1.
Mexican Drug War
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The Mexican Drug War is the Mexican theater of the United States War on Drugs, involving an ongoing low-intensity asymmetric war between the Mexican Government and various drug trafficking syndicates. Since 2006, when the Mexican military began to intervene, the principal goal has been to reduce the drug-related violence. Additionally, the Mexican government has claimed that their focus is on dismantling the powerful drug cartels, rather than on preventing drug trafficking. Mexican drug cartels now dominate the wholesale illicit drug market and in 2007 controlled 90% of the entering the United States. Arrests of key leaders, particularly in the Tijuana and Gulf cartels, has led to increasing drug violence as cartels fight for control of the trafficking routes into the United States. Analysts estimate that wholesale earnings from illicit drug sales range from $13.6 to $49.4 billion annually, by the end of Felipe Calderóns administration, the official death toll of the Mexican Drug War was at least 60,000. Estimates set the death toll above 120,000 killed by 2013, given its geographic location, Mexico has long been used as a staging and transshipment point for narcotics and contraband between Latin America and U. S. markets. Towards the end of the 1960s, Mexican narcotic smugglers started to smuggle drugs on a major scale, during the 1970s and early 1980s, Colombias Pablo Escobar was the main exporter of cocaine and dealt with organized criminal networks all over the world. By the mid-1980s, the organizations from Mexico were well-established and reliable transporters of Colombian cocaine, transporters from Mexico usually were given 35% to 50% of each cocaine shipment. This arrangement meant that organizations from Mexico became involved in the distribution, as well as the transportation of cocaine, currently, the Sinaloa Cartel and the Gulf Cartel have taken over trafficking cocaine from Colombia to the worldwide markets. The balance of power between the various Mexican cartels continually shifts as new organizations emerge and older ones weaken and collapse, a disruption in the system, such as the arrests or deaths of cartel leaders, generates bloodshed as rivals move in to exploit the power vacuum. The fighting between rival drug cartels began in earnest after the 1989 arrest of Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo, there was a lull in the fighting during the late 1990s but the violence has steadily worsened since 2000. The center-left PRI party ruled Mexico for around 70 years until 2000, during this time, drug cartels expanded their power and corruption, and anti-drug operations focused mainly on destroying marijuana and opium crops in mountainous regions. It is estimated that about 110 people died in Nuevo Laredo between January and August 2005 as a result of the fighting between the Gulf and Sinaloa cartels. The same year, there was another surge in violence in the state of Michoacán as the La Familia Michoacana drug cartel established itself, on December 11,2006, the newly elected President Felipe Calderón sent 6,500 Mexican Army soldiers to Michoacán to end drug violence there. As time passed, Calderón continued to escalate his anti-drug campaign, in there are now about 45,000 troops involved along with state. Mexico is a drug transit and producing country. It is the main supplier of cannabis and an important entry point of South American cocaine
2.
Quintana Roo
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Quintana Roo, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Quintana Roo, is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, make up the 32 federal entities of Mexico. It is divided into ten municipalities and its capital city is Chetumal and it is located in Southeastern Mexico, on the eastern part of the Yucatán Peninsula. Quintana Roo has a coastline to the east with the Caribbean Sea and it also claims territory which gives it a small border with Guatemala in the southwest of the state, although this disputed area is also claimed by Campeche. The Sian Kaan biosphere reserve is located in the state. The statewide population is expanding at a rapid rate due to the construction of hotels, many immigrants come from Yucatán, Campeche, Tabasco, and Veracruz. On February 1,2015, Quintana Roo officially adopted a new zone, Southeastern, which is five hours behind Coordinated Universal Time. Reasons cited for the change include coordination of air travel, banking operations, and more daylight hours, the area that makes up modern Quintana Roo was long part of Yucatán, sharing its history. With the Caste War of Yucatán, which started in the 1840s, the independent Maya nation of Chan Santa Cruz was based on what is now the town of Felipe Carrillo Puerto. For decades it maintained independence, having separate trade and treaty relationships with British Honduras. Quintana Roo was made a territory of Mexico by decree of President Porfirio Díaz on November 24,1902 and it was named after an early patriot of the Mexican Republic, Andrés Quintana Roo. The Mexican army succeeded in defeating most of the Maya population of the region during the 1910s, in 1915 the area was again declared to be legally part of the state of Yucatán. Quintana Roo was granted statehood within the United Mexican States on October 8,1974 and it is the Mexican Republics youngest state. According to the Köppen climate classification, much of the state has a tropical wet, the mean annual temperature is 26 °C. The hottest months are April and August where the high is 33 °C while January is coldest month with an average low of 17 °C. Extreme temperatures can range from low of 10 °C in the coldest months to 36 °C in the hottest months, Quintana Roo averages 1,300 mm of precipitation per year, which falls throughout the year, though June to October are the wetter months. Hurricanes can occasionally hit the areas during the hurricane season. The State of Quintana Roo is divided into 11 municipalities, each headed by a municipal president, Quintana Roo ranks sixth among Mexican states according to the United Nations Human Development index. The Yucatán Peninsula is one of the most forested areas of the world in terms of mass per hectare
3.
