Worry grows over Mexico vigilante movement

Armed citizen patrols fighting drug cartel violence join forces with a radical teachers union in Guerrero state opposed to an education reform law.

The Los Angeles Times

By Richard Fausset and Cecilia Sanchez
April 11, 2013

Mexico City - Debate is intensifying over armed vigilante patrols that have sprung up in crime-plagued sections of rural Mexico, particularly in the state of Guerrero, where some patrols joined forces this week with a radical teachers union that has been wreaking havoc with massive protests, vandalism and violent confrontations with police.

The two groups, on the surface, would appear to have little in common. The vigilante patrols, typically made up of masked campesinos, are among dozens that have emerged in the countryside in recent months, purporting to protect their communities from the depredations of the drug cartels. The state-level teachers union, meanwhile, has taken to the streets to protest a sweeping education reform law backed by Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto.

Their alliance was announced in a joint meeting Sunday. A leader of the vigilantes said they were joining with the teachers because it was the vigilantes' "watchword to fight against injustice."  Read more. 

Marines in Mexico detain 35 Veracruz police officers

LATimesBlog: MEXICO CITY -- Mexico's marines on Monday said they detained 35 Veracruz state police officers who were allegedly working for the Zetas drug cartel.

In a short statement, authorities said the police officers were detained Saturday in two groups, 16 at the airport in the city of San Luis Potosi, in a neighboring state of the same name, and 19 in Xalapa, the capital of Veracruz.

The marines released the names of the suspected officers but did not offer other details on the arrests or say why they were suspected of working for the Zetas. Four of those arrested were women, the marines said.

Veracruz's government did not have an immediate response to the announcement. Read more. 

In Mexico, State Seeks to Ban Narco-Messages

InSight Crime: The governor of Sinaloa state, west Mexico, is trying to outlaw the posting of "narcomantas," public banners hung by drug gangs to threaten enemies or improve their image, in an initiative that seems both counterproductive and doomed to fail.

Governor Mario Lopez Valdez has introduced a bill that would make it illegal to hang the banners or to serve as a lookout, also known as a “halcone”, for criminal groups, as Riodoce reported.

Lopez, whose state is among the most violent in Mexico and is home to many of Mexico’s most notorious capos, did not say what the penalties would be for breaking his proposed law.

Mantas have become an increasingly common element in Mexico’s criminal landscape over the past few years, with messages appearing on a regular basis to taunt enemies, call on the government to take action against rivals, improve a group's image with the public, or a combination of the three. Read more.

Latin American Drug Traffickers Turn to Cults for Comfort

InSight Crime: "Mexican authorities are investigating the deaths of three people in Sonora state who may have been sacrificed to a popular figure in Mexico's folk culture, Santa Muerte (Saint Death). The victims, two young children and an elderly woman, reportedly had their throats and wrists cut at an altar dedicated to the saint. Eight people have been arrested in connection to the killings.

On April 3, authorities in Puerto Rico arrested the alleged leader of a drug trafficking ring who was also a practitioner of Santeria, a mixture of West African and Roman Catholic beliefs and practices which is most strongly associated with Cuba. The suspect reportedly consulted a spirit about which days were best to transport cocaine shipments into Puerto Rico and onwards to the US, reports the AP." read more

Drug Culture: Zetas Leader Builds Elaborate 'Narco-Tomb'

InSight Crime: "Zetas leader Heriberto Lazcano Lazcano, alias 'Z-3' has constructed a huge mausoleum as his final resting place in Hidalgo state, Mexico, according to El Universal." read more

Drug War Culture: Inside the Homes of Mexico’s Alleged Drug Lords

This look at homes of narcos comes with a slide show.

NYTimes.com: " In the public imagination, what might be called “narquitecture” or “narco style” is all gaudy excess — part “Real Housewives,” part “Scarface,” part conquistador.

In reality, only some of this is true. As a Mexico correspondent for The New York Times, I often spend my time trying to understand shadowed worlds, from illegal immigration to drugs, and the more I’ve tried to figure out how the country’s criminal networks work, the more I’ve wondered about the people who run them: where do they live, and what is their home life really like?" read more

Portraying the Drug War: Gerardo Naranjo’s ‘Miss Bala’ Reflects Mexican Drug War

Review of the Oscar-nominated Mexican film about the effects of the drug war on the Mexican psyche. It also discusses other Mexican films about or reflecting the devastation of the drug war.

NYTimes.com: "The (mood of the) new Mexican film “Miss Bala,” ... is a reflection of the national mood as Mexico enters the sixth year of the government’s frontal assault on drug traffickers. Estimates put the death toll around 50,000 since 2006, and the murders pile up relentlessly. What feeds despair here more than the daily violence, though, is the suspicion that nobody in charge has the ability, the will or the integrity to defeat the criminals and the corruption that supports them. The anxiety that anyone can become a victim guides “Miss Bala.” " read more

Mexico Drug War: Death Rattle

A fascinating look at the history and expansion of 'narcocorridos,' drug songs, in Mexico and their interrelation with the realities of the drug war.

AmericanProspect: "In 2010, the collective of Mexican musicians known as Movimiento Alterado released a rousing carousel blitz of tubas, accordions, and snare rolls it called “Sanguinarios del M1.” The song’s title roughly translates as “The Bloodthirsty Killers of El M1”—M1 is the nickname for Manuel Torres Félix, an infamous member of the Sinaloa drug cartel. (He also goes by El Ondeado, “The Off One” or “The Crazy One.”)

