Borderland Beat

by Alex Marentes

  On March 28, 2010, I posted an article on the problem with what the military classified as collateral damage titled "The Mexican Drug War's Collateral Damage."

  Mexican President Felipe Calderon declared war against various drug cartels around Mexico. The bloody confrontation between the Zetas against the Gulf cartel, which appears to be assisted by the Sinaloa cartel and La Familia Michoacana, was spilling blood all over the streets of northeastern Mexico.

  The victims of the massacre were primarily rival sicarios and in certain instances police officers and military personnel.

  What is troubling is that too many innocent bystanders were getting killed when bullets found them when getting caught in the crossfire. What was more troubling was that in some cases, the innocent victims that were getting shot, were getting shot by the armed forces that were supposed to protect them in the first place.

  Some would argue that a huge militarization of forces deployed in the streets of Mexico with almost daily firefights was bound to produce collateral damage. But we had seen in certain cases a military that was bent on responding to the attacks from sicarios almost in a blind, uncontrolled manner, where it almost appears that they kill anything that moves.

  Consider that incident that occurred on March 19, 2010 at the prestigious Institute of Technology in Monterrey. Official statement from the Mexican Army and state government had mentioned that two gunmen were killed during a gunfight after they tried to evade the military. This would indicate that the people killed were running away. However, the two people killed were not involved in any criminal activity but were merely innocent students with excellent academic records at the institute.

  They were Jorge Antonio Mercado Alonso, 23, studying a Master’s degree and Javier Arredondo Verdugo, 24, studying a PhD. Monterrey Tech rector Rafael Rangel said in a news release that both students had scholarships for academic excellence.

  If the rector had not corrected the official statement it would have stood that both victims were sicarios as initially reported by the military and state government. The mainstream media also did not break the story other than a brief coverage of the press conference by the rector Rangel. We didn't hear any more of it, other than a brief apology from one of the President's Secretary Cabinet member’s weeks later.

  It is hard to believe that while the media having access to witnesses and personnel involved, they could not know that innocent people were killed and that the official statement was not credible. The reason we question this is because not long after several incidents we started to receive e-mails from people who were reporting that innocent people had been killed in some shootouts that were reported to the contrary by the military. The majority of reporting of these events came from social media such as Facebook, Twitter and blogs.

  The family of the victims and the people of Mexico have a right to know exactly how these shooting unfolded.

  Borderland Beat also reported on a shootout in Anahuac on March 6, 2010 where ten sicarios were reported killed. The military reported two separate confrontations between soldiers and sicarios in the town of Anahuac that left a toll of ten dead, eight of whom were sicarios and two were military. What we found rare was that one of the supposedly heavily armed sicarios was a woman.

  A couple of days later we received several anonymous photographs of the alleged sicarios dead on the streets with weapons next to them. Upon close examination of the position of the bodies and the weapons, it just did not look right, while looking at it in a law enforcement perspective.

  The weapons were still in the hands of the dead alleged sicarios and the placement of some of the weapons did not seem natural after engaging in a supposed firefight. You can look at the pictures yourselves and be the judge, it’s so obvious that you don’t even have to be experienced law enforcement to know that things just don’t add up. Even a “common citizen” who e-mailed us noticed that on the pictures next to the woman and man, there were no spent casings.

  Well it turns out that a male and female killed were in fact not sicarios but innocent bystanders. There was a brief coverage of a press conference by the mayor of Anahuac.

  “Two of the six people killed in a confrontation between sicarios and elements of the Mexican Army a few weeks ago at the town of Anahuac were innocent and had nothing to do with the shootout,” said the mayor of the municipality, Santos Javier Garza.

  The Mayor said that Rocío Elías Garza and Juan Carlos Peña who died in the incident had no link to organized crime and their unfortunate death was because they were caught in the middle of the confrontation.

  "They were employees of the maquiladora and apparently were caught by surprise during the gunfire, but they had nothing to do with the acts," said the mayor.

  So, this is the same almost identical example from the two students killed in Monterrey, they were killed while either running or walking away and reported to be sicarios by the government until another person with “standing” spoke for them. It wasn’t like the media figured it out or anything.

  What is troubling is that the two of the innocent bystander victims had weapons placed next to them. The man in the middle of the street had what appeared to be an AK-47 not far from his hand and the female appeared to have a weapon underneath her. If they were not involved in the shooting, but were merely innocent bystanders running away, why were they photographed with weapons?

  We are certain that we could find other examples where the military or police forces have killed innocent bystander in the name of the drug war and have attempted to cover it up or reported different to the willing media.

  As the confrontations between heavily armed sicarios and Mexican military forces intensified in the populated areas of town and cities, the safety of innocent people must be paramount. If the military is going to incur collateral damage in fighting the sicarios, the Mexican people are no better off than when they are picked off by the drug cartels.

  This is problematic for two reasons. One; when we see one of these instances occur, impunity usually always prevails. We see nothing done about it. No investigation, no correction in tactics, no retraining, no policy change, nothing. Second the media itself covers very little of the actual discrepancies after the fact.

  Why?

