Old Stories Never Die; Even When its Characters Do
Nov 2nd, 2009 | By Michel Marizco | Category: General News, Organized Crime, Politics
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THE BORDER REPORT
I first met Margarito Montes Parra two years ago, spring 2007 or so; his son had just been murdered in the little town of Cocorít, near Cd. Obregón, Sonora.
It was a strange murder in a town notorious for its power structure and its involucrations to the world’s richest drug lords. Former Sonora Gov. Eduardo Bours hails from here. Keeps a beautiful ranch with rolling green pastures fueled by the Yaqui River Valley’s expansive canals, expensive horses, gazebos of intricate lattice. His nemesis, PRI powerhouse Manlio Fabio Beltrones, is also from here. Nacho Coronel and Joaquín Chapo Guzman keep homes here. So does Adan Salazar. Rigoberto Gaxiola, Amado Carrillo’s money-launderer, kept three businesses in Obregón. The NAFTA dollars are strong here, as well. Israeli and German geneticists work alongside their Mexican counterparts designing new ways to grow crops. Semi-trucks rumble through on Highway 15, rushing product north into Arizona. The staunchest of the Yaqui blood natives insist on referring to the city by its Yaqui chief name, Cajéme (an unfortunate play on the accents which I had to train myself out of switching and embarrassing myself by referring to it as Cájeme).
For myself, Obregon and its neighboring small towns virtually define what’s become my favorite Mexican phrase: secretos a voz. Things just … happen in a city like Obregón; movements and agreements and backroom dealings that are invariably more interesting in the context of the politics of Mexico’s drug war than the simple carnages of the border wars. When someone dies here, you can bet it’s important. When 15 people die here, it’s not just a message, it’s a testament.
Juárez and Tijuana carry the headlines of the bodycounts and those are simple to understand. One dead here, eight at a drug rehab there, a baby caught in a crossfire on Revolucíon, twelve here or there. So many that the numbers and the atrocities themselves have become meaningless. My general rule of thumb these days is that unless it’s somebody important who is whacked, or they die in an interesting fashion, I no longer care. Murder is easily understood; something that the writer James Ellroy refers to as all choices that are left to a man reduced to one.
Then Friday happened. And old questions and doubts come rushing back full-force, fueling the obsession.
Montes Parra was in his truck, a caravan of some three vehicles, when the killers came. They fired more than 350 rounds, killing the 56-year-old labor organizer, his wife, his daughter, a son, 11 others. Nine other people followed in a third truck, they survived, say they saw nothing. Maybe they didn’t.
The suspicions have been cast as far down as Veracruz, where Montes worked. And perhaps that’s true as well. But he had other stories to tell.
Couple years ago, I was coming up through Obregón when the call came early in the morning from a source in Hermosillo, two hours away. Four men were dead at a daisyfight. Maybe more. Quien sabe.
Montes’ son, Jorge Adrián Montes Vega, was one of those who died. The version of events went something like: two daisys fighting and the winner runs away. In daisyfighting, the bird who runs, loses. In this case, the bird who ran killed the first daisy and then ran away. A thousand dollar bet had been made, tempers were short and someone pulled a gun. And perhaps that version is true as well, I don’t know. But the bloodstains on the ground of the palenque clearly show a mass of men off to the side from the fight pit. 
Neighbors tell a different story from the official version. Yes, there was a daisyfight, they say; then some men pulled up and walked in, held the small crowd at gunpoint then pulled four men to the side, Montes’ son was one of them. They lined them up and executed them. No arrest was ever made. Two hundred people were at the daisyfight; the lone cop ran away to get help. The blood was hours old, coagulating in the dust when I arrived. Nobody saw a thing.
I went to talk to Montes about his son’s murder, following this theme of secretos. Myself and a colleague were escorted in to his hacienda with marvelous walls of cut stone and an airy hall with an enormous oak table inside. “Where were the police?” he yelled. “Where was anybody? We don’t know what happened there but we have a good idea! This governor, (Bours at the time), is involved in themes that are despicable.”
