Mexico’s violent war deaths are piling up

MICHAEL WEBSTER: Syndicated Investigative Reporter. Feb 23, 2009 at 8:30 PM PST.
 
 

AP Photo of relatives mourning members of Mexico's army who authorities found decapitated.
Mexico’s unbelievable record breaking level of violent war deaths are piling up as casualties of Mexico’s on going so called civil war continues. Many Mexicans now believe that there is a civil war going on in their country. These killings in Mexico are reveled by no country even other countries with active war zones such as Iraq and Afghanistan. Thousands of people died in what the Mexican Government calls drug-related violence last year as Mexican Drug Cartels (MDC’s) and trained enforcer gangs fought each other, the Mexican Army and Mexico’s security forces.
 
In the last 54 days in Mexico there have been over one thousand violent killings by both warring groups, the Mexican Army and the Mexican Drug Cartels.
 
Border protesters told this reporter that the MDC’s claim they are dedicated to overthrowing the current Calderon government and the government is hiding the true Mexican army death totals. Many Mexican troops have been killed by direct confrontations with MDC’s paramilitary forces many more than the Calderon administration is willing to admit.
 
Hundreds of Mexicans last week, blocked roads and bridges in Mexican cities bordering the United States from the Gulf of Mexico (Matamoros) to the Pacific Ocean (Tijuana) and protested by marching in the northern city of Monterrey in a series of demonstrations that police say are organized and funded by MDC’s. 
 
Mexican President Felipe Calderon condemned those public protests against his army-backed drug war, saying they were cowardly acts orchestrated by the warring MDC’s.
 
Recently there have been intense counter attacks by the Mexican Army against the MDC’s forces, raising the intensity in the civil war against Mexico’s organized resistant protesters.
 
According to the largest Mexican newspaper El Universal the death count so far this year is 1,003 violent murders related to the war on narcotrafficing. This is an average of 19 per day.  Last year, the 1,000 mark was not reached until much later in the year in April and the year before, after mid-year.  Half of these killings happened in the state of Chihuahua and over 75 percent in the most violent city in Mexico, Cd. Juarez Mexico’s 3rd largest city just across the border from El Paso Texas.
 

Juarez Police Chief  and Public Safety Secretary Roberto Orduna Cruz, left, resigned on Friday during a news conference with Juarez Mayor Jose Reyes Ferriz. At right is Juarez city official Guillermo Dowell. (Photo courtesy of Juarez city government)
 
 
The Director of Public Security in Cd. Juarez, resigned his post under organized threats that the assassination of his police officers would continue until he steps down.  Roberto Orduño said he could not allow his men, who work to defend the country, continue to lose their lives.  The bodies of two recently murdered law officers had been found with narco-messages warning that this would happen to at least one police officer every 48 hours until Orduña resigned.


Sunday Chihuahua Gov. Jose Reyes Baeza Terrazas' bodyguards where attacked and one was killed. It is reported that the attack came from the MDC's enforcers the Zetas. Mexican authorities are investigating. The Chihuahua Gov. and his family are under protection of government forcers and their location is unknown.
 
As this article was being written this reporter learned that death threats against Juarez Mayor Jose Reyes Ferriz surfaced and Mayor Ferriz immediately with armed Mexican body guards escorted him and his family to the relative safety of the bordering city of El Paso, where El Paso police and county sheriff's are believed providing heavily armed combat ready law enforcement protection.

Earlier at least ten more people were killed in different attacks  in the past few hours in Cd. Juarez. The most recent wave of killings began late Saturday and extended into late Sunday night.  All of the attacks were believed carried out by trained MDC’s Para-military forces according to authorities in Juarez.
 
According to official figures, so far this year, over 360 people have been killed by MDC’s forces in the State of Chihuahua alone.
 
Many believe that the war began when the Calderon administration launched a military campaign to combat spiraling drug violence in Mexico. Over 45, 000 troops and federal police were sent to cities in Mexico, many on the U.S. Mexican border. Since than thousands of people in Mexico have died as a result of both the military’s action and the MDC’s and their gangs fighting each other, the Mexican Army and Mexico’s security forces.
 
The Mexican people are being used by the MDC’s who are winning many of the people over to their cause by hiring and training Mexico’s very poor young men to fight for them against the Mexican government forces and paying them up to $600.00 USD per week. This is a lot of money to pay the very poor and they are responding by the thousands.
 
The MDC’s are reported to also be recruiting freedom fighters to train to fight for them from Central American countries of Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Guatemala.
 
Mexican officials say that the MDC’s have training comps where these young men are being trained in modern war fare both in Mexico, Panama, Peru and Colombia. The MDC’s are also reported to be providing food, medicines and cash to their families back home in small villages and towns throughout Mexico. The MDC’s are paying people to attend marches and has handed out backpacks full of schoolbooks, pens and paper to poor families who joined the demonstrations, acting as a sort of Robin Hood, police said.
 
President Calderón labeled the MDC’s as cowards and traitors to the nation those who use women and children as part of their strategy to bring about the withdrawal of the Army in its battle against organized crime.
 
The leader of the Mexican left-leaning PRD party, Jesus Ortega, describes as “grave” that in Mexico the number of extortions by organized crime has skyrocketed.  ”We are going toward a situation where practically no Mexican is not threatened by criminals in one form or another,” he said.  He criticizes the government as “arrogant” for thinking it alone can confront the problem of insecurity.  He summarizes his thoughts, “The formulas of the left are an important part, but they are not enough.  We need to join them with other proposals in order to make a policy of State to face up to crime.”
 
President Calderon said “Let no one make a mistake, let no one confuse the sides, the enemies of the country and of all Mexicans are those who assail its institutions, who harass, threaten and extort society, who poison its sons and who betray the country.”

Calderón, who praised the army’s task, asserted that organized crime is condemned to defeat because the Armed Forces and an entire nation are on the side of the his government.

To all who pretend to be above the law, said Calderón, we say that our Armed Forces “are not intimidated nor will they ever desist because they are composed of Mexicans fully committed to the defense of our dear Mexico.”
Police and government officials in Monterrey say Mexico's most violent drug gang, the Gulf cartel, and its feared armed wing, the Zetas, is behind the protests.
Despite warnings from rights groups about soldiers using excessive force in the drug fight, Calderon also has Washington's support for using the army, which has made historic drug seizures and is catching more gang leaders. More killings, running battles, shootings, protests and even rioting in Mexico are expected particularly along the U.S. Mexican border.
Editors Note:

Michael Webster’s Syndicated Investigative Reports are read worldwide, in 100 or more U.S. outlets and in at least 136 countries and territories. He publishes articles in association with global news agencies and media information services with more than 350 news affiliates in 136 countries. Many of Mr. Webster’s articles are printed in six working languages: English, French, Arabic, Chinese, Russian and Spanish. With ten more languages planed in the near future.
Mr. Webster is America's leading authority on Venture Capital/Equity Funding. He served as a trustee on some of the nation’s largest trade Union funds. A noted Author, Lecturer, Educator, Emergency Manager, Counter-Terrorist, War on Drugs and War on Terrorist Specialist, Business Consultant, Newspaper Publisher. Radio News caster. Labor Law generalist, Teamster Union Business Agent, General Organizer, Union Rank and File Member Grievances Representative, NLRB Union Representative, Union Contract Negotiator, Workers Compensation Appeals Board Hearing Representative. Mr. Webster represented management on that side of the table as the former Director of Federated of Nevada. Mr. Webster publishes on-line newspapers at www.lagunajournal.com and www.usborderfirereport.com and does investigative reports for print, electronic and on-line News Agencies.