Pubdate: Thu, 17 May 2007
Source: San Antonio Express-News (TX)
Copyright: 2007 San Antonio Express-News
Contact: http://www.mysanantonio.com/help/feedback/
Website: http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/384
Author: Mariano Castillo

BLOOD MARKS NEW PEOPLE'S ENTRANCE INTO THE DRUG WAR

LAREDO -- A series of chilling notes found attached to the bodies of 
homicide victims last month in Veracruz, Mexico, announced a new 
actor in the country's ongoing drug wars.

But no one is quite sure what to make of the shadowy and violent 
group that calls itself the "Gente Nueva," or New People -- and 
authorities don't want to talk about it.

The methods employed by the Gente -- the menacing notes, Web-posted 
videos, the types of torture and execution, the quasi-patriotic 
rhetoric -- suggest a vigilante group is confronting the Gulf Cartel 
and its enforcement arm, known as Los Zetas, in the old port city.

"It's an ominous sign if that is in fact true," said Bruce Bagley, an 
expert on drug trafficking at the University of Miami.

Nationwide, some speak of the "Colombianization" of Mexico because 
the drug violence still is in full swing -- with more than 700 
narco-killings reported this year -- despite strenuous federal 
efforts to tamp it down.

But Colombia's drug violence of the 1980s and 1990s was part of a de 
facto civil war involving guerillas and private armies.

Until now, Mexico's battles have been limited to feuding cartels and 
their enemies and allies among the police.

Mexican officials refused to talk about the Gente Nueva. One U.S. 
official familiar with the Veracruz area said, "we don't know much" 
about the group.

Another U.S. official based on the border referred to the Gente as 
vigilantes in one interview, but later said the group worked for the 
Sinaloa Cartel, the Gulf Cartel's bitter rival.

The only thing known for sure is that the group has stirred fear. In 
the Gulf Coast state of Veracruz, a new chapter of the drug war is playing out.

Note 1: "We're Gente Nueva and this will befall everyone who supports 
the Zetas. For a clean Mexico. Sincerely, Gente Nueva."

Mexico was introduced to the Gente Nueva in a note found March 27 
next to two bodies dumped in the port of Veracruz.

Unlike most cartel killings, where victims are usually executed with 
a shot to the head, these two had no bullet wounds. One had his 
throat slit, and the other was strangled, according to the state 
attorney general's office.

While police still were sorting out the crime and deciphering the 
note, a video was released on the Internet that answered some of the questions.

It showed the two victims, who identified themselves as Jesus Arano 
Servin and Victor Manuel Perez Rocha, tied to chairs and answering 
questions from an unseen interrogator, with four masked men holding 
automatic rifles behind them.

The pair claimed to be members of the Gulf Cartel. They spilled the 
beans about local cops on their payroll, listing names. They said 
that a new leader from Nuevo Laredo, identified only as Z-40, had 
been sent to take over Veracruz operations for the cartel.

Three days later, another video surfaced on the Web. A shirtless man 
also claiming to be a Zeta was beaten and then beheaded with a 
garrote -- a brutal strangulation method associated with paramilitary groups.

"Do your patriotic duty, kill a Zeta," was the title of the video.

Note 2: "Greetings from the Gente Nueva: Z-40, here is Alvarado the 
errand-boy. And any (expletive) who supports the Zetas will be found 
just like this (expletive). You're next: Claudia, Andres, Javadia, 
Carranza, Napo, Norteno, Feyo, Travieso, Diego, Rosario and you 
Muneco, you're following soon. Sincerely, Gente Nueva"

This second note, another threat against the Zetas, was attached to a 
body found in the city of Xalapa on April 8.

Officials said the man had been executed but didn't identify him. 
Reporters recognized some of the names on the note from the video 
confession of the first victims.

The mysterious Gente Nueva grabbed headlines in local newspapers, 
though no one knew who they were -- some reports labeled the group as 
"paramilitary," some as just another drug gang.

The regional office of the federal attorney general's office, known 
by its Spanish acronym PGR, is investigating the slayings. It 
wouldn't comment on the case.

A week after the second note, a ferocious gun battle erupted on a 
highway near the town of Soledad de Doblado, near the port. Notiver, 
a local newspaper, said it was between the Zetas and the Gente Nueva 
and an unknown number of people were killed.

Police recovered a small arsenal of weapons and more than 3,000 spent 
shells and live rounds at the scene, the paper reported.

Note 3: "This for lending my ranch to those (expletive) who said they 
would protect me when the Zetas arrived, but left me to die alone. 
This is for you Florentino Estrada Rosas. I'm the deceased, Mario 
Cano Sanchez, Tenexpan," (sic)

The Zetas sent their own note April 16. It was found on a body in Xalapa.

The victim actually was named Mario Camo Sanchez, from Tenenexpan, a 
ranching community in Veracruz state. Camo was identified by local 
media as an area rancher whose land the Gente Nueva allegedly used as a base.

The street shootout and the tit-for-tat killing resembled a 
long-established pattern in other cities of reprisals between the 
Gulf and Sinaloa cartels.

The Gente Nueva "are paid and supported by Chapo's people," asserted 
the U.S. official who believes the group works for the Sinaloa 
Cartel, whose leader is Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman.

Rather than a vigilante group, the Gente Nueva could be part of an 
increasing number of minicartels, or "cartelitos," who align 
themselves with bigger operations, said Bagley, the university professor.

Because the evidence of its vigilante nature is strong, history says 
the Gente Nueva could be both.

In Colombia in the early 1990s, a vigilante group called Los Pepes 
went after drug kingpin Pablo Escobar in a similar fashion, killing 
his men and leaving threatening notes.

Los Pepes operated on its own but received some funding from rival cartels.

The danger in this precedent, Bagley said, is that Los Pepes 
eventually morphed into the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, 
or AUC, a paramilitary group responsible for numerous human rights 
abuses. It continues to haunt that country.

Note 4: "Here we send you a gift (expletive) reporters (expletive). 
Many more heads will roll like this, Milo Vela knows and others will 
too. 100 heads for my father. Sincerely, son of Mario Camo Sanchez 
and the Gente Nueva."

The most recent note, found next to a human head in the city of 
Veracruz on May 3, was disconcerting to reporters, who took it as a 
threat to their profession.

"As simple mortals we can't do anything. We're always powerless 
against those who arrive with all of the power that some mob boss has 
given them," Notiver columnist Antonio Armenta Nunez wrote about the 
wave of violence.

The note appeared to single out Emilio Vela, one of his Notiver colleagues.

As the killings continue, Veracruz is cowering.

"I've heard of the group, we all have," said Moises Gonzalez, 
spokesman for the state's ministry of public safety. "But I can't 
help you. I don't know who would dare to talk about that."
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman