Scene of Friday's gunfight between soldiers and gangsters.
Twelve members of a cartel hit squad were killed by the army Friday in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, after an early morning attack by armed men dressed in camouflage clothing and traveling in pickups.
The dead were allegedly members of the Tropa del Infierno, or Hell’s Army, the armed wing of the Northeast Cartel, who attacked soldiers while they were patrolling the highway to the airport. No military personnel were reported injured in the shoot-out.
Investigators at the scene recovered two of the squad’s vehicles that were reported stolen in the United States, as well as 12 guns including two Barrett .50 caliber sniper rifles and eight AR-15s.
The Northeast Cartel, a faction of Los Zetas, is headed by Juan Gerardo Treviño Chávez, alias El Huevo. A reward of 2 million pesos (US $89,000) has been offered for information leading to his arrest. Treviño is the nephew of the former leader of Los Zetas who was arrested in Houston in 2016.
Hell’s Army first made headlines in August 2019 when one of its members, a 16-year-old boy known as Juanito Pistolas, was killed by Tamaulipas state police in an armed confrontation in which the young man was decapitated by gunfire.
Eleven other alleged Hell’s Army members were also killed in that incident and another the same day, which occurred not long after the hit squad took responsibility for an attack on a hotel in Nuevo Laredo that left one police officer dead and two other people wounded.
Next week's coronavirus risk map: red indicates maximum risk and orange high.
Five states switched from orange to red on the federal government’s latest color-coded “stoplight” map, used to indicate the risk of coronavirus infection, while four states moved in the opposite direction from red to orange.
Fifteen states were allocated a “red light” denoting the maximum risk on the new map presented at the Health Ministry’s coronavirus press briefing on Friday night, an increase of one compared to the map that has been in effect this week, while the other 17 states were given an “orange light” indicating high risk.
The new stoplight colors and corresponding restrictions will take effect on Monday.
The five states that will move back to “red light” restrictions are Chiapas, Tamaulipas, Veracruz, Guanajuato and Coahuila.
The other 10 “red light” states that saw no change to their risk level on the new map are Baja California, Colima, México state, Nayarit, Nuevo León, Puebla, Sinaloa, Sonora, Tabasco and Tlaxcala.
The daily tally of coronavirus cases and deaths. Deaths are numbers reported and not necessarily those that occurred each day. milenio
The four states where coronavirus conditions improved, triggering a switch from red to orange, are Guerrero, Hidalgo, Morelos and Oaxaca.
The other 13 “orange light” states are Aguascalientes, Baja California Sur, Campeche, Chihuahua, Durango, Jalisco, Michoacán, Mexico City, Querétaro, Quintana Roo, San Luis Potosí, Yucatán and Zacatecas.
The government considers four factors when determining the risk level and corresponding stoplight color for each state: case number trends (whether new infections are increasing, decreasing or stable), hospital admission trends for coronavirus patients, hospital occupancy levels and positivity rates (the percentage of people tested who are confirmed to have Covid-19).
States allocated an orange light can ease restrictions, allowing a range of businesses including restaurants, cinemas and hair salons to operate, though at reduced capacity. State governments have the power to tweak the recommended restrictions at each risk level as they see fit.
A “yellow light” denoting a medium risk of coronavirus infection and a “green light” indicating low risk can also be allocated to a state under the “stoplight” system but no states have transitioned to those colors since the system was introduced at the start of June.
After the number of new Covid-19 cases reported by the Health Ministry declined for four consecutive days between last Friday and Monday, case numbers increased on both Tuesday and Wednesday before hitting a record single-day high of 6,741 on Thursday.
New cases declined by one on Friday to 6,740, increasing Mexico’s accumulated tally to 245,251.
As a result, Mexico moved past Italy, one of the early hotspots of the pandemic, to rank ninth in the world for total cases, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
The Health Ministry also reported 654 additional Covid-19 fatalities, lifting the official death toll to 29,843. Mexico still has the sixth highest death toll in the world behind the United States, Brazil, the United Kingdom, Italy and France.
In addition to the confirmed Covid-19 deaths in Mexico, 2,169 fatalities are suspected to have been caused by the disease.
