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<ul class="summary-list"><li><keyword id="11933000" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="mexico" source="Orion">Mexico</keyword> has for some time been the deadliest country for journalists outside of active war zones.</li><li>Attacks on Mexican journalists are often linked to their work on the nexus of politics and crime.</li><li>The trend is only getting worse, and its one that journalist Luis Chaparro has seen first-hand.</li></ul><p>Mexico City - In 2017 I published <a href="https://www.proceso.com.mx/reportajes/2017/4/8/solo-si-vemos-cesar-duarte-por-ahi-lo-detendremos-dicen-los-gringos-182095.html">a story</a> detailing how former Chihuahua's state governor Cesar Duarte bought several properties in Texas while he was in office.</p><p>Duarte was accused of diverting about $320 million in government funds in 2016. By the time the story was published, he was on the run and wanted by Interpol.</p><p>I have never received a more direct threat for my work than the one I received after publishing that story.</p><p>There is no country more deadly for journalists than Mexico, and year after year it is only getting worse. This is in part because of rising violence in Mexico related to organized crime, but corrupt politicians are often to blame.</p><p>Jan-Albert Hootsen, the Mexico representative for the Committee to Protect Journalists, said <keyword id="12048140" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="violence-against-journalists" source="Orion">violence against journalists</keyword> in Mexico is made worse by deepening ties between criminal organizations and politicians.</p><div type="image" title="Mexico Miroslava Breach Javier Valdez journalist killing protest" height="933" width="1400" msid="86024748" hostid="261"></div><p>"The most dangerous situation for journalists is when they touch in any way the interests at the crossing of organized crime and politics," Hootsen told Insider.</p><p>The week after the story about Duarte made it to the front page of renown Mexican investigative magazine Proceso, a car was parked in front of my house in Ciudad Juarez for a full week. Inside, a man sat, night and day, with a revolver on his lap.</p><p>I didn't think he was actually there to harm me - otherwise he would have - but it was a demonstration of how easy it was for them to get to anyone in their way.</p><p>I notified the Committee to Protect Journalists at the time, and what happened "is a perfect example of the dangers for journalists when covering politics and crime," Hootsen said.</p><p>That same year, Miroslava Breach, an editor for a local newspaper in Ciudad Juarez and correspondent for the national daily La Jornada, was shot dead outside her house in Chihuahua City while taking her child to school.</p><p>Later investigations found that she was murdered for <a href="https://forbiddenstories.org/the-leads-not-investigated-in-the-miroslava-breach-murder/">revealing</a> how the Juarez cartel was appointing mayors in several municipalities in Chihuahua.</p><p>A former mayor was arrested and <a href="https://www.dallasnews.com/espanol/al-dia/mexico/2021/06/17/miroslava-breach-hugo-amed-schultz-alcalde-chinipas-chihuahua/">sentenced</a> to eight years behind bars for ordering Breach's murder. Despite justice being done in that case, violence against journalists has only continued.</p><div type="image" title="Protest against violence against journalists in Mexico" height="1335" width="2000" msid="86024751" hostid="261"></div><p>This year alone, six journalists have been murdered throughout Mexico.</p><p>The latest was <a href="https://www.jornada.com.mx/notas/2021/08/20/politica/asesinan-al-periodista-jacinto-romero-flores/">Jacinto Romero Flores</a>, a reporter from the southeastern state of Veracruz, who covered politics for a radio station in the municipality of Zongolica. Flores was shot several times and killed while driving his car.</p><p>According to local press <a href="https://www.jornada.com.mx/notas/2021/08/20/politica/asesinan-al-periodista-jacinto-romero-flores/">reports</a>, Romero Flores received several threats on his phone after airing a story about police abuse against residents of the Texahuacan municipality.</p><p>Few weeks before the assassination of Romero Flores, ruthless crime group Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación <a href="https://politica.expansion.mx/mexico/2021/08/09/cartel-jalisco-amenaza-a-periodista-azucena-uresti-y-gobierno-ofrece-proteccion">publicly</a> threatened a well-known television news anchor, Azucena Uresti, for her coverage of that organization.</p><p>In a video posted on social media by alleged members of the cartel, a man who identified himself as Ruben Oseguera, the head of the cartel, made a direct against Uresti.