Nothing he could prove, like always, like anything involving organized crime investigations in Mexico. But Montes had it out for former Gov. Bours. In early 2008, he and his people colllaborated with a popular Mexican magazine, showing reporters this man that the mag then portrayed as “El Narco-Gobernador.” It was a fairly irresponsible piece, in many ways. Lots of speculation, lots of tenuous connections between the Bours family’s dollars and the Sinaloa Federation that fell apart upon closer examination. Yet, the day that issue of Proceso Magazine hit the stands, state employees from Nogales to Navajoa bought up every copy.
Here in Arizona, the official word from the FBI was that Montes’ son was murdered in some shady transaction. And perhaps that is true as well. I certainly would never accuse a man of murder without definite proof. And that’s proof I don’t have. I just have a dead man’s words, thankfully recorded in audio. Let’s see what the investigation concludes. We’ll do well to remember that Montes paid for a criminal investigation of his own son’s murder; the alleged killers, whom he claimed Bours was protecting, were set free.
im going off subject here, but just wanted to share this
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/6462608/Mafia-killing-in-Italy-caught-on-camera.html
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the napolitan camorra, those guys don’t screw around….and about this post, i think this case will be as tough as Jimenez Mota’s…
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another reporter kidnapped and murdered, when will it all end?
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El Gonzo taken out in Veracruz and how is Barbas and Lazcas agreement working out? Its obvious he’s taking out some of his own people for kidnapping but that also Miguel Trevino M40 doing the same to some of his people for kidnapping
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i don’t think there is any agreement between el Barbas and Z3, actually, el Lazca has a beef with el Barbas and Miguel because they took the Cancun plaza from him, i don’t know if you remember like three months ago the military arrested like 19 of Lazca’s Zetas in Cancun, they were there to wage war against el Barbas and Miguel to try and recuperate Cancun, but obviously they never got the chance to see any action, and about Arturo and Miguelon cleaning out their own people for kidnapping, that’s true, Chapo and Mayo should do the same thing, i didn’t included Nachito because i’m pretty sure that guy doesn’t do that kind of stuff.
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Chapo and Mayo don’t have the rich of San Pedro on their back. Its not like the Bearded One is doing this out of the kindness of his heart, he is being pressured to take care of his own people by outsiders. The Zetas he has been carrying have kidnapped and extorted for years already. Why all of a sudden start killing them now? One might wonder if it will cause dissension with in his own organization.
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he’s been doing it for quite a while, in Culiacan he is been killing robbers and carthieves since the begining of ’09, but in the case of the Sa Pedro cleaning, you are right, the men has family living in that area, i guess the guvnor’ is giving him a brake in exchange for cleaning San Pedro (and he is cleaning the rest of the country pro bono)
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http://www.elagoradechihuahua.com/Masacre-en-un-antro-de-Ciudad,19224.html a u.s military dead in Juarez.
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Esmerelda, what reporter? Montez was a labor organizer. He just collaborated with reporters for the story that apparently got his son killed. Being a union leader is at least as dangerous as being a reporter in Mexico.
http://www.azcentral.com/php-bin/clicktrack/email.php/8997732
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Jose Antuna
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i heard that strip club was shut down and i had not even gone by the place, that place had some nice ladies, so i ended going to The Joker, Cesar’s Palace, & Placeres, but damn i was shocked when i learned it was still open, PISSED OFF actually.
so Barbas has his own Zetas then that are cleaning up theyre act? i think it’s good cuz kidnapping will turn the public against you, i cant stand to hear when someone gets kidnapped, ransom paid and still get executed sometimes
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The evidence is clear that politicians are involved. In San Pedro you don’t mess around, there are too many wealthy people. El Negro had threatened Mauricio Fernandez, big mistake… Fernandez announced his death to the press 4 hours before El Negro was found dead in D.F!! “Lo van a entender, por las buenas o por las malas: no vamos a aceptar ningún tipo de secuestro en San Pedro Garza García y si no, lo pagarán con su propia cara.”
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http://www.exonline.com.mx//XStatic/excelsior/template/content.aspx?se=nota&id=770408 this looks to me like the begining of something ugly…
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pno4h7163e0
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are these guys talking shit to him? or just having a random conversation…..
