Posts by Sylvialongmire:
Securing The Southwest Border Requires Meaningful Immigration Reform
October 9th, 2016By Silvia Longmire.
Moving into an election year, immigration reform is on every politician’s mind yet not what they want to talk about. Border security isn’t far behind as a hot-button political topic. But no matter how much we debate or ignore these two issues, they are inextricably linked and remain confounding to anyone who attempts to provide a workable solution to either.
One example of this relationship is the Republican versus Democrat squabble over which should come first. Democrats believe immigration reform should come before considering the enormous (and maybe unnecessary) expense of additional border security. Republicans believe our government needs to secure the southwest border before tackling immigration reform.
The beauty (or ugliness)of this argument is that no one (on Capitol Hill anyway) can define what a secure border would look like. Would it be a Great Wall of China-[en dash]like structure along our two-thousand mile-long border with Mexico? Or would it involve removing the existing border fence and handling crossings from a regulatory and humanitarian perspective?
Despite the vehement national disagreements over how to enact meaningful immigration reform, most Americans want some sort of reform. According to polling conducted by the Public Religion Research Institute in February 2015, a combined 77 percent of the country supports either a path to citizenship (60 percent) or permanent legal residence short of citizenship (17 percent) for undocumented immigrants; only 19 percent want to “identify and deport” immigrants “who are currently living in the United States illegally.” If these numbers are remotely accurate, then the problem lies in how to achieve reform, not the reform itself.
The problem with the Republican versus Democrat argument is that it purports to make the solution either reform first or security first. Could both be accomplished at the same time? Or could one perhaps occur as a direct result of the other? This would need to begin with a clear definition of a secure border.
The best, if simplest, way to secure a nation’s borders is to know exactly who is coming into it, how and where they’re entering, and what they’re bringing. Knowing all this about every single human being crossing an international border is impossible but could be easier to achieve were you to break the nation’s borders into smaller pieces.
In the language of US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and its subordinate agency, the US Border Patrol, there are nine sectors along our border with Mexico. Within each sector are sometimes several official ports of entry (POE): inspection areas that vehicles and pedestrians traveling on highways must pass through when they enter US territory. These (POE) are the responsibility of CBP inspectors. The land in between POE belongs to the Border Patrol; responsibility for those sometimes vast areas is further divided among several stations within each sector. Some sectors see little activity; others are hot zones of drug and human smuggling.
It is the responsibility of these hard-working CBP men and women in green and black to identify as many border crossers as possible and determine whether they’re allowed to come in, using a combination of physical barriers, human observation, and advanced technology, all of which are expensive. But a lot of people who aren’t legally allowed to enter the United States get in anyway. Most of these people aren’t violent criminals but come to reunite with family or pursue educational or job opportunities. But some are gang members or violent drug traffickers; a few are rapists, murderers, or child molesters.
The problem, however, is that no one in the CBP or the Department of Homeland Security or even the White House knows exactly how many people get in illegally or, more important, who they are, all of which are the foundation of an insecure border. So how can the US government devise a system that encourages most, if not all, noncriminal border crossers to self-identify, thus decreasing the workload for border law enforcement agencies and increasing the likelihood that they can identify and apprehend illegal crossers?
Delving into the need for reforming the visa application process would fill an encyclopedia, but suffice it could be the first step. The current wait time for the average Mexican or Central American applicant for a US visa—average meaning not having a PhD or scientific skill—is twenty years. When your nine-year-old son is being held at gunpoint by a gang member in Honduras and you and your family are threatened if he doesn’t join that gang, you don’t wait twenty years. You sell everything you own, pay a human smuggler (known as a coyote) $7,000 for each of your kids, and send them north.
A general lack of security, job opportunities, and educational opportunities are the biggest factors’ driving most migrants to the US border. What many politicians fail to understand is that no current US immigration policy or even the threat of lengthy incarceration deters migrants in desperate situations. Even the threat of death in the Sonoran Desert or the threat of rape by a coyote isn’t a deterrent.
Knowing that economic migrants will always come, the only way to separate them from the real threats to our national security—terrorists, drug traffickers, and other criminals—is to create a safe way for them to get here and to make their arrival and stay in the United States as advantageous as possible for the US economy. A way to minimize the impact of more migrants on social service agencies—particularly those along the border that tend to absorb much of the traffic—makes reform much more palatable to both politicians and the general public.
Almost every undocumented immigrant that crosses the southwest border pays a coyote anywhere from $3,000 to $10,000 for each trip north. In the past fiscal year, US Border Patrol agents apprehended almost half a million people trying to cross the border illegally. If every one of those migrants paid the US government even a fraction of that amount as a visa or work permit application fee, the money would add up quickly in a tight US economy. For the opportunity to come here legally and safely, virtually every applicant would gladly succumb to a criminal history check—advantageous to both the United States and the Mexican/Central American governments, which would encourage cooperation—and medical screening for infectious diseases.
Most Mexican and Central American migrants have family members living in the United States. Part of the process could be to provide a resident relative as a sponsor who would be accountable for the applicant’s behavior while she or he is in the country. Another part could be a time limit on obtaining a job or enrolling in school; if the time limit passes or the applicant commits a crime, he or she gets deported and the sponsor gets fined.
These are only a few suggestions, all of which are feasible and beneficial to the US economy—and arguably American society as a whole. But the biggest obstacle isn’t the usual red tape; it’s the lack of political will to move forward on immigration reform. The most disheartening aspect is that were we to remove migrants from the sphere of law enforcement and bring them into a legislative and regulatory space, it would almost completely free up agencies such as the CBP and the Border Patrol to pursue the considerably smaller number of illegal border crossers: the real threats to border security. Talk in the halls of Congress would shift from increasing Border Patrol agent numbers, miles of fence, and operational drones to decreasing assets because they’re needed in fewer or more-targeted areas.
Although this may sound at first like a call for immigration reform before even looking at border security, it’s not. This is a platform for presenting immigration reform as a clear and direct means of achieving a more secure border and bolstering the US economy in the process. Noncriminal undocumented immigrants are not our enemies; yet we spend billions of dollars on technology and manpower to treat them as a law enforcement problem; in the meantime drug traffickers reap up to $39 billion in profits across our southwest border every year. When the US government can find the most efficient and effective way to separate and identify border crossers—and leave only the threats to law enforcement—only then will we start to see real improvements in border security.
