A newspaper vendor holds local newspapers covering the death of Ignacio "Nacho" Coronel, a major Mexican drug trafficker. (Henry Romero / Reuter

Mexican drug lord 'Nacho' was quiet and ruthless
The slain bhsSinaloa leader was known for methamphetamine and cocaine trafficking, and not much else. His death is seen as a 'harsh blow' to the cartel.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-mexico-druglord-20100731,0,7391911,print.story

Competing Mexican drug cartels are destroying each other ... and that's where 'Warrior' begins ...."
http://www.warriorthemovie.com
http://www.warriorthemovie.blogspot.com

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-208917617001990565&q=warrior+mexican+OR+drug+OR+cartels+duration%3Ashort+genre%3AMOVIE_TRAILER

"the action adventure fantasy feature film "Warrior" ... about the son of a divine force ... is a story of a young man's quest to find his true identity set against the twin backdrops of Native American folklore and the treacherous Mexican drug trade and a portrayal of the classic confrontation between "good and evil" ... filmed in the exotic jungles of Costa Azul in the State of Nayarit and the urban grit of Puerto Vallarta in the State of Jalisco, Mexico .. with action, adventure, romance, comedy, a multi-ethnic cast, a major movie studio music score and spectacular cinematography ..."


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MEXICO UNDER SIEGE
Mexican drug lord 'Nacho' was quiet and ruthless
The slain bhsSinaloa leader was known for methamphetamine and cocaine trafficking, and not much else. His death is seen as a 'harsh blow' to the cartel.
By Ken Ellingwood, Los Angeles Times
July 31, 2010
Reporting from Mexico City
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Until he raised his pistol for the last time, Ignacio Coronel Villarreal was known for keeping his head low and footprints light.

In a world populated by many larger-than-life drug bosses, the slightly built Coronel ruled with a quiet ruthlessness. He was seldom photographed and moved so carefully in the suburb of mansions where he lived in western Mexico that just one bodyguard was with him when the dragnet closed.

Even his age and birthplace are a source of mystery.

This much is known: By the time Mexican troops killed Coronel on Thursday outside the city of Guadalajara, he had reached the top rungs of drug trafficking, lording over a broad stretch of the Pacific coast as part of a years-long alliance with the country's most-wanted crime boss, Joaquin "Chapo" Guzman.

Coronel's share of the Mexican methamphetamine market was considered significant enough that analysts speculated his death might actually disrupt supplies of the synthetic drug, if only briefly.

Mexican and U.S. officials Friday hailed the killing as a major strike against Guzman's Sinaloa-based cartel, the most powerful in Mexico, and a success in their governments' shared battle against drug traffickers. President Felipe Calderon launched his war against drug cartels nearly four years ago.

In Washington, the Drug Enforcement Administration called Coronel's death "a crippling blow" to the Sinaloa group's operations.

"Coronel was a major poly-drug trafficker involved in transporting multi-ton quantities of cocaine and producing tons of methamphetamine," the agency said in a statement.

Others, though, said the Sinaloa-based group is probably well positioned to survive such a blow because its segmented leadership structure is based on control of geographical zones rather than hierarchy.

Coronel, known as "Nacho," controlled a broad coastal swath that includes the states of Jalisco, Nayarit, Colima and part of Michoacan, officials said. He was said to have established direct access to cocaine suppliers in Colombia and a ready supply from Asia of chemical ingredients for making methamphetamine.

"This is a harsh blow … but it doesn't spell a death knell," said George W. Grayson, an expert on Mexico's drug trade at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Va.

Mexican officials did not explain the timing of the decision to dispatch more than 100 soldiers, backed by helicopters and armored vehicles, to the tree-lined Zapopan suburb where Coronel kept two houses.

One Mexican media report said the operation had been in the works since May. At that time, there were widespread rumors that he had been captured.

U.S. authorities described the operation as part of "continued cooperation" with Mexican law enforcement, but did not elaborate.

A senior U.S. official said Coronel's organization was first weakened last October when Mexican troops in Guadalajara captured one of his closest associates, Oscar Nava Valencia, known as "the Wolf."

