Action Adventure Fantasy Feature Film - Warrior

2007-05-21T19:42:00.000-07:00

Workers begin to fill tunnels at Mexican border
Seven passages in California and Arizona used by drug smugglers are to be closed off with concrete.

"Competing Mexican drug cartels are destroying each other ... and that's where 'Warrior' begins ...."

http://imdb.com/title/tt0320751
http://www.warriorthefilm.blogspot.com

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-208917617001990565&q=warrior+mexican+OR+drug+OR+cartels+duration%3Ashort+genre%3AMOVIE_TRAILER

"the action adventure fantasy feature film "Warrior" ... about the son of a divine force ... is a story of a young man's quest to find his true identity set against the twin backdrops of Native American folklore and the treacherous Mexican drug trade and a portrayal of the classic confrontation between "good and evil" ... filmed in the exotic jungles of Costa Azul in the State of Nayarit and the urban grit of Puerto Vallarta in the State of Jalisco, Mexico .. with action, adventure, romance, comedy, a multi-ethnic cast, a major studio movie music score and spectacular cinematography..."

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-tunnel16may16,1,5778698.story?coll=la-headlines-california

Workers begin to fill tunnels at Mexican border
Seven passages in California and Arizona used by drug smugglers are to be closed off with concrete.

By Richard Marosi
Times Staff Writer

May 16, 2007

SAN DIEGO — Workers poured concrete into the largest tunnel under the U.S.-Mexico border Tuesday as federal authorities began an effort to fill subterranean passages that were created to funnel drugs north.

Five tunnels in California and two in Arizona will be filled during the next two months to permanently close off pipelines that smugglers in some cases had managed to reuse after border authorities discovered them. The project comes three months after The Times reported that the tunnels had not been filled in, largely because of jurisdictional issues and lack of funding.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security provided $2.7 million after Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) demanded the tunnels be closed, calling them a national security risk.

Workers began drilling holes Tuesday into the so-called El Grande tunnel, which runs for nearly half a mile between warehouses in Tijuana and San Diego.

The tunnel, which features reinforced walls and ventilation and lighting systems, presented unique challenges that required weeks of preparation, authorities said.

Drugs and bodies have been found in tunnels in the past. So workers sent a robot into the tunnel's depths to look for obstructions. The robot sent back images of digging tools, but found no major blockages.

The tunnel featured a water-pumping system, but groundwater had flooded much of the passage since it was abandoned more than a year ago. Workers pumped thousands of gallons of water out of the tunnel, which is an average of 80 feet below the surface. They then drilled holes every 40 feet along its length before beginning to pour in the concrete. It is expected to take three days and more than 100 truckloads of concrete to fill the passage, authorities said.

The number of border tunnels has grown sharply in response to a massive increase in above-ground enforcement. More than 50 have been discovered in the last few years, but most are small, crudely built passages that are easily destroyed.

U.S. authorities have typically left the bigger tunnels largely intact, capping them only at the border and exit points. Smugglers have reused at least two large tunnels after digging around those caps.

The project will fill tunnels on the U.S. side, but the state of passages on the Mexican side is unknown. U.S. authorities say they don't know how much progress authorities have made there.

Mexican authorities want to close off their side, too, but they lack the resources and technology to do so, said Frank Marwood, head of the San Diego-based U.S. Tunnel Task Force. It includes agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

The Tijuana-based Arellano-Felix drug cartel is suspected to be behind the construction of El Grande, which authorities stumbled upon in January 2006 when they found an opening in an Otay Mesa warehouse. More than two tons of marijuana was found near the tunnel, and a Los Angeles-area man arrested at the warehouse later pleaded guilty to drug-related charges. No other suspects have been arrested.

Later this month, authorities are expected to start filling in the so-called Taj Mahal of tunnels, another passage running from Tijuana to San Diego that features concrete flooring and lighting. It was discovered 13 years ago. Three tunnels in Calexico and two in Nogales, Ariz., will also be filled, authorities said.

richard.marosi@latimes.com

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2007-05-21T19:39:00.000-07:00

Official's slaying prompts calls for troops in Mexico City
Party officials say the capital was unprepared for a backlash from the war on drug traffickers.

"Competing Mexican drug cartels are destroying each other ... and that's where 'Warrior' begins ...."

http://imdb.com/title/tt0320751
http://www.warriorthefilm.blogspot.com

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-208917617001990565&q=warrior+mexican+OR+drug+OR+cartels+duration%3Ashort+genre%3AMOVIE_TRAILER

"the action adventure fantasy feature film "Warrior" ... about the son of a divine force ... is a story of a young man's quest to find his true identity set against the twin backdrops of Native American folklore and the treacherous Mexican drug trade and a portrayal of the classic confrontation between "good and evil" ... filmed in the exotic jungles of Costa Azul in the State of Nayarit and the urban grit of Puerto Vallarta in the State of Jalisco, Mexico .. with action, adventure, romance, comedy, a multi-ethnic cast, a major studio movie music score and spectacular cinematography..."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-mexdrugs16may16,1,7232303.story?coll=la-headlines-world

Official's slaying prompts calls for troops in Mexico City
Party officials say the capital was unprepared for a backlash from the war on drug traffickers.

By Héctor Tobar
Times Staff Writer

May 16, 2007

MEXICO CITY — The leaders of two political parties called Tuesday for army troops to be dispatched to this capital city and its suburbs to fight drug traffickers in the wake of the assassination of a high-ranking official in the attorney general's office.

President Felipe Calderon promised an "unprecedented battle" against the traffickers, who have killed as many as 1,000 people this year as they fight Mexican authorities while battling one another for control of a lucrative trade in cocaine, methamphetamines, heroin and other illicit drugs. Most of the drugs are shipped to the United States.

The shooting in the political, cultural and media capital of Mexico raised troubling questions about Calderon's declared war on traffickers, which has included troop deployments to several states and cities, where violence has since spiraled. Newspaper editorials Tuesday accused the president of being unprepared for the backlash.

Jorge Chabat, an author and drug trade expert here, said the public would probably continue to back Calderon's efforts against the traffickers, despite the recent setbacks.

"It could be argued that Calderon's offensive has made the violence worse, and that he was not fully prepared for the escalation of violence that followed," Chabat said. "But the only other alternative was to do nothing. Or to make a deal with the drug traffickers. And that just isn't possible in a democratic state under the rule of law."

Police said they had few leads in the shooting of Jose Nemesio Lugo Felix, who had been appointed just weeks ago to head a drug intelligence unit in the federal attorney general's office. Lugo Felix was killed in a rush-hour ambush Monday a few yards from his office in the southern district of Coyoacan.

"We are witnessing a head-on, unprecedented struggle in the history of our country against organized crime," said Jorge Triana, a leader of Calderon's conservative National Action Party in Mexico City's Legislative Assembly. "We believe that Mexico City has become one of the most dangerous hot spots in the country and that [the authorities] have not acted appropriately."

Leaders of the Institutional Revolutionary Party in Mexico City and surrounding Mexico state joined the call for troops and federal police to deploy in the Mexico City metropolitan area, home to about 20 million people.

Until recently, the country's widespread drug violence has been a mostly provincial phenomenon centered on border areas and port cities.

But this year has seen several violent incidents in and around Mexico City that were apparently related to drug trafficking, including the deaths of two federal police officers shot April 26 on the highway linking Mexico City with Toluca.

On Tuesday, observers said Lugo Felix's death could mark a turning point in the nation's drug war.

"The killing is proof of the enormous power and impunity of organized crime," said an editorial in the left-leaning La Jornada, which accused the Calderon government of launching its anti-drug offensive without adequate preparation or protection for even the highest officials involved in the operation.

Speaking to hundreds of young people at the National Youth Olympiad in Veracruz, Calderon promised to win the drug war. "We will recover our Mexico, its plazas, parks and streets, which do not belong to criminals, but rather to the children, the youth and the free men of our country," he said.

The border city of Tijuana and the southern states of Guerrero and Michoacan have been among the places to which army troops and federal police units have been dispatched by Calderon to fight drug traffickers since he took power in December.

Leaders of the leftist Democratic Revolution Party, or PRD, which controls Mexico City's government, called any such deployment in the capital premature.

"The army is the last card we should play," said Victor Hugo Cirigo, a PRD city lawmaker and the leader of the capital's Legislative Assembly.

On Tuesday, the head of Mexico's National Human Rights Commission, Jose Luis Soberanes, said the army was unprepared for policing duties. The commission, an official government agency, has received 52 complaints of abuse related to the army presence in Michoacan, Soberanes said.

"What we should do is strengthen the local police — give them training, equipment — and substitute the army with police so [the soldiers] return to their barracks," Soberanes said.

*
hector.tobar@latimes.com

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2007-05-21T19:34:00.000-07:00

U.S., allies seen as losing drug war
Figures for last year show that cocaine is cheaper, purer and widely available.

"Competing Mexican drug cartels are destroying each other ... and that's where 'Warrior' begins ...."

http://imdb.com/title/tt0320751
http://www.warriorthefilm.blogspot.com

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-208917617001990565&q=warrior+mexican+OR+drug+OR+cartels+duration%3Ashort+genre%3AMOVIE_TRAILER

"the action adventure fantasy feature film "Warrior" ... about the son of a divine force ... is a story of a young man's quest to find his true identity set against the twin backdrops of Native American folklore and the treacherous Mexican drug trade and a portrayal of the classic confrontation between "good and evil" ... filmed in the exotic jungles of Costa Azul in the State of Nayarit and the urban grit of Puerto Vallarta in the State of Jalisco, Mexico .. with action, adventure, romance, comedy, a multi-ethnic cast, a major studio movie music score and spectacular cinematography..."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-cocaine5may05,1,161277.story?coll=la-headlines-world

U.S., allies seen as losing drug war
Figures for last year show that cocaine is cheaper, purer and widely available.

By Sam Enriquez
Times Staff Writer

May 5, 2007

MEXICO CITY — The United States and its Latin American allies are losing a major battle in the war on drugs, according to indicators that show cocaine prices dipped for most of 2006 and U.S. users were getting more bang for their buck.

Despite billions of dollars in U.S. antidrug spending and record seizures, statistics recently released by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy suggest that cocaine is as available as ever.

Cocaine users and law enforcement officials both care about price and purity. Authorities work to choke off supply, driving up cost and dampening street sales. Users want better coke at cheaper prices.

In 2005, John P. Walters, the head of the drug policy office, made headlines touting a surge in cocaine prices and falling levels of quality. Those figures indicated that U.S. drug control policies were working, he said.

But the new numbers issued by his office indicate that any victory was short-lived. Retail cocaine prices last year fell more than 12% from January to October, while average purity of cocaine seized by authorities rose from about 68% to 73%. And this time, the drug policy office did little to publicize the figures, releasing them in a letter to U.S. Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa).

The new statistics emboldened critics who say the Bush administration's antidrug strategies need to change.

"You can spin this any way you want, but when prices go down and supply goes up, the fact of the matter is that this policy is not working," said U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), a longtime critic who supports spending more on economic development.

Since the Iraq war began more than four years ago, the Pentagon has sharply reduced spending on air and sea surveillance of trafficking routes in the Pacific and Caribbean. The centerpiece of the U.S. strategy against cocaine has shifted to Plan Colombia, which funds aerial fumigation of coca plants. Colombian growers supply 90% of U.S. users through Mexican smuggling rings that control the cocaine and marijuana trade.

"Crop control is the most cost-effective means of cutting supply," according to the 2007 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report, issued by the U.S. State Department. Last year, Colombia reported it had destroyed more than half a million acres of coca plants.

But growers have responded to the fumigation by breaking up their crops into smaller areas in an apparently successful hide-and-seek strategy. U.S. officials estimate that as much as 800 tons of cocaine still was exported from Colombia.

Patrick Ward, deputy director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, said the Colombia eradication program kept 350 tons of cocaine from being produced.

But critics say that availability of cocaine in most U.S. cities is evidence of failure.

"In 2005, more coca was grown in Colombia than they had in 2000, when Plan Colombia started," said Adam Isacson, a Colombia analyst for the Center for International Policy, a Washington think tank. "They can say, 'Look how much more coke we'd have without fumigation,' but that sounds pretty lame."

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe traveled to Washington this week to lobby for continued U.S. support amid allegations of ties between his government and illegal paramilitary groups. Colombia has received $4.7 billion since 2000.

The continued high production in Colombia is also troubling news for Mexico, which reaps the cocaine trade's greatest profits and bears the brunt of its costs. More than 2,000 deaths last year were attributed to an ongoing battle among rival drug gangs for control of smuggling routes.

Mexican President Felipe Calderon in December deployed the army to stem the bloodshed. But the killings continue at or ahead of last year's pace. In January, Mexico extradited several key drug trafficking figures to face trial in U.S. courts, including the alleged head of the country's east coast-based cartel. More extraditions are expected.

But continuing violence and a steady supply of cocaine crossing into the U.S. from Mexico have many questioning Calderon's strategy as well as Washington's.

"The standard that economists would use on extradition would be that it frees up the market," said Peter Reuter, an economist and drug policy expert at Rand Corp. "If you're Mexico, you care about reducing the capability of these organizations to execute people in large numbers. But the idea that it will stop cocaine is wrong."

Mexico's army operations, historically, have been effective only in the short term, said Jose Luis Pineyro, a military affairs expert in Mexico City. "After the military leaves, the narcos come back."

sam.enriquez@latimes.com

Times staff writers Héctor Tobar and Carlos Martinez contributed to this report.

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2007-05-21T19:30:00.000-07:00

Key drug cartel figures admit smuggling, murder
In plea deal, brothers Ismael and Gilberto Higuera Guerrero are expected to testify against alleged head of Arellano Felix ring.

"Competing Mexican drug cartels are destroying each other ... and that's where 'Warrior' begins ...."

http://imdb.com/title/tt0320751
http://www.warriorthefilm.blogspot.com

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-208917617001990565&q=warrior+mexican+OR+drug+OR+cartels+duration%3Ashort+genre%3AMOVIE_TRAILER

"the action adventure fantasy feature film "Warrior" ... about the son of a divine force ... is a story of a young man's quest to find his true identity set against the twin backdrops of Native American folklore and the treacherous Mexican drug trade and a portrayal of the classic confrontation between "good and evil" ... filmed in the exotic jungles of Costa Azul in the State of Nayarit and the urban grit of Puerto Vallarta in the State of Jalisco, Mexico .. with action, adventure, romance, comedy, a multi-ethnic cast, a major studio movie music score and spectacular cinematography..."

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-cartel28apr28,1,6513372.story?coll=la-headlines-california
From the Los Angeles Times
Key drug cartel figures admit smuggling, murder
In plea deal, brothers Ismael and Gilberto Higuera Guerrero are expected to testify against alleged head of Arellano Felix ring.
By Richard Marosi
Times Staff Writer

April 28, 2007

SAN DIEGO — Two top bosses of the notorious Arellano Felix drug cartel have pleaded guilty to smuggling tons of drugs into the U.S. and murdering and torturing rivals of the Tijuana-based criminal organization.

The defendants, brothers Ismael and Gilberto Higuera Guerrero, are the highest-ranking members of the cartel to be convicted in a U.S. court and are expected to testify against Francisco Javier Arellano Felix, who allegedly took control of the organization in recent years.

The Higuera Guerrero brothers were key lieutenants during the peak years of the cartel in the 1990s, when it was responsible for importing the majority of the drugs into the U.S. They pleaded guilty to racketeering charges.

Federal prosecutors will recommend that Ismael receive 40 years in prison and that Gilberto be given 30 years. The brothers also agreed to forfeit $6 million, according to the agreement.

Ismael, 46, and Gilberto, 39, coordinated the transportation of many tons of cocaine from Colombia into Mexico via commercial airlines, private planes, cargo shipments and trucks, according to the plea agreement announced Friday.

The drugs were smuggled into the U.S. in car trunks and hidden vehicle compartments and on small boats. Ismael, who ran the day-to-day operations, regularly bribed government and law enforcement officials in Mexico, the documents said.

Both brothers also admitted to being enforcers for the cartel. They pleaded guilty to kidnapping, torturing and murdering rivals and uncooperative government and law enforcement officials.

The Mexican government extradited the brothers to the U.S. earlier this year as part of Mexican President Felipe Calderon's wide-ranging offensive against drug cartel figures.

richard.marosi@latimes.com

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2007-05-21T19:23:00.000-07:00

16 arrested in Coachella Valley drug raids
Federal officials say a Mexican Mafia group selling methamphetamine is dismantled.

"Competing Mexican drug cartels are destroying each other ... and that's where 'Warrior' begins ...."

http://imdb.com/title/tt0320751
http://www.warriorthefilm.blogspot.com

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-208917617001990565&q=warrior+mexican+OR+drug+OR+cartels+duration%3Ashort+genre%3AMOVIE_TRAILER

"the action adventure fantasy feature film "Warrior" ... about the son of a divine force ... is a story of a young man's quest to find his true identity set against the twin backdrops of Native American folklore and the treacherous Mexican drug trade and a portrayal of the classic confrontation between "good and evil" ... filmed in the exotic jungles of Costa Azul in the State of Nayarit and the urban grit of Puerto Vallarta in the State of Jalisco, Mexico .. with action, adventure, romance, comedy, a multi-ethnic cast, a major studio movie music score and spectacular cinematography..."

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-mafia28apr28,1,172415.story?coll=la-headlines-california
From the Los Angeles Times

16 arrested in Coachella Valley drug raids
Federal officials say a Mexican Mafia group selling methamphetamine is dismantled.

By Maeve Reston
Times Staff Writer

April 28, 2007

Federal officials said Friday that they dismantled one of the most prolific drug rings in the Coachella Valley on Thursday in an operation that resulted in the arrests of 16 people, including one "shot caller" for the Mexican Mafia, and the seizure of 50 guns, methamphetamine and a pipe bomb.

A joint gang task force of state, local and federal officials tracked members of the network for 10 months by recording cellphone conversations and posing as drug buyers, officials said.

In those calls, some of the suspects allegedly revealed their involvement in the Mexican Mafia, a gang that operates throughout California and Mexico and is deeply entrenched in the state's prison system.

The most sought-after of the defendants was the alleged shot caller — Jose Chavez Huerta, 42, who officials say continually identified himself in his cellphone conversations as the highest-ranking member of the Mexican Mafia in the Coachella Valley.

Federal officials said Huerta, who lives in Thermal, collected "taxes" from dealers who operated in his territory and provided a share of his profits to his Mexican Mafia sponsor, Richard Aguirre.

Aguirre is incarcerated at Pelican Bay State Prison in Crescent City, where he is serving a life sentence for murder.

Huerta is charged with conspiracy to possess narcotics and possession with intent to distribute narcotics.

Since 1989, Huerta has served numerous prison sentences for smuggling drugs into prison and selling heroin and methamphetamine, , as well as robbery, assault and gun charges.

Along with Huerta's wife and brother, authorities arrested Aguirre's 75-year-old mother Thursday.

Authorities alleged that Aguirre's mother, Jovita Aguirre of Pico Rivera, collected "taxes" for Aguirre and relayed messages between her son and the gang members who answered to him.

Authorities are still searching for Huerta's associate, Tony Rodriguez, who was identified as the second-ranking member of the Mexican Mafia in the Coachella Valley, which stretches from east of the Banning area to the Imperial County line.

Officials allege that Rodriguez and Huerta enforced the Mexican Mafia's rule over the area by threats, assaults and murders — including attacks in prison.

So far, 15 people have been charged with federal crimes. Four people arrested Thursday and Friday on drug charges will be charged in state courts.

J. Stephen Tidwell, assistant director in charge of the FBI in Los Angeles, said officials believed they had dealt a "pretty harsh blow" to the Coachella Valley operation.

He noted that among the 50 guns found during the raids, officials confiscated short-barreled rifles and illegal assault rifles with removable magazines.

Officials are still investigating how much methamphetamine Huerta's network handled per month, where it was coming from and who the group's primary clients were, Tidwell said.

Officials acknowledged that the Mexican Mafia still has a strong influence in the Coachella Valley, and said local officials would have to stay vigilant to prevent other gang members from taking over Huerta's clientele.

maeve.reston@latimes.com

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2007-05-21T19:03:00.000-07:00

Gunmen storm hospital in Tijuana
Hundreds of patients are evacuated as the assailants search for a comrade hurt in an earlier gun battle.

"Competing Mexican drug cartels are destroying each other ... and that's where 'Warrior' begins ...."

http://imdb.com/title/tt0320751
http://www.warriorthefilm.blogspot.com

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-208917617001990565&q=warrior+mexican+OR+drug+OR+cartels+duration%3Ashort+genre%3AMOVIE_TRAILER

"the action adventure fantasy feature film "Warrior" ... about the son of a divine force ... is a story of a young man's quest to find his true identity set against the twin backdrops of Native American folklore and the treacherous Mexican drug trade and a portrayal of the classic confrontation between "good and evil" ... filmed in the exotic jungles of Costa Azul in the State of Nayarit and the urban grit of Puerto Vallarta in the State of Jalisco, Mexico .. with action, adventure, romance, comedy, a multi-ethnic cast, a major studio movie music score and spectacular cinematography..."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-tijuana19apr19,1,3572595.story?coll=la-headlines-world

Gunmen storm hospital in Tijuana
Hundreds of patients are evacuated as the assailants search for a comrade hurt in an earlier gun battle.

By Richard Marosi
Times Staff Writer

April 19, 2007

TIJUANA — Masked gunmen opened fire on police Wednesday at a large hospital as they searched for an accomplice wounded in an earlier gun battle, Mexican police and witnesses said.

Two state police officers were killed in the attack, which forced the evacuation of hundreds of patients from the seven-story facility.

The shootouts shattered a period of relative calm in the crime-weary border city, where thousands of soldiers and federal agents began patrolling the streets this year in an effort to combat growing drug-related violence.

Officials said the chain of events began when gunmen with suspected links to organized crime fought federal agents who had stopped the suspects' car. One suspect was killed and another was injured, authorities said.

Shortly after the injured man arrived at Tijuana General Hospital, a group of about six gunmen tried to shoot their way into the emergency room, witnesses and police said. It was unclear whether the gunmen intended to rescue the man or kill him, police said.

Hospital workers said they were tending to patients when the barrage of gunfire shattered windows and gouged walls around the emergency room.

"We all hit the floor. It was terrifying," Dr. Paola Garcia said.

No patients or hospital workers were injured in the attack, police said.

Five suspects were arrested. Details of the arrests were not released.

Mexico has been beset by increasingly brazen slayings sparked by competition among drug-trafficking groups seeking control of the lucrative trade routes into the United States.

