A Brief History
On August 24, 2010, 72 bodies of illegal immigrants were found in a mass grave by Mexican military units that had just ended a shootout with the dreaded drug and crime cartel, Los Zetas. They had been blindfolded and handcuffed before being shot in the back of the head. Perhaps the most pervasive of the Mexican criminal gangs and drug-trafficking cartels, Los Zetas are known for their brutality and are quick to use force and terror instead of coercion and bribery.
Digging Deeper
The unfortunate illegal immigrants came to Mexico from even poorer countries in South and Central America and had been kidnapped, while they sat in buses, by the Los Zetas thugs for the dual purpose of depriving rival drug cartels of labor and to enslave the immigrants for their own needs.
Apparently the immigrants had been slaughtered in what became known as the 2010 San Fernando Massacre because they had refused to work for Los Zetas or because they could not pay a ransom for their release. Not surprisingly, considering the miserable state of law enforcement and lack of government control over drug lords, the Chief of Police who investigated the massacre was himself murdered. The ring leader of the massacre, Edgar “El Wache“ Montiel, was captured by Mexican Federal Police in 2011, and another 80 arrests followed his, though those arrested have not yet been sentenced, something for which the government has not offered a satisfactory explanation.
It was an Ecuadorian who had survived the massacre by playing dead despite being shot in the face and neck who notified the authorities at a military checkpoint. As the largest single massacre by Mexican drug thugs to date, the incident caused international outrage. Unfortunately, there was to be more sad news when a further 193 bodies, also victims of Los Zetas, were later unearthed following what was called the 2011 or Second San Fernando Massacre. Montiel bragged that over 600 such bodies existed, with some of the victims having been forced to fight each other to the death for the amusement of Los Zetas.
The rampant lawlessness in Mexico and the government’s inability to control it have become a major topics of discussion in the American political arena, particularly in the United States, and are currently treated as hot potatoes thrown around by politicians, especially the Republican presidential candidates, with real estate mogul Donald Trump leading the hue and cry.
Question for students (and subscribers): Is there anything the United States can do about this situation? Is this really a “clear and present danger” to the well being of the U.S. that would justify military type action? Let us know what you think, and if you can offer a solution, in the comments section below this article.
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Grayson, George W. The Los Zetas Drug Cartel – Sadism as an Instrument of Cartel Warfare in Mexico and Central America. Didactic Press, 2015.
