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Colombia Bags Biggest Druglord

7:00 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Colombia|crime|Drugs|Latin America · 2 Comments

15 Apr 2009

Colombian authorities have captured the country’s biggest drug lord. Daniel Rendon Herrera, known as “Don Mario”, was arrested today near the Panamanian border, after a 2 million dollar bounty was offered for his capture (video above of this first images of the capture).

Don Mario was no small fry. The BBC gives a rundown of some of the highlights of Rendon’s “career” and how he eluded authorities:

Once a paramilitary in a branch of the now-demobilised United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia (AUC), Daniel Rendon had refused to surrender as part of a peace deal.

Instead he used paramilitary networks to build up a personal army of up to 1,000 heavily-armed fighters, also striking a deal with left-wing Farc rebels, the BBC’s Jeremy McDermott reports from the capital, Bogota.
Authorities had been tracking the 43-year-old for months, but he had always managed to stay one step ahead of them until now, he says.

Rendon reportedly has exported literally tons of cocaine to Mexico, which has in turn made its way around the globe. According to the UK’s Telegraph, little is known about Rendon, who has successfully eluded media for years.

Via / BBC News and Telegraph

Mexican Tourism Board: Mexico Needs an Image Makeover

24 Mar 2009

1949726238_351271f9eb_o As much as I love Mexico, I have to admit that lately all of the violence — from severed heads in ice chests to massive roadside graves — makes it harder and harder to convince people who don’t know the country that that’s not what it’s about. The Mexican Tourism Board appears to realize that this is becoming more and more challenging, and its Secretary says that the country needs to “rebuild its image” in the eyes of foreigners, namely potential tourists. El Universal reports:

At a conference, [the Secretary] stated that it isn’t about an advertising campaign but doing anything necessary “to compensate for the attacks that Mexico has suffered in the last several weeks.”

Accompanied by the director of the Council for Tourism Promotion, Oscar Fitch Gómez, the Secretary explained that the intention isn’s just to rebuild Mexico’s image to attract visitors but to improve the country as a whole.

The Secretary also stated that potential tourists hear many things about Mexico that just aren’t true, some as extreme as the notion that the country is “at war”. He also mentioned that the ex-director of the CIA advised his own son not to visit Mexico because the narcos were planning to attack Spring Break revelers, and that the responsibility of convincing American tourists that these rumors are false belongs to Mexico.

I symphathize with this effort. I always hated when people tried to tell me things about Mexico City — you can’t walk down the street at night without getting robbed, nor get into a cab without getting kidnapped, etc. — when I lived there and knew the truth. But at the same time, we have to be realistic and realize that cosmetic changes won’t fix a problem that is getting worse and worse every day. This isn’t a job for the Tourism Board but for President Felipe Calderon.

Via / El Universal

Massive Grave in Mexico Linked to Drug Cartels

6:40 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Drugs|mexico|society|U.S.-Mexico Border|Violence · 2 Comments

15 Mar 2009

A grave containing 9 bodies was discovered over the weekend in Juarez, Mexico, and all signs point to the fact that this is yet another bloody chapter in Mexico’s on-going drug wars. CNN reports:

Investigators have yet to determine the identities of the seven men and two women found in the grave, Gonzalez said. They have not released information on how they were killed or how long they have been there.

Juarez, which is across the border from El Paso, Texas, has become one of the major battlegrounds as drug cartels fight both each other and Mexican authorities. The conflict has made violence increasingly common in Juarez, Tijuana and other Mexican border towns.

The discovery coincides with the arrival of some 5,000 Mexican troops dispatched to Ciudad Juarez in an effort to put a stop the the heightening violence in the city.

To get a sense for what drug violence is doing to Ciudad Juarez (incidentally also infamous for the mysterious murders of hundreds of women over the past several years), have a look at the above video from the YouTube and Pulitzer Center “Project: Report” project.

Via / CNN

Beauty Pageant Winner Arrested in Connection with Narcos

10:42 am By Maegan La Mala · Bizarro|Controversia|crime|mexico|society · Comments Off

29 Dec 2008

It hasn’t been a very happy holiday for Laura Elena Zuniga Huizar, the reigning Reina Hispanoamericana and 2008 winner of one of Mexico’s most renowned beauty pageants, Nuestra Belleza. Laura Elena wasn’t celebrating Christmas Eve with family in Culiacán but rather in a jail cell with her narco buddies. TIME reports:

In October, Laura Zuniga, athletic and 5′ 7″ tall, posed sleekly for the paparazzi. She wore an alluring pink dress and, more importantly, the coveted crown of Miss Hispanic America. Just before Christmas, she again stood before a scrum of Mexican photographers, but this time holding her head low and wearing a pair of handcuffs while police showed off the 9 mm pistols, semi-automatic rifles and $53,000 in cash she had allegedly been caught with. Her problems only deepened on Friday, when a judge ordered her and a man described as her boyfriend, along with six others found with the stash, to be further detained for 40 days pending charges on racketeering, drug trafficking, guns and money laundering.

