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<ul class="summary-list"><li>Redonda, an uninhabited Caribbean island, was  a critical source of fertilizer in the 19th century.</li><li>When miners stepped foot on the island, they introduced invasive species that destroyed the habitat.</li></ul><p>Redonda, a small, uninhabited Caribbean island that is part of the commonwealth of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.insider.com/what-its-like-to-visit-antigua-caribbean-travel-pandemic-2020-7">Antigua and Barbuda</a>, is on the path to recovering its native ecosystem after being destroyed by invasive species nearly a century ago. </p><p>The tiny island of Redonda, about a mile long, was<strong> </strong>formerly a haven for several species of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ap-whats-in-90-percent-of-seabirds-guts-1-word-plastics-2015-8">seabirds</a>.</p><p>Its attraction, particularly to birds, such as Brown Boobies and Masked Boobies, made the island a rich source of guano<strong> </strong>— or seabird excrement — which could be turned into fertilizer and gunpowder.</p><p>In the 19th century, the British government deployed more than 100 miners to begin extracting several tons of guano per year, according to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.earthisland.org/journal/index.php/articles/entry/saving_the_dying_kingdom_of_redonda/">Earth Island Journal</a>.</p><p>Humans deserted the island around the 1930s, but the mining operations left behind <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/photos-invasive-species-threaten-the-future-of-humanity-un-report-2023-9">invasive species</a>, mainly domestic goats and stowaway black rats, that wreaked havoc on the island's ecosystem.</p><p>Soon, the island became a barren landscape, earning the nickname "the rock" from adjacent locals, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-66922735?fbclid=IwAR23ws7b6tO5UZTG7aJ44XmVjKk0oC2aSAWhbdza1t2qKP2D-3bOOanm7n8">BBC reported</a>.</p><p>"Much like they have done elsewhere in the world, the rats and goats contributed to the deforestation and desertification of Redonda and are blamed for the extinction of the endemic skink and iguana, as well as the extirpation of the Antiguan burrowing owl on the island," according to the Environmental Awareness Group (EAG), an Antigua and Barbuda NGO. "By 2012, the ecosystem was so severely degraded that even the feral goats were starving to death."</p><p>In 2016, environmental groups such as EAG launched restoration efforts to bring back the local plant life and animal species native to the island.</p><p>The plan included relocating Redonda's estimated 60 goats to Antigua and eradicating about 7,000 rats with the help of local and international volunteers.</p><p>"That's all we did. We just removed the species that were not supposed to be there and within months we saw the vegetation growing back — the island rebounding," Johnella Bradshaw, EAG's Redonda program coordinator told <a target="_blank" href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/29/travel/redonda-caribbean-restoration-wildlife-c2e-scn-spc-intl/index.html">CNN</a>.</p><p>In just two years, entire species began to return, according to the EAG.</p><p>"Within 24 months of invasive species removal, populations of at least two of the three lizard species have increased by more than threefold and species of land birds and invertebrates, not seen in decades, have returned," the NGO wrote.</p><p>Today, Redonda is home to dozens of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/us-second-for-most-number-of-endangered-species-2023-6">threatened species</a> and a new generation of seabirds that haven't been seen in centuries. Total plant biomass has increased by more than 2,000%, CNN reported.</p><p>"Up to this date, we haven't planted anything, we haven't reintroduced any species. We just removed the rats and the goats, and the island transformed right in front of our eyes," Bradshaw told CNN.</p><p>This month, the government of Antigua and Barbuda established the Redonda Ecosystem Reserve which will cover 30,000 hectares or 74,000 acres of land and sea, including the small island.</p><p>Bradshaw told the outlet that this designation should help the island continue its restoration, which remains fragile.</p><p>An EAG spokesperson did not return a request for comment.</p>

This Caribbean island was once plagued with rats that destroyed the ecosystem. Now, plant biomass has increased 2,000% thanks to environmental group efforts.

<keyword id="18530965" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="southampton-southampton" source="Orion">Southampton Southampton</keyword>, Aug 25 (The Conversation) <keyword id="75770" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="coral-reefs" source="Orion">Coral reefs</keyword> thrive in parts of the world's oceans that are low in nutrients. This mystery has puzzled scientists for centuries and has become known as the "Darwin paradox of coral reefs". <br /><br />Our new study adds the missing piece of the puzzle. We found that many species of coral cultivate and feed on the microscopic algae that live inside their cells. This vegetarian diet allows the corals to tap into a large pool of nutrients that was previously considered unavailable to them. <br /><br />Stony corals are soft-bodied animals made up of many individual polyps that live together as a colony. They secrete limestone skeletons that form the foundation of reefs. The coral polyps acquire nutritious compounds rich in nitrogen and phosphorus by catching prey like zooplankton with their tentacles. <br /><br />Many coral animals are also dependent on a <keyword id="6527304" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="symbiosis" source="Orion">symbiosis</keyword> - a mutually beneficial relationship - with the microscopic algae that live inside their cells. <br /><br />These photosynthetic algae produce large amounts of carbon-rich compounds, such as sugars, and transfer them to the host coral to generate energy. However, as most photosynthetic products are deficient in nitrogen and phosphorous, they cannot sustain the growth of the animals. <br /><br />Our findings suggest that, while coral animals may survive brief periods of starvation by feeding on their symbionts, some coral reefs could face the risk of prolonged nutrient deficiency due to global warming. This is concerning. Coral reefs are important underwater ecosystems that provide a home and feeding ground for countless organisms, sustaining around 25% of the world's ocean biodiversity. <br /><br />Vegetarian diet <br /><br />The symbiotic algae living within the corals are very efficient at taking up dissolved inorganic nutrients, like nitrate and phosphate, from the surrounding seawater. Even in nutrient-poor areas of the ocean, these compounds are present in considerable amounts as excretion products of organisms, such as sponges, that live close by. Ocean currents can also transport these nutrients to reefs. <br /><br />The coral host, on the other hand, cannot absorb or use nitrate and phosphate directly. But, through a series of long-term laboratory experiments, we demonstrated that corals actually digest some of their symbiont population to access the nitrogen and phosphorus that these algae absorb from the water. <br /><br />To provide evidence that the nutrients accumulated by the growing coral tissue originated from the symbionts, we supplied the corals with a chemical form of nitrogen that can only be absorbed from the water by the symbionts, not by the coral host. <br /><br />This nutrient compound was marked by a technique called isotopic labelling, which uses nitrogen atoms that are heavier than normal. These "heavy" isotopes allowed us to track the movement of nitrogen between the partners of the symbiosis by ultrasensitive detection methods. <br /><br />With this method, we could unambiguously demonstrate that the nitrogen atoms that sustained the growth of the coral tissue were derived from the dissolved inorganic nutrients that were fed to their symbiont algae. <br /><br />Our data suggest that most species of symbiotic corals can supplement their nutrition through such a vegetarian diet. <br /><br />From the laboratory to the ocean <br /><br />Together with our colleagues, we also analysed corals growing around remote islands in the <keyword id="12350" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="indian-ocean" source="Orion">Indian Ocean</keyword>, some with seabirds on them and some without. Our results show that corals have the potential to farm and feed on their symbiont algae in the wild too. <br /><br />The reefs around some of these islands are supplied with substantial amounts of nutrients that come from "guano" - the excrement of seabirds nesting on the islands. On some of the other islands, seabird colonies have been decimated by invasive rats. The reefs surrounding these islands receive fewer nutrients. <br /><br />We measured the growth of staghorn coral colonies both around islands with and without dense seabird populations and found that growth was more than twice as fast on reefs that were supplied with <keyword id="18530966" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="seabird-nutrients" source="Orion">seabird nutrients</keyword>. About half of the nitrogen molecules in the tissue of the coral animals from islands with seabirds could be traced back to uptake by the symbiont algae. <br /><br />Global warming could complicate matters In the future, some coral reefs could face a decrease in nutrient availability due to global warming. Research suggests that warming surface waters are less likely to receive nutrients from deeper water layers. The reduced water productivity could result in fewer nutrients for their symbionts and subsequently less food for the coral animals. <br /><br />Our study indicates that some coral reefs might become vulnerable to starvation as ocean temperatures warm. When we moved corals from water with ample nutrients to water with fewer nutrients, they continued to eat their symbiont algae. This behaviour allowed them to sustain their growth for a few weeks, even in the absence of feeding. <br /><br />But once they had exhausted their population of symbiotic algae, the coral underwent bleaching (referring to the white appearance of the corals with low symbiont numbers in their tissue), stopped growing - and in some cases eventually died. <br /><br />Our findings reveal that corals can not only acquire nitrogen and phosphorus by feeding on prey as other animals do. But, by eating parts of their symbiont stock, they can also efficiently tap into the pool of dissolved inorganic nitrogen and phosphorus that is otherwise only accessible to plants. <br /><br />Through this process, symbiotic corals gain an advantage over other animals in environments that are low in nutrients, explaining their prominent role in the formation of reefs in nutrient-poor water. <br /><br />However, increasingly severe nutrient depletion will add a further threat to some coral reefs already experiencing bleaching caused by heat stress.(The Conversation) AMS AMS

