Once Deemed a “Needed Win” U.S.-Supported Operation Failed to Net Cartel Chief in 2010 Mexico’s “largest air mobile operation” “caused both civilian and police deaths” but seen as “overall success” for President Calderón and “serious blow” to drug cartel This post was co-authored by Michael Evans and Jesse Franzblau and was prepared in collaboration with MVS Noticias in Mexico. … Continue reading
Category Archives: Transnational Crime
“Near total impunity” for Mexican Cartels “in the face of compromised local security forces,” U.S. Cable
Four months before the feared Zetas drug cartel kidnapped and murdered 72 migrants in northeastern Mexico, the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City said that narcotrafficking organizations in that region operated with “near total impunity in the face of compromised local security forces.” As the date of the massacre drew nearer, another U.S. agency, the Drug … Continue reading
Secrets of the Tamaulipas Massacres Come to Light in Proceso Magazine
In this week’s edition of Proceso magazine, award–winning journalist Marcela Turati uses a set of declassified U.S. diplomatic cables from our Mexico/Migration Project collection to shed new light on what she calls “the collusion of Mexican municipal, state and federal officials” with the murders of hundreds of migrants in and around San Fernando, Tamaulipas, by a … Continue reading
Mexican Migration Agency Posts U.S. Primer on Latin Gang Tattoos
Recently, our colleagues at Fundar discovered a truly bizarre document buried deep inside the Web site of Mexico’s National Institute for Migration (INM): an 86-page report featuring graphic photos of the body art adorning the bodies of Mexican and Central American gang members. (You can download the full report here.) In some cases, the individuals … Continue reading