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they are making fun of him, while the guy is asking the feds to please flip him over because he is drawning…that reminds me of a message some narcos left on the severed head of a commander in acapulco who killed a narco who was already wounded, “para que se enseñen a respetar”, i say that because in the vid you can see some of the faces of the feds who are making fun of the guy.
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Do you want to die with a man’s gun, or some little sissy girl’s gun?
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Jefe………………. you do not understand women………. you cannot force open the petals of a flower………. when the flower is ready it opens itself up to you
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Forgive me, El Guapo. I know that I, Jefe, do not have your superior intellect and education. But could it be that once again, you are angry at something else, and are looking to take it out on me?
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puro 80 hijos de petunia y arriba mocorito sinaloa
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No estas tan pendejo como pense storyboy…….. entonces si vistes la pelicula guey!
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The stroy is not that remarkable, but the 1st comment by “tax/ed-to -the-max” is hilarious.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2009/nov/07/tunnel-near-border-found-in-tijuana/
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“This cannot be true, a few years ago in a photo op, Diane Feinstein came to the border area, and proclaimed that tunnels were illegal, and later I think brought the bill to the senate floor.. so the UT should make sure this is a true story…” LOL!!!
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Mario,
Why did you remove the video? Estuvo bien amár
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la polaka says that the u.s will send F16 fighter planes to patrol the El Paso’s border area to support the border patrol activities against human and drug smugglers.
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Drift, just saw a small Indie film with Andy Garcia, and Ray Liotta called “The Line” it was pretty good I think it was released in Mexico as “La Linea” about a fictional family and off-shoot faction of what I can only guess is the Arellano-Felix family, but check it out. It’s no “The Pope of Greenwich Village” but for an Indie film it was good.
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i saw that trailer once on youtube and i never kept up with the release date of the movie, but i will check it out and to be honest i never saw The Pope
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Gotta see The Pope, with Mickey Rooney before he went wack-job on everything.
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Vincent, you mean Mickey Rourke, not Mickey Rooney.
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As you were, yes.
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Who are these mentado ochentas anyways?
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ok Vincent, i saw this movie La Linea and it was ok, nothing great but still watchable, so did the kid of Andy Garcia also try to set up El Pelon? that’s where i kind of wondered what happened
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I think he was trying to take out Pelon yes, he was envious of the guy that his dad knighted him king instead of his own son, bastard son that is, ha! I just wasnted EL Pelon to bust out with a “RITCHIE!!!!” The only thing I don’t like with these new Indie films is all the slow motion camera shots and then this real powerful music, it takes up too much time away from the storyline. Like this movie I rented called The CLeaner with Ed Harris and Samuel L Jackson, good movie, watchable, but there was very little dialouge, more than half the movie was these shots of inner city youth or shit that didn’t even pertain to the movie at all. No wonder it went srtaight to DVD. I mean you have a good storyline and then you blow it with all this artistic camera shots and music, cut that crap out and make me another Usual Suspects, that’s why I recommend The Pope to you.
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or how bout when they were in the stand off and Pelon tells him…. “It’s not my 1st…or my last” and then BOOM!, and when Armand Assant takes him out and he tells him “Im not Rosie…….”
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I don’t know why Armand Assante isn’t in a lot more roles, did you ever see Gotti? He was great in that, but he gets little roles now.
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The “RITCHIE!!!!” quote was from La Bamba.
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And BOBS wife name is Rosie……….
Gotti- I’m plenty relaxed…… I smell like a fooking animal!
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I can tell you right now we ain’t getting another story for 3 more weeks. We should do a movie from the start and go quote for quote on it. Unless some badass shit goes down in Mexico, and I mean like El Chapo and ABL enter Thunderdome on live TV badass shit in order to get another story.
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Lmao…. when your right, your right!
On another note, The other night I was drinking with some friends and we were reminiscing about when we came as kids getting into fights, street gangs and all and we started talking about some girls that we beat up onand all that nonsense. My friend then said he felt bad about hitting one girl and said if he coould take it back he wouildnt of hit her cuz it made him realize that they are weak and can’t fight back like men do, I told him I wouldn’t change a damn thing cuz in public these girls had hit me and talked all nonsense so I beat them both up at a public event in front of everyone, keep in mind I was 14 at the time,I’m 30 now. Now its obvious woman do play a role in drug trafficking and some can hold there ground while others can’t, but where do u draw the line when you decide she’s of no use to you or your organization? I mean is it necessary to go to such brutality to take out a woman or an innocent person who happens to be just family. I came across a story on lapolaka.com that either La Linea or Chapos people spray painted a wall saying all family that happens to be related to the contrary is going to be taken out, and sure enough they take out 2 girls no older than 22 and are screaming for help in front of people beat to a bloody pulp and turned on fire and shot in the head…….. fooking story made me sick and made me think that my friend was right!
