A priest offers sanctuary to illegal immigrants the way they need police protection. A corpse is found with a threatening message. Increase the beheadings. Local media are not encouraged to report thereon. This is not northern Mexico, where drug gangs are fighting to control the border with the United States and resist a government offensive. It is the south, where the Zetas cartel quietly spread the terror almost unopposed and his influence extends to the border with Guatemala, and even the other side.
As they have in the north, organizations that claim to be part of the armed Zetas networks that control the drug traffic routes, undocumented and other contraband, such as DVDs, intimidating the population and committing gruesome murders as a warning to who do not cooperate.
Los Zetas began four years ago to move into the south, the poorest region of Mexico. Appeared in Oaxaca, Chiapas and other southern states, then in northern Guatemala, where their attacks on local people are so common that last month the government sent 300 soldiers to recover control of the border province of Alta Verapaz.
In the towns of the Isthmus of Oaxaca and in the center of the city of Oaxaca, the capital, there have been kidnappings of rich people and illegal street vendors or in passing.
is suspected that the same band that is responsible for the massacre of 72 foreigners in transit last year in Tamaulipas is responsible for the recent disappearance of more than 40 American in Oaxaca. The kidnapping generated great interest when the Salvadoran government news reported them. The Mexican government initially denied that there had been abductions.
Central Americans were last seen on December 16 in Ixtepec, stop in the journey making thousands of illegal immigrants attempting to reach the United States using freight trains heading north. A score of American, including several Hondurans escaped and went to a shelter run by the Rev. Alexander Solalinde, who said he had received information that the kidnappers are linked to the Zetas.
Mexico's attorney general announced this month the arrest of three Nicaraguan and a Mexican in connection with the kidnapping, but said nothing about the Zetas or missing undocumented.
Mexicans say the Zetas hired ex-insurgency forces soldiers to train recruits. Last year we found a camp Guatemalan side of the border.
Alejandro Poire, a spokesman for the Mexican government on security issues, said the alleged activities of Zetas in the south are nothing compared to what happens in the north, where there are shootings and grenade attacks in broad daylight since separated from the Gulf Cartel.
However, Solalinde says the Zetas are a terrible facto power. "
"Unfortunately, we have a very corrupt country, where law enforcement agencies are infiltrated" by elements of the underworld, said the priest.
Four days after reporting the abduction and mention that you could be the work of the Zetas, the priest was visited by a man who police say is a known gunman. Police monitored
now the refuge, which has rooms unfinished concrete block, in which illegal immigrants sleeping on cardboard or blankets, in the midst of dogs and cats.
"It's dangerous," said Solalinde. "But imagine if we all keep quiet, if we all looked the other way, if nobody does anything. It would be terrible for Mexico."
Los Zetas impose a reign of terror, threatening police, officials, journalists and all who are in their path.
In November, in a picturesque cliff from which there are beautiful views of Oaxaca, police found the decapitated head of an individual-wrapped gift. Contained a threatening message signed by "Z", apparently alluding to the Zetas.
Juchitan In the city of unidentified individuals threw a man beheaded on a road in November and was found dismembered in May, with a note saying he was killed by impersonating a Zeta.
"There are places, canteens, where they sell drugs, where they join the Zetas. Everyone knows, but nobody does anything, "said a local journalist who asked not be named for fear of reprisals.
The authorities deny that they are not doing anything. In Chiapas, the state border with Guatemala, were fired or arrested more than 240 agents since 2008, accused of working for Zetas, according to the Department of Public Safety.
Los Zetas have no rivals in the south, according to Savant Group, a Washington organization that specializes in the study of security issues.
While other organizations are scrambling to maintain control of Pacific ports and routes used by smugglers in the north, the Zetas generate hundreds of millions of dollars from extortion and smuggling of goods that come from Guatemala.
The national government admits that the Zetas are not concentrated in a specific region, like other posters, and displayed in any sector of the country. They operate like a business, sending a delegate to a sector that want to control, which recruits people from the area.
Central Americans want to get to the north have no choice but to risk their lives crossing through territory controlled by the Zetas.
In Ixtepec refugee center, Denis Torres, a Honduran construction worker of 24 years, says he launched the tour even though his family begged him to stay in Tegucigalpa. He said he wanted to go with a guy who lives in Miami, where he was promised a job in construction.
"Travelling with fear, thinking that you can kidnap and torture for the simple fact that you are seeking the American dream," he said.
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