Hours before Hurricane Otis devastated Acapulco, two bodies were found in the Infonavit Alta Progreso neighborhood. Their hands and feet were tied. One of them had a brutal gash in the chest.
But there was something worse: both of them had clown masks placed on their faces. It was the last, grotesque message that organized crime sent before the hurricane. Next to those corpses were several narco-messages signed by a certain Commander 18.
Criminal leader in Acapulco, linked to Los Rusos (one of the armed arms of the Sinaloa Cartel), the so-called Commander 18 is related to at least 14 executions committed in the port two years to date. His trail can be followed through narco-messages that appeared in various parts of Acapulco. All of these, accompanied by chilling executions.
In security reports, Commander 18 appears as one of the priority objectives in the state of Guerrero. According to these reports, he is a former member of the state’s ministerial police who was under the orders of Esteban Maldonado Palacios, who was director of the ministerial police, in charge of investigating serious crimes.
In October 2021, Maldonado Palacios and Guerrero prosecutor Jorge Zuriel de los Santos appeared in a video asking “a favor” from a drug trafficker who was covering his face with a balaclava.
Both officials fell and caused the cascading departure of 20 more officials. Since then there was palpable evidence of collusion between Guerrero authorities and members of organized crime.
The government of Morenista Evelyn Salgado closed its eyes. In Acapulco, municipal president Abelina López blamed the violence on the media and the weather.
Meanwhile, the criminal advance reached levels never seen before. At the beginning of last year, more than a hundred businesses that refused to pay extortion were burned down.
At the same time, executions increased: Acapulco was placed among the four most violent municipalities in Mexico. Shortly before the hurricane, up to 10 executions were carried out in just 48 hours. More than 500 murders accompanied the first months of the year.
A few weeks before Otis’s appearance, they left the body of a man whose pants had been pulled down hanging from the pedestrian bridge on Ruiz Cortines Avenue, a few steps from La Laja Market. In the usual narcomesaje, Los Rusos launched threats against one of the leaders of the Independent Cartel of Acapulco, CIDA: Alejandro Magno Acevedo, El Correcaminos.
These are the two organizations that have shared control of illicit activities in the port, and that coordinated the looting carried out after the hurricane. They are the two organizations that have filled the world-famous old paradise with hanged, burned and dismembered people.
A Sedena report, hacked by the Guacamaya collective, listed the names of its leaders, specified their alliances, and marked their areas of operation.
In that document, Carlos Alberto Soriano, El Ruso, Jesús Orlando Rodríguez, El Gordo, and Víctor Leonel Puza Nogueda, El Erizo, were accused as leaders of Los Rusos.
Alejandro Magno Acevedo, Irving Magno Acevedo, José Ángel Palacios Galeana and Óscar Aguilar Ortiz, El Roba Vacas, were placed as leaders of CIDA.
The military knew the colonies that each controlled: Zona Diamante, Colosio, Coloso, Cayaco, Costa Azul, Puerto Marqués, Barra Vieja…
They had been there a year before the sacking of Acapulco, but they were allowed to continue. They couldn’t or wouldn’t stop them.
“It is being attended to,” was the constant excuse of the president of Mexico.
It was not attended to, and on October 24, all of them led the largest looting in the history of the country.
An entire city was a victim of plunder.
They already dominated the port. But after the hurricane it is clear that organized crime is the true owner of Acapulco.
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2023-11-07 15:17:27
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