A Head Scratcher



This is a standard 1st Class Autobuses del Oriente Bus
Also click here for more pictures of Mexican bus facilities in these times
http://connect.in.com/ado-bus-line-mexico/images-bus-and-coach-photos-ado--1-299843461746.html

     This one is a real head-scratcher.   Three busses are sequestered at gun-point near Las Norias (19 miles south of San Fernando, Tamaulipas) and driven about 70 miles further south....turning off the Matamoros/Reynosa to Victoria highway and onto the recently nicely rebuilt highway to Tampico and points south, along the coast.     The three busses are driven off this main highway down a dirt ranch road (brecha) for some distance, perhaps 1,000 yards, where a fourth bus is already waiting.   The four busses have 8 drivers and about 100 total passengers.   All of the busses are superior quality either 1st class or deluxe long-haul conveyances operated by famously quality businesses.

       This all takes place beginning at 08:30 on Saturday morning, the 17th of July of the current year.   Las Norias is a famous place as a rest-stop, roadside diner, fresh and dried shrimp producing, bean farming, and cattle/goat ranching.    People know it by the folks standing along the highway or operating from tidy, rustic stalls just off the right-of-way selling plastic bags of medium-large to colossal shrimp from the nearby Mexican Laguna Madre.  Perhaps the bus drivers had yielded to the petitions of the passengers to stop briefly for them to buy the very popular dried shrimp as a gift to those back home upon arrival.   Perhaps the assailants used this brief stop to pile into the bus and take control.

     Whether by this method or some other, three busses were taken at this point.    Once arriving at the dirt trail detour just north of  an historical town named Soto la Marina....about 5 miles distant...and very close to an ejido community named  Tampiquito (little Tampico)....the assailants drew the first bus across the trail, flattened its tires and began to talk among themselves at a position equidistant and central to the four kidnapped units.

      It is still a bit before noon.   The dust had settled, but barely, since the arrival at this recess in the dense chaparral....a hilly area with mountains both to the east and higher ones to the west.     Suddenly a bus driver, or both drivers from one unit, and about 10 or 12 male passengers bolt from their bus and run into the thicket....each in a slightly different direction.    They run with desperate abandon, and by the time 90 seconds have passed each is individually consumed by the chaparral.  None of the group can see much of anything, but better yet, none can be seen by the assailants.

      In fifteen minutes there is another development.    The thudding, whirring, jet engine cacophony of four lumbering Naval Infantry helicopters.    They are like B-52s in a way....1950s technology but still useful.   Each is carrying 22 heavily armed, well-trained, battle-tested infantrymen.   While they seem clumsy and slow....within seconds they are landing on tiny clearings, almost directly upon the busses.    Two in the center and two slightly removed.

       The assailants have made a break for it....with only about a minute head start.    Down the dirt trail, a complete company of Army heavy infantry is running in from where the first bus had been parked across the brecha.   They begin peeling off, trying to head off the escape of the assailants.   If they can make it into the dense brush, their chance of escape is good.    The Armed Forces will have an advantage at night with FLIR searchers, but these hills and mountainsides have more bear, mountain lion, and bobcats who will give heat signatures than there are assailants running away.

     Within a minute or two all the passengers are being attended to.   Mostly women, children, and older people....they are glad to have water and rations and someone friendly with whom they can re-establish contact with reality.    The Navy personnel are bringing in the ones who ran during their break for freedom.   They have their hands behind their heads and a cautious covering by infantrymen holding their rifles low-but-ready.    In short order the people from their bus identify them as those who said they were going to make a break for it and make more calls for help or make it to the highway.    Once identified they join the ranks of those called "rescued".

      The ground commanders decide to leave the assailants to the snakes and mountains lions and to take their charges and troopers out of this spot.    They further determine to take the people to Tampico, some three hours journey, and get them back on their way.    The passengers from four busses are loaded onto the three busses that still have good tires, and they are escorted to Tampico by the Army.   The Navy takes off, makes several low-elevation passes to see if they can make a chance sighting of an assailant in the sea of mesquite, cactus, yucca, and other prickly things.