In the western state of Michoacan, gunmen linked to drug traffickers tortured an alleged rival, then drove the victim's truck over his head, leaving him in the street with a menacing note nailed to his chest and the corpse of his dog thrown on top of him, Reuters news agency reported.

Authorities said the victim, whose body was discovered Tuesday, was a member of a gang competing with the notorious Gulf cartel.

Even in Michoacan, where killers last year dumped five severed heads onto a club's dance floor, the killing was met with shock.

*
richard.marosi@latimes.com

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2007-05-21T18:42:00.000-07:00

Mexico arrests border city chief of drug gang

"Competing Mexican drug cartels are destroying each other ... and that's where 'Warrior' begins ...."

http://imdb.com/title/tt0320751
http://www.warriorthefilm.blogspot.com

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-208917617001990565&q=warrior+mexican+OR+drug+OR+cartels+duration%3Ashort+genre%3AMOVIE_TRAILER

"the action adventure fantasy feature film "Warrior" ... about the son of a divine force ... is a story of a young man's quest to find his true identity set against the twin backdrops of Native American folklore and the treacherous Mexican drug trade and a portrayal of the classic confrontation between "good and evil" ... filmed in the exotic jungles of Costa Azul in the State of Nayarit and the urban grit of Puerto Vallarta in the State of Jalisco, Mexico .. with action, adventure, romance, comedy, a multi-ethnic cast, a major studio movie music score and spectacular cinematography..."

Mexico arrests border city chief of drug gang
Tue Apr 17, 1:28 PM ET
Mexican police have arrested the local head of the notorious Gulf Cartel drug gang in a city on the U.S. border as part of President Felipe Calderon's nationwide crackdown on organized crime.
Juan Oscar Garza was the cartel's leader in the city of Reynosa, just south of McAllen, Texas and was sought in Mexico for smuggling drugs, guns and people across the border, the attorney-general's office said on Tuesday.
He was arrested at a nightclub in Reynosa along with his brother, sister and girlfriend. Officials declined to say when the arrest took place.
The Gulf Cartel is one of the country's two most powerful trafficking gangs and is locked in a bitter fight with rival smugglers from the Pacific coast.
Its leader Osiel Cardenas was extradited to the United States in January.
Calderon has ordered thousands of soldiers into states throughout the country to try to end a war between the two drug gangs which killed around 2,000 people last year.
But narcotics-related murders have continued unabated. More than 20 bodies were found throughout Mexico on Monday alone, including five corpses with bound hands and feet discovered stuffed into a sports utility vehicle in the beach resort city of Cancun.
Copyright © 2007 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon.

2007-05-21T18:37:00.000-07:00

Toll of drug war rises in Mexico An anti-narcotics official is gunned down, two journalists are abducted and an army captain ends up slain.

"Competing Mexican drug cartels are destroying each other ... and that's where 'Warrior' begins ...."

http://imdb.com/title/tt0320751
http://www.warriorthefilm.blogspot.com

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-208917617001990565&q=warrior+mexican+OR+drug+OR+cartels+duration%3Ashort+genre%3AMOVIE_TRAILER

"the action adventure fantasy feature film "Warrior" ... about the son of a divine force ... is a story of a young man's quest to find his true identity set against the twin backdrops of Native American folklore and the treacherous Mexican drug trade and a portrayal of the classic confrontation between "good and evil" ... filmed in the exotic jungles of Costa Azul in the State of Nayarit and the urban grit of Puerto Vallarta in the State of Jalisco, Mexico .. with action, adventure, romance, comedy, a multi-ethnic cast, a major studio movie music score and spectacular cinematography..."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-mexdrugs15may15,0,567166.story?coll=la-home-world

Toll of drug war rises in Mexico
An anti-narcotics official is gunned down, two journalists are abducted and an army captain ends up slain.

By Héctor Tobar
Times Staff Writer

May 15, 2007

MEXICO CITY — The newly appointed head of a drug intelligence unit in the attorney general's office was shot and killed Monday in a street ambush here that dealt a new blow to President Felipe Calderon's campaign against this nation's drug traffickers.

Officials said several assailants waited for Jose Nemesio Lugo Felix, director of the attorney general's "Information Against Delinquency" unit, trapping his SUV on a narrow street. Such assassinations have become common in many border and port cities of Mexico but are rare in the nation's capital.

Lugo Felix had been appointed in April to head the unit specializing in the analysis of data about the activities of Mexico's drug cartels, officials said. He was shot as he drove his vehicle during rush hour just outside an office of the attorney general in the southern Coyoacan district, a center of the city's arts community.

The method of the assault "leads us to presume it was a planned execution," Victor Corzo, an official with the attorney general's office, told reporters. "It could be related to drug traffickers because he was someone who possessed information." The slain official was a veteran anti-crime "strategist," Corzo added.

The killing came as apparent drug-related violence continued unabated across the country.

Over the weekend, two journalists for the Azteca television network were reported missing and assumed kidnapped in the northern city of Monterrey. An army captain was kidnapped and slain in Chilpancingo, the capital of Guerrero state, on the Pacific Coast. Both regions have seen increasing violence as drug cartels fight one another for lucrative trade routes to the United States, while also battling the police and the army.

A report by the attorney general's office published Monday in the Mexico City newspaper Milenio said the drug war has intensified because the nation's two most powerful trafficking organizations are fighting over territory in six states: Guerrero, Michoacan, Oaxaca, Veracruz, Tabasco and Quintana Roo.

The rival traffickers are seeking to control rural areas where opium poppies and marijuana are grown, as well as key maritime shipping routes for Colombian cocaine that passes through Mexico on its way to the United States, the report said.

Lugo Felix had previously run a unit in the attorney general's office that investigated child and immigrant smuggling, authorities said.

His attackers used a red Pontiac to block his path, officials said. Gunmen emerged from the car and opened fire, striking him three times in the head. The assailants fled, abandoning the car, which turned out to be stolen, officials said.

In Monterrey, reporter Gamaliel Lopez Candanosa and cameraman Gerardo Paredes Perez have not been seen since Thursday, Azteca television said in a press release Sunday.

The two men were last seen after covering a Mother's Day event Thursday, the television network said. Dozens of police officers and government officials have been killed in the Monterrey area in the last year.

Lopez Candanosa was a general assignment reporter who only occasionally covered the region's drug wars, officials said. He reported in July on the discovery of a severed head and a threatening "narco message" in the city.

Mexico City newspaper El Universal said more than 1,000 people have been killed by organized crime groups this year. The newspaper Reforma counted 758 killed as of May 1. The Mexican government does not release an official tally.

Also Monday, a federal police investigator was found shot to death in Tijuana. Last week, a severed head was deposited at an army base in Veracruz, a day after Calderon's government announced it would send troops to the Gulf Coast state to combat the drug trade.

"We'll keep on going when the federal forces get here," read a note left with the head. It was signed "Z-40," a reference to the Zetas, a band of enforcers working in behalf of the Gulf cartel.

On Thursday, four government bodyguards assigned to protect the children of the governor of Mexico state, Enrique Peña Nieto, were slain in Veracruz while escorting their charges on a beach vacation.

Veracruz Gov. Fidel Herrera said the act was similar to those that have become common in states where drug cartels are battling to control lucrative trafficking routes.

"Just like in Sonora, Tamaulipas, Nuevo Leon, Michoacan and Guerrero, we are facing a national struggle," Herrera told reporters last week. The first federal forces arrived in the state Saturday.

Veracruz is a new front in the nation's drug wars. According to published reports, drug traffickers based in the northern Gulf Coast state of Tamaulipas, which borders Texas, are fighting rivals based farther west in the border state of Sinaloa. Each wants control of smuggling routes along the Gulf of Mexico. There are also reports that the Tamaulipas traffickers — the Gulf cartel — may be splitting into two rival groups.

Calderon has made the war on drugs the centerpiece of his presidency. Last week, he created the Corps of Federal Support Forces, an army unit specializing in anti-drug efforts. The unit will answer directly to his office.

Calderon sent army troops to Michoacan and Guerrero not long after taking office in December. The army is seen by many here as one of the few security institutions still relatively immune to infiltration by drug traffickers.

At least 11 army troops have been killed this year. Five soldiers were killed in an ambush in the town of Caracuaro, Michoacan, this month.

"The sacrifice of these patriots will not be in vain," Calderon said at an event marking Cinco de Mayo. "In honor of their memory, their deaths will not go unpunished and we will redouble our offensive against the enemy."

The latest victim, Lugo Felix, had been on the job just a few weeks, a spokeswoman for the attorney general's office said.

"To be honest, I think he was still getting his boxes unpacked," the spokeswoman said.

hector.tobar@latimes.com

Carlos Martínez of The Times' Mexico City Bureau contributed to this report.

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2007-05-21T18:31:00.000-07:00

Mexican army officer's body found

"Competing Mexican drug cartels are destroying each other ... and that's where 'Warrior' begins ...."

http://imdb.com/title/tt0320751
http://www.warriorthefilm.blogspot.com

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-208917617001990565&q=warrior+mexican+OR+drug+OR+cartels+duration%3Ashort+genre%3AMOVIE_TRAILER

"the action adventure fantasy feature film "Warrior" ... about the son of a divine force ... is a story of a young man's quest to find his true identity set against the twin backdrops of Native American folklore and the treacherous Mexican drug trade and a portrayal of the classic confrontation between "good and evil" ... filmed in the exotic jungles of Costa Azul in the State of Nayarit and the urban grit of Puerto Vallarta in the State of Jalisco, Mexico .. with action, adventure, romance, comedy, a multi-ethnic cast, a major studio movie music score and spectacular cinematography..."
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-mexico14may14,1,2000857.story?coll=la-headlines-world

Mexican army officer's body found

From the Associated Press

May 14, 2007

ACAPULCO, MEXICO — The body of a Mexican army captain was found in southern Guerrero state Sunday, a day after a severed head was left outside a military base with a note suggesting criminal gangs would defy the army's increased presence.

Also in Guerrero, unidentified attackers tossed a grenade late Saturday at a police station in Tecpan, damaging two police cars but causing no injuries.

Police found Capt. Jacinto Pablo Granda, 36, near a highway in Guerrero's capital of Chilpancingo, about 60 miles northeast of Acapulco, with two gunshot wounds to the head, said Erit Montufar, state director of investigative police.

Granda was vacationing with his family when he was abducted Saturday by armed men near a Chilpancingo military base, Montufar said. It was unclear whether the attackers knew that Granda, who was assigned to a different base, was an officer.

President Felipe Calderon has sent more than 24,000 soldiers and federal police to areas ravaged by drug violence, and criminals have apparently responded by attacking army troops. Five soldiers have died in attacks this month.

On Saturday, the head of a kidnapped auto mechanic was left in a box along with two grenades and a note from the purported gang members outside a military barracks in Veracruz. "We are going to continue, even if federal forces are here," authorities quoted the note as saying.

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Panama drug bust reveals trafficking's slow lane. Officials are stunned by the carelessness of a Mexican cartel that lost 20 tons of cocaine.

2007-04-02T16:40:00.000-07:00

Warrior Stills
Originally uploaded by brucesingman.

"Competing Mexican drug cartels are destroying each other ... and that's where 'Warrior' begins ...."

http://imdb.com/title/tt0320751
http://www.warriorthefilm.blogspot.com

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-208917617001990565&q=warrior+mexican+OR+drug+OR+cartels+duration%3Ashort+genre%3AMOVIE_TRAILER

"the action adventure fantasy feature film "Warrior" ... about the son of a divine force ... is a story of a young man's quest to find his true identity set against the twin backdrops of Native American folklore and the treacherous Mexican drug trade and a portrayal of the classic confrontation between "good and evil" ... filmed in the exotic jungles of Costa Azul in the State of Nayarit and the urban grit of Puerto Vallarta in the State of Jalisco, Mexico .. with action, adventure, romance, comedy, a multi-ethnic cast, a major studio movie music score and spectacular cinematography..."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-pandrugs2apr02,0,3200199.story?coll=la-home-world
Panama drug bust reveals trafficking's slow lane
Officials are stunned by the carelessness of a Mexican cartel that lost 20 tons of cocaine.
By Chris Kraul
Times Staff Writer

April 2, 2007

PANAMA CITY — Call them "the not ready for prime time traffickers."

That's how Panamanian and U.S. authorities are describing alleged functionaries of a Mexican drug cartel that lost a $270-million load of cocaine in a colossal bust off Panama's Pacific coast last month.

In interviews here, officials were practically shaking their heads over the carelessness and inattention to detail by the Sinaloa-based cartel during the two months that a pair of alleged lieutenants spent in Panama City arranging the Colombia-to-Mexico shipment.

The big break in the case, officials said, came shortly after the two men arrived in town, when Panamanian police got a tip from a "walk-in" source in this city's huge shipping industry. His suspicions were apparently aroused by the fact that the men's company was leasing metal cargo containers in the free-trade zone of Colon — but had no apparent plans to fill them with cargo.

But the classic moment came several weeks later, when U.S. Coast Guard officers and sailors boarded the ship the men had bought, a 300-foot Panamanian-flagged cargo vessel called the Gatun.

Finding drugs on board was no sure thing, because traffickers find ingenious ways to hide their cargo behind false floors and walls, or submerge it in fuel tanks, or weld it inside heavy machinery, or embed it in cans of tuna or jars of marmalade.

But this time it was easy. U.S. Coast Guard and Panamanian officials noticed that customs seals on two of the 12 metal cargo containers on the Gatun had been improperly broken. When they opened the doors, bales of cocaine came tumbling out. Officials estimated the haul at 20 tons.

The biggest bonus for law enforcement officials may have been the laptop computer that one of the suspects, Jesus Mondragon, allegedly had in his possession when he was arrested at the airport in Panama City. Authorities say it contained a treasure trove of information that could lead to more arrests.

"I think he showed an excess of confidence," a top anti-drug prosecutor, Jose Abel Almengor, said in an interview.

*

Power shift

The bust, and an emerging portrait of the cartel allegedly headed by Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada as a gang that at least in this case couldn't shoot straight, offers a snapshot of the changing roles in the region's drug trafficking. It appears that the assumption of power by Mexican cartels from Colombian traffickers — who once exclusively managed the transit of big cocaine loads to Mexico or the U.S. — is hitting some snags.

Whether Zambada's men botched the deal or not, the seizure has raised fears that a bloodbath could ensue in Panama if, as expected, Mexican gangsters revisit the scene to exact revenge and settle scores. That's been traffickers' practice in the past when cocaine loads were lost along the U.S.-Mexico border or in the Caribbean.

"It's obvious that something went wrong for the narcos," Almengor said. "In any business, when something goes wrong there are consequences."

Said one foreign counter-narcotics official: "This could stir things up quite a bit."

It all began this year, when the two alleged traffickers, Mondragon and Jose Nunez, both Mexican nationals, arrived in Panama. Officials say they came to set up a front company called Marine Management & Chartering whose real purpose was to buy the Gatun for $3 million and use it to move drugs.

The plan called for the ship to pick up cargo containers in Colon, on the Caribbean side of the Panama Canal, then transit the 50-mile waterway and sail south to pick up the multi-ton load of cocaine off the Pacific coast of Colombia.

The ship would then head north to deliver the drugs to the cartel at the Mexican port of Topolobampo in Sinaloa state, according to law enforcement sources here.

Containerized cocaine is no novelty. As much as four-fifths of all Colombian cocaine is shipped to the United States via Central America and Mexico aboard fishing vessels, so-called go-fast boats, or hidden on cargo ships like the Gatun. A decade ago, most traffic was airborne, before tighter aerial surveillance forced traffickers to change tactics.

But the tip about the men's apparent disinterest in actually putting any cargo in the containers kicked off an investigation that involved Panamanian authorities and members of a multinational counter-narcotics task force called Operation Panama Express, which includes the United States. The team investigated the company and began monitoring the two men's activities. Mondragon was found to have a U.S. criminal record for drug trafficking and robbery and to have used various aliases, officials said.

Colombians involved in narco-logistics are usually careful to use intermediaries who run seemingly legitimate businesses and who have no rap sheets, officials said. Colombians also send a second layer of "supervisors" to make sure their on-the-ground logisticians aren't cooperating with law enforcement, miscounting the drugs or otherwise making errors.

*

Red flag

Before the March 18 bust, the Gatun had already made several trips from Guyana through the Panama Canal and then up the Pacific coast of Mexico to Sinaloa.

That raised another red flag because Guyana, on the Caribbean coast, has become a drug trafficking hub in recent years, as has neighboring Venezuela, according to U.S. and Colombian law enforcement authorities.

The task force tracked the Gatun as it traveled through the canal March 16, then veered south early the next day, allegedly to pick up the load of cocaine. Through unspecified surveillance methods, officials detected several trips by fast boats leaving Colombia's northwestern coast to offload drugs on the Gatun, which was anchored offshore.

The ship then turned north for Mexico.

Thinking the shipment was safely on its way, task force officials allege, Mondragon and Nunez left their mid-priced Panama City hotel that Saturday to catch a flight back to Mexico. They were arrested as they boarded a plane at Tocumen airport and charged with drug trafficking. They have denied any wrongdoing.

About the time they were arrested, the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Sherman, with the Panamanian government's permission, was stopping the Gatun off the Panamanian coast. The bust occurred the next day when Panama gave permission to search the vessel. The Sherman is one of half a dozen naval and Coast Guard vessels on call to intercept suspicious boats off the coasts of Mexico and Central and South America.

Like other Central American countries, Panama is seeing a surge in cocaine trafficking as well as criminal side effects such as gang violence and deadly turf wars. Government and business officials are concerned the country could lose its sobriquet of "the safest country in Central America."

In fact, the Gatun bust brought the year-to-date total of cocaine seized in Panamanian waters or territory to 40 tons, which by some estimates is more than 5% of all the cocaine Colombia produces in a year. The seizures already surpass the 32 tons taken during all of 2006, Almengor said.

Officials fear the trend may be hard to reverse. Panama's proximity to Colombia and its robust economy provide perfect cover for the traffickers.

"Panama has financial institutions, the banking, the canal and the free zone that are attractive to honest investors," the foreign counter-narcotics official said. "But they appeal to delinquents too."

*
chris.kraul@latimes.com

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Mexican drug violence claims nearly 500 lives. While the crackdown on cartels has had some success, critics charge the president with playing to the media.

2007-04-02T16:38:00.000-07:00

Warrior Stills
Originally uploaded by brucesingman.

"Competing Mexican drug cartels are destroying each other ... and that's where 'Warrior' begins ...."

http://imdb.com/title/tt0320751
http://www.warriorthefilm.blogspot.com

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-208917617001990565&q=warrior+mexican+OR+drug+OR+cartels+duration%3Ashort+genre%3AMOVIE_TRAILER

"the action adventure fantasy feature film "Warrior" ... about the son of a divine force ... is a story of a young man's quest to find his true identity set against the twin backdrops of Native American folklore and the treacherous Mexican drug trade and a portrayal of the classic confrontation between "good and evil" ... filmed in the exotic jungles of Costa Azul in the State of Nayarit and the urban grit of Puerto Vallarta in the State of Jalisco, Mexico .. with action, adventure, romance, comedy, a multi-ethnic cast, a major studio movie music score and spectacular cinematography..."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/latinamerica/la-fg-mexdrugs24mar24,0,6478037.story?coll=la-home-headlines
Mexican drug violence claims nearly 500 lives
While the crackdown on cartels has had some success, critics charge the president with playing to the media.
By Hector Tobar
Times Staff Writer

March 24, 2007

MEXICO CITY — Nearly 500 people have been killed in Mexico's drug wars this year, according to media reports here, despite a crackdown on the illicit trade by President Felipe Calderon.

The dead include dozens of police officers, the daughter of a retired army general, and a suspected cartel hit man in the northern city of Monterrey left with a knife sticking out of his chest and a message to local officials affixed to his body.

"Attorney General: Don't be a fool," the note said. It accused local officials of protecting Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman, leader of the Sinaloa cartel, the bitter rival of the Gulf cartel, which is based in the border state of Tamaulipas. "This is just the beginning."

According to a tally kept by the Mexico City newspaper El Universal, along with other media reports, the number of drug-related killings had reached 492 by Friday.

Calderon's government, which took power in December, promised a get-tough approach against the drug trade, which claimed more than 2,000 lives last year.

This year, Calderon sent troops into the southern states of Guerrero and Michoacan, and to the border cities of Tijuana and Nuevo Laredo.

In Tijuana, federal forces disarmed the police in January in a bid to fight widespread corruption in the municipal force.

But the measures have been criticized by many observers here.

"These operations are not designed to directly confront the organized crime groups," said Jose Arturo Ya–ez, a researcher at the Professional Police Training Institute in Mexico City. "They are designed to have an effect in the media, so that the federal government can be seen in action."

Still, the government has scored some key successes. In January, Mexico extradited 15 suspected drug cartel leaders to the United States, including Osiel Cardenas, who was reputed to have been running the Gulf cartel from his cell at a maximum-security Mexican prison.

And last week, Mexico's organized crime unit confiscated more than $207 million in cash from alleged methamphetamine producers operating in a Mexico City mansion.

This week, authorities revealed that they had miscounted the cash and added more than $1 million to the total.

The huge haul included just 50 counterfeit U.S. $100 bills, authorities said. Karen P. Tandy, head of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, praised the raid as "the result of tremendous police work by Mexican law enforcement."

The anti-drug campaign has also suffered some serious setbacks.

Seven police and security officials were ambushed and killed at two police stations in Acapulco on Feb 7. On Sunday, the police chief of the town of Boca del Rio in Veracruz state and two of his officers were ambushed and slain.

"These massive executions of police officers are a new phenomenon, and no branch of the government is doing anything to stop them," Ya–ez said. In many cases, he added, government officials have suggested that the slain officers were linked to organized crime.

"On the one hand, you have organized crime killing officers, and on the other the government is investigating officers and firing them," Ya–ez said. "No one protects them."

On March 6, the top security official in the state of Tabasco survived an assassination attempt that killed one of his bodyguards. On Feb. 19, a congressman from Nuevo Laredo survived an attack that claimed the life of his driver.

Authorities say drug traffickers were probably responsible for the killing of Mireya Lopez Portillo, the daughter of a retired general, and her husband, Jordi Peralta, in the capital's wealthy Bosques de Las Lomas neighborhood March 17.

Some officials have suggested that the killings may be linked to the huge cash seizure, which took place two days earlier.

In an interview Thursday with Reuters, Calderon said his family had received numerous threats from traffickers.

