The San Fernando Massacres

Part Two

Throughout 2010 and 2011, the Los Zetas and Gulf Cartel battled for control of Tamaulipas, while cities like San Fernando - right in the middle of this contested territory - suffered the consequences. As an investigation into the heinous migrant massacre of 2010 carried on, authorities began to make additional discoveries in the area around San Fernando...

In August of 2010, Mexican authorities were alerted to the presence of a farmhouse in rural Tamaulipas, just outside of the small city of San Fernando. There, 72 bodies were found.

These were all poor migrants hailing from Central and South America, who had left their homes in search of opportunity in the U.S. Sadly, though, they'd never arrived at the border, having been taken captive by members of the Los Zetas drug cartel, who incorrectly assumed them to be associates of the rival Gulf Cartel. These individuals were then taken to a rural farm, where they were held captive for a day or so, before being shot and killed.

In the months ahead, the Mexican government hoped to bring some sense of stability to the region and hoped to uncover who had been responsible for the massacre by launching a large-scale criminal investigation. However, the violence throughout the region would continue unchecked for the next year, ultimately leading to some of the most shocking discoveries in Mexican history.

This is part two of the San Fernando Massacres.

Following the massacre of 72 migrants outside of San Fernando, the world's attention fell upon the state of Tamaulipas, which had become ground zero for an escalating war between two violent criminal organizations, the Los Zetas and the Gulf Cartel.

While the violence had begun to spread out of Tamaulipas - towards neighboring states like Nuevo Leon and Veracruz - the brunt of the violence was seen in several municipalities in Tamaulipas, such as San Fernando, making it one of the deadliest regions in not only Mexico but the world; with the number of the deceased comparable to those in active war zones.

The government would increase their military presence in Tamaulipas shortly after the discovery of the 72 migrants' bodies but did not seem to plan on maintaining any kind of long-term presence. During their enhanced stay, however, the military would engage in skirmishes with the cartels throughout northern Mexico, resulting in more than 200 dead throughout 2010.

As the investigation into the migrant massacre carried on, legislation would pass through Mexico's Congress that hoped to prevent something like this from ever happening again. The Immigration Act of 2011 was actually the first piece of immigration legislation passed by Mexico, which had been operating under General Population laws for nearly four decades. This act established laws for the treatment of migrants by authorities, no longer allowing them to be preyed upon by local or regional officials, guaranteeing them the same human rights as Mexican citizens. It also established punishments for those that perpetrated illegal immigration, such as coyotes, creating term limits for such crimes.

Meanwhile, authorities in Tamaulipas continued the hunt for the members of the Los Zetas that had either helped perpetrate the massacre of the 72 migrants - or given them the green light to carry out the crime.

Several months later, in January of 2011, Mexican prosecutors would announce an 8 million peso reward (approximately $658,000 in U.S. dollars) for two individuals known as "The Coyote" and "The Scorpion," who were believed to have been the ringleaders of the scheme that resulted in the deaths of the 72 migrants. A reward for a third suspect (worth approximately $411,000) would be announced a short time later.

These three were alleged to have given the order for the massacre to be carried out; an order that was then relayed to the 7 lowly members of the Los Zetas already arrested. However, questions remained about other potential accomplices, such as who the ranch belonged to (where the bodies had been found) and what their involvement may have been; as well as what specific circumstances had led to the massacre. How many government officials - police officers, transportation authorities, etc. - had abdicated their duties and let the migrants be rounded up by the Los Zetas?

In March of 2011, Salvadoran authorities would announce the arrest of Carlos Ernesto Teos, one of the men responsible for the smuggling ring that had led the migrants into Mexico. Teos was the apparent leader of this illicit organization and had played a small part in transporting the victims to Mexico, where they were then abandoned and handed off to the Zetas. He was eventually given a thirteen-year sentence and then died behind bars in 2017 at the age of 53.

While the Mexican government continued their inquest into how the migrant massacre from August of 2010 had come to pass, the city of San Fernando continued to be stuck in a state of purgatory. Thousands of residents flooded out of the city in the months after the massacre, with the constant level of violence perpetrated by the Los Zetas becoming too much to bear. Residents would continue to pour out throughout 2011 when it became clear that the massacre from the year prior was not an isolated event.

It was only the tip of the iceberg.

On March 25th, 2011, a passenger bus carrying 25 individuals was reported missing in Tamaulipas. Unlike the missing bus from the year prior, the riders on this bus weren't migrants from Central and South America, but rather, Mexican citizens simply traveling from point A to point B.

Authorities would follow up on the report of this missing bus in early April, using information obtained early on to locate a Los Zetas hideout, where five of the bus passengers were being held captive under armed guard. The eight men and one woman that had held them captive - members of the Zetas - engaged in a shootout with members of Mexico's Ministry of National Defense, but were unable to fight for long and were detained in San Fernando.

In the days to come, five additional members of the Zetas would be arrested, linked to the abduction of the passenger bus from the week prior. If you recall, the bus had contained 25 individuals at the time it disappeared, but with only five living passengers recovered, authorities had to ask the tough question: what had happened to the missing twenty?

Sadly, the answer they received would result in the start of something incomprehensible in terms of both shock and scale.

In April of 2011, Mexican authorities announced that 59 bodies had been found in approximately eight mass graves near each other, just outside of La Joya, a small farming community just north of San Fernando. Because of the proximity to the prior discovery the year prior - the 72 migrants found in the abandoned farmhouse - this was believed to have also been the work of the Los Zetas, the militant wing that had split off from the Gulf Cartel in 2010.

