Keep Your Heads Down - It Is Dicey Here - Listen To The State Department

 

Finally I am coming out of the cortisone nightmare, thank goodness...it just took forever and tons of water drinking.  I'm actually going to try to get outside tomorrow and put in some bulbs in large pots, wowie. We also had another water line break under the house during the swarms of earthquakes out by the Salton Sea which have seemed to diminish and have been super lucky not to have been hit by the heat wave.  Here, the max temperature has been 80 degrees - but it will probably get worse and no talk about water conservation down here so far. Paris , Totsie, Rubio and Squirt are all fat and happy, except Paris pushes me out of bed.

Speaking of the environment, we made a huge mistake by watching Ben Wheatley's " In The Earth" thinking that it was just going to be a good scary movie. Afterall, it showed at Sundance, right ? I did not realize he is a cult figure as well as his other films which I've never seen, but this one was ridiculous. He really is manipulative and the violence is horrible. I felt this film was a slap in the face to sincere works on the environment. It was like he took way too much bad acid and never came down. Anyway, trees do talk to each other. Paris hated it.

Thrilled that the Affordable Care Act survived , Juneteenth finally a National holiday and the reversal of some Trump immigration policies. Keeping an eye on Kamala  (I'll come back to that)and Nicaragua (Ortega is as bad as Samoza III...and not according to Telesur, I'll come back to that one.)

Everything on the Middle East:

Informed Comment

~~~~~ 

Okay, let's look at the latest State Department Travel Advisory:

"Reconsider travel to Mexico due to COVID-19."

 "Reconsider Travel To:

• Baja California state due to crime and kidnapping."

Here it is in full form:

Mexico Travel Advisory 

~~~~~

 As far as COVID goes here locally, people have been lined up finally receiving the J&J shot, but there hasn't been a peep about the Delta variant. Look at Cabo:

 ~ From Zeta: 

Emergencia por COVID en Los Cabos, BCS

 Featured BCS: Antonio Cervantes  - Saturday, June 19, 2021 3:45 PM

 

 Of 156 converted beds for coronavirus patients, 126 are occupied; Regarding cavitary fans, the current occupation is 54% in the tourist destination

“Los Cabos had a significant increase since May 4, consecutively each week it was increasing, last week it had an incidence of 188 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, as of yesterday it already has a rate of 272.47 cases per 100,000 inhabitants ; La Paz, from 91 goes up to 182; Mulegé, from 17 down to 14; Comondú, from 13 goes up to 25; and Loreto, from 4 goes up to 27 ”, acknowledged Miguel Romero Calderón, epidemiologist at the Baja California Sur Secretariat of Health.

Los Cabos is already in a critical situation, the pandemic is overwhelming the health services in that area. According to data published by the State Health Safety Committee, the main clinics are 80.76% of the hospital occupancy. Of 156 beds converted to care for patients with COVID-19, 126 are occupied; Regarding cavitary fans, the current occupancy is 54%.

“We have in Clinic 1 of the IMSS a total of 42 patients, one suspect and 41 confirmed, of which 22 are confirmed intubated; in Clinic 26, of 41 patients, three are under study, 138 confirmed, of which eleven are intubated; In the expansion of the IMSS, of 37 we have 35 confirmed, two suspects and 23 are intubated; in La Paz we have a 33% distribution of hospitalized patients; Los Cabos 63%, Mulegé and Comondú, 2% ”, stated Romero Calderón.

The Clinics 26 and the expansion of that unit are at full capacity and, to relieve the occupation, it has begun with the transfer of patients to La Paz; however, more patients arrive every day.

At the state level, there are 207 patients hospitalized in the different medical units, unfortunately 172 are in serious, critical or intubated condition.

"Regarding the follow-up of confirmed cases by type of care, we have that 86% are outpatients, which represents 1,313, we find that 2% are stable hospitalized, 6% seriously hospitalized and 6% intubated hospitalized," the specialist counted.

“The trend of hospitalized patients increased from 156 to 200 in relation to the previous week, confirmed from 136 to 176; intubated patients increased from 61 to 83 in relation to the previous week ”, he added.

From the first week of June the multiplier of COVID patients began, it is not only about people who were in the campaigns; most were infected in their homes by those attending political events. Those meetings left havoc in La Paz and mainly in Los Cabos, where infections have risen sharply in the last ten days. They increased 44% from one week to the next, which is worrying because citizens are no longer taking sanitary measures such as healthy distance and use of mouth covers, and shopping malls are beginning to notice relaxation on the part of their visitors.

At the end of May there were 554 active cases and 1,515 deaths, and at the end of this edition, fifteen days later, the figure is 1,717 active cases and 1,569 deaths. One thousand 163 more cases, that is, an increase of 210% in two weeks.

While deaths rose to 54 (3.6 per day), the majority occurred in Los Cabos.

“The main cause of the increase in these cases is the crowds of people who were in political campaigns, it is definitely something that we anticipated or predicted. The conglomeration was lost healthy distance, they did not use gel or anything like that, under the euphoria it was lost, that is the natural history of the patients that we have, there they agree with the days of greatest campaign and campaign closings ”, launched Víctor George Flores , Secretary of Health in Baja California Sur.

The authority is exceeded, for this reason the businessmen of various branches came out and are working in La Paz and Los Cabos to avoid closure, because if the epidemiological traffic light changes, they would be the most affected.