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Six Americans Follow in the Footsteps of Dead Migrants in ‘Borderland’
July 29th, 2014
By Sylvia Longmire.
It’s very rare for a television show to come along that makes me think, This could really change everything. In a political time in our country when we are deeply divided over the best way to achieve immigration reform and how best to secure our borders, it’s more important than ever to more fully understand the underlying cause for mass illegal immigration into the United States. It’s also critical to realize that as we endlessly debate the issue, hundreds, if not thousands, of migrants will continue to die each year—migrants who are real people, and who will continue to risk their lives to come here no matter what we try to do to stop them.
But why do hundreds of thousands of them try to make this deadly journey knowing the dangers that await them? Why would they risk the lives of even their children to come here? And why don’t the governments of Mexico and countries in Central America try harder to prevent this outpouring of their citizens?
As I write this, I’ve been living in Tucson, Arizona for nine months. I’ve been researching and writing about the border for years, but from a distance. I have also visited different parts of Arizona several times, but nothing prepared me for the surreal experience that is actually living so close to our border with Mexico—the drugs, the illegal immigration…and the death. Nowhere else in the country north of the border can you just be driving down the road and reasonably expect to encounter a group of ragged and dehydrated migrants or armed drug smugglers hauling 60-pound bales of dope.
Every year, hundreds of thousands of migrants from Mexico and all points south embark on a deadly journey north to the Promised Land that is the United States. But what used to be simply a test of endurance has now become a struggle for survival. Cartels now control human smuggling operations all along the border, and are increasingly targeting—and killing—innocent migrants, holding them hostage for exorbitant ransom amounts or forcing them at gunpoint to work as drug mules. Can any of us really imagine what the experience of traveling hundreds, if not thousands, of miles through triple-digit heat or sub-freezing cold behind a guide who might abandon you at any moment is truly like?
This is what Al Jazeera America is trying to do with its new series calledBorderland. It’s a reality show/documentary that takes six participants and has them follow the path of migrants whose journeys—and lives—ended in the Arizona desert on their way to different parts of the United States. The participants’ views on illegal immigration vary from “there are no borders” to “wall off the border.” There is a street photographer, a farmer, a Republican state Senate aide, a community organizer, a fashion blogger, and a retired Marine; three women and three men, black, white, and Latino, Republican and Democrat. And they’re in for a real shock to their systems.
Before they even start on their journey, their guide takes them to a building with a purpose unknown to them at first. It’s the Pima County morgue in southern Arizona, and they’re faced right away with the bodies of more than 150 dead immigrants. The sight and smell is overwhelming, and immediately you see strong reactions. First comes the sadness, and they all lament the passing of these anonymous corpses. But the reactions soon change to reveal each participant’s view on what put these immigrants in this dismal place. Is US immigration policy to blame for forcing these people onto a deadly path? Or is it the immigrants’ fault for consciously making a choice to break our laws and embark on a trip they knew could be fatal?
The group’s next stop is at the US side of the border, spending time with Cochise County Sheriff Mark Dannels and several border ranchers. They hear the harrowing accounts of drug smugglers running their trucks and ATVs loaded with illegal drugs through private lands, causing tens of thousands of dollars in damage to fences and livestock. Ranchers have been assaulted and burglarized by both armed drug traffickers and desperate migrants looking for food and water. They travel armed, never knowing when they’ll come across border crossers more interested in protecting their drug loads than avoiding an armed confrontation. The participants see where the pedestrian fence ends and a small barbed wire-and-post fence begins, allowing anyone on foot unfettered access to private land on US soil.
I asked Sheriff Dannels, whom I interviewed for my book Border Insecurity, what his impression was of the participants. “The group as a whole seemed to be very surprised that their international border was at such great risk for intrusion and how our border citizens were directly vulnerable to this,” he said. “Additionally, the group got to experience and see the dedicated men and women of the federal government and our local law enforcement officers/deputies who are doing what they can and giving it their best under a federal plan that needs immediate attention. Overall, the trip brought a factual look at our border to those group members that normally get their facts from our media.”
Only after that border visit do the participants learn their real mission: to team up in pairs and follow in the exact footsteps of three immigrants whose lives ended in the Arizona desert. Their mission will take one pair to Mexico, the second to Guatemala, and the third to El Salvador. They’ll meet the families and friends of two women and a 14 year-old boy, and try to discern their life stories. They’ll talk to people in villages who also long to live in the US, and learn of their pain and suffering at the hands of violent street gangs, hunger, and poverty. They’ll try to understand what drives hundreds of thousands of people every year to risk their lives—and sometimes the lives of their children—to leave the hell that is their lifelong home for the hope they’ll make it to their vision of an American heaven.
What follows is one more version of hell for the six participants. In tracking the footsteps of their assigned migrants, they have to ride the fearsome freight train knows as La Bestia, or The Beast, with hundreds of migrants, many of whom will die or be raped before the train stops at its terminus hundreds of miles to the northwest. They’ll travel into the heart of cartel territory in Sinaloa to observe the Mexican army raid a marijuana plantation, then visit the very “cradle of drug trafficking” by way of a stop in the violent city of Culiacán.
Soon afterwards, their real struggle begins in the bustling border crosser staging area of Altar, Mexico. This is where migrants—including the three whose journeys they’re following—stock up on supplies, like backpacks, socks, and water. For women, that includes contraceptives, since roughly eight of ten female migrants will be raped during the trek north. Knowing that so many people have died on this exact route, the participants are scared. The only reason they and the TV crew are even allowed to do this is because a local priest has greased the skids with the Sinaloa cartel, which controls the town. That fact just adds to the jitters over the jarring experience to follow: brutal terrain, a 50-degree temperature drop overnight, dehydration, and emotional and physical exhaustion.