In recent months, Coronel's group in the state of Jalisco has fought bitterly against the gang once run by Arturo Beltran Leyva, a former ally killed by Mexican soldiers in December during a raid in Cuernavaca, south of Mexico City. Beltran Leyva's death unleashed a bloody succession battle.

Coronel's death could produce more bloodshed if the wing of the Beltran Leyva gang run by Arturo's brother, Hector, seeks to take over the turf, officials said.

Nevertheless, Raymundo Riva Palacio, a respected columnist and commentator based in Mexico City, called the death "the most important blow" in Calderon's effort to defeat the cartels. "The fall of Coronel is a strike at the heart of the Sinaloa cartel," he wrote.

Coronel is believed to have been born in 1954 in the northern state of Durango or coastal Veracruz, depending on the source. He worked under Amado Carrillo Fuentes, leader of the so-called Juarez cartel who was known as the "Lord of the Skies."

Coronel left that group after Carrillo's death in 1997 and joined the Sinaloa alliance, alongside Guzman and Ismael Zambada. The Beltran Leyvas were the part of the same alliance, but split off in 2008, leading to violent clashes.

Coronel's ties with Guzman were cemented further three years ago when his teen niece, Emma Coronel Aispuro, married the flashy Sinaloa kingpin, then 50.

Once known for his showy, jewel-studded pistols, Coronel was said to have sought a quieter posture in recent years. While Guzman sought to cultivate a splashy image of invincibility, Coronel lowered his profile to evade police and a growing list of enemies, Grayson said.

To blend into the suburbs outside Guadalajara, Coronel moved about with a lone aide, according to army officials. His FBI wanted poster, picturing the suspect in a trim beard, swept-back black hair and sport coat, lists his occupation as "businessman."

Coronel managed to attract attention, nonetheless. Balladeers wrote a song in his honor, as they have for other Mexican drug lords. (In it, the character called "Nacho Coronel" offers this nugget of wisdom: "There's nothing in life that lasts forever.")

And two weeks ago, the weekly magazine Proceso featured Coronel in a cover story. His bearded face, the same one in the wanted poster, stares out above the headline that says, "The capo on the rise."

ken.ellingwood@latimes.com
Copyright © 2010, The Los Angeles Times

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Mexican Public Security secretary minister Genaro Garcia Luna, third right, addresses a news conference with the two released journalists, Javier Canales Fernandez, second left, and Alejandro Hernandez Pacheco, second righ, in Mexico City, Mexico. (Mario Guzmán, EPA / July 30, 2010)

Mexican police rescue 2 kidnapped journalists
The cameramen were seized Monday after covering protests at a Durango prison that is said to be under the control of organized crime. One reporter remains unaccounted for.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-mexico-journalists-20100801,0,6867629,print.story

Mexican police rescue 2 kidnapped journalists
The cameramen were seized Monday after covering protests at a Durango prison that is said to be under the control of organized crime. One reporter remains unaccounted for.

Competing Mexican drug cartels are destroying each other ... and that's where 'Warrior' begins ...."
http://www.warriorthemovie.com
http://www.warriorthemovie.blogspot.com

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-208917617001990565&q=warrior+mexican+OR+drug+OR+cartels+duration%3Ashort+genre%3AMOVIE_TRAILER

"the action adventure fantasy feature film "Warrior" ... about the son of a divine force ... is a story of a young man's quest to find his true identity set against the twin backdrops of Native American folklore and the treacherous Mexican drug trade and a portrayal of the classic confrontation between "good and evil" ... filmed in the exotic jungles of Costa Azul in the State of Nayarit and the urban grit of Puerto Vallarta in the State of Jalisco, Mexico .. with action, adventure, romance, comedy, a multi-ethnic cast, a major movie studio music score and spectacular cinematography ..."

latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-mexico-journalists-20100801,0,1875342.story
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MEXICO UNDER SIEGE
Mexican police rescue 2 kidnapped journalists
The cameramen were seized Monday after covering protests at a Durango prison that is said to be under the control of organized crime. One reporter remains unaccounted for.
By Ken Ellingwood, Los Angeles Times
August 1, 2010
Reporting from Mexico City
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Mexican federal police on Saturday rescued two of four journalists kidnapped five days earlier by a drug gang in northern Mexico, authorities said.