"It's a war, it's an issue I know will be with us a long time," Calderon said.

"I probably won't see the end during my presidency."

hector.tobar@latimes.com

Carlos Mart–nez and Cecilia S–nchez of The Times' Mexico City Bureau contributed to this report.

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PARTNERS:

Alleged trafficking ringleader, 18 members indicted

2007-03-07T13:16:00.000-08:00

Warrior Stills
Originally uploaded by brucesingman.

"Competing Mexican drug cartels are destroying each other ... and that's where 'Warrior' begins ...."

http://imdb.com/title/tt0320751
http://www.warriorthefilm.blogspot.com

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-208917617001990565&q=warrior+mexican+OR+drug+OR+cartels+duration%3Ashort+genre%3AMOVIE_TRAILER

"the action adventure fantasy feature film "Warrior" ... about the son of a divine force ... is a story of a young man's quest to find his true identity set against the twin backdrops of Native American folklore and the treacherous Mexican drug trade and a portrayal of the classic confrontation between "good and evil" ... filmed in the exotic jungles of Costa Azul in the State of Nayarit and the urban grit of Puerto Vallarta in the State of Jalisco, Mexico .. with action, adventure, romance, comedy, a multi-ethnic cast, a major studio movie music score and spectacular cinematography..."

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-bust1mar01,1,32121.story
Alleged trafficking ringleader, 18 members indicted
By Tony Perry
Times Staff Writer

March 1, 2007

SAN DIEGO — Federal officials Wednesday announced the indictment of the alleged ringleader and 18 members of a drug trafficking organization accused of smuggling tons of cocaine into the U.S., in large part through the Imperial Valley.

Dubbed Operation Imperial Emperor, the two-year investigation by several agencies has resulted in more than 400 arrests nationwide, including 66 in California, U.S. Atty. Gen. Alberto R. Gonzales said at a news conference.

Indictments were unsealed in California, Illinois, Arizona and New York. The alleged ringleader, Victor Emilio Cazares-Gastellum, who is known to enjoy an opulent lifestyle in the Mexican state of Sinaloa, remains at large, officials said.

The Cazares-Gastellum ring developed in the last two years as a rival to the larger and better-known Arellano Felix drug organization, Gonzales said.

During arrests in San Diego and Imperial counties, more than $1.8 million in currency was seized, along with 1,230 pounds of cocaine, 73 pounds of methamphetamine and 1,954 pounds of marijuana, according to court documents.

The organization allegedly smuggled drugs into this country from Colombia and Venezuela through the Imperial Valley and along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Most of the drugs were smuggled in vehicles. Shipments were then taken to Los Angeles, San Diego and other cities.

tony.perry@latimes.com

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PARTNERS:

r />

Mexico to widen drug sweeps to two states bordering Texas

2007-03-06T16:59:00.000-08:00

Warrior Stills
Originally uploaded by brucesingman.

"Competing Mexican drug cartels are destroying each other ... and that's where 'Warrior' begins ...."

http://imdb.com/title/tt0320751
http://www.warriorthefilm.blogspot.com

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-208917617001990565&q=warrior+mexican+OR+drug+OR+cartels+duration%3Ashort+genre%3AMOVIE_TRAILER

"the action adventure fantasy feature film "Warrior" ... about the son of a divine force ... is a story of a young man's quest to find his true identity set against the twin backdrops of Native American folklore and the treacherous Mexican drug trade and a portrayal of the classic confrontation between "good and evil" ... filmed in the exotic jungles of Costa Azul in the State of Nayarit and the urban grit of Puerto Vallarta in the State of Jalisco, Mexico .. with action, adventure, romance, comedy, a multi-ethnic cast, a major studio movie music score and spectacular cinematography..."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-mexraids19feb19,1,7962363.story?coll=la-headlines-world
Mexico to widen drug sweeps to two states bordering Texas
From the Associated Press

February 19, 2007

MEXICO CITY — The Mexican government will expand its drug raids to two states bordering Texas, deploying more than 3,000 soldiers, sailors and federal police, officials said Sunday.

The raids will cover Nuevo Laredo, a town across the border from Laredo, Texas, that has been bloodied by turf wars between drug gangs.

Officials also said that in the two months since intensive raids began in central and western Mexico, they had destroyed almost as many opium fields as plots of marijuana, long Mexico's principal drug crop.

"We have begun a frontal struggle against organized crime that has no precedent in the country's history," said Interior Secretary Francisco Ramirez Acuña. "We are recovering territory for our children."

The raids began Dec. 8 in the western state of Michoacan, and have been expanded to several other states.

Starting over the weekend, 2,035 soldiers, 750 navy personnel and 516 federal police were dispatched to Tamaulipas state, home to the border cities of Nuevo Laredo, Reynosa and Matamoros, and to the bordering state of Nuevo Leon, where shootings of police have become more common.

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Mexico to widen drug sweeps to two states bordering Texas

2007-02-21T18:19:00.000-08:00

Warrior Stills
Originally uploaded by brucesingman.

"Competing Mexican drug cartels are destroying each other ... and that's where 'Warrior' begins ...."

http://imdb.com/title/tt0320751
http://www.warriorthefilm.blogspot.com

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-208917617001990565&q=warrior+mexican+OR+drug+OR+cartels+duration%3Ashort+genre%3AMOVIE_TRAILER

"the action adventure fantasy feature film "Warrior" ... about the son of a divine force ... is a story of a young man's quest to find his true identity set against the twin backdrops of Native American folklore and the treacherous Mexican drug trade and a portrayal of the classic confrontation between "good and evil" ... filmed in the exotic jungles of Costa Azul in the State of Nayarit and the urban grit of Puerto Vallarta in the State of Jalisco, Mexico .. with action, adventure, romance, comedy, a multi-ethnic cast, a major studio movie music score and spectacular cinematography..."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-mexraids19feb19,1,7962363.story?coll=la-headlines-world
Mexico to widen drug sweeps to two states bordering Texas
From the Associated Press

February 19, 2007

MEXICO CITY — The Mexican government will expand its drug raids to two states bordering Texas, deploying more than 3,000 soldiers, sailors and federal police, officials said Sunday.

The raids will cover Nuevo Laredo, a town across the border from Laredo, Texas, that has been bloodied by turf wars between drug gangs.

Officials also said that in the two months since intensive raids began in central and western Mexico, they had destroyed almost as many opium fields as plots of marijuana, long Mexico's principal drug crop.

"We have begun a frontal struggle against organized crime that has no precedent in the country's history," said Interior Secretary Francisco Ramirez Acuña. "We are recovering territory for our children."

The raids began Dec. 8 in the western state of Michoacan, and have been expanded to several other states.

Starting over the weekend, 2,035 soldiers, 750 navy personnel and 516 federal police were dispatched to Tamaulipas state, home to the border cities of Nuevo Laredo, Reynosa and Matamoros, and to the bordering state of Nuevo Leon, where shootings of police have become more common.

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Mexican drug war's brutality celebrated on YouTube. Videos of bloodied victims emerge as a new venue for propagating the mythology of the nation's cartels.

2007-02-11T11:51:00.000-08:00

Warrior Stills
Originally uploaded by brucesingman.

"Competing Mexican drug cartels are destroying each other ... and that's where 'Warrior' begins ...."

http://imdb.com/title/tt0320751
http://www.warriorthefilm.blogspot.com

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-208917617001990565&q=warrior+mexican+OR+drug+OR+cartels+duration%3Ashort+genre%3AMOVIE_TRAILER

"the action adventure fantasy feature film "Warrior" ... about the son of a divine force ... is a story of a young man's quest to find his true identity set against the twin backdrops of Native American folklore and the treacherous Mexican drug trade and a portrayal of the classic confrontation between "good and evil" ... filmed in the exotic jungles of Costa Azul and the urban grit of Puerto Vallarta in the State of Jalisco, Mexico .. with action, adventure, romance, comedy, a multi-ethnic cast, a major studio movie music score and spectacular cinematography..."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-mexvideo11feb11,1,421110.story?coll=la-headlines-world
Mexican drug war's brutality celebrated on YouTube
Videos of bloodied victims emerge as a new venue for propagating the mythology of the nation's cartels.
By Héctor Tobar
Times Staff Writer

February 11, 2007

MEXICO CITY — For months, video artists and videographers of varying skill have been peppering the Internet with a gruesome cavalcade of images: a woman slain in the cab of a pickup truck, an alleged Mafia hit man being tortured and executed, an assassinated singer's body splayed on a coroner's table.

Many of the videos are posted at one time or another on the website YouTube. They seek to cheer on or denigrate the opposing sides in Mexico's drug wars, the Sinaloa cartel led by Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman and the Gulf cartel believed led, until recently, by Osiel Cardenas. Mexican authorities extradited Cardenas last month to face charges in a U.S. courtroom.

Last week, assassins armed with both assault weapons and cameras appeared to take the cultural battle to a new level. Police said two groups of gunmen videotaped themselves Tuesday as they killed five officers and two secretaries at police stations in Acapulco.

Those images have yet to surface on the Internet. But already a vibrant subculture has emerged to celebrate and document the deeds of the drug traffickers. Though many of those who post videos are probably not directly involved in the drug trade, explicit threats were made on one blog, since shut down, that were later followed by actual killings.

The deeds of Mexico's drug traffickers have long been celebrated in the folk music genre known as narcocorridos. Web video is a new venue for spreading the mythology, allowing people who identify with one of the cartels to delight in humiliating their rivals.

The videos hint at the growing mystique of the cartels, which have formed competing bands of hit men who purportedly have received paramilitary training. Although YouTube often removes the violent videos from its site, they usually reappear quickly. Many of the postings have been viewed hundreds of thousands of times.

"Now you can see that they're not that brave — ha, ha, ha," one YouTube poster wrote in response to a four-minute video titled "Los Sicarios" (The Hit Men). The video shows a suspected member of the Gulf cartel, popularly known as the Zetas, arrested after a firefight in the state of Tabasco.

Handcuffed and lying on the floor, the suspect meekly asks to talk to his family and says, "They're going to kill me, I know I'm going to be killed."

"This is great," the YouTube poster writes in response. "Pure Sinaloa Productions."

Such mocking may merely be empty bluster, but other postings are not. In September, Marcelo Garza, a high-ranking federal investigator in the border state of Nuevo Leon, was assassinated 18 days after a blogger wrote, "We swear to you that soon we will knock him down." The blog accused Garza of working for a rival cartel.

In 2005, the Dallas Morning News obtained a copy of a DVD showing unknown kidnappers interrogating four men allegedly working for the Gulf cartel. One of the captives is executed on camera. A Mexican official told the newspaper that video was part of a rival cartel's "counterintelligence strategy."

The video of that killing has shown up in several YouTube postings, including one that threatens revenge for the killing of singer Valentin "The Golden Rooster" Elizalde, whose narcocorrido ballads were taken up as anthems to Sinaloa cartel leader Guzman.

"This is directed to all those who call themselves Zetas … and to the Gulf cartel," the YouTube video begins in a hip-hop cadence. "You'll pay with your lives for what you did to our Golden Rooster."

A 30-second video of Elizalde's autopsy in the border city of Reynosa after his slaying in November circulates widely on the Internet. As of Wednesday, one version on YouTube had been viewed more than 850,000 times.

A YouTube spokesman said in a statement last week that the company relied on users to report inappropriate content. Such content is removed, he said.

"Real violence on YouTube is not allowed," said the spokesman, who declined to be identified. "If a video shows someone getting 'hurt, attacked or humiliated,' it will be removed as according to our community guidelines."

Luis Astorga, a drug trafficking analyst at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, said the vast majority of videos posted on YouTube and other sites were probably produced by people with no links to the cartels.

Often, reporters arrive at crime scenes before the police do. Officers don't always close off the area, and bystanders can shoot footage with the hope of selling it later. In fact, some video available on YouTube appears to have been filmed by police, including an eight-minute sequence shot from inside a jail in Tabasco state during a shootout.

"We're in the Palace of Justice and we're under fire," one man in the video says as he calls for help on his cellphone. Explosions are audible outside the building, and blood covers the floor.

A woman cries out, "Please, call the army!"

But the camera-wielding assassins in Acapulco on Tuesday raise the possibility that the cartels are beginning to take the image war seriously, Astorga said.

The assault was staged much like a piece of improvisational theater. The killers arrived in two groups of eight.

Police and news reports say they included six men dressed in military uniforms, complete with red berets, and two men in business suits.

The assassins told officers to hand over their weapons. (Real army units disarmed the corruption-tainted police in the city of Tijuana last month.) When the weapons had been gathered, the assassins opened fire.

"Hopefully this isn't the beginning of a spiral of macabre videos," Astorga said. "Perhaps this was done with the goal of impacting public opinion."

hector.tobar@latimes.com

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7 slain in Mexico police stations. The two Acapulco attacks are carried out by gunmen dressed as soldiers. Authorities see a link to drug cartels.

2007-02-10T22:15:00.000-08:00

Warrior Stills
Originally uploaded by brucesingman.

"Competing Mexican drug cartels are destroying each other ... and that's where 'Warrior' begins ...."

http://imdb.com/title/tt0320751
http://www.warriorthefilm.blogspot.com

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-208917617001990565&q=warrior+mexican+OR+drug+OR+cartels+duration%3Ashort+genre%3AMOVIE_TRAILER

"the action adventure fantasy feature film "Warrior" ... about the son of a divine force ... is a story of a young man's quest to find his true identity set against the twin backdrops of Native American folklore and the treacherous Mexican drug trade and a portrayal of the classic confrontation between "good and evil" ... filmed in the exotic jungles of Costa Azul and the urban grit of Puerto Vallarta in the State of Jalisco, Mexico .. with action, adventure, romance, comedy, a multi-ethnic cast, a major studio movie music score and spectacular cinematography..."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-mexshooting7feb07,1,241860.story?coll=la-headlines-world
7 slain in Mexico police stations
The two Acapulco attacks are carried out by gunmen dressed as soldiers. Authorities see a link to drug cartels.
By Héctor Tobar and Carlos Martínez
Times Staff Writers

February 7, 2007

MEXICO CITY — Gunmen disguised as soldiers attacked two police stations and killed seven people Tuesday in the resort city of Acapulco, and apparently videotaped the slayings, police and media reports said.

Police officials who spoke on condition of anonymity said the police stations had been at the center of a dispute between reform-minded state law enforcement officials and Acapulco police suspected of ties to drug traffickers.

Each attack was carried out by about eight men wearing olive-drab uniforms and berets, media reports said.

The assailants simultaneously entered the two stations, less than a mile apart, said a police official who requested anonymity. City police officers suspected of ties to drug cartels recently had been replaced at the stations by state police, officials said.

All those killed were employees of the state police. Five were officers and two were secretaries.

Media reports said the assailants were armed with assault rifles, including AK-47-style weapons known in Mexico as "the goat's horn," a signature gun of drug cartels.

"They used Green Beret-type uniforms as a disguise, apparently," one police official said. "They caught the police completely by surprise."

Acapulco and other cities and towns on the Pacific Coast of Mexico are way stations in an illegal drug trade worth several billion dollars, U.S. officials said. Hundreds of tons of Colombian-produced cocaine are smuggled by ship to Mexico each year, and then transported by land to the United States.

Rival drug operations have been fighting each other for months over control of smuggling routes through Acapulco and other cities in Guerrero state and adjacent Michoacan state.

Since taking office in December, President Felipe Calderon has sent troops into both states and to Tijuana and Sinaloa state in an effort to control violence. There were more than 2,000 drug-related killings in Mexico last year, media reports say.

Calderon also ordered the extradition of 15 alleged drug bosses to the United States last month.

But the violence appears to have continued unabated.

Last week, two soldiers were executed in a hail of bullets in Culiacan, the capital of Sinaloa. On Monday, a high-ranking Sinaloa state police official was killed in Culiacan. In Guerrero state, assailants attacked a police station with hand grenades.

The slayings in Acapulco were carried out with a speed and precision that suggested professional hit men, authorities said.

The two police stations were about two miles from Acapulco's tourist center and near the port, an impoverished area notorious as a center for drug shipments.

Media reports said gunmen arrived at the first station in sport utility vehicles, entered the building and shot a secretary, an officer and the station's commander. Witnesses told police that at least one of the attackers was recording the assault with a video camera.

In the second attack, a gunman dressed as a soldier asked, "Is everyone here?" before opening fire. A secretary and three officers were killed.

Videos showing drug-related slayings in Mexico, complete with captions and soundtracks mocking rivals, have become a fixture on the Internet in the last year.

A report Monday in El Universal, a Mexico City newspaper, said federal officials suspected that Acapulco Mayor Felix Salgado Macedonio's 2005 election campaign was financed by the region's two largest drug cartels, who were fighting for control.

Federal officials said there was no proof that the mayor knew he was taking drug money. But they point out that he is now traveling with 14 bodyguards.

"You can't get involved with the cartels without there being consequences," one federal official told the newspaper.

hector.tobar@latimes.com

*

Cecilia Sánchez of The Times' Mexico City Bureau contributed to this report.

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Mexico's willing drug fighter. President Felipe Calderon comes out swinging, but the U.S. is now in another arena.

2007-02-10T22:14:00.000-08:00

Warrior Stills
Originally uploaded by brucesingman.

"Competing Mexican drug cartels are destroying each other ... and that's where 'Warrior' begins ...."

http://imdb.com/title/tt0320751
http://www.warriorthefilm.blogspot.com

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-208917617001990565&q=warrior+mexican+OR+drug+OR+cartels+duration%3Ashort+genre%3AMOVIE_TRAILER

"the action adventure fantasy feature film "Warrior" ... about the son of a divine force ... is a story of a young man's quest to find his true identity set against the twin backdrops of Native American folklore and the treacherous Mexican drug trade and a portrayal of the classic confrontation between "good and evil" ... filmed in the exotic jungles of Costa Azul and the urban grit of Puerto Vallarta in the State of Jalisco, Mexico .. with action, adventure, romance, comedy, a multi-ethnic cast, a major studio movie music score and spectacular cinematography..."

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/la-fg-mexdrugs29jan29,1,2642482.story
Mexico's willing drug fighter
President Felipe Calderon comes out swinging, but the U.S. is now in another arena.
By Sam Enriquez
Times Staff Writer

January 29, 2007

MEXICO CITY — The U.S. war on drugs has seldom seen a more willing recruit than Mexican President Felipe Calderon.

Since taking office last month, Calderon has sent thousands of soldiers to half a dozen states, where they have pulled up pot plants and opium poppies by the hectare and searched thousands of vehicles at military roadblocks. He also has fast-tracked the extradition of men reputed to be among the hemisphere's biggest kingpins.

But unfortunately for the Mexican leader, who put the drug-trafficking battle at the top of his nation's domestic agenda, the issue that once was a staple of U.S. political speeches has fallen so far off the radar that for the first time in years it didn't warrant a mention in President Bush's State of the Union address.

Drug-related violence, meanwhile, has gone from bad to gruesome in Mexico, where traffickers have tossed hand grenades at enemies and left severed heads as messages. More than 2,000 Mexicans died in such carnage last year, according to media tallies.

Calderon has signaled that he'll ask for millions of dollars in U.S. aid to continue his campaign and extend it nationwide.

"The Mexican people are demanding that their parks, their streets, their schools, their neighborhoods be safe places for their families, where their children can live and grow up in peace," Calderon told a meeting of Mexico's governors last week.

The war against drug criminals, he added, "is a permanent fight."

But the U.S. war on drugs has been overshadowed by the war in Iraq, and its urgency has been tempered by historically low crime rates domestically and statistics that indicate declining drug use among American teenagers. The Times reported last week that the U.S. military had cut aerial surveillance over Pacific and Gulf Coast smuggling routes by more than half and Navy patrols by a third since 2002.

"Mexico is sending a clear message to the U.S., saying, 'We're doing everything we can, even more than you,' " Mexico historian Lorenzo Meyer said. "The U.S. ambassador won't be able to moan about Mexico not fighting crime."

Calderon must find a way to turn U.S. attention back to his advantage, Meyer said.

Calderon has no such challenge at home, where his crackdown enjoys broad support, despite the shaky legal ground of his military roadblocks. Mexicans have the same protections against unwarranted government searches as Americans do, said John M. Ackerman, a law professor at the Institute for Legal Research at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. "The whole thing is of questionable constitutionality," he said.

Yet no lawmaker in the Mexican Congress, even among opposition parties, has raised a legal challenge. The newspaper El Universal published a poll last week showing a third of respondents, spread equally among all three major parties, approved of Calderon's actions; a third said it was too early to judge; and fewer than a fifth were opposed.

But without more U.S. help, Mexico stands little chance of winning a direct confrontation with sophisticated and brutal traffickers who have established a near monopoly in the estimated $65-billion U.S. drug market, analysts say.

Several Texas lawmakers are sponsoring a bill that would pay Mexico $850 million in federal funds over five years for training police and prosecutors. It would more than double the $69 million a year Mexico gets now.

"The stars are finally aligned with Calderon, who is willing to work with the United States, who's extraditing criminals, and who's willing to send troops into hot spots and take on organized crime," U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) said. "U.S. leaders have always said Mexico needs to do more, and now we have a Mexican president doing more."

Under pressure from the United States, nearly all new Mexican presidents over the last three decades have taken office with promises to crack down on smugglers and the government corruption that keeps them in business. But ties between Mexican officials and drug lords — some proven, others not — have scandalized every Mexican administration since the 1960s.

Calderon's campaign against Mexico's continuing drug violence, which makes daily headlines here, has not gone unnoticed north of the border.

Bush telephoned Calderon on Wednesday to commend him. And the U.S. government's drug czar, John P. Walters, said last week that "the boldness of the Mexican response here obviously calls upon us to continue, and to match that with our own boldness at home."

Despite the praise, the U.S. drug war "is nowhere on the political agenda," said Mark Kleiman, a professor and director of UCLA's Drug Policy Analysis Program. Kleiman argues that lack of political attention to drug policy is a good thing. "Politicians are incapable of dealing with it," he said.

Despite high-profile arrests and record annual seizures, he said, a steady supply of cocaine, marijuana, heroin and methamphetamine has been available in the U.S. since President Nixon famously declared drugs to be America's "public enemy No. 1."

Common sense, Kleiman said, suggests that Mexican law enforcement ought to attack "the side effects of trafficking" — the violent dealers and organizations. Calderon has the right idea, to put pressure on competing drug cartels until they stop assassinating police officers, bystanders and one another's members, Kleiman said. "Make the bad guys keep their head down."

sam.enriquez@latimes.com

Carlos Martínez and Cecilia Sánchez of The Times' Mexico City Bureau contributed to this report.