</p><p>"Wherever you are, I will find you and I will make you eat your words even if I'm accused of femicide," the man identified as Oseguera is heard saying as at least six men armed with assault riffles stand around him.</p><p>Mexico has been the deadliest country for journalists, outside of those at war, for some time.</p><div type="image" title="Protest against violence against journalists in Mexico" height="1334" width="2000" msid="86024754" hostid="261"></div><p>Since Mexican President Felipe Calderon declared the war on drugs in 2006, the number of journalists murdered and disappeared in Mexico have risen steadily, according to <a href="https://cpj.org/data/killed/?status=Killed&amp;motiveConfirmed%5B%5D=Confirmed&amp;motiveUnconfirmed%5B%5D=Unconfirmed&amp;type%5B%5D=Journalist&amp;type%5B%5D=Media%20Worker&amp;cc_fips%5B%5D=MX&amp;start_year=1992&amp;end_year=2021&amp;group_by=year;end_year=2021&amp;group_by=year">figures</a> collected by the Committee to Protect Journalists.</p><p>2019 is the deadliest year on record, with 11 journalists slain. At least nine journalists were killed with firearms in 2020.</p><p>To date, almost 50% of those murders have no known motive or, if the perpetrators are known or suspected, there has been no sentence. (Duarte was <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mexico-crime-governor/fugitive-former-mexican-governor-arrested-in-miami-idUSKBN24939Q">arrested</a> in Miami in 2020 on <keyword id="12048141" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="corruption" source="Orion">corruption</keyword> charges.)</p><p>"We have to recognize that it is hard to know exactly where is the line of politics and narcos when it comes to the motives of these murders," said Hootsen. "Mexico has lost much of its rule of law, and the present administration is not doing a good job, if any, to support mechanisms to protect journalists."</p><p>Mexico has procedures that are meant to protect journalists. Most of them involve the state sending a state or municipal police officer to monitor a journalist's safety for 24 hours.</p><p>The Mexican government <a href="https://www.gob.mx/segob/prensa/el-mecanismo-de-proteccion-para-personas-defensoras-de-derechos-humanos-y-periodistas-por-instruccion-presidencial-informa-lo-siguiente">said</a> in July that it had increased the number of journalists in its protection program by 80% since December 2018. In many cases, however, government protection has not stopped hitmen from killing their target.</p><p>"In many cases threats have been reported previously and those journalists have been incorporated to a state protection system and even then they have ended up murdered," Hootsen said.</p>

Mexico's most dangerous job is only getting more deadly, and I've seen up close how bad it's getting

<ul class="summary-list"><li>John Leguizamo is an Emmy and Tony award-winning actor, and he's calling out Hollywood.</li><li>In an open letter to Hollywood, he says it's way past time that Latinos have more lead roles.</li></ul><p>John Leguizamo is tired of asking Hollywood for more Latino representation.</p><p>In an "<a href="https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2022-11-01/la-vanguardia-john-leguizamo-latino-representation-hollywood">Open Letter to Hollywood</a>" published in the LA Times, Leguizamo said the time for more Latino representation in film, TV, and plays is way past overdue. "We Latinos are 19% of the population and the largest ethnic group in America — How are we not more visible onscreen and onstage?"</p><p>The Colombia-born Emmy and Tony-award winning actor is best known for his roles in "Waco," "<a href="https://www.insider.com/what-to-know-about-john-wick-2019-5">John Wick</a>," and Disney mega-hit "<a href="https://www.insider.com/disney-encanto-movie-review-2021-11">Encanto</a>."</p><p>Leguizamo argues that Latino heritage is a burden to success in Hollywood, even for "White Latinos" — "Óscar Isaac Hernández Estrada still <a href="https://www.insider.com/celebrity-middle-names-2019-4#kendall-jenners-middle-name-has-a-sentimental-meaning-3">goes by Oscar Isaac</a>. Bruno Mars <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/real-celebrity-names-2017-5#bruno-mars-peter-gene-hernandez-16">ditched his Hernandez</a>."</p><p>Back in March, Isaac appeared on <a href="https://www.insider.com/saturday-night-live-fun-facts-2018-9">Saturday Night Live</a> and poked fun at his name change <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtyyb9XxQC8">in his monologue</a>, saying, "My full name is Óscar Isaac Hernández Estrada. I said to Hollywood, you can pick two of these names. Guess what they went with? The white ones."</p><p>Even as performers feel the need to downplay their ethnicities, Latino stories continue to be of interest to Hollywood.