Mexico: Narco-Violence and a Failed State?

357 Pages·2009·1.276 MB·English

by  George W. Grayson

ii Mexico
Acknowledgments iii
iv Mexico
Fourth printing 2011
Copyright © 2010 by Transaction Publishers, New Brunswick, New
Jersey.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright
Conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in
any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photo-
copy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without
prior permission in writing from the publisher. All inquiries should be
addressed to Transaction Publishers, Rutgers—The State University
of New Jersey, 35 Berrue Circle, Piscataway, New Jersey 08854-8042.
www.transactionpub.com
This book is printed on acid-free paper that meets the American National
Standard for Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials.
Library of Congress Catalog Number: 2009029164
ISBN: 978-1-4128-1151-4
Printed in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Grayson, George W., 1938-
Mexico : narco-violence and a failed state? / George W. Grayson.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4128-1151-4
1. Drug traffic--Mexico. 2. Narco terrorism--Mexico. 3. Drug
control--Mexico. 4. Mexico--Politics and government. 5. Mexico--
Economic conditions. I. Title.

HV5840.M4G73 2009
363.450972--dc22
2009029164
Acknowledgments v
Dedication
To José Raúl Vera López, O.P., Bishop of Saltillo, Coahuila, and to
Héctor González Martínez, Metropolitan Archbishop of Durango,
for your courage in the face of personal danger, your readiness to
condemn supposedly “untouchable” criminals and their enablers,
and your inspirational commitment to uplifting the downtrodden.
vi Mexico
Acknowledgments vii
Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Map of Mexico xv
Map of Michoacán xvi
Introduction 1
1. The Revolutionary Church 7
2. Wars, Prohibition, and the Antecedents of 19
Narco Churches
3. Two Narco Churches Emerge 27
4. The Weakening of the Revolutionary Church 39
5. Diaspora of the Narco Churches 55
6. Calderón’s Anti-Drug Strategy 97
7. Crusade against Evil Antagonists 119
8. Emerging and New Narco Sects—Los Zetas and La Familia 179
9. U.S.-Mexican Narcotics Policy: The Mérida 219
Initiative and Beyond
10. Prospect for Mexico’s Becoming a Failed State 251
viii Mexico
Conclusion: A Failed State? 267
Appendix 1: Selected Figures in Narco-Traffi cking 279
Appendix 2: Ex-GAFES Involved in Drug Traffi cking 287
Appendix 3: Women and Narco-Traffi cking 293
Appendix 4: Mexican Police, Anti-Drug, and 299
Intelligence Services
Appendix 5: Annual Causes of Death in the United States 303
Glossary of Terms 307
Selected Bibliography 317
Index 331
Acknowledgments ix
Acknowledgments
Upon embarking upon this project, I had no idea of the spider web-like
complexity of the drug world. Time constraints and scanty information
force television news programs to simplify coverage: “Sinaloa Cartel May
Resort to Deadly Force in U.S.,” “Mexico Captures Powerful Gulf Cartel
Hit Man,” and “Suspected Cop Killer May Be in Zeta Gang,”—“Details
to Follow.”
Take, for example, Los Zetas. Trained with U.S. assistance as mem-
bers of the Mexican Army’s Special Forces Airmobile Groups (GAFES),
several of these elite soldiers defected to protect the top dog in the Gulf
Cartel, headquartered in the Matamoros area, south of Brownsville,
Texas; after the incarceration of cartel leader Osiel Cárdenas Guillén. The
paramilitaries gradually began acting on their own, eventually forging
an independent, cellular structure. Yet it is unlikely that the separation
is complete. The Gulf Cartel still controls 20 or 30 percent of Tamau-
lipas—with Los Zetas commanding the rest. The relatively low death
toll in this coastal state attests not only to the coziness between local
politicians with the narco-barons, but to the probability that Los Zetas
and the Gulf Cartel have hammered out a modus vivendi and cooperate
occasionally when it serves the interests of both. In southern Guerrero,
a Hobbesian state of violence and misery, Los Zetas have cast their lot
with the Beltrán Leyva family (former allies of the Sinaloa Cartel) and
appear to have done the same in various municipalities of Mexico State,
the nation’s most populous jurisdiction. For a while, the ex-soldiers and
their recruits made common cause with one of four segments of the
shadowy, messianic La Familia. The syndicate is centered in bloodstained
Michoacan state where the Milenio and Jalisco Cartels, comrades of the
Sinaloans, long have operated.
Middle East scholar par excellence and a valued colleague at the Col-
lege of William and Mary, James Bill, analogizes Mexico’s drug world
to Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iraq. Political parties and their armies
may dominate the headlines. A closer look, however, fi nds religious,
ix