“The restaurateurs that are implementing a greater number of measures, the hotels in Los Cabos that are distributing mouth covers and taking measures to promote healthy distance, gel; In the Catholic Church, the Bishop in La Paz is taking measures, in this regard he is going to stop and also his capacity and events, such as baptisms, confirmations. Nothing else enter the parents to baptize and the godparents, for example, "said the state official.

CONTAGIO RECORD

Whether or not the determination to remain at the same differentiated traffic light is good or not, especially that La Paz and Los Cabos remain at the Orange traffic light, is something that has displeased the population.

The authority was ignorant, while there was a political rally a few meters from the COVID sampling, the agglomeration and euphoria reigned in that event, and a few meters away the pain and despair took over other families.

“Mulegé, Loreto and Comondú in Level 3 of Health Alert, which corresponds to Yellow; Los Cabos and La Paz in Level 4, continues all this week in the Health Alert System, this based on the numeraries and all the variants that we were analyzing. Los Cabos is a little alarmed right now, because it hadn't been like that; La Paz had been and also something very important: the number of hospitalized have been stable, the epidemiological profile of hospitalized patients is changing, previously more than 50% were 60 years old and more those who were hospitalized, now the number of hospitalized 60 years and over dropped to 30%, and increased the number of younger patients, "said the Secretary of Health.

Everyone knew the risk involved in the campaigns, but no one did anything to fix it. “The behavior of COVID cases by epidemiological week, Week 21 closes with 689 cases that we had predicted will close with around 600, a little more than expected. Week 22 that closes next Saturday has 1,035 cases, it is forecast to close below 1,400. Week 23 has 882 cases as of today, and it is forecast to close below Week 22, since we bring a playback speed of 0.95 for Week 24; the rate of contagion this week is already contagious downward, ”explained epidemiologist Miguel Romero Calderón.

“In the index of cases registered daily, from being in an index of 38 daily cases in the State on June 7, they begin to rise from the second week of June, on June 8, 9 and 10 having the highest peak in the State, just above 210 cases. In Los Cabos there was an increase of 150 cases that same day; La Paz that day decreases in relation to Week 8, which had 83 cases to 50 cases, it remains stable until Week 12, which has a slight increase until June 12 ”, he explained.

“Los Cabos maintains an unstable growth, on June 11 it presents 197 cases, it begins to decrease in an accelerated way to reach 51 cases; On the 14th there is an increase to 84 cases, but the crisis was observed this week, the second week of June, which runs from June 8 to 12, we had the highest number of cases and it increases the number of active cases the State ”, stated Romero Calderón.

During Week 23, 16 deaths were registered: 13 in Los Cabos and three in La Paz, numbers that the South municipality had not registered, where pregnant women positive for COVID-19 are added.

"Currently we have eight confirmed pregnant COVID patients who are ambulatory, four hospitalized, we have a death of a pregnant woman this year in the month of January," Romero recalled.

DANGER ZONE

The economy of Los Cabos is at risk, and not because the businessmen cannot or there is no support, but rather that the pandemic got out of control, and, although they do not want to recognize it, having more than 80% of hospital occupancy is a reflection that something is wrong.

The fact that businessmen have taken to the streets, to the neighborhoods with the highest incidence to distribute protection supplies, offers an important reading: there is concern that the Cabeña community will return to the Red traffic light, the numbers mark it.

“What are the areas with the greatest epidemiological problems in Los Cabos: we have identified the Las Palmas, Lomas Altas, Los Cangrejos, Miramar neighborhoods; in the San José area, the center is the one with the greatest problems and Lomas de Guaymitas and El Zacatal ”, acknowledged Blanca Pulido Medrano, head of the State Commission for the Protection against Sanitary Risks (Coepris).

Regarding the number of infections and hospitalized patients, Los Cabos is experiencing the worst health crisis, maintaining the highest number of positive cases for the SARS-CoV-2 virus, but today the southern area is the one that is full of cases and they continue to grow.

Although the State Health Safety Committee assures that the cases will go down, the damage has already been done.

“In this work, together with Coepris and the Epidemiology area, fortunately we do not have a circumscribed outbreak, it would be a critical problem. These cases that are being presented, we know where they come from, and what we are going to do is: the Los Cabos Business Council is working with all the agencies to carry out operations to reduce this, ”said Pulido Medrano.

The complaints were immediate and, through citizen social networks, they demand that the authority stop the infections.

THE CONTAGES WOULD CONTINUE

The State Health Safety Committee recognizes that the indices are going to be maintained, they could even exceed forecasts even more.

“Let us remember that, even so, this week due to the natural period of the disease, we could remain stable or even have some rallies, some days, especially associated with the June 6 voting. It would be reflected for ten days later, after June 16, 17 and 18, it could be reflected in the meeting that the Committee will have next week, "said Miguel Romero Calderón.

Contrary to the epidemiologist, Víctor George Flores was a little more conservative, since the entity has not reached the rates that the pandemic had shown on other occasions, however, he does not particularly mention the case of Los Cabos, a town that exceeds the registration records.

It is not necessary to minimize the problem, the situation is already beyond the health services and at some point it will explode.