Mexican Army Responds to Beheadings

9:43 am By Maegan La Mala · crime|Drugs|mexico|military · Comments Off

23 Dec 2008

070207_mexicoViolence_hmed3p.hmedium.jpg It was a bloody weekend in Guerrero, Mexico. As the country fights to come to terms with what occurred there on Sunday — the beheadings of 9 military men — the Mexican army is speaking up, and with a warning to the suspected culprits: los narcos.

The army’s commander in the state of Guerrero, Enrique Jorge Alonso, called the killings “a grave error” on the part of organized crime, and issued this warning:

There won’t be the slightest bit of consideration. There won’t be a concession of any sort, nor will we rest until we see these delinquents where they belong,” he said. “This is sick and despicable act of vengeance.”

2008 has shaped up to be Mexico’s bloodiest year yet with regards to narco-related killings. Back in July, the death count rose to 600 in one Mexican state alone. And with these killings, the death toll, according to the Mexican Secretary of State has doubled from last year, with 5,376 victims of drug-trafficking related murders.

Via / Diario de Yucatán

The Narco Submarine

5:44 pm By Maegan La Mala · Bizarro|Drugs|Latin America|mexico|society · Comments Off

17 Jul 2008

Submarines carry spies, military personnel, weapons…but drugs? A “very special” submarine has been seized by Mexican officials and found to be carry a boatload of coke. And get this — the sub itself was homemade:

The 30-foot (10-meter) makeshift submarine was detected heading north about 200 miles (322 kilometers) off the southern state of Oaxaca, Mar said.

The green-topped, arrowhead-shaped vessel was intercepted when it surfaced hours later, and the crew was taken into custody without resistance.

CNN reports that the crew claims they didn’t know what the sub was carrying and had boarded the vessel because narcos were threatening their families.

This was a first for Mexico (incidentally plagued by problems with drug traffickers on land) but apparently this type of narcosub is well known in Colombia.

Via / CNN

Nearly 600 Dead in Mexican State

11:17 am By Maegan La Mala · Drugs|Latin America|mexico|society · Comments Off

16 Jul 2008

Nearly 600 people have died so far this year in the Mexican state of Sinaloa as a result of execution-style murders related to drug trafficking.

Mexico’s La Jornada reports that in May and June of this year alone, 120 people were executed, at a rate of 4 murders per day. This month 75 people have already been killed, among them 9 who were killed on Sunday. Two of the victims were minors.

La Jornada reports that most of the killings are taking place in the cities of Culiacán and Navolato, though they are spreading into surrounding areas as well.

The mayor of Guamúchil, one of the most violent cities, is taking a cavalier attitude, arguing that “Mexico city is more violent than Sinaloa.” With leaders like that, we aren’t going to get very far.

VivirMexico reports that the problem has gotten so frightfully bad that people are actually packing up and leaving the state.

Via / La Jornada

Image via EFE

Another Grupero Killed in Mexico

4:23 pm By Maegan La Mala · crime|mexico|Music · Comments Off

7 Dec 2007

Hot on the heels of two previous murders this week, the grupera world is mourning the loss of José Luis Aquino Lavariega, trumpet player for the band Los Condes. Mexico’s El Universal reports that José Luis was found dead near the city of Etla, Oaxaca, where he was visiting his family. Police are calling the killing an “ajuste de cuentas” — “a settling of the score”.

Earlier this week Zayda Peña, an onda grupera singer, was murdered in her hospital room in the border town of Matamoros. 24 hours later another musician, Sergio Gómez, was found dead along a highway in Morelia, Michoacán.

Via / El Universal

Mexican singer killed in hospital room

3:59 pm By Maegan La Mala · Celebrities|crime|Drugs|mexico|society · Comments Off

3 Dec 2007

Incredible but true. Zayda Peña, 28, a grupera singer known for her anti-narco lyrics was shot on Saturday while in a hotel room in Matamoros, Mexico, where she was staying with a friend. The friend, as well as the hotel manager, died of gunshot wounds at the scene.

Zayda was still alive when she was rushed to the hospital minutes later, and might have been out of danger until the unthinkable happened: the assailants, fearing she had survived the attack, brazenly walked into the operating room and fired at Zayda, killing her, then fled the scene.

While police say it could be a “crime of passion” (it seems a popular motive among Mexican police when women or gay men are involved), many are citing narcos as the perpetrators of the shooting. El Diario de Yucatan points out that over the past 12 months a dozen grupera performers have been victims of violence supposedly linked to narcotraficantes.

Via / TV Azteca and El Diario de Yucatan

Death toll rises in Mexican state

12:21 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · crime|mexico|society · Comments Off

18 May 2007

Last month, we told you about the wave of drug-related violence that had claimed the lives of over 50 people in the Mexican state of Nuevo León. Today Mexico’s El Universal reports that the violence that has brought that state to its knees hasn’t ended, with the death toll now at 64 victims. Yesterday, the number reach 61 when several armed suspects followed a man to his home, where they killed him by shooting him several times. The suspects escaped and their whereabouts are unknown.

This morning, at 7:00 am local time in Monterrey, three more victims were found on a city street, bound and executed, bringing the total number up to 64.

According to El Universal, this week alone police have found more than a dozen victims of kidnapping in different parts of the city.

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