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Making the soundtrack to Mexico's drug wars. The killing of Valentín Elizalde draws attention to narcocorridos, folk ballads of the underworld.

2007-02-10T22:09:00.000-08:00

Warrior Stills
Originally uploaded by brucesingman.

"Competing Mexican drug cartels are destroying each other ... and that's where 'Warrior' begins ...."

http://imdb.com/title/tt0320751
http://www.warriorthefilm.blogspot.com

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-208917617001990565&q=warrior+mexican+OR+drug+OR+cartels+duration%3Ashort+genre%3AMOVIE_TRAILER

"the action adventure fantasy feature film "Warrior" ... about the son of a divine force ... is a story of a young man's quest to find his true identity set against the twin backdrops of Native American folklore and the treacherous Mexican drug trade and a portrayal of the classic confrontation between "good and evil" ... filmed in the exotic jungles of Costa Azul and the urban grit of Puerto Vallarta in the State of Jalisco, Mexico .. with action, adventure, romance, comedy, a multi-ethnic cast, a major studio movie music score and spectacular cinematography..."

http://www.calendarlive.com/printedition/calendar/cl-et-narco2dec02,0,6038769.story
POP MUSIC
Making the soundtrack to Mexico's drug wars
The killing of Valentín Elizalde draws attention to narcocorridos, folk ballads of the underworld.
By Reed Johnson
Times Staff Writer

December 2, 2006

MEXICO CITY — This country's rumor mill has been working overtime since Valentín Elizalde, a 27-year-old banda singer-songwriter, was gunned down near the border a week ago. Elizalde, known as "the Golden Rooster," died with his manager and driver in a shower of automatic weapon fire shortly after he finished performing at a small fair in Reynosa, across the Rio Grande from McAllen, Texas.

His body wasn't even in the ground before the innuendo started flying across newspapers, televisions and websites. And although many details of his slaying remain murky, the incident has opened a narrow window onto the sub rosa world of narcocorridos, the immensely popular folk ballads that chronicle and celebrate the lives, loves and illicit achievements of Mexico's powerful drug lords.

That world apparently was known to Elizalde, though how well known is hard to say. He was born in Sonora, the son of a famous musician and a champion of norteño music, the accordion- and 12-string-guitar-based hybrid of polka, waltz and corrido (narrative sung poetry) that has thrived for generations across Mexico.

While corridos have been used to address a wide range of subject matter — romantic yearnings, revolutionary ideals, farmworker struggles — one of the most successful subgenres for roughly the last 30 years, particularly in northern Mexico and the southwestern United States, has been narcocorridos. The best of these controversial tunes, such as "Contrabando y Traición" (Smuggling and Betrayal), written by Ángel González and turned into a monster hit by the master corridistas Los Tigres del Norte, are classics of sustained mood, wit and narrative concision.

Elizalde had written and performed several of these musical homages, at least one of which was dedicated to Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, the on-the-lam leader of the Sinaloa drug cartel, based in the Pacific coast state of that name. Elizalde opened and closed his final, fateful performance with another song, "A Mis Enemigos" ("To My Enemies"), which can be interpreted either as a righteous musical mini-autobiography, à la "My Way," or an angry taunt.

So far, no evidence has emerged linking Mexico's drug wars to the death of Elizalde, who left three young daughters. It's possible that the singer, whose funeral procession drew thousands of mournful fans, was entirely innocent and tragically in the wrong place at the wrong time. But given the ruthlessness that has marked the ongoing turf battle between the Sinaloan and rival Gulf cartel, based in Matamoros and Reynosa, it's not surprising that Saturday's triple slaying (a fourth man was badly wounded) is being characterized by many here as a gangland reprisal.

It's also not surprising that the killers haven't been identified, even though dozens of people reportedly witnessed the attack. Parts of Mexico today, particularly border areas such as Nuevo Laredo and Tijuana, are virtually paralyzed with tension. Crimes go unreported for fear of retaliation. Regular citizens watch their backs whenever they step outside their homes. Some Mexican newspapers along the frontera have stopped covering the drug wars altogether after their reporters and editors were threatened or killed.

The police, who've been as bloodied and intimidated as anyone, have been reluctant to elucidate last Saturday's massacre. "I don't want to say. I like my life too much. You should too," one investigator told the San Antonio Express-News.

Elijah Wald, a Los Angeles-based music journalist and author of the book "Narcocorrido: A Journey Into the Music of Drugs, Guns, and Guerrillas," cautions against drawing premature conclusions about what befell Elizalde. While "it's not inconceivable" that the singer was killed by drug cartel assassins, Wald says, "it's equally possible that he fooled around with the wrong woman."

"There's nothing that Mexican corrido fans love like conspiracy theories," he adds.

Wald points out that over the last 15 or so years there has been only one case of a high-profile corridista being gunned down: Chalino Sánchez. Sánchez had been a marked man: After being shot at during a concert in Coachella in January 1992, he was found dead in May of that year after performing in Culiacán, Sinaloa. The case never has been solved. "I spent quite a lot of time running around Sinaloa asking people about Chalino's death. Nobody gave you the same answer," Wald says.

To their admirers, narcocorridos are a vibrant popular art form and a kind of "living newspaper" whose roots reach to medieval Europe. To their critics, the songs are part of an elaborate cultural camouflage that idealizes criminal behavior and exploits the suffering of others. What began as a harmless novelty in the 1970s, they say, has grown uglier, more partisan and more provocative as the drug trade itself has become viciously polarized.

Though evidence is understandably hard to come by, some narcocorridistas allegedly have been paid commissions by drug dealers to write songs lionizing their exploits. Several Mexican states have tried to ban narcocorridos from the airwaves.

But the songs' continuing popularity testifies to the way that a significant number of mainly poor, working-class Mexicans regard drug traffickers as Robin Hood-style folk heroes, standing up to Mexico's indifferent ruling elites while defying the notoriously corrupt Mexican police and the hypocritical, drug-bingeing gringos across the border. The melancholic-bravado tone of many of the songs is deeply romantic and redolent of the patriotic ballads of the Mexican Revolution.

The same worshipful, retro-nostalgic attitude toward the outlaw/rebel figure can be found in contemporary gangsta rap, as well as in many traditional U.S. folk ballads about Jesse James, John Hardy and others of their ilk. Just listen to the ornery cheer that goes up in the famous, live Folsom Prison recording when Johnny Cash sings, "I shot a man in Reno just to watch him die."

While Mexico newspapers have reported that people identifying themselves as members of the Sinaloa and Gulf cartels have posted threats of retaliation against rival singers on YouTube.com in the days since Elizalde was killed, Wald suspects these are posturing music fans rather than actual gang members. "I hope I'm right in saying that I don't think we're going to see a spate of killings," he says.

Many of the genre's core followers probably don't know or care much about the music's darker undertones. They just know it's great to dance to. But the music no longer can be viewed as a quaint little slice of folklórico. Like the drug industry itself, the narcocorrido biz has gone corporate and high-tech.

Today, narcocorridos form a large, profitable, well-connected industry centered in Los Angeles. Its stars sign with big record labels. Their gigs draw sponsorships from beer manufactures and other major companies. (Earlier this month, Elizalde was named "soloist of the year" at Los Premios de la Radio awards at the Gibson Amphitheater in Hollywood.)

Success can breed caution as well as recklessness. Many recording artists, with their eyes on booming sales figures, carefully tailor their lyrics to make them as broadly accessible as possible, so that any aspiring jefe de jefes might adopt one of their songs as his personal anthem, Wald says. "By and large, the singers are pretty cagey about what their songs are about.... Most of the guys that we're aware of are recording for major labels based in Los Angeles and have no interest in offending multi-millionaires."

Still, pressure on the drug industry on both sides of the border continues to grow, particularly since the Sept. 11 attacks prompted a crackdown on illegal trafficking of humans and contraband. In a climate of suspicion, paranoia and escalating violence, the narcocorridistas increasingly may find themselves on "a very slippery slope," says Carlos Vélez-Ibáñez, chairman of the Department of Trans-border, Chicana/o and Latina/o Studies at Arizona State University. "I think either they have to fish or cut bait," Vélez-Ibáñez says, "and you can't have it both ways."

reed.johnson@latimes.com

'There's nothing that Mexican corrido fans love like conspiracy theories.'

— Elijah Wald

Music journalist
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"the action adventure fantasy feature film 'Warrior' ... about the son of a divine force ... is a story of a young man's quest to find his true identity set against the twin backdrops of Native American folklore and the treacherous Mexican drug trade and a portrayal of the classic confrontation between "good and evil" ... filmed in the exotic jungles of Costa Azul and the urban grit of Puerto Vallarta in the State of Jalisco, Mexico .. with action, adventure, romance, comedy, a multi-ethnic cast, a major studio movie music score and spectacular cinematography..."

Mexican drug lords appear in U.S. court

2007-01-22T22:40:00.000-08:00

Warrior Stills
Originally uploaded by brucesingman.

"Competing Mexican drug cartels are destroying each other ... and that's where 'Warrior' begins ...."

http://imdb.com/title/tt0320751
http://www.warriorthefilm.blogspot.com

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-208917617001990565&q=warrior+mexican+OR+drug+OR+cartels+duration%3Ashort+genre%3AMOVIE_TRAILER

"the action adventure fantasy feature film "Warrior" ... about the son of a divine force ... is a story of a young man's quest to find his true identity set against the twin backdrops of Native American folklore and the treacherous Mexican drug trade and a portrayal of the classic confrontation between "good and evil" ... filmed in the exotic jungles of Costa Azul and the urban grit of Puerto Vallarta in the State of Jalisco, Mexico .. with action, adventure, romance, comedy, a multi-ethnic cast, a major studio movie music score and spectacular cinematography..."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070120/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/mexico_us_extraditions&printer=1

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070122/ap_on_re_us/drug_cartel_extraditions&printer=1

Mexican drug lords appear in U.S. court
By JUAN A. LOZANO, Associated Press Writer
Mon Jan 22, 6:09 PM ET

With federal agents armed with automatic weapons standing guard on the courthouse roof, four drug lords who had been serving time in Mexican prisons were brought shackled into an American courtroom Monday to face drug and intimidation charges.
Among them was Osiel Cardenas-Guillen, believed to be one of the kingpins most responsible for violence along the Texas-Mexico border in recent years, said Karen Tandy, chief of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
"This is the first time in the history of Mexico that they have extradited to the United States what amounts to a clean sweep geographically of the cartel leadership," Tandy told reporters by teleconference from Washington.
The Mexican government was willing to extradite Cardenas-Guillen and the other suspected drug lords because they had been able to continue their drug operations from within prison in Mexico, not because of U.S. pressure, officials said.
They faced a federal magistrate under extraordinary security measures, including agents with automatic weapons perched on the roof and around the outside of the downtown federal building.
Besides Cardenas-Guillen, the group includes Palmas Salazar, the suspected former leader of the Sinaloa cartel, and brothers Ismael and Gilberto Higuera Guerrero, former chiefs in the Arellano-Felix cartel in Tijuana.
Cardenas-Guillen faces 17 counts of drug importing and distribution, as well as three charges of threatening a federal agent and one count of money laundering. He faces a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted.
Prosecutors said that the charges against Cardenas-Guillen originate in South Texas, but that he will be held in Houston, 350 miles from the border, out of concern for witness safety and border protection if held closer to Mexico.
Cardenas-Guillen's lawyer, Robert Yzaguirre, said he hadn't had any time yet with his client.
Along with the suspected drug kingpins, Mexico also extradited 11 people wanted in the United States on charges including murder, drug trafficking, kidnapping and sex crimes. They also appeared in court Monday.
Mexico has recently shown more willingness to extradite drug lords, even those facing life in prison. A record 63 were sent to the U.S. in 2006 alone. However, it refuses to extradite anyone who would face the death penalty, which is illegal in Mexico.
Mexican President Felipe Calderon pledged Monday to wage a permanent war on organized crime.
"This is a permanent fight in which, unfortunately, many have lost their lives," he said. "We are fighting without pause so that these sacrifices will not have been in vain."
___
Associated Press writer Mark Stevenson in Mexico City and photographer Pat Sullivan in Houston contributed to this report.

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More extraditions to come, Mexico says Attorney General says transfer to U.S. of drug suspects severs criminal ties and restores the integrity of prisons.

2007-01-22T20:51:00.000-08:00

Warrior Stills
Originally uploaded by brucesingman.

"Competing Mexican drug cartels are destroying each other ... and that's where 'Warrior' begins ...."

http://imdb.com/title/tt0320751
http://www.warriorthefilm.blogspot.com

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-208917617001990565&q=warrior+mexican+OR+drug+OR+cartels+duration%3Ashort+genre%3AMOVIE_TRAILER

"the action adventure fantasy feature film "Warrior" ... about the son of a divine force ... is a story of a young man's quest to find his true identity set against the twin backdrops of Native American folklore and the treacherous Mexican drug trade and a portrayal of the classic confrontation between "good and evil" ... filmed in the exotic jungles of Costa Azul and the urban grit of Puerto Vallarta in the State of Jalisco, Mexico .. with action, adventure, romance, comedy, a multi-ethnic cast, a major studio movie music score and spectacular cinematography..." http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070120/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/mexico_us_extraditions&printer=1

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-mexico22jan22,1,6527426.story?coll=la-headlines-world
More extraditions to come, Mexico says
Attorney general says transfer to U.S. of drug suspects severs criminal ties and restores the integrity of prisons.
By Sam Enriquez and Carlos Martinez
Times Staff Writers

January 22, 2007

MEXICO CITY — On the heels of the extradition of four top drug cartel leaders, Mexico's attorney general said Sunday he planned to send more suspects to face U.S. trials, tacitly acknowledging that corruption had allowed drug kingpins to direct operations even while in maximum-security Mexican prisons.

The latest round of extraditions Friday night — which also includes six other drug suspects of lesser rank — breaks ties between drug capos and "the structures of the criminal organizations in our country," Atty. Gen. Eduardo Medina Mora said. He added that the transfer of wealthy suspected traffickers to the United States would help return security and integrity to the prisons where they were held.

Aggressive extradition is emerging as the second prong of Mexican President Felipe Calderon's get-tough approach to the drug gang violence that killed more than 2,000 people nationwide last year. In January, 17 Mexican suspects have been handed over to U.S. authorities, a pace that would easily surpass last year's record 63 extraditions.

Calderon's first line of attack started shortly after he took office in December, when he began ordering the army, navy and federal police into several states, including his home state of Michoacan and the key smuggling cities of Tijuana and Acapulco.

Medina Mora said Sunday the army had also been working in Mexico's so-called Golden Triangle, where the states of Sinaloa, Chihuahua and Durango intersect in the western Sierra Madre. The mountainous region is a longtime center of marijuana and heroin production, and Sinaloa is home to Mexico's most notorious drug lords.

Federal forces in recent weeks have burned 2,500 acres of marijuana fields and nearly 2,000 acres of opium poppy fields, security officials said Sunday. They've confiscated 2.6 tons of cocaine and 20 tons of harvested marijuana.

Authorities say they have arrested 98 people, mostly low-level growers, workers and a few alleged assassins.

Disrupting business

Among those turned over to U.S. authorities late Friday was Osiel Cardenas, a former police officer and the reputed head of the so-called Gulf cartel. His group has been battling a Sinaloa-based Pacific Coast organization for control of lucrative smuggling routes along the U.S.-Mexico border. He has allegedly been running his operation from a maximum-security prison outside of Mexico City since his 2003 arrest.

Two of the other top drug leaders extradited were Cardenas allies from Tijuana, brothers Ismael and Gilberto Higuera Guerrero; and one, Hector "Guero" Palma, a competitor from the Sinaloa group.

"There are dozens of extraditions pending, but there are ongoing legal procedures that federal courts haven't yet resolved," Medina Mora said. Cardenas and the other drug leaders had exhausted appeals in their legal fight against extradition, he said.

Calderon's short-term goal, officials say, is to warn competing leaders that he will disrupt business unless they end the daily kidnappings, beheadings and torture in the war between Mexico's east and west coast factions.

"Mexicans can be sure that we will continue working to reclaim public spaces and to close down territory on criminals," Mexican Interior Secretary Francisco Ramirez Acuna said Sunday.

Nearly all the cocaine and marijuana consumed in the U.S., an annual market estimated at more than $50 billion, comes via Mexican smugglers, wholesalers and dealers. Based on 2005-06 border seizures, about 60% of the cocaine arrives in Texas, and California and Arizona each account for about 20%.

Although experts believe some of the profits are invested in Mexican real estate and business, the Calderon administration worries that the drug war will scare off legitimate investors and hobble his promise to create millions of new jobs.

sam.enriquez@latimes.com

carlos.martinez@latimes.com

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Mexico hands alleged drug boss to U.S.

2007-01-20T19:31:00.000-08:00

Warrior Stills
Originally uploaded by brucesingman.

"Competing Mexican drug cartels are destroying each other ... and that's where 'Warrior' begins ...."

http://imdb.com/title/tt0320751
http://www.warriorthefilm.blogspot.com

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-208917617001990565&q=warrior+mexican+OR+drug+OR+cartels+duration%3Ashort+genre%3AMOVIE_TRAILER

"the action adventure fantasy feature film "Warrior" ... about the son of a divine force ... is a story of a young man's quest to find his true identity set against the twin backdrops of Native American folklore and the treacherous Mexican drug trade and a portrayal of the classic confrontation between "good and evil" ... filmed in the exotic jungles of Costa Azul and the urban grit of Puerto Vallarta in the State of Jalisco, Mexico .. with action, adventure, romance, comedy, a multi-ethnic cast, a major studio movie music score and spectacular cinematography..." http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070120/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/mexico_us_extraditions&printer=1

Mexico hands alleged drug boss to U.S.
By LISA J. ADAMS, Associated Press Writer
Sat Jan 20, 6:25 PM ET

Mexico has extradited a purported drug cartel boss and three other alleged major traffickers to the United States, a move that Washington on Saturday called "unprecedented" in the cross-border fight against organized crime.
Osiel Cardenas, the alleged Gulf cartel leader who was believed to still be running his gang from jail in Mexico, was sent north Friday along with 13 others wanted by U.S. authorities after their appeals against extradition ran out, the office of Mexico's attorney general said.
U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales praised Mexican President Felipe Calderon on Saturday for the extradition, saying the U.S. had never before received from Mexico such a large number of drug suspects and others wanted for prosecution in the United States.
"The actions overnight by the Mexican government are unprecedented in their scope and importance," Gonzales said in a statement released Saturday.
In the past, Mexico has been reluctant to extradite major Mexican drug lords to the United States, arguing they should face justice here first. Officials also refused to send anyone to the U.S. who would face the death penalty, which is barred in Mexico.
But that attitude changed under former President Vicente Fox, who last September promised to extradite "all of those who have pending matters with U.S. justice."
Fox extradited a record 63 alleged criminals to the United States in 2006 alone, including suspected drug kingpin Francisco Rafael Arellano Felix of the Tijuana-based Arellano Felix gang.
Calderon, who took office Dec. 1, promised to increase the flow drug trafficking suspects sent to the U.S. and to do his share to fight the organized crime that has infiltrated all aspects of Mexican society, including nearly every level of law enforcement and government.
U.S. Ambassador Tony Garza said the latest extradition demonstrated the "courage and conviction" of Mexico's president, attorney general and law enforcement officers.
"Today, both the Mexican and the American people can celebrate a monumental moment in our two nations' battle with the vicious drug traffickers and criminals who threaten our very way of life," Garza said in a statement Friday night.
In addition to Cardenas, Mexico extradited Ismael and Gilberto Higuera Guerrero, brothers and former chiefs in the Arellano-Felix cartel in Tijuana and Mexicali; and Hector Palma Salazar, a former leader in the Sinaloa cartel led by Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman.
Eleven others were extradited on a variety of U.S. charges, including murder, drug trafficking, kidnapping and sex crimes, the two governments said.
After taking office, Calderon almost immediately ordered widespread raids by federal police and army troops in states where rival drug-trafficking gangs have engaged in shootouts, executions and even beheadings in recent months.
More than 17,000 soldiers have been deployed in the city of Tijuana, across from San Diego; Calderon's native central state of Michoacan; and the Pacific coast state of Guerrero, which includes the resort city of Acapulco.
Many drug leaders remain at large. Guzman, the head of the Sinaloa cartel who escaped from a Mexican prison in 2001, is described as Mexico's most powerful drug lord.
Mexican investigators say Guzman has formed an alliance with alleged drug barons Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada and Juan Jose "El Azul" Esparragoza. Known as "The Federation," the alliance is engaged in a bloody turf war with the Gulf and Tijuana cartels, with the gangs using heavy weapons like rocket-propelled grenades.
Washington has offered rewards of $5 million each for information leading to the arrests of Zambada and Guzman.

Copyright © 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.
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Mexico catches alleged drug cartel chief

2007-01-20T19:30:00.000-08:00

Warrior Stills
Originally uploaded by brucesingman.

