In 1999, 31 Mexican military special ops members trained by US Navy Seals and Israeli special forces members deserted their ranks within the Mexican Army to join the Gulf Cartel as the security force for high ranking cartel operatives and as escorts for special shipments of drug trafficking. This was new for the Mexican military as thru the 80s and 90s the Mexican government had a generally laissez faire approach to cartels. Basically if the cartel wasn’t attacking the government and being blatantly obvious about their operations, then the government would not do much about it. As the Institutional Revolutionary Party’s (PRI) power dwindled in the late 90s, the high ranking members of the Gulf Cartel saw that this period of hands off policy towards organized crime was ending and made a move convincing these 31 men to join as a security force known then as the Zetas (Borderland).
Led by members known as Z-1 and Z-2, Heriberto Lazcano Lazcano and Jaime Gonzalez Duran changed the face of Mexican crime forever. The Zetas were then known for their brutality in their dealings with citizens and rival cartels that refused to cooperate with the Gulf Cartel. As the government started to crack down on crime, the Zetas continued to get more violent, recruiting more military members and submitting them through training of their own. As the Zetas grew and got higher up into the Gulf Cartel there was a lot of animosity. Gulf Cartel members were reluctant to let these new members get into the higher ups of the organization. This led to the Zetas pushing harder in their dealings and eventually fully splitting from the cartel to form the independent Los Zetas Cartel in 2010. The Zetas are now over 3000 members strong with most of them hav...
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...leader in as many years. A high turnover of high ranking officials can lead to divisions forming in the ranks and a split of power, diminishing their influence over Mexico. This may be Mexico’s intent here, only trying to capture high ranking officials, in an attempt to cause mass chaos allowing the military to regain some control.
Like previously mentioned, the Zetas are famous for their brutality and vicious attacks. Most of these have come in the last 5 years as they’ve been at war with rival cartels, the Sinaloas and Gulf Cartels. In August 2010, the Los Zetas were involved in the San Fernando Massacre, executing 72 immigrants supposedly being recruited by the Gulf Cartel. This was only part of the massacre though, as 8 months later San Fernando witnessed another brutal attack: 193 people were pulled from buses headed for Gulf border towns and executed.
Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office (Procuraduria General de la Republica, PGR) had issued information related to the conformation of the seven principal drug cartels present at Mexico:
There was a long list of leaders/presidents in the Mexican revolution. Some of them were not qualified one bit and didn’t know what it took. The less ready or qualified you were the better chance you had of being killed or starting a war. The main man originally in this story was Porfirio Diaz; but as time passed you realized the bad decisions of other presidents. For instance Francisco Madero; he ran for office just to get someone else out. He should’ve known that without experience and a plan that he wasn’t going to do well. You need a plan to succeed as a president. War was the only option in the beginning but it wasn’t in the end. The Mexican revolution was an extremely bloody conflict between the people of Mexico and the presidents they had to live under.
Some teenagers are part of drug cartels because of poverty. With this current issue, teenagers are being killed and arrested every day for smuggling drugs and weapons across the border in the United States. Drug cartels started in 1980 led by Federal Police agent Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo also known as “The Godfather”. Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo increased his power by affiliating with the Colombian cartels in the 1980s, he hid out in his hometown with his family as his partners in crime however, his family was arrested for murdering
They are a national gang. Of course, the gang is not as big here as where it originated in California. However, it is considered to be one of the largest gangs in the United States. That I do remember from gang class. Also, to be accepted into the gang, one must take a beating from members. This gang is known for violence and they do not hesitate to use extreme actions when protecting their turf against rivals or the police. They are big with the selling and distribution of crack cocaine, PCP along with other drugs. Other activities would be armed robberies, auto theft, assault and murder (Cruz, 2015).
For the 71 years that the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) was in power, Mexico saw great political, social and economic upheaval. This can be seen in the evolution of the PRI party, whose reign over Mexican society came at the expense of true democracy. “A party designed for power, the PRI's mechanisms for success involved a combination of repressive measures. The party professed no specific ideology, enabling it to adapt to changing social, economic and political forces over time. It attached itself virtually all aspects of civil society, and in this way, it become the political extension and tool of the government.” In 2000, however, the PRI’s loss of its monopoly on political power and institutional corruption gave rise to inter-cartel violence that was created in the political void left after the PAN won the national presidential election. These conditions gave rise to the Zetas: a new type of cartel that changed the operational structure of previous drug cartels. The Zetas operate in a new militant structure associated with a higher brand of violence, which has led it to branch out beyond a traditional drug smuggling enterprise common under the PRI government. Simply put, the electoral defeat of the PRI in 2000 was supposed to usher in a more democratic era in Mexican politics. Instead, the PRI party’s defeat created a state of chaos that gave rise to inter-cartel violence and the birth of the Zetas cartel.
