Latin America: Week in Review, Mexico
Mexico: Bodies Left At Veracruz Overpass Seen As Challenge To Zetas Drug Cartel
September 22, 2011 By Staff
Today in Latin America
Top Story — Mexican authorities said Wednesday that they believe the 35 bound and tortured bodies dumped by armed men beneath an overpass in the port city of Veracruz were connected to the feared Zetas drug cartel. While officials in Mexico did not say outright who they believed was behind the attack, a banner left at the scene threatened the Zetas and bore the initials “G.N.” The two letters appear to be a reference to a group aligned with Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, the leader of the Sinaloa cartel and considered the wealthiest drug trafficker in the world, according to a U.S. law enforcement agent. However the same official said it would be surprising to see Guzmán’s group making inroads into Veracruz as the Sinaloa Cartel chiefly operates out the Pacific Mexican state of its namesake. The state of Veracruz has long been controlled by the Gulf Cartel, but the Zetas have established a presence in the region after the government cracked down on their home state of Tamaulipas last year.
Read More From The Houston Chronicle.
Just Published at the Latin America News Dispatch
- Check out our continuing coverage this week of the United Nations General Assembly.
- Mexican President Felipe Calderón called on the U.S. government to reduce weapon sales to Mexico and domestic demand for illegal drugs, in a talk before business leaders at the Waldorf-Astoria on Monday. Mari Hayman has more.
Headlines from the Western Hemisphere
North America
- Mexico City’s left-leaning mayor said he will seek the candidacy for the presidential nomination of the leftist Democratic Revolution Party.
- A study by Tucson-based nonprofit No More Deaths alleges that U.S. Border Patrol agents denied food, water and medical treatment to undocumented immigrants coming from Mexico.
- Two senior Republican lawmakers questioned the objectivity and independence of a U.S. Justice Department investigation into a botched gun-running operation.
- Immigration advocates in Tennessee contend that Latinos in the town of Shelbyville were purposely coerced by federal officials during immigration raids.
Caribbean
- The Dominican Republic’s National Drugs Control Agency (DNCD) president affirmed Wednesday that his assistant, Army colonel Cesar Augusto Ubrí, was gunned down Sunday night to steal his vehicle.
- Former Haitian dictator Jean-Claude “Baby-Doc” Duvalier, who, along with his father, is thought to be responsible for the deaths of 20,000 to 30,000 Haitians, is enjoying the high life after returning to Haiti.
- A plane crashed outside of the northern city of Cap-Haitien, Haiti, on Wednesday with no word on whether there were casualties.
Central America
- Costa Rica’s Foreign Minister Enrique Castillo said the Nicaragua is still considered its neighboring country’s enemy, six months after a land dispute between the two countries.
- A landlslide due to heavy rains earlier this week in northern Guatemala killed three children and another 12 people
Andes
- Bolivian President Evo Morales wants the U.S. to be subject to drug certification, just like other nations, for cooperation on combating drug trafficking.
- Colombian police announced Wednesday that they had seized $250 million in assets of Mexican drug cartel kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, the head of the Sinaloa drug cartel, in Bogotá.
- The Venezuelan government said it would pay Exxon-Mobil $1 billion in exchange for the nationalization of its assets in 2007.
Southern Cone
- Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff made history as the first female speaker to open debate at the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday in New York.
- Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner threatened to stop allowing Chilean flights to land in Argentina on their way to the Falkland Islands if Britain doesn’t resume talks on the disputed islands.
- Two of the 33 rescued Chilean miners arrived in Calgary to speak to crowds about their ordeal in the San José mine.
Image: RussBowling @ Flickr.
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[…] week, uniformed gunmen dumped 35 bodies beneath an overpass in the port city of Veracruz. While officials in Mexico have not made clear who was behind the attack, a banner left at the […]
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