"Competing Mexican drug cartels are destroying each other ... and that's where 'Warrior' begins ...."

http://imdb.com/title/tt0320751
http://www.warriorthefilm.blogspot.com

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-208917617001990565&q=warrior+mexican+OR+drug+OR+cartels+duration%3Ashort+genre%3AMOVIE_TRAILER

"the action adventure fantasy feature film "Warrior" ... about the son of a divine force ... is a story of a young man's quest to find his true identity set against the twin backdrops of Native American folklore and the treacherous Mexican drug trade and a portrayal of the classic confrontation between "good and evil" ... filmed in the exotic jungles of Costa Azul and the urban grit of Puerto Vallarta in the State of Jalisco, Mexico .. with action, adventure, romance, comedy, a multi-ethnic cast, a major studio movie music score and spectacular cinematography..." http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070120/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/mexico_us_extraditions&printer=1

Mexico hands alleged drug boss to U.S.
By LISA J. ADAMS, Associated Press Writer
Sat Jan 20, 6:25 PM ET

Mexico has extradited a purported drug cartel boss and three other alleged major traffickers to the United States, a move that Washington on Saturday called "unprecedented" in the cross-border fight against organized crime.
Osiel Cardenas, the alleged Gulf cartel leader who was believed to still be running his gang from jail in Mexico, was sent north Friday along with 13 others wanted by U.S. authorities after their appeals against extradition ran out, the office of Mexico's attorney general said.
U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales praised Mexican President Felipe Calderon on Saturday for the extradition, saying the U.S. had never before received from Mexico such a large number of drug suspects and others wanted for prosecution in the United States.
"The actions overnight by the Mexican government are unprecedented in their scope and importance," Gonzales said in a statement released Saturday.
In the past, Mexico has been reluctant to extradite major Mexican drug lords to the United States, arguing they should face justice here first. Officials also refused to send anyone to the U.S. who would face the death penalty, which is barred in Mexico.
But that attitude changed under former President Vicente Fox, who last September promised to extradite "all of those who have pending matters with U.S. justice."
Fox extradited a record 63 alleged criminals to the United States in 2006 alone, including suspected drug kingpin Francisco Rafael Arellano Felix of the Tijuana-based Arellano Felix gang.
Calderon, who took office Dec. 1, promised to increase the flow drug trafficking suspects sent to the U.S. and to do his share to fight the organized crime that has infiltrated all aspects of Mexican society, including nearly every level of law enforcement and government.
U.S. Ambassador Tony Garza said the latest extradition demonstrated the "courage and conviction" of Mexico's president, attorney general and law enforcement officers.
"Today, both the Mexican and the American people can celebrate a monumental moment in our two nations' battle with the vicious drug traffickers and criminals who threaten our very way of life," Garza said in a statement Friday night.
In addition to Cardenas, Mexico extradited Ismael and Gilberto Higuera Guerrero, brothers and former chiefs in the Arellano-Felix cartel in Tijuana and Mexicali; and Hector Palma Salazar, a former leader in the Sinaloa cartel led by Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman.
Eleven others were extradited on a variety of U.S. charges, including murder, drug trafficking, kidnapping and sex crimes, the two governments said.
After taking office, Calderon almost immediately ordered widespread raids by federal police and army troops in states where rival drug-trafficking gangs have engaged in shootouts, executions and even beheadings in recent months.
More than 17,000 soldiers have been deployed in the city of Tijuana, across from San Diego; Calderon's native central state of Michoacan; and the Pacific coast state of Guerrero, which includes the resort city of Acapulco.
Many drug leaders remain at large. Guzman, the head of the Sinaloa cartel who escaped from a Mexican prison in 2001, is described as Mexico's most powerful drug lord.
Mexican investigators say Guzman has formed an alliance with alleged drug barons Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada and Juan Jose "El Azul" Esparragoza. Known as "The Federation," the alliance is engaged in a bloody turf war with the Gulf and Tijuana cartels, with the gangs using heavy weapons like rocket-propelled grenades.
Washington has offered rewards of $5 million each for information leading to the arrests of Zambada and Guzman.

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Mexico catches alleged drug cartel chief

2007-01-18T23:27:00.000-08:00

Warrior Stills
Originally uploaded by brucesingman.

"Competing Mexican drug cartels are destroying each other ... and that's where 'Warrior' begins ...."

http://imdb.com/title/tt0320751
http://www.warriorthefilm.blogspot.com

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-208917617001990565&q=warrior+mexican+OR+drug+OR+cartels+duration%3Ashort+genre%3AMOVIE_TRAILER

"the action adventure fantasy feature film "Warrior" ... about the son of a divine force ... is a story of a young man's quest to find his true identity set against the twin backdrops of Native American folklore and the treacherous Mexican drug trade and a portrayal of the classic confrontation between "good and evil" ... filmed in the exotic jungles of Costa Azul and the urban grit of Puerto Vallarta in the State of Jalisco, Mexico .. with action, adventure, romance, comedy, a multi-ethnic cast, a major studio movie music score and spectacular cinematography..."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070118/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/mexico_drug_arrest&printer=1

Mexico catches alleged drug cartel chief
By MARK STEVENSON, Associated Press Writer
Thu Jan 18, 2:57 AM ET

MEXICO CITY - Authorities on Wednesday announced the capture of a purported drug cartel leader, the first major drug arrest under the administration of President Felipe Calderon, who has pledged a nationwide war against the drug trade.
ADVERTISEMENT
Pedro Diaz Parada was arrested in the country's southern state of Oaxaca on Tuesday and taken to Mexico City. He faces charges of organized crime and drug trafficking, the attorney general's office said in a news release.
Prosecutors say Diaz Parada founded the cartel named after him in Mexico's southeastern region.
Federal police and soldiers stopped the sport utility vehicle in which Diaz Parada was riding, and found an assault rifle and 20 bags of marijuana inside, authorities said.
While little is known about Diaz Parada, photos of him supplied by the Attorney General's Office showed a graying, haggard-looking man dressed simply in jeans and a short-sleeve shirt.
Calderon took office on Dec. 1, and almost immediately ordered massive raids by federal police and soldiers in states where rival trafficking gangs have engaged in shootouts, executions and even beheadings in recent months.

Copyright © 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.
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Tijuana police return -- without their weapons

2007-01-06T16:15:00.000-08:00

Warrior Stills
Originally uploaded by brucesingman.

"Competing Mexican drug cartels are destroying each other ... and that's where 'Warrior' begins ...."

http://imdb.com/title/tt0320751
http://www.warriorthefilm.blogspot.com

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-208917617001990565&q=warrior+mexican+OR+drug+OR+cartels+duration%3Ashort+genre%3AMOVIE_TRAILER

"the action adventure fantasy feature film "Warrior" ... about the son of a divine force ... is a story of a young man's quest to find his true identity set against the twin backdrops of Native American folklore and the treacherous Mexican drug trade and a portrayal of the classic confrontation between "good and evil" ... filmed in the exotic jungles of Costa Azul and the urban grit of Puerto Vallarta in the State of Jalisco, Mexico .. with action, adventure, romance, comedy, a multi-ethnic cast, a major studio movie music score and spectacular cinematography..."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-tijuana6jan06,0,6801191.story?coll=la-home-headlines
Tijuana police return -- without their weapons
By Richard Marosi, Sam Enriquez and Héctor Tobar
Times Staff Writers

January 6, 2007

TIJUANA — Disarmed municipal police officers patrolled alongside armed state police Friday, a sight that brought some comfort to many in this border city where municipal police often are equated with corruption and drug-related violence.

Municipal officers, their holsters empty, directed traffic and made the rounds a day after stopping work in response to being stripped of their weapons by the Mexican military.

The military operation in Tijuana and a similar incursion in the southern state of Michoacan, some political analysts say, have been a political boon to President Felipe Calderon, who took office in December, allowing him to project an image of strength and decisiveness.

Jorge Chabat, a Mexico City analyst who has written extensively on the country's drug wars, said that though Calderon's crackdown in Tijuana had "zero chance of stopping the buying and selling of drugs," it could help limit the number of drug-related killings in the city.

There were more than 300 slayings in Tijuana last year.

"What he's saying is that there are some things that won't be permitted," Chabat said. "You can't be cutting people's heads off. It's a question of image. You can't allow Tijuana to look like a civil war in Africa."

Mexican and U.S. authorities say some Tijuana police officers are members of drug cartels, and several have been arrested over the years.

Some Tijuana kidnapping victims have said that police officers took part in their abductions. The city has one of the highest kidnapping rates in the world.

A sprawling metropolis of about 1.5 million people, Tijuana was bustling as usual Friday, and there were no signs of social unrest or public disorder two days after more than 3,500 soldiers and federal agents started arriving as part of Operation Tijuana.

The military ordered members of the 2,300-strong municipal police force to turn in their weapons for an investigation to see whether any could be linked to homicides or other crimes. More than 2,000 firearms, most of them 9-millimeter handguns but also automatic weapons and shotguns, are being inspected.

Tijuana Mayor Jorge Hank Rhon said in an interview that he feared putting unarmed police at risk and ordered them off the streets Thursday after receiving assurances from Hector Sanchez Gutierrez, the general in charge of Operation Tijuana, that his troops would maintain order.

There were no major incidents in the 18 hours without municipal police, but there were complaints that authorities had failed to respond to some traffic accidents.

At a holding facility in the city's red light district, Municipal Judge Oscar Gonzalez Valdez said he had freed some detainees — in custody mostly on alcohol-related offenses — because there were no police officers to take them to the main jail across town.

The officers may get their weapons back within two weeks, Tijuana officials said, but many residents weren't demanding swift action.

"This is stupendous," said Alfredo Arias, the manager of a restaurant in the tough neighborhood of Colonia Libertad that was riddled by hundreds of bullets last year in a shootout between masked men and federal agents.

Arias, like many other residents and some analysts, say police officers' weapons are not always accounted for and often are lent to criminal rings.

"This will obligate them to take care of their weapons," Arias said.

Alberto Capella, president of Tijuana's citizens advisory council on public safety, said disarming the police had widespread public support.

"In some ways it's a necessary evil … part of the cleansing we need to improve the department," he said.

Federal and state officials said the operation had led to the arrest of seven people who authorities said were linked to the attempted assassination last year of the former head of public safety in Baja California state.

Tijuana residents have felt the military presence: Traffic backed up at several checkpoints on major streets leading into and out of the city.

But army or no army, thousands of people lined a two-mile route to see the city's annual Three Kings parade Friday night.

Plastered on several floats, including a giant drum banged by a toy soldier, was "Caliente," the name of the racetrack and betting enterprise owned by Hank Rhon. Trucks pulled floats carrying flatbeds decorated with Christmas trees, giant wrapped gifts and a miniature Bethlehem. Two wise men rode camels and the third an elephant. Legions of gladiators led a contingent of shepherd girls.

All the while, police helicopters hovered overhead.

Gregorio Martinez, 55, who has lived in Tijuana for 35 years, said the military operation was a bold move.

"I bet the number of assaults goes down until the police get their guns back. I feel pretty safe right now," he said.

But Martinez, like others, wonders whether the operation will have a long-term effect.

A similar feeling swept Nuevo Laredo on the Texas border last year when then-President Vicente Fox sent federal police and troops to replace local officers, notorious for their brutality and corruption.

For the first weeks and months, residents said they felt a weight lifted off their shoulders. The feeling didn't last.

By summer, the last of the federal officers were gone, leaving the border town in the hands of a police department operating with only half of its 600 positions filled. Robberies and kidnappings have increased, as have homicides.

The recent crackdown in Michoacan has been a flop, said one U.S. law enforcement source, saying the deployment failed to turn up any significant drug seizures or arrests.

The drug traffickers in Michoacan, the source said, fled to nearby Jalisco before the operation began, prompting jokes that they had scattered like cockroaches.

"Some of the locals were calling it Operacion Cucaracha," the source said.

Some observers said Tijuana's criminal kingpins had left the city. One police official joked that they probably were skiing at Big Bear.

For Hank Rhon, who is planning to run for governor of Baja California this year, the crackdown has hurt his political fortunes, some experts said.

"The sight of Tijuana policemen being disarmed by the Mexican army was an embarrassment," said Jesus Silva Herzog, a Mexico City political analyst. "This is a very serious blow to Hank Rhon and to his political aspirations in the state."

The mayor discounted suggestions that the operation was an attempt by Calderon to sabotage his gubernatorial bid. He said Calderon was following through on a request he made last year for more federal help in Tijuana.

Hank Rhon has acknowledged that the municipal police force is riddled with corruption, but so are other state and federal agencies, he said.

Francisco Ramirez Navarro, a transit police officer in Tijuana, echoed the mayor's sentiments. He said the real criminals in Tijuana wouldn't be found in the police department.

"Why don't they start investigating at the top?" he said.

Some residents agreed.

"I know plenty of honorable cops," said flower vendor Baltazar Brito. Some take bribes, he said, but it's because they are not paid adequate salaries.

Brito's downtown flower stand is at an intersection that was the scene of two shootouts last year that left one police officer dead and several wounded. The city's top homicide investigator and a deputy police chief narrowly escaped assassination attempts in the shootouts.

Bullets gouged and pockmarked curbs, storefronts and billboards over a 50-yard area. Brito survived one attack by ducking under his cart and hiding with his rabbits.

His crime-weary attitude reflects a fatalistic viewpoint among many Tijuana residents. He doesn't expect the violence to stop, but that's not always a bad thing, he said.

"Sometimes for peace to prevail, there must be shootouts," he said.

richard.marosi@latimes.com

sam.enriquez@latimes.com

hector.tobar@latimes.com

Marosi and Enriquez reported from Tijuana and Tobar from Mexico City.

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PARTNERS:

Soldiers, police in Tijuana over drugs

2007-01-06T16:14:00.000-08:00

Warrior Stills
Originally uploaded by brucesingman.

"Competing Mexican drug cartels are destroying each other ... and that's where 'Warrior' begins ...."

http://imdb.com/title/tt0320751
http://www.warriorthefilm.blogspot.com

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-208917617001990565&q=warrior+mexican+OR+drug+OR+cartels+duration%3Ashort+genre%3AMOVIE_TRAILER

"the action adventure fantasy feature film "Warrior" ... about the son of a divine force ... is a story of a young man's quest to find his true identity set against the twin backdrops of Native American folklore and the treacherous Mexican drug trade and a portrayal of the classic confrontation between "good and evil" ... filmed in the exotic jungles of Costa Azul and the urban grit of Puerto Vallarta in the State of Jalisco, Mexico .. with action, adventure, romance, comedy, a multi-ethnic cast, a major studio movie music score and spectacular cinematography..."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070104/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/mexico_drug_wars

Soldiers, police in Tijuana over drugs
By LUIS PEREZ, Associated Press Writer
2 hours, 19 minutes ago

TIJUANA, Mexico - Soldiers and federal police poured into the violent border city of Tijuana Wednesday, manning checkpoints and inspecting local police stations as part of President Felipe Calderon's latest offensive against powerful drug gangs.
ADVERTISEMENT
Backed by helicopters, planes and boats, the force descending on the city across the border from San Diego will eventually consist of 3,300 troops, Mexico's government has said. It was not clear exactly how many had entered Tijuana by Wednesday night.
Soldiers went into at least two local police stations and checked the papers and weapons of hundreds of officers.
Federal investigators allege there is a corrupt network of police in the city supporting traffickers who smuggle tons of cocaine, methamphetamine and marijuana over the busy border crossing into the United States. There were no immediate reports of arrests by the soldiers.
Dubbed "Operation Tijuana," the mobilization is the second major military offensive against drug gangs by Calderon, who took office on Dec. 1 promising to crack down on organized crime.
Last month, he sent 7,000 troops to his native state of Michoacan in western Mexico, which has been plagued by execution-style killings and beheadings as rival gangs fight over marijuana plantations and smuggling routes.
Calderon made his first visit to these troops at a base in the Michoacan city of Apatzingan on Wednesday, donning a green army cap and jacket for a breakfast with 200 agents.
"This is not an easy task nor will it be fast," Calderon said. "It will take a long time, imply using enormous resources and even unfortunately the loss of human lives."
But, he added, "if we continue working as we have been until now, our cities and our land will not remain in the hands of criminals."
Drug gangs are blamed for more than 2,000 murders nationwide in 2006 and have left a particularly bloody trail in Michoacan and Tijuana, where more than 300 people were slain last year.
The gangs have decapitated some of their victims, leaving the heads in front of government buildings, on public beaches and even the floor of one nightclub.
Tijuana Mayor Jorge Hank Rhon has welcomed the troops saying he hopes they will work hand in hand with the local police.
Opposition politicians and some residents have expressed doubt that Calderon's highly publicized campaign will have much of an impact.
His predecessor,

Vicente Fox, also sent thousand of agents to fight drug trafficking, arresting several alleged top kingpins during his six-year term. But those actions appeared to spark more violence, as other traffickers battled to take over the smuggling routes of those killed or detained.

Tijuana police abandon posts. After federal agents confiscate the force's weapons, officers decide going back on patrol would be too risky.

2007-01-05T18:20:00.000-08:00

Warrior Stills
Originally uploaded by brucesingman.

"Competing Mexican drug cartels are destroying each other ... and that's where 'Warrior' begins ...."

http://imdb.com/title/tt0320751
http://www.warriorthefilm.blogspot.com

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-208917617001990565&q=warrior+mexican+OR+drug+OR+cartels+duration%3Ashort+genre%3AMOVIE_TRAILER

"the action adventure fantasy feature film "Warrior" ... about the son of a divine force ... is a story of a young man's quest to find his true identity set against the twin backdrops of Native American folklore and the treacherous Mexican drug trade and a portrayal of the classic confrontation between "good and evil" ... filmed in the exotic jungles of Costa Azul and the urban grit of Puerto Vallarta in the State of Jalisco, Mexico .. with action, adventure, romance, comedy, a multi-ethnic cast, a major studio movie music score and spectacular cinematography..."

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/la-fg-tijuana5jan05,0,4276214.story?track=mostviewed-homepage
Tijuana police abandon posts
After federal agents confiscate the force's weapons, officers decide going back on patrol would be too risky.
By Richard Marosi
Times Staff Writer

January 5, 2007

TIJUANA — The municipal police force in this troubled border city walked off the job Thursday after soldiers and federal agents ordered its members to turn over their weapons in connection with homicide investigations.

The surprising turn of events came two days after Mexican President Felipe Calderon dispatched 3,300 federal troops and police to the city in an effort to combat violence linked to drug cartels.

Tijuana Mayor Jorge Hank Rhon acknowledged in a radio interview Thursday that local and state police were being compromised by narco-traffickers, and he said government salaries could not compete with the financial rewards offered by drug dealers.

Members of the 2,300-strong police force turned over more than 2,100 guns and semiautomatic assault rifles at police headquarters. But police officials decided it would be too dangerous to patrol unarmed, especially because more than a dozen officers have been killed recently in drug-related attacks.

"The police are not patrolling the city. They won't work without their weapons," said Fernando Bojorquez, a spokesman for the city's top police official, Secretary of Public Safety Luis Javier Algorri Franco.

Among those whose weapons were taken were the bodyguards for the mayor and for Algorri, a civilian who does not carry a weapon.

A spokesman for the federal attorney general said the military had ordered the confiscation of the police weapons to investigate whether any had been used in suspicious killings. He gave no details.

It was not immediately known how many homicides the federal officials were investigating. More than 300 people were killed in the city in 2006.

Police walked out late in the afternoon, and no major disturbances had been reported by late evening.

The soldiers and federal agents set up checkpoints Thursday across the city and began patrolling downtown, the Zona Rio commercial district and some tough neighborhoods.

Dozens of disarmed officers remained outside City Hall after 9 p.m., eating chicken tacos and wondering what would happen next.

The next shift, due in at 7 a.m., was ordered to report to the plaza, and police will remain there until their weapons are returned, Bojorquez said.

"We're defenseless against organized crime. Without our weapons, we can't do anything," said one officer, who declined to be identified.

It appeared that municipal police were still on duty at jails.

Tijuana and the surrounding communities are a key battleground for control of drug smuggling routes into the United States. The city and the state of Baja California have suffered increased kidnappings and killings of drug traffickers, police officers, business owners and bystanders.

The federal enforcement effort, dubbed Operation Tijuana, comes three weeks after Calderon sent troops to his Pacific Coast home state of Michoacan, where more than 80 people were arrested, more than 1,300 acres of marijuana crops were destroyed and over 6 tons of harvested plants were seized.

Calderon has said that federal forces are needed to combat Mexico's drug violence because of corruption and incompetence among local and state police.

In a television interview Thursday, federal Atty. Gen. Eduardo Medina Mora said: "The object of this type of operation is not the surgical capture of big leaders. Sure, we're going after the big capos, but that's not the purpose of this kind of operation, which in this case is the recovery of geography and tranquillity."

Medina Mora said Calderon's campaign against drug violence would move to other states in coming weeks.

richard.marosi@latimes.com

Times staff writer Sam Enriquez in Mexico City contributed to this report.

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PARTNERS:

Mexican president's anti-drug offensive heads for Tijuana

2007-01-03T20:01:00.000-08:00

Warrior Stills
Originally uploaded by brucesingman.

"Competing Mexican drug cartels are destroying each other ... and that's where 'Warrior' begins ...."

http://imdb.com/title/tt0320751
http://www.warriorthefilm.blogspot.com

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-208917617001990565&q=warrior+mexican+OR+drug+OR+cartels+duration%3Ashort+genre%3AMOVIE_TRAILER

"the action adventure fantasy feature film "Warrior" ... about the son of a divine force ... is a story of a young man's quest to find his true identity set against the twin backdrops of Native American folklore and the treacherous Mexican drug trade and a portrayal of the classic confrontation between "good and evil" ... filmed in the exotic jungles of Costa Azul and the urban grit of Puerto Vallarta in the State of Jalisco, Mexico .. with action, adventure, romance, comedy, a multi-ethnic cast, a major studio movie music score and spectacular cinematography..."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-border3jan03,1,7648544.story
Mexican president's anti-drug offensive heads for Tijuana
More than 3,000 troops and police are sent to stop cartel bloodshed.
By Sam Enriquez and Richard Marosi
Times Staff Writers

January 3, 2007

MEXICO CITY — Mexican President Felipe Calderon on Tuesday opened the second front in his campaign against drug violence, sending 3,300 soldiers, sailors and federal police to the troubled border city of Tijuana.

Tijuana and surrounding communities are a key battleground in the drug cartels' fight to control smuggling routes to the United States. Their bloody rivalries left more than 2,000 people dead in Mexico last year.

Operation Tijuana comes three weeks after Calderon sent troops to his home state of Michoacan, on the Pacific Coast, where federal authorities destroyed 600 acres of marijuana crops and seized more than 6 tons of harvested pot.

Corruption and incompetence among local and state police prompted Calderon, who took office Dec. 1, to promise federal forces to combat Mexico's drug violence. His top security officials said that every state eventually would get relief.

Tijuana and the state of Baja California have suffered increasing numbers of kidnappings and killings of drug traffickers, police officers, business owners and bystanders.

In 2006, nearly two dozen law enforcement officials were killed, including three police officers from Rosarito Beach who were beheaded.

"We won't let any state be hostage to drug trafficking or organized crime," Interior Secretary Francisco Ramirez Acuña said at a news conference Tuesday.

Tijuana's drug trade has long been controlled by the Arellano Felix cartel, once one of the country's most powerful drug-trafficking organizations. The cartel's leadership has been weakened by killings and arrests in recent years, but authorities say the organization and its rivals pose the main threat to peace in Tijuana.

The August capture of the cartel's alleged leader, Francisco Javier Arellano Felix, worsened the violence, as rivals fought to tear off a share of the business.

Recent bloodshed has been notable for its brutality and increasingly professional execution. The Rosarito Beach officers, for example, were abducted by a paramilitary force.

Federal authorities said they would give a weekly count of arrests and drug seizures in Tijuana, as well as a tally of homicides, kidnappings and thefts. Drug cartels are thought to be behind a spree of kidnap-for-ransom schemes targeting businessmen and professionals.

