THE BORDER REPORT

Who wants to talk about this murder that went down in Masiaca, Navojoa, Sonora, yesterday? State police say the body of a man was found just off the road, wrapped in a blanket and packaging tape. He wore a pair of blue Versace slacks, a deep red shirt, black socks and dress shoes. And a wire wrapped around his neck.

Masaica is Salazar Ramirez territory, I found out the hard way a while ago. (Sorry about that, put up a sign or something next time). It’s also the town where Raul Enriquez Parra was found murdered, his body wrapped in an American flag and tossed from an airplane with three others.

Meanwhile, talking to an old friend last night, I was reminded of some old lessons from 2007. If this story of a peace-out between Shorty Guzmán’s Sinaloa faction and Vicente Carrillo’s Juárez Cartel holds true, Ciudád Juárez may have finally reached an element of calm. But the old lessons don’t go away.

In 2007, the Gulf Cartel and the Sinaloans tried to engineer a peace agreement after that particularly nasty attack in Cananea, Sonora. At the time, the deal was to eliminate Chapito Hernandez, 2000, and Edgar Barbie Valdez. One from the Gulf, one from the Sinaloans. The truce fell apart and by last spring, the situation worsened, with the Sinaloans breaking inside and setting Culiacán to war.

One FBI source I talk to from time to time says he doubts a new peace agreement will hold any more than the last one did.

“Have they ever worked? No, ni madres,” he said.”Things are relatively quiet right now in Juárez but that doesn’t mean they’re going to stay that way.”

I don’t know that I totally agree, the current drug war has brought so much heat, so much attention to the border cities that even Washington has had to take notice and I am certain the upcoming Obama-Calderón talks will focus on the border wars. Have you noticed much attention being paid to NAFTA issues or immigration? I haven’t, from what I can see, it’s all narcos, war and crime. And it seems rational to me that men in the business of moving product, albeit cocaine, meth and dope, stand to benefit from a peace agreement.

Now the question in this peace-out is going to be who needs to be sacrificed to maintain it. 2000 Hernandez survived the last round of talks and went to war for the Beltrán family in Nogales. I’m no longer sure he even enters into the equation. Barbie for that matter, appears to have gone to ground; for certain he’s not popping up in the media anymore.

We may be looking at an elimination of some local people in Juárez, maybe people from La Linea, maybe some of those Gulf people who’ve been trickling in.