Thursday, October 28, 2010

1,200 Mexicand Children Murdered - A NATION OF VIOLENCE POURING OVER OUR BORDERS WITH THAT VIOLENCE!

MEXICANS ARE THE MOST VIOLENT AND RACIST CULTURE IN THE HEMISPHERE.

MEX GANGS HAVE SPREAD FROM LOS ANGELES, ALL OVER CA AND THE NATION!

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1,200 Children Killed by Cartel Violence in Mexico Since 2006
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
By Edwin Mora

Mexico City's Attorney General Miguel Angel Mancera listens to journalists during a press conference in Mexico City, Wednesday, Oct. 27, 2010. Mancera presented four men allegedly responsible for the murdering of five members of a family in the southern area of Mexico's capital. (AP Photo/Alexandre Meneghini)
(CNSNews.com) - The drug war in Mexico has claimed the lives of at least 1,200 minors in that nation, according to a group of non-governmental organizations (NGOs).
The coalition, in a press conference on Monday in Mexico City, said the drug violence has killed 1,200 girls, boys, and teenagers since December 2006.
These young people have become “collateral damage” as a result of the drug war, said the NGO group.
In the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez alone, there have been 138 minors killed since 2006, the NGOs reported.
According to a Sept. 2 report by the Congressional Research Service, “On August 3, 2010, President Calderón announced that more than 28,000 individuals died as a result of drug trafficking related-violence between December 2006 and July 2010.”
During Monday’s press conference, the NGOs asked for the United Nations to intervene in Mexico’s drug war to help prevent the deaths of more children.
They also suggested that organizations that promote children’s rights, such as the United Nations Children's Fund and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, should make a strong presence in Ciudad Juarez.
The coalition acknowledged that drug violence in Mexico has risen in 2010, but it criticized the way Mexican authorities are handling the situation.
They denounced the Mexican authorities’ response to the violence, claiming it has been focused on “criminalizing” adolescents and on classifying them as either narco-traffickers, gang members or prostitutes.
The Mexican civil organizations that brought attention to the number of children who have died as a result of Mexico’s war against drugs include Ririki Intervención Social, Incide Social, Marabunta, Cauce Ciudadano, Serapaz, Frente Plural Ciudadano, and Consejo Ciudadano para el Desarrollo Social.
During the press conference, the NGOs announced that they will create a permanent panel on violence against children and adolescents and establish a self-advocacy help group for victims of the war against criminal enterprises in Mexico.
The NGOs held the press conference after two separate massacres in Mexico over the weekend that left 27 dead, most of them young people. Groups engaged in the illicit drug trade are blamed for the killings.
One of the massacres took place during a birthday party in Ciudad Juarez last Friday, where criminals opened fire on a group of young people ages 16 to 25, killing 14 of them.
The second massacre took place on Sunday. It involved another group of gunmen who killed 13 people, ages 19 to 56, at a drug-rehabilitation center in the Mexican border city of Tijuana, near San Diego, Calif.
The NGO's called on the Mexican government to develop a new security strategy on the basis of respect for human rights and the rule of law. According to Mexican government officials, 90 percent of those killed in that country's war against drugs are gunmen, five percent are police officers and security officials, and less than five percent are civilians.
Of the more than 28,000 people who have died as a result of Mexico’s drug-related violence, about four percent (1,200) are minors, the NGOs revealed. Information for this story was gleaned from various Spanish language news outlets in Mexico.

Information for this story was gleaned from various Spanish-language news outlets in Mexico.

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New FBI Statistics on Crimes Committed by Illegal Aliens
Who is working for these illegals? In the DEM’S war for open borders.... FEINSTEIN, BOXER, PELOSI, REID, HARMAN, ESHOO, WAXMAN, LOFGREN, CHAVEZ, KENNEDY, CLINTON, BACA, FARR, BECERRA, HARMAN, FARR, BECERRA, FONG and BARACK OBAMA on behalf of the EMPLOYERS OF ILLEGALS, AS FRONTED BY THE U.S. CHAMBER OF COMMERCE, AND THE FORTUNE 500 WHICH ARE MAJOR DONORS TO LA RAZA, THE RACIST MEXICAN SUPREMACIST POLITICAL PARTY.