       Several things happened here.    The assailants did not count on the fact that all Mexican busses of this category and even most of lower category, now have GPS.   Not only that, they have GPS that works....with interactive or passive response systems.....like OnStar.    Next, for some reason the assailants did not take the passengers' cellular telephones.  (???)   Next, they did not handle, assault, or molest the girls and women.   Then, they did not immediately take all the jewelry and currency being carried or worn by the passengers.

       Each Company took note almost immediately that their vehicles had fallen well behind their schedule and/or had deviated from its required route.   Those companies are TransPais, Autobuses del Oriente (ADO), and Transportes del Norte (operating the class of service bus known as FUTURA, which is between Ist class and deluxe).    Their security agents informed the Federal Highway Police and the two military emergency numbers as early as 09:20 on that Saturday morning.    The locations being reported to the bus companies was shared between them and they quickly realized that they were all literally in the same bowl of soup.

       The passengers, at considerable risk, continued calling their homes, people, boyfriends, etc. , all of whom flooded the appropriate military and police agencies with extremely precise fixings concerning location, size of possible resistance, condition of the passengers, and so forth.   The two drivers and their passengers who escaped also had done what they said they would do....calling incessantly with detailed information.   The drivers' information about location along with the GPS made the finding a matter of inches in terms of accuracy.

       The calls were all so similar and so insistent that each military and police response force were "saddled and riding" before even knowing the precise destination of their march.   They knew it was "over there".   With the guidance of the GPS and continuous cellular telephonic contact, "over there" soon became "right here".

NOW, this is all a good story.   It is probable that it is essentially true.   The Old Gringo has added in a bit of colour, but only because it is reasonable colour based upon many, many years of experience driving those roads, visiting those off-road people in the little communities, seeing military actions, riding the busses, eating at the roadside diners, etc.    The response by the authorities and the deportment of the drivers and their passengers, the numbers of assailants and military, the cellular telephone interventions, and all the mechanics have been reported, semi-officially, in the press and by reliable source.      ONCE.     Una sola ves.

      Now, it is Wednesday.   With such an heroic story, why has it not filled the airways in Mexico, the United States, nay...verily...the entire Planet??

       We remember the story about the primary school teacher in Monterrey who put her 1st graders on the floor and led them in song...cheerfully....while cockroaches with AK-47's blasted away 70 feet from their front door.   She didn't give a flip about the five dead juveniles who were trying to murder some taxi drivers for not paying extortion money, when it was over, only two things concerned her.    Her charges and that she comply since she was the designated training officer for such situations, and she wanted to be sure to get it all on camera for use during the next week's training episode.    That is when it came out to the public.....she did not run it over to the TV stations or to a police magazine.   Her fellow teachers demanded that it be shown to the world.    And it was shown, worldwide, humiliating some teachers....inspiring others.

       There have been no announcements or statements by the State security officers, the military, the bus companies, or even some of the passengers.   The local Texas press, which is always quick to use any incident to hark their ratings and to scare the bejeebies out of people.....not a word, since the first two airings back on Sunday and Monday....the latter being a word for word repeat of the first prepared release in the famously myopic McAllen Monitor.

        So neither detractors nor supporters......no one is commenting.   The busses kept running even through this....I drove through Las Norias on my way to Reynosa/ McAllen that day....at 09:00 that same morning.   I saw a bit of the after effects....huge Army deployments at Las Norias....Federal Police whishing in the opposite direction at great speed, they to the south, I to my north.    Numerous busses were encountered....perhaps 50 heading south during the rest of my journey north.   Everything seemed normal....and was normal....except my fuel pump.

          The Old Gringo has delayed his comments on this story because he wanted to know a little wider, a bit more deeply, somewhat higher and to be able to put a little more detail into the picture...names, personalities, final outcomes.   But I am sending this to your kind attention because I know that you all think that I at least try to keep you informed with a bit of a different point of view, with all the veracity that can be mustered.

