So that the member of the Order of Readers of the Old Gringo will be certain that you are not reading the scribblings of some Pollyanna, pro-Mexican idiot who is not well planted in some zone of reality, we are including the following couple of reasonably accurate local news articles. This is being done because the spate of news articles published by agencies ranging from the BBC to the Los Angeles Times and others in the MSM, have been really, really confusing and inaccurate to the point of exasperation.
This was not a good time for the area of what is called the Northern Huasteca, which includes the northernmost part of the State of Vera Cruz, the southernmost part of the State of Tamaulipas, and the far-easternmost part of the State of San Luis Pososi'. On your Google Earth, click into....for instance the towns of Ebano, Tampamolon, Valles, Tamosopo, Tamuin, all in San Luis Potosi State. Then, look for Tempoal, Tantoyuca, El Higo, and Panuco in the State of Vera Cruz. The places lie about 100 - 150 miles south of Victoria, Tamaulipas and about 60 - 100 miles southeast of Tampico. Much of it lies about 250 years in the past, and includes large numbers of people who speak no Spanish. Another oddity of the area is that most of the white people in this zone are actually 4th - 6th generation French in their ancestry, and quite a few have some traces of Confederate refugee bloodlines.
The bad part of this blog entry is that eleven civilians were uselessly killed...murdered for no reason good or bad....by cartel brigands on the 21st of this month. Two busses were assaulted at the Tempoal - Huejutla intersection, known locally as the "Y" (or i- griega, meaning 'Greek i). Tempoal is a nice little town, very productive in terms of citrus and even some chocolate. A group of cartel leftovers, having been driven literally into the mountains and into very traditional Indian areas, had tired of their rough treatment by the locals and their inability to "discipline" the natives with terrorism and harassment. Army patrols were closing in on them, mile by mile, and the Indians had been giving the military good data about specific places and types of vehicles and types of armament with reference to the cartel holdovers.
Apparently, in some form of ridiculous frenzied hope of escape from the jaws of a three sided, strategic military assault against this small band of 20 +/- of the very worst, the cartel holdovers launched an all out attempt to change their geographic hiding grounds. The problem is that at the very moment they left their hidey-hole outside of the village of Tomasopa, San Luis Potosi....running to the east....they learned that a large military convoy was coming down from Tamuin to the north. Before the made it to the State border of San Luis Potosi' and Vera Cruz contact was made by helicopter scout and by an advance platoon of infantry. The criminal element drove into El Higo, Vera Cruz with 5 late model, stolen pickups. They discarded two of the trucks with mechanical problems, and attempted to replace them with less ostentatious mounts. Three fruit vendors/purveyors were killed but the criminals could not start their delivery truck and leave its loading station so they went further into town, threw an old hand grenade at a man coming out of his house, and managed to not only kill the man, but also to essentially totally render useless the intent of their actions...the theft of his pickup. Not smart.
The forward element of the Army convoy then engaged the one pickup that had been pointed out by El Higo citizenry and chased it to a nearby point on the river that borders this sugar-mill town. After a brief engagement, all five (it was thought) of the criminals were killed. The Army suffered no casualties. More citizen outcry advised the soldiers that there were four more pickups that had gone to the main highway and then headed to Tempoal to the south about 14 miles. The military convoy reformed and then went to the south, arriving too late to salvage the issue wherein the criminals had assaulted two busses, and killed two drivers, and five passengers. Oddly, the criminal group turned and went back to the north, apparently fearing a response from the huge army bases outside of Cerro Azul (25 miles away) and/or Tuxpan (Army and Naval Infantry about 50 miles away on the coast). The highway leading to the site of the crimes from those bases is not very good, so it was ill-advised on the part of these particular criminals to flee to the north. It leads one to the conclusion that they were very low level both in terms of pecking order and intellectual capacity.
As the Army convoy turned south, the assaulters had already passed by the critical intersection coming out of El Higo (The Fig) in their northbound flight. The 15 vehicle convoy arrived 40 minutes after the tragedy at the Tempoal intersection. The Recon helicopter was uselessly sitting on the highway....pilot and recon man talking to excited citizens and bus passengers saying..."The bad guys went back to the north! The bad guys went back the way they came in". This made no sense in terms of any logical action. If they were trying to escape, they should have taken the highway Huejutla...to the west. But, the people were adamant, and when the convoy reformed, leaving the dead and wounded to local authourity, they retraced through the fog of war to the north. Correctly, a rear guard had been left at various points where the criminals could have turned off into temporary hidey-holes or dead-end escapes, and the helicopter was combing back and forth as they went....then it was joined by two more helicopters from the Naval Infantry facility in Tampico. The city of Panuco, Vera Cruz was sealed of from entry from the south, and then the real live combing began.