How coral reefs turn vegetarian to thrive in oceans low in nutrients

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Conflict is brewing within the <keyword id="12085832" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="sinaloa-cartel" source="Orion">Sinaloa cartel</keyword>.</li><li>The US recently increased its rewards for two major cartel figures, and another was quietly released from jail earlier this year.</li></ul><p>Culiacán, Sinaloa - In the middle of the night on September 1, Jesús Alfredo Beltrán Guzmán was <a href="https://zetatijuana.com/2021/09/el-mochomito-libre-del-penal-de-puente-grande/">freed</a> from a Mexican prison without fanfare after serving five years of a 10-year sentence for <keyword id="12306054" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="drug-trafficking" source="Orion">drug trafficking</keyword>.</p><p>Beltrán Guzmán is the son of Alfredo Beltrán Leyva, aka "El Mochomo," a longtime Sinaloa Cartel associate who broke away in the late 2000s and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/alfredo-beltran-guzman-beltran-leyva-sinaloa-cartel-fighting-in-mexico-2016-12">formed the rival Beltrán Leyva Organization</a>.</p><p>Beltrán Guzmán, known as "El Mochomito," is also the nephew of jailed kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzmán Loera, and his release adds to the list of players thought to be battling for control of the Sinaloa Cartel.</p><p>El Chapo's brother, his sons, his nephew, and his shadowy former peer in the cartel, Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada, are fighting over what's generally considered to be one of the most powerful criminal groups in the world.</p><p>US authorities also recently increased the reward for two of those men: $5 million is now on offer for El Chapo's brother, Aureliano Guzmán Loera, aka "El Guano," and $15 million is being offered for Zambada.</p><h2>Old rivalries, new fighting</h2><div type="image" title="Alfredo Beltran Leyva Mexico drug trafficker arrest" height="1334" width="2000" msid="88133564" hostid="261"></div><p>The Beltrán Leyva Organization was run by Alfredo and his brothers, Arturo, Héctor, and Carlos. They began their criminal careers alongside El Chapo, first as an armed wing of the Sinaloa Cartel and later on their own.</p><p>Alfredo was arrested in Culiacán, the capital of Sinaloa, in January 2008. Arturo was killed by Mexican marines in the city of Cuernavaca in December 2009. A few days after Arturo's death, Carlos was also captured in Culiacán. Hector was captured in the state of Guanajuato in October 2014.</p><p>After the arrest of the <keyword id="12683597" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="beltran-leyva" source="Orion">Beltran Leyva</keyword> Organization's top bosses, Beltrán Guzmán stepped up as the new boss. He then declared war on the Sinaloa Cartel.</p><p>Beltrán Guzmán was arrested on December 9, 2016, in the city Zapopan in the state of Jalisco while fleeing a military operation to capture him. He is allegedly responsible for <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_Ae2QOfhHU">kidnapping</a> two of El Chapo's sons, Jesús Alfredo and Iván Guzmán Salazar, from a restaurant in Puerto Vallarta, also in Jalisco.</p><p>Shortly before fleeing to Jalisco in 2016, Beltrán Guzman led about 50 armed men into a shootout near La Tuna, a rural town in Sinaloa, where they robbed El Chapo's mother's home. They were reportedly <a href="https://www.elmundo.es/internacional/2016/06/29/57738a0b468aeb1e158b4605.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">looking to kill El Chapo's brother, Aureliano</a>.</p><p>According to a Sinaloa Cartel operative who asked for anonymity to avoid reprisal, Aureliano has an old vendetta against El Mochomito.</p><p>"These people never forget. What El Mochomito did before being arrested, and the fact that the Guzmán Loeras firmly believe they were betrayed by the Beltráns, is an old problem that has not been solved," he said.</p><div type="image" title="Ismael El Mayo Zambada wanted poster" height="450" width="601" msid="88133565" hostid="261"></div><p>The operative said Guzmán, Beltrán Guzmán, three of the Guzmán Salazar brothers, and Zambada, are all still in Sinaloa, but only the Guzmán Salazars, who are El Chapo's sons, live in Culiacán.</p><p>"Everything is in a tense calm. I personally know El Mochomito, and the morning he got out he returned to one of his ranches here in Sinaloa. The government returned everything they seized during his arrest," the operative added.</p><p>Mexican authorities were not able to confirm or deny these allegations.</p><p>Aureliano "El Guano" Guzmán has kept a low profile, remaining outside the Sinaloa Cartel until very recently when the US put out a <a href="https://www.state.gov/narcotics-rewards-program-target-information-wanted/aureliano-guzman-loera/">$5 million</a> reward for him. A 2020 DEA report describes Aureliano as a "notable" Sinaloa Cartel commander and as responsible for shipping "large quantities of fentanyl" from contacts in China.</p><p>Aureliano is known for being "much more violent than his brother," shown when "he killed <a href="https://www.entreveredas.com.mx/2016/06/le-declara-la-guerra-hijo-de-el-mochomo.html?m=1">Ernesto Guzmán</a>, Mochomito's grandfather, for being considered as unreliable," two official sources told Insider.</p><p>The fighting may remain between members of the Guzmán family, according to Mike Vigil, former chief of the DEA's <keyword id="11933000" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="mexico" source="Orion">Mexico</keyword> bureau.</p><p>"Mayo Zambada has a stronghold in the Sinaloa Cartel. He is too strong and too respected for someone like Aureliano, Mochomito, or Los Chapitos to fight him," he said, using a nickname for El Chapo's sons.</p><p>Vigil — who infiltrated the Guadalajara federation before it broke into competing cartels, including the Sinaloa cartel, in the late 1980s — said Zambada's leaders had kept the Sinaloa Cartel "as the biggest cartel in the world."</p><p>"Zambada is an intelligent man, keeping his low profile but at the same time keeping a pyramidal organization in the Sinaloa cartel," he said.</p><h2>War on and in cartels</h2><div type="image" title="Mexico Sinaloa state Culiacan shooting killings violence" height="1584" width="2376" msid="88133566" hostid="261"></div><p>Mexican media <a href="https://www.infobae.com/america/mexico/2020/10/30/la-violencia-se-recrudece-al-interior-del-cartel-de-sinaloa-17-celulas-y-grupos-armados-estan-en-batalla/">reported</a> in late 2020 that more than 17 factions of the Sinaloa Cartel were fighting for control of the cartel, and another source within the cartel told Insider that the Guzmán Loera family's fight against El Mayo has already started in some parts of Mexico.</p><p>According to the source, the state of Durango is today where Aureliano's, Zambada's, and Mochomito's factions are fighting over the cartel.</p><p>"El viejón [Zambada] has his people fighting for Durango. They are called Fuerzas Especiales Barrera, and very recently they were attacked by Los Guanos, an armed group by El Guano," the source said.</p><p>"They can't fight inside Sinaloa, [which] is a sacred territory where the order and the agreement is to keep things calm," the source added.</p><p>The Sinaloa Cartel and the <keyword id="12306052" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="jalisco-new-generation-cartel" source="Orion">Jalisco New Generation Cartel</keyword> remain the largest and most powerful in Mexico, but the country has <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/fragmentation-in-mexico-war-on-drugs-created-400-new-gangs-2021-10?r=MX&amp;IR=T">more than 400 gangs operating inside it</a>. Their proliferation is a consequence of the "war against cartels" started by right-wing Mexican President Felipe Calderon in 2006.</p><p>"The current Mexican security policy approach of 'hugs not gunshots' is clearly not working. Mexico needs more cooperation with the US and to have a frontal strategy against criminal groups," Vigil said.</p>

The US ups its multimillion-dollar rewards for 2 Sinaloa cartel leaders as another war brews for control of the cartel