No matter what your views are on illegal immigration, those views are initially represented by one of these six participants. While your views may not completely change after watching Borderland, depending on where those views started, you will be affected. It will humanize immigrants in a way you’ve never seen before, transforming them from just statistics to real people—people who fear the lands they’re leaving more than they fear the dangers that await them. As you’ll see from the stories of Claudeth, Maira, and Omar, the dead in the desert had parents, siblings, and children. They had dreams of a better life, which to them meant just the chance to wash dishes or pick tomatoes for a few dollars an hour, or in Omar’s case, to simply be reunited with his mother.
This series doesn’t provide or even suggest specific answers to the problem of illegal immigration. It doesn’t push a political agenda, and it voices in equal measure the different viewpoints of all the participants without editorializing. What it does do is present the raw reality that is life for millions of people in Mexico and Central America—like the fact that young kids are being recruited by gangs before they even turn ten years old, upon penalty of death or harm to their families. If the US was like this, what lengths would you go to in order to provide a better life for your children—or merely stay alive—in Canada, for example? If staying in the US meant being forced to join a gang, or die in poverty, or watch your children suffer, is there anything that would stop you from crossing our northern border?
Each of us has a different answer to those questions, and Borderland—a show I think most Americans could benefit from watching—won’t try to put those answers in your head. But it will definitely foster a grand discussion on what needs to change. We can mostly agree that our immigration system is broken. We can’t agree, however, on the best way to fix it. While we argue, people continue to come, and people continue to die, no matter what we try to do to stop them. The need to reunite with family, the need to provide, and the need to survive will always trump any consequences our government—or the Sonoran desert—can impose on illegal immigrants. Always. Borderland makes that very clear, and poses the challenge not just to us, but to every government along this long northbound route: what can we do to keep more people from dying to reach America?
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Six Americans Follow in the Footsteps of Dead Migrants in ‘Borderland’
May 19th, 2014
By Sylvia Longmire.
It’s very rare for a television show to come along that makes me think, This could really change everything. In a political time in our country when we are deeply divided over the best way to achieve immigration reform and how best to secure our borders, it’s more important than ever to more fully understand the underlying cause for mass illegal immigration into the United States. It’s also critical to realize that as we endlessly debate the issue, hundreds, if not thousands, of migrants will continue to die each year—migrants who are real people, and who will continue to risk their lives to come here no matter what we try to do to stop them.
But why do hundreds of thousands of them try to make this deadly journey knowing the dangers that await them? Why would they risk the lives of even their children to come here? And why don’t the governments of Mexico and countries in Central America try harder to prevent this outpouring of their citizens?
As I write this, I’ve been living in Tucson, Arizona for nine months. I’ve been researching and writing about the border for years, but from a distance. I have also visited different parts of Arizona several times, but nothing prepared me for the surreal experience that is actually living so close to our border with Mexico—the drugs, the illegal immigration…and the death. Nowhere else in the country north of the border can you just be driving down the road and reasonably expect to encounter a group of ragged and dehydrated migrants or armed drug smugglers hauling 60-pound bales of dope.
Every year, hundreds of thousands of migrants from Mexico and all points south embark on a deadly journey north to the Promised Land that is the United States. But what used to be simply a test of endurance has now become a struggle for survival. Cartels now control human smuggling operations all along the border, and are increasingly targeting—and killing—innocent migrants, holding them hostage for exorbitant ransom amounts or forcing them at gunpoint to work as drug mules. Can any of us really imagine what the experience of traveling hundreds, if not thousands, of miles through triple-digit heat or sub-freezing cold behind a guide who might abandon you at any moment is truly like?
This is what Al Jazeera America is trying to do with its new series calledBorderland. It’s a reality show/documentary that takes six participants and has them follow the path of migrants whose journeys—and lives—ended in the Arizona desert on their way to different parts of the United States. The participants’ views on illegal immigration vary from “there are no borders” to “wall off the border.” There is a street photographer, a farmer, a Republican state Senate aide, a community organizer, a fashion blogger, and a retired Marine; three women and three men, black, white, and Latino, Republican and Democrat. And they’re in for a real shock to their systems.
Before they even start on their journey, their guide takes them to a building with a purpose unknown to them at first. It’s the Pima County morgue in southern Arizona, and they’re faced right away with the bodies of more than 150 dead immigrants. The sight and smell is overwhelming, and immediately you see strong reactions. First comes the sadness, and they all lament the passing of these anonymous corpses. But the reactions soon change to reveal each participant’s view on what put these immigrants in this dismal place. Is US immigration policy to blame for forcing these people onto a deadly path? Or is it the immigrants’ fault for consciously making a choice to break our laws and embark on a trip they knew could be fatal?
The group’s next stop is at the US side of the border, spending time with Cochise County Sheriff Mark Dannels and several border ranchers. They hear the harrowing accounts of drug smugglers running their trucks and ATVs loaded with illegal drugs through private lands, causing tens of thousands of dollars in damage to fences and livestock. Ranchers have been assaulted and burglarized by both armed drug traffickers and desperate migrants looking for food and water. They travel armed, never knowing when they’ll come across border crossers more interested in protecting their drug loads than avoiding an armed confrontation. The participants see where the pedestrian fence ends and a small barbed wire-and-post fence begins, allowing anyone on foot unfettered access to private land on US soil.
I asked Sheriff Dannels, whom I interviewed for my book Border Insecurity, what his impression was of the participants. “The group as a whole seemed to be very surprised that their international border was at such great risk for intrusion and how our border citizens were directly vulnerable to this,” he said. “Additionally, the group got to experience and see the dedicated men and women of the federal government and our local law enforcement officers/deputies who are doing what they can and giving it their best under a federal plan that needs immediate attention. Overall, the trip brought a factual look at our border to those group members that normally get their facts from our media.”
Only after that border visit do the participants learn their real mission: to team up in pairs and follow in the exact footsteps of three immigrants whose lives ended in the Arizona desert. Their mission will take one pair to Mexico, the second to Guatemala, and the third to El Salvador. They’ll meet the families and friends of two women and a 14 year-old boy, and try to discern their life stories. They’ll talk to people in villages who also long to live in the US, and learn of their pain and suffering at the hands of violent street gangs, hunger, and poverty. They’ll try to understand what drives hundreds of thousands of people every year to risk their lives—and sometimes the lives of their children—to leave the hell that is their lifelong home for the hope they’ll make it to their vision of an American heaven.
