Violence erupted over the weekend as the Mexican Federal Judicial Police arrested Los Zeta leader, Rolando Veytia on Friday, May 20. The next day, Veytia had been shot to death. Only the police no the details, but it started another shooting war between Mexican officials and members of Los Zetas paramilitary drug cartel, which controlled the rich drug traffic in Veracruz since the demise of the Gulf Cartel.
Los Zetas Cartel is a criminal organization in Mexico dedicated mostly to internationalillegal drug trade, assassinations, and other organized crime activities. This drug cartel was founded by a small group of Mexican Army Special Forces deserters and now includes corrupt former federal, state, and local police officers, as well as ex-Kaibiles from Guatemala.
This group of highly trained gunmen was first hired as a private mercenary army for Mexico's Gulf Cartel. After the arrest of the Gulf Cartel's leader, Osiel Cárdenas Guillen, as well as other events, the two entities became a combined trafficking force, with the Zetas taking a more active leadership role in drug trafficking. Since February 2010 Los Zetas have gone independent and became enemies of its former employer/partner, the Gulf Cartel. (LINK)
There is no accurate tally of deaths in Veracruz over the past two years. The government reports the numbers to be in excess of 7,000. Well informed local sources put the number at more than double that.
Veracruz is a major shipping port. Drugs were being moved into, out of and around the city long before the military crackdown a month ago and the recent push by the police this past weekend.
If you want to see ongoing police and army action, gunfights, kidnapping, murder and bloodshed, Veracruz would make a great vacation spot - the antidote for a boring civilized life.
The Wall Street Journal -- LAS VEGAS -- Mexican President Felipe Calderon reassured the travel industry that his country remains a safe destination for tourists even as drug gang-related violence continues to bruise Mexico's image abroad.
"Mexico is a safe place to visit," Mr. Calderon told attendees at the Global Travel & Tourism Summit in Las Vegas on Thursday. "Yes, we have problems, but we are being transparent. We are dealing with it and we are fixing it."
Saying that Mexico has problems is like Noah suggesting that there was a little rain falling on the ark.
And the United States struggles to find some sort of coherent solution to THEIR place in this game as they share a 2,000 mile border with Mexico that is completely porous.
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