  The answer might be that some news reporters have been found executed or threatened for snooping around and some media outlets are afraid to ask too many questions.

  There has been reports for a while now that there is almost a news blackout in the northeastern part of Mexico. Granted a lot of reporters continue to attempt to report while risking their lives every day. The case of the mysterious disappearance of Borderland Beat reporter Iliana comes to mind.

  Recently, a crew from Belo Television and a reporter for The Dallas Morning News were working in Reynosa. A stranger in jeans and a white and blue shirt approached the reporter and said: "You have no permission to report here. It's best you leave now."

  The only entity, the media, that could make a difference in reshaping policy and assuring transparency for whatever reason are not reporting from an impartial standpoint. The Mexican government appears to have imposed a media blackout on coverage of cartel-on-cartel violence and operations in the Tamaulipas border region. Bits of coverage in the traditional Mexican media have misrepresented the degree of military involvement.

  What is the U.S. responsibility?

  We took note when U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said during a recent visit to Mexico, "The grim truth is that these murders are part of a much larger cycle of violence and crime that have impacted communities on both sides of the border."

  The US taxpayer is already forking out $1.6 billion in an aid package in the Merida Initiative to the Mexican government. Any pledge by the US for economic aid to help battle the cartels must have assurances from Mexico that part of the core strategy is grounded by strict accountability measures to ensure those funds are being used effectively and responsibly.

  We should all suppo
rt an aggressive front to stop the wave of violence and not allow the cartels to continue to control of a whole nation, but at the same time, the Mexican government must do everything to protect its citizens from the cartels and the too often “friendly fire.” The military must know that they are in the middle of populated neighborhoods and they must possess the training and will power to exercise restraint and discipline in the heat of battle. The people who they are sworn to protect depend on it.

  El Hummer

  Jaime González Durán, El Hummer was an elite Mexican soldier of the "Grupo Aeromóvil de Fuerzas Especiales" (GAFE), a group of military special forces trained in counterinsurgency, intelligence and the tactical apprehension of drug cartel members. El Hummer deserted from the military in the 1990s and became one of the 30 original founding members of the organization known as Los Zetas and third-in-command of that criminal.

  At age 27, El Hummer deserted the army to join Los Zetas with Heriberto Lazcano Lazcano and Arturo Guzmán Tens, a former member of the Federal Judicial Police who had a police radio code of Z1. Together, with the 30 other members, he formed part of the personal escort of the leader of the Gulf cartel, Osiel Cárdenas Guillén and they all became the armed wing of the Gulf cartel, the elite group of military deserters that would be known as Los Zetas.

  For nine years El Hummer would serve as a sicario for the Gulf cartel under the orders of Heriberto Lazcano, that combined a very violent presence and who used some of the most bloodthirsty acts to reign control. This violent nature of El Hummer opened the doors for him to become the boss of the plaza in Reynosa, Tamaulipas, where he controlled criminal activities for Los Zetas in at least five cities, including his native San Luis Potosi.

  El Hummer was suspected of numerous executions, including his alleged involvement in the murder of regional music singer Valentín Elizalde Valencia.

  It is said that a song was the cause for the execution of the singer in 2006.

  The song was titled "A mis enemigos" or "To my enemies," one of Valentín's most emblematic musical themes. It is presumed that the song was written in honor of the leader of the Cartel de Sinaloa, Joaquín El Chapo Guzmán, and some of the lyrics gave a warning to the adversaries of El Chapo. This angered El Hummer and it became personal.

  El Hummer always felt that the only safe place for him was in Reynosa, a region under his control and Los Zetas. Reynosa would be the place where he was captured by federal forces. Reynosa was a place where he never expected an operation of federal agents to surround his house in the Las Quintas subdivision. The operation came to him as such a surprise that the most feared sicario to other cartels and government forces, could only manage to hide under the bed.

  Within 12 hours after he was arrested in Reynosa, El Hummer talked with federal prosecutors of the office of the Attorney General known as the Office for Specialized Investigation in Organized Crime (SIEDO).

  "I was alone at my home. It was just before noon, when I looked out the window. I noticed that there were federals around my house, and they began to yell, but at that moment I hid under my bed," testified El Hummer after his capture.

  "They forced open the front door and they went inside my house, yelling at me to give up. They entered my bedroom and shouted at me: 'come out of there, surrender' and I came out from under the bed. They started hitting me and asking where the weapons and the drugs were located," El Hummer said.

  “I told them,” he added, “that I did not have any weapons or drugs, I only had a Super 380 caliber pistol. It was then when they saw a safe and they ordered me to open it. I opened it and surrendered 25 or 30 bags with approximately $800,000 in dollars. I also gave them a briefcase that was in my car with $100,000 more.”

  “They then took me away in one of their vans straight to the airport. The money was supposed to be delivered to El Cos as profits from the sale of marijuana that he had made into the United States, specifically in McAllen, Texas,” Said El Hummer.

  An armed commando tried to rescue El Hummer when he was being transported to the airport where he would be taken to Mexico City. As El Hummer was being transported to the airport with a full police and military escort, but an armed commando, presumably Los Zetas, intercepted the escort of security forces and a gunfight ensued. The federal police and military were able to repel the attack and some of the sicarios fled, eventually allowing the transport of El Hummer.

