Drug gang flame grills potato chips
Hours earlier, the cartel hung banners claiming responsibility for previous arson attacks against Sabritas. A subsidiary of U.S. food giant PepsiCo, Sabritas had become the first multinational victim of Mexico’s drug war when armed assailants targeted the company in two states on May 25 and 26.
The Knights Templars burned 12 delivery trucks at two distribution centers in Guanajuato and another 37 vehicles at three warehouses in Michoacan. No one was hurt but security has been stepped up in Sabritas’ Zapopan plant as a result of the attacks.
The latest incident took place around 9.30 p.m. on a rural road leading out of Morelia, the Michoacan state capital. Hooded men with assault rifles intercepted the Sabritas truck, doused it with gasoline and set it ablaze. The driver suffered burns but managed to escape and is now out of hospital.
Authorities originally believed the firebombings to be a form of extortion, a theory apparently confirmed by four suspects arrested after the first wave of attacks. While extortion of small and medium-sized businesses is not uncommon in some parts of Mexico, this would have been the first time a multinational company had been targeted since President Felipe Calderon declared war on the nation’s cartels in December 2006.
However, banners left by members of the Knights Templar suggested these were revenge attacks against Sabritas for letting law enforcement agents use its trucks for surveillance purposes.
“We have been affected by companies that allow themselves to be used to transport people throughout Michoacan, to carry out activities against our brotherhood,” read the banners, which attributed the attacks to the Knights Templar, a pseudo-religious offshoot of Michoacan’s now-defunct La Familia cartel.
“These are government intelligence agents who pass themselves off as sales agents for this company,” the banners explained. “We are telling all companies that lend themselves to these activities that they will be punished for offenses.”
With rumors circulating even before the banners were unveiled, PepsiCo’s Mexico office appeared to deny the allegations early last week.
“In accordance with our code of conduct, all of our operations are carried out in the current regulatory framework and our vehicles and facilities are used exclusively to carry our products to our customer and clients,” read a company statement issued in the aftermath of the first attacks.
“There is no information that would indicate that the damaged vehicles were being used for any purpose other than delivery duties,” added Interior Undersecretary Obdulio Avila at a press conference on Friday. Avila vowed that the crimes will not go unpunished and promised the government will protect multinational business interests.
Huicholes unimpressed by government deal
The Huichol or Wixaritari people – around 20,000 live in isolated regions of Jalisco, Nayarit and Zacatecas – have led a protest movement since 2009, when the government granted mining concessions in 6,327 hectares of the Real de Catorce region to First Majestic Silver Corp.
Much of the land granted to First Majestic falls inside the Cerro Quemado, a sacred area locally known as “Wirikuta.” The Wixaritari hold annual pilgrimages to the site and believe it is where the sun was born.
As well as returning 761 hectares to the Wixaritari last week, the government also declared another 45,000 hectares were to become a National Mining Reserve.
Yet Wixaritari representatives complained last Thursday that First Majestic had already offered to return what little land was of no use to them, but still retain concessions to mine over 5,000 hectares of sacred Wirikuta land; and that the new reserve is in an area where there were no concessions anyway.
Moreover, the amount returned to the Wixaritari pales into insignificance when another 95,000 hectares of Wirikuta land remain in the hands of other mining companies to whom the federal government has granted concessions. For example, Canada’s Revolution Resources alone has the rights to mine 59,678 hectares.
The Wixaritari have received backing from a wide variety of Mexican artists, intellectuals and civic groups in their campaign against the government and the Canadian mining firms.
In solidarity with the Wixaritari, protesters staged a massive concert dubbed “Wirikuta Fest” in Mexico City’s Foro Sol on Saturday, May 26. Some 50,000 young people turned up to watch performances from Café Tacuba and Calle 13, as well as guest appearances from outspoken Rage Against the Machine front man Zack de la Rocha and poet-turned-peace-activist Javier Sicilia.
But this demonstration also contained all the hallmarks of a political rally, as it was led by Enrique Alfaro, the Citizen’s Movement candidate for the Jalisco governorship. Municipal authorities estimated around 40,000 took part, while organizers claimed the march drew over 50,000 citizens.
With these numbers Alfaro outdid his political rivals at the University of Guadalajara (UdeG), whose own peace march drew a smaller but still considerable 30,000 last week. Alfaro has a long-running feud with the UdeG hierarchy, stemming back to the time he left the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) to run for mayor of Tlajomulco under the banner of the left-of-center Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), much to the disdain of the university’s “moral leader,” former rector Raul Padilla.
In his speech, Alfaro thanked citizens for attending the march voluntarily, emphasizing that “none of them were hauled into protesting.” This was a sly reference to the UdeG, which actively mobilizes its students in protests such as these.
The march was organized three weeks ago, after death threats and the grizzly remains of a dog were sent to Alfaro’s campaign coordinator.
“We are not afraid of money nor the mafia,” declared Alfaro, describing the event as “a political march to seek peace in our state.” The popular former mayor of Tlajomulco is also representing the Labor Party (PT) and the National Regeneration Movement (Morena) headed by Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. He trails frontrunner Aristoteles Sandoval of the PRI by 20 percentage points but is ahead of the National Action Party (PAN) candidate Fernando Guzman in several polls.
The Tequila Files 