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Eleven new colonies of emperor <keyword id="6432613" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="penguins">penguins</keyword> have been discovered in Antarctica using satellite photography.</li><li>The emperor penguin is the largest penguin species, and the new find brings their known population to around a half-million.</li><li>The sea ice where these <keyword id="48643" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="60" keywordseo="birds">birds</keyword> breed is expected to melt because of <keyword id="6361617" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="climate-change">climate change</keyword>, making their population especially vulnerable.</li></ul><p>British scientists have discovered 11 new emperor penguin colonies in Antarctica, a nearly 20% jump from what was previously known.</p><p>The researchers from British Antarctic Survey used images from the European Commission's Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellite mission to explore far off parts of the continent, according to the study published in <a href="https://www.bas.ac.uk/media-post/scientists-discover-new-penguin-colonies-from-space/">the journal Remote Sensing In Ecology And Conservation</a>.</p><p>For the last 10 years, the scientists had been looking for new colonies by searching for their guano stains on the ice. The birds, which are located in remote areas with temperatures as low as -58 degrees, are hard to study. </p><p>"This is an exciting discovery. The new satellite images of Antarctica's coastline have enabled us to find these new colonies," Lead author Dr. Peter Fretwell said in a statement. "And whilst this is good <keyword id="6355005" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="news">news</keyword>, the colonies are small and so only take the overall population count up by 5-10% to just over half a million penguins or around 265,500 – 278,500 breeding pairs."</p><p>Emperor penguins are especially threatened by climate change because the sea ice that they breed on is vulnerable, according to British Antarctic Survey.</p><p>Most of the newly discovered colonies are on the margins of the breeding range and are likely to be lost as the climate warms, the scientists say. </p><p>Research suggests that under the "best case scenario," with a global temperature increase of only 1.5 degrees Celsius, the population of emperor penguins will decrease by at least 31% in the next three generations, according to British Antarctic Survey. </p><ul class="read-more-links"><li>Read more: </li><li><a href="https://www.insider.com/penguins-visit-art-museum-for-the-day-2020-5">A museum let a group of penguins wander its empty rooms, and they couldn't take their eyes off the paintings</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/methane-leaking-antarctica-sea-floor-bad-news-global-heating-2020-7">Methane is mysteriously leaking from the sea floor in Antarctica, edging global heating to a point of no return</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/expert-tips-reentering-society-post-isolation-antarctica-travel-2020-6">A woman who spent 14 months in Antarctica says she went through sensory overload upon returning home — and a tactic she picked up during isolation helped her cope with the change</a></li></ul>

11 new colonies of emperor penguins have been discovered in Antarctica with satellite images

<p><strong><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>REUTERS/Paulo Whitaker</span></p><p class="caption">An Adelie penguin is seen near Commandante Ferraz Brazilian Antarctic Station located in Admiralty Bay, King George Island on the Antarctic continent.</p></div><p></p></div></div></strong></p><ul><li><strong>Adélie penguin populations have been declining on the Antarctic Peninsula.</strong></li><li><strong>But researchers examining satellite photos of the nearby Danger Islands spotted what appeared to large amounts of bird guano, so they decided to mount an expedition to the hard-to-reach islands.</strong></li><li><strong>There, they discovered a new penguin "supercolony" with more than 1.5 million of the birds.</strong></li></ul><p><br />As much as we think we know about our own world, there's still plenty to be discovered.</p><p>It's not surprising when we discover new bacteria or deep ocean creatures - though finding <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/blue-planet-ii-team-filmed-ethereal-snailfish-in-the-mariana-trench-2018-1">fish so deep we didn't know they could survive the pressure</a> is always a shock. But there are still fascinating discoveries to be made above the sea surface as well.</p><p>Often, it just takes a closer look an area that hadn't been thoroughly examined.</p><p>That's how Stony Brook University ecologist Heather Lynch, NASA scientist Matthew Schwaller, and several other researchers <a href="https://www.stonybrook.edu/newsroom/general/2018-03-02-Supercolony-Penguins-Discovered.php">made a remarkable discovery</a> when they spotted what appeared to be guano stains in satellite images of the aptly named Danger Islands off the coast of Antarctica in 2014.</p><p>They mounted an expedition to the islands in December of 2015. There, they found a "supercolony" of more than 1.5 million Adélie penguins.</p><p>They recently described the colony in a <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-22313-w">study published in the Nature journal</a> Scientific Reports. Take a look.<span></span></p>

A remarkable new penguin 'supercolony' of over 1.5 million birds has been discovered off the coast of Antarctica - take a look

<ul class="summary-list"><li>In December, the US government announced a reward of up to $5 million apiece for four of "<keyword id="12085834" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="el-chapo" source="Orion">El Chapo</keyword>" Guzmán's sons.</li><li>It's the US's highest offer for the group known as <keyword id="12839537" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="los-chapitos" source="Orion">Los Chapitos</keyword>, who have taken on larger roles in the <keyword id="12085832" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="sinaloa-cartel" source="Orion">Sinaloa Cartel</keyword>.</li></ul><p>Sinaloa, <keyword id="11933000" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="mexico" source="Orion">MEXICO</keyword> — The US government is offering up to <a href="https://www.state.gohttps://www.state.gov/narcotics-rewards-program/target-information/wanted/mexican-targets/v/combating-transnational-crime-and-imposing-sanctions-on-persons-involved-in-the-global-illicit-drug-trade/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">$5 million</a> apiece for information leading to the capture of four of jailed kingpin Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán's sons.</p><p>After the elder Guzmán's arrest in January 2016 and extradition to the US a year later, the sons known as "Los Chapitos" — <a href="https://www.state.gov/narcotics-rewards-program-target-information-wanted/ivan-archivaldo-guzman-salazar/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Iván Archivaldo Guzmán Salazar</a>, 38, <a href="https://www.state.gov/narcotics-rewards-program-target-information-wanted/jesus-alfredo-guzman-salazar/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Jesús Alfredo Guzmán Salazar</a>, 38, <a href="https://www.state.gov/narcotics-rewards-program-target-information-wanted/ovidio-guzman-lopez/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Ovidio Guzmán López</a>, 31, and <a href="https://www.state.gov/narcotics-rewards-program-target-information-wanted/joaquin-guzman-lopez/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Joaquín Guzmán López</a>, 35 — have taken larger leadership roles in the cartel.</p><p>This is the first time the US has offered a reward of $5 million for each of the sons. The US announcement accuses them of being "high-ranking members of the Sinaloa Cartel."</p><p>The Guzmán-Salazar brothers have "expanded their enterprise with sophisticated fentanyl laboratories" and increased their use of maritime and air transportation for smuggling, according to the US State Department.</p><div type="image" title="El Chapo" height="772" width="1030" msid="88572420" hostid="261"></div><p>The Guzmán-López brothers have "high-level command and control roles" in a faction of the cartel and oversee roughly 11 labs in Sinaloa state that the US says produce 3,000 pounds to 5,000 pounds of meth a month, according to the US.</p><p>Iván Archivaldo is also well known for showing off cars, money, and ostentatious belongings on social media. Ovidio gained <keyword id="6356001" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="international" source="Orion">international</keyword> notoriety in 2019 after Mexican authorities attempted to arrest him, prompting <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mexico-freed-el-chapo-guzmans-son-after-cartel-government-battle-2019-10" target="_blank" rel="noopener">cartel retaliation that led to his release</a>.</p><p>"Other information indicates that Ovidio Guzmán-López has ordered the murders of informants, a drug trafficker, and a popular Mexican singer who had refused to sing at his wedding," the reward <a href="https://www.state.gov/narcotics-rewards-program-target-information-wanted/ovidio-guzman-lopez/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">offer</a> says.</p><p>Operating out of Culiacán, the capital of Sinaloa state and the cartel's home turf, the Guzmans are the most notorious of Mexico's cartel scions, but a new litter of "narcojuniors" is rising alongside them.</p><h2>A family affair</h2><div type="image" title="Sinaloa cartel leadership chart" height="848" width="1832" msid="88572421" hostid="261"></div><p>While all eyes have been on Los Chapitos, sons of other notorious Sinaloa drug lords are believed to be behind the cartel's operations.</p><p>Last week, a video of a shootout in a popular Culiacan club, called Casanova, put El Chapo's nephew, Aureliano Guzmán Araujo, in the spotlight.</p><p>The video shows several men opening fire inside the club. One man who appears to be Guzmán Araujo aims at another man but fires into the ceiling after a third man pulls his hands up. Behind him, another man fires on another man who then drops to the floor.</p><p>Guzmán Araujo is the son of Aureliano Guzmán Loera and is known to be a violent member of a new group of leaders in the cartel, according to sources in Culiacán.</p><p>The elder Aureliano, nicknamed "El Guano," is El Chapo's brother and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/us-ups-reward-for-sinaloa-leaders-war-brews-within-cartel-2021-12" target="_blank" rel="noopener">is believed to be vying for control of the cartel</a>. Guzmán Araujo is also known as El Guanillo, a diminutive form of his father's nickname.</p><p>"El Guanillo is very violent. He's known for several killings inside clubs and [for] ordering people killed around Culiacán," a source in the city told Insider, requesting anonymity out of fear of retaliation.</p><div type="image" title="Mexico Sinaloa cartel Ovidio Guzman" height="888" width="1400" msid="88572422" hostid="261"></div><p>At the club, Guzmán Araujo "aimed for the head of the man he was fighting against, but another friend of his lifted his hand," the source said. "Otherwise he would've killed that man, not giving a fuck in front of everyone."</p><p>The US has offered a $5 million reward for Aureliano Guzmán Loera, <a href="https://www.state.gov/narcotics-rewards-program-target-information-wanted/aureliano-guzman-loera/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">accusing</a> him of running a faction of the cartel responsible for producing and transporting poppy, marijuana, heroin, fentanyl, meth, and cocaine.</p><p>"These juniors, sons of the Guzmans but also descendants of other drug bosses, are using their names to operate openly in Sinaloa without any consequence," the source in Culiacán said. "They are a new litter, smarter but also more violent. They grew up around guns and killings, and it's showing."</p><p>Another so-called narcojunior, as members of the generation are known, is Jesús Alfredo Beltrán Guzmán, who is known as "El Mochomito" after his father, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/alfredo-beltran-guzman-beltran-leyva-sinaloa-cartel-fighting-in-mexico-2016-12" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Sinaloa Cartel associate-turned-rival Alfredo Beltrán Leyva</a>, who was called "El Mochomo."</p><p>El Mochomito, who is also El Chapo's nephew, was <a href="https://zetatijuana.com/2021/09/el-mochomito-libre-del-penal-de-puente-grande/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">freed</a> from a Mexican prison without fanfare in September after serving five years of a 10-year sentence for drug trafficking.</p><p>Sources say the sons of Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada, a shadowy figure considered a peer to El Chapo, are also part of a new crop of leaders in Sinaloa.</p><p>After Ismael Zambada Imperial, known as "Mayito Gordo," was convicted in April, his half-brother, Ismael Zambada Sicairos, known as "Mayito Flaco" or "Caballero," stepped up to help his father run the strongest of the cartel's factions.</p><div type="image" title="Sinaloa cartel leaders El Chapo Guzman El Mayo Zambada" height="603" width="962" msid="88572423" hostid="261"></div><p>"El Mayito Flaco is his dad's right-hand. Contrary to the Guzmán family, he also keeps a low profile, but his name is very respected here in Culiacán. Whenever he is seen in the city he travels with a lot of security," the source in Culiacán said.</p><p>Another Zambada son, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mexico-sinaloa-cartel-boss-el-mayo-zambada-son-grew-up-golden-cage-2018-3" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Serafín Zambada Ortiz</a>, also known as "El Sera," was <a href="https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/USCOURTS-casd-3_13-cr-03575" target="_blank" rel="noopener">captured</a> by the DEA in November 2013 in Nogales, Arizona. He was released in 2018. El Sera is a US citizen, but his whereabouts are unknown, although a source inside the cartel said he is active in the organization.</p><p>The Zambadas "are very shadowy," the source said, and it is "really unknown where they are, although their names keep popping up as being everywhere."</p><p>"We receive orders from the viejón [El Mayo Zambada] through radios, and sometimes we hear about his sons helping in operations around the [US] border," the source added.</p><h2>New fighting in an old war</h2><div type="image" title="Culiacan Sinaloa Mexico mural violence" height="2336" width="3440" msid="88572424" hostid="261"></div><p>Mexican media <a href="https://www.infobae.com/america/mexico/2020/10/30/la-violencia-se-recrudece-al-interior-del-cartel-de-sinaloa-17-celulas-y-grupos-armados-estan-en-batalla/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> in late 2020 that more than 17 factions were fighting for control of the Sinaloa Cartel, generally considered one of the most powerful criminal groups in the world.</p><p>Another source within the cartel <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/us-ups-reward-for-sinaloa-leaders-war-brews-within-cartel-2021-12" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told Insider</a> that the Guzmán Loera family is already fighting El Mayo's family in some parts of Mexico.</p><p>Mexico has worked closely with the US for decades to capture or kill cartel leaders. That approach has caused many major cartels to splinter, and the number of armed groups in Mexico has proliferated as a result.</p><p>Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has been critical of that strategy and has tried to move away from a confrontational approach to the drug war.</p><p>At his daily press conference <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LI_giOjg1oU" target="_blank" rel="noopener">on the day</a> the rewards were announced, López Obrador said that if Los Chapitos were in Mexico, Mexico should capture them.</p><p>It is "our responsibility to capture them, and we will not allow any foreign enforcement to act against this issue or any other," Lopez Obrador said.</p>

