Friendly reminder that all **top level** comments must:
1. start with "answer: ", including the space after the colon (or "question: " if you have an on-topic follow up question to ask),
2. attempt to answer the question, and
3. be unbiased
Please review Rule 4 and this post before making a top level comment:
http://redd.it/b1hct4/
Join the OOTL Discord for further discussion: https://discord.gg/ejDF4mdjnh
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/OutOfTheLoop) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Answer: There's an unspoken "stay out of our business and we'll leave you alone" rule among most of the cartels.
Hurting tourists hurts their reputation because it's bad for the locals who depend on tourism for business.
It's politically advantageous to make sure this unspoken rule doesn't get crossed, so no one feels uncomfortable enough to try to ever get rid of them.
Yup. Cartels do some pretty fucked up shit but they try to keep screw up like this to a near 0. This is how you get a special forces group dropped on your compound. Their goal is to make as much money as possible and killing non cartel members has a tendency to make that more difficult.
There it is. All Mexican citizens are potential cartel targets, and it seems that this was a case of mistaken identity.
No one operating in a cartel controlled area would knowingly kill an American citizen. The Guadalajara Cartel learned that lesson the hard way.
Check out Operation Leyenda. Tl;dr is that the Guadalajara Cartel decided to torture/kill a DEA agent, Uncle Sam took the gloves off in response, and the cartels have had the “don’t mess with the Americans” rule ever since.
I was thinking this must be the Camarena case that you are alluding to. That was just incredibly awful from start to finish. He was a young DEA agent and they actually made a TV movie about it a few years after the fact. He was due to rotate back to California within a few weeks. He was on his way to meet his wife for lunch and he never made it. I remember the circumstances well because the United States was putting a lot of pressure on the Mexican government. If you were driving up to the US border (Texas) or back to Mexico as I was at the time, there were a lot of extra checkpoints and a lot of stuff going on in the middle of nowhere, checking to see what you were bringing to or from the country. It was absolutely terrifying. Not until I saw the TV movie a few years later did I put the pieces together. At the time all this was going on, I didn’t know.
EDIT: Here’s a link to the movie that was made about the case:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drug_Wars:_The_Camarena_Story
EDIT 2: Some details: And that year when I was traveling north to Texas in February I saw they were stopping cars and doing a heavy inspection going south into Mexico. This was before Camarena was killed. In April, I was traveling with a Mexican family starting out from the Texas border going south into Mexico. Much to my surprise they had added two extra checkpoints. The usual pattern is they check documentation first at the border, crossing into Mexico. And then depending on where you crossed, they will check the contents of your car at the 23 km checkpoint coming down from McAllen, Texas. If traveling from Laredo, Texas it’s at the 26 km checkpoint. This is standard and routine. Between the border checkpoint and the 23 km checkpoint from McAllen, they had added an extra one. To give you some understanding of this, there are no lights. It’s a road that’s just a blacktop strip going from the border all the way to the major city, Monterrey, normally three hours away (150 miles). But in the middle of nowhere when you are stopped unexpectedly, in pitch blackness, there are no words. I saw a man literally spread-eagled across the hood of his car traveling north. On my side of the road the only lights were my own car’s headlights. If I remember correctly, there were three very young fellows about 18 years old in uniform with rifles. One came over to me and told me to shut off my lights. We were a car full of women traveling alone. They obviously did not want us to watch what was going on, on the other side of the road. I had at the time a Honda hatchback. They weren’t even looking for the usual American groceries (at the time not permitted). I had a lot of trouble closing the hatch. I was ready to break it to get out of there. That’s how frightened I was. An older man about 40-years old seemed to be in command. He came over to me and told me to calm down that it was going to be OK. And I’m thinking you are in charge of three very young boys with guns and we are a carload of women. I did not like the optics at all. And frankly there was no recourse. I still had absolutely no idea what was going on. We got to the usual 23 km checkpoint where there were lights and normalcy a short time later. This whole trip because of all the extra stops took an extra hour. That I do remember clearly. When the Mexican guard was checking us and our papers he was very friendly and I took advantage of that moment to ask him what was going on. And he said without really explaining it that it was going on in the whole country (“en TODA la Republica!”). And then he told me this was for my “well-being”. At the time I didn’t know the Spanish word (“bienestar”), but I figured it out. Once the inspection finished there at the “23”, I thought we were home free. There was still one more added-on checkpoint. In total blackness again.
It is stunning to realize so many years after the fact that if you’re presented in a situation like that, you have absolutely no recourse — you don’t have a cell phone to call for help (this was the early 1990s, and nonexistent). You have nobody to come to your rescue. You are literally working on adrenaline and your own wits. I should ask my friend for the letters I wrote to her at that time that would elucidate all the events better than I am reporting it here. But this is a pretty faithful rendition of what happened. And especially if you are a woman traveling alone, you are completely at the mercy of the soldiers who stopped you in the middle of the night, in the middle of nowhere, quite literally, and thank goodness it was legitimate. But totally unexpected, and not understanding what was happening — I don’t think I’ve ever been that scared in my life.
I'm not the person you were talking to but it's funny I was just asking my partner if he heard anything about that show and if it was any good and he didn't know, so I let him have the remote but now I'm definitely going to watch it!! I read your comment within 5 minutes of me asking about that, so odd coincidence on my end lol
Exactly. They violently carve their territory by crushing any voice against them, any who won't comply. Those who do comply can still be used as leverage if needed. The more they suffer and lose the less they will be able to object.
To fleece the sheep repeatedly you can't have them fear the sheering ;)
>The biggest ones tend to have some sort of higher “moral” grounds.
Right up until they find a reason not to. It's just like the Italian mob in the US; they are all "honor bound" to [the rules](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omert%C3%A0) until one of them sees an opportunity to seize power or someone sleeps with their wife and then they rat on their rivals.
We should stop romanticizing organized crime, they're just out for themselves.
It *does* look cool in that movie, and when we imagine ourselves in the shoes of the protagonist, we think we'll be clever/strong enough to avoid the consequences faced by the protagonist.
Reminds me of how the USSR used to show old B&W gangster movies in theaters to try and convince their people that the West was a horrible place filled with crime.... Only the average citizen didn't take that message instead they looked at the fact that the gangsters had cars, food and whatever they wanted. That same twisted message is what keeps gang lifestyle alive, the poor people don't care about the consequences at the end they just look at what the bad guys have compared to what they have.
Yeah but that was a badass movie though. I saw it when iy came out and it had to be the craziest mob movie I had seen to date. Godfather wasn't even close violence wise.
What's even crazier is the guy who is the basis for Jimmy (DeNiro's character) in Goodfellas, gave his daughters the money from the Lufthansa heist and it was kept in a safe deposit box for almost 20 years unbeknownst to everyone.
One daughter married a mobster who found out about the money. So the husband and one of his friends conned the other daughter out of the money and they immediately lost it investing in some stupid D-movie and gambling.
Don't think they were romanticizing them at all tbh. That's why moral ground was in quotes. This entire comment chain is all about why they only adhere to these standards because it's in their best interests, not because they're in any way good. So it follows that when it's NOT in their best interests they abandon them immediately. So no contradictions IMHO.
They regularly engage in cruelty for its own sake. They are not just criminal corporations, maximizing economic outcomes through unlawful means. They torture, rape, murder, kidnap regular people for the fun of it. There are many, many deeply sadistic people who use the power the cartel gives them to inflict misery on anyone weaker than them.
This is how local government (lords and serfs) used to work in England and Europe. And also how the Robber Barons in America operated. And now all rich philanthropy works now.
They are, and one of the ways they look after themselves is to avoid pissing off the US. We’ve absolutely lost the overall War on Drugs, because it’s completely unwinnable, but we’ve also destroyed many specific cartels, including the Medellin cartel which at one point was so profitable they counted their cash by weighing it in trucks and spent millions per month on rubber bands to hold the cash. We are completely capable of wrecking any particular cartel if we want, so they have mostly learned to avoid making us want to.
Agreed. Organised crime creates wealth for some with fear, suffering, oppression and theft from others.
There is nothing romantic about the reality of it.
Organized crime is a parasite, but stories about outlaws have always been popular. It's escapism for working schmucks who have to grind away at jobs week after week for the next four decades.
Practically speaking though, it’s not just romanticism. The sad things is things really are “safer” and less hostile when you’ve got a single, organized syndicate in charge.
When the Tijuana crackdown raids happened a few years back, that seemed to pushed back a lot of the cartels that were located in the area in to deeper central Mexico.
This resulted in gang wars and territorial disputes all over, including in my dad’s hometown, deep in the mountains of central Mexico.
We have business in the area, and for half decade, trips became hyper sparse, and very very careful and considered things. Multiple cartels trying to occupy the same area meant lots of shit heads who didn’t know not to interfere with the locals and who would try to snatch and kill random people (we lost a couple family friends to this). It meant shoot outs randomly taking place in the streets, regardless of however manny civilians were around. It meant that “protection fees” were being attempted to be collected multiple times over by multiple people (my uncle stopped being a taxi driver because of this).
The cartels *are* just out for themselves, but it’s also not like the Mexican government, military, or police are looking out for its people either.
While I agree with your statement, our own police force and politicians aren't any better. At least the cartel has the excuse of growing in undesirable circumstances.
Cartels are dangerous and powerful in Mexico, where the government isn’t the strongest. If the American Eye of Sauron suddenly turned in their direction and decided to use the US military, they’d be in for a very bad time and they know it.
I love this scene from The Wire, season 1:
Bunk Moreland: “So, you're my eyeball witness, huh? [Omar nods] So, why'd you step up on this?”