</p><p>The problem with that, Leguizamo said, is that those roles still aren't cast with Latinos. "You had <a href="https://www.insider.com/al-pacino-got-high-oscars-jeff-bridges-didnt-recognize-him-2020-1">Al Pacino</a> in tan makeup, coked up and wild as a Cuban in '<a href="https://www.insider.com/best-movie-trilogies-of-all-time">Scarface</a>.' The studios loved it so much they put him in '<a href="https://www.insider.com/best-gangster-movies-of-all-time-ranked-2020-9">Carlito's Way</a>' as a Puerto Rican from Spanish Harlem. They surrounded him with Latino actors, but not one of us [latinos] had a lead role." He also cites <a href="https://www.insider.com/jennifer-lopez-ben-affleck-cried-while-exchanging-emotional-vows-2022-7">Ben Affleck</a>'s casting as CIA operative Tony Mendez in "Argo," and <a href="https://www.insider.com/javier-bardem-dressed-drag-surprised-daniel-craig-for-his-birthday-2022-1">Javier Bardem</a>'s casting in "<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/guides/streaming/where-to-watch-being-the-ricardos">Being the Ricardos</a>."</p><p>Leguizamo argued that the absence of Latinos onscreen isn't even reflective of the city in which Hollywood resides. "Los Angeles is approaching 50% Latino. But where are we onscreen? That is cultural apartheid."</p><p>Latino representation also means including Latinos of all hues, since "more often than not," the Latinos who are cast in major roles are "white-passing." Those roles are still few and far in between, Leguizamo said, as Latinos make up 2.9% of all lead roles in Hollywood, according to a report from the Latino Donor Collaborative.</p><p>Ana Valdez, President and CEO of the Collaborative, told Insider that the argument for more Latino inclusion in the media is not just about fairness — it's also about following the money.</p><p>"I quite frankly think [Hollywood decision makers] don't care about the Latino community. It's not on their radar — but all the facts show that this [lack of representation] is money being left on the table. Latinos travel, and they sell."</p>

Award-winning actor John Leguizamo says the lack of Latino representation in Hollywood is 'cultural apartheid'

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>(AP Photo/Bernandino Hernandez)</span></p><p class="caption">Mexican journalist Javier Valdez at the presentation of his most recent book, in Acapulco, March 22, 2017.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul><li><strong>Recent weeks have seen developments in the case of Javier Valdez, a prominent Mexican journalist killed in May 2017.</strong></li><li><strong>But the motives and actors behind the crime remain unclear, and it's not certain a definitive conclusion will be reached.</strong></li><li><strong>Impunity is also extremely high in Mexico, which is one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists.</strong></li></ul><p><br />On April 23, Mexican authorities <a href="https://www.gob.mx/segob/es/prensa/mensaje-del-comisionado-nacional-de-seguridad-renato-sales-heredia-155248?idiom=es-MX" target="_blank" rel="noopener">caught</a> <span>Heriberto Barraza Picos,</span> also known as "El Koala," in Tijuana.</p><p>He is a suspect in the killing of Mexican journalist Javier Valdez, a cofounder of Sinaloa-based magazine Rio Doce renowned for <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/ap-rash-of-media-murders-highlights-deadly-threats-in-mexico-2017-5" target="_blank" rel="noopener">chronicling the drug war</a> and the effects of its violence, who was gunned down outside his office in Culiacan, Sinaloa's capital city, on May 15, 2017.</p><p>Valdez's killing was the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/ap-rash-of-media-murders-highlights-deadly-threats-in-mexico-2017-5" target="_blank" rel="noopener">sixth slaying</a> of a journalist in Mexico in a two-month period, and it brought renewed attention to the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/2016-deadliest-year-for-journalists-in-mexico-since-2010-2016-8" target="_blank" rel="noopener">threats</a> journalists face in Mexico, one of the world's <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/mexico-violence-against-journalists" target="_blank" rel="noopener">most dangerous countries</a> for the media.</p><p>In the months since, conflicting accounts of the killing have emerged, underscoring the complexity of Mexico's war on drugs and leaving many of Valdez's friends and colleagues with doubts the case will be resolved.</p><p><span><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>REUTERS/Ginnette Riquelme</span></p><p class="caption">A photo of Heriberto "N," a suspect in the killing of journalist Javier Valdez, at a news conference in Mexico City, April 24, 2018.</p></div><p></p></div></div></span></p><p>Ismael Bojorquez, director of Rio Doce, <a href="https://www.insightcrime.org/news/analysis/mexico-deadliest-place-media-advances-journalist-javier-valdez-murder-case/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told InSight Crime</a> a protected witness already in custody led authorities to Heriberto, thought to be the driver in the alleged plot.