The US is offering $20 million for El Chapo's sons, but they're not the only 'narcojuniors' on the rise in Mexico's most powerful cartel

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Scientists found an abandoned Adélie penguin colony at Cape Irizar, off the south Antarctic coast, in 2016. </li><li><keyword id="6432613" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="penguins">Penguins</keyword> hadn't been seen in that part of <keyword id="6354781" type="LOCATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="Antarctica">Antarctica</keyword> in over a century, but the nesting site had fresh bodies, as well as mummified corpses, bones, and poop.</li><li>In a new study, a researcher report solving the mystery: The penguin remains had been buried under the ice for hundreds, if not thousands, of years. But snow had recently melted to reveal the colony.</li><li>By dating the <keyword id="26858" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="mummies">mummies</keyword>, the author, Steve Emslie, discovered Cape Irizar had been occupied by Adélies three times during the last 5,000 years, before being driven out by encroaching sea ice 800 years ago.</li></ul><p>Rumors reached Steve Emslie's ears that fresh penguin poop had been spotted at a remote cape overlooking the Ross Sea in Antarctica.</p><p>That surprised Emslie, because there weren't supposed to be any Adélies at this remote headland, named Cape Irizar. The last time penguins had been spotted there was nearly 120 years ago.</p><p>Emslie has been studying Adélie penguin migrations for years. He knew where the birds liked to nest, and what parts of the Antarctic coast they couldn't occupy because snow covered up their preferred beaches.  </p><p>So in 2016, after finishing up work at a nearby research station, Emslie's team went to investigate: "We had one extra day, so we thought we should check it out," he told Business Insider. </p><p>Not only did they find lots of guano (penguin excrement), but they also discovered a barren, rocky landscape peppered with bones and carcasses. Some of those corpses had been mummified by the dry, cold Antarctic air. But others seemed fresh — with feathers and skin still intact.</p><div type="image" title="penguin mummies antarctica irizar" height="671" width="1000" msid="78650890" hostid="261"></div><p>"I thought to myself,  'That's strange, did we miss a colony?'" Emslie said. "It looked like a modern colony that had been abandoned for a season."</p><p><a href="https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/geology/article/doi/10.1130/G48230.1/590932/Ancient-Adelie-penguin-colony-revealed-by-snowmelt?fbclid=IwAR1zCvVdPf0xHtowSJeDDbONEnMIxVkb6x1-Wys3NoIdRFydw0yI8mzgPQk">In a study</a> published last month, Emslie finally laid out the answer to this penguin puzzle.</p><p>His team used radiocarbon dating to determine that the carcasses they found weren't fresh at all, but rather ancient bodies that melting Antarctic snow had revealed to the fresh air for the first time in centuries.</p><h2>A penguin graveyard</h2><p>Most of the bones and carcasses Emslie's team found belonged to penguin chicks.</p><p>Cape Irizar was once a nesting ground, according to Emslie, which explains why his team found so many pebble mounds there (Adélie parents collected pebbles from nearby beaches to build their nests).</p><div type="image" title="penguin mummies antarctica irizar" height="671" width="1000" msid="78650892" hostid="261"></div><p>The researchers excavated three of those mounds to collect eggshells, skin, feathers, bones to date in their lab at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington, where Emslie is a professor and ornithologist.</p><p>They discovered the penguin remains were between 800 and 5,000 years old — the creatures had been buried beneath the snow until rising temperatures in the southern Antarctic thawed their icy grave.</p><p>"I've never seen a site like it," Emslie said.</p><h2>Three waves of penguin occupation</h2><div type="image" title="penguin mummies antarctica irizar" height="671" width="1000" msid="78650895" hostid="261"></div><p>The myriad ages of the remains suggest that Cape Irizar had been occupied by penguins three times in the last 5,000 years, Emslie wrote in the study, published in the journal Geology.</p><p>"Penguins like to come back to same place every year to nest," Emslie said, adding, "but if conditions change so they can't nest there anymore, they'll move on."</p><p>Adélies currently can't get to Cape Irizar because steep ice cliffs and sea ice block access to the beach. </p><p>But that ice wasn't always present.</p><p>Adélies lived there between 5,145 and 2,750 years ago, then again between 2,340 and 1,375 years ago, and finally between 1,100 and 800 years ago.</p><p>Those dates seems to align with a changing climate, Emslie said.</p><p>About 800 years ago, when the planet underwent a cooling period called the Little Ice Age, the area of snow and ice surrounding their colony expanded, forcing the penguins to abandon Cape Irizar for good. </p><p>Whatever dead were left behind got buried, until recently summer thawing exposed them for scientists like Emslie to find. </p><div type="image" title="penguin mummies antarctica irizar" height="671" width="1000" msid="78650897" hostid="261"></div><h2>A warming planet reveals hidden remains</h2><p>This isn't the first time thawing polar ice and glaciers have revealed unprecedented findings. In 1991, Italians hiking on the melting Val Senales Valley glacier found <a href="https://www.iceman.it/en/the-iceman/">Ötzi the Iceman</a>, a human ancestor who had been perfectly preserved for 5,300 years.</p><p>But Cape Irizar is the first case of ice melt revealing remains in the Antarctic, according to Emslie.</p><div type="image" title="penguin mummies antarctica irizar" height="671" width="1000" msid="78650898" hostid="261"></div><p>"It's a true sign of the warming facing the planet right now," he said. "Even in the coldest region on Earth we're seeing ice melt on a scale that reveals remains."</p><p>Unlike glaciers in western Antarctica, which are <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/thwaites-glacier-melting-doomsday-sea-level-rise-2020-9">thawing at unprecedented rates</a>, southern Antarctica's melt speed has been slower.</p><p>But rising global temperatures have finally caught up to Cape Irizar, and other capes like it abutting the Ross Sea. Satellite imagery collected over the last few decades reveal decreasing snow cover, and the average annual temperature in the Ross Sea has increased by up to 2 degrees Celsius (3.4 degrees Fahrenheit) since the 1980s.</p><p>As temperatures rise, glaciers melt, which sends rivulets of water flowing over the capes during the summer.</p><p>Those meltwater rivers thaw the snow below, and exposes findings like the Adélie penguin colony.</p><div type="image" title="penguin mummies antarctica irizar" height="671" width="1000" msid="78650900" hostid="261"></div><p>Emslie said he'd like to go back to the Cape Irizar area soon.</p><p>"There are other caves emerging from under the melting snow nearby that are worth checking to see if they had penguins," he said.</p>

