Alcalde Maria Santos Gorrostieta

Dr. Maria Santos Gorrostieta MD, age 36, was a former mayor of the small Mexican town of Tiquicheo (2008-2012) and became famous for her refusal to be cowed by the drug gangs battling for control of the western state of Michoacan. Los Caballeros Templarios (LCT) abducted the mayor in front of her young daughter, they tortured and eventually murdered her and the LCT Cartel dumped her mutilated body by the side of the road as a message to any future politician who would stand up to them.

Did their tactics work? The answer is a resounding YES!

During her term as mayor, she survived at least two assassination attempts, including one that killed her husband Jose and another that left her body peppered with bullet holes and scars.

Although Mexico has been a producer of, and transit route for, illegal drugs for decades, in recent years the country has found itself caught up in violent turf wars between powerful and well-financed cartels. In 2006 Mexico’s newly-elected President Felipe Calderon launched a military assault on the gangs. But although some key players have been killed or captured, the carnage has continued. Indeed some claim it has got worse, due to splits between formerly allied cartels. Official estimates say 50,000 people have been killed since the crackdown began, but others put the toll at twice that. (Daily Mail)

The unassuming hamlet where Dr. Santos presided sits on the smuggling route between the Port of Lazaro Cardenas and the Mexican interior. Most Cocaine and methamphetamine precursors that land on Mexico's West Coast pass through the ports of Manzanillo and Lazaro Cardenas. LCT controls Lazaro Cardenas and jealously guards it's transportation corridors.

In October 2009 a group of gunmen shot her at least seven times in an ambush in which her husband was killed. Three months later, another armed gang opened fire on her brother’s car while she was in the passenger seat. Shortly afterwards she made the front pages after she went public with photographs of her wounds in Tiquicheo’s municipal newsletter. “I wanted to show you my wounded, mutilated body,” she wrote, “because I’m not ashamed of it. It’s living testimony that I am a strong and righteous woman, and despite my wounds, I’m still on my feet.”

The Mexico City Daily has also said that there were at least two other assassination attempts that she never reported.

On November 12, according to the newspaper El Universal, Maria Santos Gorrostieta was driving her young daughter to school in the city of Morelia when she was ambushed by a gang of armed men who pulled her from her car and beat her up in full view of passers-by. Witnessess described how she begged the men to leave her child alone and then got into her abductors’ car, leaving her daughter, screaming but unharmed, in the road.

Five days later the badly mutilated body of a woman, who had evidently been tortured before she was killed, was found dumped by a roadside. It was later identified as Maria Santos Gorrostieta.

"Her brave defiance may have cost the mother-of-three her life. The official cause of death was a blow to the head but she had been stabbed, her legs and hands had been bound and her waist and chest were covered in burns, suggesting she had been tortured." (Gateway Pundit)

Granularity-

I have asked people who I know in LCT why they (the cartel) tortured and murdered Alcalde Dr. Santos, who was the mayor when they abducted, tortured and murdered her. (There are accounts out there that she was a former mayor and that's not the case) The simple reply was, "She didn't agree to play ball. We offered her money and she refused. We didn't treat her any worse than we treated anyone else who didn't go along with the reality. We tried to explain it to her again and again. Finally we did what we had to do."

Over the next while, I'm going to see what else I can find about the motivation for this murder, but I think that I understand why LCT had to eliminate her. Cartels rule (particularly in Michoacan and Gurrero) through fear. If somebody, particularly a woman, stands up against them, and prevails, their grip on the area vanishes. MEXGOV has boasted that La Familia Michoacan has been eliminated, but it's obvious that LFM, and it's child, LCT, has not. LCT can put between 2,000 and 3,000 fighters in the field on short notice, carrying a mixture of military and civilian weapons. They know Michoacan and they are very difficult to eradicate.

It's also possible that Dr. Santos' murder was somehow approved (US Military Slang: Fragged) by the local MEXGOV people in Michoacan who had been taking pay-offs from LCT all along. Dr. Santos made them look bad. If that's true, don't hold your breath for a resolution to the kidnap-torture-Murder.

Strategic Sahuayo, Michoacan

Historical Reference - for context and precedence

Vincente y Marta

A brief retrospective view of the narco connections during Presidente Vincente Fox's term in office has to include his present change from PAN to PRI. You may recall that Presidente Fox was the very first Panista to become president of the Mexican Republic. I don't know that his change of affiliation has anything to do with the drug trade. Likely it does not. I'm simply trying to keep the context going.

In the Fox Presidency, Marta Sahagun Jimenez (Mrs. Vincente Fox) provided the discrete connection to the narcotics cartels. After the election, Francisco Sahagun Vera (Marta's cousin) joined with Marta Sahagun's children to sell plazas. They had a solid connection to Presidente Fox, but enough distance to insure some degree of insulation if a scandal developed (and it never really did).

Arturo Durazo Moreno

Francisco Sahagun Vera used his father's juice with various cartels to represent MEXGOV interests in the plaza trade and of course, he kicked back some of the profits to his father and his father's patrons.

