The next morning, a joint force of marines and Veytias officers killed the Beltrn Leyva organizations second-in-command, Daniel Isaac Silva Grate (codenamed H-9), in an ambush in another part of Tepic. Nathaniel Morris is researcher at University College London and holds a Ph.D. in history from Oxford University. For the first time in years, the drug trade in Nayarit received global media attention. A San Jose, California woman born in India, Anjali Ryot, and German citizen Jennifer Henzold were apparently hit by crossfire from the Oct. 20 drug dealers' shootout in Tulum, south of Puerto Morelos. Far from a law enforcement hero, however, Edgar Veytia was in fact the very picture of a miscreant. Soon Veytia expanded into trafficking drugs himself. Rarely seen in public without a sombrero and an embroidered Wixrika shoulder bag, Sandovals self-proclaimed peoples government undertook numerous eye-catching projects, such as building a public sports and concert arena (which soon flooded), huge water-capture tanks in the poor outskirts of Tepic (which were never connected to the local water supply), and a sports center shaped like a giant cowboy hat. The public safety department in Zacatecas state said the policemens bodies were found Wednesday morning in the state capital, also known as Zacatecas. hide caption. By FABIOLA SNCHEZ November 4, 2021. hide caption. The Puerto Morelos shooting comes two weeks after a California travel blogger and a German tourist were killed in a similar shootout in the beach town of Tulum. Thanks for everything. Although he acknowledged that this fight will not be easy. That Edgar Veytia was eventually arrested, tried and convicted for his part in this story, and that an arrest warrant has since been issued for Roberto Sandoval, is somewhat heartening. Two suspected drug dealers were killed after gunmen from competing gangs staged a dramatic shootout near upscale hotels that sent foreign tourists scrambling for cover. But this fall, the arrest of Mexicos former secretary of defense, General Salvador Cienfuegos Zepeda, dragged this small and unassuming state into the spotlight. A federal grand jury in New York City charged with conspiracy to manufacture, distribute, import and distribute heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine and marijuana between 2013 and 2017. Residents said he had been helping them get electricity back after an armed group cut the power to some ranches. Sandoval was a cowboy in other senses too. WebHctor Luis Palma Salazar (born April 29, 1960), commonly known as "El Gero Palma", is a Mexican former drug trafficker and leader of the Sinaloa Cartel alongside Joaqun "El Chapo" Guzmn and Ismael Zambada Garca. As frustration with the drug war grows, Calderon this week tried to rally the Mexican people behind the effort. Lpez Obradors party just won the governorship in Zacatecas, but it remains to be seen if coordination with federal authorities will improve. He specializes in modern Mexican history, and is currently studying the connections between the Mexican Revolution of 1910-140, and the Drug War wracking the country today. The cartel is now splintered into small, competing gangs. The lack of control that the country is Until, that is, a helicopter-load of marines dropped out of the skies, sparking a fierce battle with the Polica Nayarit, which gave Veytias most important guests enough time to escape. The operation was a joint effort between Veytias police forces and the Navy, a surprising partnership given previous events. After 30 people were gunned down last weekend, the governor seized control of the local police, called on Calderon to send in more federal police and shut public schools statewide. In 2020 Mexico had the highest number of homicides in the countrys history, there were 17,439 murders, a 1.7% increase but most of the deaths in Mexico are due to fighting between cartels and if you are not part of the cartel then you are probably safe. The groups structure changed with the death of Arturo who was gunned down in a military operation on December 16, 2009 and the arrest of Carlos, the youngest brother, two weeks later. [4] But violence related to the drug trade only began to surge in Nayarit after President Calderns 2006 declaration of war on the nations cartels. He grew up a dual citizen in San Diego, California, before heading south into Mexico to begin a career of violent crime. The brothers accused El Chapo of betrayal, and this triggered a bloody vendetta. Veytias arrest led the Mexican Federal prosecutors office and lawmakers in Nayarit to open a joint investigation into Sandoval in mid-2017. The strategies that the Mexican government has implemented over the last 15 years have not worked, he said. Although the drug trade in Nayarit operated with the direct involvement of government representatives at all levels, the army occasionally attacked traffickers and often arrested, tortured and/or imprisoned peasants caught cultivating poppies and marijuana. hide caption. The