Photos reveal penguin mummies discovered at an abandoned nesting site in Antarctica that are at least 800 years old

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Reuters</span></p><p class="caption">Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman arrives at Long Island MacArthur airport in New York, January 19, 2017, after his extradition from Mexico.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Sinaloa cartel chief Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán has spent much of the last three years locked up in Mexico, jail time that culminated in <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/mexico-extradites-joaquin-el-chapo-guzman-sinaloa-cartel-kingpin-2017-1" target="_blank">his extradition to the US in January</a>.</p><p>While those stints in Mexican prison ostensibly took Guzmán out of the picture, his presence, and influence, still loomed over the country's narco landscape.</p><p>Now, however, with Guzmán in the US for good, a new dose of uncertainty has been injected into relations between Mexico's cartels, and with Guzmán out of the way, a new round of drug-related violence seems likely.</p><p>The <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/r-carnage-and-corruption-upstart-mexican-cartels-path-to-top-2016-10" target="_blank">Jalisco New Generation cartel</a>, a relatively new cartel that blossomed from a former Sinaloa cartel faction and has never shied from violence during its rapid expansion, seems likely to seize on the moment.</p><p>Over the last two years, the CJNG, its initials in Spanish, has challenged the Sinaloa cartel in parts of Mexico, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/sinaloa-jalisco-cartel-drug-war-in-tijuana-mexico-2016-12" target="_blank">including in Tijuana</a>, the crown jewel in Mexico's drug-trafficking businesses. </p><p>The Sinaloa cartel "is still strong," Mike Vigil, the former chief of <keyword id="6356001" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="international">international</keyword> operations for the US Drug Enforcement Administration, told Business Insider in the days after Guzmán's extradition, and the cartel's horizontal structure, which has allowed it to endure personnel changes, may also help it survive in the near term.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="https://news.vice.com/article/after-el-chapo-the-worlds-10-most-wanted-drug-lords-dea">Screenshot</a></span></p><p class="caption">Nemesio Oseguera, aka "El Mencho," the leader of the Jalisco New Generation cartel.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>"But I think that Nemesio Oseguera, 'El Mencho,' from the New Generation cartel, will perceive it as weakness," Vigil said, "and one of the things that Mencho wants to do is he wants to control the drug routes along the 2,000-mile border" between the US and Mexico.</p><p>Oseguera "needs to control as much of that area as he possibly can," said Vigil, author of "<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Metal-Coffins-Alliance-Cartel-Miguel/dp/0991582195?tag=bisafetynet-20" target="_blank">Metal Coffins: The Blood Alliance Cartel</a>." </p><p>"They may decide to go on an all-out offensive on the Sinaloa cartel now that Chapo is no longer in the country," he told <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/news/guzman-extradition-opens-door-cartel-063107163.html?soc_src=social-sh&amp;soc_trk=tw" target="_blank">AFP</a>.</p><p>In addition to Tijuana, where the CJNG's partnership with an old Sinaloa cartel foe has pushed violence in Baja California to new highs, the CJNG and Sinaloa cartels are clashing elsewhere in the country.</p><p>In tiny Colima state, on Mexico's west coast, the Sinaloa cartel reportedly showed up in late 2015, partnering with remnants of another cartel to challenge the CJNG for control of the state's port and trafficking routes in the area. Since then, drug-related violence has <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/mexico-sinaloa-jalisco-cartel-fighting-violence-in-colima-2017-1" target="_blank">pushed the body count in the state</a> to new heights.</p><p>Colima's homicide rate rose from just under 14 per 100,000 people in 2014 to over 23 per 100,000 in 2015. It then nearly quadrupled in 2016, hitting 81.55 per 100,000, nearly five times the national rate.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Mexican government data</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Both groups appear to be involved in violence in Veracruz, on Mexico's Gulf coast.</p><p>In that state, where the CJNG made a significant push several years ago, Vigil said, a panoply of cartels is vying for control over the state's large port, which facilitates the import of precursor chemicals for synthetic drugs, as well as over the smuggling routes that criss-cross the state.</p><p>Recent <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/shootings-drug-violence-in-cancun-playa-del-carmen-mexico-2017-1" target="_blank">violence in Quintana Roo</a>, in Mexico's far southeast, has also cast light on another area of CJNG-Sinaloa competition.</p><p>While two recent shootings don't appear to have involved Sinaloa and CJNG, they were the latest in a series of violent events that CJNG and Sinaloa have contributed to.</p><p>As with the CJNG's advance on Tijuana, its designs on Quintana Roo, home to tourist hotspots of Cancun and Playa del Carmen, are likely part of its north-south expansion efforts, as the state has long been a major transshipment point for drugs coming from South America destined for the US. </p><p>The CJNG and the Sinaloa cartel also have home turf in adjacent parts of Mexico's west coast. The Sinaloa cartel emerged from and remains dominant in Sinaloa state, while the CJNG has its stronghold in Jalisco, farther south.</p><p>Their geographical proximity and growing conflict appeared to come to a head in August last year, when <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/el-chapo-guzman-son-kidnapped-cjng-sinaloa-2016-8" target="_blank">at least one of Guzmán's sons was kidnapped</a> from an upscale restaurant in Puerto Vallarta, which is in Jalisco state.</p><p>Guzmán's son was released unharmed several days later, and while that kidnapping appears to have been orchestrated by <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/news/guzman-extradition-opens-door-cartel-063107163.html?soc_src=social-sh&amp;soc_trk=tw" target="_blank">low-level members</a> of the CJNG, the incident shows that the Jalisco cartel is within striking distance of the Sinaloa cartel.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wo5waR58MKo">Omar Gonzalez/YouTube</a></span></p><p class="caption">Footage of gunmen entering a Puerto Vallarta restaurant during the kidnapping of "El Chapo" Guzmán's son, August 2016.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>In addition to external threats, internal clashes seem be a threat to the Sinaloa cartel's stability and cohesion, and in turn to the security of the areas it operates in.</p><p>Despite his prominence, Guzmán was not the only Sinaloa cartel leader. Ismael "<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/el-chapo-is-behind-bars-but-his-partner-el-mayo-runs-free-2016-1" target="_blank">El Mayo</a>" Zambada and Juan Jose Esparragoza Moreno, aka "<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/mexico-arrests-son-of-el-azul-sinaloa-cartel-leader-2017-1" target="_blank">El Azul</a>" - both reclusive and the latter rumored to be dead - have long been considered Guzmán's peers at the top of the cartel.</p><p>Now Zambada and Guzmán's sons are believed to be vying for control, reportedly competing with Guzmán's brother for control of Sinaloa state itself.</p><p>Zambada "continues being the principal director of the [Sinaloa] federation and he is the most important narco in Mexico," Mexican security analyst Alejandro Hope <a href="http://internacional.elpais.com/internacional/2016/10/18/mexico/1476746053_958254.html" target="_blank">told El País</a> in October, "but right now it is not known what is his position" in the cartel.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="https://news.vice.com/article/after-el-chapo-the-worlds-10-most-wanted-drug-lords-dea">Screenshot via D.E.A</a></span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>"I still say that Ismael 'Mayo' Zambada has literally been running the Sinaloa cartel," Vigil told Business Insider after Guzmán's extradition.</p><p>"This conflict (between the cartels) will continue," Hope <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/news/guzman-extradition-opens-door-cartel-063107163.html?soc_src=social-sh&amp;soc_trk=tw" target="_blank">told</a> AFP. "But it could accelerate with an internal conflict."</p><p>According to security officials who spoke with Mexican <a href="http://www.debate.com.mx/policiacas/Quien-heredara-el-trono-de-El-Chapo-20170108-0019.html" target="_blank">news site El Debate</a>, Guzmán's sons appear to be the cartel's current leaders, but Aureliano Guzmán Loera, aka El Guano, their uncle and Guzmán's brother, actually has the most power within the cartel.</p><p>El Guano is considered most violent and reportedly controls several key territories in Sinaloa state, including <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/attack-on-el-chapo-guzmans-mothers-house-looming-cartel-war-2016-6" target="_blank">the La Tuna municipality</a>, where Guzmán was born and where his mother lives.</p><p>He was reportedly <a href="http://internacional.elpais.com/internacional/2016/10/18/mexico/1476746053_958254.html" target="_blank">involved</a> in an ambush on September 30 that left five Mexican soldiers dead.</p><p>That attack is now thought to be an effort by Zambada's faction <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/alfredo-beltran-guzman-beltran-leyva-sinaloa-cartel-fighting-in-mexico-2016-12" target="_blank">to stir up trouble</a> in territory control by Guzmán's sons, his rivals for control of the cartel.</p><p>Other <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/attack-on-el-chapo-guzmans-mothers-house-looming-cartel-war-2016-6" target="_blank">former Sinaloa members</a> and <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/alfredo-beltran-guzman-beltran-leyva-sinaloa-cartel-fighting-in-mexico-2016-12" target="_blank">former allies</a> have taken aim at the cartel in recent months as well, likely emboldened by Guzmán's arrest.</p><p>While the CJNG looks set to grow in power, and may perhaps soon eclipse Guzmán's organization, the Sinaloa cartel's internal disputes, which have boiled over into bloody confrontations in recent months, may be the most proximate cause of the cartel's eventual demise.</p><p>Internal rivals, like external foes, are all likely to see Guzmán's extradition, as well as the continued uncertainty about figures like Zambada, as opportunities to pursue control, which is sure to escalate the violence.</p><p>"So there some internal dissension, and a lot of that is driven by like plaza bosses that are not happy, and then you have 'Mayo' Zambada and then you have 'Chapo' Guzman's sons, and they're all vying for power," Vigil told Business Insider. "So unless something breaks, the disintegration of Sinaloa, if you will, will not be external. It will be internal."</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/mexico-most-powerful-drug-lord-el-mencho-chapo-ioan-grillo-2016-1">Forget 'El Chapo' - this is Mexico's most powerful drug lord</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="c4eTloMDE6568tjAxfAR2J6frW5_EwNN" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