“The numbers have not arrived as we had previously in Naranja, we are confident that we are going to move forward with this, but this response that we are having from some organized groups that are working to limit and in a very respectful, conscious and solidarity, taking care of the Cabeños, the South Californians. Right now the red dots are Los Cabos and La Paz ”, reiterated the head of the State Health Secretariat.

Even the Los Cabos City Council itself acted long before the State Health Safety Committee by reducing the number of personnel, only the essential basic currently operates. The rest of the workers were sent to make a home office , as the only way to reduce capacity and avoid more infections.

“The City Council itself took the necessary measures, without having the restrictions of the Committee, but already out of conscience, solidarity, it took measures to reduce this mobility everywhere. He is paying to improve health, we are going to get ahead, without hitting the economy and without paying just for sinners ”, George Flores concluded."

 

~~~~~

The Drug Wars -breakdown from January - May 2021

 

 ~ From Zeta:

 Homicidios siguen imparables: 177 en mayo

Ezenario: Gerardo Andrade  -  Sunday, June 6, 2021 12:00 PM

 

"As of May, the murder rate in Tijuana practically matched last year's, yet state-level murders remain unstoppable.

According to official figures from the State Security and Investigation Guard (GESI) and the State Attorney General's Office (FGE), in May 2021 a total of 177 murders were reported in Tijuana.

So far this year, the total number is 835 homicides: January, 180 homicides; February 151; March 163; April 164; and 177 in May.

According to the same authorities, from January to May 2020, 841 homicides were committed in Tijuana, only six more than in the first five months of this year.

One of the most exposed homicides was that of the Japanese restaurant owner Taro Yoshira, 43, owner of the Yoshi Ramen restaurant , which is located in Playas de Tijuana.

An employee of the restaurant reported that on the morning of May 13, he noticed that the safe where there were around 30 thousand pesos was open; It was then that he went up to the second floor and found his boss dead, who had been shot in the neck.

The authorities indicated that neither the locks or the doors were forced, so it is presumed that it was a robbery with violence.

“Tijuana has brought red flags for a long time, they are not exclusive to recent months, we have been dragging them (situations of highs and lows); Unfortunately, the problem is far and wide in our city, ”said Juan Manuel Hernández Niebla, president of the Baja California Public Safety Citizen Council.

At the state level, in 2020, up to the month of May, 1,162 murders had been registered, while until May of this year 1,300 have been committed, which represents a considerable increase.

The municipalities where there has been a greater increase are Tecate and Ensenada.

From January to May 2020, Tecate registered a total of 41 homicides; In the same period, in 2021, a total of 146 have been counted.

In relation to Ensenada, from January to May 2020, 138 violent deaths were committed, while in 2021, until the last day of May, 184 murders were reported."

~~~~~

 Speaking of Ensenada...

 ~ From Zeta:

Ensenadenses, amenazados por robos y asaltos

Edición Impresa: Lorena Lamas -  lunes, 14 junio, 2021 12:00 PM

  House robberies, shops, rapes, homicides, drug dealing, illegal deprivation of liberty and extortion have doubled in 2021. In less than six months, there were 190 homicides in the port city

"The number of homicides in Ensenada reached 190 cases in the first five months of 2021, surpassing the historical number reported in the same period of the previous year, with 138 murders.

The version of the state authorities, including that of Mayor Armando Ayala Robles, is that high-impact crimes are due to struggles for control of drug dealing and trafficking.

The criminal gangs identified by those who make up the tables of the Coordination Tables for Peace are divided between those who lead the Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG) and Sinaloa cartels.

Added to this wave of murders is a phenomenon related to the increase in violence to carry out robberies and assaults on businesses in the city, which, according to investigating agents of the State Attorney General's Office (FGE) who spoke with ZETA , have a higher level of aggressiveness.

"Never before have employees or customers who are in a business been as close to a firearm as in recent months", so they have been attentive to the physical characteristics of the assailants.

"They are not addicted people, but men with the ability and physically healthy, skilled in the use of weapons," said the interviewee.

Recidivism is a problem faced by the agents, since the crime of robbery is not considered serious, therefore, if the aggressor is arrested, he must cover the amount of damage to the victim to obtain freedom again.

The cases of armed robbery on public roads and in shops are constant; In the last 24 hours of June 9, at least four cases occurred without reporting detainees.

At 1:42 p.m. on Wednesday, a call was received to report a robbery with violence in a business in the town of Puerta Trampa, Ojos Negros Delegation. The complainant stated that two men with firearms threatened her with death, and later deprived her of the day's earnings.

An hour earlier, at local number 3 in Plaza Primavera, on the Transpeninsular Highway in Colonia Aeropuerto, employees of a Financiera TCP business were victims of a robbery with violence, when a man with a firearm entered threateningly.

The day before, at 05:59 hours on Tuesday, June 8, a call was received from an employee of a 7 Eleven store on the Ensenada-Tijuana-San Miguel highway, reporting how two armed subjects approximately 1.70 meters tall, With their faces uncovered, they stripped them of the money from the safe (one thousand pesos), wallets and a cell phone.

They also asked one of the customers for the keys to a white 2018 Renault Duster truck , which was parked outside the establishment.

Later, at 10:00 pm at Little Caesar's pizzeria in Reforma and San Marcos, Fraccionamiento Nueva Ensenada, the employees were surprised when a man entered the store and pointed a firearm; after demanding the cash, he withdrew.

