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.