The Week in Mexico

The Week in Mexico...


Mexico City Cathedral Photo CC

“El Teo” captured: Eduardo Teodoro García Simental, the Tijuana drug gang leader known as “El Teo,” was captured in La Paz, capital of Baja California Sur. García is being blamed for 300 murders; many of those victims were found tortured, beheaded, dissolved in lye or hanged from bridges, often with messages attached. He once was an enforcer for the Arellano Félix drug cartel and was involved in a violent turf battle with other top traffickers in Tijuana.

More feds to Juarez: Officials said 2,000 more federal police agents will be sent to Ciudad Juarez. Federal police commissioner Facundo Rosas said they will coordinate the work of local police officers and the 6,000 soldiers deployed to the city as part of President Felipe Calderón’s crackdown on drug cartels. More than 2,500 people were killed in Ciudad Juarez in 2009.

Virtual border fence: Mexico expert Wayne Cornelius, who retired from the University of California San Diego last year, appeared on CBS’ “60 Minutes” last Sunday on a segment about the multibillion-dollar virtual fence being built along the U.S.-Mexico border. He said Mexican immigrants “will detour around the … (virtual) fence just as they have detoured around sections of the physical fence that have been built since 1993. They would be crazy not to.”

More on the week in Mexico.