Of the confirmed cases, 26,063 are considered active, an increase of 498 compared to Thursday. There are also 77,750 suspected cases across the country while just under 625,000 people have been tested.
National data shows that the positivity rate has remained steady in recent weeks at or just below 50%, meaning that about one in every two people tested is found to have Covid-19.
Mexico’s positivity rate is much higher than most other countries because the government is not testing widely, instead focusing on people with coronavirus-like symptoms.
Without support, many more are predicted to close.
About 500,000 formal businesses could close in Mexico in the next six months due to the coronavirus-induced economic crisis, according to the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC).
Executive Secretary Alicia Bárcena said Thursday that businesses in the retail, wholesale, tourism, manufacturing, construction, services and cultural sectors are at the highest risk of being unable to survive the economic downturn.
Presenting a report on the economic impact of the coronavirus crisis in the region, Bárcena said that large-scale government support is needed to avoid the en masse closure of businesses and consequent job losses.
“Mexico has strategic companies that must be supported,” the ECLAC chief said, citing the flag carrier Aeroméxico as an example.
“Direct support must also be given to micro and small businesses,” Bárcena added.
The federal government has offered 25,000-peso (US $1,100) loans to small businesses and individuals, which Bárcena applauded, but the ECLAC chief said that a greater number of credits should be made available and that they should be repayable over three years because “the recovery won’t be quick.”
She also said the government should help struggling businesses pay employees’ salaries and provide direct payments to independent workers to help them weather the economic storm.
“The measures we are proposing … [are to] defend [strategic] capacities, protect jobs and protect trades,” Bárcena said.
“What is undoubtedly needed is a broad industrial policy directed at strategic sectors in Mexico,” she added.
ECLAC’s prediction that 500,000 businesses could be forced to close for good comes a week after a similar forecast from the bank BBVA.
Pinar de la Venta is a fraccionamiento (housing development) located eight kilometers west of Guadalajara and nestled in a mile-high forest wherein reside all sorts of creatures.
This was just what my wife and I wanted when we were house hunting many years ago: a home where we could commune with nature in rural Mexico, where we could fall asleep each night lulled by the chirping of crickets and a whole orchestra of frogs. So we made our home in Pinar de la Venta — ¡Ay qué bonito! Welcome to the woods!
So let’s begin with the bugs …
On our very first morning in Pinar, we wandered out of our bedroom only to discover the cadavers of several little yellow scorpions lying here and there on the floor. It did not take us long to figure out that it was we who had killed those scorpions — at night, mind you — while walking to the bathroom or going to the kitchen for a drink of water.
So it was we discovered our first rule for survival in rural Mexico: never walk around in bare feet at night!
Scorpions which were accidentally stepped on at night.
Over the following months I collected enough dead scorpions to fill a jar.
Another bug we had far too many of, at the beginning, was the earwig. Unlike scorpions, they posed no danger, but oh, how annoying it was to open a book and have an earwig fall out of it straight into your coffee cup!
Every year, during “Earwig Season,” they were everywhere: under the place mats, behind every picture frame, and curled up inside the spout of every faucet.
Seasonal, too, were the invasions of ants. Long, orderly columns marching down the wall … and then there were the honeybees’ attempts to establish a home in our attic — every year, mind you!
Only after two decades did we discover the solution to bug problems in rural Mexico … and it was not fumigation.
“If you have too many bugs in your house,” said spider expert Rodrigo Orozco, “it’s because things are out of balance. If you want to restore balance, don’t use poisons — use spiders instead!”
Tequila bats visiting a hummingbird feeder.
I’m sure most readers will never believe this, but it’s true. We followed our friend’s advice and stopped killing spiders or even disturbing their webs. Within a year, we achieved a sort of “bug balance” in our home. Now we are unlikely to see a scorpion for three months and earwigs are so rare that if we happen to come upon one, we welcome it as if receiving an old friend.
As for the spiders, it is the flatty or wall crab spider (Selenops insularis) that rules in our house, one of them being in charge of each room and so unafraid of us that we’ve given them names. Step into the kitchen and there you’ll find Elmer on duty. By the way, flatties are fascinating to watch and are considered “one of the world’s fastest animals!”