What follows is one more version of hell for the six participants. In tracking the footsteps of their assigned migrants, they have to ride the fearsome freight train knows as La Bestia, or The Beast, with hundreds of migrants, many of whom will die or be raped before the train stops at its terminus hundreds of miles to the northwest. They’ll travel into the heart of cartel territory in Sinaloa to observe the Mexican army raid a marijuana plantation, then visit the very “cradle of drug trafficking” by way of a stop in the violent city of Culiacán.
Soon afterwards, their real struggle begins in the bustling border crosser staging area of Altar, Mexico. This is where migrants—including the three whose journeys they’re following—stock up on supplies, like backpacks, socks, and water. For women, that includes contraceptives, since roughly eight of ten female migrants will be raped during the trek north. Knowing that so many people have died on this exact route, the participants are scared. The only reason they and the TV crew are even allowed to do this is because a local priest has greased the skids with the Sinaloa cartel, which controls the town. That fact just adds to the jitters over the jarring experience to follow: brutal terrain, a 50-degree temperature drop overnight, dehydration, and emotional and physical exhaustion.
No matter what your views are on illegal immigration, those views are initially represented by one of these six participants. While your views may not completely change after watching Borderland, depending on where those views started, you will be affected. It will humanize immigrants in a way you’ve never seen before, transforming them from just statistics to real people—people who fear the lands they’re leaving more than they fear the dangers that await them. As you’ll see from the stories of Claudeth, Maira, and Omar, the dead in the desert had parents, siblings, and children. They had dreams of a better life, which to them meant just the chance to wash dishes or pick tomatoes for a few dollars an hour, or in Omar’s case, to simply be reunited with his mother.
This series doesn’t provide or even suggest specific answers to the problem of illegal immigration. It doesn’t push a political agenda, and it voices in equal measure the different viewpoints of all the participants without editorializing. What it does do is present the raw reality that is life for millions of people in Mexico and Central America—like the fact that young kids are being recruited by gangs before they even turn ten years old, upon penalty of death or harm to their families. If the US was like this, what lengths would you go to in order to provide a better life for your children—or merely stay alive—in Canada, for example? If staying in the US meant being forced to join a gang, or die in poverty, or watch your children suffer, is there anything that would stop you from crossing our northern border?
Each of us has a different answer to those questions, and Borderland—a show I think most Americans could benefit from watching—won’t try to put those answers in your head. But it will definitely foster a grand discussion on what needs to change. We can mostly agree that our immigration system is broken. We can’t agree, however, on the best way to fix it. While we argue, people continue to come, and people continue to die, no matter what we try to do to stop them. The need to reunite with family, the need to provide, and the need to survive will always trump any consequences our government—or the Sonoran desert—can impose on illegal immigrants. Always. Borderland makes that very clear, and poses the challenge not just to us, but to every government along this long northbound route: what can we do to keep more people from dying to reach America?
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“Mexico vigilantes in turf war with drug cartel”
January 15th, 2014By Sylvia Longmire.
Here is an excerpt from this Associated Press article in The Guardian:
“Hundreds of vigilantes in Mexico were involved in a gun battle with a drug cartel over the weekend in a fight to control territory. Members of so-called self-defence groups entered Nueva Italia in Michoacán state in an effort to liberate towns from the control of the knights.
Templar cartel. Opponents and critics say the vigilantes are backed by a rival cartel, something the groups deny. Hundreds of vigilantes drove into Nueva Italia late on Sunday morning in a caravan of large trucks, surrounded the city hall and disarmed local police… An Associated Press journalist witnessed citizens initially welcoming them. But shooting broke out almost immediately in and around the centre square… Fighting between vigilantes and alleged cartel members has racked Michoacán for almost a year. President Enrique Peña Nieto’s government has sent thousands of federal police officers and soldiers to the state, but the situation has worsened… The federal government has said the civilian vigilante groups are operating outside the law, armed with high-calibre weapons Mexico allows only for military use. ut government forces have not moved against them and in some cases seem to be working in concert with the vigilantes.” Link to Full Article
Analysis: The expansion of the vigilante movement has been going on for several years, and I can recall an incident in a very rural town going back to 2009. In that case, a local girl had been kidnapped, and the townspeople–after apprehending the kidnappers–tied the five men to trees and beat them senseless. They even managed to stave off police from entering the town. On the flip side of that, after an enforcer group for the Sinaloa Federation dumped 35 bodies in Veracruz and claiming the dead were members of Los Zetas, they called themselves the “Mata Zetas” and said their mission was to rid Mexico of the bloodthirsty killers. It was all a sham, and other groups with that name have emerged before under less than honorable circumstances.
But the violence often associated with vigilantism in Mexico has never been more extreme than what has been observed in the state of Michoacán in the last year, and particularly in the last few weeks. It led the Mexican government to send in the military to secure the major port of Lázaro Cárdenas and stand down the entire local police force. Rumors and accusations are swirling that the Knights Templar and/or rival cartels like the Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG) have infiltrated the vigilantes–or militias, as some media outlets are calling them–and that local police and governments are supporting militia activity.
It’s interesting to note that, while there are many differences, there are also some similarities between these vigilante groups and the autodefensas that were active in Colombia in the 1980s and 1990s. Known as the AUC, they started out as private armies working for drug lords to protect their territories and operations from terrorist groups like the FARC and ELN. They went into areas where the FARC operated and uprooted the communities that they thought provided logistical, personnel, and moral support to the guerrillas. Some estimates claim as many as 2.5 million people in Colombia were displaced by the AUC, which eventually became engaged in the drug trade as well. The autodefensas in Mexico are different in the sense that they’re generally made up of non-criminal local citizens who are tired of the cartel violence and feel they need to do the job the government can’t or won’t do.
