Narco war uses drones, human shields, gunships
AGUILILLA, Mexico — The Mexican government is rapidly running out of tools to control the expansion of the feared Jalisco cartel on the front lines of Mexico’s narco war in the western state of Michoacan and the stalled ground effort is being supplemented by an increasingly sophisticated aerial conflict.
Jalisco, Mexico’s most militarily powerful drug gang, has begun organizing townspeople to act as human shields against army troops, which now just try to keep rival cartels apart.
“If they try to come in here again, we’ll put 2,000 people out here to stop them,” said Habacuc Solorzano, a 39-yearold farmer who leads the civilian movement associated with the cartel. His statement, like most of what comes out of the Jalisco side, is not mere boasting: He already had about 500 local residents marching last week— then wading across a river — to confront an army squad blocking a dirt road leading out of Jalisco territory.
Residents of Aguililla are fed up with the army’s strategy of simply separating the Jalisco and the Michoacan-based Viagras gang. The army policy effectively allows the Viagras — best known for kidnapping and extorting money — to set up roadblocks and checkpoints that have choked off all commerce with Aguililla. Limes and cattle heading out, or supplies heading in, must pay a war tax to the Viagras.
“We’d rather be killed by you than killed by those criminals!” one demonstrator shouted at soldiers during a tense, hourlong confrontation between demonstrators and a squad of a dozen troops who took cover behind a barricade of car tires. Many of the demonstrators carried rocks and powerful slingshots, but did not use them.
The residents want the army to either fight both cartels, or at least let the two gangs battle.
Above all, what residents want is for the Viagras’ checkpoints to be cleared and the road opened again.
Jalisco keeps its sizeable army of troops running with a potent mixture of money — the cartel has a lot, from trafficking fentanyl and meth into the United States — and cocaine, which it flies in from Costa Rica.
Both cartels have developed bomb-carrying drones, and the most feared warrior on these battlefields is the dronero, or drone operator.
To handle the increasing firepower in the conflict, the Mexican government has resorted to playing a powerful card to outgun the Jalisco cartel: Blackhawk helicopter gunships equipped with rotating-barrel electric machine guns that can fire 6,000 rounds per minute.
It is a weapon that almost defines “indiscriminate blanket fire” and is banned in most countries in civil conflicts.