General Salvador Cienfuegos Zepeda (@La Razón)
A few weeks ago, the US anti-drug agency (DEA) recommended that the Mexican government militarize the southern border of the country in a manner similar to that which is transpiring on the northern border. On 26 April, in a press conference, the commander of the VII Military Region, General Salvador Cienfuegos Zepeda, declared that Mexican Army troops are carrying out constant operations throughout Chiapas, especially in the municipalities that are adjacent to Guatemala; he also noted that more troops can be expected. He announced the creation of two new military bases, each with 600 soldiers in Chicomuselo and Jiquipilas. He affirmed that the strategy forms part of a new phase of combat against organized crime (trafficking of drugs, weapons, and persons) that has had presence and activity in the area.
The military base in Nuevo Chiapas, Jiquipilas, will be built with troops coming from Oaxaca, while the Chicomuselo one will be comprised of soldiers already found in Chiapas (San Quintín in the Lacandon Jungle, a military base created in 1994 in a strategic point that joins together the mountains with Zapatista presence).
The general claimed that the military currently has 14000 troops in the area, in contrast to the 40000 that had been stationed in the state following the insurrection by the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN). Threats to the border, he added, are derived from bands of organized crime, and he denied the existence of armed civil groups, or at least ones that are dangerous. He repeated that “The principal threat is organized crime, with all the diversifications it has engaged in lately.”
During a burning of drugs in the headquarters of Infantry Battalion 20, the delegate of the Federal Attorney General’s Office, Jordán Orantes, revealed that the groups that have been found responsible for possessing the largest amount of illicit substances are the Zetas the Golfo cartel. The Sinaloa cartel was also mentioned. 147 kilograms of cocaine, 5 kg of heroine, 4 kg of morphine, and 82 kg of marijuana were burned, having been confiscated in the state.
For more information (in Spanish):
Crean dos bases militares en la frontera con Guatemala; tendrán mil 200 efectivos (La Jornada, 28 April)
Movilización en la frontera (Cuarto Poder, 27 April)
Refuerzan la frontera Sur con 600 soldados (Expreso de Chiapas, 27 April)
El Ejército combatirá la delincuencia organizada en la frontera sur (CNN México, 27 April)
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