However, the similarty lies in the fact that sizeable factions of the government, military, and police inevitably end up supporting vigilante activity. They are all fighting against the same enemy, and for every vigilante holding a gun and placing himself in harm’s way, that’s one less police officer or soldier that needs to risk that confrontation. The rule of law that Mexico is working so hard to reinstate is obviously being snubbed, but that may be okay in the eyes of people who feel that any cartel or militia members who get arrested are never going to see the inside of a courtroom anyway. Government officials probably think it’s sufficient to speak out vocally against vigilante groups that operate outside the law, but then in practice, be content to look the other way and allow those groups to do the dirty work.
The main problem with this attitude is that the Mexican government can’t rely on these often untrained and disorganized groups to contain the violence. It’s not just the Knights Templar operating in Michoacán; you have the remnants of La Familia Michoacana, as well as elements of the CJNG. When you mix three cartels, plus government/police forces, plus militia groups, violence is going to get out of control and people are going to lose track of who’s killing whom. That poses a big public relations problem for President Enrique Peña Nieto; not only does he have to somehow quell violence being initiated by at least three or four different groups, but he has to find a way to convince local officials that the rule of law needs to stand. That would involve arresting militia leaders and members–an option that would likely be highly unpopular.
I’m curious to see what tack EPN will take to try to deal with the security situation in Michoacán. But even if he manages to quell the violence there, odds are the militia movement will emerge elsewhere, and possibly on a larger scale if similar groups see the Michoacán groups achieve any level of success. Ultimately, the entire situation demonstrates that the Mexican government has lost control of parts of Mexico to TCOs, and the strategies they have developed and are following continue to fail in the face of unending corruption.
Zetas Leader Miguel “Z-40” Treviño Morales Captured in Nuevo Laredo
July 17th, 2013
By Sylvia Longmire.
Or so we believe. This news is breaking all over as I type, so this post is subject to updating as more information comes in. A report from the San Antonio Express-News has some moredetail than the other early reports, despite the fact that the Dallas Morning News was the first US source I saw cited. From what I’m able to gather from multiple (and sometimes contradictory) US and Mexican sources, Treviño was captured during a shootout with Mexican marines in the border city of Nuevo Laredo. He’s wanted in the US on five murder charges and is reportedly behind at least 2,000 killings. Treviño is also “accused of smuggling tons of cocaine and marijuana into the U.S. and laundering tens of millions of dollars here through a number of businesses, including horse racing and real estate.” Z-40 has been in charge of Los Zetas since his predecessor, Heriberto “El Lazca” Lazcano was killed in October 2012.
Analysis: So now the question becomes, who will be in charge? And what effect will Treviño’s death have on Los Zetas as an organization, as well as their war with the Sinaloa Federation? We were all actually asking these same questions when El Lazca was killed, although the situation was slightly different. Lazcano had handed off most of the TCO’s operational aspects to Treviño before he was killed, so he was in a figurehead position for the most part. There were some adjustments at the upper levels because the two men have (had) different leadership styles, but I wasn’t made aware of any significant shifts in trafficking patterns or hubs of violence.
In this case, Treviño had a very hands-on operational role; not only as Zetas leader, but head of one of the most lucrative border plazas in Nuevo Laredo, his home base. It’s important to remember that Los Zetas aren’t organized in a hierarchichal fashion, but work more like a franchise operation. Each cell operates more or less independently, and cell/plaza leaders can determine what criminal activities they’ll engage in based on local conditions. There isn’t as much direction coming from the top as there is in TCOs like the Sinaloa Federation or the Arellano Félix Organization, so as long as Z-40 is replaced quickly with someone the plaza bosses have confidence in, his capture may only be a speed bump.
Right now I’m looking at his brother and right hand man, Oscár Omar “Z-42” Treviño Morales, who also goes by Alejandro. He’s a nasty piece of work in his own right, heavily involved in drug trafficking, kidnapping, and murder, and wanted for US$5 million – the same reward offered for brother Miguel. Back in 2012, Mexican newspaper La Jornada identified him as the #3 man in Los Zetas, and said he was responsible for negotiating the Zetas’ supply of Colombian cocaine and precursor chemicals for making methamphetamine. I think Omar/Alejandro would be perfectly capable of taking the Zetas helm, but there may be other plaza bosses who feel the same about themselves. This is where the cell structure is to the disadvantage of the organization as a whole; loyalties in Los Zetas are much more fickle than they are in family-run or “old school” TCOs, although loyalty to a kingpin is never really guaranteed. It’s always possible that the bloodbath to fill Z-40’s position could begin any day now, although I’m not convinced that’s going to be the definitive route for Los Zetas.
One man who is most certainly doing a happy dance is Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán, head of the Federation. I’m not sure how well he’ll be able to exploit Z-40’s capture, since El Lazca’s death didn’t deal him a huge benefit. However, because Treviño has a much bigger and active role in Los Zetas than El Lazca did when he was killed, there’s a better chance El Chapo could see this as the perfect time to strike. Guzmán and Los Zetas have been fighting over Nuevo Laredo since 2004, and the city could now be perceived as ripe for the picking. This is why it’s crucial for Omar/Alejandro or someone else to step up and step in as quickly and seamlessly as possible with a strong show of leadership and strength if violence during this transition is to be minimized. Only the body count in the days and weeks ahead will be a real indicator of how smoothly (or not) the Zetas’ recovery is going.
Original link: http://www.mexicosdrugwar.com/2013/07/zetas-leader-miguel-z-40-trevi%C3%B1o-morales-captured-in-nuevo-laredo.html
Three Defendants Plead Guilty to Participating in Ambush Murder and Attempted Murder of ICE Agents in Mexico
May 27th, 2013
By Sylvia Longmire.
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Here’s an excerpt from the Department of Justice press release:
“Julian Zapata Espinoza, also known as “Piolin,” 32, pleaded guilty today to the murder of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Special Agent Jaime Zapata and the attempted murder of ICE Special Agent Victor Avila in Mexico. The court also unsealed today the guilty pleas of three other defendants on related murder, attempted murder, racketeering, and accessory charges…
As set forth in court filings, on February 15, 2011, Espinoza, a commander in Los Zetas Cartel, a heavily armed Mexican narco-trafficking cartel and transnational criminal organization, attempted to hijack Special Agent Zapata’s and Special Agent Avila’s armored government vehicle as the agents were driving on Highway 57 in San Luis Potosi. Two armed Zetas hit squads, or “estacas,” forced the agents off the road, and surrounded their vehicle.