It was initially believed that some of these victims may have come from another pair of buses that went missing the year prior, in 2010. These buses were last seen in the state of San Luis Potosi (PRO: San Loo-eess Poe-toe-see), Tamaulipas' neighbor to the southwest, and had been heading up to the U.S.-Mexico border at the time they went missing. Family members of the missing had reported receiving ransom demands ranging from $100 to $1300 in the weeks after their disappearance, but were told not to contact police... or risk getting their loved ones killed, as well as themselves.

Many of those men and women were never seen alive again. Like many of the missing travelers in Mexico during this period, their disappearances fell through the cracks, and it was only now, a year later, that the possibility of their discovery had resurfaced when dozens of unknown bodies were discovered just outside of San Fernando.

Authorities would begin the long and grueling process of identifying the bodies of the slain, with more than twenty families arriving in San Fernando to possibly identify the remains as someone they had once known and loved. President Felipe Calderon ordered the Ministry of the Interior to coordinate the investigation along with state authorities and assist the Attorney General of Tamaulipas. Meanwhile, his security spokesman promised to catch the rest of the offenders and bring them to justice:

"There are lines of investigation and information generated from the arrests to lead to the full identification of the entire criminal cell responsible for these acts."

Two days after the discovery of 59 bodies near San Fernando, authorities would announce the discovery of additional bodies. This disclosure, made on April 8th, brought the body count from 59 up to 72.

Like the prior discovery, these were believed to be Mexican citizens. However, unlike the prior 59 bodies found buried, these victims had been recently "deprived of life," as described by the Secretary-General of Tamaulipas, Morelos Jaime Canseco Gomez. The work of identifying these victims was added to the already-overworked medical examiners' docket, but before they could even get started with that heart-wrenching and horrendous task, news came down that even more bodies were on the way.

On April 10th, 2011, 16 additional bodies were discovered in four graves, bringing the total number up to 88. These bodies were discovered after the apprehension of Armando Cesar Morales Uscanga, a member of the Los Zetas, who admitted to participating in the abduction and murder of more than 40 passengers from the two buses that had gone missing in 2010.

On April 13th, 2011, Morelos Canseco Gomez, the Secretary-General of Tamaulipas, announced that 28 additional bodies had been discovered in 15 secret graves found near the already-known dumping ground. These bodies were discovered after the arrest of another new Zetas detainee, Jony Torres Andrade ("El Sombra"), who was also linked to the mass killing of bus passengers. He was the 17th member of the Zetas arrested as part of this investigation, and the information gained from his arrest brought the body count up to 116.

These bodies were sent to the city of Matamoros to be identified, a painstaking process that was sure to carry on for months - if not years. There, local authorities coordinated with officials from various Mexican states and cities, as well as foreign governments, who believed that some of the deceased might be citizens of their own that had cut through Mexico in search of the United States. Months later, it would be confirmed that at least one Guatemalan and one American was among the fallen, but at least one more American was believed to be among the dead, having gone missing aboard one of the disappeared passenger buses.

Investigators would utilize unclaimed baggage from cities bordering the U.S., such as Reynosa and Nuevo Laredo, in their quest to identify the remains. They believed that many of the passengers aboard the buses that had been taken captive and/or murdered might have checked luggage aboard the bus, which ultimately made it to their destination even if they had not. This would ultimately lead to many of the victims being identified, but sadly not all. However, the total number of unclaimed suitcases and bags - 400 in total - led the public to believe that the total number of bodies buried in or near San Fernando may be much higher than authorities had found.

Authorities would meet with hundreds of family members, who believed that their missing loved ones might have been among the fallen. These loved ones would bring along photographs and other belongings, which they hoped might aid in the identification process.

Sadly, many of these individuals would never receive the closure they severely needed, such as the loved ones of Josué Román García, who had disappeared alongside his brother after eating dinner in a small town approximately 90 miles south of the Texas border, near San Fernando. In August of 2010 - the same month as the migrant massacre - Garcia had sent a text message to a friend of his from inside the trunk of a car, writing:

"They just kidnapped us in San Fernando. If anything happens, just tell my parents, 'thanks, I love them.'"

Sadly, neither Garcia nor his brother were ever seen again. As reported by the New York Times, their father was one of the family members that had flocked to the region, hoping to find answers and possibly identify his missing sons, if only to put them to rest.

Another family member, 40-year-old Juani Manriquez, spoke to reporters in Matamoros:

"I really don't know what I'm looking for, or who to turn to, I only came here with the hope of finding the body of my husband who left Guanajuato more than a year ago and I have not heard from him."

At this point, authorities had detained approximately 17 individuals linked to the Los Zetas; both members of the violent cartel, as well as accomplices that helped them out in a regular role. This included the two most recent arrests, which had led directly to the discovery of dozens of additional bodies.

While the Los Zetas had been linked to the massacre of the migrants the year prior, they had not yet been publicly linked to the 116 bodies discovered outside of San Fernando. But at this point, it became clear that the Los Zetas were not only involved in the slow-moving massacre of Mexican citizens... they were directly responsible. In a public statement, Mexico's Attorney General Marisela Morales told reporters:

"As of (today) we can confirm that a total of 116 people have been found dead as a result of criminal actions apparently caused... by the Zetas criminal group."