Mexican authorities said troops would remain in Michoacan, a key transport state for cocaine, the country's most lucrative export drug.

sam.enriquez@latimes.com

richard.marosi@latimes.com

Enriquez reported from Mexico City and Marosi from Tijuana. Carlos Martínez and Cecilia Sánchez in The Times' Mexico City Bureau contributed to this report.

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Marijuana seized, 55 arrested in Mexico ... President's crackdown in Michoacan aims to break up a turf war among drug gangs.

2006-12-19T15:00:00.000-08:00

Warrior Stills
Originally uploaded by brucesingman.

"Competing Mexican drug cartels are destroying each other ... and that's where 'Warrior' begins ...."

http://imdb.com/title/tt0320751
http://www.warriorthefilm.blogspot.com

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-208917617001990565&q=warrior+mexican+OR+drug+OR+cartels+duration%3Ashort+genre%3AMOVIE_TRAILER

"the action adventure fantasy feature film "Warrior" ... about the son of a divine force ... is a story of a young man's quest to find his true identity set against the twin backdrops of Native American folklore and the treacherous Mexican drug trade and a portrayal of the classic confrontation between "good and evil" ... filmed in the exotic jungles of Costa Azul and the urban grit of Puerto Vallarta in the State of Jalisco, Mexico .. with action, adventure, romance, comedy, a multi-ethnic cast, a major studio movie music score and spectacular cinematography..."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-drugs19dec19,1,444145.story?coll=la-headlines-world
Marijuana seized, 55 arrested in Mexico
President's crackdown in Michoacan aims to break up a turf war among drug gangs.
By Sam Enriquez
Times Staff Writer

December 19, 2006

MEXICO CITY — Mexican government officials said Monday that they had destroyed 600 acres of marijuana plants and seized more than 6 tons of harvested pot during a crackdown by federal police and the military in the state of Michoacan.

Authorities also announced the arrest of 55 suspected drug traffickers in Operation Michoacan United, President Felipe Calderon's first effort to make good on his promise to combat a turf war among drug gangs that has claimed about 2,000 lives nationwide this year.

The heads of the Mexican army, navy and federal police said during a news conference that a combination of air surveillance, searches and random inspections of more than 8,000 vehicles at roadblocks over the last week also turned up 112 weapons, 300 pounds of marijuana seeds and 17 pounds of opium poppy seeds.

Officials said bulk marijuana sells for slightly less than $900 a pound at the U.S.-Mexico border, and they valued the seized marijuana at more than $10 million. Defense Secretary Guillermo Galvan said the 600 acres of plants could have yielded as much as $400 million.

News media were kept away from the operation, but government video shows soldiers pulling up foot-high plants, as well as aerial shots of small plots in the middle of natural vegetation. One shot shows plants with long spirals of mature seedpods swaying in the wash of a low-flying military helicopter.

The seizures and arrests struck at Michoacan drug gangs that are allegedly allied with the Gulf cartel. Members and associates of the cartel are locked in a war with the Pacific Coast-based Sinaloa cartel over market share and smuggling routes.

The fight for control of Nuevo Laredo, a major trucking and shipping link with Texas, has cost hundreds of lives over the last two years and triggered proxy battles among warring factions in other states.

Government officials worry the violence of Nuevo Laredo will spread to nearby Monterrey, a key commercial and industrial city. Calderon has promised to advance Mexico by attracting new investments that will create jobs.

Interior Secretary Francisco Ramirez Acuna said the anti-drug operation "reveals the government's will in using all the country's strength to recover the peace and tranquillity of society."

Michoacan, Calderon's home state, is a key transport area for marijuana and cocaine and, more recently, methamphetamine, which moves north into the United States in amounts that drug experts estimate make up a significant chunk of the multibillion-dollar market. The federal operation will continue.

*
sam.enriquez@latimes.com

Carlos Martínez of The Times' Mexico City Bureau contributed to this report.

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PARTNERS:

Mexico says suspected leader of drug cartel is in custody

2006-12-18T12:55:00.000-08:00

Warrior Poster
Originally uploaded by brucesingman.

"Competing Mexican drug cartels are destroying each other ... and that's where 'Warrior' begins ...."

http://imdb.com/title/tt0320751
http://www.warriorthefilm.blogspot.com

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-208917617001990565&q=warrior+mexican+OR+drug+OR+cartels+duration%3Ashort+genre%3AMOVIE_TRAILER

"the action adventure fantasy feature film "Warrior" ... about the son of a divine force ... is a story of a young man's quest to find his true identity set against the twin backdrops of Native American folklore and the treacherous Mexican drug trade and a portrayal of the classic confrontation between "good and evil" ... filmed in the exotic jungles of Costa Azul and the urban grit of Puerto Vallarta in the State of Jalisco, Mexico .. with action, adventure, romance, comedy, a multi-ethnic cast, a major studio movie music score and spectacular cinematography..."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-mexdrugs18dec18,1,1923864.story?coll=la-headlines-world
Mexico says suspected leader of drug cartel is in custody
From the Associated Press

December 18, 2006

MEXICO CITY — The Mexican military said Sunday that it had detained a leader of a drug cartel, the first major arrest since President Felipe Calderon sent more than 6,000 troops to a western state terrorized by drug gangs.

Elias Valencia, a suspected head of the Valencia cartel, was arrested with four other people Friday at a mountain ranch near the town of Aguililla in Michoacan state, said Gen. Cornelio Casio, one of the officials in charge of the offensive.

Last week, Calderon ordered more than 6,000 soldiers, marines and federal police to his home state of Michoacan, which has seen a wave of drug-related killings and beheadings.

The violence is the result of a turf war between the Valencia gang and the rival Gulf cartel over lucrative marijuana plantations and smuggling routes for cocaine and methamphetamine to the United States.

Mexican investigators said Valencia was one of several figures running the cartel since his father, Armando, was arrested in 2003.

Soldiers found Elias Valencia and the others with hundreds of pounds of marijuana and numerous weapons, Casio said.

Aguililla, about 225 miles southwest of Mexico City, has been a key stronghold of the Valencia cartel. The winding mountain roads into the town are perfect for ambushes. Assailants have killed 10 police officers in two recent attacks.

Under the new offensive, soldiers supported by helicopters and armored vehicles with machine-gun turrets comb the area looking for drug traffickers and plantations.

On Wednesday, troops clashed with suspected traffickers protecting a marijuana crop, killing one man and arresting another. On Saturday, soldiers arrested a man accused of being a key Sinaloa cartel lieutenant in the western city of Guadalajara.

Calderon, elected in July on a law-and-order platform, wants the army to step up a crackdown on drug traffickers nationwide.

Drug violence has killed about 2,000 Mexicans this year.

Many security experts say it will take more than brute force to stop the cartels, which earn billions of dollars supplying the U.S. drug market.

Calderon's predecessor, Vicente Fox, who stepped down Dec. 1, sent thousands of troops to battle cartels, make drug seizures and arrest high-profile traffickers without significantly reducing the quantity of narcotics crossing into the United States.

Critics of Fox's crackdown say it created a power vacuum in the cartels, leading to increased violence as rivals fought to replace the arrested leaders.

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PARTNERS:

Mexico anti-drug effort mostly a bust ... New president's initiative yields little in the way of seizures and no arrests despite its high profile.

2006-12-16T14:58:00.000-08:00

Warrior Poster
Originally uploaded by brucesingman.

"Competing Mexican drug cartels are destroying each other ... and that's where 'Warrior' begins ...."

http://imdb.com/title/tt0320751
http://www.warriorthefilm.blogspot.com

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-208917617001990565&q=warrior+mexican+OR+drug+OR+cartels+duration%3Ashort+genre%3AMOVIE_TRAILER

"the action adventure fantasy feature film "Warrior" ... about the son of a divine force ... is a story of a young man's quest to find his true identity set against the twin backdrops of Native American folklore and the treacherous Mexican drug trade and a portrayal of the classic confrontation between "good and evil" ... filmed in the exotic jungles of Costa Azul and the urban grit of Puerto Vallarta in the State of Jalisco, Mexico .. with action, adventure, romance, comedy, a multi-ethnic cast, a major studio movie music score and spectacular cinematography..."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-drugs16dec16,1,7067876.story?coll=la-headlines-world
Mexico anti-drug effort mostly a bust
New president's initiative yields little in the way of seizures and no arrests despite its high profile.
By Sam Enriquez
Times Staff Writer

December 16, 2006

MEXICO CITY — Mexican President Felipe Calderon didn't wait long to challenge the violent drug traffickers that control parts of Michoacan, his home state.

But Operation Michoacan United, announced Monday, so far looks like a bust — and not the kind Calderon had in mind.

A week after taking the oath of office, Calderon ordered more than 6,000 soldiers, sailors and federal police to swarm towns where warring drug smugglers are believed responsible for as many as 500 killings this year. Hired assassins have added beheadings to their repertoire and recently started tossing victims from planes in an apparent effort to shock and demoralize rivals.

Despite the fanfare accompanying Calderon's anti-drug operation, which included roadblocks and air surveillance, the effort had yielded no arrests as of Friday afternoon.

The operation is concentrated in 13 municipalities in the southwestern portion of the state, an area suffering from high illiteracy and poverty rates and site of a third of the state's homicides this year.

"This operation doesn't aim to be spectacular," said Atty. Gen. Eduardo Medina. "The focus is on territory, recovering geographical space for the public."

Tons of marijuana and cocaine pass through Michoacan each year en route to the United States. Armed drug runners control many public roads, which soldiers and federal police say they are retaking.

But no kingpins were arrested and little dope had been seized in the highly touted operation, despite, according to the newspaper Excelsior, government documents with a list of local drug gang leaders and organizational charts.

One suspected cartel gunman was killed Wednesday after he fired on soldiers trying to serve a search warrant on a property in the town of Dos Aguas.

Army personnel found several hundred rounds of ammunition, cellphones and shortwave radios, 10 weapons, a police uniform and a marijuana packaging device. They also found 1,100 marijuana plants and about 30 pounds of seed.

Port investigators have had better luck. On Dec. 5, they turned up nearly 20 tons of pseudoephedrine, a key ingredient for Mexico's burgeoning methamphetamine labs. The drug can be legally imported, but the container was labeled as another product. No one claimed the shipment.

Government officials said Thursday that they planned to expand the operation to other states caught in the deadly smuggling routes tug-of-war between Pacific Coast-based and Gulf-based cartels.

The drug war is believed responsible for an estimated 2,000 deaths nationwide this year. Calderon has made public security one of his top priorities, along with reducing poverty and creating jobs.

He and advisors fear the cartels' war will scare off investors and saddle the country with an image of instability.

Analysts say Mexico has been less aggressive than the United States in battling drugs, which officials here have seen as more of a problem for U.S. addicts and their families than for Mexican citizens. But killings, including torture and dismemberment, and increased domestic drug use are changing that attitude, analysts say.

Some said former President Vicente Fox inadvertently triggered the violence by arresting a few cartel leaders and setting off a battle for market share. The conventional wisdom is that drug prices have held steady or fallen in U.S. cities, suggesting an unchecked supply despite interdiction efforts on both sides of the border.

The Calderon administration's strategy may be limited, at least for now, to warning traffickers that the government will interfere with their business unless the killings end, analysts say.

"They're not trying to end drug trafficking or drug use," said Jorge Chabat, a drug trade expert. "They're just trying to maintain a minimum amount of order.

"This is more like a father with a misbehaving adolescent."

sam.enriquez@latimes.com

Carlos Martinez and Cecilia Sanchez of The Times' Mexico City Bureau contributed to this report.

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PARTNERS:

Making the soundtrack to Mexico's drug wars ... The killing of Valentín Elizalde draws attention to narcocorridos, folk ballads of the underworld.

2006-12-02T16:19:00.000-08:00

Warrior Stills
Originally uploaded by brucesingman.

Valentin Elizalde and two others are killed leaving a concert. It's another apparent gangland ambush as drug cartels claim more victims.

2006-12-02T16:18:00.000-08:00

Warrior Stills
Originally uploaded by brucesingman.

Tunnels act as highways for migrants ... The subterranean smuggling routes breed chaos along U.S.-Mexico border.

2006-12-02T16:17:00.000-08:00

Warrior Stills
Originally uploaded by brucesingman.

The Continuing Sordid History of the Treatment of the Esselen Indians

2006-12-02T16:15:00.000-08:00

Warrior Stills
Originally uploaded by brucesingman.

Competing Mexican drug cartels are destroying each other ... and that's where 'Warrior' begins ...."
http://imdb.com/title/tt0320751
http://www.warriorthefilm.blogspot.com

"the action adventure fantasy feature film "Warrior" ... about the son of a divine force ... is a story of a young man's quest to find his true identity set against the twin backdrops of Native American folklore and the treacherous Mexican drug trade and a portrayal of the classic confrontation between "good and evil" ... filmed in the exotic jungles of Costa Azul and the urban grit of Puerto Vallarta in the State of Jalisco, Mexico .. with action, adventure, romance, comedy, a multi-ethnic cast, a major studio movie music score and spectacular cinematography..."

The Continuing Sordid History of the Treatment of the Esselen Indians

Originally this article appeared in The Monterey County Post, October 1996,
and is reproduced with kind permission
Es-wa'ti...Xinkone Inux Hu-ya-mis-in-pi-si-in-unse
(Esselen native language translated)
Go--Walk on the Road of the Medicine Lodge
"Long ago, it was said that Eagle, Hummingbird, and Coyote watched from the mountain tops the water recede after the great flood. Eagle, the Chief, sent Coyote to look below, and asked him what was there. Coyote said that there were many, many people who were dead. Coyote went forward and seized some earth and from it came his wife. The children from the union of these super-natural beings became many and the first Indian people of central coastal California.
The land provided a rich natural environment for all of the animal birds, fish and people to live in harmony within their shared universe.
Their universe was irrevocably altered by the advent of Hispano- European Empire in 1769, and continued to be devastated by the later American conquest of California. Of the estimated 1.5 million people who inhabited California in 1769, less than 20,000 would be identified by the turn of the century.
During the 1870's came a religious movement combining both aboriginal and Euro-American beliefs. The Kuksu and Big Heads were once again called upon to bring order to an ever collapsing and insane universe. This religious movement was called by some the 'Ghost Dancer or Sound House' (Medicine Lodge) religion because it was believed that the dead would rise, all disease, famine and suffering would end, and all non-lndians and non-believers would be swallowed up by the earth.
In spite of the past two hundred and forty years of 'European Civilization' devastation, broken promises and genocide, we continue to walk on this road. The Inux or Road serves as the only path toward reestablishing balance to our universe. This path links both the upper spirit world with the earthly world that we live in today.
(This story was shared by two elders in 1902, Jacinta Gonzales and Maria Viviana Soto, of the surviving Ohlone/ Costanoan-Esselen peoples who once lived on and owned all of the lands surrounding the greater Monterey Bay region. Artist: Loretta Escobar Wyer, Chairwoman - Ohlone/ Costanoan-Esselen Nation, Concept Contributors: Rosemary Camabra, Chairwoman, Muwekma Ohlone Tribe, and Alan Leventhal, Ethnohistorian, College of Social Sciences, SJSU.)
The Esselen Nation of Monterey County
Contributed by Sandy Baldinger
The Beginning
The Esselen Indians were here first, thousands of them lived from Big Sur to Moss Landing, from the beaches of Carmel to the plains of Soledad, wintered in the caves of Cachagua, and summered in the meadows of Castroville. Complex chiefdoms were organized within villages and communities.
The land was rich, the men and woman hunted together, farmed,fished, and took only the natural resources they needed to sustain their livelihood. The Esselens were peaceful and lived in harmony with the different clans of the Esselen Nation. Esselen means from the rock, and each tribe would greet each other with the gI come from the rock, meaning they were one family, one nation, one tribe. The differences clans intermarried and shared the same familial culture.
The Disappearance
In 1848, over 150,000 Indians lived in Northern California. Then the "Gold Rush" brought the Europeans, the explorers, the settlers, and a different way of life.
By the 1920s, only 20,000 Indians remained (Indian Field Service Report to Commissioner of Indian Affairs, 6/23/1927). Now there are approximately 250 known Esselen Indians residing in Monterey County. Genocide - disease - starvation - how can that many Indians disappear in such a short period of time?
The Missions
The Spanish Catholic padres formed many missions in Northern California, and their purpose was to "save the souls" of the Indians. The Spanish authorities also had another mission - to take the land from the Indians.
Spanish land grant regulations stipulated that Spanish men were to marry Indian women in order to obtain a land grant (Spanish Land Grant Record, Land Notes & Papers, Marriage Regulations 1774) it was a simple difference of philosophy and culture.
Europeans believed in "owning" land, "selling, and buying" land. The Esselens believed that the land was theirs only to occupy - to take care of and to nurture.
The Esselens also believed the land they occupied was their family's share of the community. Thus, if you married into the family, you shared the land. The Spanish men would marry the Indian women, apply for a land grant to the King of Spain for the family's land. Any children borne of the marriage were baptized in the Catholic mission and became Spanish citizens. Only the padres referred to the children as "half-breeds, the rest of the citizenry considered them, and their Indian mother, as Spanish. Extensive records were kept by the missions, and the Spanish officials of the intermarriages, the offspring, and the relations. (Over 140 years later, these very records are needed to establish the Esselen Nation as a federally recognized tribe.)
The Esselen Nation
For example, in the late 1700s, Father Junipero Serra of the Mission San Carlos Borromeo in Carmel arranged a marriage between 46-year old Manuel Butron, and Esselen Indian, 15-year old Margarite Domingez. The husband then applied to Spain for a land grant based upon his marriage to the young Indian maiden, and received what is now a large portion of Carmel Valley! (Spanish Land Grant Records, Vol 1, pgs 177-180, Missions and Missionaries of California, James H Barry Company 1913, Vol 3. pgs 640-643)
Under the Spanish rule, Indians could not legally be evicted from their land, and if so, provisions would have to be made for the landless Indians. (Hildago Treaty 1849) This meant the Indians had no choice but to seek shelter at the missions. There they were forced to build the missions, raise crops, fish, hunt, raise cattle, make tallow, cook, clean, and to supply the Catholics with food and bounty. In return, they were sheltered, fed, and somewhat protected from harm. Indians were being murdered and slaughtered at an alarming rate, and if they wanted to leave they ; missions, they were hunted down and forced to return. The Esselens fled to the caves in Cachagua and survived in the rugged terrain. Then the Tassajuar area became known as the "Clan of the Ancients," because the Indians sought refuge in the wilderness, and were never found by the Spanish.
The United States & The Esselens
The United States took over California in 1846, and the Esselen Indians suffered a worse fate than before. In 1850, they were required to register with government agencies, surrender their lands, and believe in lineage or marriages. Most of the Esselens were terrified of the white man. Few escaped the brutality of the white man in search for land - and in search for gold.
During the Gold Rush era, treaties between the Indians and the government became hidden, secreted by the government. Reservation lands promised to the Esselens were never granted, services were never provided; and many of the Indians starved to death or were murdered. (Ranchos of Monterev County, Donald M Howard. Esq. 1978 pg 26; 1928 BIA Application #8123, #10946)
In the mid 1800s, Helen Hunt Jackson, a Bureau of Indian Affairs Matron, wrote of the fear of the Indians. They were afraid of death by the white man, their land being taken away, and the slavery of their children.
In 1928, the United States ordered all of the Indians to register again, and each Indian that did so was assigned a number - a numbering system that continues today. The government forms were complex, confusing and without their completion, the Indians were denied any government or public service. (Lands Claim Act, 1928) ) (1919 Annual Narrative Statistical, Section 6, Report)
Did you know that Indians only had the right to vote since 1949?
Did you know that until 1970 Indians were not allowed to hire a private attorney to represent them in a court of law? "Pitt River Tribe v U. S. Government" is such an example. The tribe sued the government for failure to honor the treaties providing land and services to them. The Federal Court refused to allow the tribe's attorney to participate in court, and ordered the U. S. Attorney General to represent the tribe. In essence, the case became the government versus the government!
Did you know that the Civil Rights Act does not cover Indians? There is a separate Indian Civil Rights Act on the books - and it is not the same.
Did you know that there are separate and complex laws that govern Indians? Every other person in the United States operates under the same federal laws - with the exception of the Indians. Code of Federal Regulations, Indians, 25, (revised as of April 1, 1991), Codification of documents and general applicability and future effects with ancillaries is one of the governing documents. The Bureau of Indian Affairs governs the Indians.
Did you know that only 40 tribes in California are officially recognized by the United States Government?
Did you know the Esselen Nation is trying to be officially recognized? In order to receive services or the reservation promised to them in 1848, the Esselens are now being ordered to prove that they are indeed an Indian tribe. To do so, the Esselens have to request copies of documents that the U.S. has in its archives, and then submit them back to the proper Government agency, BAR (Bureau of Acknowledgment Research). The government is making them spend money to provide them with their own records! This procedure is costly, time-consuming, and exhausting. Why are they now submitting for official tribal recognition? Years of research and perhaps millions of dollars spent for what?
The Esselen Future
The future of the Esselen Indian nation rests with this generation, most in their 40s-50s and 60s. It is the last generation that can make the government enforce the promises under the treaties; reservation land and government services. It is the last generation that would have the Indian blood quota required by the government to obtain services. It is important because a federally recognized tribe has the same rights as any State in the United States! Rights to land, water, health services, and the rights we take for granted every day as non-lndians.
It is the first generation of Esselen Indians that can put aside their fear of the white man's government. Loretta Escobar Wyer, Chairwoman of The Esselen Indian Nation, explained, "The way we live is who we are as Indian people." She told of the private nature of the Esselens in today's society, the family cohesiveness, the cultural differences that still exist.
"Men and woman work together as partners - it is a work ethic. Women are respected as equals. They direct the hunts, help butcher the game, raise the children, work in the fields. Women recommend and nominate the chiefs, and work as men. Men, work beside the women, sharing with all the tasks. It is a culture difference that is sacred. Families are very important, and any Esselen is considered to be family."
The land promised to the Esselens was Big Sur - something similar will do.
In the meantime, the Esselens formed an alliance with the Hoopa Tribe to ask for government buildings at Fort Ord. The buildings would be used for drug rehabilitation for Indian and local non-lndian youths. (Ironically, the US government allotted $1.5 million for Indian youth rehabilitation, but had no buildings to service the program.)
The alliance with the Hoopa Tribe was necessary since the Hoopas of Northern California are a recognized tribe. If their request is granted by the Department of Defense, it will be the first time Indian children and young adults can be rehabilitated in their native state of California. Indian youths now have to go to the Plains states for treatment facilities.
Hopefully, the land and buildings at Fort Ord will be utilized for the Indians. It's not much to give after taking so much away. In the meantime, Loretta and the Council of Esselen Indian Nation will continue their quest for federal recognition of their culture, their history, and their rights.
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All contents copyright © 1996 - 2005, carmelvalley.com. All rights reserved.
URL: http://www.carmelvalley.com/cvbin/esselen.html

"the action adventure fantasy feature film 'Warrior' ... about the son of a divine force ... is a story of a young man's quest to find his true identity set against the twin backdrops of Native American folklore and the treacherous Mexican drug trade and a portrayal of the classic confrontation between "good and evil" ... filmed in the exotic jungles of Costa Azul and the urban grit of Puerto Vallarta in the State of Jalisco, Mexico .. with action, adventure, romance, comedy, a multi-ethnic cast, a major studio movie music score and spectacular cinematography..."