Mexico
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Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a federal republic in the southern half of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States, to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean, to the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea, and to the east by the Gulf of Mexico. Covering almost two million square kilometers, Mexico is the sixth largest country in the Americas by total area, Mexico is a federation comprising 31 states and a federal district that is also its capital and most populous city. Other metropolises include Guadalajara, Monterrey, Puebla, Toluca, Tijuana, pre-Columbian Mexico was home to many advanced Mesoamerican civilizations, such as the Olmec, Toltec, Teotihuacan, Zapotec, Maya and Aztec before first contact with Europeans. In 1521, the Spanish Empire conquered and colonized the territory from its base in Mexico-Tenochtitlan, Three centuries later, this territory became Mexico following recognition in 1821 after the colonys Mexican War of Independence. The tumultuous post-independence period was characterized by instability and many political changes. The Mexican–American War led to the cession of the extensive northern borderlands, one-third of its territory. The Pastry War, the Franco-Mexican War, a civil war, the dictatorship was overthrown in the Mexican Revolution of 1910, which culminated with the promulgation of the 1917 Constitution and the emergence of the countrys current political system. Mexico has the fifteenth largest nominal GDP and the eleventh largest by purchasing power parity, the Mexican economy is strongly linked to those of its North American Free Trade Agreement partners, especially the United States. Mexico was the first Latin American member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and it is classified as an upper-middle income country by the World Bank and a newly industrialized country by several analysts. By 2050, Mexico could become the fifth or seventh largest economy. The country is considered both a power and middle power, and is often identified as an emerging global power. Due to its culture and history, Mexico ranks first in the Americas. Mexico is a country, ranking fourth in the world by biodiversity. In 2015 it was the 9th most visited country in the world, Mexico is a member of the United Nations, the World Trade Organization, the G8+5, the G20, the Uniting for Consensus and the Pacific Alliance. Mēxihco is the Nahuatl term for the heartland of the Aztec Empire, namely, the Valley of Mexico, and its people, the Mexica and this became the future State of Mexico as a division of New Spain prior to independence. It is generally considered to be a toponym for the valley became the primary ethnonym for the Aztec Triple Alliance as a result. After New Spain won independence from Spain, representatives decided to name the new country after its capital and this was founded in 1524 on top of the ancient Mexica capital of Mexico-Tenochtitlan
4.
