Associated Press, "Mexico drug certification likely," 3/1/99, internet. the 'Ice'. Whether it be for the elections, opportunity or a shift in Mexico's government, as long as these guys continue to fall, it makes no difference. UPI, "Report: Mexican generals met drug mafia," 3/26/98, internet. Those entities identified would be prohibited from doing business in the United States. The high death toll of this war is likely what drew the attention of federal authorities to the cartel figures in Durango. In addition to the murder charge, Raul Salinas is strongly suspected of being involved in various drug activities and masterminding several other political killings. The flow of drugs has hardly diminished in recent months, yet the United States has seemed to almost wink at the matter. What remains to be seen is if Fox is full of typical political rhetoric or atypical substance. The nation encompasses 756,000 square miles and has a population of nearly 100,000,000. A Federal Judicial Police officer was among the suspects arrested for the crime (Bulita, 1997). Dedazo, Spanish for "big finger," refers to the closed, secretive method used by seated Mexican presidents to unilaterally designate their own successors (AFP, 2/27/99). It will be most difficult to wean the Self Defense Force from this new-found wealth, and they paradoxically loom on the horizon as a threat to the sovereign government of Colombia from the political right. By the time they returned with more firepower, the Mexican military personnel had finished their business and driven back across the border. The U.S. Attorney General has formally meet with the leadership of many Fortune 500 companies (Kodak, Hewlitt Packard, Sony, Ford, Philip Morris to name a few) in an attempt to put an end to the practice of willful blindness, in Colombia and elsewhere 8. AFP, "President Zedillo and Governor Bush open an international bridge," 9/3/99, internet. This article "Durango Cartel" is from Wikipedia. , Sinaloa. Peniche himself has admitted to contributing $25 million to the PRI party, with $5 million specifically going specifically to Zedillo's campaign. Organized transnational crime possess a political as well as a socio-economic threat to Mexico, and to the entire world. He is accused of embezzling in excess of $700 million (AFP, 9/9/99). facing law enforcement officials. The Durango Cartel, also known as the Herrera Cartel, is a Mexican drug cartel based in Durango City, Durango. In November of 1995, Attorney General Lozano ordered the firing of all 60 Federal Judicial Police in the State of Chihuahua after a probe into illegal police activities by the Mexican Attorney General's Office revealed that they were involved in the drug trade. 84-101. The Caribbean routes were used, but so were routes through Mexico. These meetings were arranged by the Honduran drug trafficker, Matta Ballesteros. The end result of this new drug war is that the Mexican drug problem has now been placed on the proverbial back burner. AFP, "Mexico's ruling party approves primary rules," 6/14/99, internet. There is a threat of explosion, the chemicals are quite corrosive by nature, improper exposure could prove fatal, and there is a distinctive tell-tale odor that could be detected by legal authorities. The author wishes to thank Brandon Paeper, Brittawni Olson, Ann Marie Lambert, Denise Olson and Pat O'Day for their help, assistance and insight. wasn't his dad hard line against any use. Move into the money laundering trade.(5). Colombia on the other hand, currently has a relatively weak cartel presence, but an overwhelmingly powerful terrorist presence. The Calexico area was once a relatively easy target for smugglers with only 81 agents assigned to patrol the area in 1996, and only a small handful of those 81 agents worked any given night shift. A "femininization" of the migration trend has been taking place (Christian Science Monitor, 4/22/99). United States, and in 1997 began as a producer of drugs in Culiacan, until They Only recently has there been even a crack in PRI dominance. After experiencing some success in its fight against the Medellin and Cali cartels of Colombia, American law enforcement and military officials began to focus their efforts on the Mexican drug cartels in the mid-1990s. All told, the drug trade remains a mega-billion dollar industry; $400 billion a year worldwide, with perhaps as much as $40 billion of that finding its way to Mexico each year, as has been noted above. synthetic drugs and marijuana across the border. route of Tijuana Cartel, so to solve the problem he had to work for that from what I recall he wasn't a user and the people around him weren't allowed either. , Sinaloa, by the Army. The firearm issue has been of particular concern. Abstract Background Introduction to the Drug Cartels and The Drug Wars The Mexican Drug Cartels Today The Rise of the Mexican Drug Cartels The Mexican Political Scene: An Historical Perspective The Mexican Political Scene: A Contemporary Perspective Institutionalized Corruption Certification Impact of the Drug Trade on the Mexican and American Economies The New Markets Stopping Them Conclusion: The Future The