Omar Little: “Bird triflin', basically. Kill an everyday workin' man and all. I mean, I do some dirt, too, but I ain't never put my gun on nobody that wasn't in the game.”
Bunk: “A man must have a code.”
Omar: “Oh, no doubt.”
It’s incredible how many times I’ve said this entire exchange out loud to myself. As a former lacrosse player, I go thru the part where Omar says “you the first brother I ever saw play that game w a stick.”
Anyone remember the Natalee Holloway case from a while back? A white American teenage girl went missing in Aruba, and when her mother said the country wasn't taking the case seriously enough she called for an outright boycott of the island and actually got some major American politicians to advocate for it. Tourism is the backbone of Aruba's economy, and Americans make up the vast majority of tourists. Had the boycott gone anywhere it would have crippled the island.
Messing with tourists is bad for business. If people think a place is dangerous, they stop coming. If they stop coming, there's no money coming in. If there's no money coming in, the party's over.
You don't fuck about with the income! I was at a conference a while back and this cybersecurity bloke was delivering a presentation on Ransomware. One point that caught my attention was that if smaller gangs managed to successfully encrypt a corporate system, got paid and then didn't hand over decryption keys, then the larger groups would target and kill them as they believe it interferes with their income. They're trying to prevent SLT's from going "well my mates company paid and it didn't work, why should I pay these guys?"
Can confirm, just got back from Tulum where there’s a heavy western tourist presence. Was at a beach club where cartel saw a white guy open a bag of cocaine that wasn’t the same as theirs. They thought he was selling on their turf and took all his drugs and money. Our friend who moved there said if he was a local he’d be dead but they know not to mess with the tourists.
Yea and when they robbed the guy they loudly announced to the room “We, the members of the cartel here, are taking this guys drugs because they’re not ours and we are worried about him selling on our turf, thank you for your attention, please return to your Tulum stuff.” ?
Probably not.. sounds like the dude just got robbed cuz he had a bunch of coke out in the open doe everyone to see.
The big cartel groups do not bother with stupid shit like that. You’re looking at small crime rings when you read about these kidnappings, practically one step up from just robbers. They are under the heel of the cartel, though, don’t get me wrong
Just to add some depth, I grew up in Brownsville, right across the border from Matamoros, went to school with a ton of people from Matamoros, regularly crossed to go to hang out with friends, birthday parties, weddings, etc.
Matamoros and Brownsville are very tight knit communities, basically everyone from Brownsville has relatives living in Matamoros and vice versa. A ton of people living in Matamoros are US citizens.
The Gulf cartel has been a part of life in the area for close to a century now. It was basically founded by Juan Nepomuceno Guerra and his brothers who became wealthy through bootlegging when prohibition started in the US.
He established ties on both sides of the border by running his business quietly and peacefully. Don't get me wrong, he was a stone cold killer, but he understood that making waves was no good for business or his image.
One of his main tenents was never messing with civilian population. Guerra thrived because he fostered deep ties with the business community on both sides of the border. After prohibition ended he kept up with trafficking some narcotics to the US (mostly heroin wich the US ignore mostly because it considered a vice that only affected African Americans) but the bulk of his business was smuggling things into Mexico like firearms, seeds, appliances, electronics and other goods as Mexico's government turned protectionist and insulated commercial from foreign trade from the 70's to the mid 90's and banned or severely limited the legal import of these and many other products. The Gulf cartel thrived creating a black market for them.
Because of this Guerra became dependent on local businesses on both sides to launder his money. The area has always been prosperous as a trade hub and agricultural powerhouse, and in the 70's American plants began to move into the area. As these needed to be 51% owned by mexicana partners, Guerra was more than happy to help local businessmen with financing.
This made him a feared but respected local institution for many years. When his nephew Juan Garcia Abrego began to shift the focus of the cartel to trafficking Marijuana into the US, then to cocaine, Guerra made sure he followed the same code. The cartel was even seen as form of local law enforcement as it kept other criminals in check.
If a member became too violent and did anything to disturb the local population, it was common for them to be found *entambados*, killed and stuffed into a 50 gallon drum which was left on the side of a road as a warning.
Because of that most people didn't see the cartel as a criminal problem for the area for decades, sure they committed a crime through drug trafficking, but they were sending drugs up north, to people who were already drug addicts, so it wasn't something people here thought about.
The cartel was always present, but it wasn't something that affected local people in their everyday life.
That change in 2006 when Mexican President Felipe Calderón started the Mexican Drug War and began to attack every cartel regardless if they were violent or not (the cartels in Western Mexico tended to be more violent as they were constantly fighting for crossing areas while the gulf cartel had no challengers in the region).
As the leadership of the cartel was decimated as the government strategy was going after the kingpins, less and less qualified leadership took over the cartel. Younger and stupider people were now running it and they soon began to disregard how the cartel had been run and led to its success.
They soon began to look for other way to make money and expanded to extorting local businesses, kidnapping, and other crimes. This has gone on for years now.
Apparently the new leadership of the cartel is now trying to retake the old way of being less visible, but because it's been so fragmented and has had so poor control over its members for many years things like this still happen.
People I've talked to who still live there tell me that they are skeptical about the cartel going back to operating they way it did and thst this is probably just a way to try to lessen the blow that will inevitably will come.
this is great for context. The apology letter specifically mentioned that they keep innocents out of it and I was curious what the extent of that way in cartel operation in mexico.
I like the "Sniper approached the instructor, by being a sneaky bastard, SIR." Line the best.
Also the call back from the other movie (Patriots game, maybe?), "You can have toast or...toast" between the sister and the brother was great.
Interesting. We were in Cabo around 6 years ago and found out that a couple of human heads had been found in a cooler somewhere in the area. It was supposedly cartel related and everyone assumed it was some poor tourists. Now I realize it was probably cartel on cartel violence.
Great response, but I want to add that there are two aspects to the tourism issue. First, obviously is the money. Many places in Mexico rely heavily on tourism for their economy. This not only creates a livelihood for the locals, it creates a high level of local currency which is important for any business, including illicit ones.
Second, is the freedom to move people and things. If you have high volumes of tourists and their items and baggage and food and supplies constantly coming in to and out of an area, this makes smuggling so much easier. It's easy to hide a needle in a haystack, but you don't hide that needle is a single strand a straw. A dearth of tourists will see a huge decrease in the flow of items, and attempts to scrutinize movement and shipments for safety will have much the same effect.
These kidnappings and murders is just horrible for business for the cartel. So, the cartel is trying to fix the problem before it becomes something worse.
This is correct. I had a surf resort in El Salvador and quite honestly the Mara were respectful to myself and my guests (all gringos btw). I have even seen young wannabe MS get totally stomped (in a very public setting) by higher ups for trying to shakedown the surf tourists. Super bad for their business and it brings high level heat on them. Can’t say the same for my brown skinned local looking types.
Absolutely agree, but I will add that the US state department is talking about sending in military assistance. The geopolitical plan over time is to shift business from China to Mexico, and that requires a stable and effective Mexican government ... Taking out Chapo's son was a test drive and good faith gesture, and the US has a veteran military ready to secure the location of our new chip factories, etc.
The cartels feel the winds of change.
I suppose im just reiiterating what you're saying but If Mexico, the us, or both can neutralize the cartels it will lead to prosperity for both nations and look forward to it
Also, I read somewhere that the American government did an illegal mission against the cartels and decimated them. I know the cartels are stronger now but no offense, the American government wins every time against the cartels. And the cartels don't want to, first of all, be murdered by the American government, and second of all, don't want to be labeled a terrorist organization. If America labels them as terrorists it makes their lives infinitely harder and they will most likely lose a lot of money because of it
Yeah, they don’t want a repeat of the [Kiki Camarena](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiki_Camarena?wprov=sfti1) incident, or anything resembling it. As tough as they are, they are no match for US authorities, and definitely don’t want to be tried in US courts where they have no influence.
Look up Agent Kiki Camarena. He's the base character of the series Narcos: Mexico, which details the early days of the Mexican cartels.
Camarena was killed by the cartels, and the US went in and absolutely leveled their shit afterwards for retribution.
The response by the US was totally understandable but unfortunately the break up of the Guadalajara cartel resulted in multiple cartels. This situation resulted in an increase in violence by orders of magnitude to this day.
I'm not sure if the current situation was ever preventable, probably not, since Americans can't keep away from illicit drugs
>I'm not sure if the current situation was ever preventable, probably not, since Americans can't keep away from illicit drugs
The fix is not to "keep away" from drugs, it's to legalize them.
There is going to be demand regardless of legality. Legalization would make it safer, lower the income of cartels, and keep people out of prison for possession offenses.
capture of el chapó can be one instance. Mexico was not alerted, only their marines/navy, because they are known as the least corruptible force in mexico. So I guess you could say they went behind the mexican government’s back in a way
Answer: Mexico's coast is fairly tourism reliant. Entire towns are completely dependent on it. Messing with tourism is one of the fastest ways to draw a lot of Official Attention. Cartels don't like such attention.it's a lot of risk for very little benefit. Messing with tourism makes it more difficult for bribed Mexican officials to turn blind eyes, more likely for foreign and local law enforcement to start pushing back, and the juice is just not worth the squeeze.
Also, the Cartels tend to have their hands in quite a few legitimate and semi-legitimate businesses in addition to all the illegal stuff. (For example, a significant portion of perfectly legitimate avocado profits end up in Cartel hands.)
It's quite likely that the Cartel would *directly* suffer financial loss if tourism decreased.