         Were speculation to be "reasonably" extended with my colouring, it might be possible to assume that the assailants were Centro Americanos...Guatemalans, Hondurans...who had escaped from Matamoros due to the heavy losses recently suffered by both cartel groups in fighting there earlier this month.   These CentroAmericanos were probably conscripted "fighters" who had no dog in the fight.   They "deserted" because they did not want to become bullet catchers in the next firefight with the opposing cartel or with the military.   They had no money and probably no functional weaponry, save perhaps for pocket knives.   They made it as far as Las Norias by hitching and walking, but knowing that there is a huge highway checkpoint just 7 miles to the south blocking their flight back to Central America, they decided to have their Butch and Sundance moment.   They told each other that they would meet up where their "coyotes" had shaken them down a couple of months before, telling them that they were not going to America until they had done a couple of "favours" for the Zetas first.  (Favours means "Catch Bullets").

       That is why the kidnapping of the busses was done as it was.   That is why there were no women molested, that is why they did not immediately steal any and every thing of value, and that is why none of the passengers were killed.  They just wanted to take their different from Mexican Spanish accents, their different-from-Mexican appearance, their lack of money, and their homesickness  and go back to Tegulcigalpa and Quetzaltenango and drink some beer and see their families.

Thanks for your patience.   When more is known...and more precise information can be forwarded, it will be before your eyes quickly.

El Gringo Viejo

About our Visit Up - State

     As all good OROGs know, we went up to the center part of the Republic of Texas a couple of weeks ago.   The trip is always a long one.   It has been done many, many, many times by the Old Gringo during the better part of what seems to have been several centuries.    The need for the trip, this time, was caused by a couple of Old Coots talking about running trips again for the Winter Visitors.

     We both drifted out of the business as the market changed over the years, and as fossilization began to set in.  But, like a couple of old caisson-horses, once they smell a little gunpowder and hear the rumble of the guns, they begin to want to join the fray.
     With all that considered, we began thinking about something to sell to a difficult market, something that would be easy to run, and something that would not result in a lot of effort on the part of the client.   Our planning went on for a couple or three weeks, and we have decided upon a set of offerings.   All OROGs will receive a posting of these offerings in short order.    The strangest one, the one which flowed from my vast-wasteland-between-the-ears, was the San Antonio Missions.
     There is a Texas Baseball League franchise with the official name of "The San Antonio Missions", based upon the existence of the San Antonio Missions.  Everyone in Texas knows about the San Antonio Missions, both the baseball related one and the ecclesiastical, historical ones.    Everyone has been to the Alamo.... La Mision del Alamo de San Antonio de Valero...and bunches of folks have been to the Mision de San Jose.....which has its own fame and elegance.  But there are others.   Most Texans say..."Some day I'm going to....", but they never quite get around to taking the time out to actually, finally, once and for all, go see the other Misiones and understand their why's and wherefore's.
      We covered them  briefly, along a well-planned and executed paved route through San Antonio's center and south-central sections.    Some of the routing is newly done, very "National Park-ish" , and there is an abundance of parking.   Rest-rooms are found at all the stops and  routing instructions that are frequently accurate are available en route as well as in the form of pamphlets and hand-guides found at Park offices.
      So, as the Old Gringo had originally thought, this would be a good trip for people to come up from the Valley, arrive to the center of San Antonio, and essentially do their own inclinations for the remainder of the day.   Then, on the second day, the tour could go as a group to the remaining Missions.   It takes a long morning, including Mision La Concepcion,  Mision San Jose, Mision San Juan, and the Mision de La Espada.    It could then return to the center of town...a short distance....20 minutes.....for a mid-day meal and free afternoon and evening.  The last day could begin with a visit to the Institute of Texian Cultures.     There are several details and possible inclusions to make or leave out.
       We are giving serious consideration to the Painted Churches of East Central Texas and to a pair or so of one-day tours in the Lower Rio Grande Valley area.  We'll see.

A Message from the Quinta Tesoro de la Sierra Madre

     The benefits of the rain have been profound all over the area, including the Quinta.   Some place have their Royal Poncianas putting on a second  bloom, which is somewhat of a rarity.    Our Royal Poncianas have only busied themselves with putting on as much greenery as possible, which is better than nothing, I suppose.    Green seems to be the main operative colour for the Quinta, although the powder puffs, the duranta, and the shrimp plants have all been busy with their blooming chores.    There are lots of bees, lots of birds, and other natural activity.