Unanswered Questions Post Script Endnotes References Index. Fuentes called for a series of new meetings in neutral sites. Herrera (green shoes killed in club in Juarez in the 80's)corral and Juarez invited zetas to Santiago area. He owned hotels, real estate and an air taxi service in Texas, and even more extensive holdings in Mexico including newspapers, hotels, construction firms, lumber companies, moving businesses, ranches, real estate (Reuters, 9/29/96). He also had Gutierrez Rebollo, the Mexican Drug Czar, on his payroll. Some died due to more natural cases (drowning, dehydration, cold weather), but others died due to violence. El G1 had successfully managed the plazas of San Dimas, Pueblo Nuevo and Otaez in Durango for the brothers for the last couple of years, so in mid-2012 they decided to send him to Comarca Lagunera, a region marked in map below. 1, 16, 17. 14-16. Reuters, "Mexicans migrate north to work, for decades," 4/17/97, internet. AFP, "Zedillo signs indigenous rights bill that clashes with rebel demands," 3/14/98, internet. The agency, known as the Institute for the Fight Against Drug Trafficking, was dissolved after Gutierrez's arrest. Some ten years ago, a special Mexican border police force, Grupo Beta, was created. The local timezone is named America / Monterrey with an UTC offset of -5 hours. AFP, "Specter of division reappears in Mexico's ruling party," 6/10/99, internet. A bodyguard of El G1 was said to have been shot in the arm during the ensuing confrontation however the soldier managed to get G1 to surrender. For a while, the Herrera's were running Colombian cocaine into the United States for the Medellin and then the Cali Cartels. Seventy percent of the citizenry live in urban areas. As the phenomenal economic run in America continues(and there appears no end in sight), the economic migration from south to north will likewise continue. Datos curiosos, cmo puede tener un funcionario o funcionara? A recently published Mexican government report found that Mexicans are taking more drugs at younger ages and are beginning to favor low-grade cocaine over marijuana. I was not trying to cover all the cartel groups in Durango or Comarca Lagunera. A political party with no opposition is accountable to no one. A series of circumstances, including a growing public demand for democracy, resulted in him being forcibly removed from office in May of 1911 by Francisco Madero. It will be some years before his "freedom of expression" assertion can be validated, and it will be longer still to see if the Mexican mass media successfully conquerors tradition and emerges with a new face with an independent and powerful democratic countenance. Climate. the service of Sinaloa cartel, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman and Ismael Atrocities went un-reported, as did unfavorable economic news. officials say they've arrested a man who manufactured methamphetamine for the This was done by the government not so much out of a moral imperative to rid the country of drug dealers, but as the means of preserving its own power, which in a truly democratic state means keeping the citizenry happy and convinced of proper performance. Reding, Andrew, "The fall and rise of the drug cartels," Washington Post Outlook, 9/15/95, p. C4. Map. Due to a disastrous string of bank failures, Mexico is now beginning to modernize its banking laws and grant its regulatory agencies concrete enforcement powers (AFP, 9/21/99). Word in Durango is that G-1 fucked up and that why he was handed over. He was also accused of obstructing efforts on the part of Mexican police to investigate the 1994 assassination of his brother, Jose Francisco Ruiz Massieu. A political party with no opposition is accountable to no one. The role of the printed press in contemporary Mexico is also undergoing a significant shift. On April 1, 1997, a new and much tougher immigration law went into effect - that date has been called "Black Tuesday" in Mexico (Reuters, 4/17/97), and it has had long repercussions for many, many Mexican families. (Constantine, 2/27/97) The Mexican drug cartels have become the dominant force in the United States methamphetamine trafficking. While the internal debates continue in this country as to the appropriateness of the certification process, the United States continues to hold this stick of economic sanctions over the collective heads of its trading partners. The World Court needs to enhance its political capital, substance, and strength. that "old man" makes some good shit.. ;). The Juarez Cartel - This cartel was run by a former Mexican federal police commander, Rafael Aguilar, and Amado Carrillo Fuentes. Only time will tell if this is indeed a shift in American public policy, and perhaps more importantly, if this shift has the desired impact upon the drug trade in particular and the cartels in general. AFP, "Former police chief arrested on drug charges," 2/27/99, internet. Reuters, "Justice Department investigating Salinas drug money laundering scheme," 5/10/97, internet. Minor changes in substance, but major in that they were the first real chip in the PRI shield and its party-state model. These numbers