'El Chapo' Guzman's extradition clears the way for a new, more vicious round of cartel fighting

<p class="source"><span>(AP Photo/Rashide Frias)</span></p><p class="caption">A Mexican marine looks at the body of a gunman next to a vehicle after a gun fight in Culiacan, the Sinaloa state capital, February 7, 2017.</p><p>Since once powerful Sinaloa cartel kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman was rearrested in January 2016, the cartel's home turf in Sinaloa state has been embroiled in a steadily escalating battle for succession.</p><p>The fight appears to be <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/afp-war-for-sinaloa-cartel-leaves-trail-of-bodies-in-mexico-2017-6" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">split among three factions</a> vying for control of the cartel, which is considered one of if not the most powerful criminal organization in Mexico.</p><p>Much of that bloodshed is related to the three factions' struggle for primacy, and the police and soldiers in Sinaloa charged with bringing it to heel appear to be out manned and out matched.</p><p>One faction is led by the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/mexico-el-chapo-guzman-sinaloa-cartel-arrests-pressure-2017-5" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">recently captured Damaso Lopez Nuñez</a>, a former Sinaloa security official who was Guzman's right-hand man, who helped the Sinaloa chief escape from prison twice.</p><p>Two of Guzman's sons, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/internal-fighting-in-sinaloa-cartel-attack-on-el-chapo-sons-in-mexico-2017-2" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Jesus Alfredo and Ivan Archivaldo</a>, lead a second faction, fighting to assume the drug-trafficking throne to which they see themselves as heirs.</p><p>Guzman's brother <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/el-chapo-guzman-extradition-effect-sinaloa-jalisco-cartel-fighting-2017-1" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Aureliano Guzman</a>, aka "El Guano," leads the third faction and commands the area around the community of Badiraguato in the La Tuna municipality, a rugged area where Guzman and numerous other Mexican kingpins are from.</p><p class="source"><span>(AP Photo/Rashide Frias)</span></p><p class="caption">A Mexican soldier secures the site where two people were shot dead by unidentified attackers in Culiacan, Mexico, February 7, 2017.</p><p>Sinaloa state, home to 3 million people, saw a 76% increase in homicides over the first five months of this year compared to last year (though there's reason to believe government data <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/mexican-states-manipulating-crime-data-2016-11" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">obscures some homicides</a>).</p><p>The state has had <a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/man-sets-fire-memorial-slain-virginia-teen-nabra-hassanen-article-1.3266085" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">764 homicides</a> through June this year, according to the state security secretariat. That's the highest rate in six years.</p><p>"It's terror. The word for what is happening in Sinaloa is generalized terror," Alejandro Sicairos, editor of local magazine Espejo, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/afp-war-for-sinaloa-cartel-leaves-trail-of-bodies-in-mexico-2017-6" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">told AFP</a>.</p><p class="source"><span>Christopher Woody/Mexican Interior Ministry</span></p><p>"This hasn't been the usual kind of shootout," Sicairos said. "They're coming with everything they've got: high-caliber weapons, full arsenals, vehicle-mounted artillery."</p><p>Sinaloa's deputy secretary for security, Cristobal Castañeda, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/afp-war-for-sinaloa-cartel-leaves-trail-of-bodies-in-mexico-2017-6" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">told AFP</a> that the state doesn't have the resources it needs to fight the criminal groups running roughshod over the area.</p><p>There are 5,700 police and soldiers in the state, but international standards say an area Sinaloa's size should have 9,000, Castañeda said.</p><p>Some of the soldiers are tasked with fighting illegal narcotics, including detecting and dismantling the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/sythetic-drug-meth-production-el-chapo-guzman-home-turf-2016-10" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">synthetic-drug labs that are increasingly common</a> in the state.</p><p>Local police forces, Castañeda added, have insufficient training.</p><p><span>"We are betting heavily on police training to make sure they can operate in full compliance with the rule of law," <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/afp-war-for-sinaloa-cartel-leaves-trail-of-bodies-in-mexico-2017-6" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">he said</a>.</span></p><p><span>And in Sinaloa, as in much of the country, many of the police in the streets have been found to not be competent for their jobs by the government's own vetting system.</span></p><p><span>National-security data gathered by Mexican civil-society organization Cause en Comun and shared with news outlet Animal Politico shows throughout Mexico, <a href="http://www.animalpolitico.com/2017/06/policias-reprobados-controles/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">31,947 security personnel</a> - state, municipal, ministerial, and prison agents - didn't pass <a href="http://www.pgr.gob.mx/Transparencia/Paginas/Evalucion-y-Control-de-Confianza.aspx" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">integrity exams</a>, which include reviews of their financial standing as well as psychological evaluations and polygraph tests. </span></p><p><span>Of those 31,947, 1,312 hold mid- or high-ranking jobs in security bodies.</span></p><p><span></span></p><p class="source"><span>REUTERS/Henry Romero</span></p><p class="caption">Police officers stand guard as members of the teacher's union CNTE, not pictured, march past the Revolution Monument in Mexico City, June 1, 2015.</p><p>Those nearly 32,000 police agents are 10% of the national total, up from 9%, or <a href="http://www.animalpolitico.com/2017/06/policias-reprobados-controles/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">30,922 police</a>, who had failed those exams as of April 2016.</p><p><span>Earlier this year, <a href="http://www.animalpolitico.com/2017/01/policias-reprobados-pruebas-confianza/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">government data showed</a> that in 15 of Mexico's 32 states, the number of state and municipal police who had failed their exams but continued working had gone up - in some places rising from 30% to 50%.</span></p><p><span>In Sinaloa, more than half of police - <a href="http://www.animalpolitico.com/2017/06/policias-reprobados-controles/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">4,140 of 7,903 agents</a> - failed integrity exams. That's up from 43% last year. Among police bodies in the state, 55% of state police, 46% of municipal police, 43% of judicial agents, and 43% of personnel assigned to penitentiaries did not pass.</span></p><p><span>Baja California Sur was second - 1,239 of the state's 3,182 state and municipal police, or 38%, failed their exams. That's up from 36% last year.</span></p><p><span></span></p><p class="source"><span>REUTERS/Daniel Aguilar</span></p><p class="caption">Federal police search men for drugs and weapons during an antinarcotics operation in Ecatepec, Mexico, November 13, 2009.</p><p><span>Nearby Nayarit was next, with one in three officers not fit for duty, followed by Sonora, where nearly one-quarter did not pass.</span></p><p><span>Guerrero had 23% of agents fail the tests and continue to work, while Veracruz had 18%. </span></p><p><span>Only one Mexican state, Campeche, reported no local police failing the exams.</span></p><p><span>Federal police and military personnel have assumed the duties of local and municipal police in many of Mexico's states, and the continued failure of those police forces to pass exams <a href="http://www.animalpolitico.com/2017/06/policias-reprobados-controles/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">hinders the reconstruction</a> of police at the state level and below.</span></p><p><span>Issues like corruption play a role in the continued employment of officers unfit for duty - particularly in Sinaloa, where criminal organizations have long had sway - but political factors have also prevented reform and other changes. (Police institutional incapacity is also a driver of <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/impunity-and-crime-rates-in-mexico" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Mexico's sky-high impunity rate</a>.)</span></p><p><span>Legislative initiatives at the federal level <a href="http://www.animalpolitico.com/2017/01/policias-reprobados-pruebas-confianza/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">have made no progress</a>. And at the state and local level, political expediency often keeps elected officials from pursuing hard oversight or reform.</span></p><p>"If you are a governor or a mayor, why spend money and political capital on institutional reform if you can call on the Army and the Navy to rescue you when things get really bad (at almost no cost to you)?" Mexican political analyst Alejandro Hope wrote in April 2016.</p>            <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/mexico-drug-lord-sinaloa-cartel-joaquin-el-chapo-guzman-extradited-united-states-2017-1">Here's footage of 'El Chapo' arriving to the US</a></h3>                                    Please enable Javascript to watch this video

