WebA 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 The larger currents of the international drug trade engulfing these Zacatecan communities may not be clear to their residents, but the impact is inescapable. And at the same time, Patrn Snchez rose up within the ranks of the Beltrn Leyva organization, taking full command of the group after Hctor Beltrn Leyva was arrested in 2014, thus expanding his personal influence beyond Nayarit into parts of Sinaloa, Jalisco, Colima and Guerrero. presentation-ready copies of Toronto Star content for distribution In August 2019, just a month before Veytias final sentencing, an indictment was filed in the same Court of the Eastern District of New York accusing Cienfuegos of also collaborating with Nayarits H-2 cartel. According to journalist Laura Snchez Ley, Veytia had turned informant in order to secure a shorter jail sentence. 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. By FABIOLA SNCHEZ November 4, 2021. pic.twitter.com/sLXtMeUTHk. The operation was a joint effort between Veytias police forces and the Navy, a surprising partnership given previous events. The shootout left eight presumed drug cartel members and one policeman dead. On 9 February, Patrn Snchez and seven of his men were killed in a joint operation in suburban Tepic. This Tuesday, a series of clashes between presumed hitmen and agents of different security corporations in Tepic, in the Valparasos mayor could not confirm or deny figures given by some residents that were double that. The gunfight took place at a crossroads near Ruiz in the Pacific coast state of Nayarit, some The legacy of this political history and the facts of geography together define Nayarits place in the modern Mexican drug trade. 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. It sits halfway up Mexicos Pacific coast, sandwiched between Sinaloa to the north and Jalisco to the south, while its mountainous interior also borders Durango and Zacatecas. Outbursts of gunfire are common. An employee who answered the phone at the hotel said the shooting occurred on the beach near the facility. This copy is for your personal non-commercial use only. He was the very image of a Mexican lawman, with a round, jowly face and thick mustache, a pistol shoved into his belt. 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. Zacatecas, once dominated by the old Zetas cartel, has been the scene of turf battles between a number of cartels. We do not publish all comments, and we do not publish comments immediately. The H-2 Cartel was not some minor group that somehow managed to bribe the countrys top security official. WebIt is 10:00 am on Saturday, March 20, and in the tourist area of Rincn de Guayabitos, Nayarit, submachine guns are thundering. Lpez Obradors party just won the governorship in Zacatecas, but it remains to be seen if coordination with federal authorities will improve. And these practices were so profitable that officials at the heart of President Pea Nietos PRI federal governmentindeed, the commander-in-chief of the same army prosecuting Mexicos war on drug traffickingdecided to get in on the action themselves and take their own cut of the reward. Cartel map of Mexico. WebTradues em contexto de "Culiacn, Sinaloa, Mxico" en portugus-ingls da Reverso Context : nibus para Culiacn, Sinaloa, Mxico Mike Sington, a guest at the Hyatt Ziva Riviera Cancun, wrote in his Twitter account that "Guests are telling me they were playing volleyball on the beach, gunman approached firing gun. The public safety department in Zacatecas state said the policemens bodies were found Wednesday morning in the state capital, also known as Zacatecas. But there is more to the story. The brothers accused El Chapo of betrayal, and this triggered a bloody vendetta. Montes de Oca said one of the men targeted in the attack fled into one of the hotels before dying. The lack of control that the country is Yet the fact of General Cienfuegos recent release is testament to the difficulties of obtaining real justice for the people of Nayarit. Residents said he had been helping them get electricity back after an armed group cut the power to some ranches. It was this indictment that led to the Cienfuegos arrest in the United States and revealed his place in the Nayarit corruption story. 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. hide caption. 