| | |  Editorials | Issues | September 2009 
Mexican Cartel Enforcers and Rising 'Collateral Damage'
 Sylvia Longmire - MexiData.info
go to original
September 07, 2009
 |  | The question is, is it out of necessity or out of complete disregard for human life? |  | | |
The expression “collateral damage” is usually used in conjunction with conventional warfare or terrorist attacks. However, it is now being increasingly used in reports describing attacks by drug trafficking organization (DTO) enforcement groups in Mexico.
Mexican DTOs have always avoided killing civilians - people not directly, or even indirectly, involved in the drug trade. It’s bad for business, and it attracts unnecessary attention from law enforcement agencies. Yet, several incidents in the past year indicate that the DTOs’ tolerance for civilian casualties, or collateral damage, has increased.
The question is, is it out of necessity or out of complete disregard for human life?
Few Mexicans living in Michoacán state can forget the grenade attack that occurred a year ago in Morelia during an Independence Day celebration. Thousands of people were gathered in the city’s main square that night. Shortly after the grito by Governor Leonel Godoy, two grenades were thrown into the crowd, killing eight and injuring over 100 people. A few minutes later, another explosion occurred about four blocks away.
Originally, authorities believed that La Familia Michoacana was responsible. Then, based on mostly circumstantial - and conspiratorial - evidence, Los Zetas were implicated, and three alleged members of the enforcer group were arrested and accused of throwing the grenades.
The information that came out of the Zetas’ interviews didn’t quite mesh with their reputation. The men said they were instructed to throw the grenades in an area without any people, and that the attack was designed to intimidate the Mexican government, not kill civilians. The Zetas are well known for their professionalism and almost unparalleled expertise and military-style discipline. If these were their instructions, why did the men disobey them by lobbing grenades into a huge crowd of people, knowing the civilian casualties they would cause?
On August 18 gunmen killed a father and his 4 year-old son, and wounded the mother, as the family drove on a highway near Ciudad Juárez. It appeared that neither of the adults had a connection to the drug trade, nor could authorities discern a motive for the attack. That same day, several banners attributed to drug gangs appeared in Ciudad Juárez, denying that cartels were responsible for civilian deaths. Yet, assistant state prosecutor Alejandro Pariente said drug gangs have increasingly staged attacks that kill civilians with no connection to the drug trade.
On August 30, gunmen in an SUV fired on a festive crowd in the Pacific coast town of Navolato. Eight people were killed, including a 15 year-old boy and a 17 year-old girl, and four were wounded. Investigators were considering the possibility that the gunmen belonged to a criminal gang known as the "Death Squad," which has been killing car thieves in the region. Two of the victims reportedly had criminal records for car theft, but there was no indication that the other casualties were related in any way to criminal activities.
On September 2, gunmen broke into the El Aliviane drug rehabilitation center in Ciudad Juárez, lined people up against a wall and shot 17 dead. At least five people were injured. Authorities had no immediate suspects or information on the victims.
There are three possible reasons - and perhaps more - why civilian casualties are increasingly being regarded as acceptable by DTOs.
First, professional expertise is in high demand and isn’t as available as it used to be; that means it comes at a high price. Some DTOs, like the Arellano Felix Organization, are seeing reduced income from drug trafficking and can’t afford quality “help” like they used to. That means they have to hire thugs, punks, and other low-level criminals to do their dirty work.
The result of these new hiring practices is shoddy work. Gunmen will spray down an entire fast food restaurant full of people to make sure they hit their intended target(s). Money is tight for almost everyone in Mexico, so this is one way for assassins to make sure they get paid. Hired thugs are also usually brought on for jobs on an ad-hoc basis. That means they don’t follow the same rules as the DTOs, who have traditionally eschewed killing civilians and prefer precisely targeted hits.
A second reason is the DTO enforcers’ lack of concern over arrest and prosecution. Corruption is pervasive among law enforcement agencies in Mexico, and hit men are largely exempt from the consequences of their hits on rivals and individuals who have wronged their DTO in some way. By this point in the drug war, enforcers may well have extended that feeling of invulnerability and impunity to any civilian deaths that may occur during their attacks.
The third reason - which may be less likely but considerably more disturbing - is a desire to intimidate the populace and any holdout law enforcement or government officials. This essentially is a propaganda campaign at best and psychological operation at worst, by groups that are moving beyond mere organized crime. Whether it’s intended or not, an increased tolerance by DTOs of collateral damage really means that no one is safe in many parts of Mexico.
This all sounds really bad and it should, because it’s a very disturbing and serious situation. Yet, there are two important things to remember. First, DTO enforcers are not specifically targeting civilians. The Morelia attack raised a lot of red flags because it appeared that attackers intended to do just that. But authorities still don’t truly know who planned the attack - arrests of alleged Zetas notwithstanding - and there hasn’t been a similar attack since. There are more civilians being killed in drug-related attacks, but it’s probably not on purpose, and is more a result of sloppy work by amateur hit men.
Second, not every square inch of Mexico is experiencing a bloodbath. There are many areas that have experienced little, if any, of the violence associated with the drug war, including the major tourist areas. For example, southern Baja California - which includes the popular Los Cabos resort areas - has seen hardly any violent activity, relative to the rest of the country, and certainly relative to northern Baja California. Even the attacks that are reported in Cancún, Cozumel, Acapulco, Puerto Vallarta, etc., almost always occur in neighborhoods outside the major tourist and resort areas.
This doesn’t mean that tourists and business visitors shouldn’t exercise common sense, and they should certainly be hyper-aware of their surroundings in any Mexican city. It’s hard to know who’s standing next to you in line for a beer at a Mexico City bar, or who’s getting their hair cut in the chair next to you at a salon. Is it an average, everyday Mexican citizen, or a kingpin’s girlfriend or lieutenant who just had a price put on his head?
Mexicans and foreigners alike are worried about this now when they’re out and about, and it’s hurting the Mexican economy by negatively impacting tourism and service industries. Restaurants - especially those known to be frequented by DTO members - are often empty on Saturday nights in certain parts of Mexico because people don’t want to become collateral damage.
Things usually get worse before they get better in this war, and eventually Mexicans will grow very tired of being held prisoner in their homes by fear. It will be interesting to see what happens when the Mexican people finally hit their breaking point.
Sylvia Longmire is a former Air Force officer and Special Agent with the Air Force Office of Special Investigations, where she specialized in counterintelligence, counterespionage, and force protection analysis. After being medically retired in 2005, Ms. Longmire worked for almost four years as a Senior Intelligence Analyst for the California State Terrorism Threat Assessment Center, providing daily situational awareness to senior state government officials on southwest border violence and significant events in Latin America. She received her Master’s degree from the University of South Florida in Latin American and Caribbean Studies, with a focus on the Cuban and Guatemalan revolutions. Ms. Longmire is currently an independent consultant and freelance writer. Her website is Mexico's Drug War; she is a regular contributor to Examiner.com; and her email address is spooky926(at)gmail.com. |
|
| |
Vallarta Weddings
Tell a Friend
Site Map
Print this Page
Email Us