Authors: Ioan Grillo
8
.
The hunt for Pablo Escobar is related in great detail in Mark Bowden,
Killing Pablo: The Hunt for the World’s Greatest Outlaw
(New York: Penguin, 2001).
9
.
The Swiss Police investigation was headed by Valentin Roschacher and the report compiled in 1998. It is detailed in Tim Golden, “Questions Arise About Swiss Report on Raúl Salinas’s Millions,”
New York Times
, October 12, 1998.
10
.
Tim Padgett and Elaine Shannon, “La Nueva Frontera: The Border Monsters,”
Time
, June 11, 2001.
11
.
Blancornelas,
El Cartel
, 237.
12
.
Ibid., 243–44.
13
.
Ibid., 284.
14
.
Jesús Blancornelas in interview with Guillermo López Portillo for Televisa in 2006.
Chapter 6: Democrats
1
.
Fox made the notorious comment at a news conference in Puerto Vallarta, May 13, 2005.
2
.
I counducted the interview with Vicente Fox in San Francisco del Rincón, November 25, 2010.
3
.
The quote was from ABC’s
Nightline
, July 3, 2000, transcribed from the original recording courtesy of ABC’s Mexico City bureau.
4
.
José Reveles,
El Cartel Incómodo: El Fin de los Beltrán Leyva y la Hegemonía del Chapo Guzmán
(Mexico City: Random House Mandadori, 2010), 57–71.
5
.
A series of love letters from Joaquin “Chapo Guzmán” were published to much fanfare in Julio Scherer Garcia,
Maxima Seguridad: Almoloya y Puente Grande
(Mexico City: Nuevo Siglo Aguilar, 2001), 21–28.
6
.
This anecdote is also discussed in Diego Osorno,
El Cartel de Sinaloa
(Mexico City: Grijalbo, 2009), 193.
7
.
Many articles exploring links between the federal government and Sinaloa Cartel have been published in Mexico’s bestselling newsmagazine,
Proceso
, among other places.
8
.
Juan Nepomuceno, also known as the Padrino de Matamoros, was a huge figure for more than half a century. In old age, he gave an interview with Sam Dillon, “Matamoros Journal; Canaries Sing in Mexico, but Uncle Juan Will Not,”
New York Times
, February 9, 1996.
9
.
The quote is from the manual
Handling Sources
, of the U.S. army, which has been redistributed by School of Americas Watch NGO.
10
.
Details of these attacks are included in the Zapatista (EZLN) communiqué entitled
Sobre el PFCRN, La Ofensiva Militar del Gobierno, los actos terroristas y el nombramiento de Cammacho
(January 11, 1994).
11
.
The text of the conversation was released by an agent in the Agencia Federal de Investigación (AFI).
12
.
The DEA agent was Joe DuBois and FBI agent was Daniel Fuentes.
13
.
The meeting was first reported by Mexican journalist Alberto Najar, who obtained an intelligence document from the PGR. It was later supported by testimonies of protected witnesses handled by federal agents.
14
.
The described mass killing took place in Nuevo Laredo, October 8, 2004.
15
.
Sources have quoted different towns as the birthplace of Lazcano, but evidence points to Hidalgo towns near the state border with Veracruz, where he has sponsored at least two churches.
16
.
The killing of Nuevo Laredo police chief Alejandro Dominguez took place on June 8, 2005.
17
.
Bradley Roland Will, aged thirty-six, was shot dead on October 27, 2006, in Oaxaca city. At least two other people were killed in gun battles in Oaxaca city on the same day.
18
.
Fox made the comments on his blog, August 9, 2010.
Chapter 7: Warlords
1
.
Felipe Calderón,
El Hijo Disobediente: Notas en Campana
(Mexico City: Aguilar, 2006), 16.
2
.
First presidential debate, April 25, 2006.
3
.
I covered this for the AP agency in stories such as Ioan Grillo, “Thousands of Mexican troops ordered to arrest smugglers, burn marijuana and opium fields,” Associated Press, December 12, 2006.
4
.
Felipe Calderón made the comments at a Defense Department installation in Mexico City, February 10, 2007.
5
.
The initial Mérida Initiative agreement was for $1.6 billion over the fiscal years 2008 to 2010. The aid has continued beyond, with President Obama requesting $334 million in funding in Mexico in 2011.
6
.
Mexico’s federal security budget approved for 2011 included $4.7 billion for the Defense Department (Sedena), $1.46 billion for the navy and marines (Semar), $2.8 billion for the Public Security Department (SSP), and $5.76 billion for the Federal Attorney General’s Office (PGR)—a total of $14.72 billion.
7
.
Édgar Valdéz’s statement was taken and filmed by agents from the Public Safety Department (SSP) and released to the press.
8
.
One metric ton of cocaine is one thousand kilo bricks, or 1 million gram wraps.
9
.
The narco message was displayed on blankets in several cities across Mexico on February 12, 2010.
10
.
Paquiro, “Breve Tumba-Burros Culichi Inglés para Corresponsales (de Guerra),”
La Locha
, September 2008.
11
.
Arturo Beltrán Leyva was killed on December 16, 2009. Information about the shooting is detailed in a classified State Department memo, later released by WikiLeaks, entitled “Mexico Navy Operation Nets Drug Kingpin Arturo Beltrán Leyva” (created December 17, 2009).
12
.