It had become clear that the Los Zetas had begun engaging in a new kind of criminal act... which really seemed like a new low, as far as billion-dollar criminal enterprises are concerned. While their operation was now quickly spreading throughout Mexico and Central America, the Zetas seemed to have begun devoting a lot of time and resources to passenger buses containing migrants, visitors, and Mexican citizens. The Zetas would then take dozens of the passengers captive - men and women alike - and extort them for profit. The women were more likely to face sexual violence in captivity (not exclusively, however), but both genders were beaten and tortured by their captors... eventually murdered unless their loved ones paid the ransom demand doled out by the ruthless Zetas.

These crimes had begun to plague large sections of northern Mexico, with the Los Zetas continuing to wage their war against the Gulf Cartel, and looking for every resource at their disposal to raise funds. While we might question why they were doing this - especially for such paltry sums (a few hundred bucks here and there) - these methods were allowing the Zetas to continue growing at a brisk pace.

Approximately one year after their split from the Gulf Cartel, the Zetas were already overtaking their parent organization... not only in geographic territory but overall power. By 2011, they had become the second-largest drug cartel in Mexico, second only to the Sinaloa Cartel, who at this point, was still headed by the infamous "El Chapo" Guzman.

Many believed that these mass abductions didn't fit the typical mold of crimes committed by narcos, but it quickly became evident that this was becoming a new revenue stream for the cartels that controlled vast geographic distances, allowing them to impose a "tax" of sorts on travelers passing through their territory. Those that didn't pay, such as poor migrants, seemed poised to pay the ultimate price, their deaths sending a message to others in the area... pay up or die.

Others worried that the Los Zetas - facing an increasing number of casualties in their war against the Gulf Cartel and its allies - were also using these mass abductions as a recruitment tool. If those that were abducted were unable to pay up, they were given the option of joining the Zetas or carrying out a task for them, instead. This is what had been reported by Luis Freddy Lala Pomavilla the year prior when he had survived the mass killing of migrants by the Los Zetas.

At this point, change was desperately needed. The war between the cartels seemed to be reaching a boiling point, with entire cities succumbing to the violence, such as San Fernando. As the Zetas warred with the Gulf Cartel, a civil war within a civil war was brewing, as the leader of the Los Zetas, Heriberto Lazcano ("El Verdugo"), was being outflanked by his top commander, Miguel Trevino Morales ("Z-40"). This story wouldn't play out until the following year, 2012, but became an explanation for why the Los Zetas were continuing to take aggressive actions during this era when the Mexican government seemed to be narrowing in the spotlight upon them.

Despite the public desperately calling for justice and for order to be reimposed in San Fernando, it became clear that the Mexican government was ill-equipped to end the multiple conflicts causing the deterioration of Tamaulipas. They had been unable to stop the bleeding from the wounds inflicted decades prior, when the Guadalajara Cartel collapsed, creating a power vacuum that allowed these various rival cartels to rise and compete for plazas, and this rapid escalation of violence was the ultimate culmination of that failure. Now, the cartels were too emboldened to simply shut down, having wormed their way into multiple aspects of the Mexican economy and creating thriving infrastructures, which were almost HYDRA-like in their hierarchy... where cutting off one head just led to two more taking its place.

Samuel Gonzales, a famous Mexican prosecutor, expressed his frustrations with the situation to the publication BBC Mundo (PRO: Moon-doe):

"It is a true war between drug traffickers that is out of state control. The weakness of the state allowed them to fight and these are the results."

Eric Elson, a security expert at the Woodrow Wilson International Center, expressed a similar sentiment to the New York Times:

"(Tamaulipas) is one of the places where clearly state, federal, and local authorities are not in control. It's tragic, it's unfortunate, but it's a reality."

It had only been a week or so since authorities started to discover bodies in or near San Fernando, but the body count had already grown past one hundred. Sadly, though, authorities were nowhere near done finding bodies, with the number of the deceased continuing to grow in the days and weeks to come.

On April 13th, 2011 - one week after the discovery of the first 59 bodies had been reported to the public - it was announced that 6 bodies had been discovered in Tamaulipas. That same day, authorities announced the arrest of 16 municipal police officers in San Fernando, who were accused of protecting members of the Los Zetas and cooperating with them for payment. A handful of police officers from the border town of Reynosa were also arrested, having looked the other way on several abductions carried out by the Zetas.

The next day, it was announced that 23 more bodies had been discovered in 12 additional graves, bringing the total number of the killed up to 145. It was believed that these victims had been killed between one and two months prior, likely bus passengers headed towards the border town of Reynosa. The same day, authorities announced a reward of up to 15 million pesos for the capture of Salvador Martinez Escobedo ("La Ardilla" - "The Squirrel"), Omar Estrada Luna ("El Kilo"), and Roman Paloma ("El Coyote"). All three were notorious members of the local Los Zetas chaptered, and had each factored into the mass killings in some capacity.

On April 21st, 2011, the state police would announce that following an operation carried out on a Los Zetas compound, police had discovered 32 additional bodies buried in another 8 graves. This brought the body count up to 177.

Five days later, on April 26th, another handful of bodies were discovered, bringing the body count up to 183. At this point, only two of the victims had been identified: one having been a Guatemalan, whose body was sent back to his nation of birth for burial; the other a Mexican, whose remains were returned to his loved ones.