Esselen Indian Tribal History

2006-12-02T16:13:00.000-08:00

Warrior Stills
Originally uploaded by brucesingman.

Along the northern Mexican border, fear rules ... as the death toll grows in a drug smuggling war.

2006-11-28T12:33:00.000-08:00

Warrior Stills
Originally uploaded by brucesingman.

U.S. crackdown sends meth labs south of border

2006-11-28T12:30:00.000-08:00

Warrior Stills
Originally uploaded by brucesingman.

Drug wars and political unrest deter Americans and others from day trips and resort vacations in Mexico ...

2006-11-19T12:37:00.000-08:00

Warrior Stills
Originally uploaded by brucesingman.

"Competing Mexican drug cartels are destroying each other ... and that's where 'Warrior' begins ...."

http://imdb.com/title/tt0320751
http://www.warriorthefilm.blogspot.com

"the action adventure fantasy feature film "Warrior" ... about the son of a divine force ... is a story of a young man's quest to find his true identity set against the twin backdrops of Native American folklore and the treacherous Mexican drug trade and a portrayal of the classic confrontation between "good and evil" ... filmed in the exotic jungles of Costa Azul and the urban grit of Puerto Vallarta in the State of Jalisco, Mexico .. with action, adventure, romance, comedy, a multi-ethnic cast, a major studio movie music score and spectacular cinematography..."

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-mextourism19nov19,1,88730.story?coll=la-headlines-business
Fewer days at the beach
Drug wars and political unrest deter Americans and others from day trips and resort vacations in Mexico, costing the country more than $200 million this year.
By Marla Dickerson
Times Staff Writer

November 19, 2006

Lounging poolside at her hotel on the Pacific Ocean, Donna Littleton recounted the highlights of her vacation: cliff divers, an air show, jewelry shopping and a tasty buffet.

But one element clouded her sunny mood: the memory of police with automatic weapons patrolling the beach.

"It makes you feel uneasy," said the 48-year-old Georgia resident. "I doubt that we'll be back."

Drug wars and political unrest are taking a toll on Mexico's tourism industry, one of the nation's biggest employers and revenue earners. The number of international visitors to Mexico in the first nine months of the year fell by nearly 4 million, or 5.1%, from the same period last year, according to the latest government figures.

The drop has cost Mexico more than $200 million in tourism revenue this year, most of that from Americans, who make up the vast majority of foreign visitors.

The U.S. State Department put out a bulletin in September cautioning U.S. travelers to be aware of "the rising level of brutal violence" along Mexico's northern border.

That alert was followed by an October announcement urging Americans to avoid the southern tourist magnet of Oaxaca. The city has been racked by nearly six months of civil unrest that has killed at least 10 people, including an American freelance journalist. The State Department last week expanded the scope of that bulletin, calling on Americans to "be alert to increased security concerns related to protest violence throughout Mexico" after explosives damaged three buildings in Mexico City in early November in attacks that may have been related to events in Oaxaca.

The biggest decline in foreign visitors — more than 2.7 million — has been among day-trippers to northern Mexico. Tijuana and Nuevo Laredo have been convulsed by a spasm of kidnappings and narcotics-related murders this year, spooking Americans who used to zip across the border in search of souvenirs, discount medications or a spicy meal. Their trepidation is hurting Mexican merchants who depend on their spending.

"We are barely holding on," said Pablo Jacobo "Jack" Suneson, owner of Marti's, an upscale boutique in Nuevo Laredo, across from Laredo, Texas. He said scores of businesses had been shuttered in the Mexican border town, where more than 160 people have been murdered this year.

The migration of dollars is prompting Suneson to build a store in San Antonio so that his American clients don't have to cross the border.

Some operators are lowering their rates to lure visitors to Mexico.

Littleton and her husband, Gary, got a weeklong vacation package to Acapulco that included airfare, luxury hotel, meals and other extras for $1,200 each.

They were accompanied by their friends Royce and Nancy Duncan. It was Royce, an Atlanta-area accountant, who found the deal on the Internet and persuaded the Littletons to go along.

Nancy, a librarian, said she was pleased with the bargain price on the nonrefundable package. That is, until she went online and started reading the crime coverage.

"I was not happy," she said, relaxing in the shade in Acapulco. "But it was too late to change our minds."

Her husband, who ended the trip with a digestive ailment, vowed that they wouldn't return anytime soon.

"There are just too many nice places to visit without the seemingly inherent risks of Mexico," he said by e-mail.

Fear of violence isn't the only factor depressing Mexico's tourist trade. The resorts of Cancun and the Riviera Maya, which are the country's top international tourist draw, spent the first part of 2006 rebuilding from Hurricane Wilma. That reduced the number of cruise passengers going ashore this year. Tens of thousands of air travelers skipped Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula for other warm-weather destinations.

"The only thing missing is the tourists," said Juan Carrillo Padilla, president of Cancun's Chamber of Commerce, who said that virtually all of the city's 27,000 hotel rooms were back in service.

Getting them filled is crucial for Mexico because the region accounted for nearly 40% of the $11.8 billion that foreign visitors spent here in 2005. Domestic and international tourism pumps $60 billion into the Mexican economy and employs 1.8 million people, according to government estimates.

It can take a few years for a destination to regain favor with travelers once it has fallen off their radar, some travel agents said. Chris DeRose, president of Villa Park-based First Travel of California, recently traveled to Cancun to gauge the recovery. She said the hotels she visited had been beautifully restored and that the stretches of beach she saw had borne no remnants of the powerful storm that devoured Cancun's sugary sand in October 2005.

Still, she said, Mexico is proving to be a tougher sell than in the past, in part because other Caribbean destinations are cheaper, but also because of resentment over illegal immigration.

Her clients, she said, "are just getting irritated with it all and have told me, 'I don't feel like going to Mexico.' "

Foreign no-shows aren't the only concern. Mexico's domestic travelers have stayed at home in greater numbers in 2006. Some hoteliers blamed a poor summer season on June's World Cup soccer tournament, which kept fanatics glued to televisions. Then came July's presidential elections. The contest pitted leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador against conservative Felipe Calderon in a bitter slugfest whose outcome was uncertain for weeks until an election tribunal upheld a slim victory for Calderon.

Supporters of Lopez Obrador seized Mexico City's historic center and blocked a main thoroughfare of the capital for six weeks to protest alleged vote fraud. Their encampment along stately Paseo de la Reforma, a major tourist draw, was largely peaceful, but business travelers and sightseers stayed away in droves. The protest cost local businesses nearly $750 million, according to some estimates.

Political tension has also scared tourists away from Oaxaca, the charming colonial capital of the state of Oaxaca. A May teachers strike and sit-in has mushroomed into a larger protest movement by groups calling for the resignation of Gov. Ulises Ruiz after a heavy-handed police crackdown on strikers in June. The lengthy standoff and spiraling violence have all but snuffed out Oaxaca's visitor trade, the lifeblood of its economy.

"In the center of the city it's practically empty," said Eduardo Garcia Moreno, president of Oaxaca's Chamber of Commerce, who said scores of businesses had closed and thousands of workers had lost their jobs. "This is much, much worse than Hurricane Wilma in Cancun."

In contrast, Acapulco on Mexico's Pacific coast looked vibrant on a recent holiday weekend, with many hotels full and the beaches packed with merrymakers.

Still, tourism officials in Acapulco say the city is suffering from a wet summer, violence-filled headlines and under-investment by the Mexican government. Federal statistics show a drop in the number of visitors in the first nine months of 2006 compared with the same period in 2005. Figures compiled by Acapulco's own local tourist board show a slight gain to just over 4.5 million people.

Whatever the actual number, some of the city's hoteliers say 2006 has been nothing to write home about.

"It has been a tough year," said Christopher Payne, general director of the Hotel Emporio Acapulco, a 419-room luxury hotel. He said this year's occupancy levels wouldn't match those of 2005.

Nestled on Acapulco Bay where the Sierra Madre mountains meet the sea, Acapulco boasts stunning topography and tropical weather year-round. Hollywood jet-setters such as John Wayne and Cary Grant made it their playground in the 1950s and 60s. Elvis Presley immortalized it in the 1963 film "Fun in Acapulco" when he sang: "This is no time for siesta, this is time for fun!"

But the venerable resort has lost much of its star power and is now mainly a weekend getaway for residents of Mexico City, about 200 miles away. Like an aging B-list player, it could stand some nips and tucks.

The toll road from Mexico City is one the most poorly maintained and the most expensive in Mexico, costing nearly $100 round trip — a small fortune here. Acapulco's main drag is potholed and choked with traffic. Raw sewage is making its way into the bay. Many of the hotels need updating.

The economic backbone of Guerrero, one of Mexico's poorest states, needs help modernizing its infrastructure, local authorities said. But they said they felt abandoned by federal officials who have channeled most tourism development resources into government-sponsored destinations such as Cancun, Ixtapa and Los Cabos.

"It isn't equitable," said Jesus Radilla Calderon, general manager of the Acapulco Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Tourism veterans say they feel victimized by publicity about rising drug violence. A number of severed heads have surfaced in Acapulco this year, most notably those of two policemen that were found with a note reading: "So that you learn to respect."

No tourists have been hurt in the bloodshed, which many here believe is entirely narcotics-related. But the hoteliers and restaurant owners say their establishments are paying the price.

"Every time [a beheading] makes the front page, we get cancellations the next day," said Marco Martinez, director of leisure sales at the Fairmont Acapulco Princess and Fairmont Pierre Marques hotels.

Tourism officials have implored law-enforcement authorities to get the violence under control to help them protect one of Mexico's most important industries.

In the meantime, entrepreneurs are doing what they can to survive. Suneson said Nuevo Laredo recently did the tourism equivalent of making lemonade out of lemons by capitalizing on its dangerous image. It hosted a gathering of the only big group it has been able to attract in recent years — a rally of hundreds of leather-clad motorcyclists.

Said Suneson: "They like a challenge."

marla.dickerson@latimes.com

*

Times staff writer Cecilia Sanchez contributed to this report.

--

*

(INFOBOX BELOW)

Rough sailing

--

Hurricanes, political unrest and drug wars have battered Mexico's tourism industry, one of the country's main sources of income.

--

Number of international visitors to Mexico*

(In Millions)

--

Total

2005: 76.7 | 2006: 72.8

--

Daytrippers

2005: 55.2 | 2006: 52.5

--

Other

2005: 8.7 | 2006: 8.2

--

Arriving by air

2005: 7.9 | 2006: 7.6

--

Cruising passengers

2005: 4.9 | 2006: 4.4

--

Source: Mexico's Secretary of Tourism

*January through September

Copyright 2006 Los Angeles Times | Privacy Policy | Terms of Service
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"the action adventure fantasy feature film 'Warrior' ... about the son of a divine force ... is a story of a young man's quest to find his true identity set against the twin backdrops of Native American folklore and the treacherous Mexican drug trade and a portrayal of the classic confrontation between "good and evil" ... filmed in the exotic jungles of Costa Azul and the urban grit of Puerto Vallarta in the State of Jalisco, Mexico .. with action, adventure, romance, comedy, a multi-ethnic cast, a major studio movie music score and spectacular cinematography..."

The subterranean smuggling routes breed chaos along U.S.-Mexico border.

2006-11-19T12:35:00.000-08:00

Warrior Stills
Originally uploaded by brucesingman.

Toll mounts in Mexico's drug war

2006-11-14T12:35:00.000-08:00

Warrior Stills
Originally uploaded by brucesingman.

New fear rises in Tijuana

2006-10-25T10:44:00.000-07:00

action adventure fantasy feature film Warrior
Originally uploaded by brucesingman.

"Competing Mexican drug cartels are destroying each other ... and that's where 'Warrior' begins ...."

http://imdb.com/title/tt0320751
http://www.warriorthefilm.blogspot.com

"the action adventure fantasy feature film "Warrior" ... about the son of a divine force ... is a story of a young man's quest to find his true identity set against the twin backdrops of Native American folklore and the treacherous Mexican drug trade and a portrayal of the classic confrontation between "good and evil" ... filmed in the exotic jungles of Costa Azul and the urban grit of Puerto Vallarta in the State of Jalisco, Mexico .. with action, adventure, romance, comedy, a multi-ethnic cast, a major studio movie music score and spectacular cinematography..."

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-kidnap25oct25,0,4587470.story?coll=la-home-headlines
COLUMN ONE
New fear rises in Tijuana
By Richard Marosi
Times Staff Writer

October 25, 2006

ONE sunny morning last year, a middle-aged businessman was turning off the Via Rapida toward work when a convoy of black vehicles slipped behind his car. They caught up with him in his office parking lot and a dozen heavily armed men spilled out, threw him in a van and sped off into the gritty sprawl.

Within minutes, his family received the ransom demand — $1 million.

A week later, hands trembling, the businessman's brother said the family still didn't have the money.

"It looks like you don't love your own flesh and blood," sneered the kidnapper he spoke to over a cellphone walkie-talkie.

Ankles bound, hands cuffed so that his palms were clasped as if in prayer, the businessman was by now stuck on a smelly sofa in a safe house, whispering repetitions of Our Fathers and Hail Marys while his captors smoked marijuana and giggled at telenovelas.

"How can you say I don't love him. Of course we love him," the businessman's brother told the kidnapper, according to a tape recording he made of the conversation.

"You're playing games," the voice said. "If you don't hurry, I'm going to kill him and throw his body on your doorstep."

The businessman's abduction marked another episode in a two-year crime wave that has turned this border city into one of the kidnapping capitals of the world.

The targets, typically middle- and upper-class businessmen or their sons, often are snatched in broad daylight by organized crime rings masquerading as commando-style federal police squads. It happens outside their homes and on busy streets. One man was grabbed as he left a circus with his kids.

American tourists are rarely targets, so the kidnappings don't get much attention across the border. They usually aren't reported to police, many of whom are working with the criminal rings, according to federal and state authorities. Estimates of the number of kidnappings this year in the Tijuana area range from 77 to 120, according to business groups, civic leaders and private security firms. The year before, they say, there were 60.

Tijuana may now have the most kidnappings in the world outside of the Middle East, said Thomas Clayton, chairman of Clayton Consultants Inc., a global private security firm. "Tijuana is going crazy," Clayton said.

About two years ago, the tide of crime reached into the fashionable Zona Rio district and the nearby hillside streets lined with mini-mansions. Black-clad assailants toting AK-47s began snatching people from restaurants and bars. In one notorious case, assailants dragged a screaming man off the front staircase of the ritzy Club Campestre.

Now rarely a day passes without a brazen kidnapping or murder making headlines. On major thoroughfares, billboards show photos of kidnap victims and plead for help finding them. In a recent newspaper survey, nearly one-third of respondents said a friend or relative had been kidnapped. Tijuana Mayor Jorge Hank Rhon recently said 10 friends of his have been kidnapped. Residents keep track of the toll the way like Southern Californians watch wildfires burn toward their homes.

The deteriorating situation has prompted Tijuana Bishop Rafael Romo Muñoz and civic leaders to call for the Mexican military to patrol the streets.

Meanwhile, hundreds of families, some owners of landmark businesses and institutions, have fled across the border to live in upscale neighborhoods in San Diego County. Many of the exiles, who include some threatened policemen, return to Tijuana only under armed escort. Every day, their bodyguards wait for them at the border.

"Fear industries" commonplace in other crime-ridden cities across Latin America now thrive in Tijuana. Bodyguards shadow children going to elementary schools. Insurance companies specializing in kidnapping policies hire firms such as Clayton's to conduct ransom negotiations. A paramilitary group headed by a former Mexican general has offered, for a price, to wage war on organized crime on behalf of the families.

Other Mexican cities have suffered waves of kidnappings — most notably Mexico City in the 1990s. But Tijuana's kidnapping spree is uniquely brutal because violent drug cartel members are carrying out the crimes, experts say. Victims in Tijuana are more likely to be killed, even if their ransoms are paid.

"It's a very dangerous situation," said David Shirk, director of the Trans-Border Institute at the University of San Diego. "What's disturbing about what's happening in Tijuana is how organized and how precise these operations are. These are pros who have well-funded plans and organizations — essentially criminal syndicates that are very, very sophisticated."

This summer, the kidnapping rate reached one per day, and some business and civic leaders, typically loath to perpetuate Tijuana's violent reputation, began encouraging people to leave.

"We're facing the greatest challenge in the history of Baja California," said Alberto Capella Ibarra, president of Tijuana's citizens' advisory council on public safety. "It's a grave situation, very complicated because of the level of impunity and the displays of strength from the gangs that are rarely seen in other parts of the country."

THE businessman agreed to tell his story if his name and the names of his relatives were withheld. He asked that details about the family business and family members' homes also be left out. Such precautions are common. Some families have suffered multiple kidnappings. Even members of police anti-kidnapping squads cloak their identities behind ski masks.

The businessman's large family, including brothers and sisters, moved to Tijuana in the 1990s to expand their thriving business. Riding the crest of Tijuana's economic boom, the family prospered, purchasing large homes, enrolling their children in private schools and taking regular trips across the border to shop and cheer on the San Diego Padres and Chargers.

Before the businessman's kidnapping, the family had taken precautions — hiring security guards, installing video surveillance cameras and lining their office building's walls and doors with steel. The video cameras caught the scene when the masked kidnappers pounced on the businessman, but the gang's overwhelming force and quick getaway ensured that no one would intercede.

Led by a municipal police car, the convoy veered into traffic — honking and flashing strobe lights to disperse cars. Arriving minutes later at the safe house, the men at first threw the businessman in a closet.

They asked him if he had a global positioning chip implanted in his body that would allow him to be tracked, a precaution said to be taken by some Mexican law enforcement authorities. The businessman said no. Then one kidnapper used the businessman's cellphone to contact his brother.

"We're the family of Tijuana," said the man, referring to the Arellano Felix organized crime cartel. "We have your brother."

The cartel once controlled much of the cocaine trafficking into the U.S. but has fallen on hard times, with many of its bosses arrested or killed. Starved of profits, it has turned to kidnapping, Mexican authorities say.

About five cells operate in Tijuana, each containing 20 to 30 members, according to a Mexican law enforcement source. They operate safe houses scattered throughout the city, where they often hold several victims at a time under brutal conditions.

In a police raid of a safe house in March, officers rescued four men, including an attorney and a baker, shackled and locked inside a metal cage.

THE businessman shared a windowless room with seven victims who came and went over his two months of imprisonment. The safe house where his captors had moved him after two days in the closet was a former auto repair shop hidden in plain sight: Near a Mickey Mouse billboard across from a 24-screen movie theater.

But rescue was unlikely. Police cars passed regularly, honking greetings to the kidnappers. Some Baja California politicians were downplaying the problem, saying kidnap victims were usually shady people who owed money to the drug cartels.

The businessman's family turned to a negotiator, a young man who impressed them with his shrewd yet compassionate manner.

Professionals bill up to $2,500 per day, but this negotiator didn't charge for telling them the brutal reality of ransom negotiations: The full amount shouldn't be paid, he told the family. The kidnappers, sensing deep pockets, would only want more.

The businessman's life was to be bluffed about and bartered over like an everyday commodity. His brother, in a radio call, calmly told the kidnappers that the family wasn't wealthy, that $1 million was too much.

He and his siblings held their breath waiting for the reply.

"Get as much as you can," said the voice over the radio. "If you don't do it, we're going after you."

The next few weeks unfolded in a blur of threats and pleas for more time as the family raised money. Family members gathered every day, waiting with a mix of dread and anticipation for the radio calls. Sometimes Tijuana's coroner's office called, saying another murder victim had arrived and asking, did the family want to view the body?

The businessman's birthday and his son's first Communion sailed by without celebrations. When his young children asked, "Where's Papi?," relatives said he had gone fishing.

In the safe house, the businessman spent Mother's Day crying with a fellow captive he had befriended, a small-time contractor who said he had been mistaken for a wealthy builder and couldn't afford a ransom.

The kidnappers, meanwhile, sometimes made calls to the businessman's family while they were drunk, slurring their threats. Once they called from a party, the sounds of a brass band and revelry filling the dead air in the family's home.

Two weeks into the negotiations, $75,000 was delivered to the kidnappers through an intermediary, a family friend with contacts in the criminal underworld. The payment was a sort of good-faith deposit — to keep the businessman alive while negotiations continued.

Fourteen days later, the family put an additional $55,000 in a brown paper bag for the intermediary to pass along. The businessman's brother hoped the end was near and awaited word on where the businessman could be picked up. But when the intermediary returned he brought bad news: The kidnappers wanted more money.

"My heart sank," the brother said.

DESPERATE, the family drove the streets near the family business looking for the telltale signs of a safe house: concertina wire wound over railings, blankets covering windows, dark SUVs tucked into tiny garages.

They confided in Baja California's anti-kidnapping squad, a highly regarded state unit separate from the corruption-ridden Tijuana municipal police. Authorities debated whether they should track the money after the drop-off. Such operations have led to spectacular rescues but also tragedies.

A week after the squad saved the four men in the cage, a safe house raid turned up another cage. Inside this one, investigators found the bodies of two young brothers who had been shot execution-style.

Investigators decided an attempt to rescue the businessman would be too risky.

The businessman's depression, meanwhile, was deepening. The contractor had been freed after paying a $5,000 ransom. Now, he'd been alone for 30 days. Every day he could hear his captors — a rotating crew of two to three young men — watching television news blaring the grisly details of the latest kidnapping or murder.

Except for once, when a drug-addicted captor hit him across the chest with a pipe, he was not hurt. The kidnappers promised to keep him alive and showed signs of compassion. They fed him eggs and beans regularly. He was given a small television set. One young kidnapper watered the roses daily at a little shrine to the Virgin Mary in the parking lot.