The Mexican government’s own homicide count compared to census figures found a murder rate in Ciudad Juárez of 191 per 100,000 residents in 2009, rising to 229 per 100,000 in 2010. According to FBI statistics, New Orleans was the most violent U.S. city in 2009 with 52 homicides per 100,000 residents.
13
.
This estimate of ten thousand Zeta members was given by a member of CISEN, Mexico’s spy agency, in a meeting with foreign journalists in 2010.
14
.
Mexico’s National Human Rights Commission, or Comisión Nacional de los Derechos Humanos, reported at a news conference in Mexico City, November 22, 2010, it had more than a hundred files on civilians killed by police and soldiers.
15
.
Undersecretary of the Army Joseph Westphal made the comments at the University of Utah’s Hinckley Institute of Politics, February 8, 2011.
Chapter 8: Traffic
1
.
The seizure statistics were provided by the Department of Homeland Security, which incorporates both the Border Patrol and Ports of Entry.
2
.
From the
2010 World Drug Report
published by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
3
.
Border Patrol agents discovered the twenty-four-hundred-foot tunnel in Otay Mesa in January 2006. It remains the longest such tunnel discovered to date.
4
.
The survey is entitled “National Survey on Drug Use & Health.”
5
.
The surveys, entitled “What America’s Users Spend on Illegal Drugs, 1988–2000,” were prepared for the Office of National Drug Control Policy (drug czar’s office) by private consultants.
6
.
Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) Annual Report 2009.
7
.
Bank of Mexico figures based on electronic and bank transfers of small amounts.
8
.
Public Safety Secretary Genaro García Luna made the statement during a speech to the National Governors Conference in Puerto Vallarta, August 7, 2010.
9
.
Jason Lange, “From Spas to Banks, Mexico’s Economy Rides on Drugs,” Reuters, January 22, 2010.
10
.
The blacklist is entitled “List of Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons” and is released by the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the Department of the Treasury.
11
.
Written in
World Drug Report 2009
, by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
12
.
The interview was given to AP in New York in May 2007 and finally released in July 2007 after the AP attempted to corroborate sensitive information. The delay triggered conspiracy theories in the Mexican media.
Chapter 9: Murder
1
.
A detailed chapter on El Gitano is in Diego Osorno,
El Cartel de Sinaloa
(Mexico City: Grijalbo, 2009), 95–109.
2
.
José González,
El Negro del Negro Durazo: La biografia criminal de Durazo, escrita por su Jefe de Ayudantes
(Mexico City: Editorial Posada, 1983), 22.
3
.
Tabio Castillo,
Los Jinetes de la Cocaina
(Bogotá: Editorial Documents Periodisticos, 1987), 11.
4
.
Homicide statistics by Colombia’s National Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Science.
5
.
Police shot dead Pablo Escobar in Medellín on December 2, 1993.
6
.
The Colombian youth unemployment figure of 22 percent—about double the overall unemployment rate—was from March 2010, when I conducted the interview.
7
.
The song “Oficio Pistolero” is by
norteño
band Grupo Cartel.
8
.
The scandal of prisoners going out to commit murders was broken on July 25, 2010, causing a political firestorm.
9
.
Mexico’s 2010 census counted 1,328,000 residents in the municipal boundaries of Ciudad Juárez.
10
.
From the government-funded study
Todos Somos Juárez, Reconstruyamos La Ciudad
(Ciudad Juárez: Colegio de la Frontera Norte, March 2010), 4.
11
.
The maxium sentences for minors vary according to Mexican states and ages, with nowhere allowing more than five years. In Morelos state, those under sixteen can only be sentenced to three years, a fact that gained public attention following the December 2010 arrest of fourteen-year-old alleged killer Edgar Jimenez, alias El Ponchis.
Chapter 10: Culture
1
.
From the first recorded Robin Hood rhyme in the fifteenth century.
2
.
Édgar “the Barbie” Valdéz’s statement was taken and filmed by agents from the Public Security Department (SSP) and released to the press.
3
.
Vicente T. Mendoza,
El Romance Español y El Corrido Méxicano: Estudio Comparativo
(Mexico City: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 1939), 219.
4
.
Américo Paredes,
With His Pistol in His Hand
(University of Texas Press, 1958), 3.
5
.
Sam Quinones,
True Tales from Another Mexico: The Lynch Mob, the Popsicle Kings, Chalino and the Bronx
(Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2001).
6
.
The murder of Valentín Elizalde took place in Reynosa on November 25, 2006.
7
.
The tomb of Valentín Elizalde is in the Sinaloan town of Guasave.
Chapter 11: Faith
1
.
Cardinal Norberto Rivera of Mexico City wrote one statement conceding and condemning the widespread use of narco alms in the parish newspaper
Desde la Fe
, October 31, 2010.
2
.
The words are from the song “Corrido a Malverde” by Julio Chaidez.
3
.
Before the Spanish conquest of 1521, Mexico City was known as Tenochtitlán and included the modern-day historic center, with Tepito and other neighborhoods on the outskirts.
4
.
Actress and dancer Niurka Marcos, originally from Cuba, married actor Bobby Larios in a ceremony headed by David Romo in February 2004.
5
.
Romo’s church was registed with the Interior Ministry (Gobernación) as Iglesia Católica Tradicional México-EEUU. Gobernación annulled the registration in April 2007.
6
.
The life and death of Jonathan Legaria is also told in detail in Humberto Padgett, “Vida, Obra y Fin de Padrino Endoque, el ahijado de la Santa Muerte,”
Emeequis
, September 1, 2008.