The 2012 Nuevo Laredo massacres were a series of mass murder attacks between the allied Sinaloa Cartel and Gulf Cartel against Los Zetas in the border city of Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, across the U.S.-Mexico border from Laredo, Texas. The drug-violence in Nuevo Laredo began back in 2003, when the city was controlled by the Gulf Cartel. Most media reports that write about the Mexican drug war, however, point to 2006 as the start of the drug war. That year is a convenient historical marker because that's when Felipe Calderón took office and carried out an aggressive approach against the cartels. But authors like Ioan Grillo and Sylvia Longmire note that Mexico's drug war actually began at the end of Vicente Fox's administration in 2004, when the first major battle took place in Nuevo Laredo between the Sinaloa Cartel and Los Zetas, who at that time worked as the armed wing of the Gulf Cartel.
When Osiel Cárdenas Guillén, the former leader of the Gulf Cartel, was arrested in 2003, the Sinaloa Cartel, sensing weakness, tried to move in on Nuevo Laredo, unleashing a bloody battle. Los Zetas, however, were successful in expelling the Sinaloa organization out of Nuevo Laredo, and have ruled the city "with fear" ever since. Nevertheless, the Gulf cartel and Los Zetas broke relations in early 2010, worsening the violence across northeast Mexico. The cartels are fighting for control of the corridor in Nuevo Laredo that leads into Interstate 35, one of the most lucrative routes for drug traffickers. Nuevo Laredo is a lucrative drug corridor because of the large volume of trucks that pass through the area, and the multiple (exploitable) ports of entry. Over 40% of all cargo crossings from Mexico to the United States crosses through the border checkpoints in Nuevo Laredo. It is for the same reason that Tijuana and Ciudad Juárez are so valuable for the drug trafficking organizations.
Past incidents in Nuevo Laredo
2003 shootout At around 3 am on 1 August 2003, the Federal Investigations Agency (AFI) confronted a group of armed men in the streets of Nuevo Laredo. Members of the AFI were staying at a hotel when Juan Manuel Muñoz Morales, the attorney general of the city, called for help. He was reportedly being chased by several individuals in a dark-colored truck. Consequently, the AFI officers followed the truck with seven of their vehicles, triggering a shootout between the police officers and alleged drug traffickers. The armed confrontation lasted for more than 40 minutes, provoking "panic" and turning Nuevo Laredo into a "battlefield." The gun detonations were heard throughout most of the city. Some witnesses, who preferred to remain anonymous, claimed that they saw over "18 armed men in black with ski-masks."
During the chase, five armed men in another vehicle shot at the police convoy. The triggermen in the two vehicles then engaged in a gunfight with the AFI for minutes, but one of the vehicles collided with a police truck. The vehicle the drug traffickers were in then caught on fire, and two of the gunmen were burned to death. The third one died on the sidewalk. According to PGR, the three gunmen that were killed were members of Los Negros, a group of hitmen under the tutelage of Joaquín Guzmán Loera (a.k.a. El Chapo) and of the Juárez Cartel. Rocket-launchers, along with an "inexact number of assault rifles," were reportedly used in the attack. In addition, the government agency stated that 198 municipal police officers were to be investigated for possible connections with the Gulf Cartel; Manuel Muñoz, the attorney general who was being chased, was detained by the Mexican authorities. It is believed that he had liberated five members of Los Zetas who had been detained during the armed confrontation. According to Esmas.com, this shooting was the first major gunfire in Nuevo Laredo between the Mexican authorities and cartel members in over thirty years.
Between 1 January and 1 August 2003, 45 homicides were reported in Nuevo Laredo, along with 40 kidnappings.
El Chapo enters Nuevo Laredo
After the apprehension of Osiel Cárdenas Guillén in 2003, the former leader of the Gulf Cartel, his criminal organization went through a leadership crisis, since there was no visible leader to take the lead of the cartel. Nonetheless, Joaquín Guzmán Loera, the drug boss of the Sinaloa cartel who is best known as El Chapo, "broke the rules" and penetrated into Tamaulipas. His organization began to kill police officers—forcing many to take a side with or against him—and assassinating rival cartel members. The Mexican Armed Forces and the program México Seguro were unable to put down the violence. For the first time in many years, the Mexican State was limited in its actions—and even surpassed—by the criminal organizations. The Sinaloa Cartel stood to its firm intention to become the "hegemonic drug trafficking organization in Mexico." And to do so, it had to control the cities along the U.S.-Mexico border. Back in the early 2000s, if a different drug trafficking organization wanted to traffic narcotics through a different corridor, they had to pay a fee to the cartel that controlled it. Hence, it often resulted in a high prize, since Osiel Cárdenas Guillén "knew how much every millimeter in his turf cost."