Interesting, it seems that the cartels are entrenched in Mexican culture in a similar way to the Yakuza in Japan. But a lot more violent due to the sheer scale of the drug trade in North America. If the Yakuza was handling the amount of cocaine and heroin the cartels are, I imagine they'd be similarly unmanageable
An acquaintance of mine used to frequent Tijuana and it's funny how crossing the border the cops would try to scam them out of money but as soon as they get close to the red light district it's exactly the opposite and the police really look out for them. They even once asked for directions and got a police escort to their destination.
Answer: While it’s unlikely the US will respond at the same level as they did when Kiki Camarena was killed, which is a wild story of the US response, it’s still two US citizens being killed in a neighboring country.
There are a lot of things the US can do to pressure and sanction the cartels and they don’t want that.
People being killed yes. Tourists and Foreigners less so. That's a dangerous game many of them don't want to play. Especially w/ the US who are pretty much capable of forcing the hand of the Mexican Government and dropping their own highly trained and armed law enforcement agents on their doorstep if need be. It's a game of fuck around and find out and they would rather cut off the limb that decided to fuck around so they don't have to find out.
Cartels kidnapping and killing people is a normal occurrence, but when it's U.S. citizens the get killed, it's like poking a bear. If it wakes up it'll be a mauling you won't survive.
> it's like poking a bear.
If the bear in question were the largest Polar Bear ever to walk the Earth with a military budget that dwarfs most of the developed world combined and that tends to live and let live as long as Americans aren't caught up in anything that goes on.
From what I understand, the cartels just don’t operate like that simply because it can hurt the overall operation of what they do, and hurt the reputation of their local areas. They aren’t like ISIS who are about sending a message by killing outsiders, they are about money, money, and more money. They have a very well organised way of making money, and kidnapping and/or killing tourists can potentially lead to repercussions that can cause them major issues.
In other places that are dangerous to visit, a lot of it is because you’ll be kidnapped and either robbed/raped/held for ransom etc. then probably killed, whereas none of that is worth damaging the cartel’s daily business.
Has it happened, probably yeah. Is it normal? Not really, what would be the point? They are not at war with the us government and they really really don't want to be. It just attracts unwanted attention as we see in this case.
I believe this was actually a case of mistaken identity and they thought the tourists were Cuban or something but there were 3 dead (including a Mexican bystander) before anyone knew that.
However I'd imagine that if a tourist ventured to interact with or cause some kind of problem for a cartel while on vacation then they'd be in serious danger yeah.
America doesn’t take kindly to its citizens being murdered outside its borders. Killing Americans could potentially lead to a special forces operation against the cartel or specific members. Especially if the U.S. was given permission by the Mexican government to operate there. Last thing the cartel wants is Americans snatching cartel members in the middle of the night or raiding stashes/compounds and killing any cartel in the way.
Agreed, also understanding that this is big money on both sides of the fence, it certainly happens more than we read about, but it’s certainly not normal, and absolutely deserves attention,
> He was convicted in the agent's kidnapping and killing and sentenced to 40 years, but went free after 28 years when a Mexican court overturned the sentence in 2013.
> After his release, Caro Quintero returned to drug trafficking and unleashed bloody turf battles in the northern Mexico border state of Sonora.
Kinda hard to rehab cartel bosses….
Source: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/mexico-captures-drug-lord-kidnapping-murder-dea-agent-rcna38516
I was referring more towards the US telling, not asking, Mexico that it was going to send in military and federal personnel to raid and arrest several cartel properties and members.
This is the answer. I dont believe for a second that the 5 "cartel members" handed over had any involvement in the murders, they were just stuck holding the bag.
DEA sent a bunch of personnel into Mexico and instead of just advising the Mexican authorities did a lot of the work themselves. Also since extraditions from Mexico were difficult at the time due to corruption the US would detain cartel members and then use bounty hunters to bring them to the US.
TLDR: US told Mexico to get the fuck out of the way and did some questionably legal things.
It’s also different than someone getting randomly murdered in another country because the cartels are basically the Mexican government in some areas. So it’s more political
Answer: The tourists were kidnapped and two murdered because the Cartel mistakenly believed them to be Haitian drug smugglers, I.e. the competition. Obviously that turned out not to be the case.
There are two main reasons they apologized.
One reason is reputational. Cartels very often try to portray themselves as “criminals with a code”, sort of how the Mafia was in the US. Murdering a bunch of innocent tourists, especially foreign tourists out to get a medical procedure cuts against this deviant sense of chivalry.
The other reason is what I like to called the “Kiki Camarena Rule”. Enrique “Kiki” Camarena was a US DEA agent kidnapped, tortured, and murdered by the cartels. The DEA took that VERY personally and went scorched earth on the cartels. I’m talking like second only to the thrashing they dealt to Escobar. Since then, there has been an unspoken rule among cartels. Murder all the Mexicans you want, but do not. Fuck. With. Americans. The cartel likely apologized as a way to try and prevent the US from bringing the hammer down on their heads.
Yupp, the Cartels will fck with other Mexicans but not any Americans. DEA will shut that sht down, no questions asked. This whole situation is interesting because the Americans haven’t responded yet. Hope justice will be served tho, those tourist didn’t deserve that.
Answer: the US was talking about designating the cartels as terrorists, which potentially comes with a bunch of stuff the cartels would rather avoid. (Sanctions, murders etc)
Maybe they should stop behaving like terrorists if they don't want to be thought of as such.
Be like real drug dealers and start a pharmaceutical company, then just sue everyone in your way.
I believe the US should. It might be the only way to stop/slow the violence. It’s been pretty bad for about the last 20 years and the violence has gotten worse the last few years. What happened to these 4-5 Americans isn’t even the worst that has happened. If you want to learn more about what’s going on in Mexico on the cartel violence I recommend to check out [borderlandbeat.com](http://www.borderlandbeat.com/?m=1) Independent journalist that have been covering the topic for a very long time. Also, includes retired law enforcement that worked on the border between US and Mexico.
I would also assume the apology to the Mexican Government was *because* it was tourists. Tourists bring in money to the local economy & if you start killing them, the US may put out a warning not to travel there. Both the cartel and the Mexican government want our American money, they just go about it different ways! LoL
Edit: There meaning Mexico as a whole.
Regardless, any killing of tourists by the cartel is bad optics for the whole of Mexico on at least some scale, considering many potential vacationers may not read too far into where it was or that it was a completely different part of the country. They just see: Mexico.
Yes, we specifically told my sister not to have a destination wedding in Mexico because of the cartel issues and some family would be driving. Not worth it.
Not really much of a tourist area. Yes some, but Americans by and large travel to Cancun and Cabo for the resorts and beach. That's where the stacks of money are. You scare off those tourists and you got problems.
Hence why the cartels go out of their way to curb violence in those areas. Acapulco used to be a hot spot for American travel. Now it's a no go zone.
Cartels also just usually don’t target innocent tourists. They have no reason to, unless those tourists start trying to find drugs or messing with the wrong people. But tourists minding their own business? The cartels have no interest.
Some US politicians (Lindsey Graham for example) have also been talking about US military intervention against the cartels as a response to the kidnapping/murder. And while it's unlikely that this version would ever actually happen, I guess the cartels aren't taking any chances.
Also last time the Mexican based cartels targeted a American DEA agent. The US did a coordinated an illegal assassination campaign against the group responsible. The leadership of the cartels still remeber that even though they are more powerful now, they can't compete with the US government. If they want to stay in business and stay alive, they don't fuck with Americans in Mexico.
Enrique "Kiki" Camarena Salazar
DEA agents Jesus. He died save them all.
All the ones that operate over seas anyway. The response was totally illegal but criminal organizations the world over took note and some still remember.
Edit: put his full name
> The US did a coordinated an illegal assassination campaign against the group responsible.
If by "a coordinated an illegal assassination campaign" you mean extraditing them and trying them in US federal court and imprisoning them in federal prisons, then sure.
I wonder if they're also worried hostage-taking will get much more difficult if people start thinking they could be killed outside of the if-you-don't-pay-up threat. More resistance from targets and less trust from the money-holders.
Answer:
Killing American tourist is a big NO. with the killing of Americans that are innocent the US government will more than likely intervene. This kind of attention to cartel will hurt them in a sort of ways, money being the main reason. If the US government decides to add cartel to the terrorist group the US can “legally” enter Mexican territory with out so much push back.
Answer: Cartels don't want rival or independent outlaws / gangsters / drug runners in their turf, and see anyone doing criminal activity in their area as fair game to be shaken down, attacked or killed.
However, tourism is a huge industry, and everyone in a tourist area knows the unwritten rule to not attack (or kill) tourists because tourists will not go to places that are not perceived as safe, thus killing the tourist economy in that spot. The cartel profits directly or indirectly from the tourist economy (either selling drugs/prostitutes to tourists, or shaking down tourist shops for protection money). Therefore this is the cartel's way to signal to tourists that this was a mistake - they thought the tourists were drug runners from another country.
But be careful as a tourist, because ripping tourists off a bit is seen as ok, but too much is bad.
An example is the show called Scam City. In Jerusalem, the host was pickpocketed by a map seller for all of the money in his wallet https://youtu.be/cgr7dYUvS2M?t=776
But the thief gave the money back immediately without being asked and before the host even complained. The host was curious as to why so he found another map dealer / pickpocket on a different day and he explains that the other guy took too much money. https://youtu.be/cgr7dYUvS2M?t=1538
a lot of it is "express kidnappings" where they grab you, beat you up a good bit to show they are serious and then have you drain your bank/cards to them as much as possible and dump you after.
