The grim truth of Los Cabos

The truth of Los Cabos 

There are signs.  Messages in the bodies, signals in the bound, executed bodies, who lay in the sun, or sit in the dark, until they are discovered.  There are patterns in the bullets, the ring of heavy arms firing from shoulders of men wearing t shirts and jeans, chasing down another, emptying bullets into the fleeing, until they are lifeless and bleed out, onto the pavement.

There is a sense of familiarly and foreboding in the coolers with body parts, with lifeless severed heads, twisted expressions and slicked, damp hair, eyes staring out of the OXXO coolers.  The mass graves, the fosas, the digging, shovels and heavy equipment, unearthing the secrets men tell, when they are alone, tired, beaten and bloody too, they whisper "I will tell you where there are bodies". Where we buried the bodies.   

I've never been to Acapulco, but I learned the signs from there.  I remember the first public shootouts, April 2010, making headlines, SUV's in the tourist district firing from vehicle to vehicle, with multiple dead, after terrorizing those who witnessed the gunfight.  There were pictures of the cars, bullets torn throw windshields, bodies on the street.  

It didn't take long from there.  There were mass graves discovered soon enough, in the fall of 2010, when 20 plus men from Mexico City on vacation vanished, tourists, innocents, they were kidnapped, killed, and thrown in the mass graves.  This was ordered by Carlos Montemayor "El Charro" La Barbie's father in law, who was detained in late 2010, and extradited to the United States some years later. 

That was only the beginning. 2011 in Acapulco began with beheading of nearly 30 people, heads and bodies displayed on a public street, and the rest of the year felt like that day, over and over again, as reports of atrocities came out on a daily, weekly basis.  The CIDA, Los Rojos, and the other factions splintered, and splintered again, heads, bodies, and constant killings, more brutal then the last continued.

There are differences to be noted.  Acapulco had long been a narco city, controlled by the Beltran-Leyva's until Arturo's killing in late 2009, which preceded the unraveling of Acapulco by less then 6 months.  There were heavily armed and established cells under Arturo Beltran, and when they split, they all tore at each other viciously and intimately, like the Teo/Inge wars of Tijuana.  They knew each other's secrets and families, girlfriends, and kids. 

Los Cabos never had that, while no doubt it was a sanctuary for traffickers since the 80's, it was never an important plaza for staging, and the retail market was independent to a degree.  That's all changed now, as cells have moved in to fight for these very markets, that were nonexistent to a degree 10 years ago, before the crystal meth expansion pushed it into the major markets and cities across Baja. 

As Alejandro Hope noted in an article in June, the similarities between Los Cabos, Acapulco, Cancun are there.  He describes how the cities themselves, are breeding grounds for the kind of insecurity and descent into chaos we have witnessed.  There is overwhelming concentrated urban poverty in all these places, pushing out for the main tourists and upscale areas, which are a small, and outnumbered portion of the city.  The murders were 300 last year, and will be more this year, they have passed 200 already. 

Most of the cities population is below the poverty line, in whatever scale you wish to use.  There is no real economy, besides tourism, and construction, based on tourism.  What economy there is besides that is vulnerable to extortion. There are a lot of young men, young people, who are able to be recruited for the killing, participating the drug trade, extortion, kidnapping.  Endless recruits.  And, then you bring in the drugs.  Get the young recruits addicted, and use them until they are worthless, then kill them, and recruit another.  It's what is done in Tijuana.

The cell leaders and shifting alliances, is the same as Acapulco, as names like El Javier, Los Mayitos, Los Pepillos, El Lucifer, El Babay, who was arrested in June.  Some are detained, some are murdered outside clubs in Zona Dorada, like "El Docil", executed by ambush,  in December 2015, after watching Revolver Canabis perform, or El Javier executed in Culiacan in June 2016.  

The shootouts, then the executions, then the narco messages, then the fosas, then the mass graves, and public killings.  These have all happened already.  And they haven't stopped or slowed down.  6 bodies were found dismembered in various locations in March.  In April, a journalist, Maximino Rodriguez Palacios was murdered, who reported on crime and security in Baja California Sur.  In early May 8 men were killed in a shootout with authorities, they were said to be part of a cell of Damaso Lopez.   June, saw the uncovering of another fosa with 14 bodies, that I believe grew to 22, in the passing days.   June also saw another two heads found in coolers.     

A family of five was attacked on Palmilla Beach, over the weekend.  A group of gunmen exited vehicles and fired on the family with pistols and assault rifles, killing three men, and leaving a small child, and a mother alive, likely by chance. Less than 2 days ago, a man was executed, again in daylight  after being pursued by gunmen in the tourist zone Plaza Peninsula.  That was 9 killed over the weekend, including other executions. 

This isn't about Los Cabos being safe or unsafe for tourists, it is still safe.  Go today.  But, don't close your eyes to the reality, and don't think because you are safe in a resort, that you aren't aware of the violence that has descended to these places, because of the kind of inequality expressed by the dynamic of the tourist city. They don't want to know, they don't want to see.  They want their instagram shots, and their quick vacation, they want to be passive.  They want to look away from the violence.  Hope calls these places a facade. Potemkin by the Sea. 

Tourists marvel at the low cost, the beauty of the city, the paradise, the selfies, the snapchats, the beaches and bikini's, unaware, or uncaring what is bred across the city, where that cost is paid for in blood. A place where lives are cheap, and men plan executions in safe houses, and stalk their targets, to catch them, at the beach, exposed, shirtless, with family, enjoying the breeze, and the clear, clue water, stretching out across the Pacific.

Sources: Zeta Tijuana, Alejandro Hope's article:

 http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/entrada-de-opinion/columna/alejandro-hope/nacion/2017/06/12/bienvenidos-al-infierno