Next come the birds. Despite the curse of our neighbors’ leaf blowers (which will slowly drive the more exotic birds away from any community), we still see white-collared seedeaters, black-headed grosbeaks, russet-crowned motmots, Inca doves, great kiskadees, curve-billed thrashers, brown-backed solitaires, vermilion flycatchers and rusty-crowned ground-sparrows along with all kinds of wrens and orioles.
And every morning my wife Susy has a long conversation with a pair of blue mockingbirds which are crazy about the papaya and watermelon she puts out for them daily.
In our forest, acorn woodpeckers are also common. One day we discovered a couple of them stealing the peanuts we were putting out for the foxes (see below) so we started setting out a separate plate of peanuts for the carpinteros, as they’re called in Spanish — much to the delight of the squirrels, of course, who naturally assumed those peanuts were for them.
After trying various strategies, we ended up suspending the plateful of peanuts in the air and now, every morning, dozens of woodpeckers come to, well, “steal them” is the only expression that appropriately describes their furtive arrival, nervous glances left and right, their sudden, frantic grab for a peanut and their instantaneous straight-line departure for a far-off tree branch where they consume their “booty” with obvious relish.
Moshi Moshi
And then there is Moshi Moshi the hummingbird.
I no sooner step out the door every morning and there is Moshi Moshi hovering right in front of my nose. This nervous hovering is a message: “My plastic flower has gone dry!”
Then, as I go to wash the feeder, which has been sucked dry by the bats (who completely empty it every night), Moshi Moshi flies in circles around me, checking whether I have refilled it yet even though he (or she) knows I first have to rinse it out. This process has become a daily ritual.
What kind of bats empty the hummingbird feeder at night remained a mystery for a while. They take their drinks at such lightning speed that the human eye can only detect a blur. To identify them, I needed to take a photo, but my reaction time was much too slow: the first time I tried, I took 18 pictures. Seventeen of them showed an empty bird feeder —but one did capture the handsome face of our visitor: Leptonycteris yerbabuenae, the “Tequila Bat,” which pollinates the famed blue agave and is presently classified as near threatened.
When it comes to beasts, we have seen white-tailed deer, tree and rock squirrels, collared peccaries, ringtails, raccoons, Virginia opossums and white-nosed coatis — but it was the gray foxes we got to know best …
My wife loves fruit and somehow imagines that all other creatures must certainly love fruit as well. So what could be more natural than to put a plate of fruit out in the yard every night for whatever animals may be passing in the dark?
The big surprise (only to me!) was that every morning the plate was empty.
[soliloquy id="116031"]
Discovering exactly which creature was eating that fruit required frequent monitoring of the yard from a well-hidden position. Never did we expect that those fruit-eaters would turn out to be three gray foxes.
To get a better look at them, we began moving the fruit dish a little closer to our porch every night until finally we could watch them through the screen door while sitting on the sofa. At that time there was no TV in our community — but who needed it?
Eventually we learned that — in addition to sweet cantaloupes — foxes especially like raw eggs and, though it might be hard to believe, they thoroughly enjoy peanuts and are very skillful at shelling them. But the all-time favorite of those gray foxes was a plump, ripe, gooey mango … and the proof was the spotlessly clean mango pit they always left behind.
Next we shall discuss luz, or electricity, in rural Mexico and how it can wreak havoc on a computer.
The writer has lived near Guadalajara, Jalisco, for more than 30 years and is the author of A Guide to West Mexico’s Guachimontones and Surrounding Area and co-author of Outdoors in Western Mexico. More of his writing can be found on his website.
With restaurants and hotels once again open and around 28 flights arriving at the Los Cabos airport daily from elsewhere in Mexico and from the United States, businesses in Baja California Sur (BCS) are hopeful that the economy will soon rebound.
Flight numbers are up from a dismal eight per day in April, the airport manager said June 22, noting that typically there used to be as many as 70 flights arriving every day.
But even though more tourists might begin arriving, businesses’ costs are up.