Espinoza, the leader of the attack, ordered the agents to exit their vehicle. When the agents refused and attempted to identify themselves as American diplomats from the U.S. Embassy, the hit squad members fired weapons near and into the vehicle, striking both agents. Estaca members continued to fire at the vehicle as the agents attempted to escape by driving away.
Special Agent Zapata died as a result of the gunshot wounds he suffered during the attack, and Special Agent Avila was seriously injured… As part of their guilty pleas, Espinoza, Rivera, and Villagran admitted to being members of a Los Zetas hit squad and to participating directly in the February 15, 2011 ambush of the two special agents.
The fourth defendant, Flores, acknowledged assisting Zetas members after the February 15 attack. All four defendants face a maximum sentence of life in prison. No sentencing date has been set for the defendants.” Link to Full Press Release
Analysis: Part of me wants to be happy and relieved that justice has finally been served, and that these Zetas scum are being held accountable for actions the likely took thinking no one could touch them. Another [cynical] side of me wishes I could get a comprehensive summary of the evidence (hopefully) piled against these men that encouraged them to accept a plea deal.
According to a Brownsville Herald article from last year that talked about El Piolin’s hearing getting pushed back to September 2012, “authorities reported to have turned over thousands of pages of discovery for the trial and that thousands more are being processed.” I’d like to think all those pages means that there are ample reports from investigators, forensic specialists, crime scene examiners, etc. However, remember that this investigation was conducted in Mexico by mostly Mexican authorities with some US assistance that happened after the fact.
That being said, El Piolin and company already knew they wouldn’t get the death sentence by the mere fact that the Mexican government agreed to extradite them. Mexico is very much against the death sentence, and this is a strict condition for extradition of any criminal indicted in the US. They still face a maximum of life in prison, so the obvious thing they would have to gain from a plea deal is a reduced sentence in exchange for providing actionable intelligence on Zetas operations, most likely in the San Luís Potosí area where these men operated.
Does this mean these are actually the men responsible for pulling the trigger and setting up Agents Zapata and Avila? Maybe, maybe not. El Piolin has said up and down that he thought Zapata and Avila were members of a rival cartel, which is patent bullcrap. Could these men have just been fall guys ordered by Los Zetas to take one for the team? That’s possible, too. Will their plea deal and subsequent incarceration bring some closure to the Zapata family, ICE, and DHS? Only they can say.
It’s possible I’m just too cynical for my own good, and this really is a good news story. But my spidey sense still tells me that these men were captured too quickly, too easily, and ‘fessed up too smoothly. This is definitely one of those [rare] times where I hope I’m wrong.
Immigration reform’s hidden border-crossing charge
May 10th, 2013By Sylvia Longmire.
Here is an excerpt from Mark Johanson’s article in the International Business Times:
“If the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has its way, Congress may soon authorize the study of a fee to be collected at all land crossings with Canada and Mexico. The contentious issue was buried deep within the department’s proposed 2014 budget, released
last week by DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano. It may have gone relatively unnoticed if U.S. Rep. Brian Higgins, D-N.Y., hadn’t sounded the alarm late Friday… Higgins also suggested that the fee along the 5,530-mile (8,900-kilometer) Canada-U.S. border would unfairly ‘subsidize’ the more challenging and expensive southwestern border with Mexico. According to Section 544 of the budget proposal, the Commissioner of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection should ‘conduct a study assessing the feasibility and cost relating to establishing and collecting a land border crossing fee for both land border pedestrians and passenger vehicles along the northern and southwest borders of the United States.’ Currently, travelers aren’t charged fees for crossing the border by car, bus or train… It remains unclear whether the fee would focus on those entering or exiting the U.S., or both. How much each crossing may cost travelers has yet to be determined.” Link to Full Article (via Salon.com)
Analysis: As a (very) small business owner, I’ll be the first one to tell you that when the cost of doing business goes up – whether that cost comes from more taxes, more expensive supplies, rising travel costs, etc. – those costs almost always get passed on to the customer. In this case, the customers paying the cost of our federal government’s little spending spree over the last several years are the roughly 640,000 people crossing our land borders every day. I imagine DHS took one look at those numbers and started doing the math if each of those daily border crossers equaled a dollar bill of income.
The first obvious negative impact that comes to mind is a new fee’s effect on cross-border trade. Tens of thousands of people (if not more) cross the border into Mexico and Canada and the other way around to go to work every day, and even more so just to go shopping. Then there are the tens of thousands of trucks that enter the US every day to deliver things like fresh food, flowers, electronic components, trees, clothes…you name it. The fees add up quickly for DHS, but that can mean an expense of several hundred dollars per year for just one person, and thousands of dollars for a company whose employees conduct cross-border business on a regular basis.
I imagine the study will examine things like how much DHS can expect to reasonably charge a border crosser without too much protest, and the practical logistics of taking payment – sensors and stickers (like for toll roads), cash, monthly payment discounts, etc. The main security concern would be if individuals who are super-strapped for cash might look to avoid paying the fee by crossing the border illegally, but I don’t really envision that happening en masse, and especially not from people who have to cross on a regular basis. I also can’t imagine that DHS would charge more than a few dollars, but DHS never fails to astound in its frequent short-sightedness and lack of common sense.
I’ll be curious to see the results of the study in nine months’ time, but I have a feeling the negative backlash from the Canadian and Mexican governments will outweigh DHS’ need to make a quick buck to help it survive sequestration cuts.
Sylvia Longmire: Is a Border Analysis Researcher for Homeland Security.
Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto Outlines New Drug War Plan
January 3rd, 2013By Sylvia Longmire.
