Exit: El Condor - Big Score for the Federales

Today the Mexican Federal Police officially announced the death of El Condor, the leader of the Juarez Cartel.  El Condor, aka Luis Humberto Peralta Hernandez, was killed Tuesday in Cuidad Juarez, Chihuahua in a shootout with federal officers.  He was not immediately identified because he was carrying false credentials at his death.  Other cartel members were captured.  El Condor was the latest in the long list of Juarez Cartel "leaders" via the various untimely deaths of his predecessors.  I am sure even now a scramble is going on to crown the new leader.

The death of El Condor comes only days after the murder of Agent Zapata and the attempted murder of Agent Avila.  News of this gangster's death also comes on the heals of a massive federal roundup of cartel members operating in the United States.  The various federal law enforcement agencies of the United States had to "push back" against the "bullies" in Mexico who had now taken to murdering US agents as well as the routinely targeted Mexican officials, officers, local politicians, and anyone else perceived to stand in the way of the cartels.  It is unfortunate that Mexico's "War on Drugs" has dragged on five years before the United States reacted at a national level.  I hope more national action is taken to aid the government of Mexico since the security of the United States border as well as interior cities where the cartel members operate are obviously under siege as well.

I noticed that Mr. Peralta Hernandez (El Condor) was actually a ranking member of the Mexican Federal Police as late as 2009, a federal investigator.  Unfortunately, the rifle assigned to Mr. Peralta Hernandez has been linked through ballistics to at least 96 murders.  Certainly El Condor was in a position not only to know about federal operations and the identifies of federal operatives in Mexico, he was also in a position in which he conceivably gained the trust of many of those he later assassinated.  But the real point of this post is that Presidente Felipe Calderon made a big ranting press statement decrying Ambassador Pascual's "ignorance" as regards the Ambassador's assertions that there possible some criminal elements embedded within the Federal Police and other Mexican enforcement agencies.  The Ambassador further alluded to the possibility that there was evidence of some complicity of federal agents in the operations carried out by the cartels.

Well, surprise, El Presidente, as we see, El Condor had infiltrated the Federal Police and has probably personally set back police operations  for years, as well as committed so many murders and untold other criminal acts against the very people he was supposed to be protecting.  I wonder if Mr. Calderon will possibly send a private note of apology to Ambassador Pascual.  I doubt it, but the Ambassador is certainly vindicated of his "ignorance" by the revelations of El Condor's activities while still under color of his office.