The cost of doing business during the pandemic and complying with health protocols can cost up to 20,000 pesos (US $890) a month for sanitary supplies and other adaptations to comply with virus protocols, the Mexican Employers Federation reports.
Meanwhile, restaurants in BCS continue to struggle, says the state chapter of the national restaurant association Canirac, and those that remain open are having difficulty filling just 10% of their seats, much less the 30% capacity they are permitted.
At least 25 restaurants in the state have been permanently shuttered, BCS Noticias reports.
While things are looking down for the restaurant industry, the same cannot be said for alcohol retailers. Sales have quadrupled in the state, Canirac says.
In other coronavirus news, there was panic on the streets of Cabo San Lucas Thursday when a man who had been hospitalized with the virus escaped and attempted to board a city bus after learning he was to be put on a ventilator.
Family members of carpenter Waldo Ramírez Astudillo, originally from Guerrero, say he was first hospitalized on June 30 with respiratory symptoms.
As his condition worsened, medical staff informed him he would need the assistance of a ventilator and Ramírez, 56, panicked, ripping out his IV drip and threatening workers with his IV stand.
He broke a window and managed to cross the highway where he reached a bus stop in front of a supermarket and collapsed, Metropolimx reports, frightening passersby. Five doctors wearing protective equipment ran out to assist him and the National Guard was called but Ramírez died at the scene.
As of July 2, BCS has seen 1,631confirmed cases of the coronavirus and 79 deaths.
Mulegé fire
Around 10 hectares of palm groves in Mulegé were destroyed by fire on the afternoon of June 28, BCS Noticias reports.
Firefighters battled the blaze for five hours as residents pitched in to help douse the flames, alerted to the situation by the dense cloud of smoke.
Road trippin’
A brightly painted Mercedes bus converted into a camper arrived in Los Cabos this week, a pit stop on a journey a family is making from Patagonia, Argentina, to Alaska that began 15 years ago.
The three Argentine travelers, center, and the Bicho Latino.
The “Bicho Latino” (Latin Bug), as the bus is affectionately called, has spent the last four years in Mexico and arrived in BCS via ferry in March where the family of three and their dog quarantined for the past three months.
Matu, Shanti and the couple’s 11-year-old daughter, who was born during their travels, are in no hurry to reach their destination and say “the plan is to have no plan” as they enjoy their nomadic lifestyle.
The family survives on selling t-shirts and a book they have written about their travels, as well as working the occasional odd job in communities where they stop.
“I cannot imagine a better life to live, I cannot imagine stopping in a fixed place, I am not attracted to the idea,” Shanti told the newspaper El Debate earlier this year.
Fish tales
Fishermen in Todos Santos had quite the surprise when they landed a monster, 160-kilo grouper this week. The men, led by legendary captain Luis Manuel Inzunza Salvatierra, were fishing the waters of Punta Lobo from a panga, or fiberglass skiff, when they pulled in the colossal catch, Metropolimex reports.
And in La Ribera, another big fish caused quite a stir last weekend when drone footage of a two-meter-long shark swimming in shallow waters just off the beach went viral.
Authorities say the presence of two large sharks in proximity to the shore was enough to close the beach out of concern for the safety of bathers.
“We are going to be teaming up with Zofemat (Federal Terrestrial Maritime Zone), Civil Protection, Public Security and the private sector and are going to be monitoring the species now so that it does not endanger bathers,” explained delegate Juan Carlos Montaño as the beach reopened on Monday.
Urzúa criticized the López Obrador administration for a 'cold' response to the dire circumstances created by the coronavirus.
The main economic problem faced by the federal government and its state counterparts is a lack of money, says former finance minister Carlos Urzúa.
In an interview with the Spanish newspaper El País, Urzuá – President López Obrador’s finance minister from December 2018 until his resignation in July 2019 – called Mexico’s economic situation bad, asserting that the coronavirus crisis has “sent us on a downward spiral.”
“To understand what is happening in Mexico, at least in economic terms, is not difficult because it has been very well diagnosed for a long time. What is the main problem you face whether you’re the federal government or a state government? Essentially that you don’t have money,” Urzúa said.