Gulf Cartel
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The Gulf Cartel is a criminal syndicate and drug trafficking organization in Mexico, and perhaps one of the oldest organized crime groups in the country. It is currently based in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, directly across the border from Brownsville and their network is international, and are believed to have dealings with crime groups in Europe, West Africa, Asia, Central America, South America, and the United States. Besides drug trafficking, the Gulf Cartel operates through protection rackets, assassinations, extortions, kidnappings, the members of the Gulf Cartel are known for intimidating the population and for being particularly violent. As of December 2016 Los Zetas Group (Groupo Bravo & Zetas Vieja Escuela made an Alliance with the Gulf cartel to fight against Cartel Del Noroeste. Nonetheless, it was not until 1984 when his nephew Juan García Ábrego founded the Gulf Cartel and this renegotiation, however, forced Garcia Ábrego to guarantee the product’s arrival from Colombia to its destination. Instead, he created warehouses along the Mexican’s northern border to preserve hundreds of tons of cocaine, in addition to trafficking drugs, García Ábrego would ship cash to be laundered, in the millions. Around 1994, it was estimated that the Gulf Cartel handled as much as one-third of all cocaine shipments into the United States from the Cali Cartel suppliers. During the 1990s, the PGR, the Mexican attorney generals office, García Ábregos ties extended beyond the Mexican government corruption and into the United States. The buses made great transportation, as Antonio Ortiz noted, since they were never stopped at the border, in 1989 Claude was removed from the case for unknown reasons, retiring a year later. García Ábrego bribed the agent in an attempt to more information on U. S. law enforcement operations. Juan García Ábregos business had grown to such length that the FBI placed him on the Top Ten Most Wanted in 1995 and he was the first drug trafficker to be on that list. On 14 January 1996, García Ábrego was arrested outside a ranch in Monterrey and he was quickly extradited to the United States where he stood trial eight months after his arrest. García Ábrego was convicted for 22 counts of money laundering, drug possession, jurors also ordered the seizure of $350 million of García Ábrego’s assets — $75 million more than what was previously planned. Juan García Ábrego is currently serving 11 life terms in a security prison in Colorado. In 1996, it was disclosed that García Ábregos organization paid millions of dollars in bribes to politicians and it was later proven after his arrest that the deputy attorney general in charge of Mexicos federal Judicial Police had accumulated more than $9 million US dollars for protecting García Ábrego. García Ábregos arrest was subject to allegations of corruption. It is believed the Mexican government knew all García Ábregos whereabouts all along and had refused to arrest him due to information he possessed about the extent of corruption within the government. The arresting officer, a FJP commander, is believed to have received a bullet-proof Mercury Grand Marquis, García Ábrego was apprehended on January 14,1996, and Mexico shortly after received certification on March 1
5.
Los Zetas
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Los Zetas is a Mexican criminal syndicate. The origins of Los Zetas date back to the late 1990s when commandos of the Mexican Army deserted their ranks, in February 2010, Los Zetas broke away from their former employer and formed their own criminal organization. Their brutal tactics, which include beheadings to terrorize their rivals and intimidate them, torture, Los Zetas are Mexicos largest drug cartel in terms of geographical presence, overtaking their rivals, the Sinaloa Cartel. Los Zetas also operate through protection rackets, assassinations, extortion, kidnappings, the organization is based in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, directly across the border from Laredo, Texas. As of December 2016 Los Zetas Group & Zetas Vieja Escuela formed an alliance with the Gulf cartel to fight against Cartel Del Noroeste. The groups name Los Zetas is given after its first commander, Arturo Guzmán Decena, whose Federal Judicial Police radio code was Z1, after Osiel Cárdenas Guillén took full control of the Gulf Cartel in 1999, he found himself in a violent turf war. These Army deserters were enticed with salaries much higher than those of the Mexican Army, Cárdenas goal was to protect himself from rival drug cartels and from the Mexican military. Once Osiel Cárdenas Guillen consolidated his position and supremacy, he expanded the responsibilities of Los Zetas, the Zetas began to organize kidnappings, protection rackets, extortion, securing cocaine supply and trafficking routes known as plazas and executing its foes, often with barbaric savagery. Guzmán Decena