Small War in Mexico: 2016 onwards

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Originally Posted by davidbfpo

A short RUSI report by two academic experts, who end with a familiar plea "more data". There maybe stuff here to note.
Link:https://shoc.rusi.org/informer/we-ca...smart-about-it

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Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaah. They cite the GAO updated report. Relevant passage in bold.

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GAO was asked to undertake a follow-up review to its 2009 report ( GAO-09-709 ) addressing these issues. This report examines, among other things, (1) the origin of firearms seized in Mexico that have been traced by ATF, (2) the extent to which collaboration among U.S. agencies combating firearms trafficking has improved, and (3) the extent to which the National Southwest Border Counternarcotics Strategy measures progress by U.S. agencies to stem firearms trafficking to Mexico. To address these objectives, GAO analyzed program information and firearms tracing data from 2009 to 2014, and met with U.S. and Mexican officials on both sides of the border.

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As far as I know, the Mexican government has been less-than-candid about releasing serial numbers of the weapons they *have* confiscated, so that limits tracing to what the BATFE got it's hands on (not withstanding Fast & Furious).

This report is a self-licking ice cream cone. How about we talk about Mexican corruption, starting with their southern border guards and running as far north as you please?

Be glad the Mexican Naval Infantry still have cojones.

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TENANTLA, Mexico – Whoever wins Sunday's presidential election will have to face not only Mexico's drug cartels, but a new kind of crime involving whole neighborhoods defying police and military personnel.
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Such "socialized" or "mass" crimes are spreading in Mexico as entire communities empty freight trains of merchandise or steal hundreds of thousands of gallons of fuel from pipelines.

"The logic of the people is that they see politicians and officials stealing big time ... and they see themselves as having the same right to steal as the big-time politicians," said Edgardo Buscaglia, an international crime expert and research fellow at Columbia University. "You begin to create an ethical code in which, 'If the upper-class people can steal and get away with it, we can steal, too, with complete justification.'"

In May, armed men broke the locks on two supermarkets in the southern city of Arcelia in Guerrero state and allowed local residents in to loot them. Police didn't show up for hours.

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http://www.foxnews.com/world/2018/06...ty-forces.html

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The U.S. has issued a travel advisory for Mexico after authorities found eight bodies in Cancún this week.
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The Associated Press reports that the eight bodies were found in the Cancún area on Tuesday. Two of the victims were found in an abandoned taxi, while two others were found dismembered in plastic bags at another location, according to the AP. A fifth man was discovered bound and fatally shot on Tuesday, while another was found dead in a hammock. The seventh victim was shot to death and discovered in a plastic bag.

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http://time.com/5375156/cancun-eight...avel-advisory/

Video of what appears to be a column of drug mules on the US side of the border; camouflage uniforms to match the terrain, carrying heavy packs.

Select individuals on horseback armed with rifles/carbines in scabbards.

Use of horses in this type of terrain increases the guards' mobility, ability to react and gives them a height advantage for spotting problems.

Turn off the sound, just watch the video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F21PiHnO0JU

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Mexican authorities have taken control of the entire police force in the southern Mexican city of Acapulco, claiming the department has been infiltrated by drug gangs. Two police commanders have been accused of murder, while the rest of the force officers have been stripped of their guns, radios and bulletproof vests and taken for background checks. Acapulco – a beach resort – was a fashionable location favoured by movie stars in the 1950s and 60s, but has since been plagued by escalating violence due to warring drug gangs.

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https://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...-a8555756.html

Interesting plot twist from last year

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A Mexican folk religion involving human sacrifice and devoted to "Holy Death" is growing in popularity among drug traffickers and violent criminals, prompting Texas officials and the Catholic Church to warn about honoring the so-called "Saint Death." Authorities are speaking out about the religion devoted to La Santa Muerte, which translates to “Holy Death” and "Saint Death," that has gained popularity steadily since the late 1980s among Mexican-American Catholics.

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The killings of 28 prisoners at the Las Cruces jail in Acapulco included executions "in the middle of a ritual to Santa Muerte" led by drug traffickers, according to documents obtained by the Mexican newspaper Reforma. State authorities refused to comment on the ritual aspect of the massacre, but Roberto Alvarez Heredia, security spokesman for Guerrero state, said in the statement the killings began because of “constant dispute between rival groups inside the prison.”

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https://www.foxnews.com/us/mexican-f...mong-criminals

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Guadalajara (Mexico) (AFP) - The US consulate in Mexico's second city, Guadalajara, was attacked with explosives hours before a visit to the country by Vice President Mike Pence and first daughter Ivanka Trump, authorities said Saturday. The explosion late Friday night damaged a wall but caused no injuries, they said.