The ex-minister said that tax collection in Mexico is only about 14% of GDP, an amount he said is insufficient to remedy the problems the country faces.
Mexican economy was in trouble before coronavirus hit, says former finance minister.
“When you have tax collection like that, unless you have very large extra profits from … fuel or copper, like in Chile, … nothing will turn out well because it’s far too little money for the magnitude of the problems you face. The vast majority of countries in Latin America have tax collection of at least 20% of GDP,” Urzúa said.
He said the lack of tax revenue has prevented Mexico from being able to provide better education, healthcare and other essential services to citizens.
Urzúa, now a professor of economics at the Tec de Monterrey university, said that “every now and then, oil deposits save us” by injecting additional revenue into the government’s coffers but that is not currently the case.
“There’s simply no money, that’s the first thing,” he said.
The ex-minister said that both individuals and companies in Mexico “are not used to paying a lot of taxes” and that political leaders have contributed to the low tax collection problem because they have removed more taxes than they have implemented.
López Obrador’s administration has ramped up efforts to collect unpaid taxes but Urzúa said the president has made it clear that he doesn’t want to impose new ones.
“López Obrador has always been very clear. He doesn’t want taxes. I think that he shouldn’t have said that but he says it and repeats it all the time. One of the reasons he said it was obviously to win votes,” he said.
Urzúa said that a second significant economic problem for the government is that there is insufficient private and public investment to stimulate growth.
He said that investment of at least 25% of GDP is needed for the country to grow but in López Obrador’s first year in office, investment failed to reach that mark and in fact fell compared to the previous year.
“If I remember correctly, [total investment] was 22.4% in 2018, 3.3% was public investment and 19.1% was private investment, both national and foreign. … What happened in 2019? … Investment ended up being 20.2% of GDP. Why? Public investment fell, because there isn’t any money. Private investment [also] fell. Why? Because of a lack of confidence in the federal government, I think.”
Asked what the greatest economic risks Mexico is facing right now, Urzúa didn’t nominate the predicted deep recession or growing unemployment but rather a likely dispute between the federal government and the states over funding.
“The greatest risk I see is the confrontation that is germinating … between the governments, especially the state governments and the federal government, because there is no money.”
AMLO and Urzúa before the relationship soured. Today, the former finance minister says the president is too authoritarian.
He noted that the “vast majority” of states’ income is provided by the federal government and predicted that the brewing battle over funding will come to a head very soon.
As income tax and sales tax revenue fall due to the coronavirus crisis, it will follow that the states will be allocated less funding, precipitating a clash, Urzúa said.
“Fortunately, there is a state income stabilization fund that should have about 60 billion pesos [US $2.7 billion] that can help for about three, four or five months but not longer than that, and there is also a federal fund that can help us, which should have about 140 or 150 billion pesos now. … It can help alleviate the situation a little bit but not much,” he said.
“There is a second risk that is very concerning, … which is the pensions issue, … at the end of the day it’s a time bomb that is going to explode,” Urzúa said referring to the federal government’s snowballing pension costs.
With respect to the government’s economic response to the coronavirus crisis, the former minister was very critical, asserting that the López Obrador administration has demonstrated “a coldness” few governments could show considering the dire circumstances.
The money the government has allocated to ease the suffering of the economy and Mexican people has been “basically useless,” he said.
“I believe that fiscal policy has been very bad,” Urzúa said, adding that the government should have provided financial assistance to employers to help them cover their workers’ salaries during the crisis.
He criticized López Obrador for having a “very authoritarian” governance style and little interest in listening to economists.
The ex-minister was also critical of monetary policy, charging that interest rates are still too high even though the central bank has cut rates five times this year to a current benchmark rate of 5%.
At the conclusion of a lengthy interview with El País, Urzúa also took aim at López Obrador’s use of the word “neoliberal” to disparage former presidents and their governments.