The Violent Crimes Institute in Atlanta is a real place. They did a real study. These are the real results. 'Based on a one-year in-depth study, Deborah Schurman-Kauflin of the Violent Crimes Institute of Atlanta estimates there are about 240,000 illegal immigrant sex offenders in the United States who have had an average of four victims each. She analyzed 1,500 cases from January 1999 through April 2006 that included serial rapes, serial murders, sexual homicides and child molestation committed by illegal immigrants.'

FBI DIRECTOR: GANGS 2006

"The violent MS-13 - or Mara Salvatrucha - street gang is following the migratory routes of illegal aliens across the country, FBI officials say, calling the Salvadoran gang the new American mafia. MS-13, has a significant presence in the Washington area, and other gangs are spreading into small towns and suburbs by following illegal aliens seeking work in places such as Providence, R.I., and the Carolinas, FBI task force director Robert Clifford said.

"The migrant moves and the gang follows," said Mr. Clifford, director of the agency's MS-13 National Gang Task Force."


INS/FBI Statistical Report on Undocumented Immigrants 2006 (First Quarter) INS/FBI Statistical Report on Undocumented Immigrants CRIME STATISTICS

95% of warrants for murder in Los Angeles are for illegal aliens.
83% of warrants for murder in Phoenix are for illegal aliens.
86% of warrants for murder in Albuquerque are for illegal aliens.

75% of those on the most wanted list in Los Angeles, Phoenix and Albuquerque are illegal aliens. 24.9% of all inmates in California detention centers are Mexican nationals here illegally

40.1% of all inmates in Arizona detention centers are Mexican nationals here illegally

48.2% of all inmates in New Mexico detention centers are Mexican nationals here illegally

29% (630,000) convicted illegal alien felons fill our state and federal prisons at a cost of $1.6 billion annually
53% plus of all investigated burglaries reported in California, New Mexico, Nevada, Arizona and Texas are perpetrated by illegal aliens.
50% plus of all gang members in Los Angeles are illegal aliens from south of the border.

71% plus of all apprehended cars stolen in 2005 in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada and California were stolen by Illegal aliens or “transport coyotes".

47% of cited/stopped drivers in California have no license, no insurance and no registration for the vehicle. Of that 47%, 92% are illegal aliens.

63% of cited/stopped drivers in Arizona have no license, no insurance and no registration for the vehicle. Of that 63%, 97% are illegal aliens

66% of cited/stopped drivers in New Mexico have no license, no insurance and no registration for the vehicle. Of that 66% 98% are illegal aliens.
BIRTH STATISTICS 380,000 plus “anchor babies” were born in the U.S. in 2005 to illegal alien parents, making 380,000 babies automatically U.S. citizens.
97.2% of all costs incurred from those births were paid by the American taxpayers. 66% plus of all births in California are to illegal alien Mexicans on Medi-Cal whose births were paid for by taxpayers

what does mexico do about their borders? SING A DIFFERENT TUNE!

AS OBAMA, BOXER, FEINSTEIN, PELOSI and REID CONTINUE TO WORK FOR BACK ROOM BIT BY BIT AMNESTIES…. Mexico is building their own wall to keep THEIR ILLEGALS OUT!!! And the demanding we NOT build a wall and expand Mexican welfare in our own country!
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The treatment of immigrants has become a divisive and embarrassing issue for Mexico. A country that has historically sent millions of its own people to the U.S. and elsewhere in search of work, Mexico has proved itself less than hospitable to Central Americans following the same calling.