...The sing-alongs of Movimiento Alterado could only have been born during this blood-soaked moment of the U.S.–Mexico drug war. ... In a recent essay in the Mexican newspaper Milenio, the Tijuana writer Heriberto Yépez claims that Mexico’s cartels have gone from being an economy to becoming an ideology that saturates society. ... For Yépez, 'narco' was once a prefix, an adjective that described an aspect of Mexican culture. Now it is Mexican culture; “narco and culture are synonyms.” Movimiento Alterado is the first major musical effort to exploit this cultural shift. " read more

Mexico Drug War: Silver screen drug war, "Miss Bala"

GlobalPost: "When Tijuana residents saw ski-masked policemen battling Kalashnikov-wielding thugs near the U.S. border, some feared they were caught in another drug shootout and ran for their lives. But after a second glance, residents could see a scraggly-haired director banging a clipboard, along with an entourage of cameraman and sound engineers. With relief, they realized it was all a show for the silver screen.

That movie, “Miss Bala,” has won acclaim at film festivals around the world — including a 12-minute ovation at Cannes — and has now been selected as Mexico’s entry for the Oscars. The film won critics by combining the intense action sequences with slow, realistic scenes and artful camera work to conjure up the surreal actuality of Mexico’s drug war. It’s part of a growing trend that highlights how the drug war has infiltrated Mexican culture."

read more

Drug War - Demand: 2010 National Survey on Drug Use and Health: Summary of National Findings

This report provides the latest hard data on demand for illegal drugs in the U.S. 

oas.samhsa.gov: "Drug abuse in the United States is on the uptick overall, though use of “harder drugs” seems to be down, according to a recent study by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).

Marijuana use has increased some 20 percent over the last four years, particularly among young people. Today more than one in five Americans aged 18-25 get high on a regular basis. On the other hand, rates of methamphetamine and cocaine abuse have been steadily declining since 2006."

read this

Drug War - Collateral Damage: Que Malo, Narcos! Mexico Attacks Cartels With Comics

The comics series is intended to counter the impact of narcocorridos--popular country songs that celebrate the exploits of drug lords while promoting a luxurious drug-fueled lifestyle.


Wired.com: "The besieged Mexican government has a new tool in the info war against drug cartels: animated, online propaganda comics set to electronic beats.

The 10-episode comic series, posted over the summer in two- to three-minute episodes to the blog of President Felipe Calderon, is the latest weapon in a “cultural struggle” against drug cartels. The comics are said to be “a new space for communication” that will “help us better understand the phenomenon of organized crime,” said federal security spokesman Alejandro Poire. That is, government propaganda with a pop art twist."

read more

Mexico Drug War: Shaul Schwarz's Photos of Narco-Culture in Juárez

NYTimes.com: " Shaul Schwarz was among the first photographers to focus on documenting the drug wars that have ravaged the Mexican city of Juárez. Mr. Schwarz has been working in Juárez, ... since 2007. He can’t get the story of a city “so vicious and so close to home” out of his system. “It is dangerous, chaotic and unpredictable,” said Mr. Schwarz, 37. “I see how cheap life can be there at times.”

After covering drug-related murders almost daily, Mr. Schwarz began to focus on the corrosive effect the violence was having on Mexican society. He started photographing the narco-culture spread by young people — on both sides of the border."

Drug Culture: Mexico Drug Lords Live On in Narco-Graveyard

From InSight: Organized Crime in the Americas

Mexico Drug Lords Live On in Narco-Graveyard: "An elaborate cemetery in northwest Mexico, subject of a new documentary film, points to the ways drug lords continue to display their power and influence, even after death.

The Jardines del Humaya cemetery is the resting place for some of the once-powerful members of the Sinaloa Cartel, in state capital Culiacan. The site is known for its elaborate mausoleums, decorated with ivory and gold, some equipped with electricity, telephone lines and stereo systems.

A new documentary, titled 'El Velador' (The Watchman), recently screened at the Cannes Film Festival in May, observed the comings and goings at the cemetery for nearly a year. The film is among three Mexican movies shown at Cannes this year which address issues of drug violence and trafficking in the country."

Drug culture vs. Whack-a-mole politics: Mexican State Bans Narco-Music

Whacking the music will be about as successful as whacking the drug moles. 

Mexican State Bans Narco-Music: "A Mexican governor announced a prohibition on 'narcocorridos,' songs celebrating drug trafficking, in public venues in his state, turning the fight against organized crime into a debate about free expression amid the rise of narco-culture."

Whack-a-mole drug war: Malverde, Mexico’s Drug Trafficking Saint

Part of an excellent series on the drug war on the U.S. side of the border, by Fronteras, a co-operative news project of a number of public radio stations in the southwest U.S.

The Drug War At Home: Malverde, Mexico’s Drug Trafficking Saint | Fronteras: "In the city of Culiacán, Sinaloa in northern Mexico, drug traffickers flock to a small unofficial church, paying homage for their success in the criminal underworld. For Mexico’s drug traffickers, this shrine is a mecca, where a mustachioed saint has become a symbol for the cartel culture."

'Narco' Culture Becoming Popular North Of The Border

'Narco' Culture Becoming Popular North Of The Border | KPBS.org: "Living it up like a drug trafficker, or “narco”, is no longer the fantasy of some poor barrio kids in Mexico. It’s increasingly becoming a compelling lifestyle to a growing number of youth in the United States."