“I would say that he uses the word ‘neoliberal’ as an insult. In other words, instead of saying ‘asshole’ or ‘fuck you,’ he says ‘neoliberal’ because he generally doesn’t use bad words. I think the way in which he and Morena [the ruling party] use the term is absurd in general. The Mexican economy is very neoliberal. In fact, we’re an extraordinarily open economy by international standards and we completely depend on foreign trade,” he said.
“The Mexican economy is completely neoliberal. The only thing that isn’t neoliberal is probably this intervention in the energy sector,” Urzúa added, referring to moves to consolidate power in the state-run electricity and oil companies at the expense of private firms.
A Mexican student was one of six members of a victorious team in a pandemic-themed virtual hackathon organized by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Guillermo de Alva, a postgraduate IT student at the Iberoamericana University, and five students from the Universidad del Pacífico in Lima, Peru, won one of the categories in the “Latin America vs. Covid-19” virtual hackathon held in late June.
The team developed a project called HandyCash, a digital platform that enables small stores to form an interconnected shopping community.
In an interview with his university, de Alva said that via the platform, consumers can make a deposit in a store near their home and use the funds in other stores that are part of the same networked community.
Their purchases at the interconnected stores are validated by an account number and a mobile phone text message, he said.
De Alva said that the HandyCash platform would be beneficial to both consumers and shopkeepers alike. It reduces the use of cash at a time when people are being encouraged to avoid close contact with each other to reduce the risk of infection with the coronavirus.
The digital platform would also help small stores known as tienditas to increase their cash flow and become formal rather than informal businesses, de Alva said.
“The fundamental purpose of this project is to [allow] … a step toward the formalization of businesses because businesses that are already formalized have advantages such as [access to] loans and financial provisions that allow customers to pay with cards,” he said.
“The initiative will give tienditas the opportunity to see those benefits and join the banking system.”
As a result of winning their category, de Alva and his Peruvian teammates will receive organizational support, computing resources, and direct access to key partners to further develop their project, according to the hackathon website.
The MIT, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, has organized three other pandemic-themed hackathons including one aimed at building solutions for Africa amid the Covid-19 crisis.
Hospital staff at the ceremony for coronavirus victim.
At an emotional ceremony, staff at Regional Hospital 20 of the Mexican Institute of Social Security in Tijuana, Baja California, said goodbye to a cherished colleague who lost her life to the coronavirus.
Nurse Dionisia Trasviña, 54, had spent 23 years of her life caring for the sick and was looking forward to her imminent retirement when she was stricken with the disease and passed away.
A memorial was set up in the hospital’s lobby with a photo of the beloved nurse and flowers.
Friends, coworkers and members of Trasviña’s family shed tears as they lit candles and released white balloons in her honor.
“We are all sad, but we are proud we are in the front row in this battle. She was a very good companion in all aspects, as a friend and as a nurse, not to mention that she was always dedicated to her vocation,” said Rebeca Gómez, a nursing assistant at the hospital.
“She lost her life in the fight, in this battle. But I want to ask you not to be sad, she would not have wanted it,” one of her coworkers commented as the staff shared memories of the nurse who was remembered by many as an angel with a constant smile who never complained.
“Today is a painful day, very sad, since we lost a great companion, a warrior like Dioni,” said hospital director César Figueroa. “We will always remember Dioni as a great companion, a great person and a great nurse.”
In Baja California, 1,782 health sector workers have been infected with the coronavirus and 16 have died, of which two, including Trasviña, worked on the front lines at hospitals devoted exclusively to coronavirus patients.
Governor Alfaro: a sign of the challenge facing the Mexican state.
Jalisco Governor Enrique Alfaro said Friday that he was one of several officials who were threatened by the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG).
Alfaro said he was notified by the National Intelligence Unit of the threats made against him.
The newspaper La Razón reported that a recently apprehended cartel hitman said the governor “is in the crosshairs” and an attempt on his life was being planned for not cooperating with the criminal organization.
“Yesterday afternoon we were informed simply to be careful with this information. I have said that more than a specific threat against me it is a sign of the challenge against the Mexican state,” the governor said in an interview with Grupo Fórmula.
“Some measures were taken to strengthen security. What has to be understood is that we are living in very difficult times, but we are going to move forward,” Alfaro continued. “You cannot govern with fear.”
