El Sicario: The Autobiography of a Mexican Assassin Read online

  8 “Outsmarted by Sinaloa,” The Economist 394, no. 8664, January 9, 2010, 40–41.

  9 John Burnett, Marisa Peñalosa, and Robert Benincasa, “Mexico Seems to Favor Sinaloa Cartel in Drug War,” National Public Radio, May 19, 2010, http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126906809. This NPR report quotes Mexican officials, academics, journalists, and U.S. law enforcement personnel—on and off the record—all of whom cite examples of the Sinaloa cartel’s relationships with the military and high government officials and its relatively advantageous position during the years of the Calderón administration.

  10 Bruce Livesey, “Drug War or Drug Deal? Mexico’s Biggest Cartel Banks on Powerful Friends,” Montreal Gazette, May 22, 2010.

  11 José de Córdoba and David Luhnow, “In Mexico, Death Toll in Drug War Hits Record,” Wall Street Journal, January 13, 2011; Jorge Ramos Perez, “La Lucha anticrimen deja 34 mil muertes en 4 años [Anti-crime struggle leaves 34,000 deaths in 4 years],” El Universal, January 13, 2011. These are the numbers of drugrelated homicides reported nationally for each period of Calderón’s term:

  December 2006 . . . . . . 62

  2007 . . . . 2,826

  2008 . . . . 6,837

  2009 . . . . . . 9,614

  2010 . . . . . 15,273

  12 Johanna Tuckman, “Mexico Drugs War Murder Data Mapped,” The Guardian, January 14, 2011.

  13 See, for example, Denise Maerker, “Cifra homicidios en guerra a narco, equivocada: Aguilar Camín [Aguilar Camin reports: Number of homicides in war against narco is wrong],” January 6, 2011, http://www.radioformula.com.mx/notas.asp?Idn=149717.

  14 The July 2010 estimate from the CIA World Factbook is available at: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/mx.html.

  15 Juárez murders continue to climb, and an accurate count of the victims remains elusive. On March 14, 2011, the Chihuahua State attorney general issued new statistics indicating that there had actually been 3,951 murders in Juárez in 2010, an increase of 840 over the 3,111 widely reported in the media at the end of 2010 and upping the average to nearly 11 murders per day. (“Once homidicios diarios en 2010 en Juárez: Fiscalía [Eleven homicides daily in 2010 in Juárez: Attorney General],” El Universal, March 14, 2011, http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/notas/751635.html.) It is highly unlikely that a Mexican government entity would inflate such crime statistics, so this higher number is probably the more accurate one. At an estimated population of 1.2 million, the murder rate in Juárez is 329 per 100,000. To compare, Caracas, Venezuela (population 4 million), has a murder rate of 200 per 100,000 and is often cited as the most violent large city in the Americas; New York City’s murder rate is 6; Detroit, known for high crime and poverty, has a murder rate of 46. El Paso’s murder rate is about 2; it is reported to be the safest city in the United States with a population over 500,000.

  16 “A total of 191 soldiers have been killed fighting drug gangs between December 2006 and Aug. 1, 2010, according to a list of names on a wall of a Defense Department anti-narcotics museum. Reporters saw the list Wednesday during a tour of the museum—the first time the government has made the number public. Forty-three of the soldiers killed were officers. Last week, the government said 2,076 police have been killed since December 2006.” See Associated Press, “Mexican Mayor Found Dead 3 Days After Kidnapping,” USA Today, August 18, 2010, http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2010-08-18-drug-war-mexico_N.htm.

  17 CNN–The Situation Room, “Interview with Mexican President Felipe Calderón; Analysis of Special Election Results” (transcript), aired May 19, 2010, http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1005/19/sitroom.01.html; Silvia Otero, “No investigan 95% de muertes en ‘guerra’ [95% of ‘war’ deaths not investigated],” El Universal, June 21, 2010, http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/notas/689120.html. “Las autoridades están rebasadas por los hechos, dicen especialistas; el Presidente ha asegurado que 90% de los decesos por lucha antinarco es de la mafia [The authorities are overcome by events, say specialists; the President has assured that 90% of the deaths in the antinarco struggle are mafia].”