The area would receive a brief reprieve from the constant onslaught of grim news for a few weeks, but a final report would come in more than a month later, on June 7th. It was reported that eight additional bodies had been found, bringing the total number of the dead up to 193, recovered from a total of 40 mass graves in the San Fernando area.

In time, authorities would discover that the cause of death for most (at least 130 of the fallen) was blunt force trauma to the head. However, the grisly details of their deaths would not be known until later that month, when it was reported that a sledgehammer had been found along with some of the bodies, at one of the dozens of mass graves in the region.

In response to the wave of discoveries, the Mexican government would deploy hundreds of troops to Tamaulipas, hoping to restore order in not only San Fernando, but the roads leading throughout the state, where the Los Zetas had become emboldened and now operated with near-impunity.

Earlier in the episode, I hinted at the mass evacuation of residents from the region over several months, and that process really kicked off into full effect during this period. Following the news that nearly 200 bodies had been discovered buried in the surrounding area, San Fernando looked like a ghost town, with thousands of residents fleeing the area. Many would never return, not wanting to subject themselves or their loved ones to the constant fear that they faced in town.

The deployment of troops to San Fernando did bring about some semblance of stability but didn't do much to ease the sense of trauma that had settled in over the area. After all, hundreds of bodies had turned up in the region over the past year - many of whom were residents or those traveling through the area - and many prominent publications began to question whether or not Tamaulipas was on its way to becoming a failed state. Some theorized that it was already there, having proven itself unable to protect its own citizens.

Security analyst Alberto Islas described this worry to BBC Mundo:

"Neither the state nor the federal government have territorial or security control. They also don't have the power to collect taxes. Criminal groups are more effective doing it."

Armed troops would monitor the cities and maintain checkpoints along the roads, the dangerous highways where lawless violence had been spreading unchecked for months. While they were able to restore some sense of order, violence would continue to plague the area for years to come.

National Security Spokesman Alejandro Poire would insist that Tamaulipas was still under state control, but his words continued to ring hollow when it became visibly clear to the residents that the state's "control" was nothing more than a band-aid on an infected wound that had been untreated for decades.

In June of 2011, as authorities were wrapping up their excavation of bodies in the San Fernando area, journalist Dane Schiller with the Houston Chronicle would provide one of the most harrowing reports in this case, and it involved how many of the victims had met their tragic and violent end.

For his article, Schiller spoke with a narcotrafficker connected to both the Los Zetas and the Gulf Cartel. This individual claimed to have moved approximately $5 to $10 million of cocaine into the United States each month and had been able to do so successfully for approximately ten years. This was confirmed by law enforcement, who believed this person to be a trafficker but had no warrants for his arrest at the time of this article's publication.

In Schiller's article, he details how this trafficker offered up information about the deaths of many of the victims from San Fernando, claiming that he knew they'd been forced from buses and then taken to a secondary location. There, the elderly passengers had almost immediately been killed, with them not serving any use for the Los Zetas members. The young women were raped. Then, the "able-bodied men," as reported by Schiller, were "given hammers, machetes and sticks and forced to fight to the death."

In Schiller's article, he details how impromptu gladiator matches were put on by the Los Zetas, who used these vile outbursts of violent compulsion to groom new assassins for their rapidly-expanding cartel. Those that survived these gladiator fights to the death were then tasked with suicidal missions, such as heading into rival cartel territory to shoot up rival narcotraffickers. However, the only way to win one of these matches was by outlasting the others... killing their fellow passengers with the tools given to them by the Los Zetas, or in certain instances, with their bare hands.

This article by Dane Schiller revealed the true depravity of the Zetas, whose brutality had seemingly reached new highs... or new lows, depending on how you approached the subject. Many believed that even if this was a helpful recruiting tool, it was most likely done for the enjoyment of the sadistic member of the Los Zetas, helping numb them - and their young enforcers - to the sheer brutality of this kind of violence.

In April of 2011, just weeks after first bodies were discovered buried near San Fernando, authorities would announce the arrest of a Los Zetas leader operating out of the area, along with several other members of the cartel.

Martin Omar Estrada Luna was a 34-year-old that had taken his nickname "El Kilo" from the Eazy-E song "Cruisin' In My '64". Luna had grown up in Yakima County, in Washington state, had gotten involved in organized crime at an early age, racking up criminal charges as a juvenile. According to authorities in Yakima County, he was linked to additional crimes that he was never charged with, but nothing significant... nothing that would allude to him one day becoming a lieutenant in the most violent drug cartel to date.

A childhood friend from Yakima, speaking to the Seattle Times, said about Luna:

"Martin made his own choices. He went where the streets took him... He was a nice guy. He would let you borrow money, his car or his clothes."

According to reporters David Lester and Mark Morey, this childhood friend of Luna's recalled him being more of a leader than a follower, and that did seem like a trait he had kept through his adolescence into adulthood.

Luna was not an American citizen and was deported several times back to his nation of birth, Mexico. As a result, he never finished high school. But somehow, Luna kept finding ways to return to the U.S. - in particular, Washington state - where he lived under multiple aliases. His ex-wife and daughters had continued to live in the Yakima area, and he was still in contact with them at the time of his arrest.