was killed by members of the Mexican military on November 2002 in a restaurant in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, in response to the rising power of the Gulf Cartel, the rival Sinaloa Cartel established a heavily armed, well-trained enforcer group known as Los Negros. The group operated similarly to Los Zetas, but with less complexity, in 2010, however, Los Zetas and the Gulf Cartel broke apart. Their membership ranges from corrupt federal, state, and local officers, and former US Army personnel, to ex-Kaibiles. It is unclear which of the two – the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas – started the conflict led to their break up. It is clear, however, that after the capture and extradition of Cárdenas, Los Zetas had become so powerful that they outnumbered and outclassed the Gulf Cartel in revenue, membership, and influence. Some sources reveal that as a result of the supremacy of Los Zetas, the cartel felt threatened by its own enforcers and decided to curtail their influence, in addition, Los Zetas charged that the cartel also kills innocent civilians, and then blames the Zetas for their atrocities. Other reports mention, however, that the divide occurred due to a disagreement on who would take on the leadership of the cartel after the extradition of Cárdenas. The candidates from the cartel were Antonio Cárdenas Guillén and Jorge Eduardo Costilla Sánchez, while Los Zetas wanted the leadership of their then head, Heriberto Lazcano Lazcano. Some sources mention that the cartel began looking to form a truce with their Sinaloa Cartel rivals, other sources suggest that Los Zetas separated from the Gulf Cartel to form an alliance with Beltrán-Leyva Cartel, which led to conflict with the Gulf Cartel. Soon after Mendozas death, Los Zetas demanded that the Gulf Cartel hand over the killer, they refused, when the hostilities began, the Gulf Cartel joined forces with its former rivals, the Sinaloa Cartel and La Familia Michoacana, aiming to take out Los Zetas
6.
Prisoner of war
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A prisoner of war is a person, whether combatant or non-combatant, who is held in custody by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the prisoner of war dates to 1660. The first Roman gladiators were prisoners of war and were named according to their ethnic roots such as Samnite, Thracian, typically, little distinction was made between enemy combatants and enemy civilians, although women and children were more likely to be spared. Sometimes, the purpose of a battle, if not a war, was to capture women, a known as raptio. Typically women had no rights, and were legally as chattel. For this he was eventually canonized, during Childerics siege and blockade of Paris in 464, the nun Geneviève pleaded with the Frankish king for the welfare of prisoners of war and met with a favourable response. Later, Clovis I liberated captives after Genevieve urged him to do so, many French prisoners of war were killed during the Battle of Agincourt in 1415. In the later Middle Ages, a number of religious wars aimed to not only defeat, in Christian Europe, the extermination of heretics was considered desirable. Examples include the 13th century Albigensian Crusade and the Northern Crusades, likewise, the inhabitants of conquered cities were frequently massacred during the Crusades against the Muslims in the 11th and 12th centuries. Noblemen could hope to be ransomed, their families would have to send to their captors large sums of wealth commensurate with the status of the captive. In feudal Japan there was no custom of ransoming prisoners of war, in Termez, on the Oxus, all the people, both men and women, were driven out onto the plain, and divided in accordance with their usual custom, then they were all slain. The Aztecs were constantly at war with neighbouring tribes and groups, for the re-consecration of Great Pyramid of Tenochtitlan in 1487, between 10,000 and 80,400 persons were sacrificed. During the early Muslim conquests, Muslims routinely captured large number of prisoners, aside from those who converted, most were ransomed or enslaved. Christians who were captured during the Crusades, were either killed or sold into slavery if they could not pay a ransom. The freeing of prisoners was highly recommended as a charitable act, there also evolved the right of parole, French for discourse, in which a captured officer surrendered his sword and gave his word as a gentleman in exchange for privileges. If he swore not to escape, he could gain better accommodations, if he swore to cease hostilities against the nation who held him captive, he could be repatriated or exchanged but could not serve against his former captors in a military capacity. Early historical narratives of captured colonial Europeans, including perspectives of literate women captured by the peoples of North America. The writings of Mary Rowlandson, captured in the fighting of King Philips War, are an example
7.