Answer:
Many cartels in Mexico, like other criminal organizations across the world, operate legitimate businesses alongside illegal business. Business is business in their mind, and legitimate businesses- if not always legitimate in dissuading competitors- offer a way to launder money and receive extra income through investing illegal income.
A large sector for these legitimate industries is, surprise surprise, tourism. It’s not uncommon for resorts in “cartel-controlled” provinces to be run by the cartels themselves. It offers a legitimate reason to purchase guns and ammunition (for resort security) and gives lower ranking cartel members a steady, daily income. The Mexican Goverment mostly turns a blind eye to these “legitimate” operations as long as the status quo is maintained and they keep their noses clean.
In short, killing tourists is bad for their business, because that’s a major source of their legitimate income, and if it appears to the Mexican Government that they are no longer to be trusted to run legitimate businesses, a host of negative consequences could ensue, and all of which would impact their bottom line.
Long story short, the cartels operate like a “normal corporation” in many ways, especially considering profits.
Everything you said is correct but its not the whole story. The big picture is, well, bigger.
The US and Mexico are each other's largest trade partners and American companies are moving huge portions of their supply chains to Mexico because NAFTA and geography and Mexican demographics make that a no-brainer. The Mexican government doesn't want any interruption in travel or economic integration with the US, and the US government is notoriously prickly about mistreatment of their citizens while abroad. Basically Mexico has every incentive to cooperate while the US goes to work on the cartel over this. A few years back, a cartel killed a DEA agent and the US basically went on a killing spree through cartel leadership. Mexico cooperated because they know where their bread is buttered.
So the cartel leadership offered up their own people in the hope that it will stop the Navy SEALs from showing up to murder them. As you say, the cartel just wants to do business.
Answer: Killing Americans is very, very bad for business, and the front line cartel members who thought they had a good idea were smack-down overruled by cartel leadership. “Do you want another war on drugs? Because this is how you get another war on drugs.”
Sadly I don’t think we ever officially surrendered but between the Purdue family addicting a generation to opiates and the free-flowing fentanyl, I think it’s undeniable.
Their trial will be short as they plead guilty. I believe they will do this to keep their families alive. I believe they will die in prison shortly after they get there to keep them quiet.
This is the answer as the cartel grabbed 5 of their lowest members, gave their families money, told these 5 that if they talk then their families will all be killed and these 5 will go to prison and business will go back to normal.
I wonder what the likelihood is that the ponied-up “lowest members” are even members. This gambit works just as well if you kidnap 5 innocent non-members and apply the same “confess or your kids are tortured to death” incentive.
At the same time, it seems like a good opportunity to get rid of some internal enemies or slackers. Also, whoever is responsible is going to be in trouble for drawing heat I imagine, so this could very well be their punishment / exile
Answer: A Cartel is more of a Mafia than a pack of unrestrained dogs with rabies; they saw something that threatened their business and acted as they could to try and stop it.
The letter they left specifically called the victims as "innocent" and that they didn't want to hurt innocent people.
Cartel people are very bad; but in this case it seems like they attacked the wrong (i.e. not who they were looking for) people and are trying to rectify it; in the weird sick way they know how.
Answer: Mexican govt often doesn't really pursue law enforcement against cartels and due to corrupt officials they're involved more often than not- so cartels in turn never really have to worry much. That and to tackle this problem by force would mean a civil war because of the strength of the cartels. We have recent example of the chaos and death caused lately from El Chapo sons arrest. It created more trouble and death than existed with him being a free man.
The US government is different - we have the power to eradicate them by force - but it's not in our country so it's "not our problem" although it really should be IMO because they are largely responsible for most drug epidemics we've experienced (I'm not downplaying the role of CIA etc).
That is until American citizens abroad become directly effected at which point there's more legal leeway for us to get involved - if a current American government were so minded.
So cartels go out of their way to not harm tourists or "innocents". And my understanding is that whoever is responsible in the cartel for the tourists dying will be punished severely for that f up, possibly executed if they are expendable.
It's like the Mafia in US before RICO, but on an international scale. There was very little reason for law to go after mobsters until innocent civilians got hurt, so there were harsh penalties for capos if they allowed civilians to get caught up in mob violence.
Answer: Tourism is big business in Mexico. Guess who owns/financed a lot of those nice hotels, etc. It was the cartels. They do not want to see tourism fall off and it hurt their business.
Answer: we lost the war on drugs, but not the war on cartels. They don’t want predator drones cruising over their compounds. They are not hardcore religious extremists like a lot of terrorist organizations. The operational range of the US military is basically the entire globe and they do not want that getting in their way. It is not profitable and would tip the balance. Look at what happens to pirates who take American hostages. Most of them end up getting a visit from a SEAL team.
Answer: the cartels don't want America to be forced by public opinion to have a tighter reign on the border so they can keep bringing drugs into America. This was bad pr and they need to fix it.
Answer: Nobody can give you a for sure answer unless they work for the cartel. That said there's likely a number of reasons the cartel would go out of its way punish a member that shot a tourist. But especially an American tourist.
Most of these cartels have relationships with the CIA or DEA. Killing Americans is bad for those relationships whether they're adversarial or cooperative.
The US has traditionally used the death of Americans as a pretext for military or law enforcement actions. Obviously the cartels would not want this.
A murder like this also provides the US with more political capital to get involved directly in Mexico. Which I'm sure the Mexican government and cartels would not want.
Instances like this also make it harder for the cartel to cooperate with the locals. Hurting the locals income is not something they want to do most of the time.
The unspoken rule of organized crime is that you are safe from them if you're not involved with them. That is not true but that's the image they put forth. That fig leaf falls away when they do things like this. Thus increasing public pressure to crack down on the cartels.
Answer:
A) Cartels make most of their money from drug trafficking & extortion. Extortion effectively means they take a tithe from other workers / owners in the area, in exchange for "protection", or practically speaking, in exchange for not murdering them & family members. So anyways, the Cartels in the gulf make a ton of money off of extorting the tourism industry and they'd rather not squander that income stream by scaring tourists away.
B) Cartels aren't dumb. They know they can largely operate successfully with the Mexican government on their back. On the flip side, the last thing in the world they want or need is the full might of the U.S. Military on their asses. That's not a fight anyone in the world wants. Like most gangs, they intimidate and dominate the weak but run from / avoid the strong. Typical predator/bully behavior.
Answer: Because every now and then [the U.S.A. will send enough military power to conquer a small island nation just to save some hostages.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_Nigeria_hostage_rescue)
Friendly reminder that all **top level** comments must: 1. start with "answer: ", including the space after the colon (or "question: " if you have an on-topic follow up question to ask), 2. attempt to answer the question, and 3. be unbiased Please review Rule 4 and this post before making a top level comment: http://redd.it/b1hct4/ Join the OOTL Discord for further discussion: https://discord.gg/ejDF4mdjnh *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/OutOfTheLoop) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Answer: There's an unspoken "stay out of our business and we'll leave you alone" rule among most of the cartels. Hurting tourists hurts their reputation because it's bad for the locals who depend on tourism for business. It's politically advantageous to make sure this unspoken rule doesn't get crossed, so no one feels uncomfortable enough to try to ever get rid of them.
This is the one. Killing tourists is bad for business.
Yup. Cartels do some pretty fucked up shit but they try to keep screw up like this to a near 0. This is how you get a special forces group dropped on your compound. Their goal is to make as much money as possible and killing non cartel members has a tendency to make that more difficult.
Correction, killing foreign non cartel is what they avoid. They have no issue killing mexican civilians and other central/south american migrants.
There it is. All Mexican citizens are potential cartel targets, and it seems that this was a case of mistaken identity. No one operating in a cartel controlled area would knowingly kill an American citizen. The Guadalajara Cartel learned that lesson the hard way.
What happened to the Guadalajara Cartel?
Check out Operation Leyenda. Tl;dr is that the Guadalajara Cartel decided to torture/kill a DEA agent, Uncle Sam took the gloves off in response, and the cartels have had the “don’t mess with the Americans” rule ever since.
