Drug gangs in Mexico using publicly displayed banners as threats

By Sean Mattson
SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS

August 31, 2008

MONTERREY, Mexico – Mexican cities were plastered with banners again last week that accused the government and army of protecting the Sinaloa drug cartel.

Banners appeared overnight Wednesday in cities bordering Texas, including Reynosa, Ciudad Acuña, Nuevo Laredo and Piedras Negras, as well as the Yucatan Peninsula resort of Cancún and the states of Veracruz, Aguascalientes and San Luis PotosÃ*.

Some were written on cloth in barely legible and grammar-challenged script; others were professionally printed on heavy plastic tarps.

All alluded to a long-standing conspiracy theory: That JoaquÃ*n “El Chapoâ€