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WHILE NARCOMEX, THE MOST CORRUPT, RACIST AND VIOLENT NATION IN THE HEMISPHERE, DEMANDS THEIR BORDERS BE RESPECTED, THEY HAVE CONTEMPT FOR OTHER NATIONS’ SOVEREIGNTY. BUT THEN, NARCOMEX CONSIDERS THE UNITED STATES AS A DUMP OFF WELFARE STATE FOR THEIR POOR, ILLITERATE, CRIMINAL, FREQUENTLY PREGNANT, AND DRUG CARTELS!!!
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Hypocritical Mexico is now building their own wall on border with Guatemala...press ignores
• September 19th, 2010 1:42 pm ET
• By Dave Gibson, Immigration Reform Examiner
The Inter-Press Sevice (IPS) is reporting that the head administrator of the Mexican Superintendency of Tax Administration, Raul Diaz, has confirmed that his government is building a wall in the state of Chiapas, along the Mexican/Guatemalan border.
The official reason is to stop contraband from coming into Mexico, but as Diaz admitted: “It could also prevent the free passage of illegal immigrants.”
According to Mexico's National Commission on Human Rights, 500,000 people from Central America cross into Mexico illegally every year.
Just as Mexican authorities have opposed the construction of a fence by the U.S., along our border with their country, Mexico is now receiving a great deal of criticism from the Guatemalan government.
The executive coordinator of the National Bureau for Migration in Guatemala, Marila de Prince, told a local newspaper: “It is not a correct measure being taken by the Mexican government.”
Erick Maldonado, executive secretary of Guatemala's National Council on Migrants said: “We are watching the Mexican government's initiative with concern because the migrants are in a situation of highest vulnerability, as demonstrated by the massacre in Tamaulipas, where five Guatemalans died.”
Maldonado said the wall “is going to make the migrants' situation worse, because to meet their needs they are always going to find blind points where there are no migration or security controls, which implies greater risks."
Vice-President of Guatemala, Rafael Espada, said: “The walls are not the solution to the problems.”
The Catholic Church has been highly critical of U.S. treatment of illegal aliens, and one priest in Central America used the news of the Mexican wall to take another shot at the American people.
Father Francisco Pellizari, of the Casa del Migrante told IPS: “The dramatic increase in the cost of 'polleros' (human traffickers) and the corruption of the authorities is the result of the walls the United States plans to build and has built along the border. We can transpose the Guatemala case to this situation and the results will be the same.”
Peliizari said border walls “are supposedly intended to halt migration, but that hasn't happened. Instead they have triggered an economic hemorrhage and a shift in the migratory flow to inhospitable routes that lead to thousands of deaths.”
Of course, the U.S. press has completely ignored the story…They excoriate Americans for their desire to simply defend their own borders, but give Mexico a pass for building a wall to keep out illegal aliens.
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“The treatment of immigrants has become a divisive and embarrassing issue for Mexico. A country that has historically sent millions of its own people to the U.S. and elsewhere in search of work, Mexico has proved itself less than hospitable to Central Americans following the same calling.”

latimes.com
FOREIGN EXCHANGE
Mexico town split over Central American drifters
Migrants fall prey to kidnappers and worse while the Mexican government does little to protect them, rights groups say. However, others say the migrants are forming criminal bands and should be deported.
By Tracy Wilkinson
October 15, 2009
Reporting from Tultitlan, Mexico
Gathered below an overpass on Independence Avenue, dressed in the multiple layers typical of homeless travelers, the migrants watched for the next northbound freight train through Tultitlan.

Many of them, mostly young men and boys, prepared to hop aboard, hobo-style, on an ever-more-precarious trip that might get them as far as the United States.

But fewer migrants are achieving that goal. Central Americans who for years have passed through Mexico en route to the U.S. are increasingly cutting their trips short as they run out of cash or become discouraged by fewer opportunities farther away from home.

The lingering presence of the migrants in this town, about an hour's drive outside Mexico City, is tearing the small community apart, with some residents providing migrants with food, clothes and aid and others complaining of their alleged crimes, plus a new local government maneuvering to get rid of them.

The treatment of immigrants has become a divisive and embarrassing issue for Mexico. A country that has historically sent millions of its own people to the U.S. and elsewhere in search of work, Mexico has proved itself less than hospitable to Central Americans following the same calling.

Church and human rights groups say the migrants passing through are falling prey to kidnappers, extortionists and killers while the Mexican government does little to protect them. The national Human Rights Commission says it has recorded, in the last three years, 10,000 kidnappings of migrants, who are most frequently seized by predatory gangs who demand money from the victims' families in their home countries.

In Tultitlan, migrants also complain of being beaten, rousted and robbed, often by police officers.

Jose Juan Hernandez, a state human rights officer, said he is investigating 30 formal complaints from the first half of this year. Hernandez, who regularly visits the migrants in their squalid, temporary encampments, provides water and tips on how not to fall into the hands of kidnappers and thieves.

