Sun, Sex, Slaughter and Social Disaster: Summer Vacation in Acapulco 2015

FNSNews: Bullets and bodies haven’t stopped Mexican tourists from visiting the traditional summer playground of Acapulco. Despite a cresting wave of violence in recent days, local authorities tagged the hotel occupancy rate at 69.8 percent on July 21, when summer vacation 2015 was in full gear.

But since the beginning of the month, Acapulco’s streets have been painted in blood, with three, four, five or more homicides registered practically every day. In some cases, roving bands of gunslingers have shot it out with rivals in low-income residential neighborhoods. Read more. 

Report from Guerrero: The real criminals

-->

Thousands March for Safe Return of Disappeared Youth

Saturday, Oct. 18. Acapulco:  Shops are closed, with metal shutters pulled tight over the storefronts.  Government employees have be18. en given the day off and warned to stay inside. Schools are out for the day, to the delight of the children. The new car agency has even removed the models from the show floor.

Acapulco, the Pearl of the Pacific, looks like it's in hurricane mode. But there was no hurricane Friday. The government ordered the city lockdown to scare people off the march. Despite the campaign to create fear among the local population, close to ten thousand people marched to demand the safe return of 43 education students, forcibly disappeared by local police on Sept. 26 in the nearby city of Iguala .

Acapulco is the most violent city in the nation, and murder and extortion are everyday events. One resident who defied official warnings and joined the march told me,  "You've seen those movies about the gangster days and Al Capone, with shoot-outs in the street and pay-offs to the cops? That's us. I used to think that only happened in movies."

But in a city where violence has become commonplace, for the city government the presence of citizens demonstrating for justice was the main threat to be reckoned with. 

"Due to the protest, municipal authorities decided to suspend work and close offices, to avoid exposing personnel," read the local Novedades Acapulco newspaper Friday. Municipal spokesperson Ricardo Castillo made the rounds of radio and television stations warning residents to remain inside their homes because of the possibility of violence.

"This is a peaceful march. Walk in your contingent, everyone behind the front banner. Men line up on the outside, women inside." March organizers gave specific instructions to the thousands of teachers, students, local residents and regional grassroots organizations, including indigenous community police. The protesters followed them to the letter and despite high emotions at the assassinations and disappearance of the students, the march proceeded without incident. Even the graffiti was reserved for OXXO stores and politicians' propaganda.

Two demands dominated the march: safe return of the missing students, and the resignation of the state governor, Angel Aguirre. Aguirre is blamed for the impunity that characterizes the state, a "cemetery of organized crime", where the surrounding hills hide hundreds of bodies and body parts in mass graves. Members of the criminal gang, Guerreros Unidos, implicated in the disappearances originally led investigators to the supposed grave of the students, but the Attorney General announced this week that the semi-burned bodies are not those of the students. The fact that everyone has forgotten to even ask whose bodies were in the graves gives an idea of how "normal" mass graves and unidentified bodies have become in this part of the country.

The false warnings of violent protest are just the latest in years, if not decades, of government efforts to criminalize the students of the rural teaching college, Ayotzinapa. Casting a permanent image of dangerous youth threatening law-abiding citizens is part of a strategy to isolate the students. 

Now they are the victims of police who opened fire and murdered six people, abducting and disappearing 43 with the participation of Guerreros Unidos, an organized crime gang, But still, the press and government officials continue to paint the young people as the problem. Within local society, residents have grown soused to media and poltiicians'  harangues against the students for commandeering buses and blocking roads, that many will tell you privately that they belive the dead and missing got what they deserved.

But thousands more don't agree. The movement to support the students and hold all levels of government accountable for the crime is growing. As the federal government insists that organized crime is behind the disappearance with just a few corrupt politicians, at the march not one of the chants or slogans or demands was directed at organized crime. All laid responsibility at the feet of the government, primarily the state government.

First, because citizens can't make demands of organized crime. Criminals are criminals. It is the responsibility of the state to protect its citizens, which in Guerrero is clearly not happening.  Second, because the protesters view the drug cartels and the state as partners. 