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. Alleged drug dealers of the Sinaloa cartel are escorted by policemen in Mexico City following their arrests earlier this year. Bernandino Hernandez/AP The difference between a state being a venue for drug production, trafficking, and conflicts between rival cartels, and one in which the cartels have actually taken control of the local authorities (or in which the authorities have in fact become narcos themselves), is an inherently political one. The next morning, a joint force of marines and Veytias officers killed the Beltrn Leyva organizations second-in-command, Daniel Isaac Silva Grate (codenamed H-9), in an ambush in another part of Tepic. And the killing continued the next day. This illicit trade was dominated by Sinaloans, although in many cases they operated from Guadalajara, the state capital of Jalisco. Nor were skirmishes between rival traffickers, and the killing of state officials on the orders of organized crime, unheard of in the state. What makes Zacatecas worth fighting for is its location. hide caption. It sits halfway up Mexicos Pacific coast, sandwiched between Sinaloa to the north and Jalisco to the south, while its mountainous interior also borders Durango and Zacatecas. Far from a law enforcement hero, however, Edgar Veytia was in fact the very picture of a miscreant. The authorities didnt arrive until the next day. Mexico's security secretary, Alfonso Durazo, said the fighting began when about 30 National Guard and army troops patrolling the city were fired on from a house occupied by Ovidio Guzmn Lpez, who is wanted in the U.S. on drug trafficking charges. Indeed, Nayarit is Mexicos second biggest exporter of mangoes, and primary producer of tobacco. But shootings like this have become common as the Sinaloa cartel fights members of the Beltran-Leyva organization for control of Tepic. The cartel is now splintered into small, competing gangs. 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. 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. hide caption. Semipresencial en Aguascalientes, Maestra a distancia en Actividad Fsica y Salud, Maestra a distancia en Energas Renovables, Descubre un completo Directorio de Centros de Formacin, Mejore su italiano con solo 15 minutos al da. However mutually beneficial the relationships had been, in 2017 the alliance between Patrn Snchez, Veytia, Sandoval and Cienfuegos fell apart in truly spectacular fashion. 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 The difference between a state being a venue for drug production, trafficking, and conflicts between rival cartels, and one in which the cartels have actually taken control of the local authorities (or in which the authorities have in fact become narcos themselves), is an inherently political one. Nayarits hugely important agricultural sector has made the state a natural stronghold of the PRI, and in particular of PRI strongmen of a particularly brash and populist bent; only two non-PRI governors have ever run the state (once between 1999-2005, while in 2017 the state flipped to current president Lpez Obradors insurgent MORENA party), while the PRIs stranglehold on municipal-level politics has been even more complete. The CJNG imposed its control over Tepics local, small-time drug dealers by shooting up any bar or nightclub in which they were rumored to work, killing and injuring scores of innocent civilians in the process. Up until May 2019, 130 of the latter had been found buried in 29 mass graves. The state prosecutors office said the shop specialized in repairing motorcycles. Carlos Joaquin said the commando wore ski masks and arrived by boat at the beach. 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. 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. The north-central Mexican state holds strategic importance for drugs being shipped to the United States. With the death of H2, 107 have now been arrested or killed. [47] Sandovalor simply el Roberto, as he is still known in Nayarit began his political career under the patronage of PRI state governor Ney Gonzlez (2005-2011). He was rumored to have used his bus franchise to smuggle marihuana, as well as heroin processed in laboratories that he operated in Nayarits mountains. "People were yelling, 'They're shooting! In less than eight years, he went from self-proclaimed rags to being one of Nayarits richest men, or, to use a measure more in keeping with his cowboy image, from having two horses, [to], 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. Soon Veytia expanded into trafficking drugs himself. Burning vehicles littered the streets as the gunmen faced off against the National Guard, army and police. document.getElementById("ak_js_1").setAttribute("value",(new Date()).getTime()); All Rights Reserved The Yucatan Times 2020, Merida number one in the preference for Easter vacations, US Ambassador Ken Salazar says the USMCA achieved Teslas investment in Mexico, Lpez Obrador accuses opponents of exaggerating minister Yasmn Esquivels case, German circus replaces wild animals with holograms, Maya indigenous tourist guide speaks 4 languages fluidly, Battle for water in Yucatan: there are big challenges to ensure the supply, Rhythmic gymnastics team will compete in Yucatan Cup, Worlds second-largest blue hole found off the Yucatan Peninsula shores, Cine Mvil ToTo: dates and locations in Yucatn. Rather, it was an organization that not only controlled drug trafficking in Nayarit between 2011 and 2017, but also established close ties with much of the states political elite. 