shootings were the latest chapter in drug gang violence that has sullied the reputation of Mexico's Caribbean coast as a once-tranquil oasis. Over the past two weeks, hundreds of people have been gunned down in Mexico as drug violence continues to escalate. One might also conjecture that Cienfuegos protection extended to Patrn Snchezs political partners in crime, too. The Jalisco New Generation Cartel (JNGC) are dominant in the Nayarit region. In a country that has suffered more than a decade of violence at the hands of powerful drug cartels, the situation in Zacatecas, as well as violence-plagued states like Michoacn and Tamaulipas, shows that neither the head-on drug war launched by former President Felipe Caldern in 2006, nor the softer hugs not bullets approach of current President Andrs Manuel Lpez Obrador have managed to break Mexicos cycle of violence. One town is controlled by Sinaloa, the next by Jalisco, the next Sinaloa again, said a community leader, who like more than a dozen people interviewed requested anonymity to avoid repercussions. In one case he gained a building in an up-and-coming tourism hotspot that was later valued at five million pesos (a quarter million dollars), and in another, threatened to have the farmers of La Peita de Jaltemba, on the Nayarit coast, murdered unless they gave him control of communally-owned village lands. Sandovalor simply el Roberto, as he is still known in Nayarit began his political career under the patronage of PRI state governor Ney Gonzlez (2005-2011). "People were yelling, 'They're shooting! The story of how that corruption played out in Nayarit brings into focus the interplay between military operations, political maneuvering and drug trafficking. Semipresencial en Aguascalientes, Maestra a distancia en Actividad Fsica y Salud, Maestra a distancia en Energas Renovables, Descubre un completo Directorio de Centros de Formacin, Mejore su italiano con solo 15 minutos al da. ..i dont understand all of these killings and no end to it. Cartel map of Mexico. Despite allegations of corruption and human rights abuses, the army has remained legally privileged, closed to all external scrutiny, and at the very heart of the current Mexican presidents nation-wide public security and policing strategy. Star Newspapers Limited and/or its licensors. Carlos Joaquin said the commando wore ski masks and arrived by boat at the beach. With his return to Mexico, though, Cienfuegos fate is now tied far more tightly to that disgraced ex-governor Sandovalcurrently a fugitive and likely still on Mexican soilthan it is to Veytia. Most of them hail more specifically from the town of Xalisco, just outside the state capital of Tepic, where opium gum from Nayarits mountains was processed into black tar heroin and then sent off north for distribution and sale. rights reserved. Media outlets in Mexico later reported that for government had released the fugitive. "With the goal of safeguarding the well-being and tranquility of Culiacn society, officials in the security Cabinet decided to suspend the actions," he said. hide caption. Just five weeks later, however, Veytia miscalculated or was perhaps himself betrayed and on one of his twice-monthly trips to San Diego to visit his family was detained at the US border. A rumor circulated that the cartels were forcing youth snatched from the communities to work for them. The Beltrn Leyva organization were Sinaloans who had once controlled trafficking in Nayarit and several other areas of western Mexico as part of the wider Sinaloa cartel, until a violent break with El Chapo Guzmn and his allies in 2008the same year that Sandoval and Veytia assumed positions in Tepics municipal government. Smoke from burning cars rises in Culiacn, Mexico, on Thursday, after an intense gunfight between security forces and gunmen linked to the Sinaloa drug cartel. The dramatic shooting attack sent tourists scrambling for cover at the resort Mexico cartel shootout leaves 18 dead. The H-2 Cartel was not some minor group that somehow managed to bribe the countrys top security official. Bullets ripped through the children's play area at the adjacent Burger King. [3] Romain LeCour, Nathaniel Morris, Benjamin T. Smith, The Last Harvest? There were children," Ramirez says. Some people were locked in the supermarket for more than a hour. Attacks on police have become routine in Mexico as the countrys travails with drug cartels and organised crime drag on and the murder rate remains stubbornly high. There have been signs that the situation in Quintana Roo state, where all the resorts are located, was out of control months ago. Use tab to navigate through the menu items. Heavily armed gunmen went on a shooting rampage through the city of Culiacn, the capital of Sinaloa state on Mexico's Pacific coast, battling security forces after authorities attempted to arrest a son of imprisoned drug lord Joaqun "El Chapo" Guzmn. Zacatecas 746 murders in the first half of the year, compared to 1,065 for all of 2020, give it