The case highlighted the dangers faced by journalists in Mexico, where criminal gangs often seek to silence news coverage or slant it in their favor. The captors had demanded the airing of homemade videos that linked a rival gang to corrupt police in the states of Durango and Coahuila.

Public Safety Secretary Genaro Garcia Luna said intelligence work led to a predawn operation that freed cameramen Javier Canales of Multimedios Laguna and Alejandro Hernandez of Televisa from a house in Gomez Palacio, Durango.

Hernandez told reporters at a news conference that the hostages were beaten and threatened. He showed reporters a head wound that he'd suffered a day earlier.

Televisa reporter Hector Gordoa was freed by his captors Thursday. The whereabouts of the fourth captive, Durango newspaper reporter Oscar Solis, was not immediately clear, although there were reports that he had been released.

The journalists were seized Monday after covering protests at a Durango prison that is said to be under the control of organized crime.

The kidnappings produced an outcry. On Thursday, Televisa broadcast a black screen in place of the scheduled magazine-style program that employs its captured staffers. Mexico's interior minister, Francisco Blake, went before cameras Friday to condemn the crime.

At least 30 journalists have been killed or have gone missing since President Felipe Calderon announced a crackdown on drug cartels in 2006. On Friday, attackers hurled grenades at the Televisa station in the border city Nuevo Laredo.

In the Durango case, Televisa and Milenio Television agreed to air three videos that claimed ties between the Zetas gang and corrupt police. Garcia Luna said the kidnapping was carried out by a group tied to the Sinaloa drug cartel run by Joaquin "Chapo" Guzman. Local journalists have said that cartel is in control in the Durango prison.

Federal officials said inmates were permitted to leave the prison for a short time with weapons borrowed from guards to kill rivals. The attacks included a July 18 shooting at a party across the state line in Torreon, Coahuila, that killed 17 people.

ken.ellingwood@latimes.com
Copyright © 2010, The Los Angeles Times

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Some of the police officers who were arrested in an anti-corruption sweep in Tijuana. (AFN / July 29, 2010)

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-mexico-cops-20100730,0,3991010,print.story

Mexican troops kill top Sinaloa cartel figure
Ignacio Coronel Villarreal died in a gunfight in an upscale suburb of Guadalajara, authorities say. Separately, dozens of Tijuana law enforcement officers are arrested in an anti-corruption sweep.

Competing Mexican drug cartels are destroying each other ... and that's where 'Warrior' begins ...."
http://www.warriorthemovie.com
http://www.warriorthemovie.blogspot.com

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-208917617001990565&q=warrior+mexican+OR+drug+OR+cartels+duration%3Ashort+genre%3AMOVIE_TRAILER

"the action adventure fantasy feature film "Warrior" ... about the son of a divine force ... is a story of a young man's quest to find his true identity set against the twin backdrops of Native American folklore and the treacherous Mexican drug trade and a portrayal of the classic confrontation between "good and evil" ... filmed in the exotic jungles of Costa Azul in the State of Nayarit and the urban grit of Puerto Vallarta in the State of Jalisco, Mexico .. with action, adventure, romance, comedy, a multi-ethnic cast, a major movie studio music score and spectacular cinematography ..."


latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-mexico-cops-20100730,0,5278620.story
latimes.com
Mexican troops kill top Sinaloa cartel figure
Ignacio Coronel Villarreal died in a gunfight in an upscale suburb of Guadalajara, authorities say. Separately, dozens of Tijuana law enforcement officers are arrested in an anti-corruption sweep.
By Ken Ellingwood and Richard Marosi, Los Angeles Times
July 30, 2010
Reporting from Mexico City and San Diego
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In a significant blow against the powerful Sinaloa drug cartel, Mexican troops on Thursday killed one of the group's top figures during an arrest raid in western Mexico.

The raid came as troops in Tijuana rounded up dozens of police officers in a separate operation targeting organized crime.

Ignacio Coronel Villarreal is described as one of the three most important bosses in the cartel, which is based in Sinaloa state and run by the country's most-wanted drug suspect, Joaquin "Chapo" Guzman. Coronel, known as "Nacho" and in his mid-50s, was highly sought by U.S. and Mexican authorities.