Yesterday, in desperation, the criminal group, numbering eight individuals, arrived at a Bancomer bank in the town of Ebano, Vera Cruz. They were driving in two remaining pickups, both stolen a few days earlier. While two remained at the wheel, three guarded the entry/exit, and three assaulters crowded into the smallish local bank and demanded "all the money". According to local reports, one of them discharged his automatic rifle into the ceiling, but the action jammed after two or three rounds. They were given several hundred thousand pesos and left hurriedly. They had entered onto the precincts of the small bank at 10:30 in the morning.
When they had gone only 6 miles to the east....heading into the Tampico area (30 miles), exactly the wrong direction for any hope of escape....the two-pickup, group of eight was being lined up for removal to the morgue at the State Medical University in Tampico...now 24 miles away. The encounter was brief and no quarter given.
During the periods leading up to all of this, locals around El Higo had reported finding four wounded parties from the very first assault, hours earlier. The platoon left in El Higo to restore order and abate anxiety among the citizenry went out and found two resisting criminals who refused to surrender. Two of their group had died shortly after being wounded.
So, the final count of criminals was 17 dead, no prisoners, no wounded. The Army and Naval Infantry suffered two slightly wounded effectives. According to the command of the 6th Military Zone, they are convinced that these individuals had a falling out with several in their group at a place some distance to the south of Tampico and on the beach. They feel that there was a fight in which the some of the winners and all the losers died, and the bodies of the latter were mutilated. The military and federal police place this episode somewhere around the 15th of December, according to information derived from locals who were just glad to see them gone. The entire group had been described as continuously drunk and drinking....always aggressive and arguing among themselves at beachfront cabana "bars".....not paying their tabs and even beating up the barmaids. There had been some shooting one night, and then the next day everyone was gone, including their new pickups. About a day later, about 12 bodies and one pickup with mechanical difficulties were found at a place a few miles to the north of the arguments.
Save for the victory by the forces of order, there is little good in any of this. If one looks at it from the point of view of the people who were just going down the road, minding their own business....there is no good "spin" for them or their families.
What little good there is can be enumerated thusly:
(1) As usual, the Army and Naval Infantry won.
(2) The citizenry co-operated and gave worthwhile, current information to the forces of order.
(3) For the Northeastern part of Mexico, this is seeming to be an outlier event. Other altercations between the Military and the elements of organised crime have been isolated from the citizenry in general. Other incidents have occurred between opposing groups within the universe of organised crime resulting in casualties among they themselves.
(4) These flashes of irrational violence will continue for another 6 to 12 months. Our analysis continues to be the same as stated during our last projections, and on the same time line. The greatest problem we have at this point is that elements of the criminal cartel group will join with leftist political groups after the up-coming Presidential and National Elections to bring as much anarchy as possible to the unavoidable protests that will follow the defeat of the various leftist candidates and positions. This "joining" will not be so much for political reasons as for the simple desire to destroy and to ruin. In that sense there is considerable overlap between the political left and the cartels.
Below, we have included two articles that are better than what was found in the mainstream media. Oddly, according to some, one is essentially the summary of the Official Military Statement which focuses very well onto the other known facts concerning this encounter....while the other story comes from a scandal rag newspaper that does some pretty good reporting at times....kind of a regional "National Enquirer". The articles are in Spanish, but it can be easily read by people who just have confidence that they can swim if they just jump into the pool. Other information has been gleaned from truckers and bus drivers who call in on an overnight Mexican truchers' radio program. The Gringo Viejo has, over the years, always found their gossip and news to be reliable. We have also taken information from local radio reports from the Tempoal AM news and information radio...XETI -750am, as well as certain television reports from TV - AZTECA and Televisa....which seem to have been reliable and not laden with political commentary.
Anyone wishing to have a translation of the articles below can request one....perhaps after these next days up in Central Texas...there will be time to do a fair and complete formal translation worthy of the OROG community.
11 personas perdieron la vida en el Higo Veracruz confirma Sedena
Jue, Diciembre 22, 2011
Personal militar repele agresión armada en el poblado de El Higo, Veracruz
La Boticaria, Ver.- En relación a los hechos suscitados en esta fecha en el municipio de Pánuco, Ver., en los que “lamentablemente” fallecieron 11 personas como consecuencia de los asaltos y agresiones en contra de la población por parte de integrantes del crimen organizado, la SecretarÃa de la Defensa Nacional condena categóricamente estas reprobables acciones y expresa sus más sentidas condolencias a los familiares de las vÃctimas.