While the Municipal Public Security Directorate (DSPM) promotes the use of panic buttons, which are not fully endorsed by members of the National Chamber of Commerce, the trend of violent robberies does not stop.

 

CULTURE OF NON-COMPLAINT

The total incidence of robberies from homes, businesses, rapes, homicides, drug dealing, illegal deprivation of liberty and extortion, have remained in the same trend in the last two years, with 3,700 crimes during 2020 and 3,696 in the course of 2021.

Data from the Citizen Council of Public Safety (CCSP) refer that, in the current year, 93 business robberies have been reported to the Public Ministry, of which 66 were committed with the luxury of violence, either with a sharp weapon or fire .

On public roads there were at least 147 assaults on pedestrians or people traveling in their units in different areas of the city.

In 2016, the New Criminal Justice System proposed new rules for the police elements of the three levels of government, such as filling in the Approved Police Report (IPH). Generally, municipal officers are the first respondents to complete the filling, which takes up to two hours to complete.

In the case of a robbery victim in the Maneadero delegation, she made a report to 911, the Municipal Police arrived - which by law has the obligation to file the complaint and IPH, as well as conduct the interview.

The woman, who lives in a house in the Durango neighborhood in Maneadero, found a subject inside her house stealing the wiring. He carried out his report via C4, a municipal agent arrived to draw up the minutes but, instead of carrying out the IPH and taking it to the Public Ministry to initiate an investigation, he asked the affected person to contact the MP to file a complaint.

The woman never went to file a complaint, therefore, the crime was not investigated nor is it part of the statistics of robbery from a house that the GESI manages in Baja California.

 

OFFENDERS DO NOT CHANGE THEIR CLOTHES

Regarding the actions to inhibit the problem of robberies and assaults in the port, the operational deputy director of the DSPM, José Luis Peralta, assured that they are working in a coordinated manner with the three levels of government.

These are weekly operations in which, with information from C4, what they call top colonies is evaluated , where the National Defense Secretariat (SEDENA) is in charge of the strategy.

For example, in Ensenada the most problematic neighborhoods in terms of crime rates are Maneadero, Zona Centro, Valle Dorado, Popular 89 and the Wine Route in Valle de Guadalupe.

Peralta talks about patrols and proximity with three shifts in these conflictive areas, also, of distributing panic buttons among businesses in the municipality; To date, 26 teams have been delivered.

The official acknowledged the problem of the revolving door, where the offenders of crimes considered not serious, are processed as an administrative offense and are released by the judge when they manage to restore the damage to the victims. In addition, they have identified criminals, especially those who carry out robberies at Oxxo convenience stores .

" We have direct contact with them ( Oxxo ), who share their cameras of the establishments and images with us, then we distribute the information to the commanders to identify them on the streets," he said.

In the case of convenience stores, they found that the assailants usually wear the same clothes, that is, they do not change their shoes, sweatshirts or shirts.

 

IT'S AN UNEMPLOYMENT PROBLEM: CANACO

Rafael Chávez, president of the National Chamber of Commerce in Ensenada, said that the recent thefts perpetrated in the port are due to an unemployment problem:

"This pandemic has left many people without jobs, people who do not have work, continue to have needs and compensate them in that way.

He stated that such subjects "are not thieves, they do not know how to steal, their point of reference is only movies or series, that is why they are so nervous, because they are not professionals."

Coupled with the fear or tension between the owner and the offender at the time of the robbery, they have a problem with the format of the laws, since a judge releases them from jail with ease.

Therefore, it is common for their associates to face the problem of recidivism, they are aware of how vulnerable they are and they take their own security measures.