Authorities said Coronel headed the group's operations in the western states of Colima, Nayarit and Jalisco, where troops tracked him down Thursday. U.S. officials have described him as a pioneer in making large quantities of methamphetamine to be smuggled into the United States.

Army officials said Coronel was slain after opening fire on troops closing in on him in an upscale, tree-lined suburb of Guadalajara, long considered a haven for drug bosses. Coronel kept two residences that he used as safe houses and maintained a low profile, the army said.

A soldier was killed and another was injured, Gen. Edgar Luis Villegas said during a brief news conference. He said troops arrested a close aide of Coronel.

Coronel's death represents a victory for President Felipe Calderon's nearly 4-year-old war against drug cartels. Calderon has dispatched nearly 50,000 troops into the streets, but the country's soaring violence has frightened many Mexicans.

The raid should help Calderon fend off allegations that the government offensive has left largely unscathed the Sinaloa group while hitting its rivals. Calderon has vehemently denied that accusation.

Coronel is the second suspected drug kingpin slain by troops in the last year. In December, commandos killed Arturo Beltran Leyva, a former Guzman ally, during a raid in the city of Cuernavaca.

Beltran Leyva's death has spawned a bloody succession struggle inside the organization he headed. Coronel's foot soldiers battled with remnants of that group in Jalisco in recent months.

Though for years a close associate of Guzman, Coronel was considered by U.S. and Mexican authorities a potent trafficker in his own right, with direct access to cocaine supplies in Colombia. Coronel was considered especially adept at importing into Mexico the chemical ingredients for making methamphetamine.

The FBI, which offered a $5-million reward for his capture, had said Coronel's group "has been growing in power since the 1990s and is now considered one of the most powerful drug-trafficking organizations in Mexico." He is named in federal drug-trafficking indictments in Texas and New York.

Mexican authorities offered their own reward equal to about $2.5 million.

In Tijuana, the military rounded up 56 members of various law enforcement agencies in one of the largest efforts in recent years to purge corrupt police in the border city of Tijuana.

Forty officers from the Tijuana police department and 16 agents from the Baja California attorney general's office were detained. Six former officers were also arrested, authorities said.

Gen. Alfonso Duarte Mugica, who runs military operations in Tijuana, said the sweep targeted law enforcement officers tied to the Arellano Felix drug cartel, which has long used police as bodyguards and informants.

The arrested officers were taken to a military air base and paraded in front of the news media, at which point some proclaimed their innocence.

The sweep marked the latest push by authorities to keep the pressure on organized crime groups in northern Baja California. Unlike other regions in Mexico with spiraling drug war violence, authorities there have been credited with lowering crime rates and arresting organized crime bosses.

The anti-corruption measures, headed by Julian Leyzaola, Tijuana's secretary of public security, have been a key component of the strategy. Since he assumed the post 2 1/2 years ago, more than 460 law enforcement personnel have been arrested or fired or have left the department.

The scale of Thursday's operation was a sign that corruption persists, but that authorities seem committed to rooting out bad officers, according to experts and law enforcement officials in the U.S. and Mexico.

"How many police chiefs would arrest 40 guys from his department, and do it again and again and again?" said one U.S. law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the news media.

Evidence of high-level corruption was revealed last week when U.S. authorities arrested the top liaison officer of the Baja California attorney general's office, Jesus Quinones Marques, who was accused of passing along confidential information from U.S. law enforcement officials to cartel leaders.

Meanwhile, the U.S. government has shut indefinitely its consulate in Ciudad Juarez, a border city racked by drug violence, to evaluate security conditions. The U.S. Embassy in Mexico City said in a statement Thursday that the consulate would "remain closed until the security review is completed."