Here is an excerpt from Jordan Fabian’s article on ABC/Univision:
“Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto said Monday his administration will shift the nation’s anti-crime strategy in a break from the U.S.-backed campaign against drug cartels carried out under his predecessor, Felipe Calderón. According to multiple media reports, Peña Nieto
laid out a plan before Mexico’s National Council on Public Security that he would focus more on reducing crimes against ordinary citizens – such as murder, kidnapping, and extortion — than pursuing the leaders of violent drug cartels. Peña Nieto and members of his cabinet were also critical of the previous administration’s policies, which resulted in a drawn out war against cartels that has left tens of thousands dead. The centerpiece of Peña Nieto’s plans is the creation of a 10,000-person national gendarmerie – or paramilitary police force — designed to patrol far-flung areas where local law enforcement and military forces have failed to eradicate widespread crime. Similar forces are used in European countries like Spain and Italy… While Peña Nieto offered more specifics on the shift than he has since taking office, he did not indicate a timeline for when the force would be established or where or how officers would be recruited. He also reportedly did not say whether he would remove the country’s military from the nation’s drug war… Other reforms include a review of Mexico’s detention policies, which allow certain drug suspects to be held for almost three months without being charged.” Link to Full Article
Analysis: There’s a lot more detail in a recent Washington Post story about just how much lack of detail EPN has provided almost three weeks into his term. A lot of us drug war observers who have taken a wait-and-see attitude are starting to get tired of waiting, as I’m sure much of Mexico is as well. For example:
“The administration said it would divide Mexico into five regions for the purposes of security planning, allowing them to design tactics specific to problems that vary widely across Mexico. It did not, however, say what those five regions would be.”
The gendarmerie EPN is referring to is supposed to reach a size of 40,000 officers from the initial 10,000 recruits, but he didn’t mention anything about how he would prevent the plague of plata o plomo, meaning how those officers could avoid the “take the bribe or take the bullet” corruption of police departments past. Will the US have a hand in training these officers? Will they be paid more or offered more benefits than their federal police predecessors? What will they be armed with to protect themselves? Right now, no one knows the answers to these questions…and possibly not EPN himself. And too many critics are spewing that this gendarmerie will be just another attempt at renaming and reforming the police, which has been attempted no less than seven times in the last decade with no positive results.
I do like EPN’s strategy of focusing on violence reduction more thancapo hunting or setting records for drug seizures. But again, I’m waiting to see specifics for how he’s going to do that. State and local police departments in Mexico have been focused on the exact local crimes EPN has been referring to, and they haven’t had much luck due to being mostly in the employ of battling TCOs. How can EPN hope to significantly reduce kidnapping rates when the police are either looking the other way when they happen, or are actively involved in the kidnappings themselves?
A little over a week ago, EPN announced he was going to enact sweeping reforms to the education system; specifically, he wanted to take on the Mexican teachers’ union to allow promotions based on merit, the elimination of nepotism, and some other issues. I find it interesting that a president from a left-leaning party wants to take on one of the biggest unions in the hemisphere (I’d wager this one is even more powerful than the California version), and I don’t know how much success he’ll have unless he can convince the legislature to support him.
So far, however, EPN is behaving predictably. We knew he’d want to change up a few things from the way Calderón was steering the ship, but not make any drastic changes out of the gate. He’s keeping the military in place for now while exploring his options – the proposed gendarmerie being at the top of his list for their eventual replacement. I’d like to see him offer some radical plans for reducing the TCO recruitment pool by increasing educational, after-school, and work opportunities for tweens and teens. I’d also like to see him be vocal about tackling money laundering and institution building.
I know he’s just getting started, and he has six years to work with. However, he’s got that dinosaur on his back called the PRI, and he has a lot to prove. Mexicans are growing weary of war and bloodshed, and are more skeptical than ever of any politician who says he or she can make their communities safer or their lives better. I’m happy to give EPN the benefit of the doubt, but that – for me – will always be tinged with a healthy dose of skepticism, no matter who sits in Los Pinos.
http://www.mexicosdrugwar.com/2012/12/mexican-president-enrique-pe%C3%B1a-nieto-outlines-new-drug-war-plan.html
“Mexico nabs ex-Zetas leader, El Taliban”
October 1st, 2012By Sylvia Longmire.
Here is an excerpt from Dudley Althaus’ article in The Houston Chronicle:
“Mexican marines have captured a renegade leader of the Zetas known as El Taliban in the latest blow by the U.S.-backed commando campaign against the violent gang operating south of the Texas border. Ivan Velázquez Caballero, 42, was dragged Wednesday evening
From a safe house in a middle class neighborhood in the city of San Luis Potosi. Though accompanied by two bodyguards, Velázquez apparently was seized without a shot being fired … Formerly a senior Zetas lieutenant, Velázquez had broken with the gang’s top bosses in recent months, allying himself with remnants of the rival Gulf Cartel and Knights Templar gangs to vie for control of key border cities and smuggling routes … His fall, combined with the Navy’s capture this month of two Gulf Cartel leaders, could bolster efforts by Zetas kingpins Miguel Angel Trevíño, known as Z-40, and Heriberto Lazcano to consolidate underworld control along the entire south Texas border … The split between Velázquez and his former Zetas bosses became public in mid-August with the discovery of the bodies of 14 Velázquez gunmen stuffed into a van parked outside San Luis Potosi. Scores also have been killed this month in Nuevo Laredo as the factions battle it out.” Link to Full Article
Analysis: The fallout from this arrest can be summed up in three words: What. A. Mess. It’s always a good thing when a major TCO kingpin gets arrested – and hopefully extradited – by Mexican authorities, and particularly without a shot being fired in the process. Currently, former CDG kingpin Rafael Cárdenas Vela (nephew of former CDG boss Osiel Cárdenas Guillen) is spilling everything he knows to U.S. authorities during the trial of Juan Roberto Rincon-Rincon, and you’d better believe he’ll have something huge to gain from that. I have no doubt Velázquez will be a gold mine of information, probably for both Los Zetas and the CDG.
While that’s the good news, the bad news is that his arrest plunges northeast Mexico into even more chaos, if that’s even possible. In case you haven’t been closely following developments there in the last few months, both Los Zetas and the CDG are undergoing major upheavals. The CDG split into two factions, Los Metros and Los Rojos, over a year ago, and the leaders of both of those factions have recently been arrested. No one really knows who’s running the CDG show right now, although some names have been tossed around as likely candidates.