Police at ground zero for the Sinaloa cartel's battle of succession are outgunned and overwhelmed

<p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><p>Damaso Lopez Serrano, the son of one of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman's main henchmen and a competitor for control of the Sinaloa cartel, crossed the border and turned himself into US authorities on Wednesday.</p><p>Lopez Serrano reportedly crossed from Mexicali in Mexico's Baja California state to Calexico in California, where he <a href="http://www.animalpolitico.com/2017/07/mini-lic-hijo-damaso-lopez-entrega/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">surrendered</a> to the Customs and Border Patrol on Wednesday morning and was turned over to agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration on Thursday afternoon.</p><p><span>"What we know is that he handed himself over yesterday (Wednesday). The case is now with authorities over there," a Mexican security official, who was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/r-son-of-detained-mexican-drug-kingpin-surrenders-to-us-narcotics-police-2017-7" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">told</a> Reuters.</span></p><p>Lopez Serrano is the son of Damaso Lopez Nuñez, aka "El Licenciado," a nickname typically given to holders of <keyword id="6355470" type="CITY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Law">law</keyword> degrees in Mexico. Lopez Nuñez, a former security official who also held several jobs in the Sinaloa state government, was a close deputy of Guzman, reportedly <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/mexican-government-sinaloa-cartel-cooperation" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">helping the cartel chief escape from a prison</a> where he worked in 2001.</p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><p>His role in the escape burnished Lopez Nuñez's status in the cartel, elevating him to the upper echelons of the organization, according to Mike Vigil, former chief of international operations for the DEA. Lopez Nuñez's role in the government also underscored what many saw as <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/mexican-government-sinaloa-cartel-cooperation" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">the state's complicity</a> in the Sinaloa cartel's rise to power.</p><p>In the wake of Guzman's arrest in January 2016, the Lopezes became one <a href="http://noticieros.televisa.com/ultimas-noticias/nacional/2017-07-27/el-mini-lic-se-entrega-dea/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">faction</a> in a fight to assume control of the Sinaloa cartel - a fight that has intensified since Guzman's extradition in January this year.</p><p>They reportedly joined forces with the Jalisco New Generation cartel, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/afp-mexico-state-sees-spike-in-violence-30-dead-in-a-weekend-2017-7" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">vying with</a> a faction led by Guzman's sons, called the Chapitos, and with another led by members of the Beltran Leyva Organization, a one-time ally of the Sinaloa cartel. Guzman's brother, Aureliano "El Guano" Guzman, appears to be <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/afp-war-for-sinaloa-cartel-leaves-trail-of-bodies-in-mexico-2017-6" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">in the mix</a> as well.</p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><p>Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada, Guzman's partner and a cofounder of the Sinaloa cartel, is still involved in the cartel and is reportedly working with Guzman's sons, though reports also indicate he is in poor health and not directly involved in cartel operations.</p><p>The strategy of the Lopezes - the younger one nicknamed "El Mini Lic" - included cyber warfare, <a href="http://noticieros.televisa.com/ultimas-noticias/nacional/2017-07-27/el-mini-lic-se-entrega-dea/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">according</a> to Televisa, using bots and contacting hackers. The latter move proved to be the elder Lopez's undoing, as the hacker <a href="https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/mgm3bn/hacker-revealed-sinaloa-drug-lord-mexico-damaso-chapo" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">contacted authorities</a> and eventually helped them <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/mexico-el-chapo-guzman-sinaloa-cartel-arrests-pressure-2017-5" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">arrest him in Mexico City</a> at the beginning of May.</p><p>Over the first half of this year, Sinaloa state saw 879 homicides compared to 524 over the same period last year, according to government data. (Though that data may undercount the number of killings.) The violence in the state seems to have intensified in the weeks since Lopez Nuñez's arrest. During the first weekend of July, there were at least <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/afp-mexico-state-sees-spike-in-violence-30-dead-in-a-weekend-2017-7" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">30 killings</a> - victims' relatives allege that one incident involved the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/r-mexican-gunfight-that-killed-17-raises-relatives-fears-of-police-executions-2017-7" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">extrajudicial killing of 17</a> suspected criminals.</p><p>Lopez Serrano got an early start in the Sinaloa cartel, reportedly leading Los Antrax, an armed faction of the cartel made up of young members. Much like Chapo's sons, he appears to have documented his wealth and exploits on social media. Though, like the Guzmans, its not clear if the accounts attributed to him are actually his.</p><p>Lopez Serrano also has an apprehension <a href="http://noticieros.televisa.com/ultimas-noticias/nacional/2017-07-27/el-mini-lic-se-entrega-dea/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">order against him</a> issued by the District Court for Southern California in October 2016, and it appears that recent developments on the ground in Mexico may have prompted him to surrender.</p><p><span>"The reason for surrender is he was being hunted by the Sinaloa cartel and 'El Chapo's sons [because of] his father's attempt to take over the cartel," Vigil told Business Insider. In addition to Lopez Nuñez's partnership with the Jalisco New Generation cartel, the elder Lopez was also accused of <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/internal-fighting-in-sinaloa-cartel-attack-on-el-chapo-sons-in-mexico-2017-2" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">orchestrating an ambush</a> on Zambada and Guzman's sons in February that killed several of their body guards.</span></p><p><span>Media in Sinaloa state, where Zambada, the Guzmans, the Lopezes are all from, <a href="https://elpais.com/internacional/2017/07/28/mexico/1501207111_348416.html?id_externo_rsoc=TW_AM_CM" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">have reported</a> that Zambada may have been after Lopez Serrano and <a href="http://zetatijuana.com/2017/07/27/el-mini-lic-se-entrega-a-la-dea-en-calexico-california/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">threatened him</a>. Regarded as a "spoiled narco brat who never got his hands dirty," Vigil said, Lopez Serrano was likely unable to protect himself by forging a partnership with the CJNG or by marshaling the <a href="http://zetatijuana.com/2017/07/27/el-mini-lic-se-entrega-a-la-dea-en-calexico-california/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">armed force</a> established by his father, prompting him to surrender.</span></p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><p>Some reports indicate <a href="http://www.elblogdelnarco.com/2017/07/el-mini-lic-no-se-entrego-nosotros-los-peloteamos-y-llego-corriendo-a-la-linea-fronteriza-donde-lo-g.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Lopez Serrano spent</a> several days in a rural area near Mexicali before crossing the border to surrender. According to Televisa, Mexican authorities <a href="http://noticieros.televisa.com/ultimas-noticias/nacional/2017-07-27/el-mini-lic-se-entrega-dea/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">believe</a> he did so in order to negotiate or to act as a protected witness. Vice News, citing sources with the Mexican <keyword id="6354810" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="Defense">defense</keyword> secretariat's second military region, <a href="https://news.vice.com/es/article/capo-mexicano-mini-lic-se-entrega-a-autoridades-de-eeuu?utm_source=vicenewsestwmx" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">reported</a> that Lopez Serrano requested protection from the US government.</p><p>US officials are likely to look to Lopez Serrano for information on his father's associates and the dealings of his cartel, Vigil said. He may also be called to take part in the trial of Guzman, which is <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/el-chapo-guzmans-sinaloa-cartel-weakening-while-hes-in-a-us-jail-2017-7" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">slated to start in April 2018</a> in the Eastern District of New York.</p><p>The balance of power within the cartel remains unclear - though, <a href="https://elpais.com/internacional/2017/07/28/mexico/1501207111_348416.html?id_externo_rsoc=TW_AM_CM" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">according</a> to El País, Lopez Serrano's surrender appears to clear the way for Zambada, despite his purported frailty, to assume full control of the cartel he helped found and in which he has long been a partner.</p><p>"The leaders - under whatever circumstances - have always been Guzman Loera and Zambada Garcia," local crime analyst Alejandro Sicairos <a href="https://elpais.com/internacional/2017/07/28/mexico/1501207111_348416.html?id_externo_rsoc=TW_AM_CM" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">told</a> El País. "And while one of the two lives, he will continue operating with the same force."</p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><p>Even if that is the case, the Sinaloa cartel will still be under pressure not only from the government, but from its new chief rival, the ascendant Jalisco New Generation cartel.</p><p>The CJNG is contesting Sinaloa's control of Tijuana and Ciudad Juarez, both valuable smuggling territories on the US border.</p><p>The group is also adding to the bloodshed in areas where Sinaloa has long been dominant, including Guerrero and Sinaloa states. In the latter, security officials have admitted that police <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/police-in-sinaloa-state-are-outmanned-outgunned-and-overwhelmed-2017-6" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">are underequipped and ill-prepared</a> to deal with the rising narco violence.</p><p>Lopez Nuñez remains in custody in Mexico, held in the same jail Guzman occupied before he was extradited. Interior Secretary Miguel Angel Osorio Chong <a href="http://www.jornada.unam.mx/ultimas/2017/05/04/mexico-no-piensa-en-extraditar-a-2018el-licenciado2019-osorio-chong" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">has said</a> Mexico is not considering extraditing him because he could be a valuable source of information regarding the Sinaloa cartel.</p><p>Lopez Nuñez himself appears disposed to extradition however, <a href="http://www.jornada.unam.mx/ultimas/2017/05/05/2018el-licenciado2019-prefiere-la-extradicion-a-ser-asesinado-aqui" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">reportedly</a> saying he would prefer making a deal with US authorities to potentially being killed in a Mexican jail.</p><div>    </div>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/mexico-drug-lord-sinaloa-cartel-joaquin-el-chapo-guzman-extradited-united-states-2017-1">Here's footage of 'El Chapo' arriving to the US</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="14N2QyOTE6E4KRXZfdnnmBcJ_bInBqwt" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

