Drug War Capitalism

by Dawn Paley

  42 Bill Conroy, “US Court Documents Claim Sinaloa ‘Cartel’ Is Protected by US Government,” Borderland Beat, July 31, 2011, http://www.borderlandbeat.com/2011/07/us-court-documents-claim-sinaloa-cartel.html.

  43 Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera, “Desigualdades y flujos globales en la frontera noreste de México,” http://www.desigualdades.net/Resources/Working_Paper/64-WP-Correa-Cabrera-Online.pdf?1393595421.

  44 The first time I met Fong, whose father was a renowned activist in Chihuahua, was at the Autonomous University of Ciudad Juárez (UACJ).

  45 Jorge Balderas Dominguez, Discursos y narrativas sobre violencia, miedo e inseguridad en Mexico (University of Leiden: Doctoral Thesis, 2012), 123.

  46 Marcos Muedano, “A prisión, 10 policías federales,” El Universal, September 29, 2011, http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/nacion/189396.html.

  47 Carlos Huerta, “Tribunal confirma la participación de militares en crimen de juarense,” Norte Digital, January 21, 2014, http://www.nortedigital.mx/59211/tribunal_confirma_la_participacion_de_militares_en_crimen_de_juarense/.

  48 Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía, “Mortalidad: Conjunto de datos: Defunciones por homicidios,” 2011, http://www.inegi.org.mx/lib/olap/consulta/general_ver4/MDXQueryDatos.asp?#Regreso&c=2882.

  49 Steven Dudley, “Juarez After the War,” InSight Crime, February 13, 2013, http://www.insightcrime.org/reports/juarez.pdf, 6.

  50 Balderas Dominguez, Discursos y narrativas sobre violencia, miedo e inseguridad en México, 123.

  51 Seguridad, Justicia y Paz. “La violencia en los municipios de México, 2012,” February 1, 2014, http://www.seguridadjusticiaypaz.org.mx/biblioteca/finish

  /5-prensa/164-la-violencia-en-los-municipios-de-mexico-2012/0.

  52 R. Fausset, “Federal Police in Mexico Accused of Being Part of Kidnapping Ring,” Los Angeles Times, October 8, 2013, http://www.la

  times.com/world/worldnow/la-fg-wn-mexico-federal-police-kidnapping

  -ring-20131008,0,5728960.story.

  53 William Brownfield, “Security Cooperation in Mexico: Examining the Next Steps in the U.S.-Mexico Security Relationship,” Hearing Before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere and Global Narcotics Affairs, June 18, 2013, http://www.foreign.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Brownfield_Testimony.pdf, 2.

  54 International Centre for Prison Studies, “Mexico,” January 2013, http://www.prisonstudies.org/info/worldbrief/wpb_country.php?country=83.

  55 Ibid.

  56 US Department of State, “Public Notice of a Grant Award to Colorado Department of Corrections,” July 5, 2011, http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2011/07/167594.htm.

  57 Kirk Mitchell, “Afghan General, Wardens Learn U.S. Prison Tactics at Canon City Center,” Denver Post, September 23, 2012, http://www.denverpost.com/ci_21610507/afghan-general-wardens-learn-u-s-prison-tactics.

  58 Kirk Mitchell, “Mexican Federal Prison Officers Train in Colorado to Combat Drug-gang Attacks,” Denver Post, September 13, 2011, http://www.denverpost.com/ci_16059581.

  59 N. Casey, “U.S. Shifts Mexico Drug Fight,” Wall Street Journal, September 17, 2012, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390443720204578000463890865962.html.

  60 US Embassy Mexico, “Fact Sheet – Corrections Reform,” August 2013, http://photos.state.gov/libraries/mexico/310329/agosto2013/factsheet

  -correctionsreform%20-%200813.pdf.

  61 Less than 13 percent of the Mexico-U.S. border is militarized on both sides. US GAO, “Border Patrol Strategy: Progress and Challenges in Implementation and Assessment Efforts,” May 8, 2012, http://www.gao.gov/assets

  /600/590687.pdf.

  62 Laleh Khalili, “The Location of Palestine in Global Counterinsurgencies,” International Journal of Middle East Studies 42 (2010): 420.

