THE BORDER REPORT

Update: Milenio has a story saying Beltran's people attacked Chapo's people in Tubutama. But fue al contrario, no? Los Jabalines attacked Felix the Ice Cream Man, which means Chapo and the Sinaloa Federation attacked (and lost) to the Beltrans. Que dice la raza? A ... hitchhiker ... from Sasabe tells me "it was a complete ass kicking on the guys who came in via auto," suggesting that Los Jabalines got smoked, which would mean the Sinaloans took the worst of it, yes? One of you, Mario, was amusing with this post when it was determined that the Jabalines painted large X's on their vehicles so as not to confuse themselves with the enemy:

Se marcan la X pa identificarse entres ellos mismo pero a la misma vez valio madre, asi tambien los pueden identificar los grupos rivales.. they gotta come up with some new shit.

A CISEN source points out that most of the cars shot up were tagged with an enormous X, suggesting Jabalines, since we know that they've been marking their cars for identity's sake. The hitchhiker says it was a pure ambush, executed nearly flawlessly. (Photos, courtesy CISEN.) This makes sense when you consider there's only two roads in to the area, either through Altar to the east or through Magdalena from the west. Maybe it's not such a bad position for Ice Cream Man to be in. He can't get out, but the Sinaloans can't get in. If all that's the case, then I have to wonder what the military's doing watching the game play out from the sidelines. I'm not exaggerating when I tell you that there's some 400 soldiers roaming up and down the highways between Altar and Tubutama; I saw them Sunday and a law enforcement source tells me they've been running checkpoints and waiting for the inevitable battle since last week. Are they picking sides, letting both groups finish each other off or simply over-powered, manpower notwithstanding? Then there's this photo linked to above. This photo was snapped by a Diario de Sonora photographer, and though it's resolution is absolute shit, I'd like to know what that sign means. The two decapitated heads were jammed into the bars of the panteon Del Rosario, near the border. The message, from what I can see, says: "Saganle al toro autos Eber, M4, Colores, Navo .... " and that's as far as I got and that makes no sense whatsoever. Anyone care to take that one on?