The consulate closed briefly in March after three people connected to the consulate were killed by suspected drug cartel hit men.

ken.ellingwood@latimes.com

richard.marosi@latimes.com

Ellingwood reported from Mexico City and Marosi from San Diego. Times wire services were used in compiling this report.
Copyright © 2010, The Los Angeles Times

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Alfredo Arenas and his team clean and check their weapons. When they get a tip on the whereabouts of a U.S. fugitive, Arenas' plainclothes Baja State Police officers track him down. (Don Bartletti, Los Angeles Times / June 2, 2010)

Arresting U.S. fugitives is win-win, Mexican police squad leader says
About 1,000 fugitives are believed to live in Mexico. The effectiveness of Mexican fugitive-hunting squads has helped improve relations between U.S. and Mexican law enforcement agencies.


http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-fugitive-squad-20100727,0,4189932,print.story

Competing Mexican drug cartels are destroying each other ... and that's where 'Warrior' begins ...."
http://www.warriorthemovie.com
http://www.warriorthemovie.blogspot.com

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-208917617001990565&q=warrior+mexican+OR+drug+OR+cartels+duration%3Ashort+genre%3AMOVIE_TRAILER

"the action adventure fantasy feature film "Warrior" ... about the son of a divine force ... is a story of a young man's quest to find his true identity set against the twin backdrops of Native American folklore and the treacherous Mexican drug trade and a portrayal of the classic confrontation between "good and evil" ... filmed in the exotic jungles of Costa Azul in the State of Nayarit and the urban grit of Puerto Vallarta in the State of Jalisco, Mexico .. with action, adventure, romance, comedy, a multi-ethnic cast, a major movie studio music score and spectacular cinematography ..."


latimes.com/news/local/la-me-fugitive-squad-20100727,0,1169335.story
latimes.com

Arresting U.S. fugitives is win-win, Mexican police squad leader says
About 1,000 fugitives are believed to live in Mexico. The effectiveness of Mexican fugitive-hunting squads has helped improve relations between U.S. and Mexican law enforcement agencies.

By Richard Marosi, Los Angeles Times
July 27, 2010
Reporting from Mexicali, Mexico
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Jason Harrington, wanted on a battery charge in Alameda County, was caught after a chase across rooftops in the Baja California fishing village of San Felipe. Alleged child molester Father Joseph Briceno of Phoenix was handcuffed amid a crowd of parishioners in Mexicali. Tony "The Big Homie" Rodriguez, a Mexican Mafia boss from Indio, hurled threats after being hauled off a street corner by Mexican police posing as junkyard dealers.

All three fugitives had a similar escape plan: Flee to Baja California and leave their troubles at the border. But they ended up back in U.S. custody, as did hundreds of other fugitives in recent years, after being hunted down by Mexican fugitive-hunting squads.

Mexico, offering an anonymous existence in the disorder of the developing world, has long enticed the hunted.

About 1,000 U.S. fugitives wanted for crimes are believed to live in Mexico, according to federal estimates. Many are in resort areas such as Cancun or in border states such as Baja California.

But in recent years, Mexican law enforcement agencies, even some rife with corruption — have stepped up their efforts to send fugitives back north. Fugitive deportations and extraditions from Mexico reached 299 last year, more than triple the number from 2003, according to the U.S. Marshals Service.

Among those captured this year was Eduardo Gilbert Nevarez, charged with slaying two people in Lynwood in 2001.

Law enforcement agencies in Mexico get mixed grades pursuing high-level, homegrown drug traffickers, but hustling after common criminals from the U.S. is an uncomplicated way to burnish crime-fighting credentials and accommodate U.S. interests.

Most U.S. fugitives, including alleged rapists and murderers, don't possess powerful protectors in Mexico and their rap sheets make them threats on both sides of the border.

The increasing arrest rates, which also include apprehensions of Mexican citizens wanted for crimes in the U.S., reflect generally improving relations between members of U.S. and Mexican law enforcement fugitive squads, who keep one another on speed dial and meet regularly to exchange information and suspects at the border.

Among the most responsive and busiest squads is the Baja California state police fugitive squad, a Mexicali-based seven-member team armed with AR-15 assault rifles that has captured 40suspects so far this year.

"They think they're safe if they make it south of the border. That's just not true," said Mike Eckel, the FBI's international liaison officer in San Diego.

Some of the fugitives are Mexican Americans who blend in easily, though their gang tattoos and accents give away their outsider status. Others settle among the large expatriate communities along the coast, setting up small businesses or living off their past criminal proceeds.