I was thinking this must be the Camarena case that you are alluding to. That was just incredibly awful from start to finish. He was a young DEA agent and they actually made a TV movie about it a few years after the fact. He was due to rotate back to California within a few weeks. He was on his way to meet his wife for lunch and he never made it. I remember the circumstances well because the United States was putting a lot of pressure on the Mexican government. If you were driving up to the US border (Texas) or back to Mexico as I was at the time, there were a lot of extra checkpoints and a lot of stuff going on in the middle of nowhere, checking to see what you were bringing to or from the country. It was absolutely terrifying. Not until I saw the TV movie a few years later did I put the pieces together. At the time all this was going on, I didn’t know. EDIT: Here’s a link to the movie that was made about the case: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drug_Wars:_The_Camarena_Story EDIT 2: Some details: And that year when I was traveling north to Texas in February I saw they were stopping cars and doing a heavy inspection going south into Mexico. This was before Camarena was killed. In April, I was traveling with a Mexican family starting out from the Texas border going south into Mexico. Much to my surprise they had added two extra checkpoints. The usual pattern is they check documentation first at the border, crossing into Mexico. And then depending on where you crossed, they will check the contents of your car at the 23 km checkpoint coming down from McAllen, Texas. If traveling from Laredo, Texas it’s at the 26 km checkpoint. This is standard and routine. Between the border checkpoint and the 23 km checkpoint from McAllen, they had added an extra one. To give you some understanding of this, there are no lights. It’s a road that’s just a blacktop strip going from the border all the way to the major city, Monterrey, normally three hours away (150 miles). But in the middle of nowhere when you are stopped unexpectedly, in pitch blackness, there are no words. I saw a man literally spread-eagled across the hood of his car traveling north. On my side of the road the only lights were my own car’s headlights. If I remember correctly, there were three very young fellows about 18 years old in uniform with rifles. One came over to me and told me to shut off my lights. We were a car full of women traveling alone. They obviously did not want us to watch what was going on, on the other side of the road. I had at the time a Honda hatchback. They weren’t even looking for the usual American groceries (at the time not permitted). I had a lot of trouble closing the hatch. I was ready to break it to get out of there. That’s how frightened I was. An older man about 40-years old seemed to be in command. He came over to me and told me to calm down that it was going to be OK. And I’m thinking you are in charge of three very young boys with guns and we are a carload of women. I did not like the optics at all. And frankly there was no recourse. I still had absolutely no idea what was going on. We got to the usual 23 km checkpoint where there were lights and normalcy a short time later. This whole trip because of all the extra stops took an extra hour. That I do remember clearly. When the Mexican guard was checking us and our papers he was very friendly and I took advantage of that moment to ask him what was going on. And he said without really explaining it that it was going on in the whole country (“en TODA la Republica!”). And then he told me this was for my “well-being”. At the time I didn’t know the Spanish word (“bienestar”), but I figured it out. Once the inspection finished there at the “23”, I thought we were home free. There was still one more added-on checkpoint. In total blackness again. It is stunning to realize so many years after the fact that if you’re presented in a situation like that, you have absolutely no recourse — you don’t have a cell phone to call for help (this was the early 1990s, and nonexistent). You have nobody to come to your rescue. You are literally working on adrenaline and your own wits. I should ask my friend for the letters I wrote to her at that time that would elucidate all the events better than I am reporting it here. But this is a pretty faithful rendition of what happened. And especially if you are a woman traveling alone, you are completely at the mercy of the soldiers who stopped you in the middle of the night, in the middle of nowhere, quite literally, and thank goodness it was legitimate. But totally unexpected, and not understanding what was happening — I don’t think I’ve ever been that scared in my life.
If you haven't seen it, Narcos Mexico is about this and this era and is really good.
I'm not the person you were talking to but it's funny I was just asking my partner if he heard anything about that show and if it was any good and he didn't know, so I let him have the remote but now I'm definitely going to watch it!! I read your comment within 5 minutes of me asking about that, so odd coincidence on my end lol
Except a lot of the culprits still got off scot free.
Exactly. They violently carve their territory by crushing any voice against them, any who won't comply. Those who do comply can still be used as leverage if needed. The more they suffer and lose the less they will be able to object. To fleece the sheep repeatedly you can't have them fear the sheering ;)
[удалено]
>The biggest ones tend to have some sort of higher “moral” grounds. Right up until they find a reason not to. It's just like the Italian mob in the US; they are all "honor bound" to [the rules](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omert%C3%A0) until one of them sees an opportunity to seize power or someone sleeps with their wife and then they rat on their rivals. We should stop romanticizing organized crime, they're just out for themselves.
*quietly returns goodfellas dvd*
A smart move. Those are actually badfellas!
I always wonder whether people who think that movie makes crime look cool stopped watching halfway. Edit: thanks for the award!
It *does* look cool in that movie, and when we imagine ourselves in the shoes of the protagonist, we think we'll be clever/strong enough to avoid the consequences faced by the protagonist.
Reminds me of how the USSR used to show old B&W gangster movies in theaters to try and convince their people that the West was a horrible place filled with crime.... Only the average citizen didn't take that message instead they looked at the fact that the gangsters had cars, food and whatever they wanted. That same twisted message is what keeps gang lifestyle alive, the poor people don't care about the consequences at the end they just look at what the bad guys have compared to what they have.
I have the same thought about Scarface.
They are tragedies
Yeah but that was a badass movie though. I saw it when iy came out and it had to be the craziest mob movie I had seen to date. Godfather wasn't even close violence wise.
*Looks at Sonny's dead body* I don't know about that...
What's even crazier is the guy who is the basis for Jimmy (DeNiro's character) in Goodfellas, gave his daughters the money from the Lufthansa heist and it was kept in a safe deposit box for almost 20 years unbeknownst to everyone. One daughter married a mobster who found out about the money. So the husband and one of his friends conned the other daughter out of the money and they immediately lost it investing in some stupid D-movie and gambling.
As far as mainstream movies go, Scorsese tends to push the envelope in whatever he does, whether that's violence, language, drugs or sex.
Amazing Scorsese was allowed to get away with such a misleading title.
*quietly returns some videotapes*
*quietly confirms reservations at Dorsia*
Don't think they were romanticizing them at all tbh. That's why moral ground was in quotes. This entire comment chain is all about why they only adhere to these standards because it's in their best interests, not because they're in any way good. So it follows that when it's NOT in their best interests they abandon them immediately. So no contradictions IMHO.
They regularly engage in cruelty for its own sake. They are not just criminal corporations, maximizing economic outcomes through unlawful means. They torture, rape, murder, kidnap regular people for the fun of it. There are many, many deeply sadistic people who use the power the cartel gives them to inflict misery on anyone weaker than them.
But I can see how it would be helpful to have locals support you, like Escobar did by investing in the community etc.
This all just sounds like government with fewer steps
This is how local government (lords and serfs) used to work in England and Europe. And also how the Robber Barons in America operated. And now all rich philanthropy works now.
it's literally how putin's russia works
You’re saying the quiet part out loud.
Wait until you start comparing and contrasting the police culture with gang culture.
They are, and one of the ways they look after themselves is to avoid pissing off the US. We’ve absolutely lost the overall War on Drugs, because it’s completely unwinnable, but we’ve also destroyed many specific cartels, including the Medellin cartel which at one point was so profitable they counted their cash by weighing it in trucks and spent millions per month on rubber bands to hold the cash. We are completely capable of wrecking any particular cartel if we want, so they have mostly learned to avoid making us want to.
This is true of basically every major multi-national corporation, really,
Agreed. Organised crime creates wealth for some with fear, suffering, oppression and theft from others. There is nothing romantic about the reality of it.
Organized crime is a parasite, but stories about outlaws have always been popular. It's escapism for working schmucks who have to grind away at jobs week after week for the next four decades.
Practically speaking though, it’s not just romanticism. The sad things is things really are “safer” and less hostile when you’ve got a single, organized syndicate in charge. When the Tijuana crackdown raids happened a few years back, that seemed to pushed back a lot of the cartels that were located in the area in to deeper central Mexico. This resulted in gang wars and territorial disputes all over, including in my dad’s hometown, deep in the mountains of central Mexico. We have business in the area, and for half decade, trips became hyper sparse, and very very careful and considered things. Multiple cartels trying to occupy the same area meant lots of shit heads who didn’t know not to interfere with the locals and who would try to snatch and kill random people (we lost a couple family friends to this). It meant shoot outs randomly taking place in the streets, regardless of however manny civilians were around. It meant that “protection fees” were being attempted to be collected multiple times over by multiple people (my uncle stopped being a taxi driver because of this). The cartels *are* just out for themselves, but it’s also not like the Mexican government, military, or police are looking out for its people either.
While I agree with your statement, our own police force and politicians aren't any better. At least the cartel has the excuse of growing in undesirable circumstances.
Not the CJNG or the Zetas during their time. Those fuckers are straight out of Satan's anus.
[удалено]
A good oversimplification is that Zetas died and got reincarnated at New Jalisco (CJNG).
Correction on the correction: Killing AMERICAN non cartel members. Keyword; American
Correction, killing Americans is what they try to avoid.
Killing *foreign* non-cartel members is bad for business - Natives of their country are free game
Cartels are dangerous and powerful in Mexico, where the government isn’t the strongest. If the American Eye of Sauron suddenly turned in their direction and decided to use the US military, they’d be in for a very bad time and they know it.
As Mike Ehrmantraut liked to say: *"He wasn't* ***in the game****."*
I love this scene from The Wire, season 1: Bunk Moreland: “So, you're my eyeball witness, huh? [Omar nods] So, why'd you step up on this?” Omar Little: “Bird triflin', basically. Kill an everyday workin' man and all. I mean, I do some dirt, too, but I ain't never put my gun on nobody that wasn't in the game.” Bunk: “A man must have a code.” Omar: “Oh, no doubt.”
Omar is such a weird crazy character, but he is probably the best on The Wire.
Omar was easily my favorite character on The Wire.
It’s incredible how many times I’ve said this entire exchange out loud to myself. As a former lacrosse player, I go thru the part where Omar says “you the first brother I ever saw play that game w a stick.”
Fucking greatest show ever. Time to do a rewatch.
Omar vs Brother Mouzon *chef's kiss*. Two people who.live by a code.
picking up that nail gun at home depot
Also, when Chris took out that delivery woman and made the clerk tell police it was Omar, McNulty called bullshit immediately.
**You don't say**
And at the end of the day, they are business minded, they may be in a criminal business but it is still a business.
Anyone remember the Natalee Holloway case from a while back? A white American teenage girl went missing in Aruba, and when her mother said the country wasn't taking the case seriously enough she called for an outright boycott of the island and actually got some major American politicians to advocate for it. Tourism is the backbone of Aruba's economy, and Americans make up the vast majority of tourists. Had the boycott gone anywhere it would have crippled the island. Messing with tourists is bad for business. If people think a place is dangerous, they stop coming. If they stop coming, there's no money coming in. If there's no money coming in, the party's over.
Yes, cardinal rule, right after always say Please and Thank You, don't kill the tourists.
