narcoblogger has stepped into the breach left by Mexican journalists, who dare not report as they used to do. Thirty journalists have been killed in Mexico since President Felipe Calderon started his war on the drug cartels in 2006, making Mexico the most deadly country in Latin America for the media. Most are victims of the drug cartels, not caught in crossfire but targeted for reporting what is going on.
Last month, four reporters from the central Mexican state of Durango were kidnapped after reporting a prison riot, which followed the revelation that the prison governor was allowing inmates to go out at night and commit murders. The journalists were freed only after their TV station agreed to broadcast a video, produced by one of the drug cartels, which showed corrupt policemen who were apparently working for a rival cartel.
Today, attention has turned to Tamaulipas state where police have found 72 unburied bodies dumped on a ranch. They are presumably victims of the ever more vicious drug war, which in this part of Mexico pits Los Zetas against the Gulf Cartel. In recent weeks, the industrial city of Monterrey, Mexico’s wealthiest, has been almost brought to a standstill by cartel road blocks, kidnaps and gunbattles, following the murder of a local mayor. Police chiefs, political candidates and senior state officials are frequently targeted for assassination. The drug gangs are trying to seize the Mexican state, and closing down the media is just one part of their plan.
Saturday, 9 October 2010
Mexico’s Drug War Crosses the Border | FrumForum
01:50
El Apache and his group belonged to a cell of the Gulf Cartel that switched sides and began cooperating with the Zetas
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Mexico’s Drug War Crosses the Border | FrumForum: "Brownsville Police Chief Carlos Garcia confirmed the information provided to The Brownsville Herald by Mexican law enforcement officials who stated that one of the men killed is the younger brother of former Gulf Cartel members Alberto “Beto Fabe” Castillo Flores and Oscar “El Apache” Castillo Flores, 33. Beto Fabe, who served as a lieutenant with the cartel, was killed in Matamoros last summer while Oscar Castillo joined the Zetas criminal organization. El Apache was arrested in Brownsville in July and remains in federal custody. According to court documents, he was caught in a multi-agency operation that was led by ICE, along with Luis Alberto “El Pelochas” Blanco Flores, and Jose Ezequiel “El Niño” Galicia Gonzalez. A source with firsthand knowledge of criminal activity in Mexico stated that both El Apache and his group belonged to a cell of the Gulf Cartel that switched sides and began cooperating with the Zetas. According to the source, Beto Fabe was the Plaza boss of the Gulf Cartel in Matamoros but let his brother El Apache work for both that cartel and the Zetas in Matamoros."
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