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. Thanks for everything. Zacatecas had it then too as cartels battled for control, but it was overshadowed. Ramon Perez, a retired teacher, says the governor did the right thing in closing the schools. Heavily armed gunmen went on a shooting rampage through the city of Culiacn, the capital of Sinaloa state on Mexico's Pacific coast, battling security forces after authorities attempted to arrest a son of imprisoned drug lord Joaqun "El Chapo" Guzmn. just terrible.cowards! But this fall, the arrest of Mexicos former secretary of defense, General Salvador Cienfuegos Zepeda, dragged this small and unassuming state into the spotlight. Vean el tipo de armas que se estn usando. WebMexican narcos' fascination with exotic animals was on display this week after a spider monkey dressed up as a drug gang mascot was killed in a shootout, a 450-pound tiger For years, attention focused on violence along Mexicos northern border in cities like Tijuana, Ciudad Juarez and Nuevo Laredo. Bullets ripped through the children's play area at the adjacent Burger King. 2011 was even bloodier, with 456 murders recorded across the state. Alleged drug dealers of the Sinaloa cartel are escorted by policemen in Mexico City following their arrests earlier this year. Last month, a priest was killed in crossfire on the highway. Rival cartels often kill another gang's street-level dealers in Mexico to eliminate competition and ensure their drugs are sold first. 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. Prosecutors said Friday they have arrested a suspect in that killing. 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. 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. Attacks on police have become routine in Mexico as the countrys travails with drug cartels and organised crime drag on and the murder rate remains stubbornly high. Star Newspapers Limited and/or its licensors. [4] Nathaniel Morris, Now the Youngsters are Masters of the Opium Harvest: Opium, Agriculture and Indigenous Identity in the Sierra of Nayarit, NORIA Research, 20 September 2020 [https://www.noria-research.com/the-youngsters-are-masters-of-opium/] the victims were just trying to make a living, working in what was available. 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. He also said one person suffered non-life-threatening injuries in the attack, but authorities could not determine whether that person was a hotel employee or a guest because they were still undergoing medical treatment. hide caption. WebMexico: The candidate for mayor of Morolen is killed. The shootings were the latest chapter in drug gang violence that has sullied the reputation of Mexico's Caribbean coast as a once-tranquil oasis. 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 Further inland is Tepic, the states slightly gritty capital of 330,000, located in an altiplano zone of cane fields and coffee orchards towered over by huge volcanoes. The bullet-ridden bodies of the cartel members were discovered in the north-central state of Zacatecas. His book Soldiers, Saints, and Shamans: Indigenous Communities and the Revolutionary State in Mexico's Gran Nayar, 1910-1940 was published in 2020. Everyone ran from beach and swimming pools. For many, Cienfuegos arrest and subsequent release is a conspicuous symbol of the intrinsic corruption that plagues the militarized drug war strategy. Zacatecas 746 murders in the first half of the year, compared to 1,065 for all of 2020, give it the highest murder rate per 100,000 residents in the country through June, according to the Mexican government. The dramatic shooting attack sent tourists scrambling for cover at the resort The story of how that corruption played out in Nayarit brings into focus the interplay between military operations, political maneuvering and drug trafficking. Some 200 armed men had just looted a gas station, according to a witness, and the shooting would continue for hours as an equal number from an opposing group confronted them. Click here to receive our twice-monthly newsletter. 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. 