Then one day the door opened and four men and a young woman stumbled inside. The woman and two others, he gathered, were methamphetamine addicts who had stolen money from the criminal ring.

A few hours later the captors took the addicts upstairs and raised the volume on the television. He could hear the sounds of a scuffle, yells, and bodies hitting the floor. The woman yelled, "No, no," before her screams gave way to a choking sound.

The next day, the businessman said, he heard on the television news that three bodies — a young woman and two men — had been found on a nearby hillside. It's not clear if they were the same bodies from the safe house. One kidnapper later told police that he had tossed the three in acid-filled barrels, turning them into "pozole" — a red Mexican soup with chunks of meat.

The businessman thought he was next. He and the two remaining captives — drug dealers who owed money to the cartels — took turns reading the Bibles the gang had given them.

Meanwhile, the family made two more deliveries, of $50,000 and $100,000. One morning, a captor gave the businessman a razor and told him to shower and shave. He was going home.

On the ride to the drop-off point, the driver told the blindfolded businessman that the ransom had bought him more than his freedom.

He now was permitted to move drugs through the area, and if anyone hassled him, the cartel would have the person kidnapped. "It's as if they wanted me to be part of their gang," the businessman said. "As if they were recruiting."

Arriving at his brother's house, he was enveloped in hugs and kisses. His salt-and-pepper hair had grown beyond his collar, he had lost 22 pounds and he spread the couch smell to his siblings, who clung to him.

"We were stinky but happy," said one brother.

A FEW months later, the entire extended family — more than a dozen people — moved to a San Diego suburb.

In Tijuana, one of the businessman's brothers owned a sprawling, 5,000-square-foot home in a gated development. It is called Puerta de Hierro, door of iron, a sadly ironic name for a place that affords no peace of mind, he said.

Three other neighbors, he said, have suffered kidnappings.

The neighborhood, like many other upscale areas in Tijuana, is now dotted with "for sale" signs as families depart — tired, he said, of feeling like "walking targets."

A final irony occurred, this brother said, when he rented out a modest home he owned to a former professional soccer player who was later arrested on suspicion of being a kidnapper. "There were dirty mattresses strewn on the floor and blankets covering the windows," the brother said. "I think my own home was being used as a safe house."

The brother who lived in Puerta de Hierro returns to Tijuana only about once a month now to check in on his business. Other exiles must go daily. Some drive junky cars to avoid attention. For the businessman, San Diego wasn't far enough away. One month after his abduction, he received a message: the kidnappers wanted $30,000 more.

Most families end up paying $200,000 to $300,000, but some ransoms have gone as high as $3 million, according to a Mexican law enforcement source.

Knowing that gangs have snatched people in San Diego County — there have been at least two cases in the past year — he decided to move to another state in Mexico.

He doesn't travel much anymore. When he does, he can't tell his young children that he's going fishing. "They cry," he said. "They say, 'Don't go. You're going to get lost, like the last time.' "

*

(INFOBOX BELOW)

77 to 120

Estimated number of kidnappings in Tijuana so far this year

60

Number of kidnappings reported in Tijuana in 2005

$2,500

Top daily fee charged by "kidnap negotiators"

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PARTNERS:

"the action adventure fantasy feature film 'Warrior' ... about the son of a divine force ... is a story of a young man's quest to find his true identity set against the twin backdrops of Native American folklore and the treacherous Mexican drug trade and a portrayal of the classic confrontation between "good and evil" ... filmed in the exotic jungles of Costa Azul and the urban grit of Puerto Vallarta in the State of Jalisco, Mexico .. with action, adventure, romance, comedy, a multi-ethnic cast, a major studio movie music score and spectacular cinematography..."

Warrior ... with its multi-ethnic cast ... appeals to the fervent Latino American movie going audience

2006-10-15T14:54:00.000-07:00

Warrior Poster
Originally uploaded by brucesingman.

"Competing Mexican drug cartels are destroying each other ... and that's where 'Warrior' begins ...."

http://imdb.com/title/tt0320751
http://www.warriorthefilm.blogspot.com

"the action adventure fantasy feature film "Warrior" ... about the son of a divine force ... is a story of a young man's quest to find his true identity set against the twin backdrops of Native American folklore and the treacherous Mexican drug trade and a portrayal of the classic confrontation between "good and evil" ... filmed in the exotic jungles of Costa Azul and the urban grit of Puerto Vallarta in the State of Jalisco, Mexico .. with action, adventure, romance, comedy, a multi-ethnic cast, a major studio movie music score and spectacular cinematography..."

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-latino15oct15,1,7403248.story?coll=la-headlines-business
Filling Theater Seats but Not Movie Jobs
As Hollywood goes after the Latino American market, already known for its fervent filmgoers, the effort is hurt by a lack of executives and creative professionals from the ethnic group.
By Lorenza Muñoz
Times Staff Writer

October 15, 2006

At Walt Disney Co., Chief Executive Robert Iger has made the mandate clear: Reaching the expanding Latino audience is a top priority for the Burbank-based entertainment giant.

The company's theme park, cable and broadcast groups each have made inroads, creating Spanish-language sports channels through ESPN, TV shows starring Latinos for the ABC network and bicultural "Cinderella"-themed contests for Latina teens. But the company's movie studio has come up empty after a yearlong attempt to make films based on the Latino American experience.

It is a theme playing out across Hollywood these days. Although major studios are eager to court Latinos — a group that sees more English-language movies than any other ethnic or racial group — they have been hard-pressed to find Latino executives who can spearhead their efforts.

An equally rare commodity: screenwriters, directors and producers who are successful at pitching movies about Latinos.

For more than three years, Universal Pictures has been searching for someone to run a Latino film label. Warner Bros. is in a hunt for a seasoned bicultural executive to launch the studio's own unit, Hispanic Independent Pictures. Movie executives say they are bumping up against a reality of their own making.

"When you are looking around to hire an experienced Hispanic executive, there are very few people there," said Jason Reed, executive vice president of production at Disney's Buena Vista Motion Picture Group. "We are not starting minorities in the mailroom or as assistants so they can grow into that next generation of executives and agents. It's a question of access."

Reed said many in Hollywood view diversity as a philanthropic effort instead of a strategic necessity. It's a wrongheaded approach if the studios want to broaden their reach to an ever-growing audience with an avid appetite for entertainment, he said.

Latinos watched an average of 9.8 movies in 2005, compared with 7.8 for African Americans and 7 for whites, according to the Motion Picture Assn. of America. In the 2000 census, Latinos made up 12.6% of the U.S. population.

Yet there are no Latino managing partners or board members among the industry's top five talent agencies. Latinos are also largely missing from major studios' creative executive ranks, where scripts are read and movies are hatched.

Out of 100 top-grossing movies last year, only two films were directed by an American-born Latino: Robert Rodriguez's "The Adventures of Shark Boy and Lava Girl" and "Sin City," which he co-directed, according to Exhibitor Relations Co., a box office tracking firm.

A study by the Writers Guild of America, West, found that all minority groups combined accounted for just 6% of film writers in 2004, a statistic that has been virtually unchanged since 1998.

Vance Van Petten, executive director of the Producers Guild of America, said he had little luck enlisting studio executives to participate in the guild's mentoring program, which teaches young minorities skills such as pitching a project and shepherding a film or television series through production.

Van Petten said that in the two years since the founding of the diversity workshop, only two studios had sent representatives: 20th Century Fox and Disney.

"When I reach out to the networks and the studios, I can get very few, if any, creative executives to come," he said. "All we are asking for is one evening and they won't even come."

Universal declined to comment for this article. Warner Bros. said it was working on its approach to the Latino market.

"We understand the English-speaking Hispanic market is very important and are currently in the process of figuring out the best way for our company to enter into it," said Richard Fox, executive vice president of Warner Bros. Entertainment's international division, who is spearheading the studio's efforts.

Hollywood is not alone in underrepresenting Latinos in the executive ranks. Of the chief executives running Fortune 500 companies, only three are Latinos, according to Hispanic Business magazine. Latinos accounted for only 4.5% of the nation's newsrooms in 2006, according to a survey by the American Society of Newspaper Editors. At the Los Angeles Times, that number was 6.4%, the survey said.

But Hollywood is lagging behind most other major industries in its hiring practices, according to Anna Park, head attorney for the L.A. office of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Park is the lead attorney on the commission's first discrimination lawsuit filed against a major studio. The case, brought against Universal on behalf of an assistant director who says he was fired because he is black, is set to go to trial by the end of this year.

"Any organization that wants to develop its leadership has to develop a plan," she said. "You need to have a feeder pool to bring up people through the ranks. In Hollywood, hiring and promotions are based on who you know — not even what your education level is or what you bring to the table. It's an industry that is so unchecked, it's just maddening."

The dearth of American-born Latinos in Hollywood is all the more perplexing considering a recent surge of critically acclaimed films by directors and writers from Latin America.

Directors such as Alfonso Cuarón ("Children of Men") and Alejandro González Iñárritu ("Babel") and writers such as Guillermo Arriaga ("Babel") have segued seamlessly into Hollywood.

But most of these filmmakers come from privileged backgrounds, giving them opportunities not available to many Latino Americans — especially immigrants and the children of immigrants. There isn't yet a strong industry network of Latinos that could help in their hiring and promotion.

"We are a good 10 to 15 years behind African Americans in the industry," said Deborah Franco, a Latino screenwriter who has unsuccessfully pitched projects to Fox Searchlight, Paramount Pictures Corp. and ABC.

Franco said there was a need to break stereotypes about what constituted a "Latino story."

"For any new writer it's always an uphill battle," said Franco, a former recording artist whose single, "Open My Heart," hit the top-20 chart in 2000. "But layered on top of that is that a lot of development executives and producers are used to seeing Latinos depicted in a segregated fashion. Our stories should be included in the snapshot of American society. "

Access is hard to come by in an industry that in part is based on family connections or relationships established at the country's top universities.

David Ortiz is at best one of a handful of Latino creative executives at the major studios. A junior creative executive at Universal, Ortiz's entry into Hollywood was through Paul Weitz, director of "American Pie."

Weitz's father, fashion magnate John Weitz, sponsored Ortiz's private education in New York. Ortiz's father was John Weitz's chauffeur.

After graduating from college, Ortiz worked briefly at an investment bank and an advertising agency, but he grew bored. On a visit to Los Angeles, he called Paul Weitz, who helped Ortiz secure a job in 1999 in the mailroom at William Morris Agency.

Ortiz quickly jumped to Universal as an assistant in the production division, then worked briefly as an executive trainee at Warner Bros. Less than two years later, he was lured back to Universal by his former boss to work as a junior creative executive helping to shepherd films through production as well as identifying projects for acquisition.

Ortiz said he thought many Latinos could not afford to take low-paying jobs in agencies or as assistants right out of college. In addition, there are few role models to follow into Hollywood.

"There really isn't that mentorship," Ortiz said. "I have been really fortunate with that."

But even Latinos who have made their way into mainstream Hollywood often have a hard time getting their stories to the big screen.

David Valdes, a veteran producer who received an Oscar nomination in 2000 for "The Green Mile," said that every time he proposed a Latino project to the studios he was met with polite silence.

Valdes has pitched a rags-to-riches story about 1950s Mexican American tennis great Pancho Gonzales to several studios, but, so far, has been unable to get financing for a screenplay.

"I am pitching the story about an individual who has achieved the American dream and never got the recognition he deserved," said Valdes. "I can't get any real interest."

Too often, Latino stories are relegated to an "urban" niche that deals with tales of drug dealing and gang banging, Valdes said Valdes, who just finished production of "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford" starring Brad Pitt.

Part of the problem is figuring out which part of the Latino community to serve and how to reach it. Latino is a broad term that includes many nationalities.

"It's an incredibly rich opportunity, but also a major challenge, since the American Latino audience is itself extremely diverse with multiple niches within its own niche," said United Talent Agency's Stuart Manashil, who represents such directors as Argentine Alejandro Agresti ("The Lake House") and Ecuadorian Sebastián Cordero ("Cronicas"), both of whom are now making studio-financed films.

Disney's theme park division has been mining the Latino market for years. From May 2005 through last month, the number of Latinos visiting Disneyland grew faster than any other demographic group, a company spokeswoman said.

Spanish is the most common foreign language spoken by employees at the Disneyland Resort. There are three Mexican restaurants, including one where visitors can make fresh tortillas. Package deals for the resort are aggressively marketed to Latinos in Spanish and English.

"When immigrant families come to the states, they come with an aspirational notion of what Disney is about: It's about attaining a piece of Americana," said Gilbert Dávila, Disney's vice president of multicultural marketing. "And that creates a wonderful halo effect for all things Disney."

Disney's sports channel, ESPN, has launched ESPN Deportes, a 24-hour cable sports channel, radio network, monthly sports magazine and website — all in Spanish.

Last fall, the studio's home entertainment division promoted the release of the 1950 classic "Cinderella," with a "Community Cinderellas Quinceañera" contest in nine U.S. cities for young Latinas. The winners received "Cinderella" DVDs, trips to Los Angeles for a family of four, and invitations to a "Cinderella" screening followed by a Quinceañera ball at Disney's El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood.

Disney-owned ABC has created programs such as "The George Lopez Show" and cast Latino actors in popular shows such as "Lost" and "Desperate Housewives." "Ugly Betty," an English-language version of a Colombian soap opera, stars America Ferrera of the film "Real Women Have Curves" and, according to Nielsen Media Research, is the most-watched new show on television this season.

But Disney's movie division is still months away from greenlighting its first Latino picture. Buena Vista's Reed said there appeared to be more success in diversifying the programming and casting in television than in movies, in part because of the shorter lead times necessary to bring projects onto the small screen.

Disney has several Latino projects that are close to getting greenlights, including a Salma Hayek film about clashing cultures in a marriage between a Latina and a Connecticut blue blood; an Eva Longoria project titled "Deep in the Heart of Texas," and a live-action movie, "South of the Border," featuring a talking Chihuahua that leaves its home in Beverly Hills and heads for Mexico.

The films, which are to be released to a mainstream audience with budgets of $15 million to $40 million each, were all initiated under the studio's former head of production, Nina Jacobson, who was fired in the summer. But Reed said Disney was "fully committed" to maintaining Jacobson's support for Latino projects.

"We fully recognize the importance of reaching out to that audience," he said. "We are putting energy into changing the system."

*

lorenza.munoz@latimes.com

*

Begin text of infobox

Fertile ground

Hollywood is hoping to reach more Latinos, who already watch more movies per year than any other ethnic or racial group and whose younger generations are predominantly English speakers.

Percentage of Latino teens in a survey on what language they use when they are with friends

English only 49%

Both, but mostly English 28%

Both equally 16%

Both, but mostly Spanish 6%

Spanish only 1%

*

Sources: Motion Picture Assn. of America, Creative Artists Agency

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"the action adventure fantasy feature film 'Warrior' ... about the son of a divine force ... is a story of a young man's quest to find his true identity set against the twin backdrops of Native American folklore and the treacherous Mexican drug trade and a portrayal of the classic confrontation between "good and evil" ... filmed in the exotic jungles of Costa Azul and the urban grit of Puerto Vallarta in the State of Jalisco, Mexico .. with action, adventure, romance, comedy, a multi-ethnic cast, a major studio movie music score and spectacular cinematography..."

Arellano-Felix Kingpin Sent to U.S. in Drug Case

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Reputed Mexican Drug Kingpin Arrives in U.S.

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http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-drugwar13sep13,1,2650499.story?coll=la-headlines-world

Guatemalans Arrested in Case of 5 Severed Heads
By Héctor Tobar
Times Staff Writer

September 13, 2006

MEXICO CITY — Officials said Tuesday that they have arrested three Guatemalan nationals who were allegedly working as hit men for a drug cartel engaged in a gruesome turf war in the southern Mexican state of Michoacan.

Mexican officials said they were investigating whether the three arrested Monday were former members of the Guatemalan army's special forces unit, the Kaibiles.

They are suspected of involvement in an armed raid last week on a dance club in the city of Uruapan, in which the attackers tossed the severed heads of five suspected drug dealers onto a dance floor.

Earlier this year, Mexico's top organized crime investigator, Jose Luis Santiago Vasconcelos, said he believed there were as many as 100 Kaibiles working for Mexico's drug cartels.

A battle between cartels over the production and distribution of drugs such as cocaine and methamphetamine has killed 345 people this year in Michoacan, more than in any other state, according to a tally by the newspaper Reforma.

Nationwide, an estimated 1,300 to 1,400 people have been killed in the cartel wars this year, according to Reforma and another newspaper, El Universal. Federal officials do not keep such statistics.

Grenade attacks, ambushes with assault weapons and the assassination of police officials have become commonplace in the border city of Nuevo Laredo, the Pacific Coast resort of Acapulco and elsewhere.

The presence of former Guatemalan soldiers among the drug cartels has been rumored here for months.

The three Guatemalans were part of a group of five men detained by Mexican army troops in the town of Aguililla, in the mountains about 240 miles southwest of Mexico City.

Officials said the five men detained in Michoacan were traveling with an arsenal that included a dozen assault rifles, thousands of bullets, nine Kevlar helmets similar to those issued to the American military, replica police uniforms and three fragmentation grenades.

An arms race between competing cartels has led many of the criminal organizations to recruit former Mexican soldiers, known as the Zetas, who are valued for their military training.

In recent months, decapitated heads have become a signature in the drug war in the southern states of Michoacan and Guerrero — some see in these crimes the hand of the Kaibiles, who are known for their brutal, scorched-earth counterinsurgency campaign in Guatemala in the 1980s and '90s.

The arrested Guatemalans were identified as residents of the Guatemalan provinces of Escuintla and San Marcos.

Officials told Mexican news media that the men were key suspects in a wave of killing that has claimed 12 lives since Sept. 3.

Armed men took over the Sun and Shadow nightclub in Uruapan last week. After ordering all the patrons to the ground, they tossed five severed heads onto the club's dance floor. According to Mexican press reports, the five men were killed in retaliation for the killing Sept. 3 of a pregnant woman linked to a rival drug band. That victim was found decapitated and with a finger missing.

"The family does not kill for money," said a sign left next to the decapitated heads. "It does not kill women, it does not kill innocents. Only those who should die, will die…. This is divine justice."

Six more bodies, with their heads still attached, were found tossed into a common grave two days later in a rural community outside Uruapan.

*
hector.tobar@latimes.com
Carlos Martínez of The Times' Mexico City Bureau contributed to this report.

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http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-felix18aug18,1,4099992.story?coll=la-headlines-california

Reputed Mexican Drug Kingpin Arrives in U.S.

Francisco Javier Arellano Felix, captured at sea earlier this week, is arraigned in federal court. He surrendered without a fight.

By Richard Marosi
Times Staff Writer

August 18, 2006

SAN DIEGO - Authorities knew the alleged Mexican drug kingpin didn't like to give up without a fight. In 1994, when police tried to arrest Francisco Javier Arellano Felix in Tijuana, a federal police commander and four other people died in a shoot-out that led to his escape. So on Tuesday, as a U.S. Coast Guard vessel edged up to a fishing boat off the coast of Baja California, about 30 heavily armed Coast
Guardsmen prepared for a potentially bloody encounter. Instead, the alleged drug cartel leader let them board, and he and 10 others were escorted off the Dock Holiday without incident. On the two-day sail to San Diego, Arellano Felix's son and nephew played video games while crew members kept a close watch on the stunned Arellano Felix.

"He was surprised," said John S. Fernandes, special agent in charge of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration office in San Diego. "They went out fishing, and they ended up being the fish."
Despite Arellano Felix's surrender, authorities weren't taking any chances when he arrived here Thursday morning. Sharpshooters stood by as a police motorcade drove Arellano Felix, 36, from the port to a downtown federal detention facility. At his afternoon arraignment, the gaunt-looking Arellano Felix - still dressed in orange flip-flops - grimly pressed his lips and nodded when his court-appointed attorney entered a not guilty plea to charges of smuggling, murder and conspiracy. U.S. Magistrate Judge Leo S. Papas scheduled a bail hearing for Monday.

According to the indictment, filed in 2003, Arellano Felix is a member of an organization that during its height in the late 1990s was believed to be supplying nearly half the cocaine sold in the U.S. The cartel is blamed for scores of slayings of police officers, journalists and rivals, as well as the accidental
killing of Roman Catholic Cardinal Juan Jesus Posadas Ocampo at the Guadalajara airport in 1993.
U.S. and Mexican authorities, whose joint investigations have at times been marred by mistrust, held a news conference in San Diego, where they emphasized the close cooperation between the countries in the case.

Authorities, citing the ongoing investigation, released few details but said a key break in the three-year manhunt came four months ago when Mexican authorities shared information with DEA agents that
Arellano Felix had bought a fishing boat. Acting on a tip, U.S. authorities sent a Coast Guard vessel to
intercept the boat in international waters off the tip of Baja California. Arellano Felix was apparently on a
deep-sea fishing trip with three children, ages 5 to 11. Among the seven men also aboard was Arturo
Villarreal Heredia, an alleged assassin for the Arellano Felix cartel. Mexico's attorney general, Daniel Cabeza de Vaca, said the men may have been heading for a meeting with other cartel members. He said that drug kingpins at times stage meetings in international waters on U.S.-flagged vessels to avoid Mexican authorities.

The guardsmen on the U.S. Coast Guard vessel had prepared for all possible scenarios, said Rear Adm. Jody Breckenridge, commander of the 11th Coast Guard District. But when they boarded, the men
surrendered without incident. There were no drugs or weapons found, she said. On the way back to
San Diego, the men were not handcuffed. There are no holding cells in the vessel, but the suspects were kept in a "controlled environment," Breckenridge said. The children chatted with crew members and played video games, she said. They have been flown to Mexico City, where a social service
agency will care for them until family members claim custody. When Arellano Felix saw the skyline of San Diego as they entered the harbor, she said the gravity of the situation appeared to "sink in" for him.

Cabeza de Vaca, in an interview in Mexico City, said it appeared that Arellano Felix had had facial plastic surgery to change his appearance. He said the alleged drug kingpin traveled routinely to
San Diego under a false identity, and that the boat excursion started in the U.S. Authorities could only speculate as to why one of Mexico's most wanted men went down without a fight. Some said he
didn't want to endanger the lives of the children. Others said he may have grown tired of running and having a $5-million reward hanging over his head. "Sometimes you're just relieved that it's over," said Dan Simmons, a DEA spokesman in San Diego. "I wonder if he said to himself, 'What's the use?' "

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Times staff writer Hector Tobar in Mexico City contributed to this report.

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