TheZetaYoke

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paid 738,000 pesos (59,372 USD) in bribes in Allende, but we don’t know how much they
earned (the breakdown of monthly payments appears in the statistical appendix). In any
case, it is striking how little it cost them to have the municipal police at their service.
The significance of this subjugation was observed during the weekend of the
vengeance campaign. The municipal authorities were warned days in advance of the
violence that was to be unleashed, and even took part in it. The 20 municipal police officers
were instructed not “to circulate in any patrol cars… and not to attend any calls for
assistance,” and to “detain anyone with the surname Garza” ciii to be handed over to the
Zetas.
In the course of the operation a contingent of hitmen and municipal police “arrived
and [we] broke in by force, firing our weapons” to the home of a Garza family member.
They captured him, his wife and a young child. The Zetas forced them “into a patrol car” civ
to take them to one of the two ranches where they were assembling their victims.
During the weekend, they ransacked, vandalized and set fire to their victims’
properties. The Zetas incited their neighbors to rob the homes before setting them alight
and demolishing them with heavy machinery. The police officers who witnessed the
plunder “just watched and said nothing.” cv
The municipal authorities became accomplices or passive witnesses. Their presence
was purely decorative. The person who was mayor of Allende in March 2011 declared in
writing to the Attorney General that “I was not an eyewitness to the events,” that “I learned
from isolated comments from people who had not witnessed the events either,” that “I
never received any notification, complaint or police report from people or victims of the
violent events.” The commander of the Public Security Directorate revealed that he had not
received any complaint or information from any person or via any other means and that,
since it is not within the municipality’s powers to undertake an investigation, he did
nothing. Some testimonies refer to the participation of the municipal police in the looting of
the destroyed houses.
The City Council Act number 31 for Allende dated March 30, 2011, the first one
subsequent to the events, makes no mention of the violence. The mayor’s office maintains
no record of the enormous violence suffered in Allende in March 2011: for them, it is as if
nothing happened.
In summary:
a) The criminal organization controlled the local security apparatus, and some of the police
officers were an integral part of the Zetas.
b) The municipal government was non-existent and its officials violated multiple Mexican
and international laws. For example, they failed to meet the obligation to “immediately”
report cases of forced disappearance.
c) If the findings from Allende and Piedras Negras are repeated in other municipalities—
and there is evidence that this is the case—then it would appear that local government is the
weakest flank of the Mexican State.