Heriberto Lazcano Lazcano
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Heriberto Lazcano Lazcano, commonly referred to by his aliases Z-3 and El Lazca, was a Mexican drug lord and the leader of Los Zetas drug cartel. He was one of the most-wanted Mexican drug lords, Lazcano joined the Mexican Army at the age of 17 and later ascended to the Grupo Aeromóvil de Fuerzas Especiales, the Mexican Army special forces. His torture methods earned him the nickname El Verdugo, particularly for killing his victims by feeding them to lions, Lazcano died in a shootout with the Mexican Navy on 7 October 2012. After his death, his body was taken from the home by an armed gang. Lazcano was born to a family on Christmas Day, December 1974, in Apan, Hidalgo. His first military mission took place during the presidency of Ernesto Zedillo, after that, he was moved to northern Mexico as part of a security reinforcement program against the drug trafficking organizations. While serving in the Mexican Army, Lazcano reportedly received training from the Israeli Defense Forces, while traveling through Reynosa, Tamaulipas on 18 February 1998, Lazcano was detained by the Mexican authorities with 325 kilograms of marijuana in his Chevrolet Silverado. During that time, Lazcano was still working as a police officer in Tamaulipas but was also working for the drug lord Osiel Cárdenas Guillén. Lazcano was placed as third in command, and after the death of Guzmán Decena in 2002, Lazcano is also accredited for strengthening Los Zetas and creating regional cells that specialized in other crimes besides drug trafficking. Due to his background, Lazcano instilled a military culture in his squadron, designating new recruits with the titles of lieutenant and commander. By 2008, Lazcano forged an alliance with the brothers of the Beltrán Leyva Cartel, since early 2010, Los Zetas broke relations with their former employers, the Gulf Cartel, causing a violent turf war throughout the border states of Tamaulipas and Nuevo León in northeastern Mexico. The war between these two organizations has left thousands of dead. Lazcano is suspected of killing hundreds of people, including the journalist Francisco Ortiz Franco, Lazcano played a particular role in Los Zetas, with his military training, he was able to combine military precision with stone-hearted criminality. The rest were told to join or die. In its peak era, Lazcanos criminal empire consisted of about 10,000 gunmen stretching from the Rio Grande all the way into Central America. Lazcano made a name for himself by decapitating his victims, putting them in acid baths, when punishing victims, Lazcano became known for using a torture method known as La Paleta, in which victims were stripped naked and brutally beaten with a board. A reporter also recalls that Lazcano reportedly tied a man to a tree and beat him until he broke his legs, according to the Mexican authorities, Lazcano owned a ranch with several lions and tigers, which he used to get rid of his victims. Lazcano also used effective intimidation kills to keep his subordinates in check and he reportedly dumped his victims in large barrels of boiling oil
8.
Operation Jump Start
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Operation Jump Start was a military operation to aid U. S. Customs and Border Patrol, announced by President George W. Bush in May 2006. The mission entailed the deployment of United States National Guard troops along the Mexico–United States border for purposes of enforcement of border security and construction of a border fence. The rules of deployment were defined in a memorandum of agreement between officials in the Department of Defense and the governors of Arizona, California, New Mexico and Texas as well as Mexico. National Guard members involved in the operation were not involved in law enforcement activities due to the aspect of the US military on the US/Mexico border. They were supporting the U. S. Customs and Border Protection, Border Patrol agencies with administrative, observational and intelligence gathering capacities, and civil engineering projects. By temporarily taking over functions from the USC&BP, they freed up sworn agents to field units. Military operations with Operation Jump Start were primarily to observe and report, the rules of engagement for the operation was very restrictive and only allowed escalation to lethality when met with an equal amount of force from another. The US military set up entry identification team sites to spot undocumented aliens, many of the areas of operation were in desolate locations, some locations were so remote that troops were sometimes flown in by UH-60 helicopter. The military was armed with the M-16/A2 or M-4 lightweight, air-cooled, gas powered, assault rifle, some locations were equipped with forward looking infrared systems or the Autonomous Rotorcraft Sniper System. The other main purpose of the National Guard presence was the creation of the border fence, communications for Operation Jump Start was by VHF repeated radio similar to that of law enforcement agencies. Due to the lack of repeater towers and secure lines of communication the VHF radios were supplemented by long haul satellite radio, the radio equipment was updated from 2007–2008 for extended reach-back capability. The repeater tower team was a group of National Guard members who had to undergo training and certifications in tower climbing, combat life saving. Some of the towers were remote enough that the crew and equipment had to be flown in UH-60 helicopters, on 15 July 2008, Operation Jump Start came to an end. At its peak there were as many as 6,000 soldiers and airmen on the mission more than 29,000 from every state. The total cost was close to 1.2 billion dollars. S
9.