7. Plaza Cigarrera looks like a boring strip mall in Tepic, capital of Mexico's Pacific coast state of Nayarit. There are more than 100,000 guardsmen deployed in the Mexico, plus the military, yet the violence continues apace. [1] With any case against Cienfuegos now reliant on the information available to the Mexican prosecutors officewhich, just days before Cienfuegos release, issued an arrest warrant for a former governor of Nayarit also accused of cooperation with the H-2 Cartelit would seem that the Narco-Nayarit connection has never been more worthy of serious analysis. Mexican marines run down a street after a gun battle erupted Wednesday in the Pacific resort city of Acapulco, Mexico. Eduardo Verdugo/AP He grew up a dual citizen in San Diego, California, before heading south into Mexico to begin a career of violent crime. The surge in killings comes as President Felipe Calderon is ramping up efforts to win more public support for the drug war. MEXICO CITY (AP) Authorities in northern Mexico said Wednesday they found the bodies of two abducted police officers hanging from an overpass, and the bodies of seven people shot to death in a neighboring city. Ulyses Ramirez, a cook there, says eight windows shattered but no customers were hurt. The Yucatan Times' content is protected by intellectual property rights, its re-publication, distribution, or retransmission is prohibited without the company's prior authorization. A detective who apparently was investigating the shootout and was pulled out of Valparaso for his safety was later killed. 06/26/2021. 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. But their relations with El Chapo cooled off after Alfredo Beltrn Leyva was arrested in January 2008. There was panic, said a 21-year-old man, the oldest of five siblings. The Beltrn Leyva organization were Sinaloans who had once controlled trafficking in Nayarit and several other areas of western Mexico as part of the wider Sinaloa cartel, until a violent break with El Chapo Guzmn and his allies in 2008the same year that Sandoval and Veytia assumed positions in Tepics municipal government. Comments are moderated, refer to policy for more information.Enva fotos, vdeos, notas, enlaces o informacin Todo 100% Annimo;borderlandbeat@gmail.com. Through the project Touring the Southeast. [3] Similarly, the long coastline and strategic location between Sinaloa and Jalisco that, in the nineteenth century, had made Nayarit a stronghold of the British contrabandists, by the 1960s made the state a strategically important setting for the trafficking of drugs north towards the United States. Sam Quinones has revealed that the traffickers who dominate the heroin trade in the US Midwest are all predominantly from Nayarit. ", Sington tweeted "I've never been so scared, literally shaking," before adding "I'm fine now, barricaded in my hotel room for the night, just trying to decompress.". [4] But violence related to the drug trade only began to surge in Nayarit after President Calderns 2006 declaration of war on the nations cartels. More troops would be welcome in Zacatecas, though the effectiveness of their patrols is debated. On The Trail Of Mexico's Vicious Sinaloa Cartel. Nor were skirmishes between rival traffickers, and the killing of state officials on the orders of organized crime, unheard of in the state. 7. "It's worth the effort to continue on with this fight," Calderon said. In the nearby city of Fresnillo, police later found the bullet-ridden bodies of four women and three men. permissions/licensing, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com. That same year, the Beltrn Leyvas reached a deal with Los Zetas, El Chapos chief rivals and lords of the Gulf drug routes. "With the goal of safeguarding the well-being and tranquility of Culiacn society, officials in the security Cabinet decided to suspend the actions," he said. 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. Nayarits coast is a tropical zone fringed by mangrove swamps, where fishing and commercial agriculture are the lifeblood of the local economy. Cristbal Castaeda, the public safety director for Sinaloa state, told Milenio television that people had been wounded in the firing, but gave no figures. Str/AFP/Getty Images Yet the fact of General Cienfuegos recent release is testament to the difficulties of obtaining real justice for the people of Nayarit. This allowed them, together, to institutionalize corruption, embezzlement, land-grabs and violence, as well as drug production and trafficking, in the area under their joint control. I imagine the situation at wash center at that time. The military has sent reinforcements, but killings continue across Zacatecas: a doctor here, a police officer there, a family hacked to pieces, eight killed at a party, two girls shot along with their parents. Now Zacatecans, including in the state capital of the same name, have awoken on several occasions to corpses dangling from overpasses. WebThe killings in Zacatecas came one day after prosecutors in