</p><p>They conducted surveillance on him, intercepting phone calls and linking him to other suspects, including Juan Francisco Picos Barrueto, allegedly a passenger in the car at the time of the killing who was <a href="https://riodoce.mx/noticias/la-orden-vino-del-clan-damaso" target="_blank" rel="noopener">arrested</a> in August 2017, and Luis Idelfonso Sánchez Romero, the suspected gunman who <a href="https://riodoce.mx/noticias/el-diablo-otro-de-los-asesinos-de-javier-valdez-fue-asesinado" target="_blank" rel="noopener">was found dead</a> in September 2017.</p><p>According to prosecutors, the killing was linked to a dispute between factions of the Sinaloa cartel, whose competition for power intensified after cartel chief Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman was arrested in January 2016 and extradited to the US a year later.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Thomson Reuters</span></p><p class="caption">Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman in Mexico City, after his capture in January 2016.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Heriberto and the other two suspects in the killing were reportedly acting at the behest of Damaso Lopez Nuñez, aka "<span>Licenciado,"</span> who was once Guzman's right-hand man but <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/el-chapo-guzmans-sinaloa-cartel-weakening-while-hes-in-a-us-jail-2017-7" target="_blank" rel="noopener">broke away and led a faction</a> fighting to control the cartel.</p><p>Lopez Serrano's son, Damaso Lopez Serrano, aka "El Mini Lic," is reportedly <a href="https://riodoce.mx/noticias/el-mini-lic-preso-en-california-se-perfila-como-presunto-autor-intelectual-del-crimen-de-javier-valdez" target="_blank" rel="noopener">suspected</a> of planning the killing.</p><p>Lopez Nuñez <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/mexico-el-chapo-guzman-sinaloa-cartel-arrests-pressure-2017-5" target="_blank" rel="noopener">was arrested</a> in Mexico City on May 2, 2017. Lopez Serrano <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/sinaloa-cartel-member-damaso-lopez-el-mini-lic-surrendered-to-the-us-2017-7" target="_blank" rel="noopener">surrendered to US authorities</a> in July 2017.</p><p>According to official accounts, the "people of Eldorado" - the Sinaloa town where Lopez Nuñez is from and likely a reference to his organization - took issue <a href="https://riodoce.mx/noticias/los-trabajos-de-javier-valdez-que-pudieron-molestar-a-los-damaso" target="_blank" rel="noopener">with Valdez's work</a>.</p><p>A witness <a href="https://riodoce.mx/policiaca/un-arma-de-fuego-el-pago-por-asesinar-a-javier-valdez" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told prosecutors</a> that on one occasion he was with Heriberto and others and heard them discuss Damaso and the killing of the journalist. Part of the payment for the killing was a silver pistol with images of Lopez Serrano on the grip, <a href="https://riodoce.mx/policiaca/un-arma-de-fuego-el-pago-por-asesinar-a-javier-valdez" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to Rio Doce.</p><p>Valdez said prior to his death that <a href="https://cpj.org/data/people/javier-valdez-cardenas/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">he had been getting</a> anonymous death threats since February, and Mexican officials have <a href="https://cpj.org/data/people/javier-valdez-cardenas/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> that Valdez's work was a principal line of investigation, though it's not clear how that factored in.</p><p>Valdez wrote <a href="https://riodoce.mx/noticias/los-trabajos-de-javier-valdez-que-pudieron-molestar-a-los-damaso" target="_blank" rel="noopener">several stories</a> about the factions involved in the dispute in the months prior to being killed, including a February interview with Lopez Nuñez, conducted through a representative, that Guzman's sons tried to stop from being published. H<span style="font-weight: 400;">is last column, published May 14, was titled "<a href="http://riodoce.mx/noticias/columnas/malayerba/malayerba-el-licenciado" target="_blank" rel="noopener">El Licenciado</a>," a possible reference to Lopez Nuñez.</span></p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>(AP Photo/Fernando Brito)</span></p><p class="caption">Forensics experts inspect the crime scene where journalist Javier Valdez was killed, in Culiacan, Mexico, May 15, 2017</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p><span>"I think that the path authorities are on in terms of solving Javier's case is correct. I think they have taken the right route," Bojorquez, the director of Rio Doce, <a href="https://www.insightcrime.org/news/analysis/mexico-deadliest-place-media-advances-journalist-javier-valdez-murder-case/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told InSight Crime</a>. But Mexico's high levels of impunity - 99.6% for crimes against journalists, according to press-freedom organization Articulo 19 - are cause for concern.