ATF gunwalking scandal
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The tactic was questioned during the operations by a number of people, including ATF field agents and cooperating licensed gun dealers. During Operation Fast and Furious, the largest gunwalking probe, the ATF monitored the sale of about 2,000 firearms, a number of straw purchasers have been arrested and indicted, however, as of October 2011, none of the targeted high-level cartel figures had been arrested. Guns tracked by the ATF have been found at crime scenes on both sides of the Mexico–United States border, and the scene where United States Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was killed December 2010, the gunwalking operations became public in the aftermath of Terrys murder. Dissenting ATF agents came forward to Congress in response, revelations of gunwalking led to controversy in both countries, and diplomatic relations were damaged. Earlier that month, President Barack Obama had invoked executive privilege for the first time in his presidency over the same documents. ATF gunwalking operations were, in part, a response to longstanding criticism of the bureau for focusing on relatively minor gun violations while failing to target high-level gun smuggling figures. U. S. firearms laws currently govern the possession and transfer of firearms, “Gun trafficking”, although not defined by statute, essentially includes the movement or diversion of firearms from legal to illegal markets. Four federal statutes govern U. S. commerce of firearms domestically and internationally, many states supplement these federal statutes and have firearms laws of their own that are stricter. For example, some states require permits to obtain firearms and impose a waiting period for firearm transfers, domestic commerce and importations into the United States are generally regulated under the National Firearms Act of 1934 and the Gun Control Act of 1968. The exportation of firearms from the United States is regulated by the Arms Export Control Act of 1976 and, to a lesser extent, the Export Administration Regulations. S. According to twenty-year ATF veteran Jay Wachtel, letting guns walk has been a practice done in a manner that involved surveillance. The idea was that you would follow it long enough until you were sure you had enough probable cause to initiate an arrest, ATF agents assigned to Phoenix from other districts to work on Fast and Furious were critical of the operation. There have been allegations of gunwalking in at least 10 cities in five states, the most widely known and controversial operations took place in Arizona under the ATFs Phoenix, Arizona field division. The first known ATF gunwalking operation to Mexican drug cartels, named Operation Wide Receiver, began in early 2006, licensed dealer Mike Detty of Mad Dawg Global informed the ATF of a suspicious gun purchase that took place in February 2006 in Tucson, Arizona. In March he was hired as an informant working with the ATFs Tucson office, part of their Phoenix. With the use of equipment, ATF agents monitored additional sales by Detty to straw purchasers. These included AR-15s, semi-automatic AK-pattern rifles, and Colt. 38s, the majority of the guns were eventually lost as they moved into Mexico. As the later DOJ OIG Report documented, under Wide Receiver coordination of ATF Tucson with the ATF Mexico City Office, discussions of getting tracking devices from Raytheon were not followed up
10.