Los Zetas underwent their own split, possibly as far back as April, with one faction falling under Miguel “Z-40” Treviño Morales – who has sort of wrested control of Los Zetas from absent leader Heriberto “El Lazca” Lazcano Lazcano – and the breakaway group falling under Velázquez. Last week, the news was that “El Taliban/Z-50” had forged an alliance with the CDG, Los Zetas’ former employer pre-2010, to do battle against Treviño. But the ink was barely dry on that agreement when Velázquez was picked up a couple of days ago. It’s not clear if his faction was strong or organized enough to have a set hierarchy, meaning a designated replacement for Velázquez.
Unfortunately, this means there are more questions than answers: Who is in control of the CDG? Have the two factions reunited? What is the status of the Zetas split now that Z-50 is gone? What is the status of the alliance between Z-50’s people and the CDG? All of those issues are kind of unknowns right now.
Just to make things more interesting, let’s throw the Sinaloa Federation and Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán into the mix. I told Agence France Presse in an interview yesterday that I think Guzmán is probably laughing his head off at this whole mess right now because he’s the only one who can potentially stand to gain from it. Many of us analysts/observers had theorized that the Federation could sweep in to prop up the CDG after the arrest of Jorge “El Coss” Costilla Sánchez in order to fight off Los Zetas – and gain a bigger piece of the lucrative Matamoros plaza. But El Chapo might have even bigger fish to fry if he perceives a major weakness in Los Zetas subsequent to El Taliban’s arrest. The CDG still needs his help, without a doubt, but Guzmán may be calculating if his organization is capable of eliminating both Los Zetas and the CDG from large swaths of Tamaulipas in one fell swoop. This would be a herculean task, of course, but he can’t complain about the good timing.
Sadly, most of us know by know that uncertainty and instability in the drug war inevitably lead to increased levels of violence. With not just one, but two power vacuums going on, plus possibly three major TCOs fighting for control of the same area of NE Mexico, things are going to get even uglier than they already are. The only things that could alleviate that are if Los Zetas and the CDG decide who is in charge VERY quickly, and/or if El Chapo can take control, either with or without the CDG’s help, of Tamaulipas in short order. Stay tuned…
The ‘Los Zetas’ Cartel is Divided
August 10th, 2012By Syliva Longmire.
Here is a translated excerpt from the Mexican news magazine Proceso:
“Mexican Federal Security Sources confirm what some narcobanners hung in northern states suggested since early last month: Los Zetas, the extremely violent group of thugs who became a drug cartel, faces a break in the dome. Its two main leaders, [Miguel] El Z-40 [Treviño Morales] and [Heriberto] El Lazca [Lazcano Lazcano] apparently are engaged in a complicated web of betrayals. Experts predict new and more serious bloodshed in the country … [Several narco] messages, [videos on YouTube] and events such as the dismemberment of 49 bodies that were abandoned early on May 13 in Cadereyta, reveal a new division in one of the most powerful and diversified cartels in the country, which could be a prelude to a new spillage of blood… ‘El Z-40 has been betrayed and has been moving against El Lazca’s people,’ say the officials, who add that Lazcano has been moving between Europe and Central America. He was recently spotted in Costa Rica, where he arrived from Germany … El Z-40, who has been located between Piedras Negras, Coahuila, and Aguascalientes, could make an even more violent cartel if he can remain in control. He has distinguished himself as an impulsive operator, say the sources. News of the Zeta division are not new. Since April last year the Texas firm Stratfor intelligence realized versions in this regard.” Link to the Full Translation
Analysis: Trying to dissect the potential repercussions of an internal split within the ranks of Los Zetas is a different animal than the same endeavor with the CDG or the Federation. The reason for this is the inherent difference in organization between Los Zetas and the “old school” cartels where fault lines might be more visible.
For example, there have been two relatively recent splits in more traditionally organized TCOs – the Metros and Rojos factions of the CDG, and the split in La Familia Michoacana that resulted in the creation of the Knights Templar. One similarity is that you have two Zetas leaders – Treviño and Lazcano – with whom the various members and cells can choose to align. But Los Zetas are organized very horizontally, sort of in a franchise fashion, whereas the other major TCOs are organized more vertically with a clearer and stricter chain of command.
If the rumors of the split are confirmed – and it certainly seems to be heading in that direction – this will be the most significant shift in the TCO landscape since the La Familia split, or perhaps the defection of the BLO from the Federation. In the last year, we drug war observers believe Los Zetas gained control of more territory in Mexico than the Federation, which is a considerable amount of real estate. Journalist and author Sam Logan theorized not long ago that Los Zetas may have had a long-term strategy in mind to consolidate control over smuggling routes in a roman cross pattern across Mexico. Any major split would completely disrupt any such strategy.
It might be difficult to determine how the split would impact any international arrangements Los Zetas have with cocaine suppliers in South America, route managers and training camp locations in Central America, and arms suppliers in Central America and the US. Kind of like a major corporation that relies heavily on sales and service, Zetas partners may show more loyalty to their local Zetas cell, rather than one or the other head honcho. And individual cells may continue to operate relatively independently, regardless of the personal disputes between Z-40 and El Lazca.
Certainly, some (or many) members may feel more loyalty towards one man or the other, and will follow orders to the death. However, due to the military-style discipline leaders, trainers, and recruiters try to instill in many new members, some Zetas may feel a little lost, like watching the General and the Colonel fighting, and just wait to see who comes out alive to give the new orders.
Also, we have to remember that Los Zetas – probably more than any other TCO – have branched out into a wide variety of other illicit activities, many of which are dependent on local conditions for income. Conflict at the top of the Zetas food chain may not have any major impact on the extortion of businesses or pirated DVD sales in certain parts of Mexico.
But first things first; we need to wait a bit and see if these rumors pan out, meaning we start seeing an increase in violence in parts of Mexico where Los Zetas have total control – meaning a rival TCO can’t be held responsible for the killing, like we saw in Tijuana in 2008-2010. So for now, the watching and waiting continues…