would suggest that the flow is far beyond what the Beta Group can handle. "HEARST" and "Redlogarythm" for Borderland Beat This week, a pamphlet showing the rules of conduct given to hitmen in "Sol Prendido" for Borderland Beat The United Nations warns in a new report that insecurity in the capital has reached levels com "Sol Prendido for Borderland Beat The war begins in Tamaulipas. The Mexican cartels have also been extremely successful in exploiting the new American methamphetamine market, and have emerged as the dominant force in this area, as noted by then DEA Director Thomas Constantine - "The major Mexican trafficking groups control and coordinate all aspects of the methamphetamine business" (Constantine, 2/27/97). The Herrera family - In some ways, this is not really a cartel per se, but an old time Mexican mafia family akin to the Camorra of Naples or the Black mobs of the eastern United States. From Jerez, most immigrants gravitate toward Los Angeles, Chicago and San Antonio. 'You can't knock on a door in this city (Jerez) without finding one of us who has a cousin, an uncle, a friend, a brother we all have someone there. He made the announcement during one of the daily presidential press conferences. It is estimated that ten percent of that wealth is used specifically for law enforcement, military and political pay-offs. El G1 and El Limones are said to work closely together. When the crisis was initially made public, the government and the PRI stuck to a $59 billion figure, even in the face of Standard and Poor's estimate. Maintain tight contacts with Mexican government officials. AFP, "U.S. issues annual anti-drug ruling," 12/13/97, internet. Once nominated in this party-state system, the PRI candidate is all but elected. In March of 1998, 68 police and military officials were arrested due to their drug connections (AFP, 3/6/98). Jorge Hank Rhon, the younger of the two sons, lives in the northern border town of Tijuana and is a close associate of the Felix-Arellano brothers, the leaders of The Federation. On the one hand, a number of economic indicators are solid. A NAFTA side agreement relative to criminal justice matters has not been developed, and clearly needs to hammered out in the near future. Raul has since been apprehended and is currently serving a 27 1/2 year prison sentence for the murder of a political rival (he is currently in a medium security prison outside Mexico City). As Diaz was being escorted away from Mexico City into exile, he reportedly said, "Madero has unleashed a tiger. 1, 6). Given the obvious stature of the military within the political culture of Mexico (or of any nation for that matter) and the deeply entrenched/tap root nature of its involvement in the drug trade, one could easily argue that they are perhaps the most dangerous, the most insipidus, and surely destined to be the most enduring of all the Mexican drug cartels. Interestingly, it is estimated that some 90 percent of the weapons toted by cartel members come from the United States. The pressure on the Colombian cartels was mounting. During value increases as it moves to America. Leticia Herrera Ale, alcaldesa de Gmez Palacio, Durango, dio positivo a la prueba del SARS-CoV-2 responsable de la covid-19 por lo cual se . Numerous accounts are filtering in of camouflaged Mexican military units crossing the "Rio Grande" and carrying out their business on the American side of the border (see AFP, 11/03/00). Similar to the model established in previous years, at the proverbial 11th hour before the 1999 certification decisions were to be revealed by President Clinton, then Mexican Interior Minister Francisco Labastida, announced a $500 million anti-drug strategy that would be implemented over the next three years (AFP, 2/4/99). Zacatecas state is a leading source of migrants to the United States with seven percent of its 1.3 million people north of the border at any one time and $240 million a year in remittances coming home. 9. 7. 3. Other papers have "hit the streets," but what remains to be seen is if a truly independent press can emerge from the ashes of a general community mistrust of the press and help move Mexico toward a more responsible form of democracy. The market was wrested away from the biker gangs in a somewhat bloody, but brief war. Publicly, the purpose of the visit was to discuss the creation of a Truth Commission that would begin to examine many of the atrocities that have occurred in Mexico over the past several decades (AP, 10/3/00). Associated Press, "Mexican poll: Cops mistrusted," 9/17/96, internet. Associated Press, "Fox talks economics in Europe tour," 10/2/00, internet. In 1963, the much loved Mexican President Lopez Mateos instituted measures that permitted new voices to enter the Chamber of Deputies. The report indicated that the average age of those who have consumed some type of stimulant at least once is between 10 and 12 years old. The Juarez Cartel is now paying El Paso gangs in drugs and weapons for stolen vehicles. Many have suggested that the certification of Mexico and other Meso-American countries in 1999 was simply done to protect U.S. business interests in those areas from