Malverde-1

**(Also referred to as “The Total War on Drugs”, “The Mexican Gulf War” and “World War Narc”)**

**Current Year: September of 1995**

*“There are lasting consequences for using drugs. I'll still be paying for my prior use.”*

-Layne Staley

Malverde-1 is a universe where in the aftermath of a rise of particularly vicious narcoterrorism orchestrated by Mexican drug cartels in the 1990’s, the United States and Mexican government have chosen to pursue a particularly pragmatic solution that hopes to end the crime, corruption and violence organized by the cartels once and for all.

## Addicted to Terror

Following the widely publicized arrest and sentencing of Sinaloa Cartel leader Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán in the summer of 1993 and the assassination of Medellín Cartel leader Pablo Escobar by the Colombian National Police on December 2nd, 1993, an immediate spate of violence ensues in relation to the various Mexican drug cartels. In addition to an increase of violence between the existing cartels (especially between the degenerating Medellín Cartel and the rival Cali Cartel as they jockey for power), which often results in large numbers of Mexican citizens being caught in the crossfire, a massive rise in
narcoterrorism is seen that targets both the Mexican and United States government. These attacks also often extend to targeting civilians in both countries in what is described as an attempt to illustrate the “cost” of governments interfering with organized crime between the nations. Several deadly and high-profile terrorist attacks occur over the next 18 months, bringing the dangers of cartel violence to the forefront of political discussion. These include:

* Five members of the Medellín Cartel opening fire with fully automatic weapons on civilians at the Cumbres del Ajusco National Park in Mexico City on May 8th, 1994, two days after having one of their warehouses raided by the Mexican police.14 civilians are killed (including 4 children under the age of 10) and 11 are non-fatally injured. One assailant is shot-dead on the scene by the Mexican police, two are captured and the remaining two escape before being apprehended.

* The bombing of a San Antonio police station on July 22nd, 1994, perpetrated by members of the Gulf Cartel. 11 police officers are killed and 7 are injured.

* An attack on a public transportation bus on Highway 101 in San Fernando on October 5th, 1994, perpetrated by members of the Cali Cartel. A bus carrying 24 civilians on a route to Ciudad Victoria is intercepted by a team of 15 Cali Cartel members on a remote stretch of the desert highway. All 23 passengers (which include 3 children under the age of 10, one of which was an infant) and the bus driver are executed by the Cartel members, with their bodies dumped in a mass roadside grave. The bodies are not discovered by Mexican authorities until more than a month later. Several bodies of female victims show evidence that they were gang-raped before being executed. 3 of the 24 total dead were American tourists visiting the country on vacation. On December 15th, 1994, several members of the Cali Cartel are arrested and are revealed to have participated in the Highway 101 attack. Under interrogation about the incident, one of the Cartel soldiers brags about his involvement in the attack in which he raped one of the female passengers while forcing her 8-year-old daughter to watch, before the two of them were executed. The taping of this particular confession eventually gets airplay on several major American and Mexican news networks including CNN and Azteca 7, and its particularly brutal, sadistic and brazen nature significantly stokes the growing outrage over cartel violence among both Mexican and American citizens.

* An attack on the home of Louis Freeh, the Director of the FBI, on November 1st, 1994. A vehicle containing an unknown number of assailants pulled up in front of the Constantine residential dwelling at roughly 2:05 AM and briefly opened fire with fully automatic weapons on the front of the property before fleeing. Neither Freeh nor any members of his family were injured in the attack due to their bedrooms being located in the rear of the house.
* The bombing of a police station in Jesús Carranza, Mexico, on November 14th, 1994, perpetrated by members of the Gulf Cartel. Three police officers are killed and seven are injured.

