Borderline Psychosis Update- Los Zetas Expanding Further into Central America; Cartels Start off 2011 Reeling?

GUATEMALA: Guatemalan president Alvaro Colom declared a state of siege in the northern border province of Alta Verapaz, claiming that Los Zetas were infiltrating the porous border region along the Mexican frontier. The declaration gives Guatemala's military sweeping powers and is generally used in the event of a conspiracy against the government or terrorist plot.

In response to the declaration, Los Zetas reportedly coerced radio stations in northern Guatemala to broadcast their threat to declare war on civilians unless Guatemalan authorities stopped tracking the organization.


During the state of siege, Guatemalan soldiers had arrested 10 suspected Zetas and seized a small plane, 150 AK-47 rifles and the equivalent of $63,000 in cash at an airstrip and residence in Alta Verapaz while transferring over 300 police officers whose loyalty was in doubt out of the province.

Los Zetas was thought to have established a presence in Guatemala as early as 2006 and have been known to recruit from the ranks of Guatemala's Kaibiles- special operations soldiers in Guatemala's military specializing in jungle warfare and counterinsurgency operations.

It is unknown at this time if Los Zetas are attempting to set up shop in Guatemala as a means of escaping the pressure Mexican authorities and other cartels have been putting on them or if they are simply attempting to expand their operations.

MICHOACAN: Even before the Mexicana Stewardess calendar flipped to over to January 2011, president Felipe Calderon and the Mexican government had scored a few high profile and hard fought victories against some of the more entrenched cartels.

To kick off the New Year's, La Familia Michoacan had reportedly offered a 30-day 'truce' with Mexican law enforcement and military in a one-page missive distributed by e-mail and door-to-door in some towns. The authenticity or origin of the offer could not immediately be verified, but a number of recent arrests and deaths of La Familia leaders is likely what prompted the offer, according to Michoacan state prosecutors.

Observers say that La Familia likely wouldn't be making the offer for a truce if they weren't still trying to reconstitute itself from the death or capture of senior cartel members in clashes with Mexican police and soldiers last month that culminated in fleeing gunmen blockading roads into the state capital of Michoacan with burning vehicles.

BAJA CALIFORNIA NORTE: The military commander for Baja California's 2nd Military Zone announced the arrest of Jesus Israel de la Cruz Lopez, aka 'el tomate', who was the leader of a powerful criminal cell affiliated with the Sinaloa cartel. De la Cruz reportedly led a campaign of murder and intimidation of municipal police in Tijuana and elsewhere in Baja California starting in 2007.

A former Tijuana cop himself, de la Cruz was arrested in Tijuana along with his brother and three other suspects. Authorities recovered 140 lbs of marijuana, more than 250 doses of crystal methamphetamine and a half-dozen weapons as well.

Observers and scholars on this side of the border note that de la Cruz never really rose through the hierarchy of the Sinaloa cartel as much as he was afforded more autonomy and decision-making by the organization through necessity after the fragmentation of their leadership in recent years.