The Guadalajara Reporter

A heretical take on the Zeta bust

Like many people, initially I was elated that the Mexican Marines caught Zeta jefe Miguel Angel Treviño Morales on Monday, July 15.  Yet when I expressed a modest bit of that cheer to Mexican friends, I often got somber glances. 

Most of these folks have family or close friends residing in the northeastern state of Tamaulipas, or possibly even in the city of Nuevo Laredo, which is near where Treviño was captured. Yet, when the news hit that  Treviño Morales had been captured, it was startling and produced pretty much a national sigh of relief and some cheering – though much of that tended to be cautious.  The head of Mexico’s most lethal and terrifyingly brutal drug cartel sowed a lot of fear in pretty much all directions, even places that luckily hadn’t fallen under his consideration.  He likes butchery, and the number of people he has killed personally, or has ordered killed hasn’t been precisely counted – in fact may never be.  But the numbers are clearly large.  We may never know, not a few Mexicans say, because such cases take years – often as long as six or more – for Mexico’s unique, often puzzlingly counterintuitive justice system to come up with a decision. 

Talking about this bundle of contradictions with a knowledgeable Mexican friend seemed like a promising idea.  “A knowledgeable friend” in this case meaning someone who once worked for the federal government and is now a notary public in a neighboring municipality.

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