"Very few want to stay in Mexico," he said, adding that he sometimes sees women or entire families with children as young as 5 trying to make their way north. "They suffer a lot and risk everything. They see the economic situation is bad here and they don't like the way they are treated."

But many migrants stay because they fear that life would be worse in the U.S., where they could be arrested if caught after entering illegally and where job opportunities have withered. Money often is tight and many relatives in Central America or in the U.S. who might have helped are themselves strapped.

Hernandez has seen the number of arriving migrants increase by about 30% in the last year, with a huge uptick in Hondurans after the coup d'etat on June 28 that ousted their president and threw their country into political turmoil.

Among some residents of Tultitlan, there is sympathy. Nearly every day, bread distributor Jose Manzano drives by the knots of men sheltering under the overpass. When he can, he stops and hands out pallets of surplus bread from the trunk of his car.

"I see hunger, I see need, and I see gratitude in their eyes," said Manzano, 55. "If I can help a little, why not?"

Patricia Camarena, an activist who works with the advocacy group Apoyo al Migrante, or Migrant Support, also brings help and basic first aid. She scolded authorities for what she sees as historical inaction.

"I feel angry because how can Mexico ask for immigration reform [of the United States], as well as talk about human rights?" she said as she washed the feet of a young migrant and gave him a pair of fresh socks. "I cannot stay quiet about what's happening."

A new city administration that took office in August, however, feels differently. Mayor Marco Calzada said he wants the federal government to deport the migrants. When they were just passing through, it was a manageable problem, he said, but now large numbers are staying and forming criminal bands.

Officials say the Tultitlan municipality, with a population of more than 432,000, sees hundreds of immigrants arriving each week.

"The numbers are over the top," Calzada said. "They have invaded neighborhoods. They steal, they kidnap, they rape."

City Hall is fielding complaints, the mayor added, but neither he nor his public security director, Jose Luis Medina, could provide statistics. Asked about complaints from migrants about police harassment and robbery, Medina would say only that about 10% of the previous municipal administration's police department was fired for abuse, corruption or other infractions.

Advocacy groups counter that the Central Americans are being made scapegoats for all local crime.

By the overpass, the migrants sit in small groups or around rudimentary campfires. Some beg, some use drugs and some pick up legitimate day labor.

"I don't want to go to the U.S. They arrest you there," said Edil Alberto Perdomo, 24, of Honduras, who gets by on handouts. "We aren't bothering anyone. We only want respect, we don't want problems. I want to remain here but be left in peace."

Douglas Martinez, a 29-year-old Salvadoran with a green bandanna on his head, has stuck around to earn a bit of money working in a junkyard. He seemed to be something of a leader in the group, directing others to stand in line to receive donated water.

Martinez said he's been deported from the U.S. twice but still wants to try to reach Los Angeles to see his wife and children, who live there. "You know the need to see your family," he said.