"Sicarios, policia--la misma porquería" read one sign. (Hit men, police--the same trash"). The mayor of Iguala implicated in the attack on the students of Ayotzinapa and currently on the run, allegedly has tied through his wife and friends to the local crime gang. He is accused of knocking off people who cross him, notably grassroots leader, Arturo Hernandez Cardona, two years ago who he is said to have murdered in person.

This also is not the first time that the governments' hostility toward Ayotzinapa has led to violence.  In 2011 police assassinated two students at a roadblock in a crime for which no one was held accountable.

The media and political push to blame the victims is particularly surreal when compared to the attitude of the state towards the real criminals. The state Congress decided yesterday--three weeks after the crime--to withdraw immunity for the mayor, José Luis Abarca. It's not even clear if the federal government has issued an arrest order for him despite his obvious involvement in the crime from the outset.

Now Abarca is long gone,  on the lam and with a 21-day lead on police who apparently have little interest in capturing him. One can't help but doubt that justice will prevail.

Traitors, Tattlers, Tourists and Terror

Frontera NorteSur September 12, 2012

Special Report

As the administration of Mexican President Felipe Calderon enters its final weeks, parts of Mexico remain awash in blood from the so-called narco war. And Mexico’s old beach  resort of Acapulco is among the most violent places. Practically on a daily basis, executions, shoot-outs and the discovery of dismembered bodies disturb the social peace.

The state of Guerrero’s biggest city, Acapulco is a hub of violence that extends into the countryside and reverberates back into the Pacific port city.

“The corridor of the Costa Grande of the state, from Acapulco to the municipality of La Union that borders the state of Michoacan, has been a constant news item because of the criminal acts that are now common in the zone,” recently wrote a reporter for the Guerrero daily El Sur.

In a possible retaliation for the dumping of 17 murdered men in La Union late last month, the bodies of 16 tortured men were found September 10 in a truck parked near police installations up the highway in the rural municipality of Coyuca de Catalan.

Signed by La Familia Michoacana, accompanying messages were directed against the rival Knights Templar; both organizations have common roots in the neighboring state of Michoacan. At least 11 of the earlier victims were identified as residents of Michoacan.

In Acapulco, press accounts report that at least 50 people were murdered from August 24 to September 10. Official numbers released by the Guerrero state government during the first week of September reported that 797 gangland-style homicides were recorded in Acapulco since the commencement of the government’s Operation Safe Guerrero anti-crime campaign in October 2011. Read more. 

Mexican Police Arrest 12 Drug Traffickers

Thursday, September 6 2012 - Borderland Beat 

Twelve suspected Cartel Independiente de Acapulco members wanted for the killings of at least 18 people in the southern Mexican state of Guerrero were arrested, state officials said Thursday.


Jose Alberto Quiroz Perez, one of the cartel's suspected bosses, was among those captured, the Guerrero Public Safety Secretariat said.

Quiroz allegedly was in charge of merging the gangs left leaderless by the arrests of the bosses of the La Barredora drug trafficking organization.

La Barredora fought the Cartel Independiente de Acapulco for control of drug sales, kidnappings and extortion rackets in Acapulco, a resort city on Mexico's Pacific coast.

The two gangs were formed after the break-up of the organization led by Edgar Valdez Villarreal, who was arrested by the Federal Police on Aug. 30, 2010.

The arrest of Valdez Villarreal, known as "La Barbie," unleashed a war for control of Acapulco, one of Mexico's top tourist destinations, sending the crime rate soaring in the port city.

Quiroz Perez and his associates kidnapped members of rival gangs, murdered them and dumped their bodies in public areas along with threatening messages, the secretariat said.

The Cartel Independiente de Acapulco is suspected of being behind extortion rackets targeting businesses in Acapulco. Read more. 

