Frontera NorteSur July 2003

Cop or Killer? A Citizen's Guide

After acknowledging that most residents of Nuevo Laredo have seen armed men dressed in black on the streets of their city and were unable to decide if the paramilitaries were law enforcement or cartel enforcers, the Nuevo Laredo newspaper El Mañana created a list of each groups' primary characteristics to aid people in distinguishing the cops from the killers. 

    Vehicles

Good guys: Red Suburbans, white vans, Excursions, Caravans, Lobos (Ford F150s), Cherokees, gray and white pickup trucks, white Sentras and Cavaliers. The sides of these vehicles usually have the name of a government agency on them. 

Criminals: Expeditions, Cherokees, Suburbans, Lobos, Tahoes, BMWs, Excursions, Explorers, Navigators. They also drive other sorts of luxury cars and all their vehicles usually have tinted windows. 

    Weapons

Good guys: 9mm pistols, AR-15s and other long-arm weapons and pistols. 

Criminals: AK-47s, AR-15s, grenades and, in some cases, more powerful military weapons. 

    Uniforms

Good guys: During operations they wear black or blue uniforms with AFI (Agencia Federal de Investigaciones) or PME (Policía Ministerial del Estado) insignia on them. In violation of the law, they also at times cover their faces with ski masks during raids. 

Criminals: They use the same uniforms and insignia as law enforcement although some have the names and/or insignias of organizations that no longer exist like the PJF (Policía Federal Judicial) and PJE (Policía Judicial del Estado). 

    ID Cards

Good guys: When dressed in civilian clothes they should be wearing badges and ID in plain view. 

Criminals: They usually carry a sidearm with no visible badges or IDs. If they have an ID it is usually a fake. 

    Tactics

Good guys: Break into homes without search or arrest warrants or any official papers. 

Criminals: Their tactics are similar to those of the police and involve the use of the same crime-fighting techniques. 

    Work hours

Good guys: They can be found in any part of the city, at any hour of the day, in caravans of five to ten vehicles. 

Criminals: Usually go around the in the late evening or during the early morning hours. They hide in dark, isolated places. 

Source: El Mañana (Nuevo Laredo), June 30, 2003. Article by Ricardo Flores. 

Los Zetas: Armed Branch of Gulf Cartel Extorts Nuevo Laredo Businesses and Underworld

According to an article in the Nuevo Laredo newspaper El Mañana, on Wednesday, June 11, 2003, Mexico's Federal Attorney General's Office (Procuraduría General de la República, PGR) blamed a group known as Los Zetas for the majority of recent murders along the Nuevo León-Tamaulipas border with the US. The PGR has also stated that Los Zetas were originally the Gulf Cartel's armed branch or enforcers. However, El Mañana has drawn together evidence that suggests that the role of Los Zetas is expanding and that they are now functioning as a mafia dedicated to extorting other underworld enterprises and legitimate businesses. 

After running an article about nine men that were found tortured and murdered near the Nuevo León border with the US on April 2, 2003, El Mañana began receiving calls from people whose businesses and livelihoods were being disrupted by Los Zetas. One woman that called the newspaper said that she was the head of an area massage parlor and that Los Zetas had threatened to begin killing the women that worked for her unless she paid them protection money. "They ask for two thousand dollars up front and one thousand per month after that," she said. It should be noted that along the Mexican border, massage parlors are frequently used as a cover for prostitution.

Drug and human traffickers and contraband smugglers are also being extorted by Los Zeta, according to El Mañana. Previously, these groups paid protection money to local, state and federal officials but Los Zetas have since taken over as recipients of the funds. 

A local attorney, who wanted to remain anonymous, told El Mañana that Los Zetas warned law enforcement officials to stay out of their way as they are displaced. 

Why the high level of fear? The PGR says Los Zetas are military deserters and, in previous El Mañana articles, the men have been described as being very heavily armed. A January 2003 article in the Cd. Juárez newspaper El Diario stated that the men are former special-forces soldiers that received training in the US. 

Besides intimidating and extorting members of various parts of the border underworld, Los Zetas are allegedly extorting car dealers and junk-shop owners. In May, in one used-car market where people try to sell a few cars at a time, Los Zetas asked the owners for money, and stole some cars and trucks. One man that was there at the time said the police were called but never arrived to investigate, according to El Mañana.

Los Zetas have also gone to used-car lots and extorted individual owners. They take between five and ten thousand dollars or vehicles. Some car lots have closed down because of pressure from Los Zetas. 