  63 B. McCaffrey and R. Scales, “Texas Border Security: A Strategic Military Assessment,” September 2011, http://texasagriculture.gov/Portals/0/Dig

  Article/1623/46982_Final%20Report-Texas%20Border%20Security.pdf.

  64 Ibid.

  65 Harsha Walia, Undoing Border Imperialism (Oakland: AK Press, 2013).

  66 Ibid., 31.

  67 Bloomberg, “Mexico’s Ferrari on Foreign Investment, Economy,” Bloomberg, August 22, 2011, http://www.bloomberg.com/video/74229052/ (at 19:45, his comments were made in English).

  68 North American Production Sharing, Inc., “Manufacturing in Mexico: Industrial Real Estate,” March 8, 2013, http://news.cision.com/kindling-media

  /r/manufacturing-in-mexico--industrial-real-estate,c9382673.

  69 Renuart and Baker, “U.S.-Mexico Homeland Defense: A Compatible Interface.”

  70 P. Engardio and G. Smith, “The Other Mexico: A Wave of Investment,” Businessweek, April 9, 2009, http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content

  /09_16/b4127034232864.htm.

  71 G. Smith, “Doing Business in Harm’s Way,” Businessweek, April 9, 2009, http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/09_16/b4127034241721.htm.

  72 Ed Vulliamy, Amexica: A War Along the Borderline (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2010), 39.

  73 Riodoce, “Secuestra el Ejército a 12 pobladores de Vascogil, Durango,” Riodoce, 2009, http://riodoce.mx/?joomla=/content/view/2687/67/.

  74 M3 Engineering and Technology, “Metates Gold-Silver Project: Updated Preliminary Economic Assessment,” Chesapeake Gold Corp, April 21, 2011, http://chesapeakegold.com/downloads/Metates%20PEA%20Update

  %20April%202011.pdf, 49.

  75 Ibid., 21.

  76 Ibid., 13.

  77 Vice, “Mexican Vigilantes Stand Up Against Crime,” April 29, 2013, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XiSnCt9fDc.

  78 Ibid.

  79 Jaime Quintana, “Oro y plata detrás de la persecución militar contra la policía comunitaria,” Desinformémonos, August 2013, http://desinformemonos.org/2013/08/minerales-detras-de-la-persecucion-militar-contra-la-policia

  -comunitaria/.

  80 Vandana Felbab Brown, “Peña Nieto’s Piñata: The Promise and Pitfalls of Mexico’s New Security Policy Against Organized Crime,” Brookings Institute, February 2013, http://www.brookings.edu/research/papers/2013/02/mexico-new-security-policy-felbabbrown, 7.

  81 Peter Chalk, “Mexico’s New Strategy to Combat Drug Cartels: Evaluating the National Gendarmerie,” Combatting Terrorism Centre at West Point, May 23, 2013, http://www.ctc.usma.edu/posts/mexicos-new-strategy

  -to-combat-drug-cartels-evaluating-the-national-gendarmerie.

  82 The Economist. “The Feds Ride Out.” August 23, 2014. http://www.economist

  .com/news/americas/21613312-mexico-gets-new-police-force-it-needs-new-policing-strategy-feds-ride-out.

  CHAPTER 6: MEXICO, PARAMILITARIZATION & THE DRUG WAR

  1 One of Beltran Leyva’s claims to fame was his participation in the bribery of Noe Ramirez Mandujano, Calderón’s head of anti-drug intelligence: Ken Ellingwood, “Mexico Traffickers Bribed Former Anti-drug Chief, Officials Say,” Los Angeles Times, November 22, 2008, http://www.latimes.com/news/

  nationworld/world/latinamerica/la-fg-bribe22-2008nov22,0,5384359.story.

  2 Dube and Naidu, “Bases, Bullets and Ballots,” 3.

  3 Huggins, Political Policing, 18–21.

  4 Vulliamy, Amexica, 127–128.

  5 Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera,“Flujos de Inversión, Desarrollo Empresarial y Seguridad en México: Las Empresas Mexicanas y Extranjeras en un Entorno Violento,” 1er Congreso Internacional: Gestión y Administración Empresarial para el Siglo 21 (February 2012): 18–19.