Like Martinez, Kevin Eduardo, a 13-year-old Honduran, and many others said they were trying to reach the U.S. Whether they will make it is anyone's guess.
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The principal beneficiaries of our current immigration policy are affluent Americans who hire immigrants at substandard wages for low-end work. Harvard economist George Borjas estimates that American workers lose $190 billion annually in depressed wages caused by the constant flooding of the labor market at the low-wage end.
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Mexican drug gangs gain foothold in Guatemalan jungle
Tim Johnson | McClatchy Newspapers
last updated: October 27, 2010 09:50:17 PM
EL REMATE, Guatemala — The Peten jungle, once known for its jaguars and Mayan ruins, has fallen prey to a notorious Mexican drug gang that operates from remote jungle ranches and has begun openly challenging Guatemalan security forces for control of the roads.
The struggle that's under way in this remote region could help determine the fate of Guatemala, a fragile democracy south of Mexico that's already under enormous pressure from narcotics gangs. It's certain to affect Mexico, which is struggling to maintain order against powerful armed gangs on its northern borders.
In a fierce clash that began south of the famous Tikal ruins, the drug gang known as Los Zetas, based in Mexico's northeastern border area and the Yucatan Peninsula, was able to outgun local police by deploying armored vehicles, bigger guns and far more ammunition. Then it fought a large army patrol to a draw, losing vehicles and taking wounded but apparently getting away with a stash of cocaine.
The transformation of the once-pristine jungle into a no man's land is the latest calamity to befall Guatemala, which has had a history of military domination, a 36-year civil war and a genocide conducted by the Guatemalan army against Mayan Indians some three decades ago. Although the CIA helped overthrow a government in 1952, Guatemala's newest drama is getting little high-level attention in Washington.
The recent confrontation between Los Zetas and the authorities began with a shouted warning from a bullhorn and a wrong turn.
Around midday on Oct. 5, when police stopped a convoy of 16 or so big double-cabin pickups and other vehicles a short drive south of the Tikal National Park, an amplified voice from one vehicle barked a warning:
"We are Los Zetas! Let us pass. We don't want problems."
To make their point, several men carrying assault rifles got out of the vehicles and fired hundreds of rounds into the air in a deafening display of firepower.
To describe the police as alarmed is an understatement.
"If you have an M16 rifle, and all I have is a 9 mm pistol, and you have 10 other guys behind you, I won't mess with you," said local police Sub-Inspector Oscar Bertruin, who was at the scene.
The police let the convoy pass, then called for help from the army, according to the accounts of several officers, nearly all of whom declined to give their names for fear of retaliation.
Los Zetas, a mercenary group founded by Mexican former special forces troops who broke off early this year from the Gulf Cartel in northeast Mexico, is at the top of the criminal heap. As the two groups wage a turf war in their home region, the Zetas have continued pushing into the eastern side of Central America, strengthening a cocaine pipeline from Colombia.
A larger rival Mexican cartel, the Sinaloa Federation, reportedly focuses on a corridor along Central America's Pacific coast.
The State Department's international narcotics and law enforcement chief, David T. Johnson, said in a speech Oct. 5 that 275 tons of cocaine transited Guatemala each year, nearly all of it destined for the United States.
Mexico is wary of the growing trouble on its southern frontier.
"If Guatemala goes down the drink, then Mexico is dealing with its northern and its southern borders. A major failure of democracy in Guatemala is going to directly impact Mexico City — resources, political capital, time, energy, human resources, everything — and that negatively affects the United States," said Samuel Logan, the regional manager for the Americas at iJet Intelligent Risk Systems, a consultancy on risk management based in Annapolis, Md.
From a stronghold in the Guatemalan city of Coban, the mountain capital of Alto Verapaz a little to the south, the Zetas have been pushing into the Peten, appearing sometimes in sizable numbers, maneuvering at ease and with military discipline.
"They circulate with numerous forces and carry the latest weaponry. When they use violence, no authority exists here that can control them," said Hector Rosada-Granados, a sociologist who helped negotiate the end to a 36-year guerrilla war in Guatemala in the 1990s.
The Zetas, striking up alliances with local drug clans, use a string of "narco-ranches" scattered deep in the Peten that are home to hundreds of dirt landing strips. In the remote Laguna del Tigre region, U.S. drug agents have spotted a "cemetery" where narcos abandon and torch aircraft after unloading cocaine from the Andes.
Sometimes rival gangs battle for the cocaine or underlings steal from their bosses. A 43-year-old ranch owner, Giovanni Espana, reportedly stung the Zetas that way back in June. A commando squad executed him June 26, but the missing shipment never turned up.
In early October, a Zetas contingent of some 80 to 90 heavily armed men arrived at the Espana ranch near El Naranjo, where the slain rancher's widow still resided, and used earth-moving machinery to dig for the dope. Later events indicate they might have found it.
The Zetas convoy started traveling west toward Mexico on Oct. 5, when it bullied its way past the police.
Then bad luck hit. The Mexicans got lost. At the eastern end of Peten Itza Lake, they turned up a road toward the Mayan ruins of Tikal. It was after nightfall. They turned around, and were heading down a hill at the hamlet of El Capulinar when they ran into military units backed up by police, who'd been lent army assault rifles. For 10 to 15 minutes, a full-bore battle unfolded.
Some Zetas gunmen sprayed heavy fire at the soldiers, while others launched grenades. Still others shot flares into the sky so the Zetas could see soldiers using their vehicles as parapets. As the firefight ebbed, the Zetas caravan broke through the roadblock, with vehicles peeling off two by two, some of them with tires shot out, to leave passage for key vehicles in the middle.
At least five Zetas vehicles, all apparently armored, pierced the roadblock. Police now suspect that the vehicles transported the recovered cocaine.
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MEXICO IS THE MOST RACIST, CORRUPT AND VIOLENT NATION IN THE HEMISPHERE, AND BIRTH TO THE MEXICAN DRUG CARTEL.
HERE’S MEXICO’S POLICY ON ILLEGALS IN THEIR DUMPSTER OF A COUNTRY:
In 2006, we witnessed hundreds of ranting Mexicans march on this nation, waving their Mexican flags and demanding their “rights”.
Here’s the policy in racist Mexico on illegals!
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New Immigration Laws (Stockton)
New Immigration Laws: Read to the bottom or you will miss the message....

