Since 1985, when they kidnapped in Guadalajara the agent of the DEAEnrique Camarena Salazar, had not seen a public and widespread reaction in USA -government, politicians and media- as uniformly on fire as now, with the deprivation of liberty of four US citizens in matamoros, and that it will grow after the execution of two of them. +
The episode, as it happened 38 years ago, caused a crisis in the Mexican government. There is a State problem, and the Mexican government was involved in its contradictions.
The federal security cabinet and the government of Tamaulipas headed by the Morenista Américo Villareal, who met yesterday with the president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, They had known in detail for months the criminal operations in Matamoros, a place totally controlled by the Gulf Cartel.
There were no actions against this criminal organization in the city that has been its stronghold for years, because it was not under dispute. The armed group of the Cartel, called “Escorpión”, probably directly responsible for the kidnapping and murder of the Americans, operated with impunity in its streets.
Matamoros is one of the 13 sister cities on the border with the United States, a neighbor of Brownsville, which, due to the lack of access to the sea from the Tamaulipas city, depends on the nearby Port of brownsville for maritime exports. In that city, the control center for all the activities of the Gulf cartel in Tamaulipas and in San Luis Potosí, where they also have a strong presence, there is a feverish criminal activity, such as human trafficking, the smuggling of all kinds of merchandise, including fuel, and customs control, which is currently administered by the Marine.
Nothing moves without the knowledge of the Gulf Cartel, which has in matamoros a sanctuary from where the war against the Northeast Cartel, which is based in Nuevo Laredo, and with which it disputes control of the so-called “ribereña” zone, which includes Ciudad Gustavo Díaz Ordaz, Nueva Ciudad Guerrero and Miguel Alemán is directed . Díaz Ordaz, the closest point where there are clashes, is 134 kilometers from Matamoros.
The Gulf Cartel maintains another zone of confrontation in Ciudad Valles, San Luis Potosí, with the Jalisco Nueva Generación Cartel (CJNG), but 550 kilometers south of Matamoros.
Since October, on another flank opened with an old ally of the Cartel and currently with the Jalisco Nueva Generación, Héctor Crescencio de León Fonseca, El R-3 or El Pantera, the organization began to deploy its hitmen towards El Mante, 224 kilometers south of matamorosand Jiménez, 450 kilometers away, which connects with the coast of the Soto la Marina municipality, which are highly relevant for migrant smuggling.
The kidnapping of the Americans was in the center of Matamoros. According to the initial report by the authorities last Friday, the deprivation of liberty occurred at the end of the pursuit of a van that was being shot at, which collided with two vehicles, one of which was a white minivan. the victims went. The criminals threw them on the floor of a pick-up truck, and according to a report published by El Universal, they were found yesterday in the common land of El Tecolote, just over 10 kilometers northeast of Matamoros, which has a population of just a hundred people.
No details are known of how the authorities arrived at that ejido, although everything indicates that it was a discovery, not the result of an investigation. It is also not known what led to the pursuit of a vehicle in downtown Matamoros, although there is a possibility that it was a preventive action. The experienced correspondent in Washington, Dolia Estévez, reported, according to US sources with whom she spoke, that they had been mistaken for Haitian traffickers. In support of this version, at this time there is no dispute over the leadership of the gulf cartel, as it was a year ago, after the capture of José Alfredo Cárdenas Martínez, nicknamed El Contador, in Mexico City.
After his arrest, a dispute arose between Cárdenas Martínez’s lieutenants, and his cousin Osiel Cárdenas, Osielito, son of the cunning and bloodthirsty former boss of the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas, Osiel Cárdenas. The disputes did not cease and currently there is no visible leadership in the organization, although since Monday, as a consequence of the kidnapping, they began to drive in criminal areas in Matamoros, the name of José Alberto García Vilano, El Kena, who one of the bosses in that city, as the possible new leader of the cartel.
The criminal structure of the Gulf Cartel, its alliances and its enemies, its activities and institutional protection, was not unknown to the Mexican government. In one of the emails hacked by the group known as Guacamayas to the National Defense Secretariat, it is described how the different factions of the Gulf Cartel had the protection and support of the state police and the National Guard to confront the CJNG. The Army report indicates how the Cartel recruited members of the Special Operations Group of the Tamaulipas police and the National Guard, to locate the cells of the CJNG and its allies under the command of El Pantera.
The kidnapping and execution of the Americans exposed the Mexican government. On the one hand, the speed with which the authorities found the Americans explains the speed with which the criminals disposed of a bomb that exploded in their hands, not an efficient investigation. With all the information collected by the Army, as revealed in the Macaw Leaks email released in the middle of last year, the incredible thing is that they did not have up-to-date intelligence to find them sooner. If they do not capture the intellectual and material authors, the heat will burn the National Palace, because they know here and in Washington who is in charge in matamoros.
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