Narcoland: The Mexican Drug Lords and Their Godfathers (52 page)

24.
The PGJDF has published the findings of its investigations into these kidnappings, which it attributes to Sergio Ortiz.

25.
Reporte Índigo
, September 10, 2008. The author documented with payslips and other civil service documents that Lorena occupied a senior post in the SSP, one day after Rosas and García Luna denied it.

26.
Document of the Federal District SSP on the characteristics of the kidnap gang led by Sergio Ortiz.

27.
Reporte Índigo
, October 2, 2008. The author exposed in an exclusive report the investigation carried out by the SIEDO into these officials for alleged protection of the Sinaloa Cartel.

28.
The lawyer Raquenel Villanueva told the author that Ángela Quintero, a surgeon, was close to former Colombian president Álvaro Uribe. It seems she did not know whose party this was.

29.
Reforma
, December 13, 2008.

30.
At the scene were four men among others who opened fire to defend the Zambadas. They were serving policemen, connected to the SSP and to García Luna: Marco Valadez, assistant inspector of the PFP assigned to the international airport; Carlos Castillo, from the AFI’s Regional Deployment Directorate; José Báez, from the Intelligence Department; and Francisco Montaño, of the State of Mexico police.

31.
“Godfather” and “godson” signify intimate bonds, much like compadre, rather than a literal ceremonial kinship.
[Trans. note]

32.
Colloquial name for the Mexico City police force: “smurfs.”

33.
Reforma
, September 23, 2008.

11. THE PRESIDENT OF DEATH

1.
Sworn statement by Richard Arroyo Guízar, October 28, 2010, of which the author has a copy.

2.
The code name of José Salvador Puga Quintanilla, the former member of the Gulf Cartel who had also become a protected witness.

3.
He moved between the PF and posts elsewhere in the SSP until the end of Calderón’s mandate in 2012.

4.
Sworn statement by Edgar Enrique Bayardo del Villar, March 9, 2009.

5.
Information from Wikileaks which appeared after the first edition of this book (November 2010), cable 08, Mexico 3498.

6.
The author had access to sources who witnessed these events.

7.
The author had access to sources connected to the US government.

8.
Reforma
, November 5, 2008.

9.
The author had access to several sources that recounted the version that drug boss Ismael Zambada gave to his people, and also spoke to a member of Mouriño’s family.

10.
The author spoke directly to Mouriño’s relatives.

11.
After the first edition of this book, the author had contact with a close friend of the Mouriño family, who told her this part of the story.

12.
The author has copies of the military reports on the operation.

13.
The address is 425, Calle Fuerza Aérea Mexicana.

14.
Reforma
, December 15, 2008.

15.
Information from the National Commission for the Defense of Financial Services Users (CONDUSEF).

16.
Héctor Velázquez was secretary of administrative financial services at Congress when Felipe Calderón was leader of the parliamentary PAN group. Later Velázquez would be remembered as the official who allowed Calderón, just after the latter became director of Banobras, the state development bank, to lend himself the money to buy a house in 2006.

17.
Proceso
, no. 1896, June 26, 2012.

18.
Information provided to the author officially by the AICM.

19.
The author made a formal request in 2010 for information on how Aviones S. A. operates in the AICM, how much rent it pays, with which companies it shares its hangar space, etc. For its continued operation in the airport, see its website:
avionessa.net
(accessed March 15, 2013).

20.
Specifications of contract FAM 973/2007.

21.
Auditoría Superior de la Federación, public accounts audit for fiscal year 1999-2000, Volume 2.

22.
Sworn statement by Richard Arroyo Guízar, November 21, 2008.

23.
United States District Court, Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division, no. 09 CR 383.

24.
Edgardo Buscaglia was interviewed by the author in February 2010.

25.
In December 2012, the British bank HSBC was fined $1.9 billion for turning a blind eye to money laundering at its Mexican affiliate, HSMX. $7 billion in US bank notes had been unquestioningly transferred to its US affiliates between 2007 and 2008, according to a Senate report.

26.
In 2009, twenty-eight officials in Michoacán state, including eleven municipal presidents, were arrested on suspicion of links to organized crime.
[Trans. note]

27.
President Lugo was impeached and ousted by a right-wing Congress in June 2012.

28.
“National Drug Threat Assessment 2010,” US Department of Justice, NDIC, February 2010.

29.
Ibid.

30.
Information obtained by the author from sources directly involved in the case of Ignacio Coronel’s supposed death.

31.
El
Noroeste
, July 31, 2010, and
La Jornada
, August 1, 2010.

32.
“Strategy to Combat Transnational Organized Crime,” July 19, 2011.

33.
In June 2011, the author requested copies and results of the tests to which those closest to García Luna were subjected. The SSP refused to hand them over. The classification put on these documents by the SSP itself means that we will not be able to discover for another twelve years whether the senior SSP staff were “trustworthy.”