Mexicos most violent state, Guanajuato, reported seven men were shot to death at a mechanics shop. Cartel del Golfo The Gulf Cartel and Cartel del Noreste known as Los Zetas by many people, Jones told Fox. The legacy of this political history and the facts of geography together define Nayarits place in the modern Mexican drug trade. The groups structure changed with the death of Arturo who was gunned down in a military operation on December 16, 2009 and the arrest of Carlos, the youngest brother, two weeks later. A 2014 photo of Joaqun "El Chapo" Guzmn being escorted to a helicopter in Mexico City following his capture. When they did, they found 18 bodies in San Juan Capistrano, a small community in Valparaso, Zacatecas. 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. Guests at the Hyatt Ziva Riviera Cancun posted videos and photos of tourists hiding or nervously milling in the lobby and hallways of hotels during the incident. In the third mass homicide to jolt Mexico in less than one week at least 15 people were killed in WebOn April 22, 2010, cartel lieutenant Gerardo Alvarez-Vazquez was captured on the outskirts of Mexico City; the U.S. had been offering a $2 million U.S. bounty for his arrest. Zacatecas sits between the drugs production and its consumers. expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Toronto Some people were locked in the supermarket for more than a hour. The gun battle went on for at least 20 minutes. All the businesses locked their doors, Garcia says. There were 15 days that we didnt go out for anything, said Claudina Betancourt, a nurse born in San Juan Capistrano. Murders occur daily in Fresnillo, a city that mixes the local offices of major mining companies with farmers working the bean fields. and the police showed up later and made a big show of showing upand made empty promisesy esta es acabo, Thanks for covering this. In a country that has suffered more than a decade of violence at the hands of powerful drug cartels, the situation in Zacatecas, as well as violence-plagued states like Michoacn and Tamaulipas, shows that neither the head-on drug war launched by former President Felipe Caldern in 2006, nor the softer hugs not bullets approach of current President Andrs Manuel Lpez Obrador have managed to break Mexicos cycle of violence. Newspapers Limited, 8 Spadina Avenue, 10th Floor, Toronto, ON M5V 0S8. President Andrs Manuel Lpez Obrador accused. They were members of the police force of the neighboring state of San Luis Potosi who had been reported missing hours earlier. 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. The killings in Zacatecas came one day after prosecutors in Mexicos most violent state, Guanajuato, reported seven men were shot to death at a mechanics shop. 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. Durazo did not initially specify whether authorities arrested Guzmn or let him go. The minimum tariff for the release of a loved one abducted by Veytias forces was set at 300,000 pesos (approximately $15,000 USD), although sometimes Veytia also demanded property. Montes de Oca said eight suspects in the Tulum attack had been detained in possession of firearms. One might also conjecture that Cienfuegos protection extended to Patrn Snchezs political partners in crime, too. Jose Garcia works at the taxi stand out front, hailing cabs and helping people with their shopping bags. WebA bullet-ridden sport utility vehicle was taken away after a gun battle with Mexican marines in which an alleged regional drug cartel leader was killed in Nayarit state. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. According to Mexicos naval secretariat, Juan Francisco Patrn, also known as H2, was a key figure in the Beltrn Leyva cartels operations in the states of Nayarit and Jalisco. Their activity focused on shipping cocaine from Central and South America to the United States and Europe. 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. Then, in February 2020, and apparently on the basis of evidence given by Veytia as part of a sentencing deal, the U.S. State Department indicted Sandoval, alleging he had misappropriated state assets and received bribes from narcotics trafficking organizations, including the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) [and] the Beltran Leyva Organization. On 13 November, at the same time as the Mexican government was pressing for the release of General Cienfuegos in the US, the Mexican prosecutors office issued a warrant for Sandovals arrest on charges of embezzlement, graft and corruption. His name was added to INTERPOLs red list, while Mexican President Lpez Obrador urged him to turn himself in and face justice although to date his whereabouts remain unknown.
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