</span></p><p><span>"We're worried about being able to secure a prosecution and the sentencing of those who are responsible, and if there is the capacity or the will power to do so," Bojorquez said.<br /></span></p><p>According to Everard Meade, who collaborated closely with Valdez, the most recent version of events contradicts a previous theory, in which Guzman's sons, angry over an interview with Lopez Nuñez that Valdez published, orchestrated the killing.</p><p>In the account presented now, members of Lopez Nuñez's faction "were the ones who were unhappy with the interview, and therefore they ordered a hit on him because, basically, it misrepresented what they said," Meade, director of the Trans Border Institute at the University of San Diego, told Business Insider.</p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Both theories are plausible, Meade said, but determining which one is accurate is complicated by the shifting dynamics of Mexico's drug war and by broader political factors, like Mexico's looming elections, which could lead authorities to stall the case or close it prematurely.</span></p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>(AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)</span></p><p class="caption">Candles burn in front of pictures of slain journalists Miroslava Breach, left, and Javier Valdez during a demonstration against the killing of journalists, outside the Interior Ministry in Mexico City, May 16, 2017.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>"If you look at the violence of the drug war, there are acts of violence that are very clearly strategic," Meade said, "but there are plenty of other acts of violence that are pretty random and have to do with the fact that you have armed guys who get in personal beefs with people and lash out."</p><p>Strategic violence, often for used for propaganda, "is one of the definitive aspects of the contemporary drug war in Mexico," Meade said, demonstrating a shift from what he called the old drug war, in which criminal groups kept a low profile and largely limited violence to matters directly related to their business, and the new drug war, in which violence was employed more randomly or to serve broader purposes, like shaping public behavior.</p><p>"I think it's equally plausible that this was some grand, strategic move to prevent this story from coming out, and/or that one of these guys took personal offense to their self-presentation in Rio Doce and just got angry and decided to have someone killed," Meade said. "That's the reality of impunity in contemporary Mexico."</p><p>The lack of information about the case, diverse sources of violence, and the dynamics of power in Mexico make it hard to ascribe a motive in Valdez's killing or definitively name its perpetrators, he added.</p><p>"When Javier interpreted things like this ... one of this his great insights was that if you look at a particular killing and the logic of it seems really transparent, the presumption that you should make is not that, 'Well, that must be why it happened,'" Meade told Business Insider. "The presumption that you should make is that it communicated a message clearly, and you should look at who benefits from that message."</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/cartel-wives-reveal-el-chapo-money-hid-billion-henchmen-us-mexico-trafficking-drug-lords-2017-10">The wives of El Chapo's henchmen reveal how they hid and spent $2 billion</a></h3>        <div>                    </div>    </div>

It's been a year since one of Mexico's most renowned journalists was gunned down, and the unsolved case points to a sinister shift in the drug war

<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, Mexico, February 7, 2017.</p><p>Public displays of brutality have become common as drug-related violence roiled Mexico over the last decade.</p><p>The recent discovery of a man's body on top of a hospital in northwest Mexico, apparently dropped there from an airplane, takes that brutality to a new level of complexity.</p><p>The body reportedly landed on the roof of a hospital in the town of El Dorado, about 38 miles southwest of Culiacan, the capital of Sinaloa state.</p><p>Witnesses reported seeing a person thrown out of a plane flying low over a Mexican Institute of Social Security hospital on April 12, a health official <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/r-mans-body-seen-tossed-from-plane-found-on-roof-of-mexican-hospital-2017-4" target="_blank">told Reuters</a>, saying the incident occurred around 7:30 a.m.