El Centro

How to Win the Mexican Drug War - Washington Post Op-Ed by Viridiana Rios.

... As part of a study tracking the behavior of Mexico’s organized-crime groups, a colleague and I created an algorithm that uses Google to explore blogs, newspapers and news-related Web content and extract detailed data about how Mexican drug cartels operate. Our tool reads everything published and indexed as part of Google News and collects all the information the Web contains about the activities of the cartels, including their routes of expansion, since the 1990s. Our discoveries shocked us and surprised the U.S. officials who reviewed our findings.

The United States may be helping Mexico fight the wrong war because we do not know who the enemy is...

Read on.

Proceso (4-7-2013)

Translated by un vato for Borderland Beat

MEXICO, DF. (proceso.com.mx).--The Mexican Office of Attorney General (PGR: Procuraduria General de la Republica) has decided to restrict official reports about organized crime in the country for 12 years, such as the number of cartels, their names and their areas of operation...

From the Baker Institute Blog:

Spillover/Narcobloqueos in Texas

John P. Sullivan

Spillover/Narcobloqueos in Texas Report: Cartels ‘most significant organized crime threat to Texas.’

A new Texas Department of Public Safety Threat Assessment report states that  criminal cartels are operating in Texas and are the No. 1 threat to the Lone Star State. Narcobloqueos (narco-blockades) are now being seen north of the border.

• On the social media platforms of Twitter and Facebook, Rio Grande Valley residents who follow profiles in Reynosa, Matamoros and Mexico learn that narco-blockades can be a part of life as those users tweet and post to inform each other about the blockades’ location.
• “One dangerous cartel tactic that has recently emerged in Texas is the narco-blockade, a tactic that had previously only been used in Mexico,” the report states.
• The blockades are used to prevent access by first responders and isolate areas used during their operations.
• “Multiple blockades can be conducted simultaneously, and, in Mexico, the vehicles are typically disabled or ignited, making their removal even more difficult.” 
• Authorities now say narco-blockades are used in Texas, for example in early November 2012: “Law enforcement agents from McAllen encountered several vehicles strategically placed in this manner while attempting to apprehend two subjects carrying bundles in the same area. The tactic impeded agents from apprehending the subjects, however one bundle containing 22 lbs. of cocaine was seized. The two subjects, with one bundle, were able to abscond back to Mexico.”

Read on.

Wealthy, business-savvy Mexican immigrants transform Texas city by Molly Hennessy-Fiske, Los Angeles Times.

...They are part of a wave of legal Mexican immigrants who have been overlooked in the national debate over how to deal with their largely impoverished illegal compatriots. Propelled north by drug cartel violence, they paid thousands of dollars to hire attorneys and obtain investors' visas for themselves and their families (including maids)...More than 50,000 Mexican nationals now live permanently in San Antonio, city officials say, turning an upscale enclave known as "Sonterrey" or "Littonterrey" into the city's second-fastest growing ZIP code...

Read on.

A Mexico Border Shootout Reveals Effort to Cover Up Violence - Written by InSight Crime.

Inconsistent reports about a March 10 gun battle in Reynosa, along the US-Mexico border, illustrate how little verifiable information is available on what is happening in that and other areas of Mexico, and how citizen journalists and social networks are increasingly the only sources left to catch a glimpse of what appears to be an all-out war…

Cyberwar in the Underworld: Anonymous versus Los Zetas in Mexico

YaleJournal.org

February 26, 2013

By Paul Rexton Kan

Abstract—Little attention has been paid to non-state actors conducting cyberwars against each other and the disruptive effects these wars can have on nation-states. This article explores the online clash between the hacker group, Anonymous, and the Mexican drug cartel, Los Zetas. This type of cyberwar was unique: it was an incident where two clandestine non-state groups used the digital domain to attack each other and it was largely a private affair. Yet the incident had public consequences that left the Mexican government as a bystander. Such criminal activity beyond the reach of government intervention blurs the line between public safety and national security.

Read on.

Spread of Vigilantes Sparks Debate in Mexico by Mark Stevenson, Associated Press.

The rapid spread of vigilante-style community "self-defense" groups is drawing debate in Mexico after the latest group popped up with suspiciously sophisticated weapons, printed T-shirts and clothing that doesn't reflect the usual mix of participants.

The group appeared this week in Tepalcatepec, in the western state of Michoacan, in an area dominated by warring drug cartels. Tepalcatepec is the latest in a recent wave of towns where residents have set up patrols and checkpoints to fight crimes like kidnapping and extortion...