Attack Kills Four in Acapulco

NY Times: Gunmen burst into a house in Acapulco late Tuesday night, killing four people — including a pregnant woman and a 3-year-old girl — and wounding one person, Mexican authorities said. The attack appeared to be the work of organized criminals, according to an official from the state prosecutor’s office. “Acapulco has become a place with high rates of drug consumption,” said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Read more.

Four Human Heads found in Acapulco

El Universal: "Officers from the Guerrero Joint Operation found four human heads on Fallarón Avenue. The heads were left inside a tub in an abandoned pickup truck.

According to the police report, an emergency call reported an abandoned grey Durango at 7:30 on Thursday. The human remains were found inside.

Upon arriving at the scene, officers found the vehicle and a tub inside that held four human heads, which were covered in plastic.

The bodies of the victims have not yet been located by the authorities.

Soldiers from the Mexican Army and federal and local police agents set up a vehicle revision checkpoint." Spanish original


Translation: Mikael Rojas, Americas Program

Drug War and Mexico Economy: Acapulco's Drug Gangs Curb Oceanfront Condo Sales: Mortgages

San Francisco Chronicle- Sare Holding SAB, the builder offering $1.4 million condominiums on the Pacific coast beach of Acapulco, is struggling to sustain sales and share prices amid increasing bloodshed from Mexican drug cartels.

Revenue in Acapulco, Sare's one-time biggest market, dried up completely in the fourth quarter, dragging full-year home sales in the city down 54 percent to 330.2 million pesos ($26 million), according to a Feb. 27 report and additional figures provided by the company. Security concerns were among the biggest obstacles to growth, with its home sales nationwide plunging 90 percent, the company said.

With the Mexican mortgage industry struggling to recover from an economic contraction three years ago, Acapulco's gangland killings are exacerbating the slump in a city already losing its luster to resorts in the Mexican Caribbean. Violence intensified last year as cartels jockeyed for control of cocaine shipment routes to the U.S.

Consumers "have the security issue on their minds," said Jorge Placid" read more

Mexico Drug War Bloodies Areas Thought Safe

NYTimes.com: "The Mexican drug war that has largely been defined by violence along the border is intensifying in interior and southern areas once thought clear of the carnage, broadening a conflict that has already overwhelmed the authorities and dispirited the public, according to analysts and new government data." read more

Mexico Drug War Bloodshed; 47,512 drug war deaths during during Calderon's presidency

MexicoBlog note: The statistics for 2011, as noted by El Universal, only include through September. If the average rate of 4,301 deaths per quarter continued, the total for all twelve months of 2011 would be 17,294. This would put the five year total at 51,816. The official total for 2010 was 15,273. That would mean a 13.3% increase in deaths in 2011 over 2010.

El Universal: The Mexico Attorney General Office released statistics today on the number of deaths related to "presumed criminal rivalries" from December 2006 to September 2011. The total given is 47,512. The breakdown is as follows: in

• December 2006 - 62 
• 2007 - 2,826
• 2008 - 6,858
• 2009 - 9,614
• 2010 - 15,273
• 2011 - 12,903 (through September)

While the Attorney Generals Office states that there has been an 11% decline in deaths from 2010 to 2011, the 2011 data only includes up until September. 

For the nine months of 2011, the states with the highest number of deaths were Chihuahua (2,276), Guerrero (1,533), Tamaulipas (1,153), Sinaloa (1,100), Veracruz (538), Baja California (250).

The municipalities with the highest number of deaths were Ciudad Juarez (1,206), Acapulco (795), Monterrey (399), Culiacan (365), San Fernando (292), Tijuana (183) and Veracruz city (155). Spanish original

Mexico Drug War: Days of the dead

From Australia, a thorough, well-written, and appalling look at the horrors of the drug war in Acapulco and Mexico.

Sydney Morning Herald: "Mexico's drug wars are crippling the country. Chief Correspondent for the Sydney Morning Herald, Paul McGeough, reports from Acapulco." read more

Mexico Drug War: Gunmen set fire to two passenger busses in Guerrero

Milenio: Acapulco • A group of armed men set fire to two passenger buses belonging to the company "Acabus", which serves residents of the residential complex "Luis Donaldo Colosi." A message left at the scene warned the carrier that it had 24 hours to cease serving the area. Spanish original

Collateral Damage: Mexico's war on drugs blights resort of Acapulco

A look at the impact of the drug war in Acapulco on everyday life.