  18 Julie Watson and Alexandra Olson, “AP Impact: Mexico Justice Means Catch and Release,” El Paso Times, July 27, 2010; “Llegan a juzgados pocos homicidios [Few homicide cases reach a court],” El Diario de Juárez, November 7, 2009; “El 99% de los delitos en Mexico quedan impunes y todavia estan pendientes 400,000 ordenes de arresto [99% of crimes in Mexico go unpunished and there are 400,000 arrest orders pending],” Europa Press, [n.d.], http://www.lukor.com/not-mun/america/portada/08121541.htm.

  19 Ignacio Alvarado, “Ven ‘limpia social,’ no narcoguerra [‘Social cleansing,’ not a drug war],” El Universal, October 18, 2010. An English translation was posted to the Frontera-List: http://groups.google.com/group/frontera-list/browse_thread/thread/6baa726b30751b45/8cea4028513aaa5e.

  20 “Free Press, Free People” (editorial), Globe and Mail (Canada), March 17, 1997, p. A10.

  21 “Termina uno de los años mas violentos en la historia de Juárez; denunciados mas de 22 mil delitos; de 134 asesinatos ocurridos, 40 aclarados [One of the most violent years in Juárez comes to an end; More than 22,000 crimes reported; of 134 murders, 40 are clarified],” Norte de Ciudad Juárez, January 2, 1992.

  22 El Cora was a narco-boss working in the 1990s. The sicario tells us a little more about him in this book. There are many cartel operatives who never become known in the press. A video of a narco-corrido on YouTube may be about the same man, though it is impossible to be sure; see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ud1xPovofuQ. I did find one mention in the Mexican press of a man with the nickname “El Cora de Sinaloa,” but we do not know if this is the same man the sicario knew; see Juan Veledíaz, “Hostil recibimiento en tierra de nadie [Hostile reception in no man’s land],” El Universal, December 14, 2006, http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/nacion/146547.html.

  23 “Two More Journalists Shot Dead in Continuing Media Bloodshed,” Reporters Without Borders, July 12, 2010, http://en.rsf.org/mexico-two-more-journalists-shot-dead-in-12-07-2010,37925.html.

  24 Bowden, Down by the River, pp. 288–291; “Murder, Money, and Mexico: The Rise and Fall of the Salinas Brothers,” PBS Frontline documentary, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/mexico/. See also “Family Tree: General Jesus Gutierrez Rebollo,” PBS Frontline, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/mexico/family/genrebollo.html; and Fazio, “Mexico: The Narco General Case.”

  25 Susan E. Reed, “Certifiable: Mexico’s Corruption, Washington’s Indifference,” The New Republic, 1997, reprinted at: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/mexico/readings/newrepublic.html; DEA Congressional Testimony, Statement by Donnie Marshall, Drug Enforcement Administration, United States Department of Justice, Before the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee, Regarding International Narcotics Control, March 18, 1998, http://www.justice.gov/dea/pubs/cngrtest/ct980318.htm.

  26 See Internet Movie Database, “Traffic,” http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0181865/synopsis.

  27 Adam Thomson, “Mexico Crime Fighters Die in Air Crash,” Financial Times, November 5, 2008. See also the following obituaries: Jo Tuckman, “Obituary: Jose Luis Santiago Vasconcelos: Mexican Anti-Drugs Prosecutor Whose Life Was Often Threatened,” The Guardian, November 17, 2008, p. 34; “Juan Camilo Mouriño,” The Times (London), November 24, 2008, p. 52.

  28 William Booth and Nick Miroff, “Mexican Drug Cartel Forces Lawyer’s Video Confessions,” Washington Post, October 30, 2010; Tracy Wilkinson, “Kidnapped Chihuahua Attorney Found Dead,” Los Angeles Times, November 6, 2010.

  29 “Soldados metidos en un broncón [Soldiers involved in a real mess],” La Polaka , December 2, 2010, http://lapolaka.com/2010/12/02/soldados-metidos-en-un-broncon/.