La Familia Michoacana
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La Familia Michoacana, La Familia, or LFM was a Mexican drug cartel and a organized crime syndicate based in the Mexican state of Michoacán. Formerly allied to the Gulf Cartel—as part of Los Zetas—it split off in 2006, the cartel was founded by Carlos Rosales Mendoza a close associate of Osiel Cárdenas. The second leader, Nazario Moreno González, known as El Más Loco and he carried a bible of his own sayings and insisted that his army of traffickers and hitmen avoid using the narcotics they sell. However, President Felipe Calderóns government refused to strike a deal with the cartel, La Familia Michoacana still exists today, despite the killing of its founder and leader Nazario Moreno González. It is present mostly in el Estado de Mexico, Mexican Federal Police declaring, on November 2,2011, that the La Familia cartel had been disbanded. Mexican analysts believe that La Familia formed in the 1980s with the purpose of bringing order to Michoacán, emphasizing help. In its initial incarnation, La Familia formed as a group of vigilantes, spurred to power to counter interloping kidnappers and drug dealers, since then, La Familia has capitalized on its reputation, building its myth, power and reach to transition into a criminal gang itself. La Familia came to the foreground in the 1990s as the Gulf Cartels paramilitary group, while it initially trained with Los Zetas, in 2006 the group splintered off into an independent drug trafficking operation. La Familia has a rivalry with both Los Zetas and the Beltrán-Leyva Cartel, but strong ties with the Sinaloa Cartel of Joaquin Guzman. La Familia Michoacana was one of the strongest and fastest growing cartels in Mexico, after the death of Nazario Moreno González, José de Jesús Méndez Vargas took control of the cartel. However, his authority was disputed by the cartel co-founders Enrique Plancarte Solís and Servando Gómez Martínez, Méndez Vargas was captured on June 21,2011 by Mexican police in the state of Aguascalientes. The Mexican Federal Police declared that the cartel has been disbanded, however, the organization continues to exercise its power and influence throughout Michoacán and Guerrero states. La Familia cartel is sometimes described as quasi-religious since its leaders, Moreno González and Méndez Vargas, refer to their assassinations, the cartel may have direct or indirect ties with devotees of the New Jerusalem religious movement, which is noted for its concern for justice issues. Advancement within the organization depends as much on regular attendance at meetings as on target practice. The cartel gives loans to farmers, businesses, schools and churches, on July 16,2009, Servando Gómez Martínez, the cartel operations chief, contacted a local radio station and stated, La Familia was created to look after the interests of our people and our family. When asked what La Familia really wanted, Gómez replied, The only thing we want is peace, President Felipe Calderóns government refuses to strike a deal with the cartel and rejected their calls for dialogue. On April 20,2009, about 400 Federal Police agents raided a party for a baby born to a cartel member. Among the 44 detained was Rafael Cedeño Hernández, the second in command and in charge of indoctrinating the new recruits in the cartels religious values, morals
11.
2008 Morelia grenade attacks
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Shortly after the Grito in that city, led by Governor Leonel Godoy, two grenades were thrown into the crowds, killing at least eight people and injuring more than 100. The police have blamed drug cartels for the attacks, specifically the La Familia Michoacana gang. La Familia has denied it and instead blamed Los Zetas, a week after the attacks, police arrested three men of the Los Zetas gang accused of throwing the grenades. Morelia is the town of President Felipe Calderón of the PAN, although the state of Michocán has traditionally been controlled by the opposition PRI. Condemnation of the incident across the country was unanimous, as tactics of the drug lords in attacking random citizen congregations was unprecedented in Mexican history. Time Magazine, Terror Bloodies Mexico Celebrations
12.
Murders of Raul and Brisenia Flores
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Gina Gonzalez, the victims wife and mother, survived the attack. When they found no drugs, the intruders took jewelry and shot 29-year-old Raul Flores, Jr. and his daughter, 9-year-old Brisenia Ylianna Flores, to death. Gina Marie Gonzalez, the 31-year-old wife of Raul Flores and the mother of Brisenia, was in the home during the attack and was three times. She survived because she pretended to be dead, when the assailants left the home, Gonzalez called 911 emergency services and armed herself with her husbands handgun. While Gonzalez was on the phone, the assailants re-entered the home, Gonzalez identified two men, one white, the other Mexican, and a white woman as the attackers. Gonzales identified the man had murdered her daughter and husband. An early exchange within the 911 call was recorded as follows, Gonzalez, They shot me and they shot her, too. Operator, Are they still there, the people who, that shot them. Gonzalez, Theyre coming back in. Brisenia was a student at the Sopori Elementary School in Amado, Arizona. Another of the Floress daughters, a 12-year-old, was at her grandmothers home in Sahuarita, Arizona, arriving at a decision was difficult, according to jurist Angie Thomas. A picture of Brisenia presented during the trial was a significant factor in reaching the decision, a little girl, with bright red fingernails, shes wearing a white T-shirt and turquoise-colored pajama bottoms. Its a perfect, innocent picture until you realize that half of her face has been blown off, gina testified that her daughter was shot point-blank as the girl pleaded for her life. Shawna Forde, Jason Eugene Bush, and Albert Gaxiola were all convicted of the murders, Forde and Bush were sentenced to death, while Gaxiola was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole plus 54 years. Jason Eugene Gunny Bush of Meadview, Arizona, was the Minutemen American Defense militias National Director of Operations, Bush was shot in the leg during the attack on the Flores family. Also in 1997, Bush was imprisoned for car theft and for possession of a firearm, after his release from prison in 2003, Bush moved to Sandpoint, Idaho, where he lived until 2007. Bush is suspected in two additional killings that occurred in 1997, detectives sought to find links to unresolved cases. He was Fordes second in command, Bush has ties to the Aryan Nation. After his arrest in the murders of Raul and Brisenia Flores, he was charged in June 2009 with the 1997 murder of Hector Lopez Partida in Wenatchee, in April 2011, Bush was sentenced to death, and in May 2011, received another 78 years for other crimes. Shawna Forde was born December 6,1967, Forde had several run-ins with law enforcement prior to her arrest for the double murder
13.