The Guardian: "Acapulco's bay sparkled and the big hotels that line the beach glinted in the sunlight in the view from Marino Casiano's tiny flat high in the hills above the resort.

... But life scraping by on the edge of the tourism economy is now also shrouded in the personal tragedies, pervasive fear, and additional financial woes associated with one of the major fronts in Mexico's drug wars." read more

Drug War: Mexico Captures 'Leader' of Independent Cartel of Acapulco

InSight Crime: "Mexico announced the capture of Gilberto Morales Castrejon, alias “Commander Gil,” the alleged leader of the Independent Cartel of Acapulco." read more

Mexico’s changing drug war: Shifting sands

An overview of shifts in the levels of drug war violence across Mexico during 2011.  Government spokesmen and outside critics offer differing explanations of why violence in decreasing in some places, like Ciudada Juarez, while increasing eleswhere.  A state by state map of levels and changes in those levels accompanies this article from the British newspaper, the Guardian. 

The Economist: "Since 2006, when Mexico’s president,  Felipe Calderón, ... launched  his war on the drug cartels... each year the number of deaths has risen, most of them concentrated in a handful of cities. But this year both those tendencies look as if they have started to change. The annual death toll seems to have plateaued at around 12,000. Hotspots have cooled, only for violence to invade places previously considered safe.

Ciudad Juárez, in Chihuahua state and on the border with Texas, is the most striking example of this... The turnaround is the fruit of better co-operation between the municipal, state and federal branches of government, according to Héctor Murguía, Juárez’s mayor.

... Others are sceptical about the relevance of the government in reducing the violence in places such as Juárez and Tijuana. In both cities ...  the dip in violence suggests that the powerful Sinaloa “cartel” has at last beaten or reached an accommodation with its rivals, believes David Shirk, head of the Trans-Border Institute at the University of San Diego. ... Some of the (police) busts may be thanks to rival cartels’ tip-offs. “The government is an instrument that contributes—but whose hand is on the instrument?” asks Mr Shirk.

...Though Sinaloa’s expansion may have slowed the violence in Juárez and Tijuana, elsewhere it has stirred it up (in Monterrey, Acapulco and Veracruz)... violence in places such as (Monterrey,) Nuevo León “suggests that what has happened in Juárez can happen anywhere in Mexico,” Mr Shirk says." read more

Mexico Drug War: In Acapulco, it's mayhem by the beach | Reuters

A detailed look at the damage the drug war is doing in Acapulco

Reuters: "As Mexico's drug war grinds on, killings in Acapulco have almost tripled this year to nearly 900, making the Pacific resort one of the most violent cities in the world and the second-deadliest in the country. " read more

Drug War: Mexico arrests 'Barredora drug cartel leader'

Al Jazeera English: "Mexican police have arrested the alleged leader of the La Barredora drug cartel, which is believed to be partly responsible for the recent upswing in abductions and murders in the resort city of Acapulco.

Under heavy security, police showed Victor Manuel Rivera Galiana, known as "Victor, El Gordo" (Victor, the Fat Man), to journalists at a Mexico City news conference. Ramon Eduardo Pequeno, a federal police official, said that Rivera Galiana, who was arrested on Friday, was one of three founders of La Barredora." read more

Mexico Drug War: Data Shows Declining Violence in Guerrero Due to Military Operation

A side note: the Mexican government has implied that the Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity is in danger of being coopted by political parties. This article shows that Calderon is trying to coopt the Peace Movement. The cry that he used in his speech in Acapulco, "You are not alone!" is from the Movement, called out to victims of the drug war when they tell their stories. The Movement's Caravan to the South was in Acapulco on Sept. 10, and many victims testified of their losses and pain.