When Luna was last deported back to Mexico in 2009, he seems to have fallen in with the Los Zetas, ultimately becoming a leader for the cell operating out of San Fernando. Because of the autonomous nature of the Zetas hierarchy, he became one of the authority figures for this group of violent narcotraffickers, who mostly operated to the beat of their own drum. While he didn't make all of the decisions, it was believed that Luna was next-in-line for the leadership position, and was tasked with many of the group's violent actions.

While many wondered how someone like Luna could rise to this rank in such a short period, he was reported to have been incredibly violent in his role, and reportedly showed no remorse towards any of the dead men or women he left in his wake. At the time of his arrest, the DEA believed him to be "one of the most aggressive leaders in (the) Los Zetas organization," which says a lot, considering the kind of company that Luna kept.

In addition to overseeing the deaths of many victims buried in or around San Fernando, it was believed that Luna was linked to numerous other acts of violence in the region, including the mass killing of 72 migrants the year prior. Reportedly, Luna had given the green light for the Zetas to carry out that brutal massacre and Luna had also been personally involved in the killing of Robert Jaime Suarez Vazquez and Juan Carlos Sanchez Suarez, two men that had been tasked with investigating the 2010 massacre. If you recall from the last episode, those two had disappeared just days after the migrant massacre, and their bodies were found weeks later.

In June of 2011, authorities would announce the arrest of another prominent Los Zeta from the region: 22-year-old Edgar Huerta Montiel ("El Wache"), a former member of the Mexican military that had originally taken bribes to look the other way on drug shipments. Eventually, he had deserted to join the Los Zetas.

Following Montiel's arrest, he confessed to police about his involvement in the migrant massacre from 2010, having personally overseen the kidnapping of the migrants and leading them to a farmhouse nearby. Alongside Martin Omar Estrada Luna, Montiel had ordered them to die and personally opened fire on the helpless migrants, killing approximately ten himself.

Montiel also confessed to his involvement in the detainment of six additional buses, having ordered many of the passengers to be abducted and led to Zeta safehouses, where they were then tortured for information, with Montiel believing them to be involved with the Gulf Cartel. These victims were then killed by young Zeta recruits - a tactic used by Los Zetas leader Miguel Angel Trevino to help them "lose their fear" - and buried in the San Fernando area.

In July of 2011, Mexican authorities announced the arrest of "El Erasmo," Abraham Barrios Caporal. At the time of his arrest, he was with two other members of the Los Zetas at a safe house, where a kidnap victim was found - thankfully, still alive. Following his arrest, he too confessed to involvement in the migrant massacre, having served closely with Martin Omar Estrada Luna, the so-called "mastermind" of the vile crime.

While these three men were definitely involved in the massacre of hundreds of innocent civilians and served in leadership positions within the organization, they were not the leader of the San Fernando Los Zetas, who every decision was ultimately run through and okayed by. That honor belonged to Salvador Alfonso Martinez Escobedo, also known as "La Ardilla" ("The Squirrel"). Escobedo would manage to outrun authorities for more than a year, but his time would come, with the life of a narcotrafficker proving to be a volatile and uncomfortable one.

Escobedo was arrested by members of the Mexican Navy in October of 2012 in the city of Nuevo Laredo, near the U.S.-Mexico border. In addition to serving as the leader of the Los Zetas cell in San Fernando, Escobedo was linked to the San Fernando massacres and several other violent crimes, including the murder of American tourist David Hartley in 2010, as well as the beheading of a police chief investigating that crime. He had also personally overseen two jailbreaks, which saw dozens of members of the Los Zetas put back onto the streets following their arrests.

The following year, 2013, one of the last known Zetas involved in the massacres was arrested. That year, 43-year-old Roman Picardo Paloma Rincones ("El Coyote") was arrested alongside other members of the Los Zetas. Widely regarded as one of the most dangerous Zetas in the entire organization, Rincones was helping oversee eight captives held at a Zeta safehouse at the time of his arrest. Like the passengers from the buses, they had been held for extortion, with the Zetas waiting for their families to pay a ransom for their safe release.

In total, 82 people were arrested as a result of this investigation, believed to have played at least a small role in letting these massacres happen. Many of these were lower-level members of the Los Zetas or accomplices - such as the police officers that had turned the other way and let the Zetas off the leash in Tamaulipas - but were still imprisoned for their crimes.

Despite their arrests, however, local publications would refrain from publishing photos of the accused, not wanting to invoke the wrath of the Los Zetas, whose goal - to utilize fear to force compliance - seemed to have come to fruition.

In the years since these arrests, the Mexican government has remained tight-lipped about... pretty much everything in this case. Despite attempts from journalists and human rights groups, the government has not disclosed much information about the massacres from San Fernando, citing a 2008 statute that Mexico passed to help fight organized crime to label this an "ongoing investigation."

Over the years, authorities have only disclosed small tidbits about the case in piecemeal form, such as revealing in 2014 that many of the police officers arrested by federal authorities had been accepting money from the Los Zetas to abduct individuals and hand them off to the cartel instead of taking them to jail. This revealed that the police officers had been acting less as corrupt authority figures, but as an extension of the Zetas themselves. However, because of the shadow cast by this investigation, it was unknown what had happened to these police officers. Other than them being arrested for involvement with the Zetas, nothing about them was known.

For years to come, the Mexican government would refuse to divulge any information about the case. Lawyers for the government - over multiple administrations - would fight appeals filed by amazing, hardworking journalists like Ana Lorena Delgadillo, who took her fight for the victims to the Mexican Supreme Court... and won. This legal victory happened just recently, in November of 2021, as I was constructing this series.

