico's Tourism Dept. expects drop in 2012 rankings

Guadalajara -
Mexico's chief tourism official announced today that her country will likely drop at least one or two places in popularity rankings maintained by the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO).

Claudia Ruiz Massieu said she didn't have final figures yet, but that Mexico would probably fall from tenth position, which it held in the last travel year reported by WTO. Ruiz attributed the drop to visitor security concerns.

Drug war, common crime are killing off Mexico's future

Both victims and perpetrators are overwhelmingly under 30, study finds

Guadalajara -
In October 2011 a United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime study reported that in Mexico and Latin America, youth itself is the primary risk factor for homicide. Last week the World Bank seconded that conclusion.

Between 2000 and 2010, 38% of murder victims in this nation were 10-29 years old, according to the Bank's report entitled "Juvenile Violence in Mexico."

And in the 24 month period between 2008 and 2010, the homicide rate for the group tripled. For every 100,000 people in that age range, 25.5 end up being another murder statistic.

Venezuelan president warns Barack Obama of U.S. plot to assassinate opposition candidate

Nicolás Maduro promises to protect his political opponent from "ultra right" Washington conspiracy

*Updated Mar. 19*
Guadalajara - Less than two weeks after the death of Hugo Chávez, interim Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro says he is warning Barack Obama of a U.S. backed plot to assassinate an opposition candidate in the nation's upcoming April 14 election.

Chávez succumbed to cancer on Mar. 5 after a two year fight with the illness. Hugo Chávez is dead, Venezuela reports. Maduro, the country's vice president and long time lieutenant of Chávez, was hand picked by the firey leftist leader to succeed him and to continue the "Bolivarian socialist revolution."

The opposition candidate on the right is 40 year old attorney Henrique Capriles Radonski, who ran against Chávez in Venezuela's Oct. 7 presidential election. Chávez won handily with 55% of the vote. As Venezuelans head to the polls, Hugo Chávez proves all the prophets wrong.

Quintana Roo governor admits: many Cancún taxi drivers are on cartel payrolls

Roberto Borge also acknowledges that corrupt municipal police may be part of the problem

*Updated Mar. 25*
Cancún, Quintana Roo -
Quintana Roo governor Roberto Borge Angulo has acknowledged something that MGR and the local Spanish press in this state have long reported: taxi drivers in Cancún, Playa del Carmen and other tourist centers often work as salesmen for vicious drug cartels locked in a brutal war for markets.

The 33 year old Institutional Revolutionary Party governor admitted yesterday that many Cancún drivers are in the service of the powerful cartels as street peddlers. He said the state would open a formal investigation. Borge's remarks came less than 24 hours after unknown gunmen launched a bloody attack against a bar where several drivers were gathered Thursday evening, including a syndicate boss. Press sources have reported that the victims had links to the Los Zetas drug cartel. Machine gun attack on Cancún tavern kills seven.