General News



The Mexicanization of Mexico

Jul 18th, 2010 | By Michel Marizco | Category: General News, Politics

THE BORDER REPORT

Couple things then I'm going straight back to work: Much has been about this recent carbomb in Juárez, the Colombianization of Mexico, the up-tick in violence, the changing game. None of which is true.

The Beltrán Leyvas used car bombs in Sinaloa when they were attacking the Sinaloa Federation's safe houses in Culiacán. Yes, this carbomb that killed two federal cops, a medic and wounded seven others was more sophisticated, bomb, battery series and cellphone, while those in Sinaloa were merely gasbombs, and those were meant to target specific people within the Sinaloa syndicate. In this case, the point seemed to be pure intimidation and the propagation of fear (and guess what, it worked). Who would have had the motive to set off the bombs?



X Marks the Spot

Jul 9th, 2010 | By Michel Marizco | Category: Chismes, General News, Politics

THE BORDER REPORT

Here's a story I did on the situation in Tubutama for the Nogales International. By now, the entire border world, from Nogales, Sonora, cops to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to the radio stations to me, now know that a convoy of some 30 vehicles pulled into Nogales late Wednesday night. Everybody seems to know this except the Calderón and Padrés Administrations, apparently. According to a source at the FBI, nobody's sure whether the convoy is there to back the Sinaloans who got stomped trying to take out Gilo in the hills or whether these are Gilo's reinforcements. I anticipate they are reinforcing the Sinaloa Cartel and I'll tell you why. The Mexican government and the Sonoran State Police have chosen to stay out of the fight in the hills; yet we know for a fact that Gilo, Hector Beltrán Leyva's man, has clashed with the Army. According to a Border Patrol intel report, the Army clashed with Gilo on June 12 – and I think we can safely presume they lost that battle since Gilo is still there a month later. It has been said in the past, by people smarter than I, that Calderón is focusing his efforts on Sinaloa's rivals, including Beltrán Leyva, Barbie, and the Zetas. Depending on whom you choose to believe, the Mexican government is doing so either to A) finish off the smaller cartels to bring peace to the country or B) because they are in the pay of the Sinaloa Federation. What's going on in Nogales right now is a great example of this. The Army and the state police have left the convoy alone and they've been there some 36 hours now. This suggests the Calderón Administration is letting the Sinaloans finish the job for them. Or try to, anyway. From what people are saying, the convoy has been driving around Nogales all morning. In the July 1 battle, the Sinaloans were backed up by the locals, Sinaloa loyals including Felix the Ice Cream Man, Raúl Sabori and Nini Beltrán but it's been said on this website that the outsiders took the lead on that attack and that's why they failed so badly. Here's what one Nogales resident said: "Good to know the locals can hold their own against those pushy outsiders!" To be fair, the road up to Tubutama can be tricky to find ...(here's a hint, Tubutama is to the west). Someone buy them boys a map.


Ice Cream! (but You’ll Scream First … )

Jul 3rd, 2010 | By Michel Marizco | Category: General News, Organized Crime
THE BORDER REPORT And Mexico, and I mean the State, is staying the Christ out of it. Thank you, first of all, to juanito, a reader here who helped set me straight on the players. (I'd like to add, as a friend in Nogales pointed out, who in the hell drives a Volkswagen Passat to a gunfight with the Beltrán Leyvas?) He's got it right, Felix the Ice Cream Man is with Raúl Sabori, Paéz Soto, Nini Beltrán and Los Jabalí, Jose Vásquez's boys from Santa Ana. Collectively, they're the Sinaloa Federation's syndicate along the Sonora border. And they're going against El Gilo, a man identified in an FBI report as Hector Beltrán Leyva's lieutenant in Saríc and Tubutama, that pocket of cerro between Nogales and Sasabe, just along the Sonora-Arizona border. It is significant that the U.S. intel agencies do not know his real name. (All photos, courtesy, Sonora State Police.) Gilo, according to the FBI, has 300 men stocked in that town and they're running out of resources. Last week, the chief of police and town treasurer from Tubutama tried to make a run for Nogales to buy gasoline; they were subsequently eliminated from the argument. On June 12, according to a U.S. Border Patrol intel report, Gilo scrapped with the Mexican Army in Cerro Prieto; taking no casualties. The Army backed off, not saying how many casualties they themselves took. Geographically, it's a rough area to get to; there is exactly one highway leading in, you come in from Magdalena de Kino or you come in from Sasabe or Altar. My apologies to those of you not from this area, it's late, I'm busy and I don't have time to explain these logistics. Suffice it to say that there are three entrances towards that mountain range, one from the east, two from the west. In that gunfight yesterday, the Sinaloa crew fucked up; there's just no other way to put it. Los Jabalí geared up with 30-50 SUVs and trucks, all marked with three X's on the windows. Gilo's people were waiting for them. According to the FBI, the Sinaloans ran into a roadblock, just a couple cars jamming up the road; enough to force the convoy to a halt. It was truly a stupid maneuver, in my opinion. Yeah, you had them cornered, Gilo's people are sitting stranded in a fucking mountain town for chrissakes. But the Sinaloans moved in linearly when they should have come in from all directions. Idiotas. Bear in mind that the Army did nothing during this occupation; they didn't move in on Gilo, they didn't move on the Sinaloans. From the FBI report: "Subjects report that the Jabalínas (sp) were forced to a stop on the highway when Gilo's group opened fire and sustained heavy casualties." The Sinaloans are supposedly waiting for 300 men to arrive from Sinaloa. Unfortunately for them, Gilo is also awaiting reinforcements. There's an old story in the Sierra, about a lion cornered by a pack of dogs and just how many of those dogs the old mountain cat defeated before he was taken down. Right about now, 48 hours after the killings, there oughtta be two groups coming in from Sinaloa; one from Culiacán, one from the Sierra, Los Mochis, maybe. 300 men, each side, about to fight it out for a mountain town. The FBI is filled with idiots who anticipate this is a mopping up of the Beltrán Leyvas. They ain't been able to do it yet. In fact, got smoked when they tried. No, no, mi estimado. One side is brimming, building up in the cities. But the other is quiet, watching, waiting. The dogs are howling; the cat's snarling. This will be a fight for the corridos to remember. Gonna be one hell of a Fourth of July. I'll be in Tubutama this weekend. Try and behave. Sále.


Mádres, pero es viernes

Jul 2nd, 2010 | By Michel Marizco | Category: General News

THE BORDER REPORT

We're just gonna file this under the WTF Department. This is why I moderate comments.
"Here’s a question for everybody…. Can you physically changed yourself with herbs? What I mean is, can a white man change his height, weight or color of skin using herbs? Like a white man turning into a brown guy weather hispanic, mediteranean or persian/middle-eastern. Or a white man turning into a blackman. There’s lots of crazy shit going on in the middle east and the majority of the culprits are really white men turning into brown or middle eastern. This just raises many questions into who really is responsible for all this crap in Mexico. Sounds crazy, but what I’m saying is true."


So, Who Won?

Jul 2nd, 2010 | By Michel Marizco | Category: General News, Politics

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?


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