"Los Zetas" in Southern Mexico

Similar version cross-posted on the Casa Collective blog: http://www.casacollective.org/story/issue-68-february-2009/zetas-and-migrants-report-southern-border

Central American migrants traveling through Mexico towards the United States face many potential dangers during their time in Mexican territory. Robbers, assailants, gangs, and corrupt police and officials patrol common migrant pathways to rob, abuse, and assault them as they pass. Additional dangers come from wildlife or a possible accident on the cargo train many migrants utilize to travel northward.

On top of all these dangers, a new threat is quickly gaining in severity and frequency. Los Zetas, a powerful gang made up of ex-soldiers from Mexico, has targeted migrants in order to extort money and increase their power.

A common way that the Zetas harm migrants is through kidnappings. Migrants are kidnapped along the route northwards, and then held for ransom from their families.

The Zetas have mostly likely targeted migrants for these kidnappings because their vulnerable situation as undocumented in the country makes them “easy prey.” Many travel alone or in small groups. Their undocumented status causes them to seek out unpopulated areas for traveling and to avoid authorities. These factors make it easier for the kidnappers to assault them during the journey. The victim is then brought to a remote location and the family is contacted.

The victims of the Zetas are rarely “random.” Certain migrants are chosen whom the Zetas believe to have relatives that will be able to pay large ransoms. Migrants with relatives already living in the United States seem to be targeted. Nevertheless, there are cases where migrants with very poor families have been kidnapped. In these cases, there is money available because the family has borrowed money from family and neighbors and has saved it away in order to pay the smuggler or “coyote” to cross the northern border into the U.S. The money is considered an “investment” in the earnings that the family member will hopefully gain in the United States. When the money is used to pay the kidnappers, the family is financially devastated and left in debt. Sometimes families need to borrow even more money to meet the demands of the kidnappers.

Once the money has been received, the victims are usually set free. In many cases, the Zetas make special arrangements with the family to use their networks to cross the migrant into the United States after the ransom is paid. Nevertheless, trickery is common and these promises aren’t always fulfilled. In other cases, victims are simply left in the street. Unfortunately, it is not always possible to pay, and executions are also practiced.

The Zetas are able to exercise their choices of victims because they have “people” in many different places. They have infiltrated the migrant shelters to scope out victims. They spend time at the train tracks where migrants gather before traveling northwards on the cargo trains. For example, volunteers at the Casa del Migrante in Arriaga, where the cargo train begins its route, have observed men in military-style clothing recording with a video camera at the train tracks.

The Zetas seem to be interested in controlling many aspects of the northward pathway for migrants and exercising their control. In addition to kidnappings, robberies of migrants have been attributed to them. Their involvement has also been suspected in more serious incidents, such as a large coordinated assault on December 23rd 2008, about 8 kilometers outside of Arriaga. In this occasion, a group of about 20-30 assailants attacked migrants traveling on the cargo train. Three people died and many more were injured. A possible objective of operations such as these may be to maintain territorial control over other gangs or to keep migrants afraid and submissive. Migrants present at the event were certainly shocked by what they had seen. As a young Salvadoran in the Casa del Migrante in Arriaga told me, “They just came at us from behind… The women, the men, all of us… The almost killed my cousin…”

Aside from migrants, the Zetas also have known involvements in drug trafficking cartels. They carry out similar activities with these groups – kidnappings and executions – all with the same aim of maintaining control, exhorting funds, and building power.

As ex-soldiers, the Zetas present special threats because of the previous training they received in the Mexican military. They are highly trained in combat operations and the use of high-tech equipment, which they utilize in their criminal operations.

One major challenge to confronting the Zetas is the complexity of their power structure. Power is distributed through a system of leaders and sub-leaders in such a way that, if one boss is removed, there is always someone else who is prepared and trained to immediately take his or her place.

In recent years, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has taken an interest in combating the Zetas. They have helped organize raids to capture Zeta leadership as a part of the U.S.’s “war” on drugs and drug smuggling. An irony of this situation is that, traditionally, funds given to Mexico for U.S. security interests have often been channeled into funding and training for the Mexican military. Since the Zetas are ex-Mexican soldiers, it is likely that, for at least some of them, the U.S. government funded the training they received in the Mexican military. In spite of this relationship and the likelihood that unintended consequences such as these will continue to occur with additional funding, the U.S. government continues to provide funding for training and technical support to the Mexican military, the most recent of which was provided in the Mérida Initiative (a.k.a. Plan México) this past June 2008.

While Mexican police and military assist in the raids mentioned above, they were primarily directed by U.S. entities. The Mexican government has taken relatively little action to try to confront the activities of the Zetas or to dismantle their operations. Considering the infamous corruption among Mexican authorities, a likely reason for this inaction is that influence is being exerted in various levels of Mexican government on the part of the Zetas to allow for (or at least to ignore) their continued operations.

While the U.S. military operatives against the Zetas demonstrate that there is at least some interest in tackling the organization of the Zetas from above, migrants’ rights activists point out there has been practically been no response on the part of the U.S. or the Mexican government to confront the problems and violations that the Zetas cause on the ground level in the lived experience of migrants. There is a general indifference on the part of Mexican authorities towards migrants in the country, and towards the harsh situation that they face. Similar feelings of indifference are most likely held by U.S. authorities, whose deterrence-based border control policy has generally been more focused on keeping out undesired migrants than on preserving human rights. This indifference, however, needs to end. The Mexican government needs to take urgent actions to preserve the human rights of migrants in their territory. Similarly, the international community needs to raise up a strong call of protest against the violations being carried out by the Zetas, and demand that steps be made to protect the human rights and dignity of migrants in Mexican territory.