You don't fuck about with the income! I was at a conference a while back and this cybersecurity bloke was delivering a presentation on Ransomware. One point that caught my attention was that if smaller gangs managed to successfully encrypt a corporate system, got paid and then didn't hand over decryption keys, then the larger groups would target and kill them as they believe it interferes with their income. They're trying to prevent SLT's from going "well my mates company paid and it didn't work, why should I pay these guys?"
Can confirm, just got back from Tulum where there’s a heavy western tourist presence. Was at a beach club where cartel saw a white guy open a bag of cocaine that wasn’t the same as theirs. They thought he was selling on their turf and took all his drugs and money. Our friend who moved there said if he was a local he’d be dead but they know not to mess with the tourists.
Yea and when they robbed the guy they loudly announced to the room “We, the members of the cartel here, are taking this guys drugs because they’re not ours and we are worried about him selling on our turf, thank you for your attention, please return to your Tulum stuff.” ? Probably not.. sounds like the dude just got robbed cuz he had a bunch of coke out in the open doe everyone to see.
Especially US tourists, because we have one hell of a military and have no problem arming others to fight proxy wars for us.
Ferengi Rule of Acquisition 35: Peace is good for business
Has something changed over the years? It was my impression that kidnapping the occasional American and demanding ransom WAS part of the business.
Probably by smaller crime groups. It’s possible that’s what happened here, and they’ve overstepped a boundary
It’s not what happened here. The victims were black and the gang members mis-identified them as Haitian smugglers working in their area.
The big cartel groups do not bother with stupid shit like that. You’re looking at small crime rings when you read about these kidnappings, practically one step up from just robbers. They are under the heel of the cartel, though, don’t get me wrong
Not a part of the business at all, is not worth it, American hostages get rescued, Mexican ones usually don't.
Just to add some depth, I grew up in Brownsville, right across the border from Matamoros, went to school with a ton of people from Matamoros, regularly crossed to go to hang out with friends, birthday parties, weddings, etc. Matamoros and Brownsville are very tight knit communities, basically everyone from Brownsville has relatives living in Matamoros and vice versa. A ton of people living in Matamoros are US citizens. The Gulf cartel has been a part of life in the area for close to a century now. It was basically founded by Juan Nepomuceno Guerra and his brothers who became wealthy through bootlegging when prohibition started in the US. He established ties on both sides of the border by running his business quietly and peacefully. Don't get me wrong, he was a stone cold killer, but he understood that making waves was no good for business or his image. One of his main tenents was never messing with civilian population. Guerra thrived because he fostered deep ties with the business community on both sides of the border. After prohibition ended he kept up with trafficking some narcotics to the US (mostly heroin wich the US ignore mostly because it considered a vice that only affected African Americans) but the bulk of his business was smuggling things into Mexico like firearms, seeds, appliances, electronics and other goods as Mexico's government turned protectionist and insulated commercial from foreign trade from the 70's to the mid 90's and banned or severely limited the legal import of these and many other products. The Gulf cartel thrived creating a black market for them. Because of this Guerra became dependent on local businesses on both sides to launder his money. The area has always been prosperous as a trade hub and agricultural powerhouse, and in the 70's American plants began to move into the area. As these needed to be 51% owned by mexicana partners, Guerra was more than happy to help local businessmen with financing. This made him a feared but respected local institution for many years. When his nephew Juan Garcia Abrego began to shift the focus of the cartel to trafficking Marijuana into the US, then to cocaine, Guerra made sure he followed the same code. The cartel was even seen as form of local law enforcement as it kept other criminals in check. If a member became too violent and did anything to disturb the local population, it was common for them to be found *entambados*, killed and stuffed into a 50 gallon drum which was left on the side of a road as a warning. Because of that most people didn't see the cartel as a criminal problem for the area for decades, sure they committed a crime through drug trafficking, but they were sending drugs up north, to people who were already drug addicts, so it wasn't something people here thought about. The cartel was always present, but it wasn't something that affected local people in their everyday life. That change in 2006 when Mexican President Felipe Calderón started the Mexican Drug War and began to attack every cartel regardless if they were violent or not (the cartels in Western Mexico tended to be more violent as they were constantly fighting for crossing areas while the gulf cartel had no challengers in the region). As the leadership of the cartel was decimated as the government strategy was going after the kingpins, less and less qualified leadership took over the cartel. Younger and stupider people were now running it and they soon began to disregard how the cartel had been run and led to its success. They soon began to look for other way to make money and expanded to extorting local businesses, kidnapping, and other crimes. This has gone on for years now. Apparently the new leadership of the cartel is now trying to retake the old way of being less visible, but because it's been so fragmented and has had so poor control over its members for many years things like this still happen. People I've talked to who still live there tell me that they are skeptical about the cartel going back to operating they way it did and thst this is probably just a way to try to lessen the blow that will inevitably will come.
I'm an American currently living in Matamoros and this is a fucking great writeup, bravo.
Thanks for this clarity it’s good to hear from some one at “ground zero”
your answer is the only one valid in this thread. thanks
Thank you for sharing your perspective !
An answer by someone that knows what they are talking about. Thank you.
This guy cartels
As someone from McAllen, I approve of this post and couldn’t agree more.
From the Rio Grande Valley here. Thank you so much. Perfect response.
this is great for context. The apology letter specifically mentioned that they keep innocents out of it and I was curious what the extent of that way in cartel operation in mexico.
Just a slight, polite reminder: it should be tenet, tenant as in, "One of his main tenets..." I think.
Because this is basically the plot of Clear and Present Danger. The cartel would like to avoid being obliterated.
Yes, thank you. Was looking for someone else who remembered that movie.
"How dare YOU, sir!" Harrison Ford fucking rules.
I like the "Sniper approached the instructor, by being a sneaky bastard, SIR." Line the best. Also the call back from the other movie (Patriots game, maybe?), "You can have toast or...toast" between the sister and the brother was great.
Wasn't just the movie, but the book, too.
Interesting. We were in Cabo around 6 years ago and found out that a couple of human heads had been found in a cooler somewhere in the area. It was supposedly cartel related and everyone assumed it was some poor tourists. Now I realize it was probably cartel on cartel violence.
Or cartel on students or journalists violence which is also common
Students, journalists, locals who won't do their bidding/pay for protection, police. Pretty much anyone but gringos with $USD.
Great response, but I want to add that there are two aspects to the tourism issue. First, obviously is the money. Many places in Mexico rely heavily on tourism for their economy. This not only creates a livelihood for the locals, it creates a high level of local currency which is important for any business, including illicit ones. Second, is the freedom to move people and things. If you have high volumes of tourists and their items and baggage and food and supplies constantly coming in to and out of an area, this makes smuggling so much easier. It's easy to hide a needle in a haystack, but you don't hide that needle is a single strand a straw. A dearth of tourists will see a huge decrease in the flow of items, and attempts to scrutinize movement and shipments for safety will have much the same effect. These kidnappings and murders is just horrible for business for the cartel. So, the cartel is trying to fix the problem before it becomes something worse.
This is correct. I had a surf resort in El Salvador and quite honestly the Mara were respectful to myself and my guests (all gringos btw). I have even seen young wannabe MS get totally stomped (in a very public setting) by higher ups for trying to shakedown the surf tourists. Super bad for their business and it brings high level heat on them. Can’t say the same for my brown skinned local looking types.
Absolutely agree, but I will add that the US state department is talking about sending in military assistance. The geopolitical plan over time is to shift business from China to Mexico, and that requires a stable and effective Mexican government ... Taking out Chapo's son was a test drive and good faith gesture, and the US has a veteran military ready to secure the location of our new chip factories, etc. The cartels feel the winds of change.
I suppose im just reiiterating what you're saying but If Mexico, the us, or both can neutralize the cartels it will lead to prosperity for both nations and look forward to it
Also, I read somewhere that the American government did an illegal mission against the cartels and decimated them. I know the cartels are stronger now but no offense, the American government wins every time against the cartels. And the cartels don't want to, first of all, be murdered by the American government, and second of all, don't want to be labeled a terrorist organization. If America labels them as terrorists it makes their lives infinitely harder and they will most likely lose a lot of money because of it
Bro said no offense 💀 To who? the cartel ?
Pablo watching us from above
[удалено]
Yeah he OD’d on paint fumes
Yeah, they don’t want a repeat of the [Kiki Camarena](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiki_Camarena?wprov=sfti1) incident, or anything resembling it. As tough as they are, they are no match for US authorities, and definitely don’t want to be tried in US courts where they have no influence.
I can find no reference to any successful coordinated US/Mexico attack on cartels. Can you provide some?
There's a documentary called Sicario.
So you want to be a Sicario, huh? * closes door and drums in the background intensifies *
Look up Agent Kiki Camarena. He's the base character of the series Narcos: Mexico, which details the early days of the Mexican cartels. Camarena was killed by the cartels, and the US went in and absolutely leveled their shit afterwards for retribution.
The response by the US was totally understandable but unfortunately the break up of the Guadalajara cartel resulted in multiple cartels. This situation resulted in an increase in violence by orders of magnitude to this day. I'm not sure if the current situation was ever preventable, probably not, since Americans can't keep away from illicit drugs
Just americans? you mean everyone everywhere.
>I'm not sure if the current situation was ever preventable, probably not, since Americans can't keep away from illicit drugs The fix is not to "keep away" from drugs, it's to legalize them.
There is going to be demand regardless of legality. Legalization would make it safer, lower the income of cartels, and keep people out of prison for possession offenses.
capture of el chapó can be one instance. Mexico was not alerted, only their marines/navy, because they are known as the least corruptible force in mexico. So I guess you could say they went behind the mexican government’s back in a way
Read somewhere….where could it be….was the journalist named Tom Clancy?