Francisco Sahagun Vaca (or alternatively, Baca), father to Francisco Shagun Vera, served as 'the right hand' to General Arturo Durazo (El Negro) Moreno. El Negro Durazo was the only five-star Mexican general in history. During the LOPEZ PORTILLO presidency, El Negro Durazo was Director of Public Security for the State of Mexico. El Negro Durazo want to prison for a few years because he was a drug dealer/kingpin but Francisco Sahagun Vaca never did. 

Where is Francisco (Pancho) Sahagun Vaca today?

The empty tomb in Sahuayo

Francisco Sahagun Vaca "owns" the city of Sahuayo, Michoacan. The city earned a reputation for many years as "Bermuda Triangle" because containers on trucks shipped from the Port of Manzanillo to Mexico City had to pass through that area on the highway. Containers with valuable cargo entered but never left. That's not quite the case anymore, but Francisco Sahagun Vaca still runs the town and is very rich. He's also a wanted criminal and nobody has ever arrested him. He set up a mausoleum in the local graveyard for himself (and for his son whose demise is recorded below). Allegedly Francisco Sr. is dead - but if you ask around you'll find that he's very much alive and well, still in the drug trade but flying below the radar (except for the odd blog) these days.

There has been occasional speculation as to Francisco Sahagun Vaca's cartel affiliations**. I doubt that he pays tribute to any individual cartel. His position in the strategically critical Sahuayo, Michoacan makes him a force to be reckoned with. He needs to maintain friendly relations with LCT/LFM. But he's a lot like an old snake, guarding treasure in a cave.

**MEXGOV announced that La Familia Michoacan is dead, though it isn't. There are still some cells of LFM around even though most of them have reaffiliated with Los Caballeros Templarios, now run by Servando (La Tuta) Gomez Martinez. La Tuta has not been well and while usually thin, he's lost weight and is even thinner than he's been in the past. I don't know if it's something fatal or if the lifestyle is simply weighing on him.

Where is Francisco Sahagun Vera today?

As with many Mexican narcos, he's six feet under in the cemetery. Maybe he's interred in his father's vault?

Renovatio

The last blog post dealt with a situation with the "extinct" Beltran Leyva Organization, that is on the ropes, but not yet dead and buried. Today we will discuss another "extinct" cartel that is very much alive. 

La Familia Michoacana, (English: The Michoacán Family) or LFM is a narcotics syndicate based in the Mexican state of Michoacán .

La Tuta is much thinner now
than he was when this photo
was taken.

Members of the cartel were organized by Nazario Moreno González, (El Más Loco) who carried a "bible" of his own sayings and insisted that his army of traffickers should avoid using the narcotics that they sell. José de Jesús Méndez Vargas, Servando Gómez Martínez and Enrique Plancarte Solís also led the cartel. Servando Gómez (La Tuta) is the last man standing from that original group. On November 2, 2001, The Mexican Federal Police (SSP) announced that they had eliminated La Familia and that the cartel was "extinct".

They are not extinct, however, they did reorganize, and under new leadership, they rebranded the organization and today it is called The Knights Templar Cartel (Los Caballeros Templarios or LCT). They are based in Michoacan but have shown considerable reach and recently, almost 2,000 fighters took the field and swarmed much of Colima State, and threatened Southern Jalisco State in a military  style campaign. You could ask why. And I could answer, but that answer would smack of "conspiracy theory" and that's not what this blog is about. I don't deal in theory here. Only facts.

It has been reported widely that the La Resistencia drug syndicate is part of LCT. That is not true. There are two branches of La Resistencia, which evolved in part from the Millennium Cartel/New Colima Cartel. One branch is run by Juan Carlos Nava Valencia. I don't know who is currently in command of the other branch, but it's not LCT.

Nazario Moreno is dead, but in much the way that Elvis lives in the hearts of people in the US, Nazario lives in the hearts of LCT and they truly believe that he lives, runs the organization and provides secret orders to Servando Gómez (La Tuta) and others in leadership positions. That role of spiritual leader has been assumed by Roman Catholic Archbishop Alberto Suárez Inda, Bishop of the Archdiocese of Morelia responsible for the dioceses of Apatzingan, Ciudad Lázaro Cárdenas, Tacámbaro and Zamora. It is headquartered at Morelia Cathedral in the city of Morelia Michoacán. 

On 17 March 2012 in the State of Guanajuato, LCT put up several banners on bridges welcoming Pope Benedict XVI, and pledging to not provoke any violent acts during the pope's visit. The 14 banners read the following: “The Knights Templar Cartel will not partake in any warlike acts, we are not killers, welcome Pope." (Wikipedia)

Renovatio - Rebirth. This is a common theme among drug cartels in Mexico and it occurs because the Mexican Government needs to show success in wiping out the narcotics syndicates that plague the land. As with the Hydra, chopping off one head, usually leaves you with the uncomfortable truth that two have grown in its place in Mexico.