</p><p>Officials were <a href="http://internacional.elpais.com/internacional/2017/04/13/mexico/1492115920_111835.html?id_externo_rsoc=TW_CM" target="_blank">unable</a> to identify the body, clad in a red shirt, gray socks, and without pants, due to damage from the fall, though Mileno <a href="http://www.milenio.com/policia/arrojan-cadaveres-avioneta-sinaloa-eldorado-cuerpos-muertos-noticias_0_937106428.html" target="_blank">reported</a> that it had signs of torture.</p><p>State prosecutors <a href="http://news.nationalpost.com/news/three-people-thrown-from-a-plane-mexican-police-say-but-can-only-find-one-body-on-a-hospital-roof" target="_blank">said</a> the body had signs of severe trauma in line with "impact on the hard surface."</p><p>"It is a man, but we don't know more ... The impact of the fall makes it more difficult to be able to identify him or the wounds he suffered," Antonio Garcia, spokesman for the IMSS, which runs the hospital, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2017/04/13/mexican-narcos-drop-bodies-and-warnings-from-the-skies/?utm_term=.06a4c1e6ad09" target="_blank">told The Washington Post</a>.</p><p>"I can't recall anything like this happening before," he said.</p><p class="source"><span>AP Photo/Guillermo Arias</span></p><p>The health official told Reuters two other bodies were found in the town, which local media said had been thrown from the same plane as the body discovered on top of the hospital. Local media also reported that suspected gang members had picked up the two other bodies.</p><p><span>"This is an agricultural area and planes are regularly used for fumigation," the official <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/r-mans-body-seen-tossed-from-plane-found-on-roof-of-mexican-hospital-2017-4" target="_blank">told</a> Reuters, noting that the IMSS hospital was operating normally.</span></p><p><span>Sinaloa state, long <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/sythetic-drug-meth-production-el-chapo-guzman-home-turf-2016-10" target="_blank">a hub for drug production</a>, has become <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/internal-fighting-in-sinaloa-cartel-attack-on-el-chapo-sons-in-mexico-2017-2" target="_blank">a battleground in recent months</a>, especially after the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/mexico-extradites-joaquin-el-chapo-guzman-sinaloa-cartel-kingpin-2017-1" target="_blank">extradition of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman</a>, the longtime kingpin who guided the Sinaloa cartel to the top of Mexico's hierarchy. </span></p><p><span>Factions of the cartel, one led by Guzman's sons, are fighting for control of the organization and its turf. (Mexican authorities also <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/el-chapo-guzman-mexico-drug-trafficking-airplanes-2016-5" target="_blank">seized hundreds of aircraft</a> from Guzman's cartel over the last decade.)</span></p><p><span>"I have no doubt that it was thrown from an aircraft," Javier Valdez, editor of local newspaper Rio Doce, <a href="http://internacional.elpais.com/internacional/2017/04/13/mexico/1492115920_111835.html?id_externo_rsoc=TW_CM" target="_blank">told El País</a>. "The only thing that we don't know is if they launched him alive or already dead."</span></p><p>Defenestration would be a new wrinkle in cartel violence, but public displays are nothing new.</p><p class="source"><span>© AFP Guillermo Arias</span></p><p class="caption">The body of a man hangs from a bridge in Tijuana, northwestern Mexico, on late Nov 2, 2016</p><p>Narcomantas - as such grisly displays are known - <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/tijuana-cartel-violence-2016-11" target="_blank">appeared frequently</a> during the major cartel clashes in the late 2000s and early 2010s. Narcomantas attract a lot of attention, which is at times valuable for cartels and gangs.</p><p>Since authorities usually <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/tijuana-cartel-violence-2016-11" target="_blank">do not verify</a> who is responsible for a particular narcomanta, they have been used by cartels to attract law enforcement to the turf of rivals. They are also powerful messages to the public, telling it to support or avoid certain groups or areas.</p><p>In November, a bound body was <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/tijuana-cartel-violence-2016-11" target="_blank">found hanging from a footbridge 10 miles from the US border in Tijuana</a>. Several months before that the US State Department issued a warning to travelers in the city citing such markers as signs of growing insecurity.</p><p class="source"><span>Christopher Woody/Mexican government data</span></p><p>Homicides rose by <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/mexico-homicides-in-2016-under-enrique-pena-nieto-2017-2" target="_blank">more than 22% in Mexico</a> in 2016, and the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/mexico-political-government-cartel-changes-with-increasing-violence-2017-3" target="_blank">killing only intensified</a> at the beginning of this year.