Justice in Mexico: "18 days after a military operation called Coordinated Operation for a Secure Guerrero (Operación Cordinado Guerrero Seguro) was launched on October 6 to control the escalating violence in the resort city of Acapulco, murder rates have declined 42% said Mexican President Felipe Calderón at the inauguration of a Guerrero mining convention.

According to data provided by the federal government’s Department of Public Security (Secretaría de Seguridad Pública, SSP), homicides declined from 4.2 in a day to between 2.4 and zero on certain days. The increasing cartel violence reported in Acapulco, Guerrero and the state of Veracruz forced federal authorities to recently launch a number of military actions and clean up the state and local police offices.

... “You are not alone; your problems are our problems,” concluded Calderón to the residents of Acapulco." read more

Drug War Bloodshed: Female 'Assassin Boss' Arrested with 2 Severed Heads in Acapulco, Mexico

InSight Crime: "Police in the Mexican resort city of Acapulco said they captured the 19-year-old female leader of a local hit squad, while she was in the act of leaving a gruesome “narco-message” for rivals." read more

MexicoBlog Editorial: Reflections on the Caravan to the South of the Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity

A U.S. friend recently wrote in response to seeing the photo album of the Caravan to the South of Mexico organized by the Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity, led by the poet and social critic, Javier Sicilia. He had a number of questions about the Caravan and its outcomes: Do you think the tour achieved what it wanted to achieve? Do you think the tour had any affect on the Government? Did the Government acknowledge the tour at all? Here is our response: 

Dear Friend,

I thank you for your questions. They give me an opportunity to organize and reflect on my own observations and learnings from my experience with the Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity and its September Caravan to the South of Mexico.

The primary intent of the Caravan to the South, as I experienced and observed it along the way, was to expand the Movement, making it truly national in scope by connecting it with local organizations throughout the south of Mexico. Together with the prevous Caravan to the North in June, it was weaving a web of connections and activist alliances across all of Mexico, something that I understand to be rare in the country.

The Caravan to the North, which I didn't go on, was more focused on the destruction done by the drug war, since that is more concentrated in the north. It became known as "the Caravan of Consolation," because the testimony of victims, people who had lost family in the drug war, became the central dynamic of its rallies. Also, there are active drug war opposition groups in Ciudad Juarez and there were--and continue to be--differences over goals and strategy between these more militant groups and the Sicilia Movement. The Juarez group, whose city has been most brutally affected by the war and the Mexican army and federal police, want both forces withdrawn, which is now actually happening.

Groups with other agendas attached themselves to the Caravan from its beginning. For example, for over two years, the Mexican Electricans Union in Mexico City has been protesting Calderon's take-over of the government-run electric company in the center of the city, with plans to privatize it. The union had representatives on the northern Caravan and on the southern one. There was a big group present in the Zocalo square when we returned to Mexico City. 

The green and yellow flags are those of the Electricians Union.

A big question for the Movement has been how to balance the focus on the drug war--especially on the victims, including Sicilia himself, who are the major emotional force driving the Movement--while expanding and welcoming other groups protesting other aspects of Mexican government corruption, impunity and abuse of rights. Sicilia places the anti-drug war movement in this larger context of the government's failure to fulfill its responsibility to protect its citizens. For example, the Movement is calling for a citizen focused "public security law" in place of the miltary oriented one that Calderon has presented to Congress and which is currently being debated there.

Sicilia is a poet, Christian mystic and pacifist, influenced by Gandhi, who seeks to confront his opponents with the truth spoken in love. He sees the person and teachings of Jesus as a model, referring often to the words of Jesus about loving one's enemies. He literally embraces and kisses government representatives as well as compañeros in the Movement. Therefore, he has sought and attended a series of "dialogue" meetings with Calderon and other government leaders to address the security law, create a truth commission to investigate drug war deaths (which almost totally go without real investigation), gain compensation and support for victims and other goals .