likely public and private retaliation. In May of 1996, two United States Customs agents were charged with conspiracy for their roles in a plan to bring 1.2 tons of cocaine into the United States. Only in the past few years has the PRI experienced any challenge of consequence, most particularly being the 2000 Presidential victory of PRI-opposition leader Vicente Fox. TexThey tie him to the Herrera Drugtraffickingfamily. A March 1997 New York Times article detailed the Fuentes connection with governors of at least two Mexican states - Morelos and Sonora (Reuters, 2/16/97). Durango to Chicago. AFP, "Latin American unemployment to rise to record levels: ILO," 2/28/99, internet. These groups have accumulated more than $5.3 billion in the past eight years, primarily through the drug trade ($2.3 billion), but also via kidnaping ($1.8 billion) and extortion ($1.2 billion) (Criminal Organizations, May 1999). Do you like Los Herrera? Continued movement in this direction will threaten the very foundation of Mexican democracy. In a similar case in May of 1999, a Mexico City judge stayed the extradition order for Jose de Jess Amezcua who is wanted in the U.S. on drug trafficking charges. The world community is certainly supportive. Smith, Elliot Blair, "Incoming Mexican Leader Adopts World View," USA Today, October 4, 2000, p. 14A. Representatives of the coalition continue to emphasize that their goal in forming the united front was not only the defeat of the PRI party, but also "to achieve a peaceful transition to democracy, (and) to achieve the just political system that the majority of the citizens want," (AFP, 8/4/99). returned the majority of their profits to their home in Mexico, using organization in Mexico, with profits estimated at $1 million a year. At present, there is no anti-cartel sentiment among the Mexican populous, and that fact has a great deal to do with the longevity and vibrancy of these organized crime entities. Reuters, "Mexican Cardinal mourned amid questions about his death," 5/25/93, internet. also he said a rifle, a handgun, two vehicles, communications The Mexican people, as well as the Mexican government, corporate and civic institutions all operate with a deeply imbedded paternalistic-aristocratic political culture that pre-dates the Spanish. The town of Los Herrera is located at 15.6 kilometers from Santiago Papasquiaro, which is the most populated locality in the municipality, in the Southwest direction. Kaiserswerth Restaurants - Dsseldorf, North Rhine-Westphalia: See 1,460 Tripadvisor traveler reviews of 1,460 restaurants in Dsseldorf Kaiserswerth and search by cuisine, price, and more. Over the past 30 years, the Mexican military has emerged as a major cartel in its own right, and currently has a virtual monopoly in the marijuana transportation business. President Fox has expanded his vision, calling for a coordinated Latin American war against drugs trafficking (Associated Press, 10/9/00). CERTIFICATION One of the external political problems facing the Mexican government is that the United States conducts an annual evaluation of some 30 of its trading partners' drug fighting efforts. The Mexican cartels pose a present and continuing threat to American interests, but not to Mexican interests in a general sense (with perhaps the exception of the Mexican military's very aggressive border region shake-down activities). There was a downside to the effort however. In a minor blow to Fuentes in the spring of 1997, this relationship was uncovered, and Rebollo was forced to resign (Brant, 1997), and was eventually sentenced to 13 years and nine months in prison (Reuters, 3/3/97). C. The State Department continues to obtain information and submits a more complete report to the President, generally by sometime in February. It is thought that the Gulf cartel is now run by Oziel Cardenas Guillen. With the suspected drug The Mexican Attorney General's office announced the arrests of seven members of the Juarez Cartel in May of 1997. President Reagan undertook the first Certification efforts in 1986. He announced Jaime Herrera used two Specifically, if a country does not receive certification, the United States government threatens to re-examine its overall trading relationship with the de-certified nation, the de-certified country is barred from receiving American financial aid, and the United States will vote against that country receiving loans from the six international multilateral development banks. Fuentes was also expanding into methamphetamines and money laundering ventures at the time of his death. In an address that, granted, on the one hand could be seen as nothing more than political rhetoric designed to attract the nation's Hispanic vote, but on the other hand is a refreshing voice in crime control dominated America, Texas Governor George W. Bush called upon officials on both sides of the border to build "monuments of faith." Resendiz, Rosalva, "International auto theft: An exploratory research of organization and organized crime on the U.S./Mexican Border," Criminal Organizations, Vol 12 (1/2), 1998. The public needs to be educated as to the true nature and impact of organized