</p><p>In cities like <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/mexico-homicides-organized-crime-cartel-violence-2017-3" target="_blank">Tijuana</a> and <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/jalisco-cjng-sinaloa-cartel-violence-in-ciudad-juarez-mexico-2017-3" target="_blank">Ciudad Juarez</a>, prized by traffickers for their proximity to the US border, body counts have risen precipitously in recent months, stirring worry among many in Mexico that the bad old days of cartel clashes may be returning.</p><p>In Sinaloa, ground zero for major cartel activity, elements of those drug wars are back and intensifying, according to Valdez.</p><p>"Everything is confused, the paranoia, one doesn't leave the house, the absence of authority because of complicity or omission," the Rio Doce editor <a href="http://internacional.elpais.com/internacional/2017/04/13/mexico/1492115920_111835.html?id_externo_rsoc=TW_CM" target="_blank">told El País</a>, comparing the brutality and atmosphere to 2008, when the Beltran Leyva Organization <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/the-history-of-el-chapo-guzman-sinaloa-cartel-chief-drug-lord-2017-1" target="_blank">went to war</a> with its erstwhile partners in the Sinaloa cartel.</p><p>"The only difference is that now the violence has moved to the rural zones of Culiacan, not to the city itself like then, when it became a morgue."</p>            <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/mexico-president-nieto-reacts-donald-trump-executive-order-border-wall-2017-1">'Mexico does not believe in walls': Mexico's president rejects Trump's push for a border wall</a></h3>                                    Please enable Javascript to watch this video

Mexico's brutal drug violence appears to have hit a new level of complexity

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image"><p class="source"><span>Mexico National Security Commission</span></p><p class="caption">Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzmán in custody after his arrest in 1993.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Earlier this week, Mexican troops entered La Tuna, the hometown of Sinaloa cartel boss Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzmán in northwestern Mexico, and while it seems the soldiers are still in the town, it's not clear what they've found or what they are looking for.</p><p>According to local <a href="http://riodoce.mx/gob-politica/sitia-la-marina-el-pueblo-donde-nacio-el-chapo-guzman-hay-muertos">newspaper Rio Doce</a>, Mexican Marines approached La Tuna, in the Badiraguato municipality of Sinaloa state, from the northeast on Saturday, but did not move into the town itself until Monday afternoon.</p><p>The town is still the home Guzmán's mother, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/the-mother-of-mexicos-most-notorious-drug-lord-says-he-gets-unfairly-blamed-for-everything-2015-7">Consuelo Loera</a>, and several of the drug kingpin's family members. </p><p>At the time of Rio Doce's report on Tuesday, it appeared that Mexican security forces in the area were not letting people into or out of the town.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"><p class="source"><span>Christopher Woody/Google Maps</span></p><p class="caption">"El Chapo" Guzmán's hometown of La Tuna, in the Badiraguato municipality of Sinaloa state, was raided by Mexican security forces in mid-December.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Government sources who requested anonymity told Rio Doce that no one had been detained, but did say that "there are dead" people, without offering details. The paper also reported that marines were maintaining a "<a href="http://riodoce.mx/gob-politica/sitia-la-marina-el-pueblo-donde-nacio-el-chapo-guzman-hay-muertos">stake out</a>" on a ranch owned by Aureliano Guzmán, one of Guzmán's brothers.</p><p>On Thursday, Rio Doce <a href="http://riodoce.mx/narcotrafico-2/confirmado-ejecuta-grupo-armado-a-ocho-personas-en-la-tuna">reported</a> that eight people were killed on the outskirts of La Tuna. No official source confirmed the deaths, but sources did tell Rio Doce that the eight men, believed <a href="http://riodoce.mx/narcotrafico-2/confirmado-ejecuta-grupo-armado-a-ocho-personas-en-la-tuna">to be working</a> for one of Guzmán's brothers, were shot to death.</p><p>While it's not surprising to see Mexican security forces active in and around Guzmán's hometown, it still isn't clear what the goal of the current operation is.</p><p>According to Alejandro Hope, the security and justice editor of El Daily Post and a former Mexican security official, they are likely trying to do one of three things. </p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"><p class="source"><span>PBS Frontline/Drug Lord: The Legend of Shorty</span></p><p class="caption">"El Chapo" Guzmán's mother, Consuelo Loera.