Mexico is a country rich in tradition, history and culture. Unfortunately, Mexico has not been talked about for any of those descriptions I mentioned above lately. Mexico has become a country full of death and violence. The Mexican government has been fighting a war with drug traffickers since December 2006. At the same time, drug cartels have fought each other for control of territory. More than 60,000 people have been killed (CNN). Despite the “war” launched at these multi-billion dollar organized crime groups, Mexico has not been able to stop its slide as a failed state. Almost every day there seems to be either dead bodies lying on the ground, a school closed due to vandalism, disappeared people, or bullet-riddled houses and cars. Sadly, there is not much the citizens of Mexico can do to ask for justice and change to the mess they are living in right now. So who is to blame for all of this? The Mexican drug cartels have completely taken over Mexico. They have become powerful through corruption and violence. The cartels use their power to intimidate and even murder anyone who tries to get in their way. They do not have a problem with decapitating heads in order to make a statement. The drug cartels also use their money to gain power. Given the amount of money they have, the cartels have millions of dollars invested in keeping authorities off their business. They can be very effective in bribing government officials at all levels, from border patrol just patrolling the border to state and high ranking federal officials. Given the resources they have, they can reach out and kill government officials at all levels. Since government officials are faced with bribes and or certain death, even the most unbreakable are caut...
Mara Salvatrucha, also known as MS-13, is a well-known transnational criminal organization (TCO) originating from El Salvador. They are specifically targeted for its involvement in transnational criminal activities including drug trafficking, kidnapping, human trafficking, sex trafficking, and many more. It is certain that there are more transnational gangs other than MS-13, but the reality of these gangs impact society, and their neighborhoods, more than one can imagine. There are underlying realities “that make it difficult to generalize [the gangs].” The one of many underlying realities is that each neighborhood level gang group of transnational gangs, particularly MS-13, has a “great deal of autonomy in the relationship it maintains with other organizations.” The second reality factor is that gangs, especially MS-13 in El Salvador are in a state of turmoil. The third reality factor is that the gangs in Central America differ from each other in significant ways. Although most gangs are involved in human smuggling and drug retail, MS-13 has a solidified relationship with “transportista networks and are reaching out to Mexican TCOs.” These realities can be analyzed with Taussig’s notions and theoretical framework of space of death.
A gang is an organized group with a recognized leader whose activities are either criminal or, at the very least, threatening to the community. (Walker, 2011) Throughout history there have been some infamous gangs that have gotten media attention and others that have gone under the radar. One of the more underground gang structures are prison gangs. The Nuestra Familia may not be in the news as much anymore compared to other gangs, but they are nothing to be taken lightly. Prison gangs have been around since the late 20th century and only seem to be getting stronger if nothing is going to be done to prevent them. Gangs in prison have members in and out of prison. One of the more popular gangs that has been gaining steam recently is the mainly Hispanic gang La Nuestra Familia. The purpose of this paper is to write about the history of the NF, the structure in which it operates, and some good preventative tactics that could prevent prison gangs from becoming stronger.
Mexico has a long history of cartels the deaths, drugs and weapon trafficking is in all time high increasing year by year. “Mexico's gangs have flourished since the late 19th century, mostly in the north due to their proximity to towns along the U.S.-Mexico border. But it was the American appetite for cocaine in the 1970s that gave Mexican drug cartels immense power to manufacture and transport drugs across the border. Early Mexican gangs were primarily situated in border towns where prostitution, drug use, bootlegging and extortion flourished” (Wagner). They keep themselves armed and ready with gun supplies shipped from the U.S, taking control of the drug trades. The violence is spilling so out of control that they overthrew the Mexican government.
Over the last several decades, violence has consumed and transformed Mexico. Since the rise of dozens of Mexican cartels, the Mexican government has constantly been fighting an ongoing war with these criminal organizations. The cartel organizations have a primary purpose of managing and controlling illegal drug trafficking operations in Central America and South America to the United States. Violence on a massive and brutal scale has emerged due to the nature of the illegal drug trade. Because the drug trade is vastly widespread, cartels are often fighting one another and competing in business. Mexican authorities count at least 12 major cartels, but also talk of an untold numbers of smaller splinter groups. (Taipei Times). Five cartels from Mexico have risen to become the extremely powerful amongst all the drug organizations operating in Mexico. The Guadalajara Cartel, the Sinaloa Cartel, the Tijuana Cartel, the Juarez Cartel, and the Gulf Cartel. These organizations, along with other distinguished Mexican cartels, have plagued Mexico with violence, terror, and fear due to the essence and nature of illegal drug trafficking.
*Many of the juvenile gangs that have formed in the United States in recent years are reminiscent of the post -war pachucos (Paz, 14).
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/17/magazine/how-a-mexican-drug-cartel-makes-it-s-billions.html?pagewanted=18_r=07. Tovray, Daniel. A. “Who is Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman?”, IBT Media Inc., 11 Jan 2012. Web.
Joaquin Guzman was a lieutenant of the cartel when it first came to power, and took full control in the 1990s after the arrest of the preceding leader
Our team presentation focused on three Latino gangs, MS-13 (Mara Salvatrucha), the Mexican Mafia and the Los Surenos gang. My part of the presentation was to provide information on the type of crime these three gangs are known to commit. The crimes committed by the MS-13 gang are varied, violent, and take place all over the country. The FBI even put together a task force called the MS-13 National Gang Task Force in December of 2004 to try to put a stop to this gang’s activities. (www.fbi.gov). Los Surenos or Sur-13, originally based in Los Angeles, has also branched out from turf wars with rival gangs to “for profit”, violent crimes across the country. The Mexican Mafia has a similar story to tell as well in regards to gang crimes, which again range from respect crimes, and retaliatory violence to crimes for profit.
The Strands of the Sinaloa drug cartel web. The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved from http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jul/24/local/la-me-cartel-20110724. Logan, Samuel. A. A. 2012, February 16 -. A profile of Los Zetas, Mexico's second most powerful drug cartel.