No drug trafficking organization before the Sinaloa cartel had dared to take on the Gulf Cartel. But Juan José Esparragoza Moreno and El Chapo Guzmán were persuasive in moving on into Nuevo Laredo and the rest of Tamaulipas. One of the first steps in the war between the Gulf and Sinaloa cartels began when Arturo Beltrán Leyva, alias El Barbas, hired Dionisio Román García (El Chacho), the leader of a gang who operated in Nuevo Laredo under the permission of Osiel in 2002. Nevertheless, El Chacho turned against the Osiel and the Gulf organization by deciding to work for the Sinaloa cartel and killing a Zeta member. This triggered a series of attacks and executions in Tamaulipas. And, in order to put down the violence, El Barbas sought Arturo Guzmán Decena, one of the founders of Los Zetas, and told him that he "did not want any problems" with the Zetas, and that he would do his best to turn in El Chacho. Guzmán Decena accepted his apology, but told him that if anyone from the Sinaloa cartel wanted to traffic drugs inside the Gulf Cartel's territory, they had to be unarmed and under supervision.
In May 2002, El Chacho was kidnapped in the city of Monterrey by members of Los Zetas, and eventually found dead in Tamaulipas, bearing signs of torture. El Barbas then asked Osiel if Edgar Valdez Villarreal (La Barbie) could replace El Chacho, and he accepted. Los Zetas, however, were not convinced nor happy with Osiel's decision, because for them, "a betrayal is a betrayal." Fifteen days after the capture of Osiel, Valdez Villarreal called Heriberto Lazcano Lazcano (who had taken the lead of Los Zetas after the death of Guzmán Decena in 2002) and said: "You have a week to leave the territories from Reynosa to Nuevo Laredo." With this, the war had started.
2012 incursions
17 April 2012 massacre Dismembered remains of 14 men were found in several plastic bags inside a Chrysler Voyager in the border city of Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas on 17 April 2012. All of those killed were between the ages of 30 and 35. Mexican officials stated that they found a "messaged signed by a criminal group," but they did not release the content of the note, nor if those killed were members of Los Zetas or of the Gulf Cartel. CNNMéxico stated that the message left behind by the criminal group said that they were going to "clean up Nuevo Laredo" by killing Zeta members. The Monitor newspaper, however, said that a source outside law enforcement but with direct knowledge of the attacks stated the 14 bodies belonged to members of Los Zetas who had been killed by the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, now a branch of the Sinaloa Cartel. Following the attacks, the Sinaloa cartel's kingpin, Joaquín Guzmán Loera—better known as El Chapo Guzmán—sent a message to Los Zetas that they will fight for the control of the Nuevo Laredo plaza. The message read the following:
Nuevo Laredo is considered a stronghold of Los Zetas, although there were incursions by the Sinaloa Cartel in March 2012. Consequently, Los Zetas responded two days later with incursions to Sinaloa, the home state of the Sinaloa Cartel. The Sinaloa Cartel's first attempt to take over Nuevo Laredo happened in 2005, when Los Zetas was working as the armed wing of the Gulf Cartel.
Investigations On 24 April 2012, the attorney general of the state of Tamaulipas identified 10 of the 14 people killed. In addition, the Mexican authorities stated that those killed had "no relationship with the criminal group Los Zetas," and that they were in fact innocent civilians. The U.S. Customs and Border Protection indicated that 7 out of the 14 who were killed were reportedly deported immigrants who were working illegally in the United States. The authorities said that the massacre was carried out to generate "psychosis," because there is no concrete evidence of a "war between drug cartels" nor elements that indicate the presence of a group representing the Sinaloa Cartel in the border city of Nuevo Laredo. Some of the bodies have been returned to their families. The rest of the corpses have not been identified and remain in the Forensic Medical Services (SEMEFO).
4 May 2012 massacre 23 bodies—14 of them decapitated and 9 of them hanged from a bridge—were discovered in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, in an escalation of brutal violence involving rival drug gangs on the U.S. border. In the first incident, at around 1:00 am on 4 May 2012, nine people were hanged from a bridge on the Mexican Federal Highway 85D with a message left behind by the killers. Horrified motorists encountered the blood-stained bodies of four women and five men hanging off a bridge. The banner left behind reportedly stated that those killed were the perpetrators of the car bomb in the city on 24 April 2012. In addition, the 9 people who were hanged on the bridge were reportedly members of the Gulf Cartel who were killed by Los Zetas for "heating up" their turf. The message read the following:
In the second incident, which occurred hours later, 14 decapitated bodies were abandoned inside a vehicle in front of the Customs Agency; the severed heads were left inside several ice coolers in front of the municipal palace. The Mexican police said the second massacre could have been an act of revenge by the Gulf Cartel to Los Zetas for the earlier killings. Along with the decapitated bodies was a message allegedly signed by Joaquín Guzmán Loera, where he demanded the municipality mayor of Nuevo Laredo, Benjamín Galván, along with other municipal and state leaders and public safety officials to recognize the Sinaloa cartel's presence in the area and stop insisting he is not in the city. The message read the following:
Car bomb attacks At around 8:00 a.m. on 24 April 2012 in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, a car bomb exploded outside the city's police department. When the Mexican military arrived at the area of the explosion, they engaged in a confrontation with cartel members who shot them upon their arrival. There was one civilian who was injured as a result of the car bomb. The Blog del Narco credited the attacks to Joaquín Guzmán Loera (a.k.a. El Chapo), who reportedly left another message for Los Zetas about the Sinaloa cartel's incursion in Nuevo Laredo.