     The mountains are also greened out and it is good to look out to the west and not see any of the smokey haze associated with the Spring forest fires.    During the past nights of the full moon we were treated to the setting of Earth's largest satellite on the mountains.   In spite of the absolute dullness of the process.....what else can the Moon do?.....what else can the mountains do?  really doesn't matter so much as just enjoying the magnificence of it all.    I usually am up around four o'clock, so it is possible to see three or four of these moon-sets during each lunar cycle.

      Alvaro was quick to advise me upon my arrival that the Army had been down our road.....several times during my absence.    The first time they had come in the "back way" , approaching the Quinta from the Rio Corona.    This meant that they had had to been doing considerable scouting and using considerable "community input" along with the overhead surviellance photographic reasources.   On this first visit by this particular patrol they stopped to talk at some length with Alvaro.   They were given a tour of the Quinta, but only a couple of officers and a couple of non-commissioned officers  went in.    This left what seems to have  been two platoons of heavy infantry out in the shaded areas.    They visited our neighbours, made friends with the dogs, and generally went about their "community outreach".     Various military elements have been back and forth during the past weeks.

       This has resulted in a considerable outpouring of people heading down to the Rio Corona as they had done before, enjoying the high waters and conviviating with friends and family as they have done traditionally for generations.   It was, in a way, good to hear children squealing and other such family noises again. 

          All the animals are fine.   Alvaro's Labrador has doubled in size, and has become a bit better disciplined.   I have endeavoured to impart what little training I can give.   Everyone can send money to pay what will necessarily be a gargantuan food bill by the time Bibi is fully grown.

There will be more later.    Thanks for your time and attention.

The Old Gringo  

Making preparations

      The hour cometh for the Old Gringo to head back to the Quinta, laden with dog food, cat food, and other goodies.  We should find a much greener place based upon last week's heavy rains.   This well be the time for pruning and training a lot of our major bushes.   It will also be time not to fall for the idea that we can plant this or that, or in any way expand the tasks already at hand.   We need simply to restore the main parts of our gardens and growies that have been so badly damaged by the freezes of last Winter and the profound lack of rain of the Spring and early Summer.

      We shall try to take a few pictures of Bebe the new Labrador, and the rest of the animals just to be fair to them.   They seem to know when they are being photographed.    If things have begun to really "come out"  with the rain and heat...very tropical conditions....then perhaps we shall "freshen up" some of our archives and let you all see the pictures first.
      The biggest problem we see at this point in going down is that we shall be trying to take the one-eyed cat down, after her operation, and her recovering from o'possum attack and the operation.   It is a bit of a trip, and then she will have to fit in to a group of well established cats.    It is all madness.   But, short of putting a bullet in her head, there is no other remedy left.

       Things have also been a little touch and go with the Old Gringo parents-in-law.    This journey down will be of short duration due to the problems on that front.   It is a matter of leaving one end of the candle to burn while attending the other end.   Either way, it seems that the holder of the candle is going to wind up,  at one point or the other, holding the wrong end.   

     

And the Lord Spake, saying.....

"......Enough already with the praying for rain...I've heard you!" spake the Lord. And so it was. Verily didst fall the torrents. Awash, all living things crawling, creeping, or borne afoot. Fleeing the rushing and roaring of a River in a race to the Ocean as if driven mad by the rapidly falling elevations. Feathered beasts found their niches and crannies, nooks and corners to wait out the solid sheets of previously scarce rain.

Our little adobe hut on the Rio Corona, in front of the Sierra del Cautivo section of the Sierra Madre Oriental, picked up 18 inches of rain during the period of Allene, the Tropical Storm's landfall, up to and including Sunday night. Almost five days of intermittent heavy rains should wake up the vegetation and orchards of our beautiful area.

Rains in the nearby mountains were thought to have been perhaps double that amount. It seems a bit extreme, but remember OROGs, last year we had rainfall amounts in the mountains that exceeded 100 inches over a two month period. This year's rainy season is starting off in the same way. I shall keep you all abreast of everything, blow by blow, drop by drop.

Just a note. Thanks for your attention as usual.

El Gringo Viejo

Heading up North Tomorrow

     The Old Gringo and his bossess will be on the road for the next three or four days.   We are going up to the middle of the Republic of Texas to take care of  a bit of business.   There are a few loose ends to take care of here on the blog as well.

     (1)    There were no Gringos killed in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas over the 4th of July Weekend.