1. There will be no special bilingual programs in the schools.

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2.. All ballots will be in this nation's language.

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3. All government business will be conducted in our language.

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4. Non-residents will NOT have the right to vote no matter how long they are here.

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5. Non-citizens will NEVER be able to hold political office.

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6. Foreigners will not be a burden to the taxpayers.. No welfare, no food stamps, no health care, or other government assistance programs. Any burden will be deported.

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7. Foreigners can invest in this country, but it must be an amount at least equal to 40,000 times the daily minimum wage.

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8. If foreigners come here and buy land... options will be restricted. Certain parcels including waterfront property are reserved for citizens naturally born into this country.

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9.. Foreigners may have no protests; no demonstrations, no waving of a foreign flag, no political organizing, no bad-mouthing our president or his policies. These will lead to deportation.

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10.. If you do come to this country illegally, you will be actively hunted &, when caught, sent to jail until your deportation can be arranged. All assets will be taken from you.

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Too strict?.......

The above laws are current immigration laws of MEXICO !!!

As an American These sound fine to me, NOW, how can we get these laws to be America 's immigration laws??

WAKE UP, AMERICA - We are losing our country.........

MEXICAN DRUG CARTELS ARE BORDERLESS LIKE ILLEGALS THAT INVADED THIS NATION

Mexican drug gangs gain foothold in Guatemalan jungle
Tim Johnson | McClatchy Newspapers
last updated: October 27, 2010 09:50:17 PM
EL REMATE, Guatemala — The Peten jungle, once known for its jaguars and Mayan ruins, has fallen prey to a notorious Mexican drug gang that operates from remote jungle ranches and has begun openly challenging Guatemalan security forces for control of the roads.
The struggle that's under way in this remote region could help determine the fate of Guatemala, a fragile democracy south of Mexico that's already under enormous pressure from narcotics gangs. It's certain to affect Mexico, which is struggling to maintain order against powerful armed gangs on its northern borders.
In a fierce clash that began south of the famous Tikal ruins, the drug gang known as Los Zetas, based in Mexico's northeastern border area and the Yucatan Peninsula, was able to outgun local police by deploying armored vehicles, bigger guns and far more ammunition. Then it fought a large army patrol to a draw, losing vehicles and taking wounded but apparently getting away with a stash of cocaine.
The transformation of the once-pristine jungle into a no man's land is the latest calamity to befall Guatemala, which has had a history of military domination, a 36-year civil war and a genocide conducted by the Guatemalan army against Mayan Indians some three decades ago. Although the CIA helped overthrow a government in 1952, Guatemala's newest drama is getting little high-level attention in Washington.
The recent confrontation between Los Zetas and the authorities began with a shouted warning from a bullhorn and a wrong turn.
Around midday on Oct. 5, when police stopped a convoy of 16 or so big double-cabin pickups and other vehicles a short drive south of the Tikal National Park, an amplified voice from one vehicle barked a warning:
"We are Los Zetas! Let us pass. We don't want problems."
To make their point, several men carrying assault rifles got out of the vehicles and fired hundreds of rounds into the air in a deafening display of firepower.
To describe the police as alarmed is an understatement.
"If you have an M16 rifle, and all I have is a 9 mm pistol, and you have 10 other guys behind you, I won't mess with you," said local police Sub-Inspector Oscar Bertruin, who was at the scene.
The police let the convoy pass, then called for help from the army, according to the accounts of several officers, nearly all of whom declined to give their names for fear of retaliation.