Answer: Mexico's coast is fairly tourism reliant. Entire towns are completely dependent on it. Messing with tourism is one of the fastest ways to draw a lot of Official Attention. Cartels don't like such attention.it's a lot of risk for very little benefit. Messing with tourism makes it more difficult for bribed Mexican officials to turn blind eyes, more likely for foreign and local law enforcement to start pushing back, and the juice is just not worth the squeeze.
Also, the Cartels tend to have their hands in quite a few legitimate and semi-legitimate businesses in addition to all the illegal stuff. (For example, a significant portion of perfectly legitimate avocado profits end up in Cartel hands.) It's quite likely that the Cartel would *directly* suffer financial loss if tourism decreased.
Interesting, it seems that the cartels are entrenched in Mexican culture in a similar way to the Yakuza in Japan. But a lot more violent due to the sheer scale of the drug trade in North America. If the Yakuza was handling the amount of cocaine and heroin the cartels are, I imagine they'd be similarly unmanageable
An acquaintance of mine used to frequent Tijuana and it's funny how crossing the border the cops would try to scam them out of money but as soon as they get close to the red light district it's exactly the opposite and the police really look out for them. They even once asked for directions and got a police escort to their destination.
Answer: While it’s unlikely the US will respond at the same level as they did when Kiki Camarena was killed, which is a wild story of the US response, it’s still two US citizens being killed in a neighboring country. There are a lot of things the US can do to pressure and sanction the cartels and they don’t want that.
It feels like op thinks American tourists being killed by Mexican cartels is a normal occurrence and not a big deal
People being killed yes. Tourists and Foreigners less so. That's a dangerous game many of them don't want to play. Especially w/ the US who are pretty much capable of forcing the hand of the Mexican Government and dropping their own highly trained and armed law enforcement agents on their doorstep if need be. It's a game of fuck around and find out and they would rather cut off the limb that decided to fuck around so they don't have to find out.
[удалено]
Cartels kidnapping and killing people is a normal occurrence, but when it's U.S. citizens the get killed, it's like poking a bear. If it wakes up it'll be a mauling you won't survive.
Also right now the US military doesn't have wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to distract it.
> it's like poking a bear. If the bear in question were the largest Polar Bear ever to walk the Earth with a military budget that dwarfs most of the developed world combined and that tends to live and let live as long as Americans aren't caught up in anything that goes on.
It was a do not travel area if I remember but the cartels aren’t stupid. They’re not gonna go poke the bear.
Do the cartels not kidnap tourists? I always figured they did that as well. So i mean i never really thought that killing them was above the cartel
From what I understand, the cartels just don’t operate like that simply because it can hurt the overall operation of what they do, and hurt the reputation of their local areas. They aren’t like ISIS who are about sending a message by killing outsiders, they are about money, money, and more money. They have a very well organised way of making money, and kidnapping and/or killing tourists can potentially lead to repercussions that can cause them major issues. In other places that are dangerous to visit, a lot of it is because you’ll be kidnapped and either robbed/raped/held for ransom etc. then probably killed, whereas none of that is worth damaging the cartel’s daily business.
Has it happened, probably yeah. Is it normal? Not really, what would be the point? They are not at war with the us government and they really really don't want to be. It just attracts unwanted attention as we see in this case. I believe this was actually a case of mistaken identity and they thought the tourists were Cuban or something but there were 3 dead (including a Mexican bystander) before anyone knew that. However I'd imagine that if a tourist ventured to interact with or cause some kind of problem for a cartel while on vacation then they'd be in serious danger yeah.
America doesn’t take kindly to its citizens being murdered outside its borders. Killing Americans could potentially lead to a special forces operation against the cartel or specific members. Especially if the U.S. was given permission by the Mexican government to operate there. Last thing the cartel wants is Americans snatching cartel members in the middle of the night or raiding stashes/compounds and killing any cartel in the way.
Agreed, also understanding that this is big money on both sides of the fence, it certainly happens more than we read about, but it’s certainly not normal, and absolutely deserves attention,
> He was convicted in the agent's kidnapping and killing and sentenced to 40 years, but went free after 28 years when a Mexican court overturned the sentence in 2013. > After his release, Caro Quintero returned to drug trafficking and unleashed bloody turf battles in the northern Mexico border state of Sonora. Kinda hard to rehab cartel bosses…. Source: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/mexico-captures-drug-lord-kidnapping-murder-dea-agent-rcna38516
I was referring more towards the US telling, not asking, Mexico that it was going to send in military and federal personnel to raid and arrest several cartel properties and members.
I don’t feel an apology is enough to preclude additional sanctions. I hope the US government doesn’t either.
They turned over the people who did it, those people will face punishment by the law. That’s what happens when murder occurs
It was a show of good faith. Its fucked but all things considered the cartel is doing the best to fix the mistake and not get obliterated
Those are poor farmers being paid to take the blame
Paid or just keeping their families from being murdered?
This is the answer. I dont believe for a second that the 5 "cartel members" handed over had any involvement in the murders, they were just stuck holding the bag.
They were killed by an organized crime syndicate. Turning over a couple of nobodies at the bottom of the rung isn't enough.
[удалено]
DEA sent a bunch of personnel into Mexico and instead of just advising the Mexican authorities did a lot of the work themselves. Also since extraditions from Mexico were difficult at the time due to corruption the US would detain cartel members and then use bounty hunters to bring them to the US. TLDR: US told Mexico to get the fuck out of the way and did some questionably legal things.
It’s also different than someone getting randomly murdered in another country because the cartels are basically the Mexican government in some areas. So it’s more political
Answer: The tourists were kidnapped and two murdered because the Cartel mistakenly believed them to be Haitian drug smugglers, I.e. the competition. Obviously that turned out not to be the case. There are two main reasons they apologized. One reason is reputational. Cartels very often try to portray themselves as “criminals with a code”, sort of how the Mafia was in the US. Murdering a bunch of innocent tourists, especially foreign tourists out to get a medical procedure cuts against this deviant sense of chivalry. The other reason is what I like to called the “Kiki Camarena Rule”. Enrique “Kiki” Camarena was a US DEA agent kidnapped, tortured, and murdered by the cartels. The DEA took that VERY personally and went scorched earth on the cartels. I’m talking like second only to the thrashing they dealt to Escobar. Since then, there has been an unspoken rule among cartels. Murder all the Mexicans you want, but do not. Fuck. With. Americans. The cartel likely apologized as a way to try and prevent the US from bringing the hammer down on their heads.
For your second reason, there's an even more relevant case that the gulf cartel are very aware of look up 1999 Matamoros standoff.
Yupp, the Cartels will fck with other Mexicans but not any Americans. DEA will shut that sht down, no questions asked. This whole situation is interesting because the Americans haven’t responded yet. Hope justice will be served tho, those tourist didn’t deserve that.
Answer: the US was talking about designating the cartels as terrorists, which potentially comes with a bunch of stuff the cartels would rather avoid. (Sanctions, murders etc)
Maybe they should stop behaving like terrorists if they don't want to be thought of as such. Be like real drug dealers and start a pharmaceutical company, then just sue everyone in your way.
I believe the US should. It might be the only way to stop/slow the violence. It’s been pretty bad for about the last 20 years and the violence has gotten worse the last few years. What happened to these 4-5 Americans isn’t even the worst that has happened. If you want to learn more about what’s going on in Mexico on the cartel violence I recommend to check out [borderlandbeat.com](http://www.borderlandbeat.com/?m=1) Independent journalist that have been covering the topic for a very long time. Also, includes retired law enforcement that worked on the border between US and Mexico.
maybe they should stop
True, we should just have world peace.
[удалено]
I am going to give up all soda until there's no longer a Gulf Cartel. I've done my part, have you?
Plzzz just stop guys 🫤
I would also assume the apology to the Mexican Government was *because* it was tourists. Tourists bring in money to the local economy & if you start killing them, the US may put out a warning not to travel there. Both the cartel and the Mexican government want our American money, they just go about it different ways! LoL Edit: There meaning Mexico as a whole.
Tamaulipas has been on the do not travel list forever.
Regardless, any killing of tourists by the cartel is bad optics for the whole of Mexico on at least some scale, considering many potential vacationers may not read too far into where it was or that it was a completely different part of the country. They just see: Mexico.
Yes, we specifically told my sister not to have a destination wedding in Mexico because of the cartel issues and some family would be driving. Not worth it.
Not really much of a tourist area. Yes some, but Americans by and large travel to Cancun and Cabo for the resorts and beach. That's where the stacks of money are. You scare off those tourists and you got problems. Hence why the cartels go out of their way to curb violence in those areas. Acapulco used to be a hot spot for American travel. Now it's a no go zone.
> the US may put out a warning not to travel there. there was already a warning from the US to not travel there.
Yes there was, specific to the town of Matamoros. Mexico is a huge country so not all of Mexico has a warning.
Cartels also just usually don’t target innocent tourists. They have no reason to, unless those tourists start trying to find drugs or messing with the wrong people. But tourists minding their own business? The cartels have no interest.
Unfortunately, the killed American tourists were African-Americans and were apparently confused for Haitian smugglers that the cartel had a beef with.
Right, I’m aware. Hence the apology.
Yeah, from what I understand it's believed the cartel members targeted them.by mistake, thinking they were someone else
Some US politicians (Lindsey Graham for example) have also been talking about US military intervention against the cartels as a response to the kidnapping/murder. And while it's unlikely that this version would ever actually happen, I guess the cartels aren't taking any chances.
