Sylvia Longmire's Blog: Mexico's Drug War, page 3

Blog Address Change Notice!

Greetings! I just wanted to let my readers know that this blog can now be accessed at http://www.mexicosdrugwar.com, as I just purchased the domain. You can still get here through the original TypePad address as well. If you like the material I post, please pass the link on!

"Why Arresting 'El Chapo' Might Be a Bad Thing."

My apologies for posting this later than I would have liked! Here is an excerpt from my latest piece for Small Wars Journal:

"It sounds crazy, but catching the most notorious and wanted drug trafficker in the world might be a bad thing.

"Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzmán Loera’s empire spans almost half of Mexico, employs, bribes, and kills thousands of people, and rakes in billions of dollars every year from the insatiable American demand for illegal drugs. He has been ranked for t...

"Silence on Drug War in Races Speaks Volumes."

Here is an excerpt from my opinion piece for FOX News Latino:

"The United States shares a nearly 2,000-mile long border with a country that has witnessed over 100,000 drug-related murders in the last six years alone. Mexican drug cartels are making tens of billions of dollars every year from the trafficking of illegal drugs
across our southwest border, along with kidnapping, extortion, fuel theft and piracy. American demand for illegal drugs has not wavered, and the U.S. Department...

Questions Surrounding Claims by Alejandrina Guzmán Salazar of Being El Chapo's Daughter

On Monday morning (Oct. 15), I got an email from a DHS friend of mine giving me a heads up that Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzmán Loera's pregnant daughter had been apprehended at the San Ysidro (California) port of entry with false papers. I went on Twitter and posed
the question if anyone had heard anything about it and could confirm through open sources. I went back and forth over the rest of the day and part of today with Tim Johnson from McClatchy, him trying to get CBP and the US...

"Mexican Navy Believes It Killed Ruthless Gang Kingpin."

Here's an excerpt from Randal Archibold's article in the New York Times:

"The Mexican Navy said on Monday night that it believed it had killed a man who it thinks may be a founder and the principal leader of the Zetas, one of the most violent criminal gangs to terrorize the country in years. But adding to the confusion, two Mexican
newspapers reported the next morning that the corpse had suddenly gone missing. The navy said in a statement that in a battle Sunday after...

"Mexico nabs ex-Zetas leader 'El Taliban.'"

Here is an excerpt from Dudley Althaus' article in The Houston Chronicle:

"Mexican marines have captured a renegade leader of the Zetas known as El Taliban in the latest blow by the US-backed commando campaign against the violent gang operating south of the Texas border. , 42, was dragged Wednesday evening from
a safe house in a middle class neighborhood in the city of San Luis Potosi. Though accompanied by two bodyguards, Velázquez apparently was seized...

Is Chicago Becoming America’s Ciudad Juárez?

“At least seven people…have been killed and 24
others wounded in a string of shootings in the US city of Chicago in the past
two days.” This was one very stark headline the morning of August 26, 2012. The
attacks occurred in different parts of the city, with several in the
south and
west parts of the city. Shockingly, the statistics and incident details were
reminiscent of grisly headlines emerging daily from a foreign city 1,500 miles
away—Ciudad Juárez, arguably the deadliest place in the W...

"Mexican Navy says captures top drug boss 'El Coss.'"

Here is an excerpt from this Reuters article:

"The Mexican Navy said on Wednesday it had captured one of Mexico's most wanted drug bosses, the head of the Gulf Cartel, in what would mark a major victory in President Felipe

Calderon's crackdown on organized crime. The Navy said it would give more details about the arrest of the man it believed to be Jorge Costilla, alias 'El Coss,' when it parades him in front of the media early on Thursday. A government securi...

"Suspected Hezbollah Leader Apprehended in Mérida, Mexico."

Here is a Google translated excerpt from Daniel Barquet's story in Milenio:

"An FBI and CIA tip given to the National Migration Institute led to the arrest in Mérida, Yucatan, of Rafiq Mohammed Labboun, the highest ranking member of Hezbollah in the San Francisco Bay Area until he depated the United States in 2002 for Lebanon. The
subject came from London and entered Mexico through the airport in Cancun, Quintana Roo, and then traveled to Mérida, where he was captured und...

Details emerging about Mexican Federal Police Attack on US Embassy Vehicle

This morning around 8:00am local, an armored Toyota SUV belonging to the US Embassy in Mexico City was fired upon by both unidentified gunmen and Mexican federal police officers between the 47km and 50km markers of the Mexico-Cuernavaca Highway. Two US
government employees, Jesse Hoods Garner and Stan Dove Boss, were in the Toyota and received non-life threatening injuries. They were taken to a local hospital in Cuernavaca, then taken to another hospital in Mexico City. Four members of the Me...