  A young lady, by the name of Gloria Garcia, said she managed to survive the shootout while she was at a drive through of a restaurant waiting for her order.

  "Soldiers ran from one place to another while other vehicles were moving at high rate of speed shooting at the military forces. Suddenly I turned around and saw that the military was firing at a truck that was next to me. I turned around to tried to flee the place when two men arrived firing toward the military soldiers. I was frozen in fear and all I could do was pray to God for my safety.

  She ducked inside her vehicle and could hear a barrage of gun fire, and felt several rounds impact her vehicle. After a few minutes the gunfire stopped and she tried to get out of her car, but a soldier told her to remain inside, as it was not safe yet. She said that after a couple of hours, she took cover inside a nearby bank. Her vehicle sustained numerous impacts from rounds, huge holes were visible all over her vehicle.

  After the dust settled there was maroon Gran Cherokee riddled with bullet holes and two sicarios on the ground that had surrendered. Other vehicles with armed sicarios managed to escape after the shootout.

  El Hummer would eventually be transported to Mexico City where he was presented to the media during a press conference. Also presented were large amounts of US currency and a large arsenal of weapons.

  According to El Hummer, Osiel Cárdenas Guillén was still in charge of the Gulf cartel even from the US prison where he was confined.

  El Hummer gave details of how the Gulf cartel was restructured, expanded and operated in several states, mainly in Oaxaca and Veracruz. The leadership of the Cartel del Golfo went to Jorge Costilla Sánchez, El Cos or La Sombra, alongside with Heriberto Lazcano Lazcano, El Lazca, the boss of Los Zetas.

  El Hummer explained that Cárdenas Guillén sends all his orders through his lawyers who defend him, who pass the information to El Cos and El Lazca who are responsible for executing them. This has been done like this since Cárdenas Guillén was arrested on March 14, 2003 in the city of Matamoros.

  The arrest of Cárdenas Guillén had not slowed down operations. The installation of plaza bosses in numerous cities in the Gulf coast ensured the smooth operation of drug trafficking and cartel operations.

  For example, in Veracruz the plaza boss was El Gonzo, another of the founders of sicarios of Los Zetas. El Gonzo reported directly to the head of the state who was Miguel Treviño, El 40. The entire state police in these cities are said to be involved in the protection of Gulf cartel and operations of Los Zetas.

  Lazca’s Affiliation

  Lazcano joined the Mexican GAFE, the Mexican Army special forces. During his tenure in the Mexican Army, Lazcano reportedly received military training from the Israeli Defense Forces and the United States Army, but eventually deserted in 1998, after eight years of service. Upon his desertion, he was recruited by Gulf Cartel bosses Osiel Cárdenas Guillén with around 30 other soldiers to work as the enforcers of the Gulf Cartel, forming the paramilitary group known as Los Zetas.

  The thirty deserters were to become Guillén personal bodyguards, and later, as his mercenary wing. These deserters were enticed with salaries much higher than what they were paid by the military. Some of these former GAFE members reportedly received training in commando and urban warfare from the Israeli and U.S. Special Forces.

  From time to time, I would get messages from active military US soldiers talking about how these elite Mexican soldiers had dishonored the Especial Forces military code, that was recognized universally. This was one of them:

  “This is not to disrespect current honorable members of the Mexi
can Special Operations Forces.

  The Gafes are supposed to be the elite of the Mex Armed Forces. Supposedly some former members have chosen to dishonor the brotherhood of sec-ops worlwide by utilizing their acquired skill set to promote criminality and create chaos against the populace and civilians of the country of Mexico. Many descriptions are used to describe their skill set. I can confirm what they can and cannot do.

  1.Reconnaissance

  2.Jungle Operations

  3.Communications both LOS and BLOS

  4.Urban Operations which has morphed into what is called FISH and CHIPS (Fighting In Someone’s House and Causing Havoc In Peoples Streets).

  5.Military Intelligence and Analysis.

  6.Small unit Operations (Patrolling-Ambush-Counter Ambush Mostly Balanced and Combined).

  7.Airborne and Air Assault.

  8.General Weapons Familiarization

  These are the basic skillsets as taught to their officers and senior NCO's. The purpose for this instruction is not only for their own National defense, but also to allow some sort of standard for integration in a major conflict with other NATO forces.

  As it stands from investigations and information gleaned from various sources including this website, it appears that very few GAFE trained ZETAS remain. The bulk of the work is being accomplished by untrained or poorly trained individuals who have the basic rudiments of warfare but are very clearly not well rehearsed.

  It's very easy to overwhelm an enemy with numbers or terrorize an unarmed population with a show of force. It is another when met with equal numbers or a smaller highly trained unit as evidenced by the news stories of the DTO's being thrashed rather soundly by Mexico's heroic Marine Infantry and on occasion Mexico's Army Infantry units. These are the "non-elite" units but with sound fundamentals, fire and maneuver, good communication and field leadership the good guys typically prevail.