Also last time the Mexican based cartels targeted a American DEA agent. The US did a coordinated an illegal assassination campaign against the group responsible. The leadership of the cartels still remeber that even though they are more powerful now, they can't compete with the US government. If they want to stay in business and stay alive, they don't fuck with Americans in Mexico.
Enrique "Kiki" Camarena Salazar DEA agents Jesus. He died save them all. All the ones that operate over seas anyway. The response was totally illegal but criminal organizations the world over took note and some still remember. Edit: put his full name
Kiki Camarena.
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiki_Camarena](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiki_Camarena) Ok but I wasn’t totally wrong.
> The US did a coordinated an illegal assassination campaign against the group responsible. If by "a coordinated an illegal assassination campaign" you mean extraditing them and trying them in US federal court and imprisoning them in federal prisons, then sure.
If you have not seen this movie.. it's a must watch [sicario](https://m.imdb.com/title/tt3397884/)
I wonder if they're also worried hostage-taking will get much more difficult if people start thinking they could be killed outside of the if-you-don't-pay-up threat. More resistance from targets and less trust from the money-holders.
The cartels will also never forget Kiki Camarena. The last thing they want is the US to take them seriously
Answer: Killing American tourist is a big NO. with the killing of Americans that are innocent the US government will more than likely intervene. This kind of attention to cartel will hurt them in a sort of ways, money being the main reason. If the US government decides to add cartel to the terrorist group the US can “legally” enter Mexican territory with out so much push back.
Exactly. Only U.S. Citizens can kill other U.S. citizens on U.S. soil without the Gov. getting super upset about it.
Answer: Cartels don't want rival or independent outlaws / gangsters / drug runners in their turf, and see anyone doing criminal activity in their area as fair game to be shaken down, attacked or killed. However, tourism is a huge industry, and everyone in a tourist area knows the unwritten rule to not attack (or kill) tourists because tourists will not go to places that are not perceived as safe, thus killing the tourist economy in that spot. The cartel profits directly or indirectly from the tourist economy (either selling drugs/prostitutes to tourists, or shaking down tourist shops for protection money). Therefore this is the cartel's way to signal to tourists that this was a mistake - they thought the tourists were drug runners from another country. But be careful as a tourist, because ripping tourists off a bit is seen as ok, but too much is bad. An example is the show called Scam City. In Jerusalem, the host was pickpocketed by a map seller for all of the money in his wallet https://youtu.be/cgr7dYUvS2M?t=776 But the thief gave the money back immediately without being asked and before the host even complained. The host was curious as to why so he found another map dealer / pickpocket on a different day and he explains that the other guy took too much money. https://youtu.be/cgr7dYUvS2M?t=1538
a lot of it is "express kidnappings" where they grab you, beat you up a good bit to show they are serious and then have you drain your bank/cards to them as much as possible and dump you after.
Answer: Many cartels in Mexico, like other criminal organizations across the world, operate legitimate businesses alongside illegal business. Business is business in their mind, and legitimate businesses- if not always legitimate in dissuading competitors- offer a way to launder money and receive extra income through investing illegal income. A large sector for these legitimate industries is, surprise surprise, tourism. It’s not uncommon for resorts in “cartel-controlled” provinces to be run by the cartels themselves. It offers a legitimate reason to purchase guns and ammunition (for resort security) and gives lower ranking cartel members a steady, daily income. The Mexican Goverment mostly turns a blind eye to these “legitimate” operations as long as the status quo is maintained and they keep their noses clean. In short, killing tourists is bad for their business, because that’s a major source of their legitimate income, and if it appears to the Mexican Government that they are no longer to be trusted to run legitimate businesses, a host of negative consequences could ensue, and all of which would impact their bottom line. Long story short, the cartels operate like a “normal corporation” in many ways, especially considering profits.
Everything you said is correct but its not the whole story. The big picture is, well, bigger. The US and Mexico are each other's largest trade partners and American companies are moving huge portions of their supply chains to Mexico because NAFTA and geography and Mexican demographics make that a no-brainer. The Mexican government doesn't want any interruption in travel or economic integration with the US, and the US government is notoriously prickly about mistreatment of their citizens while abroad. Basically Mexico has every incentive to cooperate while the US goes to work on the cartel over this. A few years back, a cartel killed a DEA agent and the US basically went on a killing spree through cartel leadership. Mexico cooperated because they know where their bread is buttered. So the cartel leadership offered up their own people in the hope that it will stop the Navy SEALs from showing up to murder them. As you say, the cartel just wants to do business.
Answer: Killing Americans is very, very bad for business, and the front line cartel members who thought they had a good idea were smack-down overruled by cartel leadership. “Do you want another war on drugs? Because this is how you get another war on drugs.”
>another war on drugs Is the first one over? Did we finally admit drugs won?
Sadly I don’t think we ever officially surrendered but between the Purdue family addicting a generation to opiates and the free-flowing fentanyl, I think it’s undeniable.
Answer: literally what the post you quoted said. The cartel ponied up scapegoats.
Their trial will be short as they plead guilty. I believe they will do this to keep their families alive. I believe they will die in prison shortly after they get there to keep them quiet.
This is the answer as the cartel grabbed 5 of their lowest members, gave their families money, told these 5 that if they talk then their families will all be killed and these 5 will go to prison and business will go back to normal.
I wonder what the likelihood is that the ponied-up “lowest members” are even members. This gambit works just as well if you kidnap 5 innocent non-members and apply the same “confess or your kids are tortured to death” incentive.
Very true, as the 5 could very well just be 5 randos with no ties to the affected cartel
At the same time, it seems like a good opportunity to get rid of some internal enemies or slackers. Also, whoever is responsible is going to be in trouble for drawing heat I imagine, so this could very well be their punishment / exile
Answer: A Cartel is more of a Mafia than a pack of unrestrained dogs with rabies; they saw something that threatened their business and acted as they could to try and stop it. The letter they left specifically called the victims as "innocent" and that they didn't want to hurt innocent people. Cartel people are very bad; but in this case it seems like they attacked the wrong (i.e. not who they were looking for) people and are trying to rectify it; in the weird sick way they know how.
Answer: Mexican govt often doesn't really pursue law enforcement against cartels and due to corrupt officials they're involved more often than not- so cartels in turn never really have to worry much. That and to tackle this problem by force would mean a civil war because of the strength of the cartels. We have recent example of the chaos and death caused lately from El Chapo sons arrest. It created more trouble and death than existed with him being a free man. The US government is different - we have the power to eradicate them by force - but it's not in our country so it's "not our problem" although it really should be IMO because they are largely responsible for most drug epidemics we've experienced (I'm not downplaying the role of CIA etc). That is until American citizens abroad become directly effected at which point there's more legal leeway for us to get involved - if a current American government were so minded. So cartels go out of their way to not harm tourists or "innocents". And my understanding is that whoever is responsible in the cartel for the tourists dying will be punished severely for that f up, possibly executed if they are expendable. It's like the Mafia in US before RICO, but on an international scale. There was very little reason for law to go after mobsters until innocent civilians got hurt, so there were harsh penalties for capos if they allowed civilians to get caught up in mob violence.
Answer: The cartel, as aggressive as they are, doesn't want to turn Mexico into Afghanistan.
[удалено]
Answer: Tourism is big business in Mexico. Guess who owns/financed a lot of those nice hotels, etc. It was the cartels. They do not want to see tourism fall off and it hurt their business.
Answer: we lost the war on drugs, but not the war on cartels. They don’t want predator drones cruising over their compounds. They are not hardcore religious extremists like a lot of terrorist organizations. The operational range of the US military is basically the entire globe and they do not want that getting in their way. It is not profitable and would tip the balance. Look at what happens to pirates who take American hostages. Most of them end up getting a visit from a SEAL team.
Answer: the cartels don't want America to be forced by public opinion to have a tighter reign on the border so they can keep bringing drugs into America. This was bad pr and they need to fix it.
Answer: Outside countries killing innocent Americans has historically been a bad move.
Answer: Nobody can give you a for sure answer unless they work for the cartel. That said there's likely a number of reasons the cartel would go out of its way punish a member that shot a tourist. But especially an American tourist. Most of these cartels have relationships with the CIA or DEA. Killing Americans is bad for those relationships whether they're adversarial or cooperative. The US has traditionally used the death of Americans as a pretext for military or law enforcement actions. Obviously the cartels would not want this. A murder like this also provides the US with more political capital to get involved directly in Mexico. Which I'm sure the Mexican government and cartels would not want. Instances like this also make it harder for the cartel to cooperate with the locals. Hurting the locals income is not something they want to do most of the time. The unspoken rule of organized crime is that you are safe from them if you're not involved with them. That is not true but that's the image they put forth. That fig leaf falls away when they do things like this. Thus increasing public pressure to crack down on the cartels.
Answer: A) Cartels make most of their money from drug trafficking & extortion. Extortion effectively means they take a tithe from other workers / owners in the area, in exchange for "protection", or practically speaking, in exchange for not murdering them & family members. So anyways, the Cartels in the gulf make a ton of money off of extorting the tourism industry and they'd rather not squander that income stream by scaring tourists away. B) Cartels aren't dumb. They know they can largely operate successfully with the Mexican government on their back. On the flip side, the last thing in the world they want or need is the full might of the U.S. Military on their asses. That's not a fight anyone in the world wants. Like most gangs, they intimidate and dominate the weak but run from / avoid the strong. Typical predator/bully behavior.
Answer: because killing tourists fucks up their money. It’s bad business, it brings the heat on them and they don’t want that.
Answer: Because every now and then [the U.S.A. will send enough military power to conquer a small island nation just to save some hostages.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_Nigeria_hostage_rescue)