  30 The sicario used a word in Spanish that I had never heard before, “embarrar.” It means to daub with mud or clay or plaster. It can be used in the sense of “slinging mud,” but it can also mean to involve a person in something, to bring someone into an affair, o
r to complicate a situation. The word can also be used to describe the behavior of birds who gather together in trees to hide when they are being pursued.

  THE YOKE

  His head is draped in a black veil. He is not a huge man,

  but his body fills the space in the room. When he starts

  talking, he lifts his hands to the lens of the camera and you

  see nothing but these hands. And he says:

  I want to tell you

  twenty years of my life,

  twenty years of my life

  serving narco-trafficking,

  serving the cartel,

  serving the patron,

  with these hands.

  Serving them through torture,

  serving them by executing so many people

  with these hands.

  And to those who still belong to these groups of sicarios

  to those who are still with the cartel,

  to those who live in el chacaa

  with the narco . . .

  In the world of the cartels,

  El chaca is the boss,

  the patron,

  The one who commands, who gives the orders,

  And to live en el chaca

  is to be the one

  who guards the boss twenty-four hours a day

  with only one day off every seven days.

  And since this guard knows everything about the boss

  and he also knows what the boss knows,

  then he also must be watched twenty-four hours a day.

  This is how things are in the lower worlds of the cartels.

  But I want to tell you

  that you can live in happiness,

  that you can throw off the yoke that burdens you

  inside the cartel....

  THE PACKAGE

  The door opens, then closes.

  I remember clearly that I closed the windows and the curtains.

  Okay, good, I thought, that gets rid of a lot of the light. Well, there is still enough light.

  “Hey!” I called to my buddies. “Come on in. Bring the guy in here. It’s secure.”

  They came in. We locked the door. The boys were kicking him around.

  “Quiet. Calm down. Turn off the light.”

  And I turned it off.

  “Hey! Look. Get down on your knees right there. Kneel down! Listen!”

  When he was finally on his knees, I talked to him.

  “We are not going to hurt you. We are going to put you in handcuffs. We are going to gag you and blindfold you. This is for your own good and for our benefit also. Put your hands behind you.”

  So he put his hands behind his back, and I put the handcuffs on him.

  “The order is not to hurt you. The only thing that you are going to do, what we want you to do, is pay back the money that you spent. The money that did not belong to you. So, one way or another, you are going to do it. Right now, we are going to wait for orders. And you are going to do whatever we tell you to do.

  “Understand? Now, stand up.”

  He struggled. So we stood him up. And we brought him into the bathroom and ran the water. He might have thought he was going to be comfortable, but no. We put him in the bathtub.

  “That is where you will stay. If we hear noise or if you make the least little noise, things are going to go bad for you. And you know what it means when we say things will be bad.... We want you calm. We are going to wait for orders. You understand?”

  He just moved his head. He could not talk. We closed the door.

  I told the other guys: “Hey, turn on the TV. Let’s listen to some music. Turn it up loud, so if he makes any noise, no one will hear it.

  “Bring some beer. Get out the cocaine, el perico, some cigarettes. Everything is okay.”

  I remember that the boys went out and got some beer.

  Ten or fifteen minutes go by. The phone rings.

  “Yes, sir, what are your orders? Is everything all right? Yes, sir, everything is fine. He is here and safe. What should we do with him? Yes, sir. Fine. He will call.”

  So they bring the secure telephone. He is going to make the call. We go and talk to him in the bathroom, we get him out of the tub.

  “Hey! Stand up. Stand up.”

  We bring him over here and sit him on the bed.

  “You are going to make a call to your family, and you are going to tell them you are okay. You will tell them that they will get a call and they will be given instructions about where to bring the money, and what’s more important, you will let them know they have to pay attention, because if they don’t, things are going to be bad. But if everything goes okay, if they deliver what they are supposed to deliver, nothing will happen to you. Talk to them and tell them that you are all right.

  “Okay? You understand? I’m going to let you go now.”

  I cuff his hands in front instead of behind his back, dial the number, and give him the phone.

  Instead of talking, he starts to laugh.