Finally, for the Chamber, the proposal to place more panic buttons by the DSPM in any business is not feasible, because merchants are not prepared to use them and “it is like using the telephone to report through the C4 ".

~~~~~

Back In Tijuana:

 

 ~ From Zeta: 

 Cárteles aterrorizan a trabajadores agrícolas

 

Edición Impresa: Investigaciones ZETA  -  lunes, 7 junio, 2021 12:00 PM

 

 In Tijuana, Valle Redondo, a large area of ​​ranches, with large tracts of uninhabited land, has been taken over by criminal groups that kidnap, murder, traffic people, transfer drugs and terrorize the workers in the vineyards, who pretend to ignore their presence to avoid problems. Unguarded by the authorities and adjacent to the United States, it is an illegal crossing point fought over and used by various criminal groups. In that "no man's land" three wine workers were murdered. Local authorities investigate the cell of Edwin Antonio Rubio López "El Max", operator of the Sinaloa Cartel, as alleged perpetrators 

 

 

"They were executed. According to the position of the bodies, the three men were kneeling with their faces against a wall when they received a bullet from a handgun to the head. Their worn clothes gave account of the humble work that they carried out in an agricultural field dedicated to the pruning of grapevines.

The investigators' first hypothesis is that a group of human and drug traffickers "mistook them" for members of a rival drug trafficking cell and murdered them on Thursday, May 27. Perhaps the criminals were drugged, so they assumed that the two men in tattered pants and shirts, who wore shoes without socks and accompanied a third man in blue jeans and a dress shirt, were drug traffickers.

Something similar to what happened with Edgar Flores Santos officially identified as supervisor of  Agriculture  and Pest Trapping for the Animal Health and Vegetable Inspection Service (APHIS) of the United States Department of Agriculture, deprived of liberty on September 30, 2020 in the vicinity of Rancho Las Uvas and found murdered on October 1 in the “Chupacabras” canyon of Valle Redondo, of the Presa Rural delegation in Tijuana.

In the case of Flores Santos, the arrested murderers confessed that because of his appearance and that he was driving a   white Chevrolet Silverado pick-up - his unit in charge - they believed he was a policeman and killed him.

For this reason, the same criminal group that riddled the consular officer eight months ago is now one of the main suspects in the triple homicide of farm workers.

VERSIONS OF DEPRIVATION AND DEATH

The first reports regarding the disappearance of Uriel Mora Vidal, Dagoberto Escalante Olivas and Juan Cuahua Tlehuactle were confusing. The initial version indicated that elements of the State Security and Investigation Guard (GESI) or the National Guard had taken them away at 11:00 am on May 27.

Later they said that the workers had left early to the creek area to activate an irrigation pump. At noon, the families of the rancherías saw a white pick-up with armed men circulating in the area . The families took refuge in their homes, but when they heard gunshots, they began to worry about the three men who had not returned and called the police.

They detailed that municipal police and the National Guard arrived at the scene and walked around for approximately two hours, but found nothing and left. Around 5:00 p.m., the mother-in-law of one of the disappeared received an anonymous call, saying where they could find the bodies.

The owners of the ranches requested the support of the GESI and the State Attorney General's Office (FGE) to locate the bodies, but the Tijuana Municipal Police reported having found them at 5:40 p.m. on the same Thursday.

According to the report, three men were found face down with gunshot wounds to the head. A reporter gave them directions as to where the lifeless people were.

The personnel responsible for processing the crime scene of the FGE arrived almost two hours later, they reported that the bodies were located inside "a ruined black construction site, located on a local road in Rancho El Remolino" with a handgun shot to the skull.

According to the ballistic analysis, the FGE, the weapon or pistols used against the workers, had not been used in a previous crime in Baja California, while the version of the relatives indicates that the three employees left at six in the morning from their houses (“they were going for water”). At one point in the morning - which they did not specify - they saw a gray truck driving through the ranches and inside hooded people carrying long weapons.

They went out to look for the disappeared - again they did not need time - and found a tractor with boats that had not been filled with water, at that moment they heard gunshots and returned to their houses to hide, to call the security personnel who in turn it was communicated to the emergency numbers.

The relative of one of the men dialed the cell phone of one of the victims, they answered and only the voice was heard - they did not understand what it was saying - and the laughter of a woman before they hung up.

Later, around 12:20 p.m., residents of the area again saw a gray pick-up driving through the ranch and inside it a woman of approximately 22 years old.

Later, the anonymous call would be given at 5:00 p.m. and the location of the bodies an hour later.

 

NO MAN'S LAND

The area where Mora Vidal, Escalante Olivas and Cuahua Tlehuactle were deprived of their liberty and later assassinated, has registered owners, some invaders and lawsuits claiming ownership in the Baja California Courts.

"It is a land without Law where violence worsened at the end of 2019," they describe.

Employees who had 20, 15 and 10 years working on the ranches in the area, were threatened and resigned in the last four months of the previous year, while the owners have not been able to hire new people because "they are afraid."

Mobility out of fear has also affected Rancho Las Uvas, even recently they had decided that one of the three murdered men would be appointed administrator-foreman, since he had been unoccupied for many months.

The residents, owners and workers of that area expressed fear of traveling the land. In fact, on the day of the multiple homicide, the mother-in-law of one of the victims received an anonymous call informing that the missing men were already dead and were going to be found by the stream, but neither the desperate families nor the security personnel of the ranch they dared to look for them.

The area in question is a wide expanse of land that includes Las Uvas, La Escondida, El Remolino ranches and the Dart company land . The main entrance is right in the vicinity of the company, on the Tijuana Tecate toll road in Valle Redondo. The only point with a video surveillance system, criminals know it and evade it. They all enter from behind the factory, in fact, it seemed strange to the residents of the area that when the Municipal Police and National Guard arrived, both patrols entered the same route as the criminals.

At the height of the aforementioned ranches, the double mesh on the American side is finished, which facilitates the illegal crossing of people and drugs. "The strangest thing is that this happens every day at all hours, without Mexican or United States corporations doing anything, so we no longer know where to turn, we have asked for patrols and operations in the ranches, but nothing", locals commented.

 

CRIMINAL CELLS

There is a distance of three kilometers between the Tijuana-Tecate highway and the border with the United States, the bodies of the three workers cultivating the vine for Zinfandel wine were located 500 meters from the mesh that divides the two countries. more than 100 meters from the bed of the Arroyo Alamar.

On October 2, 2020, after the death of the US official at the conclusion of the public act by which he handed over 76 rented patrols to the GESI, the State Attorney General, Juan Guillermo Ruiz Hernández, assured in a bench conference: the presence of the Municipal Police because throughout that area, Valle Redondo, there is a flow of migrants from the United States and it is complicated.

The most recent public operation carried out by Grupo Beta in this crossing area, was publicized precisely seven months ago, shortly after the murder of the Consulate official, on the night of October 5, when they rescued a family of migrants - mother, father and two small children-, who were abandoned in the mountainous area of ​​Rancho Las Uvas. The woman had to be extracted by helicopter because she had a pelvic fracture.

“But after that, nothing”, assured the residents of the area, “neither the municipalities, nor the state, the National Guard or the Beta. Even more worrying, not even those of ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service, an agency of the United States Department of Homeland Security), seem to have agreements ”, they expressed scared and worried.

"Criminals come and go like Pedro through his house, terrorizing the good people, on the day of the three deaths we were marking and marking the prosecutor, and nothing," added a representative of the owners of the ranches.

When the authorities on the other side of the border were consulted, they indicated that the area in question is used by several groups that are dedicated to human trafficking, but they highlighted the group of "Los Maldonados" or "Los Emes", identified after three of the Maldonado Mejía brothers were arrested or killed.

However, this information was refuted by the FGE, the representatives of the ministerial authority admitted "Los Emes" as a group of human traffickers that continues with another brother who has not yet been fully identified and is moving people from Pachuca and Michoacán, but currently it only operates in Mexicali.

So in the case of the three vine workers, investigators are targeting local criminals, but eight days have gone by with no results. Very different from what happened in the case of the investigation of the homicide of the foreign official, in which one of the accomplices of his homicide was arrested less than 24 hours after the body was located.

According to the organization charts held by the Baja California Peace and Security Coordination Table, three criminal groups have a presence in the area:

Daniel Isaac Ortiz Covarrubias "El Moreno". Originally operator of the Jalisco Nueva Generación Cartel, which the authorities recently assure has sought to ally with "Los Chapitos."

Manuel Rodríguez García "The Profe". Leader of scavengers in the East Zone of Tijuana, he has survived three armed attacks, without an arrest warrant against him, but mentioned by the Intelligence areas from the 2008-2015 period as part of the groups dedicated to drug trafficking.

Edwin Antonio Rubio López "El Max". Sinaloa Cartel Operator.

Investigators consider the cell of this head of retail traffickers as the main suspects, despite the fact that Rubio's base of operations is in Las Villas, almost 7 kilometers from Las Uvas, but according to statements by his accomplices already captured, This man controls groups that commit crimes from the La Presa and Presa Rural delegation in Tijuana to Tecate.

In addition, "El Max" is the criminal boss of those arrested for the murder of the consular employee in the same ranchería: Juan Carlos“N”, 24 years old, captured on October 1, 2020 in the operation carried out minutes after they found the body of Edgar Flores; once secured, the subject admitted that he belonged to a cell dedicated to human trafficking and that they had confused the American. Ivis Yuvinny Escobar Salgado "El Vikingo", apprehended January 27, 2021 in possession of drugs and charged with murder. Juan Luis Pérez Longuinez "El Pikul", arrested on March 31 of this year after a manhunt and shooting that occurred outside Tecate, near Rancho La Puerta. Besides Yossio Quiñonez Armenta “El Pariente”. The authorities also implicate him in the quadruple homicide registered in Tecate in 2020.

Witnesses to the journeys of the armed criminals and fellow farmers, said that the men were doing nothing but work, “they should not have lost their lives when they were only doing their work effort”, and they claimed: “They leave three families helpless ”.

They say they are aware that where they live and work is a community very affected by violence, "but we do not understand why they were deprived of their liberty and took their lives."

The family of one of the victims left Baja California with the man's body to their homeland, while the other two are also thinking of leaving the area."

