Relations break down
Relatives of the 43 normal school students who disappeared more than nine years ago in Iguala, México, have blown all bridges with the Commission for Truth and Access to Justice (COVAJ for its Spanish acronym) set up by the administration of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, which they accuse of being an instrument of the president. "Today, in front of the COVAJ (AMLO) puts an undersecretary who is a puppet of him and who will only repeat at the working tables what he says in [his press conferences], [so] there is no possibility of advancing in substantive aspects of the investigation", denounced the lawyer for the relatives, according to a local newspaper. Those seeking if anything the consolation of knowing simply what happened to their sons in September 2014, and where their remains are—some have only obtained "a bone fragment of 2 grams"—, called for days of struggle in the capital that will extend from February 26 to March 1. The 43 normal school students are sad renowned victims of a frightening combination of the collusion of the authorities with organized crime in Guerrero and the anomie of those who are part of the latter.
Violence in Valle del Cauca, Colombia
According to reports on Sunday, the criminal group known as "La Inmaculada" responded by escalating violence in the municipality of Tulúa to the imprisonment of two of its leaders. The gang—which claimed responsibility for the attacks—is said to have carried out around a dozen attacks in western Colombia, leaving two dead, three injured, and five vehicles burned. Among the wounded are a woman and a girl, which again shows how irrational the actions of these groups are, to the point of compromising the lives of so innocent people. In an alarming sign, it is reported that the organization is using children to advance its criminal actions. Society must "protect our minors so that they do not fall into (the network)" of crime, said the chief of police in Tulúa. The gang is reportedly demanding that the authorities release its leaders, on pain of carrying out other acts to put the security forces in check. President Gustavo Petro has refused to bend the knee to blackmail, while around 450 police and military personnel are mobilized in the area. The efforts of the current administration—the first left-leaning one in Colombia's democratic history—to pacify the country are overshadowed by an overflowing accumulation of metastasized criminal violence.
The authorities claim to have controlled the outbreak of violence in Tulúa (source of the image).The quick regional roundup
Mexican authorities raided a clandestine laboratory with a considerable volume of synthetic drugs in the troubled state of Sonora, in the largest seizure during the AMLO administration. More than 41 tons of finished product and nearly 13 tons of chemicals to produce around 54 tons of methamphetamine were seized on the premises. Had it gone to market, we would be talking about $700 million in profits for the drug traffickers, according to the Ministry of the Navy.
Two new cases of political violence have been reported in México in the last hours. In the state of Zacatecas, a worker of a local dependency of the Ministry of Social Development was shot last Saturday, becoming the second fatal victim—in less than four days—in the same family, marked by politics and related to the ruling party's bench. On February 7, in the same state, the brother of a mayor was murdered. In Santa Clara Coatitla, State of Mexico, a congressional candidate—also representing MORENA, AMLO's political movement—was riddled with bullets. For the time being, this makes ten murders with political overtones in the Aztec nation in 2024 alone.
In Colombia, in an ordinary wooden house in the coastal town of Necoclí—a place we know for being on the route used by many migrants to reach the Darién Gap—the Armed Forces found an underground warehouse with more than five and a half tons of cocaine belonging to the Clan del Golfo, the country's largest criminal organization. The drug traffickers used "waterproofing techniques" to protect the cocaine, which was ready to be shipped to Central America and the United States and was worth more than US$150 million.
The Peruvian Government established as of Monday a state of emergency in two provinces of the northwest region, which activates the use of the Army in internal security tasks, specifically to counteract "the rise of international gangs dedicated to extortion, illegal mining", and hired assassination. The emergency plan will be extended for two months and has cities such as the industrial Trujillo and Pataz, bathed in gold, as the focus of its attention. In the former, there is one violent death per day, while in the latter there are many reports of "extortion, labor exploitation, sexual exploitation, pimping, and arms trafficking".
And this is all for our report today. I have referenced the sources dynamically in the text, and remember you can learn how and where to follow the LATAM trail news by reading my work here. Have a nice day.