He stressed that after the attempted assassination of Mexico City Police Chief Omar García Harfuch last week, where three people died allegedly at the hands of a CJNG hit squad, political leaders need to be more united in defense of common interests. “The events of the last days show that it is time to straighten the path, to close ranks.”
The threats against Alfaro add him to a growing and unfortunate list of politicians the cartel perceives as enemies.
According to a telephone call intercepted by intelligence officers two weeks before the attack on the police chief, a number of high-ranking Mexican officials were discussed as possible targets by the CJNG, including Foreign Affairs Minister Marcelo Ebrard for the recent extradition of El Menchito, CJNG leader Nemesio Oseguera’s son; Security Minister Alfonso Durazo for federal operations against the cartel; Financial Intelligence Unit head Santiago Nieto for recently blocking 1,939 bank accounts linked to the cartel; and Chief García for arresting some of the cartel’s main leaders.
For his part, President López Obrador offered Alfaro his support and applauded him for standing up to organized crime gangs.
During his press conference today at the National Palace, the president said he has already put security forces in touch with the governor, and that “according to what he considers appropriate, we will help with his security. Whatever we can contribute for your protection you count on us.”
The United States Drug Enforcement Administration said this week that the CJNG has expanded its operations from eight states five years ago to 27 today.
Ayotzinapa suspect Casarrubias during his arrest last week.
Close associates of a suspected gang leader allegedly involved in the disappearance of 43 students in Guerrero in 2014 paid millions of pesos for his release, says the federal Attorney General’s Office (FGR).
José Angel Casarrubias Salgado, the presumed leader of the Guerreros Unidos gang that allegedly abducted and killed the Ayotzinapa rural teachers college students on September 26, 2014, was arrested last week after almost six years on the run.
But Casarrubias, also known as “El Mochomo,” was released from the Altiplano federal prison in Almoloya de Juárez, México state, on Wednesday due to a lack of evidence.
The Attorney General’s Office said Thursday that SEIDO, the organized crime unit of the FGR, had intercepted telephone conversations that indicated that “several individuals close to the accused” offered the presiding judge’s staff millions of pesos in bribes in exchange for his release.
The newspaper El Universal obtained audio of an intercepted telephone conversation that indicated that Casarrubias’ mother was one of the people to whom the FGR was referring.
Casarrubias was arrested last week after almost six years on the run. He was freed on Wednesday.
In the audio, a lawyer tells Francelia Salgado Patiño about the progress in the “work” to have her son released from prison.
He said the groundwork for the payments to be made had been completed and that all that remained was to hand the money over.
“Everything is already done” apart from the “economic issue,” the lawyer said. “That’s why I told you about the economic issue, … you tell me [what to do].”
Salgado responded that there would be no problem making the payments required to secure the release of her son.
“Don’t you remember that we agreed, as they say, [to keep] giving and giving. … We’re not going to back down,” she said.
The lawyer then made arrangements to meet with Salgado so that she could hand over the money.
The suspected criminal leader’s mother agreed to the meeting and reiterated that there would be no problem paying the necessary bribes. The date that the telephone conversation occurred is unclear.
The FGR said that it had spoken with Supreme Court Chief Justice Arturo Zaldívar and that he has launched an investigation into the judicial system corruption that allegedly took place.
Despite the bribe, Casarrubias was rearrested Wednesday immediately after his release from prison.
Speaking at his regular news conference on Thursday, President López Obrador also asserted that corruption was a factor in the suspect’s release.
“I can say that the release of this man, alleged perpetrator … of the disappearance of the young men from Ayotzinapa, had to do with an act of corruption in the court where he was granted his freedom,” he said.
Earlier this week, Attorney General Alejandro Gertz Manero said that prosecutors had requested 46 warrants for the arrest of municipal officials in Guerrero in connection with the disappearance and presumed murder of the 43 students.
He said the FGR’s new investigation into the students’ disappearance was making progress and that the former government’s so-called “historic truth” – that the students were kidnapped by corrupt municipal police, turned over to the Guerreros Unidos, killed and burned – “is over.”
