2011 was even bloodier, with 456 murders recorded across the state. The public safety department in Zacatecas state said the policemens bodies were found Wednesday morning in the state capital, also known as Zacatecas. On Tuesday, he gave a passionate televised address to the nation calling on Mexicans to join in the fight against organized crime. Monkey in "bullet-proof" vest found dead after bloody cartel MEXICO CITY (AP) A commando of drug gang gunmen on Thursday stormed ashore at a beach on Mexicos resort-studded Caribbean coast in front of luxury hotels and executed two drug dealers from a rival gang. The gunfight took place at a crossroads near Ruiz in the Pacific coast state of Nayarit, some Durazo said the security forces took control of the house and found Guzmn, who is also known as "El Ratn," inside. Instead, they changed form, as murders, disappearances, abduction, extorsion and land thefts were carried out en masse by a united front of state officials, police officers, cartel gunmen, andas US allegations against General Cienfuegos attestmembers of the military. He was the very image of a Mexican lawman, with a round, jowly face and thick mustache, a pistol shoved into his belt. WebMEXICO CITY Police have discovered at least 33 human skulls buried in western Mexico, authorities said on Tuesday, the latest grisly find in a region that has suffered And as once the state provided a stronghold from which Patrn Snchez was able to expand his influence over the entire Beltrn Leyva organization, it is rumored that Nayarit is today the headquarters of Audias Flores Silva, alias El Jardinero, widely seen to be the second-in-command of the Jalisco-based organization. Mexican drug kingpin gunned down by military helicopter cartel Authorities report confrontation in Guayabitos, within the Nayarit [3] Romain LeCour, Nathaniel Morris, Benjamin T. Smith, The Last Harvest? cartel shooting Plenty of families left, some for other Mexican cities to wait for the situation to calm, others to the United States where some 1 million Zacatecans the same number as in Mexico reside. "There was a lot of panic. Nor were skirmishes between rival traffickers, and the killing of state officials on the orders of organized crime, unheard of in the state. Burning vehicles littered the streets as the gunmen faced off against the National Guard, army and police. In these times, These kind of filth will will only end when EL PUEBLO (THE PEOPLE) stand up. There are more than 100,000 guardsmen deployed in the Mexico, plus the military, yet the violence continues apace. Ramon Perez, a retired teacher, says the governor did the right thing in closing the schools. Some areas of Mexico have increased risk of crime and kidnapping. Hctor Luis Palma Salazar - Wikipedia 2 police hanged from bridge in Mexico, 7 killed in shooting Puerto Vallarta and Nayarit on alert after army kills cartel leader hide caption. For the past month, a shot up pick-up truck has rested here. WebThirteen Mexican police officers and investigators have been killed in an ambush as they travelled through a rural region marking the latest attack on law enforcement by brazen Since 1970, eighty percent of Mexican tobacco has been grown in the vast plantations of the Nayarit coast, pulling in migrant workers from across central and western Mexico.[2]. That Edgar Veytia was eventually arrested, tried and convicted for his part in this story, and that an arrest warrant has since been issued for Roberto Sandoval, is somewhat heartening. Most of them hail more specifically from the town of Xalisco, just outside the state capital of Tepic, where opium gum from Nayarits mountains was processed into black tar heroin and then sent off north for distribution and sale. Rival cartels often kill another gang's street-level dealers in Mexico to eliminate competition and ensure their drugs are sold first. To order It would seem that the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, who now moved into Nayarit en masse, had outbid Patrn Snchez and become Veytias new paymasters. When the shootouts rumble across the plains dotted with ranches, farmers often cant go out to feed their livestock. There have been signs that the situation in Quintana Roo state, where all the resorts are located, was out of control months ago. This copy is for your personal non-commercial use only. He bought a bachelors in forensic science in Tepic, married into a local political family, bought a local transport franchise, and made friends with Roberto Sandoval, who appointed him as Director of Roads and Transit when he became Tepics municipal president in 2008. After a two-year trial, Judge Carol Amon found him guilty on these charges on 26 September 2019 and sentenced him to 20 years prison. Cienfuegos surprise detention, and even more unexpected release, is emblematic of the deeply intertwined nature of military power, political influence and economic opportunity both licit and illicitin Mexico. Guanajuato has Mexicos highest number of homicides, and has been the scene of turf battles between the Jalisco drug cartel and local gangs backed by the Sinaloa cartel. That same year, the Beltrn Leyvas reached a deal with Los Zetas, El Chapos chief rivals and lords of the Gulf drug routes. 