</p></div><p></p></div></div>They may believe that Guzmán, who probably feels <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/el-chapo-popularity-in-mexico-2015-7">he has support</a> and some freedom of operation in the area, was planning on showing up there - potentially to see his mother, who Hope notes is likely over 80 years old.</p><p>Their presence might be intended to pressure Guzmán. "The bet might be that, by squeezing some members of his inner circle … [Guzmán] might make a mistake (make a phone call, send a less than completely discrete messenger, etc.) that could lead his chasers back to him," Hope wrote on Friday morning in his "<a href="http://www.eldailypost.com/category/security/">Silver or Lead</a>" newsletter.</p><p>Finally, the Mexican authorities might just be beating the bushes in hopes of picking up clues about the fugitive drug lord. It's possible the Mexican government knows Guzmán "is not a La Tuna, but they think there might be someone who might have an inkling of where he might be hiding," Hope notes.</p><h2>'It's all just a circus'</h2><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"><p class="source"><span>REUTERS/Stringer</span></p><p class="caption">Mexican Marines conduct a search operation to locate drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, at the neighborhood where he was detained in 2014, in Mazatlan, Mexico, south of Culiacan in Sinaloa state, July 15, 2015.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Mexican marines and other security forces have been <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/el-chapo-pet-monkey-boots">active in the area for several months</a>. Though many suspected the drug lord would make his way back to his home turf after his jailbreak in July, authorities pursued him to the area by tracking the efforts of his henchmen to return <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/el-chapo-pet-monkey-boots">the kingpin's daughters' pet monkey</a>, Boots, to the family's hideout.</p><p>Mexican authorities in the area have been accused of conducting a "<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/el-chapo-pet-monkey-boots">scorched earth</a>" search for the kingpin, destroying cars and property and <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/afp-el-chapo-manhunt-leaves-bullet-riddled-homes-cars-2015-10">displacing hundreds</a> of people from their homes.</p><p>"It's all just a circus," author and journalist Javier Valdez <a href="http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Expert-Versions-of-El-Chapos-Near-Arrest-Are-Pure-Circus-20151028-0002.html">told</a> TeleSur in October. "And, of course, the worst outcome of all this is the violation of human rights, the displacement of innocent people and the state of terror the federal forces are creating," Valdez added.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"><p class="source"><span>AFP</span></p><p class="caption">A burned truck pictured at the Comedero Colorado ranch, in the municipality of Tamazula, Durango State, on October 18.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Security forces reportedly had several encounters with Guzmán - arguably the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/the-sinaloa-cartel-and-colombian-cocaine-2015-8">world's most wanted man</a> - in October, but he escaped their grasp each time. In one encounter, Guzmán, who is believed to be around 60 years old, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/el-chapo-guzman-wounded-mexico-search">fell down a cliff</a> while being chased.</p><p>He reportedly <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/el-chapo-guzman-wounded-mexico-search">broke his leg</a> and sustained a facial injury, but managed to get away from Mexican soldiers by fleeing into Sinaloa state's rugged terrain, although two sources with ties to Guzmán and other traffickers <a href="http://www.telesurtv.net/english/analysis/El-Chapo-Sources-Govt-Lies-Guzman-Not-Nearly-Arrested-20151116-0025.html">told TeleSur</a> that the government's claims were "all lies," and that Guzmán had come nowhere near capture.</p><p>Whatever the security forces are doing in La Tuna, it's unlikely that they will apprehend the Sinaloa cartel boss in the near future. If they had precise intelligence about his whereabouts, Hope notes, they wouldn't be staked out in his hometown.</p><p>Moreover, "If and when he is captured, it will happen in a stealthy operation," <a href="http://www.eldailypost.com/category/security/">Hope writes</a>. "A mass deployment of military troops will simply not do."</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/el-chapo-escape-cost-bribes-mexico-prison-2015-11"> Here's how much El Chapo's prison escape cost the infamous drug lord</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="BiaTNzeDoRmj4WtEFRHk1jPTj4ZDtn5K" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

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