Mexican police bursting through the door is the last thing they expect. Some offer huge bribes or demand to see a lawyer. Others refuse to cooperate.

Alfredo Arenas, the commander of the Baja California state police fugitive squad, is often the first high-ranking police official they meet. He greets some with a warning.

"Here, you don't have the right to remain silent," Arenas, 50, said. "You only have the right to tell me everything I ask you."

It's an effective ploy, said Arenas, that plays on suspects' perceptions of Mexican cops as brutally efficient at coercing confessions. "Our reputation works on our behalf," Arenas said. "We don't even put a finger on the guys and they start talking."

Tracking down suspects was done mostly on an informal basis until the early 2000s, when both countries established or bolstered existing fugitive squads, which are led by bilingual liaison officers.

The Marshals Service is the lead agency in the U.S., though the FBI, California Department of Justice and several local agencies, including the Los Angeles Police Department, also have liaison officers.

The cross-border relationships can go sour in spectacular ways. Last week, the international liaison officer for the Baja California attorney general's office, Jesus Quiñones Marques, was arrested in San Diego on his way to a meeting with his U.S. counterparts. Also arrested last year was Tijuana municipal police liaison agent, Javier Cardenas, a sharp dresser known for toting a gold-plated handgun.

Both are accused of links to organized crime, but had proved themselves useful to U.S. interests over the years. Quinones helped create the Baja California Amber Alert program to find missing children, and Cardenas was known for his uncanny ability to pluck U.S. fugitives from the city's criminal underworld.

Such arrests breed guarded relationships between cross-border groups. U.S. agents generally limit information sharing to the whereabouts of U.S. fugitives, knowing that today's hero could be tomorrow's suspect.

Tips on people's locations usually come from the U.S.: from family members or former associates or people who recognize suspects on shows like "America's Most Wanted." U.S. agents, who can't make arrests in Mexico, pass on the information, including mug shots and arrest warrants, to their counterparts in Mexico.

Sometimes posing as FedEx delivery men or cellphone vendors or junk yard dealers peddling used appliances, officers with the Baja California state police fugitive squad try to confirm the target's identity. It can be straightforward. Regaberto Lopez, a convicted sex offender from Palm Springs wanted on a parole violation charge, had opened a massage studio in Mexicali.

Other times fugitives fall off the map completely. Michael Collins, a sex offender wanted on a charge of attempted murder, was living in a hillside shack outside Ensenada when agents, tipped off by the GPS coordinates on his cellphone, caught him last year.

"We had to walk two miles down a dirt path to find the place," said Fabricio Ruiz, an agent with the Baja California fugitive squad. "He was making a living by operating nets for a local fisherman."

Chasing down the fugitives is a win-win situation for Mexican police, said Arenas, whose squad gets high marks for integrity and professionalism from U.S. liaison officers. U.S. agencies, said Arenas, know how to show their gratitude. His agents often don helmets and flak jackets donated from U.S. police departments, and they travel often to California for training.

"We capture your fugitives, doing Mexican society good by getting rid of the criminal element, and we get the opportunity for training, intelligence and equipment. Anything we can get our hands on," he said.

The arrests have never led to gunfire, though many suspects are considered dangerous. When Rodriguez, the Mexican Mafia boss, was captured in 2007, he offered a $1-million bribe for his freedom. "He kept saying 'You don't know who you're messing with,' " said Ruiz.

Concerned that gang members would try to spring him from police headquarters in Mexicali, the agents headed for the border at Calexico, where they handed him over to FBI agents. Convicted of drug conspiracy charges, Rodriguez is serving a 20-year sentence.

Eckel, the FBI liaison agent, said it was a typically efficient operation for the squad. "They're tireless, relentless and clever," Eckel said. "It doesn't matter what time of day it is. They go."

richard.marosi@latimes.com
Copyright © 2010, The Los Angeles Times

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A newspaper at a Mexico City kiosk shows the photograph purported to show blindfolded onetime presidential candidate Diego Fernandez de Cevallos. (Mario Guzman, EPA / July 27, 2010)

Photo and letter stir speculation on missing Mexico political figure
The mystery over the whereabouts of a former Mexican presidential candidate deepened when a photograph and letter purportedly written by him showed up on Twitter and then all over the Mexican media