crime operations, and mobilized to action. In June of 1999, the very popular television personality Francisco "Paco" Stanley was killed, allegedly on orders of drug lord Luis Amezcua in connection with drug debts (AFP, 8/27/99). In a recent highly publicized case, the wife of U.S. Army Colonel James Hiett has been charged with smuggling cocaine out of Colombia into the United States (Watson, 1999). There are 653 inhabitants. The United States attempted to legislate itself out of the problem a decade ago. 1999. Weymouth, Lally, "The End of An Era?" Farah, Douglas and Molly Moore, "Mexican drug traffickers eclipse Colombian cartels," Washington Post Foreign Service, 3/30/97. The need to maintain that passive populous sentiment will, in the author's opinion, likely keep the major cartels out of the domestic drug consumption business. Reuters, "U.S., Mexico sign agreements," 5/6/97, internet. cocaine, while supplying the precursor chemicals from Chile and Guatemala. in a series of arrests of associates of Guzman, the most wanted man in Mexico. They may in fact, muscle in on small entities who try and develop a domestic drug consumption market and shut them down so as to protect/maintain the passive public sentiment. The current Mexican model of federal executive leadership is the outgrowth of policies put in place by President Calles in response to two decades of extreme unrest. Both were "conveniently" assassinated; one in March and the other in September, and Zedillo was subsequently "elected" President. In 1997, some 3,500 vehicles were stolen in El Paso and smuggled into Mexico, many ending up in the hands of corporate executives and government officials. Formed in about 2010, the Jalisco cartel is the strongest and most aggressive competitor to the Sinaloa. The current mayor of Mexico City, for example, is from an opposition party. 2. As mentioned previously, in a positive context, the Mexican banking regulatory agencies have since been reorganized and other banking industry rules have been instituted in hopes of avoiding such a crisis in the future (AFP, 9/21/99). 14. The Herreras disappeared? There will certainly not be any abrupt divorce decree nor a sudden wholesale embrace of grassroots democracy. A recent episode involving two low-ranking American military personnel attempting to smuggle a group of Mexicans across the border near Tijuana may only be considered a singular episode (AFP, 10/13/00), but people smuggling has the potential to overtake the drug trade in terms of gross revenue and profitability in the 21st century. The President makes a preliminary certification decision and forwards this decision on to the Chairs of the House International Relations Committee, the Senate. I cannot picture a Herrera "cooking" anything themselves, or do you think el chapo o whomever is planting weed himself?? He was arrested in 1997 while driving with $2 million in cash in his car. Not part of the traditional cartel litany of activities (Resendiz, 1998), officials have recently found ties between gangs of car thieves in El Paso, Texas and the Juarez Cartel. Though not politically popular, the data clearly indicates that law enforcement/military interdiction alone cannot solve this problem. it isn't hard to make meth. Established in about 1945, the cartel is now an international organized crime syndicate, operating throughout North and South America. Consider the following statement made in 1997 by Thomas Constantine, then Director of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA): "These sophisticated drug syndicate groups from Mexico have eclipsed organized crime groups from Colombia as the premier law enforcement threat facing the United States." Reuters, "Mexican drug kingpin Abrego's empire," 1996, internet. Socio-economic issues of the day were ignored. The Army and the National Guard had launched a joint operation to capture Gerardo Soberanes Ortiz, alias El G1, in the dark of night hours in the northern part of Durango City. This group was extremely difficult to penetrate because family members Favoritism, corruption, and bossism are simply an institutionalized aspect of Mexican politics. Associated Press, "Zedillo faces cat calls during talk," 9/1/99, internet. Los Herreras is at 281 meters above sea level and is located in the east-central part of the state. AFP, "Mexicans drug-taking on the rise, cocaine favored over marijuana," 7/4/99, internet. The economy was growing. In September and October of 2000, U.S. immigration officials, in cooperation with officials from at least five other countries, arrested 38 alleged smugglers and more than 3,500 illegal immigrants in Operation Forerunner. As far back as 1957, the Herrera organization ran a farm-to-the-arm heroin operation that cultivated opium poppy plants, processed and packaged heroin in Mexico, and transported it to Chicago. Unlike our battle with the Colombian cartels earlier this decade, we can expect little real help from the Mexican government, where corruption is so institutionalized, where distrust is so pervasive, and where the economy is so dependent upon drug profits (equivalent to Mexican oil revenues) and "wet-back" dollars.