7. Highways running north to key border cities pass through Zacatecas, providing a direct route for northbound drugs and southbound guns. Nayarit and the Making of a Narco State - Mexico Violence The cartel is now splintered into small, competing gangs. Both sides gained from this partnership: Sandoval grew extremely rich, as did Veytia, who earned money from embezzlement, kidnapping, murder-for-hire, extorsion, and the seizure of peasants lands. Mexico ambush: 13 state police killed in attack on convoy Indeed, it is in some ways unsurprising that Cienfuegos would be connected with an organization based in Nayarit, where the unique dynamics of local politics, combined with the states low profile as a hub for trafficking, have long permitted a particular brand of what Benjamin Smith has termed narco-populism to flourish. WebHctor Luis Palma Salazar (born April 29, 1960), commonly known as "El Gero Palma", is a Mexican former drug trafficker and leader of the Sinaloa Cartel alongside Joaqun "El Chapo" Guzmn and Ismael Zambada Garca. Zacatecas had it then too as cartels battled for control, but it was overshadowed. Indeed, it is in some ways unsurprising that Cienfuegos would be connected with an organization based in Nayarit, where the unique dynamics of local politics, combined with the states low profile as a hub for trafficking, have long permitted a particular brand of what Benjamin Smith has termed narco-populism to flourish. Mexicos two strongest cartels Sinaloa and Jalisco New Generation are locked in a battle for control. Semipresencial en Madrid, Espaa, Maestra en 'Data Management' e Innovacin Tecnolgica 100% en lnea. presentation-ready copies of Toronto Star content for distribution But what Veytia had actually done was to hand over the drugs market [to the mafia]. In recent months, the Jalisco cartel kidnapped several members of an elite state police force, tortured them to obtain names and addresses of fellow officers and began hunting down and killing police at their homes, on their days off, in front of their families. If this had been a lone shootout in this city of 300,000 people, residents might have written it off as a fluke and moved on. Mexico His book Soldiers, Saints, and Shamans: Indigenous Communities and the Revolutionary State in Mexico's Gran Nayar, 1910-1940 was published in 2020. "Sol Prendido" and "HEARST" for Borderland Beat In Colima, a video shows CJNG hitmen interrogating a CDS member who alle "Ivan" for Borderland Beat Guano Guzman & Seor Guzman News started to emerge on Friday, February 24, 2023 that a joint fede "Sol Prendido" for Borderland Beat The aftermath of an armed attack comes into view. The government, if it pays attention, can put a stop to everything.. Arturo Nahle, Zacatecas former attorney general and current state supreme court president, said those policies could be right, but will take years to bear fruit. Calderon said this week that the bloody offensive against the drug cartels isn't just his war but is an effort to make Mexico safe for all law-abiding citizens. Armed attackers killed 10 people in a pool hall in an industrial region of central Mexico plagued by drug cartel-related violence, authorities said Thursday. The bullet-ridden bodies of the cartel members were discovered in the north-central state of Zacatecas. With a total area of a little under 30,000 km2, Nayarit is roughly the size of Massachusetts, and 23rd out of Mexicos 32 federal entities in terms of size. In October 2013, Veytia even provided security at a wedding at Santa Mara del Oro lake, where Juan Francisco Patrn Snchez and Hctor Beltrn Leyva, were entertained by famous norteo singer Remmy Valenzuela. Toronto Star articles, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com, Conversations are opinions of our readers and are subject to the, The Toronto Star and thestar.com, each property of Toronto Star Over the past two weeks, hundreds of people have been gunned down in Mexico as drug violence continues to escalate. El Chapo has been in jail for more than a year Credit: Getty - Contributor. Cartel map of Mexico. He used all of the forces at his command to give H-2 complete control of drug trafficking in the state: according to witnesses in Compostela, for example, every week Polica Nayarit officers would escort a truck full of H-2 gunmen into their town to help them to disappear people. Veytia also made sure that any H-2 members who were arrested were always quickly freed. He grew up a dual citizen in San Diego, California, before heading south into Mexico to begin a career of violent crime. cartel [2] Jean Meyer, Breve historia de Nayarit (Mexico: Fondo de Cultura Econmica/El Colegio de Mxico, 2000) Disfruta de nuestras lecciones personalizadas, breves y divertidas. That Cienfuegos has meanwhile escaped what looked to be an inevitable life sentence in the US, even as the Mexican authorities have moved against his political partner in crimehighlights the sheer power of the Mexican army. The two suspected drug dealers killed Thursday had apparently arrived at the beach in front of the Azul Beach Resort and the Hyatt Ziva Riviera Cancun earlier in the day, claiming it was now their territory. WebPuerto Vallarta and Nayarit on alert after army kills cartel leader April 23, 2022 9447 Sal N El Chopas, leader of the Jalisco Nueva Generacin Cartel (CJNG) and accused of Indeed, Nayarit is Mexicos second biggest exporter of mangoes, and primary producer of tobacco. Crime "has gone up a little with extortion, with drug sales to foreigners and Mexicans," the prosecutors office said about the raid. Two paramedics carrying a woman in an ambulance from neighboring Jalisco state to a hospital were killed a few days before passing through Valparaso. They included two German men and a Dutch woman. Prosecutors said Friday they have arrested a suspect in that killing. He says everyone dropped to the floor for cover, and eventually the staff herded all the customers into the