Ana Lorena Delgadillo was one of several women investigating the San Fernando massacres, alongside acclaimed journalist Marcela Turati and anthropologist Mercedes Doretti. After receiving pushback from the government for years, these three women took their fight to the Supreme Court, forcing the Mexican government to hand over volumes of confidential reports that they had been withholding for years. In these volumes, these women discovered that the Mexican government had been investigating them as potential suspects in the massacre.

I wish that this was some kind of sick joke, but using the broad writing of the organized crime statute from 2008, the Mexican government was able to use their crime-fighting apparatus to surveil these women to a ridiculous degree, monitoring their lives from afar, including their cell phone and text records, and mapping out their communications and social lives for over an entire year. They were treated as legitimate suspects in these massacres, despite having done nothing wrong.

The only thing that these women were doing was trying to get to the bottom of this story, and attempting to get around the roadblocks constructed by the government to shield them from public accountability. But instead of aiming their spotlight at the Los Zetas, the government had decided to come after these women, who were simply asking tough questions and criticizing the government's handling of the investigation.

In the reporting of this story - handled by publications like the Washington Post - it would be highlighted that this open-ended statute has been used by Mexico to surveil or press charges against individuals outside of the realm of organized crime, such as corrupt politicians, government officials accused of wasting taxpayer funding, etc. Not organized crime, as originally intended.

Meanwhile, it remains unknown what kind of justice was ever received by those that had committed the widespread acts of violence in San Fernando I've described over the last two episodes... if at all. Because of the confidential status of the investigation, the fates of those arrested - members of the Los Zetas and their accomplices - remain unknown to this day.

In the years since the San Fernando massacres, the Los Zetas have fallen into a state of permanent disarray. While the organization itself does still exist, they are a fragment of their former self... a sad state of affairs for a cartel once poised to take over all of Mexico.

At the time of the massacres, the Los Zetas had been growing exponentially all over Mexico and were threatening to not only snuff out their rival, the Gulf Cartel, but were posing a significant threat to the larger cartels, such as the Sinaloan Cartel. However, the massacre of 72 migrants in 2010 - just as the Zetas were making a play for the large tract of land along the Gulf of Mexico - proved to be the first step in the largely-decentralized organization crumbling.

Following the disclosure of the bodies found buried near San Fernando, more and more mid-level members of the Zetas began using unchecked violence to send messages to rivals and civilians living in their territory, resulting in a handful of other mass casualty incidents. These typically were carried out without the approval or knowledge of higher-ups in the organization, resulting in a chaotic maelstrom that left hundreds dead. As a result, the Mexican government was forced to crack down on the Zetas, unable to ignore the bloodshed that was now spreading throughout the country.

These violent incidents also happened to play out while a civil war brewed inside the Los Zetas. The Zetas' leader, Heriberto Lazcano ("El Verdugo" & "Z-3") began publicly feuding with Miguel Trevino Morales ("Z-40"), his longtime national commander. Throughout 2012, reports would emerge that the two were battling for control of the Zetas, but by August of that year, the U.S. had received intelligence that Lazcano had been overthrown... a point made rather moot by Lazcano's violent death in October, following a shootout with Mexican officials.

A year later, the new leader of the Los Zetas, Miguel Trevino Morales, was captured by Mexican Marines. Surprisingly, he was arrested without incident. Power would end up passing to his brother, Omar ("Z-42"), who was himself captured by authorities two years later. So on and so on, with the life of a successful narcotrafficker proving to be as volatile as it was relentless.

Over the next several years, the group's decentralized nature - which had once allowed it to expand quickly, and claim more territory than any other cartel had in decades - allowed it to fragment beyond repair. Their violent outbursts made them public enemy number one for Mexico and the rest of Central America, and governments began cracking down on them in particular.

As a result, the Los Zetas still exist... technically. However, they control a very small fraction of the territory they once held, and have splintered off into a handful of other cartels (which have, in some cases, splintered into even smaller groups centered around smaller geographic locations). Today, the Los Zetas aren't the fearful presence they once were, with the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (PRO: Ha-lyss-co) (CJNG) becoming the most dangerous "new" cartel in all of Mexico, but still attempting to catch up to the infamous Sinaloa Cartel, which remains the top dog... for now.

Meanwhile, dozens of other cartels fight to gain or maintain prominence in the ever-evolving ecosystem of Mexico's narcotraffickers... many of whom use the brutal tactics that the Los Zetas adopted.

Speaking to the Houston Chronicle, retired FBI agent Peter Hanna - who specialized in cartels - stated:

"The stuff you would not think possible a few years ago is now commonplace. it used to be you'd find dead bodies in drums with acid; now there are beheadings."

For years after the massacres, the city of San Fernando was unable to return to normal. This chaotic life - on the fringes of violence and apathy - had seemed to become the new normal for residents there.

One resident, speaking anonymously to reporters with El Universal in February of 2012, stated:

"We couldn't do anything. We fought for our lives and watched helplessly as they were taken away. Bus hijackings were done in broad daylight, even outside the bus station. But we couldn't say anything, we kept quiet. We have family, we have children and we cannot leave here."

Another resident, a 23-year-old woman living in town, said:

"In my house we have a plan. My mom always reminds us before we go out: if they come for you and want to take you away, don't get caught alive. So at least we will have their body and we will know where they are and we can cry for them."