~~~~~

Ah, San Felipe tambien....

 

 ~ From Zeta:

 “Los Chapitos” en San Felipe

 

 On the afternoon of May 30, the tourist area of ​​the port was dyed red after a shooting that lasted through several streets, leaving two people dead and three wounded. The atypical homicidal behavior in the region, mobilized the authorities to the small port community, whose main hypothesis is that cells close to "Los Chapitos" intend to take advantage of the power vacuum and seize the plaza located in San Felipe, so that fishermen expand its operations to the transfer of drugs

 

 "The calm of the port of San Felipe was interrupted by high-caliber shrapnel on Sunday, May 30, when in the middle of the afternoon, gunmen fired at their discretion at two vehicles manned by fishermen -some of them identified as suspected totoaba traffickers- who they traveled through the main roads of the community.

The shooting took place in front of dozens of people who were walking through the busiest area of ​​the port and just behind the offices of the Criminal Justice Center, where the base of the State Investigation Agency (AEI) and the respective ministries are also located. public attached to the community.

In the incident, the names Brandon Nathanael Zazueta Lozano, 25 years old, and Jorge Luis Armenta Hernández, 27 years old, were killed. Rolando Reyna Lizárraga, 30 years old; Alfonso Guadalupe Rivera Castro, 22; and Miguel Ángel Álvarez Niebla, 25, the last two, originally from Culiacán Sinaloa.

As a result of the arrest of the alleged leaders of the cells dedicated to the trafficking of totoaba, Óscar Parra Aispuro, in September 2018 and Segundo Valenzuela and Juan Luis García Ruiz alias “La Yegua” in November 2020, in an operation led by the Office of the Assistant Attorney General Specialized in Organized Crime Investigation (SEIDO) for which Eduardo Gastón Parra-Óscar's brother-, Sunshine Rodríguez Peña, former president of the Federation of Riparian Fishing Cooperatives, were also apprehended; the former inspector of the Federal Attorney for Environmental Protection, Enrique García Sandez; Luis Aldaz Valenzuela and his wife Carmen Ávila Hernández - both acquitted for not having a single piece of evidence linking them to organized crime - created a power vacuum.

