Thread: Central American gangs raising fears in southern Mexico

Central American gangs raising fears in southern Mexico

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  Passengers sit in a passenger van with tinted windows, inside a station in Tapachula, Mexico, Thursday, Jan. 19, 2023. With threatening phone calls, burned minibuses and at least three suspected killings, street gangs more closely associated with Central America are imposing their brand of terror-based extortion on transport drivers in southern Mexico. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)
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  A bus driver shows photo of late coworker Nehemias Verdugo Trejo who was killed by gunmen in Feb. 24, 2022, at a bus station in Huixtla, Mexico, Thursday, Jan. 19, 2023. Drivers of the passenger vans and taxis people depend on for transportation in largely rural Chiapas say they live in fear for their livelihood, or their lives as street gangs more closely associated with Central America are imposing their brand of terror-based extortion on public transportation drivers in southern Mexico. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)
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  Police in riot gear charge during a training exercise, near a burned passenger van, center, allegedly torched by gangs on Jan. 4, 2023, in Cacahoatan, Mexico, Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2023. Local authorities have formed an anti-gang task force and posted police at transport hubs, and last month Mexico's military deployed an additional 350 soldiers to communities along the Guatemalan border. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)
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  Passenger vans are parked at a station in Tapachula, Mexico, Thursday, Jan. 19, 2023. As Central American street gangs have moved operations into southern Mexico, drivers of the passenger vans and taxis have raised the alarm, holding temporary work stoppages to get authorities’ attention. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)
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  A young man sells hats near gang graffiti of the Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13 gang, near a bus station in Tapachula, Mexico, Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2023. Organized crime groups including the rival Mara Salvatrucha and Barrio 18 gangs have long maintained a presence along the border between Mexico and Guatemala, but Mexican authorities say their numbers have increased over the past year as El Salvador cracks down on gang members and their criminal enterprises. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)
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  Drivers chat prior to the start of their workday at a bus station in Tapachula, Mexico, Thursday, Jan. 19, 2023. As Central American street gangs have moved operations into southern Mexico, drivers of the passenger vans and taxis have raised the alarm, holding temporary work stoppages to get authorities’ attention. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)
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  A passenger van starts its route from a station in Tapachula, Mexico, Thursday, Jan. 19, 2023. With threatening phone calls, burned minibuses and at least three suspected killings, street gangs more closely associated with Central America are imposing their brand of terror-based extortion on transport drivers in southern Mexico. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)
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  Passengers walk in front of a bus station in Tapachula, Mexico, Thursday, Jan. 19, 2023. There’s a police vehicle parked daily at the local station in Tapachula where vans arrive and depart constantly, but their drivers remain exposed to the activities of Central American street gangs that have moved operations into southern Mexico. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)
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  Migrants gather at a bus station after crossing the border between Mexico and Guatemala, in Tapachula, Mexico, Thursday, Jan. 19, 2023. From 2018 through November 2022, 97 Salvadorans allegedly tied to gangs were arrested and deported, according to the Chiapas state prosecutor’s office. Most of those arrests and deportations happened in the past two years. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)
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  Passengers wait for their passenger van at a station in Tapachula, Mexico, Thursday, Jan. 19, 2023. There’s a police vehicle parked daily at the local station in Tapachula where vans arrive and depart constantly, but their drivers remain exposed to the activities of Central American street gangs that have moved operations into southern Mexico. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)
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  Migrants gather at a bus station after crossing the border between Mexico and Guatemala, in Tapachula, Mexico, Thursday, Jan. 19, 2023. Jose Mateo Martinez, Chiapas state prosecutor for migrant affairs, says El Salvador's crackdown on organized crime is behind the increase in criminal activity in Mexico. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)
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  A sign with the portrait of a Mexico's President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is seen on the rear window of a passenger van parked at a station in Tapachula, Mexico, Thursday, Jan. 19, 2023. As Central American street gangs have moved operations into southern Mexico, drivers of the passenger vans and taxis have raised the alarm, holding temporary work stoppages to get authorities’ attention. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)
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EDGAR H. CLEMENTE
Wed, January 25, 2023 at 8:22 AM EST


TAPACHULA, Mexico (AP) — With threatening phone calls, burned minibuses and at least three drivers shot to death, street gangs more closely associated with Central America are imposing their brand of terror-based extortion on public transportation drivers in southern Mexico.

Organized crime groups including the rival Mara Salvatrucha and Barrio 18 gangs have long maintained a presence along the border between Mexico and Guatemala, but Mexican authorities say their numbers have increased over the past year as El Salvador cracks down on gang members and their criminal enterprises.

Drivers of the passenger vans and taxis people depend on for transportation in largely rural Chiapas say they live in fear for their livelihood, or their lives. They have raised the alarm, holding temporary work stoppages to get authorities’ attention. The owner of one transport company in Tapachula has started moving with bodyguards.

Some admit to paying the extortion, having seen what happens to those who didn’t.