Los Zetas, a mercenary group founded by Mexican former special forces troops who broke off early this year from the Gulf Cartel in northeast Mexico, is at the top of the criminal heap. As the two groups wage a turf war in their home region, the Zetas have continued pushing into the eastern side of Central America, strengthening a cocaine pipeline from Colombia.
A larger rival Mexican cartel, the Sinaloa Federation, reportedly focuses on a corridor along Central America's Pacific coast.
The State Department's international narcotics and law enforcement chief, David T. Johnson, said in a speech Oct. 5 that 275 tons of cocaine transited Guatemala each year, nearly all of it destined for the United States.
Mexico is wary of the growing trouble on its southern frontier.
"If Guatemala goes down the drink, then Mexico is dealing with its northern and its southern borders. A major failure of democracy in Guatemala is going to directly impact Mexico City — resources, political capital, time, energy, human resources, everything — and that negatively affects the United States," said Samuel Logan, the regional manager for the Americas at iJet Intelligent Risk Systems, a consultancy on risk management based in Annapolis, Md.
From a stronghold in the Guatemalan city of Coban, the mountain capital of Alto Verapaz a little to the south, the Zetas have been pushing into the Peten, appearing sometimes in sizable numbers, maneuvering at ease and with military discipline.
"They circulate with numerous forces and carry the latest weaponry. When they use violence, no authority exists here that can control them," said Hector Rosada-Granados, a sociologist who helped negotiate the end to a 36-year guerrilla war in Guatemala in the 1990s.
The Zetas, striking up alliances with local drug clans, use a string of "narco-ranches" scattered deep in the Peten that are home to hundreds of dirt landing strips. In the remote Laguna del Tigre region, U.S. drug agents have spotted a "cemetery" where narcos abandon and torch aircraft after unloading cocaine from the Andes.
Sometimes rival gangs battle for the cocaine or underlings steal from their bosses. A 43-year-old ranch owner, Giovanni Espana, reportedly stung the Zetas that way back in June. A commando squad executed him June 26, but the missing shipment never turned up.
In early October, a Zetas contingent of some 80 to 90 heavily armed men arrived at the Espana ranch near El Naranjo, where the slain rancher's widow still resided, and used earth-moving machinery to dig for the dope. Later events indicate they might have found it.
The Zetas convoy started traveling west toward Mexico on Oct. 5, when it bullied its way past the police.
Then bad luck hit. The Mexicans got lost. At the eastern end of Peten Itza Lake, they turned up a road toward the Mayan ruins of Tikal. It was after nightfall. They turned around, and were heading down a hill at the hamlet of El Capulinar when they ran into military units backed up by police, who'd been lent army assault rifles. For 10 to 15 minutes, a full-bore battle unfolded.
Some Zetas gunmen sprayed heavy fire at the soldiers, while others launched grenades. Still others shot flares into the sky so the Zetas could see soldiers using their vehicles as parapets. As the firefight ebbed, the Zetas caravan broke through the roadblock, with vehicles peeling off two by two, some of them with tires shot out, to leave passage for key vehicles in the middle.
At least five Zetas vehicles, all apparently armored, pierced the roadblock. Police now suspect that the vehicles transported the recovered cocaine.
The soldiers managed to immobilize 11 of the Zeta vehicles. Three people are known to have died. A soldier was among the wounded. Most of the gunmen melted into the jungle.
The intensity of the battle jolted even the soldiers.
"A lot of the soldiers who were in the firefight asked to be discharged later because they were frightened," said Bertruin, the police official.
Migrant workers who clear land by slashing down forest, who've flooded to the Peten, also have found themselves dealing with criminal pressure.
"The narcos arrive at the farms and pay cash for whatever price the owner asks. If he refuses to sell, they threaten him," said Edgar Gutierrez, a former Guatemalan foreign minister. "The state (is) absent. Police, prosecutors and judges have been co-opted by the drug traffickers."
The Peten has only five legal border crossings with Mexico, Gutierrez said, but more than 100 unsanctioned crossings have opened up.
Along those dirt tracks, workers move cocaine toward Mexico on the backs of four-wheeled all-terrain buggies. Then they return to ranch jobs.
"Half the time they work as ranch hands, and half the time they offload airplanes and light torches along the sides of clandestine landing strips," Logan said.