CONTINUING NARCO-DEMONSTRATIONS CHALLENGE NUEVO LEON

192669
2009-02-18 19:43:00
09MONTERREY79
Consulate Monterrey
CONFIDENTIAL
09MONTERREY74
VZCZCXRO5902
PP RUEHCD RUEHGD RUEHHO RUEHNG RUEHNL RUEHRD RUEHRS RUEHTM
DE RUEHMC #0079/01 0491943
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 181943Z FEB 09
FM AMCONSUL MONTERREY
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 3524
INFO RUEHME/AMEMBASSY MEXICO PRIORITY 4570
RUEHXC/ALL US CONSULATES IN MEXICO COLLECTIVE
RHMFISS/FBI WASHINGTON DC
RHMFISS/HQ USNORTHCOM
RUEABND/DEA HQ WASHDC
RUEHMC/AMCONSUL MONTERREY 9083

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 MONTERREY 000079

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 2/18/2019
TAGS: SNAR PHUM ASEC PGOV KCRM CASC ECON MX
SUBJECT: CONTINUING NARCO-DEMONSTRATIONS CHALLENGE NUEVO LEON

REF: MONTERREY 074

MONTERREY 00000079 001.2 OF 002


CLASSIFIED BY: Bruce Williamson, Consul General, Monterrey,
State.
REASON: 1.4 (b),(d)

1. (C) Summary. Nuevo Leon residents are demanding that the
state government do more to stop narco-funded demonstrations.
Although the Nuevo Leon Governor and Secretary of Public
Security have publicly said that organized crime is behind the
protests - specifically naming the Gulf Cartel and their armed
enforcers, the Zetas, municipal police have done nothing and
state police have been very slow to disperse the protestors over
the last week. One protest leader, a cell leader of the Zetas,
was arrested, and the arresting officer was killed two days
later. We believe that the Zetas are staging these
demonstrations to challenge the state government and prove that
they can disrupt the city at will. End Summary.

Protests Continue; Police Officer Killed


2. (C) A series of protests against the Mexican military
turned violent on February 12 (see reftel). Gunmen killed a
commander of the judicial police two days after he arrested one
of the organizers of the protests. Juan Antonio Beltran Cruz
was arrested on February 10 after a protest in Monterrey
disrupted large part of the city. Ten minutes after the arrest,
the commander of the judicial police in charge of his case,
Ramon Jasso Rodriguez received threats against his life. Two
days later Jasso was killed near his home. A reliable contact
described Jasso as one of the few honest police on the state
force. Beltran is a known member of the Zetas, a drug
trafficking organization, and is accused of organizing the
police protests. Zetas are reportedly paying Monterrey
residents up to 500 pesos or US$35 to protest the military
presence in Monterrey.

Public Pressure for a Solution


3. (C) Governor of Nuevo Leon Jose Natividad Gonzalez Paras and
Secretary of Public Security Aldo Fasci have acknowledged a link
between organized crime and the protests. On February 17, for
the first time they named the Gulf Cartel and its armed wing,
the Zetas, as the entities responsible, adding that Nuevo Leon
state police commanders and their officers had been the subject
of numerous death threats. Nevertheless, the public is
demanding that they do more to stop them. The road blocks in
the city have taken place on major roads grid-locking large
parts of the city and little has been done to break up them up.
A long term Amcit resident has never seen demonstrations like
this before. One day the police waited two hours to break up a
protest. The next day they broke up the demonstration quickly
and arrested protestors, but later the leading newspaper El
Norte reported that they had released the protesters within 30
minutes, conveniently within walking distance of the next
protest. Now that a drug connection has been officially
acknowledged, police officers are reluctant to take action. A
contact with inside knowledge of the police said that following
Jasso's killing, police officers are hesitant to effect
detentions because they do not want to sign documents linking
themselves to an arrest.


4. (SBU) According to a poll conducted on the third day of the
demonstrations by El Norte, 93% of Monterrey area residents
support the military presence in the state, 4% were not sure and
3% wanted the military to leave. In addition, even prior to the
Governor's February 17 statements, the public generally
believed drug traffickers were behind the protests. There is
speculation that the Zetas are using the demonstrations as a
response to the military's success against their operations as
there does not appear to be any other catalyst for the
demonstrations. El Norte carried quotes from residents in a
working class neighborhood who stated that the protest
organizers went door to door offering cash and school supplies
to those who joined the protest. A recent El Norte photo showed
multiple back packs filled with school supplies in the car of
one of the detained protestors (who was later released). The
most recent tactic has been to recruit mothers carrying young
infants to take part in the demonstrations, with the rationale
apparently being that frustrated motorists would be less likely
to aggressively challenge maternal figures standing in their way.


5. (C) Comment. The drug cartels have intimidated the
municipal and state police forces for some time. For example,
only the Mexican military, with some assistance from the federal
police, conducts active operations against the drug cartels. A
story related to the Consul General by a Nuevo Leon state
legislator illustrates the situation. A fellow state
legislator's car was stolen. When the legislator reported the
theft to the police, officers said that they could do nothing.
The legislator's staff went out to search for the car and found
it several blocks away. However, when the legislator asked the
police to retrieve the car, the police said that they needed to
check with the Zetas first. After checking with the Zetas, the

MONTERREY 00000079 002.2 OF 002


police received the go-ahead and they finally returned the
stolen car.


6. (C) Continued comment. These protests could have two
purposes: to try to intimidate the Mexican military; or to
influence the upcoming election for Governor in July 2009.
Either way, the demonstrations are important because they
constitute a direct challenge to the state, and they prove that
the cartels can disrupt the city when they choose. We will
follow closely whether the state and local governments have the
political will to answer this challenge. End Comment.
WILLIAMSON