2010 Chihuahua shootings
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On June 10,2010, at least 19 people were killed in the Mexican state of Chihuahua in shooting attacks due to an ongoing drug war. The attack was on a rehabilitation clinic in the state capital Chihuahua. At least 30 gunmen pulled up in six trucks and entered the second floor of the Templo Cristiano Fe y Vida and they told anyone who asked that they were from the police before proceeding to fire at people they encountered, including staff and patients. The victims were lined up and then executed by the gunmen, the murdered patients were between the ages of 18 and 25. They are unknown, but are thought to be members of a cartel in search of revenge, according to a Chihuahuan police spokesman, the attackers described those whom they attacked as criminals and left messages for them expressing this. President of Mexico Felipe Calderón issued his condemnation from South Africa and he described such attacks as outrageous acts that reinforce the need to fight with the full force of the law criminal groups carrying out such barbarism
14.
Jaime Zapata
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He was one of the two agents that were ambushed in a part of the country that is increasingly under the influence of drug violence. Zapata was born in Brownsville, Texas, United States, a border city directly north across Matamoros, Tamaulipas and he was one of five brothers, all in the field of criminal justice. Zapata entered on duty with Customs and Border Protection on February 6,2006, Zapata was a member of the U. S. After his graduation Zapata was assigned to the Yuma, Arizona Border Patrol Station, homeland Security Investigations special agents, Jaime Zapata and Víctor Ávila, were traveling from Laredo, Texas to Mexico City on an assignment for U. S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. As they drove through the state of San Luis Potosí. The two vehicles that came up behind them were at a rate of speed, and were described as driving aggressively. One vehicle passed the agents’ Suburban, while other gunmen started to fire at their vehicle, when Zapata shifted the vehicle into park, its doors automatically unlocked. The Zeta gunmen pulled open the side door and tried to drag Zapata out. The agents, however, managed to crack the windows to talk with the assailants, the agents hoped to reason with the gunmen—as many as 15 of them—who surrounded the vehicle. According to congressman McCaul, the agents said Were Americans, were diplomats, the gunmen then fled, and Ávila was able to use his cellphone to call for help. Dying, Zapata managed to put the car in gear and drive away before collapsing at the wheel, soon afterwards, a Mexican federal police helicopter arrived where the two agents were. Ávila was shot twice in the leg, and was sent to a hospital in the Houston. Jaime Zapata, however, gravely injured from three bullet wounds, died before the authorities could aid him with medical treatment. According to federal sources, the took place at a fake military checkpoint established by the gunmen. The captured individuals allegedly involved in the attack revealed through their interviews that they had mistaken the agents for a drug cartel. Moreover, the plates also indicated U. S. officials were on board. Texas Congressman Michael McCaul mentioned that the gunmen opened fire at the agents after they had identified themselves as U. S. diplomats. Five months after the slaying of Jaime Zapata, a report from the White House noted that Zapatas family demanded to know the source of the used in the attack
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