the highest murder rate per 100,000 residents in the country through June, according to the Mexican government. The day they (soldiers) leave, we know from experience that quickly the criminal groups are going to fight over territory, said Eleuterio Ramos, Valparasos worried mayor. There are more than 100,000 guardsmen deployed in the Mexico, plus the military, yet the violence continues apace. Although the drug trade in Nayarit operated with the direct involvement of government representatives at all levels, the army occasionally attacked traffickers and often arrested, tortured and/or imprisoned peasants caught cultivating poppies and marijuana. When the shootouts rumble across the plains dotted with ranches, farmers often cant go out to feed their livestock. The legacy of this political history and the facts of geography together define Nayarits place in the modern Mexican drug trade. With a total area of a little under 30,000 km2, Nayarit is roughly the size of Massachusetts, and 23rd out of Mexicos 32 federal entities in terms of size. A federal grand jury in New York City charged with conspiracy to manufacture, distribute, import and distribute heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine and marijuana between 2013 and 2017. [46] Edgar Valdez Villarreal, the leader of Los Negros cartel enforcement, was arrested on August 30, 2010 outside Mexico City. For the past month, a shot up pick-up truck has rested here. They're shooting!' Nuevo curso 'online', Maestra en Ciencias Ambientales presencial en Benito Jurez, Licenciatura en Administracin de Empresas presencial en Benito Jurez, Maestra a distancia en Lingstica Aplicada a la Enseanza del Espaol como Lengua Extranjera, Licenciatura Ejecutiva en Psicologa Semipresencial. With a total area of a little under 30,000 km2, Nayarit is roughly the size of Massachusetts, and 23rd out of Mexicos 32 federal entities in terms of size. Days after the June 24 shootout, authorities found two more corpses, raising the death count to 20. Others just stayed inside. document.getElementById("ak_js_1").setAttribute("value",(new Date()).getTime()); All Rights Reserved The Yucatan Times 2020, Merida number one in the preference for Easter vacations, US Ambassador Ken Salazar says the USMCA achieved Teslas investment in Mexico, Lpez Obrador accuses opponents of exaggerating minister Yasmn Esquivels case, German circus replaces wild animals with holograms, Maya indigenous tourist guide speaks 4 languages fluidly, Battle for water in Yucatan: there are big challenges to ensure the supply, Rhythmic gymnastics team will compete in Yucatan Cup, Worlds second-largest blue hole found off the Yucatan Peninsula shores, Cine Mvil ToTo: dates and locations in Yucatn. If this was the case, we can only imagine what Veytia who thanked Sandoval for his intercession with a gift of Spanish horses worth a million dollars and 300 hectares of recently-seized peasant lands gave to the Secretary of Defense in exchange for his support. Indeed, Nayarit is Mexicos second biggest exporter of mangoes, and primary producer of tobacco. And all this he accomplished, it is alleged, through embezzlement of state funds, extorsion of businesses, overseeing kidnapping for ransom and seizures of land and property, and, of course, close collaboration with drug traffickers. How did people fight for their rights back in the 20s? MEXICO CITY (AP) Authorities in northern Mexico said Wednesday they found the bodies of two abducted police officers hanging from an overpass, and the bodies of seven people shot to death in a neighboring city. Armed attackers killed 10 people in a pool hall in an industrial region of central Mexico plagued by drug cartel-related violence, authorities said Thursday. The heavily indigenous highlands that were the backbone of 19th-century rebellion, are today one of Mexicos primary opium-growing zones, thanks to a combination of widespread and severe poverty, rugged, mountainous topography, and the limited, ineffective and often corrupt presence of state and federal authorities. It split with its enforcers, Los Zetas, by 2010, and the fallout between the two groups had been called the most violent in the history of organized crime in Mexico, according to a 2019 CRS report. Several cartels are fighting for the area's lucrative retail drug trade, including the Jalisco cartel and the a gang allied with the Gulf cartel. Mexicos two strongest cartels Sinaloa and Jalisco New Generation are locked in a battle for control. The larger currents of the international drug trade engulfing these Zacatecan communities may not be clear to their residents, but the impact is inescapable. Disfrute de nuestras lecciones personalizadas, breves y divertidas. Calderon said this week that the bloody offensive against the drug cartels isn't just his war but is an effort to make Mexico safe for all law-abiding citizens. Sam Quinones has revealed that the traffickers who dominate the heroin trade in the US Midwest are all predominantly from Nayarit.