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Here is an excerpt from this story in The Monitor:
"Hundreds of families have fled thisPueblo Magico amid
reported death threats from drug cartel thugs. About 300 people are
seeking shelter in nearby Miguel Alemán, the nearest city to this town
across the border from western Starr County. Sources said after [Antonio
Ezequiel 'Tony Tormenta] Cárdenas’ slaying Friday, members of Los
Zetas, the drug cartel controlling Mier, were yelling in the streets
that they were going to kill everybody who remained in the town,
sparking the exodus from town. Mexican Army officials in Reynosa and
Nuevo Laredo denied knowing of any recent violence in Ciudad Mier. The
military sources denied any knowledge about the threats. And today,
authorities said they will need to open another shelter... Authorities
in Miguel Aleman are helping the people, but nothing is being done to
solve the situation in Ciudad Mier." Link to Full Article
And here is an excerpt from a separate but related story by Melissa Del Bosque in
The Texas Observer:
"Residents in Mexican border cities including Ciudad Mier and Nuevo Guerrero have
been living unde siege-like conditions for the past year. They are
living without electricity, water. Their gas stations have been
incinerated in a scorched earth campaign to take over the area as a
prime drug smuggling route. One resident of Ciudad Mier, said cartel
members have threatened to dynamite her town of 6,000 inhabitants, which
neighbors Roma, Texas. With the death of Gulf Cartel capo Tony
Tormenta in Matamoros last week, the bloody fighting over territory with
the Zeta cartel has escalated to the point that Ciudad Mier residents
started fleeing their town last Friday to take refuge in the neighboring
city of Miguel Aleman... A resident of Ciudad Mier in the Monitor
article described his city as a ghost town: 'The authorities do not go
there. There are no soldiers there. There is nobody,' the former Mier
resident said. 'The mayor is not there anymore, there is no police, no
traffic authority — nobody. It’s a ghost town. All the businesses are
closed. If you want an aspirin, you have to travel to Miguel Alemán, and
by bus, because if you drive they take away your car.'" Link to Full Article
Analysis: I'll be the first to admit that I've never heard of Ciudad Mier prior to
reading these stories, let alone know about the extent of the violence
going on there. This isn't the first time something this extreme has
happened there, either. Hundreds of people have reportedly been killed
there this year, although there's no official body count. In nearby
Nueva Ciudad Guerrero, the town's only gas station has been blown up by narcos, food
is in short supply, and federal police forces have moved out -
essentially ceding control to the DTOs. On the other side of Ciudad Mier
in Ciudad Miguel Alemán, the commander of the state police there had
his severed head recently delivered to a nearby military post.
Here's a map image of the area so you can get a better idea of where this is
going on. Also, I need to show you something interesting:
You see that large lake in the northwest corner of the map? That's Falcon
Lake, where David Hartley was reportedly shot and killed by junior
members of Los Zetas last month in a possible case of mistaken identity.
So the violent activity in these towns comes as no surprise because we
know it's a hotbed of DTO activity.
What does blow my mind is the threats by Los Zetas to kill everyone in the
town of Ciudad Mier. The immediate, dramatic, and desperate response by
the town tells me these threats were not overestimated, misunderstood,
or mistranslated. The threats to kill hundreds of innocent men, women,
and children also goes well beyond any traditional definition of
activity carried out by mere organized crime.
Here's
some raw video of what Ciudad Mier looks like now (i.e. a ghost town),
and how its residents are waiting things out in Ciudad Miguel Alemán:
I welcome any civil, logical, and intelligent attempts to convince me
that this is just criminal activity and not some form of terrorism. And
before you respond, do a little bit of research on the history of the
AUC (United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia) and their methods. Just a
hint: The AUC had no ideology and no desire to take over the government;
they were paramilitaries acting as enforcers for Colombian drug lords.
They were also designated a terrorist group by the US government in
2001. |
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reprinted from 'Mexico's Drug War"