  6 Marcela Turati, “Juárez: Tiendas cerradas, ollas vacías,” Proceso, June 28, 2011, http://www.proceso.com.mx/?p=274273.

  7 Diana Washington Valdezz, “Mexican Businessman Who Lost Feet to Violence Going on Bike Journey,” El Paso Times, October 9, 2013, http://www.elpasotimes.com/latestnews/ci_24272527/mexican-business

  man-who-lost-feet-violence-going-bike.

  8 Correa-Cabrera, “Flujos de Inversión, Desarrollo Empresarial y Seguridad en M�
�xico,” 22.

  9 Carlos Lauría and Mike O’Conner, “Cartel City: Silence or Death in Mexico’s Press,” Committee to Protect Journalists, September 8, 2010, http://cpj.org/reports/2010/09/silence-death-mexico-press-cartel-city.php.

  10 Figueroa, El Capo del Golfo, 29.

  11 Between 1996 and 1998, the USG trained 422 GAFEs, one of that last instances of unit-level training of Mexican soldiers by the US. The USG didn’t start keeping a database of Mexican soldiers trained by the US until 1996, by which time the Zetas had already begun to form. According to the US State Department, Fort Bragg also didn’t keep records on foreign nationals in training until 1996, http://wikileaks.org/cable/2009/08/09MEXICO2473.html.

  12 US Attorney’s Office, “Osiel Cardenas-Guillen, Former Head of the Gulf Cartel, Sentenced to 25 Years’ Imprisonment,” February 24, 2010, http://www.fbi.gov/houston/press-releases/2010/ho022410b.htm.

  13 Oddly, in the US. Federal Prisons Database, Osiel’s first name is misspelled Oziel, as if in homage to his legacy (Zeta means “Z” in Spanish).

  14 Carlos Resa Nestares, “El comercio de drogas ilegales en México: Los Zetas: de narcos a mafiosos,” April 2003, http://www.uam.es/personal_pdi/economicas/cresa/nota0403.pdf.

  15 Francisco Gómez, “Ejecución de ‘El Concord’ detonó guerra en Tamaulipas,” El Universal, March 7, 2010, http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/nacion/176125.html.

  16 Daniel B. Madrigal, “Policías daban clases de tiro a Zetas y eran espías,” Crónica, April 23, 2011, http://www.cronica.com.mx/notas/2011/574313.html.

  17 Bruce Williamson, “10Monterrey43, Border Violence Spreads to Nuevo Leon,” US State Department, February 26, 2011, http://wikileaks.org/cable

  /2010/02/10MONTERREY43.html#par8.

  18 Dawn Paley, “Drug War Capitalism,” Solidarity, July/August, 2012, http://www.solidarity-us.org/node/3652.

  19 Roberto Garduño, “Diputado: fin a la movilidad poblacional por la violencia,” La Jornada, February 8, 2014, 11.

  20 Comisión Nacional de los Derechos Humanos, “Informe especial sobre secuestro de migrant es en México,” 12, 26.

  21 Genaro Sánchez, “Ejecutan a dos mujeres migrantes en Palenque,” Tabasco Hoy, May 30, 2013, http://www.tabascohoy.com/2/notas/index.php?ID=130334.

  22 Ibid.

  23 Noé Zavaleta, “Asaltan a migrantes en Veracruz; Duarte lo tergiversa: ‘fue una riña’ Asaltan a migrantes en Veracruz; Duarte lo tergiversa: ‘fue una riña’,” Proceso, May 2, 2013, http://www.proceso.com.mx/?p=340766.

  24 USGS, “Assessment of Undiscovered Oil and Gas Resources of the Burgos Basin Province, Northeastern Mexico, 2003,” http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2004/3007/fs-2004-3007.pdf.

  25 Milenio, “Llegan 8 mil soldados a Tamaulipas para reforzar seguridad,” http://www.zocalo.com.mx/seccion/articulo/llegan-8-mil-soldados-a

  -tamaulipas-para-reforzar-seguridad.

  26 IDMC, “Briefing paper by the Norwegian Refugee Council’s Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre on forced displacement in Mexico due to drug cartel violence,” December 2010, http://www.refworld.org/docid/4d2714522.html, 3.