While nearly 200 bodies were recovered from the area surrounding San Fernando, some believe that more individuals may have been abducted by the Los Zetas and later killed. This belief is based on not only the hundreds of missing men, women, and children from the area - who all disappeared in the time frame correlating to these massacres - but also on the word of a member of the Los Zetas.

Edgar Huerta Montiel is one of the Zetas I spoke about several minutes ago, who was arrested back in 2011. A prominent member of the San Fernando cell, Montiel was second-in-command to "La Ardilla" ("The Squirrel"). At the time of his arrest, Montiel confessed to his involvement in the murders and led authorities to several undiscovered bodies. However, he also alluded to there being more than 600 bodies in total buried near San Fernando, having been buried over a longer period than anyone originally suspected.

Some think that authorities called off the searches in June of 2011, hoping that the story would eventually fade from the news... and that San Fernando wouldn't continue to attract ominous headlines in the future. It's possible that the Mexican government called off the searches because they wanted to try and display strength ahead of the 2012 election, and didn't want to invoke other nations - such as the U.S. - from taking a more involved role in the area, since it directly bordered the state of Texas. If hundreds of additional bodies were discovered, it might have forced international agencies to step in and take a more involved role in the Mexican government's handling of the cartels.

This is, of course, just speculation, and is mostly based upon the words of a Los Zetas lieutenant. However, it's hard to overlook the thousands of missing men, women, and children from the area, many of whom undoubtedly became victims of Mexico's violent Drug War, which continues unabated to this day. Paired with Mexico's touchy handling of the investigation - which remains shrouded in secrecy - and it's hard not to think that additional victims may be buried out near San Fernando.

As of this episode's recording, the story of the San Fernando massacres remains unresolved.

Episode Information

Episode Information

Research, writing, hosting, and production by Micheal Whelan

Published on December 4th, 2021

Music Credits

Original music created by Micheal Whelan through Amper Music

Theme music created and composed by Ailsa Traves

Sources and other reading

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_San_Fernando_massacre#Massacre

https://ctc.usma.edu/a-profile-of-los-zetas-mexicos-second-most-powerful-drug-cartel/

https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB445/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_San_Fernando_massacre

https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/Treaties/CMW/Shared%20Documents/MEX/INT_CMW_NGO_MEX_14_9619_E.pdf

https://elfaro.net/en/202008/centroamerica/24755/Mass-Murder-as-Message.htm

https://lanoticiasv.com/muere-reo-procesado-por-trafico-ilegal-de-personas-al-interior-de-mariona-1

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infighting_in_Los_Zetas

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/11/23/mexico-disappeared-organized-crime/?nid=top_pb_signin&arcId=DGUB4EYUXVGODELL5WG3CYX6YE&account_location=ONSITE_HEADER_ARTICLE

https://www.catholicnews.com/eleven-years-after-a-massacre-of-migrants-a-mother-remembers-sons-trek/

https://www.justiceinitiative.org/voices/new-document-throws-more-light-mexico-s-san-fernando-killings

https://www.npr.org/2014/12/22/372579429/mexican-police-helped-cartel-massacre-193-migrants-documents-show

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-11308670

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/mexico-sets-658000-reward-for-massacre-suspects/

https://www.voanews.com/a/mexico-offers-reward-for-massacre-suspects-114958604/164272.html

https://barriozona.com/mexicos-southern-border-is-the-beast/

https://archivo.eluniversal.com.mx/estados/79594.html

https://centralamericanpolitics.blogspot.com/2011/03/arrest-in-tamaulipas-case.html

https://web.archive.org/web/20131023114910/http://www.valleycentral.com/news/story.aspx?id=600640#.Ume3yNDP0Q8

https://expansion.mx/nacional/2011/04/06/autoridades-hallan-una-fosa-con-cuerpos-en-san-fernando-tamaulipas

https://web.archive.org/web/20131023060457/https://www.valleycentral.com/news/story.aspx?id=602111#.UmdnHWDP0Q8

https://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/08/world/americas/08mexico.html

https://archivo.eluniversal.com.mx/nacion/184592.html

https://archivo.eluniversal.com.mx/nacion/184609.html

https://archivo.eluniversal.com.mx/primera/36606.html

https://archivo.eluniversal.com.mx/notas/757989.html

https://archivo.eluniversal.com.mx/notas/757885.html

https://expansion.mx/nacional/2011/04/10/militares-localizan-cuatro-fosas-con-16-cadaveres-mas-en-tamaulipas

https://www.noroeste.com.mx/nacional/hallan-16-cuerpos-mas-en-tamaulipas-OBNO336008

https://archivo.eluniversal.com.mx/notas/758232.html

https://expansion.mx/nacional/2011/04/12/hallazgo-de-fosas-en-san-fernando-tamaulipas

https://web.archive.org/web/20120223100150/https://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5j8S6ioMbWB39l8yKCFIl9ajgXSBw?docId=CNG.b4703df1fdcf51f580e9189db2dc7b5c.501

https://web.archive.org/web/20140409003035/http://www.excelsior.com.mx/node/729451

https://web.archive.org/web/20140408224731/http://www.lapoliciaca.com/nota-roja/suben-a-122-los-cadaveres-hallados-en-narcofosas-en-san-fernando/

https://expansion.mx/nacional/2011/04/14/la-cifra-de-cadaveres-aumenta-a-145-en-fosas-de-san-fernando-tamaulipas