The most recent complaint that has arrived at El Mañana is that junkyard owners are also being extorted. They too have called the police but no one responds to help them. Like the car lots, the junkyards are also closing down. 

Some police officers have told El Mañana that, knowing the fear that Los Zetas instill in area residents, other criminal elements may have decided to imitate them to extort area businesses. 

Source: El Mañana (Nuevo Laredo), June 16, 2003. Article by Renato Ventura. 

2003 Homicide Statistics: Baja California & Sinaloa

Since the beginning of 2003, Baja California has had 181 murders while Sinaloa, another state on the Gulf of California, has seen 219. In both states, the large majority of the crimes have been attributed to drug-related violence. 

Baja California

Compared to this point last year, the number of homicides in BC is about the same, according to an article in the Ciudad Juárez newspaper El Diario. Of the 181 killings, 111 took place in Tijuana, 55 in Mexicali and 15 in Ensenada. This is an average of 6.5 murders per week in BC. 

A citizen advisor to Mexicali's Department of Public Safety, Ignacio Avilés Bustillos, said that it is worrisome that state officials try to ignore BC's violence by stating that only people in the drug world are victims. 

Sinaloa

Oscar Fidel González, Sinaloa's Attorney General, estimates that approximately 80% of the people murdered in his state were killed because of their relationship to drug trafficking. Drug-related killings commonly involve the use of high-power, automatic weapons, he said. Fidel also stated that because of their economic resources, those responsible for such crimes have the means necessary to quickly leave Sinaloa. 

Law enforcement officials in Sinaloa believe that the majority of the state's homicides are related to fights between groups of narcotraffickers that have sprung up without much notice in the shadows of the Tijuana and Juárez cartels. 

In Sinaloa, so far in 2003, 71 people were murdered in Culiacán, 48 in Mazatlán and 21 in Ahome. 

Source: El Diario (Cd. Juárez), June 15, 2003. SUN article by Rosa María Méndez.

Young Woman's Body Identified near Chihuahua City, Others Missing

The body of a young woman found Monday, June 23, 2003 near the highway between Chihuahua City and Cuauhtémoc has been identified as that of María Teresa Araiza Hernández, age 19. 

Araiza's body was found by state police officers in a ditch or stream bed near the highway. The body was badly decomposed and partially undressed. 

Despite a relatively long absence from her home, Araiza was never reported as missing. A relative, Fermín Rocha, said that Araiza lived with her mother but would often leave home for days at a time without telling anyone where she went. 

On Wednesday, June 25, police were questioning a man they said was Araiza's boyfriend, Ramiro Domínguez. According to state officials, a poem found in Araiza's possession was dedicated to someone named Ramiro. 

Currently, there are at least nine young woman reported missing from Chihuahua City. Six of them disappeared in 2000 or 2001. At least three have disappeared in 2003. 

Neyra Azucena Cervantes, age 20, has been missing since May 13, 2003. Karen Olivia Avila Herrera, age 14, has been missing since February 4, 2003. Claudia Judith Urías Bethaud (no age available) has not been since March 9, 2003. 

Source: El Norte (Cd. Juárez), June 26, 2003. Article by Edgar Prado Calahorra. 

Start Your Engines: Half of Juárez Traffic Cops Transferred to Different Work

On June 9, 2003, 197 Ciudad Juárez traffic officers were incorporated into the city police force. This leaves 183 traffic officers--less than one half of the original amount--to patrol a city of at least 1.2 million inhabitants and respond to the city's 1,500 monthly traffic accidents.  

Whereas 70 traffic officers per shift previously patrolled Cd. Juárez streets, Francisco Reza Pacheco, the director of Traffic, says that only 40 officers will now be on the streets at any one time. 

On June 9, after the transfers had gone into effect, Traffic had only 20 officers on the east side of the city. This number was not enough to respond to the vehicular accidents in the area so administrative and investigative staff had to leave their offices and assist with the accidents, Reza said. 

According to the Cd. Juárez newspaper, officials in Traffic and the city police department feel that the two units are being combined as they were from 1992 to1995.

Ramón Domínguez Perea, the city's director of public safety, said that he ordered the transfer so that the city can be better policed. 

A related article in Cd. Juarez's El Norte newspaper noted that there were approximately 1,500 traffic accidents throughout the city in the month of May, 2003.  Of the total number of accidents, Traffic found that 216 were alcohol related. Thirteen people died in the 1,5000 wrecks and 578 were injured. 

Sources: El Diario, June 10, 2003. Article by Javier Saucedo Alacalá.
El Norte, June 9, 2003. Article by Angel Giner.