This scenario is intended to be exploited by members of the criminal structure of "Los Chapitos", Iván Archivaldo and Alfredo Guzmán Salazar, sons of Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán Loera, which already occupies the Gulf of Santa Clara as a base of operations, where they arrive boats with drugs, but now they intend to expand their operations to San Felipe to control the entire coast and completely seize a drug route.

The next municipality of Baja California, has just over 24 thousand inhabitants, whose main income historically has been fishing and commerce. As a result of the restrictions on the extraction of marine animals from the Upper Gulf of California, it has been involved in a severe economic crisis, but the fishing of endemic animals such as the totoaba macdonaldi , whose value ranges between 4,000 and 8,000 , has also proliferated. dollars, and according to information from previous Security Tables, increases in international markets.

LA BALACERA IN THE HEART OF SAN FELIPE

It was around 3:00 p.m. when emergency calls were issued to 911 to report that on Mar Báltico Sur street, between Ensenada and Puerto Manzanillo, a few meters from the San Felipe Criminal Justice Center, a shooting had occurred in the The crew of a Cherokee- type vehicle , a black Chevrolet Silverado and a gray Chevrolet Tahoe truck participated .

Members of the Tables for the Construction of Peace have not been able to define in detail the chronology of the events, since the victims who survived have not provided sufficient details.

Both vehicles were traveling on said road, when at the aforementioned point they were intercepted by a gray Chevrolet Tahoe truck , from which hitmen opened fire with high-caliber weapons.

The crew of the gray Grand Cherokee truck , California license plates, were attacked by hitmen who were traveling in the Tahoe, opening fire and causing the vehicle to leave the street and stop in the dune area of ​​the port. There, the name Brandon Nathanael Zazueta Lozano, 25, died, who was accompanied by another individual who went to a hotel in the area to request the support of the authorities due to an arm injury.

After the attack, the crew of the black Chevrolet Silverado vehicle fled at high speed, unleashing a chase that lasted to Chetumal street and intersection with Mar Caribe, right at the roundabout located at the entrance to the port of San Felipe, where another blast of bullets hit several targets; the glass and the bodywork were punctured and the victims suffered considerable injuries from the impacts of .223 caliber weapons.

The car in which those responsible fled was found burning some streets within the port community, so firefighters had to go to mitigate the flames before starting the investigations.

Among the victims, it is presumed that the main target was Rolando Reyna Lizárraga, 30, known as “El Rolly”, alleged former operator of Óscar Parra Aispuro's criminal structure, identified by members of the Construction Security Tables de la Paz, as one of the possible applicants to operate the criminal structure of the new “Cartel del Mar”; the other character is Marco Alfonso Pacheco Lares, about whom there is not much information.

Reyna Lizárraga is investigated as an alleged operator of a totoaba trafficking group in San Felipe. Inside the vehicle where he was traveling, a .9-millimeter caliber firearm was found, according to the report from the Directorate of Expert Services that collected evidence at the scene.

LOS CHAPITOS", MAIN SUSPECT

In addition to the trafficking of endemic species, the port of San Felipe and the Gulf of Santa Clara are places frequented by drug traffickers that facilitate the passage of drugs by sea.

The Guzmán Salazar brothers' favorite route is precisely that of the Upper Gulf, where their boats arrive from Sinaloa to later transfer them to the United States, but they also use the entire coastal area of ​​San Felipe.

This area has a highly profitable route when moving along a dirt road at the height of “El Chinero”, when passing the military checkpoint on the Mexicali-San Felipe highway and rejoining the road until reaching the State Capital; Or, moving from "El Chinero" to the Valley of Trinidad or Ojos Negros, to finally reach Ensenada and take the drug to Tijuana.

Although they already resorted to this route on occasions, it is difficult for them to transfer and unload them without the support of people who live in what will be the seventh municipality of Baja California, so they sought to align alleged totoaba traffickers to take advantage of their structures and facilitate the discharge and transfer of crystal and fentanyl.

Precisely two weeks ago, elements of the Mexican Army seized a ton of glass and 27 kilograms of fentanyl that were transferred in two vehicles that were later abandoned; it is presumed that the drug belonged to "Los Chapitos."

THEY DID NOT LINE UP TO THE GUZMÁN

In addition to Reynaldo, after the arrest of the heads of the totoaba traffic in San Felipe, other characters became targets of Baja California authorities, such as Jesús Alejandro Obeso Pérez alias “El Fredy”, a remnant of the “El Parra” cell; and Alejandro Peña, a fisherman leader with political relations within the port.

They are part of that structure that has refused to work with "Los Chapitos", since not all fishermen have an interest in venturing into the drug trafficking business or subordinating themselves to external groups, so it is presumed that the attack on these five people was an act of pressure to assassinate obstacles and force others to line up.

Days before the attack on the five people in San Felipe, an emergency report was issued about an alleged discussion and shooting on the beach. The offended did not provide many details for the investigation of the case, but confirmed the fact.

