Down by the River

Charles Bowden
2022
Index, notes, no bibliography
I Luis Echeverria Alvarez was President of Mexico from 1970-1976, and before that, he ran internal
security.
Mexican secret files for 1952 to 1985 were 80 million. The height of the government/drug
barbarism was after 1985, and those records are still sealed. The millions of files accumulated by
the US are still sealed, with no indications they will be opened.
2 Drugs bring in more money to Mexico than the next three trades combined – more than oil,
tourism and receipts hom.
3 Mexican AG estimated the drug trade in the mid 90s as $30 billion, US estimates agree.
If the drug business vanished, 19-22% of the Mexican economy would go down.
An estimated half the hotel revenues were empty rooms – money laundering.
4 In Juarez, across from El Paso, 2000 people were raped, killed, kidnapped or disappeared between
1993 and 2001.
In Mexico City the AG's office posted photos of 1400 federales to help citizens identify them when
they rob, torture or kill someone. A suburban city also posted photos of 500 cops, so people can
protect themselves.
16 80% of Mexico was in poverty [by 2001?]
Decades after 100s of students were murdered by police at the University of Mexico in 1968, the
files are still sealed.
Between 1988 and 1994, 46 Mexican reporters were murdered. La Journada, the opposition press,
gets 70% of its advertising dollars from the Mexican government and frequently runs government
propaganda as news.
17 Carlos Salinas, once president of Mexico, now every newspaper archive removed the news story
of him executing their 12 year-old maid, saying, "Now I am a hero".
27 Between 1991 and 1995 there are hundreds of drug murders in Juarez, not a single arrest.
31 Javier Lardizabal was an investigator working or the Chihuahua Attorney General's office. He was
murdered after reporting a drug dealer who used a police escort to get around.
His sister lost her house, trying to pay for an investigation into his death. Sometimes bodies turn
up with a yellow bow wrapped around the head.
43 Amado Carillo is head of the Juarez cartel.
46 In 1993, during the congressional debate over NAFTA, DEA agents were told to keep quiet about
the connection to the drug trade and the Mexican government.
47 The head of EPIC said out loud to a reporter "Mexico is corrupt to the core". Bam! He's fired.
48 In 1992, Phillip Jordan busted a man with $28 million in cash. They got a call from high up in the
DOJ telling him to let this guy go. He heard it was something to do with BCCI, a CIA bank run out
of Pakistan with two Mexican cartel members on the board.
59 In Juarez, most of the streets are unpaved. [Assume this is late 90s]. 2/3 of the houses have no
sewer connection, 200K live as squatters. 35K-60K a year come to Juarez. Jobs pay $3-$5/day –
not a livable wage. Between 1989 and 1995 the Mexican peso lost ½ its value. Dec 1998, peso lost
54% of its value. Inflation is between 33 & 50%. No one is keeping an accurate count. Consumer
loans are 100% interest.
60 Washington DC sets a $50 billion bailout.
In 1994, the ruling party's candidate was shot dead. On any given day, Amado Carillo has 20-30
tons of cocaine in Juarez. Carillo is sometimes known as El Senor (God). He moved 150 tons of
 cocaine across the bridge every year. He is bringing in 727s full of cocaine, 20K pounds, unloaded
by federales. He give 7 pct to 'Americans. A custom g agent waving a truck through can get
$1million.
61 After Ernesto Zedillo's election as president in 1994, Medellin cartel set him $40 million. Juan
Pablo de Tavita was poisoned just before he was to work with Mexican AG to clean up dirty cops.
AGs in Mexico controlled maybe 5% of their agencies.
In Chihuahua, President Alvaro Obrigon, a general in the 1920s revolution, invited Mennonites to
form 103 communities. They, too, are starting to show up in drug arrests.
64 1In 1995 Amado Carillo and the Juarez cartel hired the Mexican President's brother, and the
former President's son to help them buy a bank.
Pemex earns $8-$8 billion a year (mid 90s). The drug trade brings in $27-$32 billion a year.
91 AG Janet Reno is shocked (shocked!) to discover the extent of the drug trade. The major cartels
are the Juarez operations of Amado Carillo, the Gulf cartel of Juan Garcia Abrego, the Airellano-
Felix org in Tijuana, Guadalajara org run by Felix Gallardo from prison, even Rafael Curo Quintero,
jailed in luxury, showing up in his Sinaloa home state for weddings. The director of Mexican
prisons decided to no longer allow private Jacuzzis in the jail cells.
Former Mexican President Carlos Salinas used his brother as his ag man. AGs and generals are
paid off. Reno indicates shock to discover that although this is known by many, she has not been
told of it, herself.
92 Hector Palma travels around Mexico with a squad of federales for protection, and spends $80-
million in payments. There are over 900 criminal gangs in Mexico, half with former or current
cops.
95 Mexican consulate employees in El Paso are part of a car theft ring. In 1982, the DEA busted a
Mexican general running a car theft ring from San Diego. The DEA let the general go because he
was part of US intelligence.
97 May, 1993, Cardinal Juan Jesus Pasadas Ocampo is murdered at the Guadalajara airport. An Aero
Mexico flight waits 20 minutes for the killers to finish and board. Jorge Hant Tehans, son of Carlos
Hank Gonzales is on the first class cabin. He is never questioned. The officials explanation is that
the Cardinal died by accident in a shoot out between gang members.
105 April 1995, a Mexico City official shuts down the major bus line. It's bankrupt. The union is
busted. The official is shot twice in the chest. It is ruled a suicide. In June, the judge in the case is
murdered. Three days later the prosecutor was also shot in the head.
114 Chinese bring poppies to Sinaloa in the late 19 th century. Durnig WWII, it is developed as a cash
crop for US military and Mexican military grow it. Sinaloa is a poor state, with a history of
banditry. Drug crime is natural to it.
118 In the late 80s, when Adolfo Lopez Mateos is President, the railway workers wne ton strike. 10-
25K were arrested and disappeared. The unin leader was tortured. Mexico's greatest muralist,
David Alfaro Siqueiros protested and spent years in prison for it.