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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | December 2006 
Cartels' Hands Seen in Border Abductions
 Mariano Castillo - San Antonio Express-News
| | Last year, Pablo and Priscilla Cisneros pose with a missing persons poster of their daughter, Brenda, and Yvette Martinez, in Laredo, Texas. |
Nuevo Laredo, Mexico — One afternoon in late August, Olivia Luque de Lopez looked out the window of her home and weighed the fate of her husband, then considered her own future and that of her four children.
A group of unexpected visitors had thrust a decision of immense proportions upon the homemaker: Should she risk her husband's life, or hers and their children's?
Lopez, her three daughters and son had been captives in their house in an upscale neighborhood here for 2 1/2 days on Aug. 25, the day she eyed a car on the street whose occupants in turn were spying on her.
The men had kidnapped her husband and her brother-in-law, a U.S. citizen, and warned her not to leave the house or use the phone.
The next five minutes would become a defining moment for Lopez as she contemplated an escape.
U.S. authorities believe the gunmen who kidnapped the Lopez brothers are the same ones behind the Nov. 26 abduction of Laredo Customs broker Librado Piña Jr. and four others, including his son, during a hunting trip in the Mexican state of Coahuila, west of Nuevo Laredo.
The Gulf Cartel carried out the abductions, law enforcement sources said, signaling a possible shift in drug cartel tactics as the organization has grown in power and greed. Most agreed an old regional axiom — that only those involved with the drug trade are targeted by the cartels — no longer applies.
Over the past two years, as the Gulf Cartel tightened its grip on Nuevo Laredo, it squeezed legitimate businesses with what amounts to a money-for-protection racket. Nuevo Laredo's wealthy were the first to buy homes across the Rio Grande in Laredo, followed by many businesses.
As the number of targets for extortion in Nuevo Laredo shrinks, the most recent kidnappings could be signs the group is expanding its criminal activity to include kidnap-for-ransom and burglary to maintain the high cash flow it covets, authorities said.
These conclusions come from four border law enforcement officials familiar with the cartel's workings in Nuevo Laredo who spoke on the condition of anonymity so they could speak frankly.
"In the past, we knew the kidnappings were the retaliatory type, for things like lost loads, debts and betrayed allegiances," a U.S. federal agent said. "Now, the Librado Piña kidnappings were a bit unusual."
Kidnappings long have plagued Mexican border cities, but the Piña and Lopez abductions didn't seem to fit the usual victim profiles.
Until recently, the majority of those kidnapped were young, usually between 18 and 25, and most were believed to have been linked or associated with the drug trade.
In contrast, Piña and the Lopez brothers were middle-age business owners with no known illicit trafficking links.
Express kidnappings — in which folks are snatched off the streets then released a few hours later after being forced to make cash withdrawals from ATMs — also are common, particularly in bustling Mexico City. But those are believed to be carried out by petty thieves and aren't the work of cartels, as the most recent kidnappings appear to be.
Five minutes to flee
On a recent afternoon, safe in the United States, Olivia Lopez recalled her ordeal and eventual escape.
"You don't believe it until you live it," Lopez said, recalling the day when eight men brought her husband, Felipe, to her home.
His captors had grabbed him as he left his office for lunch Aug. 23, then drove him home. They were interested in whether the family had a safe in the house and that the family was originally from the city of Culiacan, territory of the rival Sinaloa Cartel.
In response to the gunmen's rude gestures and comments, Lopez offered them lunch.
But they didn't like her meat and spinach and instead rummaged through the refrigerator. The next day, they surprised her brother-in-law, Sergio, as he opened the family business — a currency exchange. They took both men, warning the rest of the family to stay put.
For two days, the Lopez family did just that. But the confinement made the children sick, as they ate what they could from the pantry.
So she made her choice.
Lopez noticed that the kidnappers' sentries left a five-minute gap between their shift changes. And although they had instructed her not to use the phone, the family risked using the Internet. They sent an Internet message to family in Laredo, alerting them to the situation and plans to escape. The Laredo relatives contacted U.S. authorities.
Next, Lopez instructed her children, ranging in age from 8 to 24, to pack a small bag. They crawled into the garage and prepared for her word as she watched from the window.
"At that moment, I only thought about getting my kids out of harm's way," Lopez said.
The family made a break for it in two cars, the kids in the first car and Lopez behind them, prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice if the kidnappers tried to apprehend them.
But her husband's and brother-in-law's whereabouts still are unknown. Except for a cryptic phone call, no one has demanded a ransom.
The two men's wives made a public plea last week for their husbands' safe return after they saw that Piña had been released unharmed after being held for three weeks. The Piña family paid a ransom, though no one will say how much.
Cartel dominance
Fear and corruption among Mexican police agencies at the hands of the cartels make crimes such kidnap-for-ransom relatively easy to pull off, sources said.
"We're fearing this could be a trend in the future," a U.S. federal agent said. "We've already got both hands tied behind our back in dealing in these matters because of the ineffectiveness and impotency of the Mexican government."
Mexican authorities cooperate with the United States in a number of law enforcement areas, but when it comes to anything cartel-related, as in the Piña case, Mexican assistance is non-existent, agents said.
"The police there are of no confidence, and the military cannot control the area. It's wide open" for cartel operations, an official from another U.S. agency said.
Mexican and U.S. businessmen, and even those who travel for recreation, such as hunters, should be aware of the risks, authorities said.
More than 20 U.S. citizens kidnapped in Mexico since 2004 remain unaccounted for, the majority from the Laredo area.
The Lopezes' story is not just an example of the risks that business people in Nuevo Laredo run, but of the power Los Zetas — the name given to the military-trained enforcement arm of the Gulf Cartel and its disciples — exert here.
In October, Zeta operatives rushed two casinos here in an apparent takeover attempt, a source familiar with the incidents said. Since then, several Mexican casinos have mysteriously been shuttered.
Burglary in Nuevo Laredo is up as well, and U.S. officials say much of it is the work of the Gulf Cartel, which is seeking alternative ways to enrich itself as the traditional extortion methods continue to dry up in the foundering local economy.
The recent kidnappings could be another source of funds.
"We have a realistic concern that we could see more of this," one investigator said.
Authorities say they don't expect Nuevo Laredo-like violence to spill into Laredo because of better law enforcement in Texas. But nonetheless, they are aware of cartel-related kidnappings reported in the Rio Grande Valley. Since early 2004, there have been 78 in Hidalgo County, and since 2005, 19 in Starr County, the Houston Chronicle recently reported.
The Laredo Police Department has no reports of such abductions but notes an increase in "potential victims" — drug traffickers hiding in Laredo, as well as business people.
"There are so many wealthy people in Laredo and Nuevo Laredo, and they're walking targets," a local law enforcement source said.
But the officer disagreed with the notion that innocent people were being targeted.
"When they start going after law-abiding citizens, all hell will break loose," he said.
mcastillo@express-news.net |
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