  I hang up.

  “Hey. He doesn’t seem to get it,” I tell the other guys. “He doesn’t want to understand. Look at him laughing.”

  They say, “Really?”

  I tell him, “So is this what you want?”

  Then I turn on the water. We fill the tub about half full of water and give him a little therapy.

  “Come over here. Are you gonna talk?”

  We dunk his head.

  “Ugh. Ugh.”

  “Are you gonna talk?”

  After three times under the water, he decided he would make the call. He sat down, I dialed the number for him. And he did what he was told to do. Okay. And after that, he lay back down in the tub, and we turned off the water. Told him not to make noise, and we closed the door.

  And so, while we were waiting for more instructions, we stayed there another whole day, sitting around, drinking.... Sometimes it was necessary to go into the bathroom, but we were always really careful to keep things very quiet, not to make any noise. We left the door closed because any noise could be heard from inside the bathroom. We had to be very attentive, very careful. The next morning, when the maid came to clean the room, we met her outside the door and just gave her some money. “Don’t worry. We will clean the room ourselves. We don’t need anything.”

  The next morning we knew that we had to give this guy a reason to trust us, to build up his confidence. Make him trust us a little. So we went into the bathroom.

  “So, hey, good morning. How are you feeling? Okay? So, how do you like your eggs? Well, all we brought you are boiled eggs. Here. Stand up. Have something to eat.”

  We put his hands in front, gave him an egg to eat and a glass of water. I brought him over—he was kind of limping from the roughing up we gave him—and I sat with him for a few minutes here in front of the mirror. He was handcuffed.

  He sighs and his voice gets soft.

  He asked me: “Did they deliver the money?”

  “I think so.”

  “Is everything all right? Are you gonna let me go?”

  “Yes, yes, if everything comes out okay, we are going to let you go. You did a bad thing to spend money that did not belong to you. It was a mistake to try to make a fool out of the boss. You know that no one, no one can outsmart the boss.”

  “But I’m going to pay. I’m going to pay.”

  “Well, better to say that your family is going to pay. That’s more like it. I sure hope that they do not go to the police. Remember, remember, you know the boss finds out everything. Everything. If they go to the police, things will turn out very, very bad for you.”

  “No, no, they will not tell anyone. They know what will happen to me if they do.”

  “Okay, you want to lie down here on the bed for a while?”

  “Yes, if you will let me.”

  “Yes.”

  “Okay.”

  I brought him over, and he slept there for two or three hours, over here on this side. And we kept on having our littl
e pachanga, our little party, with the booze and coke. When he woke up, he moved too quickly and made noise and startled us when he jumped up. We had to knock him around a little.

  “Who told you to get up? Now, you lie there and shut up, or we will have to put you back in the bathroom!”

  “No, no, no!”

  So we put the gag back on him. And while we were doing this we got another call.

  The guy who answers tells me, “Here, they want to talk to you,” and hands me the phone.

  “Yes, what happened? What are the orders, sir? How are we doing? Yes, yes, Okay, I understand. Everything is all right. No, no, no. He’s recovering. He’s fine. He’s okay. Don’t worry. Okay.”

  I tell the guys to bring the phone over here. And I talk to the guy again.

  “Look, your family is trying to be smart. They only delivered half the money. We need you to turn over all of the money. We know that there is no more money in your bank accounts, but we know that you have some property—some ranches with land and some houses. We need you to call and while you are here in the room with us you will arrange to put these properties in the hands of another person, a real estate agent, and he is going to sell the property while you are here, and once the money is delivered, then we will let you go.”

  “But you aren’t going to do anything to me?”

  “Look, just deliver all the money. You understand? We are not kidding.”

  Then we beat him.

  “Look! Why didn’t your family turn over all of the money if you had it in the bank?”

  “No, no, I don’t have it. I spent it. . . .”

  “Give him a good kicking. Beat him. ... No, no, never mind. Let him recover. Look, I am going to let you rest on the bed. Trust me.”

  “Oh, thank you, thank you. You are such a good person. When I get out of here I am going to give you a car. You are behaving really kindly toward me.”