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By Chris Covert
Zacatecas state is facing an uncertain future with a sullied debt rating, a massive public works program that may be threatened by its own financial and security requirements, and a coming security crisis.
Part of the nature of the security crisis hit last week when Zacatecas state attorney general (PGJE) Arturo Nahle Garcia announced that the remains of a former Durango state deputy Ernesto Cordero Anguiano, 37, was found along with other remains said to be the hunting party Cordero Anguiano was in when he disappeared December 2010.
| According to the leftist weekly Proceso, the farm where Cordero Anguiano was found is where thousands of human bone fragments lay as a testimony to the sheer number of victims murdered by organized crime. |
Authorities became aware of the crime when one member of the hunting party, Hector Alexis Gonzalez Quiroz, 15, was released after being held captive in January, 2011.
After serving their 40 days in preventative detention six police agents with the Joaquin Amaro municipality were ordered to serve sentences for kidnapping. A month later, the video camera belonging to one of the victims was found on a dead armed suspect following a shootout with Mexican security forces in Tabasco, Zacatecas.
According to the leftist weekly Proceso, the farm where Cordero Anguiano was found is where thousands of human bone fragments lay as a testimony to sheer number of victims murdered by organized crime. The forensic services of Zacatecas, since the discovery of Cordero Anguiano has been working to catagorize and identify the bone fragments. Little evidence exists as badly decomposed as the remains were, as to how the victims died or even how many dead found their end in La Negritas, though the report also says "hundreds" of bullet fragments and spent cartridge casings lay about the area.
Proceso also reports that local residents in the area say killings continue to this day in the area
Proceso also characterized the area as similar to San Fernando, Tamaulipas and in the several "narcofosas" in Durango, Durango where together more than 400 victims were buried. San Fernando graves were dug by Los Zetas between August 2010, just after the 72 migrants were shot to death and March, 2011, when a series of bus hijackings led authorities to the place and the graves.
Zacateas has been considered a Los Zetas strongpoint since at least last spring, but now that is likely to change as other cartels and groups either allied with or formed by the Gulf and Sinaloa cartels have publicly announced they are going after Los Zetas.
The same week as the grisly discovery at Las Negritas farm, Zacatecas finance minister Alejandro Tello Cristerna announced a purported restructuring of Zacatecas bond debt currently rated at B++, or speculative grade, by Fitch and other rating services. Tello Cristerna reportedly said in his press conference the public debt of Zacatecas is expected to rise next week as a bailout of the state finances come online to as high as A rating.
Some of the funds generated by the debt have been used to rebuild several wastewater treatment plants thoughout Zacatecas which were either broken down or which had been abandoned. The state administration of Zacatecas governor Miguel Alonso Reyes, now in its third year, has placed 11 of 23 plants back online with the remainder in rural areas where issues are mainly of competent personnel to run them.
But according to Proceso it is the building of three new bases for the Mexican Army which has cast the state deeper into debt. One of the bases is said to be one of the largest in Mexico. Mexican Army bases generally house company sized detachments. Construction of the bases started earlier this month and is expected to cost Zacatecas state MP $600 million (USD $43,274,460.00).
Proceso also said in its report that the Governor Alonso Reyes' security program was in crisis, that criminal gangs run essentially free in Zacatecas. Several shootouts between criminal gangs and state security forces in recent weeks highlight the crisis in Zacatecas.
The way the article describes it, criminal gangs roam the countryside aboard luxury SUVs and even recruit in high schools in Fresnillo city with criminal gangsters offering a rifle, a vehicle and MP $5,000.00 (USD $359.77) to students to join them, going as far as video taping their recruiting efforts.
Even so, Zacatecas government maintains that the security efforts with newfound emphasis on coordination with federal security forces is yielding positive results. For example, the Zacatecas state fair took place without a security incident this year.
It is impossible to know how severe the security situation is going to get in Zacatecas. One Mexican press account said that a showdown was coming between Los Zetas and Sinaloa shooters, probably to take place on the east coast but also possibly in nearby Jalisco in the south.
To read Rantburg exclusive reports on confrontations between Mexican security forces and armed criminal groups in Zacatecas click here, here and here
Just over the weekend, federal and state security forces managed to seize six luxury SUVs abandoned in the area after forces were dispatched to investigate reports of armed suspects in the area.