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https://www.yahoo.com/news/explosive...232111487.html

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Jalisco state prosecutors wrote on their Twitter account that federal authorities had taken over the investigation of the incident. The state is the home base of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, which is considered one of the most powerful gangs in Mexico by U.S. and Mexican authorities.

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https://af.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idAFKCN1O1024

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MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is taking aim at the finances of the powerful Jalisco cartel in what a top anti-money laundering official said was an opening salvo in the fight to stop criminal gangs from flourishing with impunity

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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-m...-idUSKBN1O61L5

The Sicario’s Tale, Part 1: Pablo Escobar’s Top Hitman Tells ‘How I Blew Up More Than 100 People’
On the 25th anniversary of the cartel chief’s death, his right-hand man reveals the Coke King’s secrets in an exclusive new series for The Daily Beast.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-si...han-100-people

This does not bode well.

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MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador used his first news conference of 2019 to start recruitment for his new National Guard, which will become the country's primary security force.

Lopez Obrador says the government hopes to recruit about 50,000 civilians to add to the guard's initial composition of military personnel and federal police.

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https://news.yahoo.com/mexico-looks-...162553359.html

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Mexico City (AFP) - Mexican authorities said Thursday they had found 21 bodies on the US-Mexican border after a drug-gang shootout in a town near where President Donald Trump was due to visit later in the day.

The bodies -- some of them badly burned -- were found Wednesday in the border town of Miguel Aleman, about 170 miles (270 kilometers) from McAllen, Texas, the city Trump was due to visit as he continues his push to build his long-sought border wall.

"We have reports there was a shootout yesterday (Wednesday) between two criminal groups that ended with 21 people dead," the security spokesman for the state of Tamaulipas, Luis Alberto Rodriguez, told Mexican TV news channel Milenio.

"Some of them were burned. Seven vehicles were also located... It was a confrontation between two rival groups that are involved in a turf war over drug-trafficking routes." The Mexican army found the bodies in a remote area following a tip-off, he said.

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https://www.yahoo.com/news/21-bodies...182250452.html

As Captain Renault would say, I'm shocked....

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BROOKLYN — A former associate of Sinaloa cartel leader Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán testified Tuesday that the drug kingpin paid a $100 million bribe to former Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, a claim met with audible gasps inside the federal courtroom in Brooklyn.

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https://news.vice.com/en_us/article/...-million-bribe

One third in a year. Think about that factor.

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MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Murders in Mexico rose by 33 percent in 2018, breaking the record for a second year running, official data showed, underlining the task facing the new president who has pledged to reduce violence in the cartel-ravaged country. Investigators opened to 33,341 murder probes compared with the previous year’s record of 25,036, according to information from the Interior Ministry published on Sunday.

Mexico has struggled with years of violence as the government has battled brutal drug cartels, often by taking out their leaders. That has resulted in fragmentation of gangs and increasingly vicious internecine fighting.

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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-m...-idUSKCN1PF27J

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A video out of Mexico reportedly shows Narco Sicarios (cartel hitmen) setting up and executing a deadly linear ambush against Mexican State Police.

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https://www.funker530.com/sicarios-l...XCJRm1XfZirwdY

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Just across the border from the U.S., drug gangs slaughtered 23 people — hanging nine from a bridge and decapitating 14 more, whose heads were found stashed in coolers near the town hall. The four men and five women discovered dangling from the Colosio Bridge in Nuevo Laredo were handcuffed, blindfolded and bore signs of torture.

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https://www.nydailynews.com/news/wor...icle-1.1072899

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Not even bazookas and AK-47 assault rifles will be capable of penetrating the armored vehicle that the mayor of Los Cabos, Baja California Sur, intends to lease. Armida Castro Guzmán called on suppliers to bid for a 30-month contract to supply a Class III armored Yukon SUV made by United States auto maker General Motors. The Castro-led administration is seeking to lease that vehicle and 171 others, according to public tender documents posted online.

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https://mexiconewsdaily.com/news/may...er-protection/

The School of Terror: Inside a Jalisco Cartel Training Camp in Mexico
ANALYSIS Written by Aldo Meza* - JUNE 13, 2019
https://www.insightcrime.org/news/an...alisco-cartel/

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On the first day of training to become a hitman for the Jalisco Cartel New Generation, Francisco learned that the only way to escape from the camp was to leave “in a body bag.” In three months he’d learn much more: how to handle short and long weapons, ambush enemies, respect the rules, not be a gossiper and how to kill.

“You see how they kill people, taste human flesh, you live in terror,” he says.

Francisco — the name he has given to protect his identity — told Telemundo that he spent three months in a Jalisco Cartel New Generation (Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación – CJNG) training camp. His testimony, the only one to date, could not be corroborated by other witnesses, but his story coincides with the tactics described by former Mexican and US security agents. He says he had to endure physical and psychological resistance tests, as well as loyalty tests.

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