A major player in the struggle for control of the Sinaloa cartel just surrendered in the US

<p><div class="image-container float_right click-to-enlarge" style="width:400px"><div class="image"><a title_source="Wikimedia, CC" title_caption="" class="zoomin" href="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/5162dc0a69beddea0600001c-960/margaret_thatcher.png"><span class="click-to-enlarge-icon" title="Click to enlarge"></span></a></div><p class="source">Wikimedia, CC</p></div>In the United States, <keyword id="66699" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Margaret-Thatcher">Margaret Thatcher</keyword> is regarded as the British Ronald Reagan, the "Iron Lady," the Cold War Bodicea who backed America against the Soviet Union, and won. She's also a progressive icon of female power — the first woman premier, a gender barrier that has yet to fall in the U.S.</p>
<p>I lived through the Thatcher years in Britain, and I hated her. I left the country still owing money to Thatcher's regressive "poll tax."</p>
<p>A lot of British people hated her.</p>
<p>She was the most divisive prime minister Britain has ever had, and she plunged the country into a pit of unemployment, riots, strikes, and crime. After her election in 1979, unemployment hit 18 percent and peaked at more than 3 million, the first time it had done so since the recession. Manufacturing output fell 30 percent as the Thatcher government pulled government funding for the country's coal industry.</p>
<p>She will receive all the proper respects in a state funeral, and world leaders will send their emmissaries to attend.</p>
<p><div class="image-container float_right click-to-enlarge" style="width:400px"><div class="image"><a title_source="Twitter" title_caption="" class="zoomin" href="http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/5162d4fb69beddd872000006-960/screen%20shot%202013-04-08%20at%2010.31.13%20am.png"><span class="click-to-enlarge-icon" title="Click to enlarge"></span></a></div><p class="source">Twitter</p></div>But millions of Britains will quietly — and in the North of England and Scotland, <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2305760/Margaret-Thatcher-dead-George-Galloway-leads-chorus-celebration-left.html">not so quietly</a> — drink a toast to her death tonight.</p>
<p>They're already celebrating on Twitter. #NoStateFuneral is the No.1 unpaid trending topic on Twitter in the UK right now.</p>
<p>But, as the years have gone by, I've come round to the opinion that Thatcher did get one thing right: The Falklands War of 1982.</p>
<p>At the time, the Falklands conflict seemed like yet another one of Thatcher's extreme, ideological acts of madness. Mature governments don't declare war on faraway countries that haven't invaded their borders.</p>
<p>Most Brits had never heard of the islands when they were invaded by Argentina. They're a tiny archipelago just North of the South Pole, hundreds of miles from the coast of Argentina. There is almost nothing on the Falklands except sheep, penguins, and guano. Only a couple of thousand people live there.</p>
<p>But they are all British.</p>
<p>Thatcher recognized instantly that Argentina's claim to the Falkland's was weak. Sure, the islands are nearer Argentina than Britain, but they were discovered by a Brit and Argentina had never settled people on them. There's a more legitimate dispute as to whether the islands should belong to the Spanish, French, Portugese or Dutch than the Argentinians.</p>
<p>Whatever their early history, the Falklands were settled permanently by the British in the 1830s, and no one paid any more attention to the islands until Argentina invaded in 1982.</p>
<p>The other thing Thatcher got right was noticing that Argentina, at the time, was a dictatorship that had killed its own citizens in a "dirty war" against dissenters. The Falklands was not really about who the islands belonged to. Rather it was about what democracies do when dictatorships invade.</p>
<p>Imagine if Guam was suddenly invaded by Indonesia. The U.S. would not stand idly by. There would be a price to pay.</p>
<p>The United States, shamefully, was initially neutral on the war and only belatedly came to support the U.K. That was another factor in Thatcher's favor — she made everyone else look like cowards.</p>
<p>Finally, the naval campaign that retook the waters around the islands, and the land invasion by paratroopers that followed, was swift and decisive. This was not a drawn-out quagmire, wasting blood and treasure. It proved not only that Britain could protect its far-flung people, but that also Argentina was too feeble to enforce its will on the islands — which is something of a prerequisite if you're going to invade foreign territory.</p>
<p>Earlier this year, the 2,000 or so Falkland Islanders voted in a referendum on their sovereignty. They polled <a href="http://www.falklands.gov.fk/legislative-assembly-makes-clear-the-wishes-of-the-falkland-islands-people-to-the-united-nations/">99.8 percent to stay British</a>.</p>
<p>History has shown, Thatcher got this one right.</p>

You Searched For "guano" and got 11 results

This Caribbean island was once plagued with rats that destroyed the ecosystem. Now, plant biomass has increased 2,000% thanks to environmental group efforts.

Lloyd Lee

How coral reefs turn vegetarian to thrive in oceans low in nutrients

PTI

The US ups its multimillion-dollar rewards for 2 Sinaloa cartel leaders as another war brews for control of the cartel

Luis Chaparro

11 new colonies of emperor penguins have been discovered in Antarctica with satellite images

Haven Orecchio-Egresitz

A remarkable new penguin 'supercolony' of over 1.5 million birds has been discovered off the coast of Antarctica - take a look

Kevin Loria

The US is offering $20 million for El Chapo's sons, but they're not the only 'narcojuniors' on the rise in Mexico's most powerful cartel

Luis Chaparro

Photos reveal penguin mummies discovered at an abandoned nesting site in Antarctica that are at least 800 years old

Aylin Woodward

'El Chapo' Guzman's extradition clears the way for a new, more vicious round of cartel fighting

Christopher Woody

Police at ground zero for the Sinaloa cartel's battle of succession are outgunned and overwhelmed

Christopher Woody

A major player in the struggle for control of the Sinaloa cartel just surrendered in the US

Christopher Woody

I Hated Margaret Thatcher, But I Came To Realize She Was Right About The Falklands War

Jim Edwards

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