Asimismo, por conducto de la Comandancia de la VI Región Militar se informa que en el marco de la Estrategia Integral del Estado Mexicano en contra del Narcotráfico y la Delincuencia Organizada, durante las primeras horas de esta fecha, al atender una denuncia ciudadana referente a que en la carretera Pánuco-Tantoyuca, Ver., un grupo de individuos armados se encontraban asaltando a varios autobuses de pasajeros y agrediendo a la población civil, personal militar del Ejército Mexicano perteneciente a este mando territorial procedió a trasladarse al citado lugar para ubicar a los agresores y salvaguardar la seguridad de la población.
Al efectuar reconocimientos en la mencionada área localizaron a un grupo de individuos, quienes al detectar la presencia militar agredieron a las tropas, por lo que los efectivos castrenses repelieron la agresión, falleciendo en el lugar de los hechos cinco agresores y asegurando cinco armas largas, 58 cargadores diferentes caracterÃsticas y un vehÃculo.
Es importante señalar que este grupo de delincuentes durante las primeras horas de esta fecha, en el poblado de El Higo, Ver., privaron de la vida a tres personas que se encontraban cargando una camioneta de verduras y en otro punto de la población arrojaron una granada provocando la muerte de una persona más.
Posteriormente, sobre la carretera a Tempoal, en el punto denominado la “Y” asaltaron un autobús en donde asesinaron a dos pasajeros; después continuaron sobre la misma carretera para detener a un segundo autobús sobre el que efectúan disparos de armas de fuego, ocasionando el fallecimiento de otras cuatro personas; para verificar lo sucedido, el conductor de un tercer autobús descendió de su automotor y fue asesinado por los citados delincuentes.
De estos hechos tomaron nota las autoridades correspondientes, ante quienes quedaron a disposición los cuerpos de los occisos y lo asegurado por las tropas.
Con estas acciones el Ejército y Fuerza Aérea Mexicanos refrendan su compromiso de salvaguardar y proteger a todos los mexicanos, actuando con estricto apego de la ley y respetando en todo momento los Derechos Humanos.
ENFRENTAMIENTO ENTRE SICARIOS Y MILITARES EN EBANO, SLP - EL EJERCITO GANO' - 8 A 0
San Luis PotosÃ, San Luis PotosÃ.- Ocho asaltantes murieron abatidos en un enfrentamiento con el Ejército luego de que atracaron ayer por la mañana una sucursal de Bancomer en Ebano.
Los hechos se registraron a las 10:30 horas en la sucursal Bancomer ubicada en la avenida Vicente Guerrero y calle 1 de Mayo.
De acuerdo con la información proporcionada por las autoridades los delincuentes viajaban a bordo de una camioneta roja, y al llegar a la sucursal bancaria tres sujetos fuertemente armados ingresaron y tras amagar al personal y a los clientes les exigieron la entrega de todo el dinero.
Luego de obtener el botÃn el grupo
de asaltantes salió del banco para huir con rumbo al oriente, hacia Pánuco, Veracruz.
A los pocos minutos arribaron a la institución efectivos militares y agentes de la Dirección General de Seguridad Pública del Estado, quienes establecieron un cerco policial sin resultados inmediatos.
Pero más tarde, hacia las 11:00 de la mañana, los asaltantes fueron reportados cerca de la comunidad conocida como “Calentadores”, municipio de Pánuco, Veracruz, donde efectivos militares habÃan montado un retén, les cerraron el paso sobreviniendo entonces el enfrentamiento a tiros.
Los delincuentes intentaron huir, pero fueron abatidos a balazos por las fuerzas militares.
Al lugar de los hechos acudió personal forense del municipio de Pánuco, Veracruz, para hacer las diligencias del caso, ya que el poblado “Calentadores” se encuentra en la entidad veracruzana, a unos 20 minutos del puerto jaibo.
HERIDO UN HIJO DE ROSA MA. HUERTA
En un evento muy diferente sucedido en Tamasopo, resultó herido de un balazo en un glúteo el joven Mauro Quintero Huerta, hijo de la secretaria del Comité Directivo Estatal del PRI, Rosa MarÃa Huerta Valdez. Se desconocen los pormenores de la forma en que ocurrió este hecho, pero circuló otra versión en la que se indica que Mauro Quintero Huerta fue herido en el enfrentamiento de elementos del Ejército Mexicano con los asaltabancos la comunidad conocida como “Calentadores”, municipio de Pánuco, Veracruz.