Groups close to "Los Chapitos" tried to get fishermen to support the transfer of drugs, but they refused, which led to the discussion and subsequent shooting. Similar behavior occurred in the Gulf of Santa Clara, in Sonora, where on April 1, a group of unknown persons intentionally set fire to at least seven houses of fishermen who also did not want to work for "Los Chapitos."

Military intelligence reports describe Jesús Aurelio Ibarra Ramiro, a Mexicali resident, who operates for the Guzmán brothers in the Gulf of Santa Clara, as the main suspect in these attacks in the Gulf, an area that they have already fully identified as a base of operations, where they can gunmen and lieutenants from Caborca, Sonora, take refuge to support mafia actions in this area near the border wall with the United States.

Sources from the Security Tables for the Construction of La Paz state that Aurelio Ibarra Ramiro is in charge of receiving drugs in the Gulf and is subordinate to an individual named Adán Quintero, alias “El 74”.

These types of actions are part of the strategy of "Los Chapitos" to seize the entire coastal area of ​​the Upper Gulf and the drug trafficking route, where they could also appropriate endemic species."

 

~~~~~~

 

 

  Remember when San Quintin was a dreamy camp/surf spot with crystal clear and clean ocean water? So far this year at the beginning of May, I'm counting 10 executions with attacks on the authorities; this one makes eleven down, another kidnapped:

 ~ From Zeta:

 

 Matan a uno y privan de la libertad a otro en San Quintín

Destacados: Redacción Zeta  - miércoles, 9 junio, 2021 12:30 PM

 "On the morning of this Wednesday, June 9, two separate violent events were recorded in the municipality of San Quintín, where one person lost his life and another apparently was deprived of liberty.

The first was at 06:33 hours on Emiliano Zapata street in the Vicente Guerrero delegation, it was reported through the 911 emergency line that subjects were following an individual through a property located one block from the Liconsa store.

Upon arrival, the municipal public security elements found the man lying with several injuries from a firearm, for which they called emergency services who declared him without vital signs.

Officials from the State Attorney General's Office (FGE) arrived at the scene to collect evidence and initiate the corresponding investigation into the murder.

In a separate case, on one side of the Kenton volcano, on the local road towards La Chorera, a strong mobilization was generated for a legal matter related to the restitution of a property in that area.

Around 9:00 a.m., a report was recorded about firearm detonations on the way to the oyster in San Quintín, at the height of the volcanoes.

According to the report, civilians raised a male person who is related to the same issue of property restitution, the authorities have not ruled out this version.

In the area of ​​the volcanoes there are municipal and state elements, as well as the Secretariat of National Defense (SEDENA) and the National Guard."

 

~~~~~

 

Meanwhile, this month of June in Tijuana:

 

 ~ From Zeta: 

 Reportan 8 homicidios, entre ellos tres mujeres

 Destacados : Redacción Zeta -  sábado, 19 junio, 2021 11:58 AM

 

 "In the last hours in Tijuana, eight homicides were registered, three of the female victims and three were burned. With these events, there are 131 intentional deaths in June and 961 so far in 2021.

At around 09:46 a.m. on Friday, June 18, in an abandoned property on Valle Bonito street in the Vistas del Valle neighborhood, charred human remains were found. According to the report, the emergency center was denounced about the fact which was corroborated by municipal authorities, who requested the presence of elements of the Prosecutor's Office to carry out the corresponding procedures.

Then at the edge of noon, an unidentified woman was killed by a firearm projectile when she was walking on Paseo Reforma and Article 27 streets in the Esperanza neighborhood. The victim, who was wearing denim shorts, a blue blouse, black tennis shoes and a backpack, was left lying in the road with injuries to the head and abdomen. Elements of the Red Cross arrived at the site, who determined that the lady no longer had vital signs. Four ballistic evidence was found at the crime scene.

Subsequently, in room number 308 of the Hotel Villas de Santiago located on Antigua Internacional street, corner of Lomas de la Misión, a woman of around 30 years of age was found dead, who so far has not been identified. The victim had injuries, apparently, caused by a sharp weapon to the head and chest. Hotel personnel told the authorities that the female person was found lying on the floor of the room, semi covered with two towels and with the naked eye, traces of violence could be seen.

The semi-calcined body of a woman was found on Libramiento Sur and Second Street in the El Soler neighborhood. According to the report, around 03:30 am on Saturday 19, the emergency center was informed that, apparently, the remains of a person were under flames, so firefighters came to the scene, who When they extinguished the fire, they confirmed that it was the corpse of a woman.

Also this morning, a man was found dead on an uninhabited property at Calle Real de Baja California in the Real de San Francisco neighborhood. The unidentified victim, approximately 25 years old, had gunshot wounds to the head. Five casings were collected at the site.

Then, on Boulevard 2000 in the Puerta de Plata neighborhood, it was reported that a sedan-type vehicle was on fire, so firefighters came to the scene and after putting down the accident they discovered that a burned person was in the trunk of the car.

Finally, around 08:00 hours, two men were attacked with bullets when they were in a taco stand located on Lucrecia Toriz street in the Castillo neighborhood. The victims were left lying next to the mobile food cart. Red Cross paramedics arrived at the scene, who after checking the wounded declared them dead at the scene.

In none of the events are detained persons reported."

 

~~~~~

 I have a feeling that the State Department would not only like you to reconsider even coming here, but reconsider seriously...listening to them.

Ya'll stay safe.