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-mexico-missing-politico-20100728,0,7442326,print.story

Competing Mexican drug cartels are destroying each other ... and that's where 'Warrior' begins ...."
http://www.warriorthemovie.com
http://www.warriorthemovie.blogspot.com

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-208917617001990565&q=warrior+mexican+OR+drug+OR+cartels+duration%3Ashort+genre%3AMOVIE_TRAILER

"the action adventure fantasy feature film "Warrior" ... about the son of a divine force ... is a story of a young man's quest to find his true identity set against the twin backdrops of Native American folklore and the treacherous Mexican drug trade and a portrayal of the classic confrontation between "good and evil" ... filmed in the exotic jungles of Costa Azul in the State of Nayarit and the urban grit of Puerto Vallarta in the State of Jalisco, Mexico .. with action, adventure, romance, comedy, a multi-ethnic cast, a major movie studio music score and spectacular cinematography ..."

latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-mexico-missing-politico-20100728,0,7083674.story
latimes.com
MEXICO UNDER SIEGE
Photo and letter stir speculation on missing Mexico political figure
The mystery over the whereabouts of a former Mexican presidential candidate deepened when a photograph and letter purportedly written by him showed up on Twitter and then all over the Mexican media.
By Ken Ellingwood, Los Angeles Times
2:59 PM PDT, July 27, 2010
Reporting from Mexico City
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The man is naked above the waist, blindfolded with a wide band of fabric. His bearded face appears to match that of the politician on the cover of the magazine he holds up for the camera.

Is "Don Diego" alive?

The 2-month-old mystery over the whereabouts of former Mexican presidential candidate Diego Fernandez de Cevallos deepened this week when a photograph and letter purportedly written by him weeks ago showed up on Twitter and then all over the Mexican media.

The photo and letter were posted Monday by journalist Jose Cardenas, who said he received them and a separate statement from the purported kidnappers. The statement mocked failed attempts to find Fernandez de Cevallos and said his captors had not reduced their ransom demand, which was not specified.

Fernandez de Cevallos, 69, is one of the country's most powerful political operators, and his disappearance in May from his ranch in central Mexico has fed a national guessing game.

Some speculate that Fernandez de Cevallos, a lawyer who ran for president in 1994, was seized by Mexico's drug cartels, perhaps as a threat to President Felipe Calderon, a fellow member of the conservative National Action Party. Others theorize that he was taken by left-wing extremists. Or killed over business dealings. Skeptics asked whether Fernandez de Cevallos staged his own disappearance.

The latest clues do little to settle the matter.

The blindfolded man in the photo holds up the May 23 edition of the weekly Proceso magazine with Fernandez de Cevallos on the cover, apparently to show that the former senator survived his May 14 disappearance. But the image does not prove Fernandez is still alive.

The two-page, handwritten letter, dated June 10, is addressed to Fernandez de Cevallos' son, also named Diego. It describes the "hell" of captivity and urges the family to raise the ransom quickly. The letter does not identify the kidnappers or cite a ransom amount.

"I'm asking you to do as much as you can as fast as you can," the letter says. "If you can't arrive at what they are asking, you can offer an approach that demonstrates a willingness to negotiate."

The writer says he has lost weight and suffered chest pains. The letter is signed "Your father."

Mexican authorities had no immediate comment. Federal officials had previously called off their investigation, saying they did not want to harm the family's bid to win Fernandez de Cevallos' release.

The disappearance has generated intriguing, if unconfirmed, tidbits.

Fellow politicians said Fernandez de Cevallos had been fitted with a high-tech tracking chip, planted under the skin, as a check against kidnappers. The devices are popular among Mexico's rich and powerful. One theory holds that bloody scissors found at the scene of the disappearance may have been used to cut out the implant.

Cardenas, a radio news show host and columnist at the daily El Universal newspaper, reported last week that Fernandez de Cevallos' kidnappers belonged to a guerrilla group in central Mexico. Without naming sources, Cardenas said captors demanded $50 million, but that Fernandez de Cevallos' family had so far been able to collect $30 million.

ken.ellingwood@latimes.com
Copyright © 2010, The Los Angeles Times

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