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Well, you’re older and wiser now, and see shit differently. I keep saying it, these guys need to take a page out of Russell “Stringer” Bell’s book, it’s always the downfall, that shit will catch up to them, can’t behave like that and not pay the piper eventually. Seriously, name a case, group, or organization that survived a media frenzy like this? No one, the Italian Mafia, gone, the Irish Mafia in Boston, gone, look at the guys that have been around for centuries dude, the Triads, Yakuza, etc. You think those dudes just go out, shoot a shitload of people and then pay someone to write a song about that? fook no man, those dudes are deep in the shadows. Did you see the 60 minutes a couple of weeks ago about the Yakuza that were snuck into the US for liver transplants? The reporter that broke that story is good as dead, and he knows it too, the state department wisked him off out of that country to protect him. Why? Because they have a whole different outlook on how that type of business should be run.
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they are taking a page out of Stringer’s book……. They’re sure as hell not having 40% day’s
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“La Linea” in Culiacan NarcoMantas
“¿Y para eso piden tregua? Para ubicarnos a la familia y a nosotros. Creen que matando mujeres y niños inocentes en Ciudad Juárez van a acabar con nosotros. Atentamente La Línea”
http://www.noroeste.com.mx/publicaciones.php?id=529753
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shit hit the fan yester day in juarez, this is gonna get ugly as hell.
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here we go…CIUDAD JUÁREZ.- Los carteles empezar a cumplir su horripilante amenaza de ejecutar a justos y pecadores en la guerra por la plaza. Este viernes por la noche se registró una horripilante ejecución al estilo de la mafia, que terminó con el fusilamiento de un inocente de siete años. Testigos dijeron que par de gatilleros bajaron de un automvoil en las calles Arroyo de las Viboras y Norzaragay para exterminar un sujeto que finalmente fue acribillado. El tipo iba acompañado de su niño de siete años, quien lo vino a visitar desde El Paso. Cuando el padre cayó asesinado antes sus ojos, el niño trató de correr y ponerse a salvo, pero las balas asesinas lo alcanzaron y mataron por la espalda. Los dos fueron identificados como Raúl Ramírez de 30 años y Raúl Jasiel Ramírez de 7. La conmoción y rabia hizo presa de los vecinos que atestiguaron el hecho.
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The photo is terrifying and heartbreaking.
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Where is Micheal? This has been going on for way too long.
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the bottom video of this link is a bit disturbing
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8364049.stm
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poor kid, that was fooked up…
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yes ilegal it is fooked up……
Vincent check out Ssskunkkk’s channel on youtube, he put some nice montages together of The Wire, some good stuff
http://www.youtube.com/user/ssskunkkk#p/u/45/ZLy6Yhaua0s
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Al autor de esta pagina: mi pregunta no esta relacionada con tu nota mas reciente, pero no se si tengas informacion relacionada al reciente asesinato del dr. ruvalcaba en Nogales.. fue alarmante y tiene ciertos toques de asesinato x narcos, sabes algo al respecto? Gracias
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three more kids to the list, 13, 14 and 15 years old in juarez. one adult, plus a little 2 year old girl wounded by a stray bullet, all in the same event, now i know why they are begging for international intervetion in juarez.
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That’s a great video, been trying to get “ilegal” to watch that for a while now, I told him it will change his perspective on everything down there, it did for me.
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fooking-A drifet, man that video got me pumped up, guess what i”m doing all Thanksgiving break after the game is over? That’s right, having a “WIre Reunion”.