kitchen. Bernandino Hernandez/AP The Puerto Morelos shooting comes two weeks after a California travel blogger and a German tourist were killed in a similar shootout in the beach town of Tulum. A detective who apparently was investigating the shootout and was pulled out of Valparaso for his safety was later killed. shooting Just five weeks later, however, Veytia miscalculated or was perhaps himself betrayed and on one of his twice-monthly trips to San Diego to visit his family was detained at the US border. He specializes in modern Mexican history, and is currently studying the connections between the Mexican Revolution of 1910-140, and the Drug War wracking the country today. Posts may contain strong violent material, discretion is advised. Disfrute de nuestras lecciones personalizadas, breves y divertidas. Nayarits transformation to an estado narco was tied up with the long history of PRI control in the state, and, more specifically, with the nature of Roberto Sandoval Castaedas tenure as state governor between 2011 and 2017which not coincidentally overlapped with General Cienfuegos term as Secretary of Defense during the PRIista administration of President Pea Nieto, from 2012 to 2018. This illicit trade was dominated by Sinaloans, although in many cases they operated from Guadalajara, the state capital of Jalisco. With his return to Mexico, though, Cienfuegos fate is now tied far more tightly to that disgraced ex-governor Sandovalcurrently a fugitive and likely still on Mexican soilthan it is to Veytia. Newspapers Limited, 8 Spadina Avenue, 10th Floor, Toronto, ON M5V 0S8. Some 200 armed men had BBC News - Mexico gang shootout in Nayarit state kills 28 We do not publish all comments, and we do not publish comments immediately. In one case he gained a building in an up-and-coming tourism hotspot that was later valued at five million pesos (a quarter million dollars), and in another, threatened to have the farmers of La Peita de Jaltemba, on the Nayarit coast, murdered unless they gave him control of communally-owned village lands. Although explicit drug war violence such as inter-cartel warfare and gunfights between soldiers and traffickersdeclined during Veytias time as Nayarits security chief, crime and violence did not in themselves disappear. In the nearby city of Fresnillo, police later found the bullet-ridden bodies of four women and three men. Breaking News: Shootout between alleged hitmen and the military On The Trail Of Mexico's Vicious Sinaloa Cartel. And in nearby Playa del Carmen, police stage a massive raid in October on the beach town's restaurant-lined Quinta Avenida, detaining 26 suspects most apparently for drug sales after a city policewoman was shot to death and locked in the trunk of a car last week. More than 23,000 people have died in drug-related violence since Calderon took office 3 1/2 years ago. We have definitely noticed an increased presence of Mexican security forces , a few clashes with the military, and even a case where suspected drug cartel gunmen abducted two off-duty female soldiers at gunpoint. An employee who answered the phone at the hotel said the shooting occurred on the beach near the facility. Photograph: Montes de Oca said they fled in a boat after the attack. And the killing continued the next day. But shootings like this have become common as the Sinaloa cartel fights members of the Beltran-Leyva organization for control of Tepic. The surge in killings comes as President Felipe Calderon is ramping up efforts to win more public support for the drug war. After 30 people were gunned down last weekend, the governor seized control of the local police, called on Calderon to send in more federal police and shut public schools statewide. There were 15 days that we didnt go out for anything, said Claudina Betancourt, a nurse born in San Juan Capistrano. The strength of the PRI political machine in a small, provincial but strategic agricultural state enabled an openly corrupt political clique to cut lucrative deals with local drug traffickers. The H-2 Cartel was not some minor group that somehow managed to bribe the countrys top security official. Goodness me, why people killed each other in world. The battle for Zacatecas is part of the larger war to dominate the fentanyl market, which is the largest source of money for the cartels in the United States, said Mike Vigil, former head of international operations for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. Nayarits coast is a tropical zone fringed by mangrove swamps, where fishing and commercial agriculture are the lifeblood of the local economy. Rarely seen in public without a sombrero and an embroidered Wixrika shoulder bag, Sandovals self-proclaimed peoples government undertook numerous eye-catching projects, such as building a public sports and concert arena (which soon flooded), huge water-capture tanks in the poor outskirts of Tepic (which were never connected to the local water supply), and a sports center shaped like a giant cowboy hat. Smoke from burning cars rises in Culiacn, Mexico, on Thursday, after an intense gunfight between security forces and gunmen linked to the Sinaloa drug cartel. However mutually beneficial the relationships had been, in 2017 the alliance between Patrn Snchez, Veytia, Sandoval and Cienfuegos fell apart in truly spectacular fashion. The state now appears firmly in the hands of the CJNG. In the tourist town of Taxco, south of Mexico City, soldiers fought a 40-minute gun battle with alleged cartel hitmen that left 15 people dead. Its gunmen also brutalized Nayarits peasant drug growers into accepting their