34.
Proceso
, no. 1777, November 21, 2010.

35.
The author has a copy of the agreement signed by the PGR and El Grande.

36.
Proceso
, no. 1883, December 2, 2012.

EPILOGUE

1.
La Familia Michoacana
was a quasi-religious, extremely savage group in Michoacán state that developed from vigilantism to working with the Zetas for the Gulf Cartel during the 1990s. They formed their own group in 2006, but have now disbanded; an offshoot is Los
Caballeros Templarios
, the Knights Templar.
[Trans. note]

2.
A controversial security cooperation agreement between the US and Mexican governments, 2008.

Glossary of Acronyms

AFI
(Agencia Federal de Investigación): Federal Investigation Agency, attached to the Ministerio Público (Public Prosecutors’ Office, under the PGR), created in 2001, replaced PJF in 2002; its functions were planned to be divided between the PFM and the PF in reform project of 2009. Only officially disbanded in 2012.

AICM
(Aeropuerto Internacional de la Ciudad de México): Mexico City International Airport.

AUC
: United Self-Defense of Colombia, right-wing paramilitary group founded by the Castaño brothers, accused of drug trafficking.

Cendro
(Centro de Planeación para el Control de Drogas): Center for Drug Control Planning, created in 1991.

Cisen
(Centro de Investigación y Seguridad Nacional): Center for Investigation and National Security, replaced DFS in 1985 as main intelligence agency.

CNDH
(Comisión Nacional de Derechos Humanos): National Human Rights Commission.

GAFE
(Grupo Aeromóvil de Fuerzas Especiales): the Mexican army’s Special Forces Airmobile Group.

DEA
: Drug Enforcement Administration, the US anti-drug agency.

DFS
(Dirección Federal de Seguridad): Federal Security Directorate, the Mexican intelligence agency before 1985.

ICE
: Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a US government agency.

INCD
(Instituto Nacional para el Combate a las Drogas): National Anti-Drug Institute.

PAN
(Partido de Acción Nacional): National Action Party. Traditionally the right-wing party of opposition to the PRI, in 2000 the PAN became
the first party to defeat the PRI in a presidential election. Many hoped its victory would sweep out the old, institutionalized corruption.

PF
(Policía Federal): Federal Police, projected June 1, 2009, in plan to amalgamate AFI and PFP. Currently designates non-investigative police force.

PFM
(Policía Federal Ministerial): Federal Ministerial Police, projected in 2009 to replace the AFI. Attached to the PGR’s Public Prosecutors’ Office, with investigative functions. Officially inaugurated in July 2012.

PFP
(Policía Federal Preventiva) Federal Preventive Police, created in January 1999, under the Interior Secretariat. In 2000 it was attached to the newly created SSP, and in 2009 subsumed into PF.

PGJDF
(Procuraduría General de Justicia del Distrito Federal): Mexico City Attorney General’s Office.

PGR
(Procuraduría General de la República): Attorney General’s Office.

PJF
(Policía Judicial Federal): Federal Judicial Police. Predecessor of AFI, as an investigative force attached to the PGR.

PRI
(Partido Revolucionario Institucional): Institutional Revolutionary Party. Coming out of the the last phase of the Mexican Revolution and initially called the Partido Nacional Revolucionario (PNR), the PRI ruled continuously for seventy-one years, from 1929 to 2000. Its networks of control spread throughout the state apparatus, the economy, and the trade union movement. The party and many of its leading members were frequently accused of corruption and electoral fraud.

Sedena
(Secretaría de la Defensa Nacional): Secretariat of Defense.

SIEDO
(Subprocuraduría de Investigación Especializada en Delincuencia Organizada): Organized Crime Special Investigations Unit, a department of the PGR.

SSP
(Secretaría de Seguridad Pública): Secretariat of Public Security, instituted in 2000 by President Fox and dissolved in 2013 by President Peña Nieto, its functions transferred to the Interior Secretariat.

UEDO
(Unidad Especializada contra la Delincuencia Organizada): Special Organized Crime Unit, part of the PGR, an earlier name for what became SIEDO.

Glossary of Persons

A note on names

This glossary of names is organized alphabetically according to the main, that is the first, family name.

The use of names in Mexico can be confusing for English-speaking readers. In general, Spanish-speaking countries use two surnames or family names. The father’s surname or patronym, officially regarded as the main surname, comes first, then the mother’s, or matronym. So in the case of Joaquín Guzmán Loera, his father’s patronym was Guzmán and his mother’s was Loera.

In many countries the matronym is usually omitted, except in formal situations. Mexicans, however, are more inclined to use both, and the two surnames used together, without any first or given name, sometimes becomes the most common way of referring to a person. There is no absolute rule. President Salinas, for example, was familiarly known by just the patronym, but President López Portillo was never referred to as plain López. Drug barons seem to be particularly given to using both surnames: Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo, Amado Carrillo Fuentes, the Arellano Félix brothers and the Beltrán Leyva brothers, for example, are hardly ever shortened.

In this book, we have used the full name the first time someone is mentioned, or for reminders when they have dropped out of the story for a while. After that, we have either omitted the second surname, if that seems clear and common practice for that individual, or we have used both surnames as if they were a double-barreled family name.

Two other factors should be noted. Many people have compound first or given names, and many of these usually use both: José Francisco, Juan Camilo, Miguel Ángel, etc. There is also a widespread use of nicknames, especially common in the criminal underworld.

Mexican Presidents

The narrative of Mexican politics is shaped by the single, six-year terms (sexennials) of successive presidents. In the period covered by this book, they were:

Luis Echeverría Álvarez, Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), 1970–76

José López Portillo, PRI, 1976–82

Miguel de la Madrid Hurtado, PRI, 1982–88

Carlos Salinas de Gortari, PRI, 1988–94