  27 US District Court for the Southern District of Texas, Houston Division, “Pemex Condensate Theft Ring Lawsuit (Complaint),” http://www.archive.org/download/PemexCondensateTheftRingLawsuitcomplaint/PEP.PDF.

  28 Noticias Televisa, “México descubre yacimientos de gas natural en frontera con EU,” http://noticierostelevisa.esmas.com/nacional/355102/mexico-descubre-yacimientos-gas-natural-frontera-con-eu.

  29 Servicio Mexicano de Geologia, “Panorama Minero del Estado de Chihuahua,” July 2011, http://www.sgm.gob.mx/pdfs/CHIHUAHUA.pdf, 8.

  30 Ibid.

  31 Ibid., 5.

  32 James Munson, “Before the Rush: The Rancher’s Rebellion,” Ipolitics.ca, http://www.ipolitics.ca/2013/03/04/before-the-rush-the-ranchers-rebellion-2/. A board member for MAG Silver hinted that Solorio was involved in criminal activity—an insinuation that, in Mexico, is enough to suggest that victims of violence are somehow deserving of their fate.

  33 Dan MacInnis, personal communication, March 28, 2013.

  34 Rogelio Agustín Esteban, “Investigan escalada de violencia en zona minera,” May 16, 2013, http://www.milenio.com/cdb/doc/noticias2011/9f20

  e3acb061086cf7606c9c464e2422.

  35 Notinfomex, “Guerrero: encuentran dos ejecutados en el KL. 170 de la carretera Iguala-Chilpancingo,” July 18, 2013, http://www.notinfomex.info/2013/07/guerrero-encuentran-dos-ejecutados-en.html.

  36 Sergio Ocampo and Héctor Briseño, “La violencia en Tierra Caliente, por ‘alianza’ del gobierno con el hampa para explotar minas,” La Jornada, July 21, 2013, http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2013/07/21/politica/010n1pol.

  37 Brisa Araujo, “Te sumas al narco, te vas, o te mueres: desplazados en Guerrero,” Desinformemonos, July 2013, http://desinformemonos.org/2013/07/te-sumas-al-narco-te-vas-o-te-mueres-desplazados-en-guerrero/.

  38 Ibid.

  39 Redacción, “Carbón, nueva actividad del narco en Coahuila: Moreira,” El Universal, October 26, 2012, http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/notas/879116.html.

  40 Channel 4 News, “On the Trail of a Mexican Drug Lord,” January 28, 2014, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jX7dbLW-47M.

  41 José Juan Estrada Serafín, “Estamos en defensa de nuestras familias y de la comunidad indígena: San Miguel Aquila,” Subversiones, June 2013, http://www.agenciasubversiones.org/?p=8080.

  42 El Consejo de Autodefensa de Aquila, Michoacán, “Primer Comunicado del Grupo de Autodefensa de Aquila, Michoacán,” January 19, 2014, http://elenemigocomun.net/es/2014/01/autodefensa-aquila-michoacan/.

  43 IDMC, “Briefing Paper By the Norwegian Refugee Council’s Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre on Forced Displacement in Mexico Due to Drug Cartel Violence,” December 2010, http://www.refworld.org/docid/4d2714522.html, 6.

  44 Melissa del Bosque, “The Deadliest Place in Mexico,” The Texas Observer, February 29, 2013, http://www.theinvestigativefund.org/investigations/international/1615/the_deadliest_place_in_mexico/.

  45 Prudential Real Estate Investors, “2011 Sustainability Report,” 2011, http://www3.prudential.com/prei/pdf/2011_PREI_Sustainability_Report.pdf, 19.

  46 Sandra Rodríguez, “Nueva ciudad en San Agustín,” April 19, 2011, http://zuelos.com/blog/nueva-ciudad-en-san-agustin/.

  47 Diana Washington, “$400M Development Planned for Area in Juárez Valley,” El Paso Times, May 23, 2011, http://www.elpasotimes.com/ci_18118303.

  48 Harold L. Sirkin, Michael Zinser, and Douglas Hohner, “Made in America, Again Why Manufacturing Will Return to the U.S.,”BCG.com, August 2011, http://www.bcg.com/documents/file84471.pdf, 12.