authority,[5] and the lower prices for their merchandise that came with it; and, in an apparent case of mistaken identity, murdered the Sierras first Nayari Catholic priest. i guess it was less corruption back then i do not know, all i know is it is a shame to see Mexico in this situation, people just dont give a damn about anybody else, and they are leaving a trail of people who wont give a damn about others either..terribly sad. Jose Garcia works at the taxi stand out front, hailing cabs and helping people with their shopping bags. Although the drug trade in Nayarit operated with the direct involvement of government representatives at all levels, the army occasionally attacked traffickers and often arrested, tortured and/or imprisoned peasants caught cultivating poppies and marijuana. Patrn assumed a leading role in the organization following the arrests and deaths of the four Beltrn Leyva brothers. The administration of President Andrs Manuel Lpez Obrador has pinned its hopes on the so-called Maya Riviera, where it has announced plans to build an international airport and a stop for the Maya train, which will run in a loop around the Yucatan peninsula. In the tourist town of Taxco, south of Mexico City, soldiers fought a 40-minute gun battle with alleged cartel hitmen that left 15 people dead. Instead, they changed form, as murders, disappearances, abduction, extorsion and land thefts were carried out, may be investigated and, if appropriate, charged, https://www.noria-research.com/the-youngsters-are-masters-of-opium/. Subsequently, in early 2019, the, Then, in February 2020, and apparently on the basis of, But it now appears that Sandovals was not the only name Veytia shared with U.S. authorities. [5] Authors own fieldnotes from the Sierra de Nayarit. Cristbal Castaeda, the public safety director for Sinaloa state, told Milenio television that people had been wounded in the firing, but gave no figures. See state summaries and advisory levels below for information on your specific travel destination. In Nayarit, in many ways, the beat goes on. A 2014 photo of Joaqun "El Chapo" Guzmn being escorted to a helicopter in Mexico City following his capture. MEXICO CITY A commando of drug gang gunmen on Thursday stormed ashore at a beach on Mexico's resort-studded Caribbean coast in front of luxury hotels and executed two drug dealers from a rival gang. Far from a law enforcement hero, however, Edgar Veytia was in fact the very picture of a miscreant. Subsequently, in early 2019, the US Treasury Department applied sanctions to Sandoval and his wife and two adult children who have acted or purported to act on his behalf by holding his ill-gotten assets in their names.. 'The cartels are not just a U.S.-Mexico problem I think the way most people see them,' a former Texas Public Safety officer said. I imagine the situation at wash center at that time. The , While it is too early to know the full story, according to court documents Cienfuegos advised Patrn Snchez about US investigations into his activities; as alerted him to the presence of informants within his organization (which led Patrn Snchez to order at least one murder); and made sure his subordinates in the Mexican security forces refrained from interfering in the H-2 cartels, However mutually beneficial the relationships had been, in 2017 the alliance between Patrn Snchez, Veytia, Sandoval and Cienfuegos fell apart in truly spectacular fashion. All of these activities were overseen by his chief ally and enforcer, Edgar Veytia: the same man charged with the local prosecution of the Mexican states war on the drug cartels., State attorney general Veytia was the man who made good on Sandovals promises to halt the killing in Nayarit: the sheriff to the governors cowboy. He did not rule out that there were deaths, according to The Associated Press. ..i dont understand all of these killings and no end to it. rights reserved. Residents abandoning cars and burning vehicles are seen on multiple roads. Obtendr un diploma con estadsticas de nivel, progresin y participacin. In August 2019, just a month before Veytias final sentencing, an indictment was filed in the same Court of the, Cienfuegos surprise detention, and even more unexpected release, is emblematic of the deeply. The story of how that corruption played out in Nayarit brings into focus the interplay between military operations, political maneuvering and drug trafficking. "It's worthwhile in order to build a free and safe country." While some of the victims of Veytia and Sandovals reign of terror have recently been able to come forward with their stories of kidnappings, disappearances, and torture, such truth telling is cold comfort to those who have been affected by the even deadlier violence that has wracked Nayarit in the years since Veytias detention in the United States. A federal grand jury in New York City charged with conspiracy to manufacture, distribute, import and distribute heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine and marijuana between 2013 and 2017. Last week, the assistant director of the local prison was gunned down -- along with his wife and his bodyguard -- as he dropped his kids off at a school. And all this he accomplished, it is alleged, through embezzlement of state funds, extorsion of businesses, overseeing kidnapping for ransom and seizures of land and property, and, of course, close collaboration with drug traffickers. He said just sharing territory with one group makes residents complicit in the eyes of their enemies. Tepic is my hometown and it has become a disaster, I am saddened by what has become of it.