"What's behind Mexican migrant killings still unclear."

Here is an excerpt from Tim Johnson's article in McClatchy Newspapers:

"President Felipe Calderon on Friday accused the gunmen who killed 72 illegal migrants in northern Mexico this week of "incalculable savagery" as his government attempted to depict the   major drug gang implicated in the slaughter as weakened and desperate. The discovery of the grisly massacre Tuesday night at a ranch near San Fernando, about 45 miles southwest of Brownsville, Texas, put the spotlight on Los Zetas, a crime syndicate based along the Gulf Coast of Mexico that has international tentacles. The massacre — and its murky motives — continued to shake Mexico on Friday... Calderon himself also confirmed that two state criminal investigators who'd been assigned to probe the slayings had vanished... Alejandro Poire of the National Security Council said the gunmen had captured the migrants and given them a choice: Work for Los Zetas as gunslingers and peons, or face death. When the 58 male and 14 female migrants resisted, they were killed... However, an Austin, Texas-based strategic intelligence research group, Stratfor, said in a report Friday that Los Zetas, sometimes called simply the 'Z's,' indeed are hurting... Another analyst of Mexico's security situation, Edgardo Buscaglia, cast doubt on official accounts of the massacre and criticized Calderon's handling of it... 'The president, unfortunately, looks at all of this as a media war,' Buscaglia said. The portrayal of Los Zetas as weakened 'is a marketing story' to deal with the international black eye Mexico has suffered with the massacre,' he said." Link to Full Article

Analysis: So unfortunately, it looks like there's still a lot of doubt surrounding this incident, despite the extensive media coverage over the last few days. Was it really Los Zetas who committed this heinous act? If so, are they weakened or stronger than ever? And did they kill the migrants because they needed the manpower, or simply because they couldn't pay ransom?

The reason that the Mexican government believes it was Los Zetas is because the one man who survived the mass killing told authorities that the shooters identified themselves as such. I know of several instances where Los Zetas have had no problems taking credit for things or advertising themselves, so that's not out of the ordinary. However, this also sets them up to be framed, as it were, by rivals. The area where the massacre occurred has been Gulf cartel territory for some time, but Borderland Beat reported in mid-June that gunmen belonging to Los Zetas had attacked other cities and towns under the control of the Gulf cartel in the previous two weeks, including Mier, Reynosa, Tampico and Valle Hermoso. It's likely the killers were Zetas, but keep in mind the possibility that men from the Gulf cartel could be setting up their former partners. And who better to take the bait than non-Mexican migrants who aren't as familiar with the workings of the different Mexican DTOs? I know it's a stretch, and such a plan would have been useless if that one migrant hadn't gotten away from them.

As for Los Zetas losing strength, that's also possible. They had gotten strong enough that the Sinaloa Federation, La Familia, and the Gulf cartel felt the need to (temporarily, of course) join forces in order to put Los Zetas out of business. Considering how much bad blood there is between the Federation and the CDG, that alliance speaks volumes to the capabilities Los Zetas had achieved. So does this mean that the alliance was doing its job, and the massacre was an act of desperation? I'm not so sure. Remember, Los Zetas share a special bond and have a whole truckload of special forces training. This is what makes them some of the best and most efficient killers in Mexico. Heck, they were recruiting the Guatemalan Kaibiles to help them. Why all of a sudden would they want to forcibly recruit a group of 72 non-Mexican migrants into their organization (as slaves or otherwise) who aren't trained or vetted? They probably have a line of former cops and soldiers a mile long wanting to work for them and make the money they do. They'd also be better off just subcontracting to a Mexican gang.

We know that the methods of killing have become increasingly brutal over the years because, in a way, they have to. Just like TV or video games, we become insensitive to certain things over time, so DTOs have to get creative or just do something over-the-top to get a rival's--or the government's--attention. This could be a "simple" case of an opportunity for some Zetas to extort a large group of unfortunate immigrants from other countries. Maybe they felt less sympathy for them because they weren't their countrymen. Who knows? When the migrants couldn't pay up, the killers might have seen that as a chance to teach them a lesson, earn some street cred, and send a message at the same time.

These are just a few of the possibilities that have crossed my mind, and the truth is often far stranger than anything I can come up with on my own. Considering that investigators of the killings are now starting to disappear, we may never get to the bottom of the story.

Comments

[Kevin]

I believe sometimes the best answer is the most obvious one..and in this case..its the Zetas. If I've researched correctly, they are heavily involved in human trafficking, extortion and smuggling as a part of their business. And when your "company" is full of killers,pyschopaths, and degenerates running the show, well atrocities like this probably happen more often then not.

And another point is these "in-humans" have not a shred of sympathy for their own country men much less people from another country. NOTHING is worth more then the almighty Dollar. Not love, not compassion, not emotion, just greed and ego.

The truth in the matter is much uglier then we would all dare to think. How many are still missing that we do not know of...but are lying in a mass grave somewhere in mexico to never be found for all time? Quite a few I'd say.

[gomez]

i strongly doubt the theory about another dto trying to frame the zetas. they would have to be medical experts be able to shoot someone in the neck in a manner that would allow that person to live and walk for miles. i doubt that they could have shot the lone survivor and dropped him off with orders to put the finger on the z. if someone was trying to frame the z, then why only leave one survivor who is apparently mortally wounded?

[Fred Hiker]

The murdering of the seventy some people while being horrific, certainly cannot be deemed as unexpected nor more shocking than the many other gruesome events taking place in Mexico over the past few years. When a country where it has become the norm for the people see, and for the world to read about heads being chopped off and bodies being dismembered and publicly displayed….’’hello Huston we got a problem here’’, they’re really should be no ’surprises’ at this late date as to what these killers are capable of. The apparent fact that the investigators sent to the area by Caldron have themselves been ’disappeared’, should give rise to thought by this supposedly caring and concerned people of the world that this event is simply one act of many, and business goes on. Don’t get me wrong here because I thoroughly despise what took place with these people. However I’d be most hesitant in thinking of this as a ‘benchmark’ in the slaughter that is taking place down there. Much more to what is taking place down there than many might think…and fewer yet would like to accept.
Fred

[P]

If we take the words of the escaping hostage as being the truth - and I see no reason to doubt him - then those migrants showed real courage. The Zeta's put them under pressure to change sides and become low-level smugglers & killers. What an ugly threat. Yet the migrants refused to do the bidding of the Zeta's - and paid the price with their own blood. That is real moral courage. We should all be humbled by this.

Are the Zeta's losing strength ... I am skeptical. They are continuing to recruit new hit men from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador (esp. Guatemala). If anything, they have more possibilities for finding new recruits than some other cartels. And it's possible that this is part of the reason why the Central American migrants met such a bitter end. Some of the enforcers for the Zeta's could well have their own roots in Central America - so they show no mercy to their own people.

[Salt Lake Sam]

Also, the reasoning would be that the Zetas would be losing strength because the drug-trafficking is being curtailed. Hence, the Zetas would need other revenue sources, human-trafficking more.

Despite Tony Tormenta being killed, it seems like right now reprisals are being taken on the Zetas but who is doing that is not clear.

Thankfully these events do not seem to be going on in Puebla, state or city but it seems now, most of the country is affected.

Also, incidences like this which I guess indeed did happen seem to terrorize the population, hurt the National Government. Tamaluipas is no place to be near nowadays.