https://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/16/world/americas/16mexico.html?pagewanted=all

https://web.archive.org/web/20130420184203/https://www.terra.com.mx/noticias/articulo/1090165/Cronologia+de+los+hallazgos+de+177+cadaveres+en+San+Fernando.htm

https://web.archive.org/web/20160306200844/http://www.terra.com.mx/noticias/articulo/1093197/Mexico+Maletas+abandonadas+pista+para+esclarecer+asesinatos+en+Tamaulipas.htm

https://www.elsiglodetorreon.com.mx/noticia/617563.html

https://www.jornada.com.mx/2011/04/22/politica/006n1pol

https://expansion.mx/nacional/2011/04/26/solo-dos-de-las-183-victimas-de-tamaulipas-han-sido-identificadas

https://web.archive.org/web/20110619192104/http://www.milenio.com/cdb/doc/noticias2011/94735cf9dc1fc6e1994f97a4421d18ca

https://web.archive.org/web/20131023060800/https://www.valleycentral.com/news/story.aspx?id=627152#.Umdnw2DP0Q8

https://web.archive.org/web/20110609071102/http://www.milenio.com/cdb/doc/noticias2011/a83771a907f9b3b0aaf6153c163b67ca

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/man-arrested-as-mexico-cartel-leader-once-lived-in-yakima-county/

https://www.chron.com/news/nation-world/article/Mexican-crook-Gangsters-arrange-fights-to-death-1692716.php

https://www.animalpolitico.com/2011/06/zetas-recrean-peleas-del-coliseo-romano-con-secuestrados-houston-chronicle/

https://web.archive.org/web/20140408215535/https://www.valleycentral.com/news/story.aspx?id=629779#.U0RwaGDP0Q8

https://www.abc.es/internacional/abci-carteles-mexicanos-peleas-gladiadores-201106140000_noticia.html?ref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.abc.es%2Finternacional%2Fabci-carteles-mexicanos-peleas-gladiadores-201106140000_noticia.html

https://expansion.mx/nacional/2011/06/17/policias-federales-detienen-al-coordinador-de-la-masacre-en-san-fernando

https://www.elsiglodetorreon.com.mx/noticia/635136.cae-responsable-de-masacre-masiva-en-san-fern.html

https://www.wsj.com/articles/mexico-arrests-12-police-officers-over-migrant-massacre-11612333197

https://web.archive.org/web/20110821040746/http://www.excelsior.com.mx/index.php?m=nota&id_nota=730642

https://www.elespectador.com/mundo/mas-paises/crece-angustia-entre-familiares-de-116-muertos-en-mexico-article-262876/

https://vanguardia.com.mx/noticias/nacional/2933898-el-kilo-sicopata-que-resultaba-incomodo-su-propio-cartel-KCVG2933898

https://archive.ph/20120717045822/http://mx.ibtimes.com/articles/14984/20110630/captura-erasmo-lider-zetas-muerte-migrantes-tamaulipas.htm

https://www.noroeste.com.mx/nacional/arraigan-a-el-erasmo-por-homicidios-NHNO359224

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/americas/07/02/mexico.zetas.shootout/

https://justiceinmexico.org/mexican-authorities-detain-the-man-behind-the-migrant-massacres-in-tamaulipas/

https://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/09/world/americas/mexican-drug-leader-salvador-alfonso-martinez-escobedo-arrested.html

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/oct/09/mexico-arrests-zetas-heavyweight-martinez

https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/en-espanol/sdhoy-police-arrest-zetas-cartel-boss-in-mexico-2013aug26-story.html

https://www.noroeste.com.mx/nacional/cae-zeta-ligado-a-masacre-de-migrantes-DLNO823231

https://web.archive.org/web/20130930002144/http://www.cronica.com.mx/notas/2011/586301.html

https://web.archive.org/web/20111011025626/http://insightcrime.org/insight-latest-news/item/1140-zeta-testimony-solves-mystery-of-mexico-bus-massacres

https://www.elsiglodetorreon.com.mx/noticia/654174.en-san-fernando-hay-fosas-con-500-muertos-mas.html

https://web.archive.org/web/20120611084150/https://www.excelsior.com.mx/index.php?m=nota&id_nota=762879

https://www.animalpolitico.com/2011/08/ya-son-82-detenidos-por-fosas-de-san-fernando-tamaulipas-son-presuntos-zetas/

https://www.palestineherald.com/archives/alleged-cartel-hit-man-goes-on-trial-in-texas/article_516df755-9aa5-5488-b892-295305390302.html

https://archive.ph/20130221044338/http://www.vanguardia.com.mx/san_fernando,_donde_el_miedo_no_se_ha_ido-1222627.html

https://archivo.eluniversal.com.mx/nacion/194114.html

https://web.archive.org/web/20140409045755/http://www.excelsior.com.mx/node/813853

https://www.jornada.com.mx/2012/02/28/politica/020n2pol

https://migrationdeclassified.wordpress.com/2013/08/29/mexican-officials-downplayed-states-responsibility-for-migrant-massacres/

https://www.businessinsider.com/r-alleged-ringleader-of-2010-migrant-massacre-in-mexico-arrested-2017-11

https://outline.com/4rrt5B

https://www.jornada.com.mx/2011/03/11/politica/012n1pol

https://insightcrime.org/news/analysis/zeta-leader-arrested-for-mass-graves-does-mexico-care/