The Naked City

February 21 2010

EASY MONEY

Critics claim Felipe Calderón’s government is in league with Sinaloa drug cartel.

Last week in Mexico, critics of President Felipe Calderón’s administration ratcheted up claims that Calderón is playing favorites in his high-profile war on drugs. Arrest records going back to 2003 show that the Sinaloa Cartel, which is responsible for 45% of drug trafficking in Mexico, has suffered only a handful of arrests—none involving high-ranking members. Even as a group of investigative reporters pointed out last week that this indicated possible collusion between Calderón and the Sinaloa Cartel, two more Sinaloa members were arrested, but again they were little more than errand boys—sacrificial lambs, according to skeptics.

The Sinaloa Cartel is run by Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán, seen at lower right in the photo. He is estimated to have amassed more than a billion dollars trafficking cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamines to the U.S. Calderón denies being in league with Guzmán, yet statistics reveal that his military-style drug war has targeted only the weakest cartels, such as Familiana Michoacana. It’s also indisputable that 15,000 lives have been lost with no measurable benefits—save for the infusion of hundreds of millions of dollars of U.S. financial support, money that comes directly from American taxpayers.

The feeling among some Mexicans is that Calderón is playing both ends against the middle—accepting American cash, while receiving kickbacks from Guzmán to leave his operation unmolested. If so, it would represent a scam of breathtaking proportions, even in the chaotic world of drug interdiction. A more charitable interpretation is that Calderón simply believes the Sinaloa Cartel is too powerful to tackle, and that an all-out assault would lead to even more violence that might destabilize the entire country. Calderón’s critics have asked for answers to these latest questions, but so far he has had no comment.

Mexico, Sinaloa, Tijuana, Felipe Calderón, Joaquin Guzmán, drugs

The Naked City

December 17 2009

TO LIVE AND DIE IN CUERNAVACA

Another drug lord bites the dust.

Yesterday in Mexico, drug lord Marcos Arturo Beltrán Leyva was shot dead by navy personnel during a raid on a luxury apartment complex near Cuernavaca. Known as “The Boss of Bosses,” Beltrán Leyva had always been on the radar of president Felipe Calderón, who even approved a $2.4 million bounty. And back in August, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced a federal indictment against the drug lord for smuggling billions of dollars worth of cocaine across the U.S./Mexico border.

After this slow ratcheting up of pressure, Calderón finally made the move to apprehend Beltrán Leyva after the severed heads of five police officers and a prosecutor were found in streetside garbage Wednesday morning by sanitation workers in the state of Durango. President Calderón is touting the Beltrán Leyva killing as a success in his much-publicized drug war, which many observers had seen as little more than a highly destructive standoff. But even in the afterglow of yesterday’s events, government officials admit that unless the U.S. demand for cocaine diminishes, Beltrán Leyva simply represents the latest in a long line of drug lords.

Mexico, Durango, Cuernavaca, Felipe Calderón, Marcos Arturo Beltrán Leyva, Eric Holder, drugs

The Naked City

November 25 2008

TRAFFIC COP

Who could resist the promise of $5 million a year? Certainly not Mexico’s drug tsar.

Mexico has accused its former top drug cop of accepting bribes from a drug cartel. According to officials, Noe Ramirez Mandujano—then head of the Special Organized Crime Investigation Division—took $450,000 from a member of the Pacific drug cartel. Ramirez was promised identical amounts monthly in exchange for inside information about police activities. The potential of nearly $5 million a year was enough to corrupt Ramirez and, before being arrested Thursday, he allegedly met twice with members of the cartel to solidify the deal.

Mexican president Felipe Calderon has lately cracked down on police corruption after the U.S. government, which funds a large part of Mexico’s drug war, tied up about $45 million in funds until an effort was made to root out bad cops and officials. Calderon said about the arrest: “The Mexican government is strongly committed to fighting against not only organized crime but the corruption that organized crime generates, and that has become entrenched over years and perhaps decades in the structures of power.”

The scandal is the most serious in Mexico since the 1997 arrest of Jesus Gutierrez Rebollo, who was then the top man at Mexico’s anti-drug agency and whose illicit dealings with drug lords provided the basis for the Hollywood movie Traffic. Despite President Calderon’s efforts to put a positive spin on Ramirez’s arrest, the event only reinforces suspicions among a cynical public that police corruption is rampant. These suspicions are not exactly unfounded. An early 2008 study conducted by the non-profit organization Transparency Mexico showed that Mexican citizens doled out US$2.58 billion in bribes in 2007.

Mexico, Noe Ramirez, Felipe Calderón, Jesus Gutierrez Rebollo, drugs

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HISTORY REWIND

The headlines that mattered yesteryear.

April 12

1945—Franklin Roosevelt Dies

U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt dies of a cerebral hemorrhage while sitting for a portrait in the White House. After a White House funeral on April 14, Roosevelt’s body is transported by train to his hometown of Hyde Park, New York, and on April 15 he is buried in the rose garden of the Roosevelt family home.

April 11

1916—Richard Harding Davis Dies

American journalist, playwright, and author Richard Harding Davis dies of a heart attack at home in Philadelphia. Not widely known now, Davis was one of the most important and influential war correspondents ever, establishing his reputation by reporting on the Spanish-American War, the Second Boer War, and World War I, as well as his general travels to exotic lands.

April 10

1919—Zapata Is Killed

In Mexico, revolutionary leader Emiliano Zapata is shot dead by government forces in the state of Morelos, after a carefully planned ambush. Following the killing, Zapata’s revolutionary movement and his Liberation Army of the South slowly fall apart, but his political influence lasts in Mexico to the present day.

April 10

1925—Great Gatsby Is Published

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby is published in New York City by Charles Scribner’s Sons. Though Gatsby is Fitzgerald’s best known book today, it was not a success upon publication, and at the time of his death in 1940, Fitzgerald was mostly forgotten as a writer and considered himself to be a failure.

April 9

1968—Martin Luther King Buried

American clergyman and civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., is buried five days after being shot dead on a Memphis, Tennessee motel balcony. April 7th had been declared a national day of mourning by President Lyndon B. Johnson, and King’s funeral on the 9th is attended by thousands of supporters, and Vice President Hubert Humphrey.

BRAZIL UNDERGROUND

Edições de Ouro and Editora Tecnoprint published U.S. crime novels for the Brazilian market, with excellent reworked cover art to appeal to local sensibilities. We have a small collection worth seeing.

FLUENT IN VIOLENCE

Walter Popp cover art for Richard Powell's 1954 crime novel Say It with Bullets.

IN HOT WATER

There have been some serious injuries on pulp covers. This one is probably the most severe—at least in our imagination. It was painted for Stanley Morton's 1952 novel Yankee Trader.