  49 Sandra Rodríguez, “Demandan no convertir en otro Riberas del Bravo a San Agustín,” El Diario de Juárez, April 20, 2011, http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?p=75966555.

  50 Nicholas Casey and Alexandra Berzon, “Mexico Tourism Feels Chill of Ongoing Drug Violence,” Wall Street Journal, June 8, 2011, http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304432304576367710290674534.

  51 Adriana Covarrubias, “Confirman violación a seis turistas españolas en Acapulco,” El Universal, February 4, 2013, http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/notas/900731.html.

  52 Gay Nagel Myers, “Acapulco Fights Image Woes as It Seeks Return to Glory,” Travel Weekly, May 16, 2012, http://www.travelweekly.com/Mexico-Travel

  /Acapulco-fights-image-woes-as-it-seeks-return-to-glory/.

  53 Ibid.

  54 Dolia Estevez, “Can Billionaire Carlos Slim Return Acapulco to its Past Glory?,” Forbes, February 12, 2013, http://www.forbes.com/sites/doliaestevez

  /2013/02/12/can-billionaire-carlos-slim-return-acapulco-to-its-past-glory/.

  55 Castillo García, “Tamaulipas enfrenta diáspora de ganaderos por causa del narco,” La Jornada, November 13, 2010, http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2010/11/13/index.php?section=politica&article=003n1pol.

  56 Editor, “Otros ganaderos abandonan sus ranchos en Tamaulipas,” Milenio,
November 24, 2010, http://www.milenio.com/cdb/doc/noticias2011/d9733f1d182257206a2cdeac4ff310a5.

  57 Los Zetas have forcibly recruited Central Americans, in addition to Guatemalan special forces who work with the cartels.

  58 Donna Chollett, “From Sugar to Blackberries: Restructuring Agro-export Production in Michoacán, Mexico,” Latin American Perspectives 36, no. 3 (May 2009): 79.

  59 Aguilar Valenzuela, Rubén, “Cártel de los Valencia,” El Economista, August 30, 2011, http://eleconomista.com.mx/columnas/columna-especial-politica

  /2011/08/30/cartel-valencia.

  60 The first state where Felipe Calderón sent troops was Michoacán, his home state.

  61 Arturo Cano, “‘Me llaman templario mayor por revancha política’, asegura alcalde de Tepalcatepec,” La Jornada, February 8, 2014, 9.

  62 Humberto Padgett, “Aguacate: el ‘oro verde’ de los Templarios,” Sin Embargo, October 11, 2013, http://www.sinembargo.mx/11-10-2013/780868.

  63 Marcela Salas Cassani, “Hablan las mujeres de Cherán, protagonistas de la insurrección,” Desinformemonos, April, 2012, http://desinformemonos.org/2012/04/mujeres/.

  64 Administrador, “Fotos limoneros emboscados por los Caballeros Templarios,” April 10, 2013, http://www.historiasdelnarco.com/2013/04/fotos-limoneros

  -emboscados-por-los.html.

  65 La Policiaca, “Veta crimen a limoneros,” April 14, 2013, http://www.lapoliciaca

  .com/nota-roja/veta-crimen-a-limoneros/.

  66 Redaccion, “Acusan a guardias comunitarias de Michoacán de obedecer al Cártel de Jalisco,” Proceso, May 2, 2013, http://www.proceso.com.mx/?p=340789.

  67 Paula Chouza, “El infierno también está en Michoacán,” El Pais, October 28, 2013, http://internacional.elpais.com/internacional/2013/10/28/actualidad

  /1382921848_799992.html.

  68 Ibid.

  69 Patrick Corcoran, “Counterinsurgency is not the Answer for Mexico,” InSight Crime, September 26, 2011, http://www.insightcrime.org/news-analysis/counterinsurgency-is-not-the-answer-for-mexico.

  CHAPTER 7: DRUG WAR CAPITALISM IN GUATEMALA

  1 FAO, “The Continuing Need for Land Reform: Making the Case for Civil Society,” FAO Land Tenure Series: Concept Paper, volume 1, http://www.landcoalition.org/sites/default/files/legacy/legacydocs/odfaomon2guate.htm.