“If we don’t do anything we’re going to be a little (El) Salvador,” said a leader of drivers in the town of Huixtla, where a driver was shot by two men on a motorcycle last February.

The man requested anonymity, fearing gang reprisals.

Drivers in Huixtla showed The Associated Press vouchers dating back a year, documenting the payments.

Generally, it starts with someone climbing aboard the bus and handing a phone to the driver, sometimes while pointing a gun at the driver's head. The drivers are told to give the phone to the owner of the bus, van or taxi, establishing a direct line of communication.

Then the threats begin.

Callers show the owners that they know who they are, where they live, their routines and their livelihoods, according to recordings reviewed by the AP.

Speaking with distinctive Central American accents, Salvadoran slang and vulgarity, they ask for $50 initially and then $50 per month for each van or taxi, said a representative of drivers in Tapachula, who also requested anonymity out of fear.

The latest attack came Monday, when an unidentified man fired into the local bus terminal in Cacahoatan. No one was injured, but bullets struck a parked van and led drivers to suspend service. The shooter fled with another man on a motorcycle. Earlier this month, a van was set on fire in the same municipality.

Local authorities formed an anti-gang task force and posted police at transport hubs, and last month Mexico's military deployed an additional 350 soldiers to communities along the Guatemalan border.

“The intent is to support the civilian population to decrease the homicides tied to organized crime and the level of violence that has been on the rise in recent days,” said Ángel Banda Lozoya, commander of the local army regiment.

But the drivers remain exposed as they make frequent stops on long rural routes, and military might can't easily quash a threat that arrives unseen, through menacing calls and messages.

José Mateo Martínez, Chiapas state prosecutor for migrant affairs, says El Salvador's crackdown on organized crime is behind the increase in criminal activity in Mexico. “People are coming to hide from that, but there are also gang leaders who come to create a criminal group here,” he said.

In March 2022, El Salvador suspended some constitutional rights in reaction to an explosion of violence. The state of exception has continued since then, despite wide criticism by human rights organizations, with more than 60,000 people arrested on suspicion of gang ties.

Enforcement has been less forceful among El Salvador's neighbors: From 2018 through November 2022, Mexico arrested and deported 97 Salvadorans allegedly tied to gangs, mostly in the last two years, according to the Chiapas state prosecutor’s office. Neighboring Guatemala deported 90 alleged Salvadoran gang members last year, National Civilian Police spokesman Edwin Monroy said.

The gangs are transnational by nature, with tens of thousands of members in the United States as well as Central America and Mexico. El Salvador's dominant street gangs formed in Los Angeles among communities of immigrants who had fled armed conflicts in the 1980s. Eventually deported, they found fertile ground for more violence, committing crimes in one country and then hiding out in another, blending in with the daily flow of migrants across borders.

These gangs have long operated along Mexico’s borders, sometimes providing street muscle for Mexico’s powerful drug cartels or running their own criminal enterprises, profiting from the illicit traffic of drugs, guns and migrants. And some Mexican cartels extort businesses in other parts of the country.

But another Tapachula transportation leader, who requested anonymity because he feared reprisals insisted that these extortionists are Central American gangsters, not Mexican cartel members.

Extorting local transportation has been a key line of their revenue in El Salvador. Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele said in August that extortion of that sector had fallen dramatically. His transportation minister estimated bus companies had stopped paying some $50 million to gangs.

Other authorities have announced some successes: In August, Mexican police took down a gang cell that sold drugs and robbed clients at a bar in Tapachula. One of the five people captured had a pending arrest order from El Salvador and was deported.

In November, Mexican authorities arrested and deported to El Salvador a purported leader of the Barrio 18 gang, suspected in the killings of six people in San Salvador in 2020. Authorities in El Salvador said he had fled to Mexico with his family and other gang members to avoid capture under El Salvador’s special emergency powers.

And on Jan. 3, Guatemala captured and deported a Salvadoran gang member who had multiple arrest warrants on charges ranging from aggravated murder to terrorism.

But people who depend on transit in southern Mexico remain dissatisfied. There’s a police vehicle parked daily at the local station in Tapachula where vans arrive and depart constantly, but their drivers remain exposed.

Two of the killings happened northwest of Tapachula near the Pacific coast. In September, a man got out of a van driving the route between Tonala and Arriaga and shot the female driver. In late October, a driver was shot in Mapastepec by two men on a motorcycle, not far from the local terminal.

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AP journalists Moises Castillo in Tapachula, Marcos Alemán in San Salvador, El Salvador and Sonia Pérez D. in Guatemala City contributed to this report.




https://www.yahoo.com/news/central-a...132239141.html

This is the rotten filth that is pouring over our border 24/7.

We are involved in wars all across the world. This is war on our border.

There is ONE solution to this problem and put these violent vermin animals down by the millions all across the world. We cannot incarcerate them all.

Deport these women who are here illegally, they give birth to MORE of these animals that destroy our lives and our communities.

This should be a worldwide mission to get these criminals out of our lives permanently.