Javier Sicilia

However, in the last dialogue meeting, Friday. Oct. 14, Calderon basically stonewalled the Movement people, saying that he is sticking to his guns, literally, and rejecting creation of a truth commission. Instead, Calderon recently unilaterally announced the creation of a Social Care Office for Victims of Crime to "unite and structure all the actions currently being taken on behalf of the victims." The Movement questions whether this will be any more effective than the already ineffective government efforts. I don't know, as of now, how the Movement will proceed regarding further dialogues.

As for government awareness of the Caravan, we were accompanied throughout the trip by federal police. State and local police accompanied the Caravan through their respective jurisdictions. However, interestingly, the federales and state police disappeared in Tabasco and Sicilia's car was actually accosted by masked men near Villahermosa. The press was present and began filming them, so they disappeared without incident. Sicilia notified the federal government and the next day, going through Veracruz, there were federales all over the place.

On the Caravan to the South, each stop was organized by local groups. They organized the marches and rallys. They also provided food--lots of tortas (sandwiches of ham and American cheese and mayonaise on rolls), tamales of various kinds--some exceptionally delicious, frijoles (beans) and lots of coffee, fresh fruit and water. They also provided a place to sleep, usually the floor of an auditorium, community center, church or school, with toilet facilities of various levels of serviceabililty.

These local groups have a great variety of political purposes, depending on the local situation. For example, in Acapulco, where there are many deaths from the cartels, there were local "victims," relatives of people killed or missing, who spoke. But there were also indigenous people protesting seizures of their land, a long-standing issue in Mexico.

Indigenous group from the mountains of Guererro State

In Xalapa, Veracruz, there have also been many deaths due to the drug war, so that was the focus.

Pretty much everywhere, there were protests against local and state government corruption, either as part of the drug war or in general, as in Villahermosa, Tabasco State. In Villahermosa, there was also an indigenous group protesting a dam that had caused flooding of their lands. In Tuxtla Gutierrez, Chiapas, another indigenous group was protesting a Canadian factory that processes gypsum and pollutes their village with its powder. 

"We are up to the mother (we've had it) with those that inundate us!"

In Oaxaca and Chiapas, where there has been little direct drug war mayhem, indigenous groups were predominant. Sicilia has been carrying on a public exchange of letters with Subcomandante Marcos of the Zapatistas in Chiapas about their differing views of political reform--pacifist vs. militant. So he and other Movement representatives sought and obtained a meeting with the Zapatistas (Subcomandante Marcos did not attend) and with a pacifist group that suppports the Zapatista reforms, called "the Abejas," the Bees, forty-five of whose members had been massacred in Acteal in 1997. 

"The war in Chiapas isn't against the narco, it is against the indigenous Zapatista pueblos"

Near the Guatemala border, migrant support groups were predominant. One in Ixtepec, Oaxaca, in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, led by Father Alejandro Solalinde, is frequently written about in the U.S. press. We spent the night hosted by the shelter there.

Migrant Shelter of Ixtepec

So just about every grassroots issue in southern Mexico was represented. One group, I forget where, was carrying red communist flags with the hammer and sickle. It was quite an education to see all this diversity of political movements. 

Che Guevara and Emiliano Zapata live!

Evidently, all of them were attracted to the Caravan because they see it--and the charismatic power of Javier Sicilia's leadership and consequent media attention--as a means to bring visibility to their causes, both in their local press and nationally. There was much coverage in the local press of each state and more than a hundred press on the Caravan buses. 

These journalists were mostly from the "alternative" and "independent" media, twenty-somethings from Mexico, other Latin American countries, the U.S. and Europe. They, as well as many of the younger compañeros, wore long hair, earrings, tatoos and sandals. I actually felt right at home, as if  I were back in the sixties protesting for civil rights or against the Vietnam War. 

Drug War: Mexican police nab Acapulco drug boss

Monsters and Critics: "Mexico City - Mexican police Tuesday captured the leader of one of Acapulco's drug gangs, whose power struggle has transformed the resort city into a battleground in Mexico's drug war. Cristian Arturo Hernandez Tarin was arrested along with three other members of the La Barredora gang, federal police said." read more