     (2)    The Borderland Beat recommendation given by the Old Gringo in a recent post needs to be qualified.   There are so many different organizations with similar titles and label that one should not assume that the Old Gringo is endorsing one and all.   The one I use has a number of different blogger contributors, some of whom have a points of view that are not concurrent with this blog.    So, my mistake, but the blanket endorsement should not have been made.    OROGs are more than capable of doing their own evaluations and casting about for decent cyber-moorings.

      (3)   Most of you should sit down for this one.   My ideas concerning the New York Times could never be repeated on this forum.   Michelle O'bama would have me deep-fat-fried and fed to The Children.   BUT....my son did bring my attention to an article he found of interest.    He pointed out to me that it was a strange departure for the Times and most of the international leftist press since Mexico has strung together a series of relatively conservative and anti-Castro/Chavez/Oretega/Morales administrations since the 1990s.
     The New York Times has been particularly adept at speaking mendaciously and authoritatively about Mexican issues.   The article included in this link, however, http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/07/06/world/americas/immigration.html?hp
tells a bit of a different story.   It is also substantially more accurate than the usual drivel.     If the Old Gringo recommends anything from within the pages of the Old Grey Lady, then it might ought to be considered for at least a bit of perusal.
     It is time to check in on my in-laws and to make final preparations for our northward trek to-morrow.   As we head north, the brother-in-law, and the sister-in-law are both coming down south for very brief visits with the wife's parents.   They are each  bringing various family members  and doggies....arriving from as far away as the Dallas/Fort Worth area and as close by as the San Antonio area.    We render our little place as a refuge for most or all of the these favoured family visitors during these visits.   The extra space makes things more comfortable for everybody...even the pooches.

      (4)     We should be pleased with the arrest of "El Mamito", Jesus Rejon Aguilar.    He is one of the last remaining original ZETAS;    the individuals who founded the group should be particularly despised because they were highly trained non-commissioned officers in the Mexican Army at one time.  They deserted, sold out to the same people they were supposed to combat, and allowed their criminal organization to steadily adopt the "asymmetrical combat" engagement format so popular with many terrorist organisations.    The Zeta group has become more and more disorganised over the last three or four months due to steady degradation both by opposing criminal organizations and due to the efforts of the Mexican Army, the Naval Infantry, and a new corps of semi-militarized Federal Police.
       The Old Gringo has listened carefully to the "public response" by Rejon Aguilar to certain questions posed by authorities.   These are public relations shows staged by the authorities in order to demonstrate habeus corpus and control of the "corpus".   It is the opinion of the Old Gringo that Rejon's response to the question concerning  the origin of the weaponry was misleading.   He sounded, in responding to the question about the source of his armaments, as if he had rehearsed his answer.   It is the strongly held opinion of the Old Gringo that the answer that the weaponry came from sources in the United States was being prompted by his thinking that that was what the officials wanted to hear.   He is aware enough that the Mexican officialdom is more than somewhat miffed over the profoundly stupid "Fast and Furious" program of the ATF.    There is nothing that can be said or demonstrated that will change the fact that this is a stupidity borne of hubris that equals what lead up to the events that resulted in the ATF's murder of a large number of religious kooks in McClennan County, Texas several years back.
        But, the fact remains that the overwhelming majority of arms used by the principal cartel groups have been supplied by international black and grey marketeers from Red China, Viet Nam, Russia, Eastern Europe, Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Iran.    The shipments have come into Mexico most frequently by boat and ship, most frequently off-loaded  some distance off the various lengthy coasts of Mexico's east and west flank.      The Cartel people have lost thousands upon thousands of arms and millions of rounds of ammunition in combat with the Mexican military.    The Cartel people have lost thousand upon thousands of arms to improper usage and maintenance.   That is just the way it is.
       And folks, please do not waste time on this ATF thing defending the ATF bureaucrats.   Before this is over, it will be learned that personal corruption in terms of financial gain is involved, and that the overriding issue in "Fast and Furious" was to advance the movement to disarm the common American slob who thinks he has the right to own a firearm.

     If time permits, there might be a bit of addendum.   We shall see upon returning from the Parents-in-law.    Thanks for your time and interest up to this point, to-day!
El Gringo Viejo