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Hey Michel, there is better reading in http://www.eldiariodesonora.com.mx than there is in your website….change topics………
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lol..ever since i caught that video i’ve been watching all the seasons again, im on the 3rd right now, but that guy sure loves The Wire as much as i do. you a Cowboy’s fan?…. as for Thanksgiving after the game im just going to go over Entourage again, i never get tired of that show also, cuz Juarez is just to messed up for me to go out and party after all the family gets to me… LLLLOOOYYYYYYDDDDDD!!!!!!
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No way man, born and raised in Houston, was an Oiler’s guy until Bud Adams f’d us over and moved, I’m a Vegas guy now, so I tend to go for the Chargers, but never them Cowboys, never! Entourage is the hilarious, Jermey Piven is Entourage.
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lol…i think Drama and Turtle also make the show, they have great chemistry them too along with Ari and Lloyd
Im going to clown you when my Boy’s beat on them chargers come the 13th of December….
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I’m not a die hard fan by any stretch, just hate to see the Cowboys win. They should promote Dave Campo back to Head Coach, those were classic years for the Cowboy’s.
I’m sure Michel really appreciates us turning this site into a place to go to for movie quotes, and NOW a place to go to for sports updates as well, ha! Best line from Entourage was when they were trying to do a deal on that movie Pablo Escobar and they were going to try and fook over that movie producer, I forgot his name but he was the guy in Dances with the Wolves who “I just pissed myself and there is nothing you can do about it” then killed himself. Anyways E was telling this to Ari, and Ari says “do you know what Harvey did after college? He joined the Marines, here is a Jewish guy who grew up upper class, and joins the Marines and I quote ‘because he wanted to know what it was like to kill someone” hahahaha!
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LMAO!!! DAVE CAMPO???? sorry didnt like him as the head coach, i came up with Jimmy Johnson and well it sucked that him and JJ couldnt work theyre differences, but oh well…..
here is the most awesome scene in my mind from Entourage, im glad i found it in it’s entirety LMAO!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6hqu3DZtAE
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Ha! Classic Ari. I once caught Dave Campo picking his nose on the sideline during the game where he kicked the edxtra point instead of going for 2 to make the cowboys then have to score a touchdown instead of a field goal. His reasoning was that it was easier to recover an onside kick then to score a touchdown. What a fooking moron, and the beauty part is that Jerry Jones hired the idiot back, hahahaha, what a chaotic organization!
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They found El Rey Zambada’s son dead… http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/notas/641355.html
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Un Lacra menos… Anybody have the news on whats happening in the prison in chihuahua, they say armed people enter the prison..
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Supposedly 25 people that were transferered from juarez to chihuahua on pgr’s orders cuased an uproar and some dozen escaped
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This suicide is almost as believable as the 17 year old Mexican kid who decided to “rob and kill” Border Patrol Agent Rosas, AND confess to it. Bullshit. Typical Mexican justice…sacrifice some poor wachos to appease the gringos.
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2009/11/21/20091121drugwarsuicide-ON.html
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Wow, that’s a levanton…
26 camionetas de lujo…
How many guys in that comando armado?!?
http://www.expreso.com.mx/PortalNovo/sitio/nota.php?cod_idioma=3&cod_conteudo=39015&cod=310&tipoINICIO=&codconteudoINICIO=39015
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this is not a “comando armado”…. This is a PLATOON!
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Pinchi Cardian…. hay tan si quiera raya me la madre guey, estoy aburrido sin noticias en este foro….
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http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200912/mexico-drugs
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wow……. i’ll come back in a month…….
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http://afntijuana.info/blog/?p=22820&cpage=1#comment-51274
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Outstanding work by the DEA, Border Patrol, ICE, and whoever else. Did it ever crossing their dumbass minds to let them finish the tunnel to at least get an insight into how the operation works? fook no, now they have 12 dudes who’s jobs included digging and removing dirt, they have zero, none, nilch for intelligence on whoever built this thing, great job getting the cheap quick headline, obviously you’ve never worked with Jimmy M9Nulty, or Lestor Freemon.
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let them feel like heroes and enjoy the feeling of accomplishment while el inge’s conctruction crew is already steping on u.s soil through another tunnel and ready to move some hard candy.
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Puto.
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Quien es el 80, porque lo mataron ayer……
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Ya lo rafagearon.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9sIEk4mJoo
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