Page 12 - ARUBA TODAY

A12 WORLD NEWS
Thursday 23 November 2017

Hope dwindles in Argentina: AP report details Zetas total

Families of lost submarine crew keep faith control over Mexican prison

By A. CALATRAVA face to replenish its oxygen doesn’t come from one By MARIA VERZA served as a chilling “exter-
LUIS HENAO supply and charge batter- day to the next,” he said. Associated Press mination” site.
Associated Press ies. “We hope this will go right MEXICO CITY (AP) — Of- According to witnesses,
MAR DEL PLATA, Argentina The German-built diesel- because of the improving ficially it was a Mexican some victims arrived alive
(AP) — Federico Ibanez electric TR-1700 class sub- weather and the technol- prison, but inside it hid an- and were killed on site
clings to a fence crowded marine was set to arrive ogy that’s being used.” other reality: a center of with a shot or hammer
with blue-and-white Argen- Monday to a naval base The U.S. government has operations where the Ze- blow to the head.
tine flags, rosary beads and in Mar del Plata, where lo- sent two P-8 Poseidon air- tas drug cartel modified Others were dismembered
messages of support for his cal residents have arrived craft to Argentina, a naval vehicles, manufactured and burned immediately
uniforms, locked up kid- below a guard tower,
napped victims and cre- which was controlled by
mated bodies using diesel the Zetas through threats
fuel. and punishments.
Some details of the case The most sensitive job —
were previously known. and also the best paid at
But a report released Tues- $300 a night — was dispos-
day by two university pro- ing of the bodies in fuel.
fessors who specialize in “When they cooked up
human rights sheds new people they would get
light on how one of Mex- smaller and they would hit
ico’s bloodiest criminal them with a metal bar un-
organizations took com- til there was nothing left ...
plete control of the state (later) they would tip over
prison in 2010 and 2011 in the barrel to dump what
Piedras Negras, just across was left on the ground ...
the border from Texas, and the truth is there was
without any resistance very little,” the unidenti-
from Coahuila state offi- fied Zeta boss is quoted as
cials. saying in December 2014.
The report is based on wit- Overall, testimony from
ness statements, official recent trials of Zeta
documents and public members in Texas sug-
data and takes a closer gests about 150 bodies
look at the use of the Pie- were disposed of inside
People pray for the crew of the missing submarine outside the navy base in Mar del Plata, Argentina, dras Negras prison as “key the prison. Remains were
Wednesday, Nov. 22, 2017. Argentine families of 44 crew members aboard a submarine that has to the business and terror dumped at nearby loca-
been lost in the South Atlantic for seven days are growing increasingly distressed as experts say framework” of the Zetas. tions, including a river and
that the crew might be reaching a critical period of low oxygen on Wednesday. The investigation, which a soccer field.
(AP Photo/Marina Devo) was conducted by Sergio Others believe there were
Aguayo of the College of more victims.
brother and 43 other crew bearing messages of sup- research ship, a submarine Mexico and Jacobo Day- “Truth and justice are still
members of a missing sub- port for relatives of the rescue chamber, and so- an at Iberoamericana missing,” Dayan said Tues-
marine that should have crew anxiously waiting for nar-equipped underwater University, includes more day. “Who knew what,
arrived to a naval base news. vehicles. than 1,500 pages and de- when and what did they
days ago. But his hopes are More than a dozen inter- U.S. Navy sailors from the scribes surreal life inside do?” said Aguayo.
slowly dwindling. national airplanes and San Diego-based Undersea the prison’s walls. The report estimates the
Ibanez and other relatives ships have joined the mari- Rescue Command are also For some Zeta leaders, the prison generated about
of the sub’s crew are now time search despite stormy helping with the search. prison served as a hideout $75,000 annually, with
growing increasingly dis- weather that has caused Hopes were lifted after and a place to host par- good standing bought
tressed as experts say that powerful waves of more brief satellite calls were re- ties where cows would be through drug sales and
the vessel lost in the South than 20 feet (6 meters). ceived and when sounds slaughtered to feed at- extortion proceeds.
Atlantic for seven days The search teams are were detected deep in the tendees. The threat of violence was
might be reaching a criti- combing the waters in a South Atlantic. According to the report, always present.
cal period of low oxygen wide area of some 185,000 But experts later deter- the prison’s Zeta boss, a A number of prisoners
Wednesday. square miles (480,000 mined that neither was former municipal police- working for the Zetas
The ARA San Juan went square kilometers), which is from the missing sub. A U.S. man who was not identi- walked around the pris-
missing Nov. 15 when it was roughly the size of Spain. Navy aircraft later spotted fied in the report, regularly on with guns, in contrast
sailing from the extreme From the shore, Jorge Vil- flares, and a life raft was left the prison escorted by to the guards who were
southern port of Ushuaia to larreal, kept his eyes trans- found in the search area, guards to have coffee, mostly unarmed.
the city of Mar del Plata, fixed on the ocean, hoping but authorities said that shoot at people “just for A representative of the
about 250 miles (400 kilo- to catch a glimpse of the they did not come from the fun” and have sex with Coahuila state govern-
meters) southeast of Bue- vessel that carries his son, missing submarine either. the wives of other prison- ment, Federico Garza,
nos Aires. The Argentine Fernando Villareal, a sub- The false alarms have ers. He had 34 close as- said at the report’s presen-
navy and outside experts marine officer. rattled nerves among dis- sociates inside the prison tation that “we emphati-
worry that oxygen for the “As a dad I want him to be traught family members. and another 58 inmates cally deny that there were
crew would only last seven rescued immediately but As the search enters a criti- making uniforms and crimes against humanity.”
to 10 days if the sub is intact we can’t forget about the cal phase, some have be- modifying vehicles, the re- He added that the inves-
but submerged. inclemency of the weath- gun to complain that the port said. But at its most tigation into crimes at the
Authorities still do not know er. Argentine navy responded gruesome, the prison also prison continues. q
if the sub rose to the sur- And the foreign help just too late.q