* An attack on a convoy of police officers in Querétaro on November 27th, 1994, perpetrated by the Medellín Cartel. While a squad of police vehicles are traveling along a road in the isolated countryside, comprised of 12 total members of the Mexican police, the convoy is ambushed by 10 members of the Medellín Cartel who open fire on the procession with fully automatic weapons. Seven police officers are killed in the initial attack and two more are killed in the following shootout between police and the cartel members, which also kills three Medellín Cartel members. The remaining three police officers ultimately surrender, and are burned alive inside their squad cars on the side of the road, with the remains of the altercation being left for the Mexican government to discover the following morning.

* An incident in Hermosillo, Mexico, where members of the Tijuana Cartel executed nine captured Mexican police officers and hung their bodies from the side of a concrete freeway overpass on December 6th, 1994.

* An attack on a movie theater in McAllen, Texas, by the Sinaloa Cartel on December 14th, 1994, six days after a Sinaloa Cartel shipment of Cocaine was seized in a sting by police in Del Rio. Arriving in a nondescript pickup truck, five members of the Sinaloa Cartel exited the vehicle and opened blind fire with fully automatic weapons through the glass front of the theater and into the lobby before driving away. Six Americans are killed (two theater employees, one of which was 16-years-old, and four guests, including a pair of newlyweds and a 3-year-old) and four are injured.

* An incident of kidnapping where 34-year-old police officer Juan Márquez is abducted while off-duty in Leon, Mexico, on December 19th, 1994. A postal package is sent two days later, addressed to the Mexican Congress of the Union, by members of Gulf Cartel claiming responsibility for the abduction. The intercepted parcel contains the severed right pinky, ring finger and index finger of Officer Juan Márquez, confirmed by fingerprint records. The letter promises “more to follow”. An intercepted package sent to the same address is acquired 39 hours later, this time containing a left foot severed at the ankle, also belonging to Officer Juan Márquez. Four days later, on December 23rd, a third and final package is intercepted, this time containing a series of Polaroid photos of Officer Juan Márquez being doused in gasoline and burned alive by cartel members.

* A large public shootout between a squad of Tijuana Cartel members and an attacking force of Cali Cartel members in Guadalajara, Mexico, on December 25th, 1994. Both sides open fire in midday in a public street in the La Chapa district in what becomes known as the “Christmas Day Massacre”, which lasts roughly 10 minutes. All 25 Tijuana Cartel members are killed and eight Cali Cartel members are killed, with 12 Mexican civilians killed in the crossfire (including a 14-year-old girl) and seven injured. Reports from eyewitnesses indicate that both Tijuana and Cali Cartel members seized nearby civilians at gunpoint once the fight had started and used them as human shields.
* A planned but intercepted attack targeting the First Lady of the United States Hillary Clinton on December 28th, 1994 that resulted in the death of one Secret Service agent. Immediately after a public speech held by Hillary Clinton in Washington D.C. promoting the recently proposed Crime Bill of 1994, a man identified as David Ginosé began pushing his way to the front of the area cordoned off for civilian attendance. Stopped by Secret Service agent Harry Powell from going any further, Ginosé failed to respond and remained silent for several seconds watching Clinton depart before withdrawing a concealed 9mm handgun and discharging it as Powell immediately attempted to seize it, with the bullet entering his left lower abdomen at a downward angle and exiting his right thigh. Another Secret Service agent near Powell seized Ginosé from behind and forced his arm into the air causing the firearm to discharge a second time as the crowd panicked and dispersed and Secret Service members immediately formed a protective blockade around Clinton and moving her behind a nearby stage wall. Ginosé was swarmed by Secret Serviceman and forced to the ground, his forearm being broken in the process. Agent Powell died of complications from his injury four days later. After his arrest, Ginosé stated under interrogation that he was a long-time participant in drug-trade in the United States that had trafficked Amphetamines for the Gulf Cartel in Texas and Oklahoma for more than a decade. Having fallen into severe gambling debt, he was apparently offered $5,000,000 by the Gulf Cartel for making an attack on Clinton. According to his story, the Cartel stated “Clinton did not need to be killed in the attack, but at least injured”. Ginosé claimed he had underestimated the amount and placement of security at the public speech and panicked when he realized Clinton was leaving and his chance to make the attack was soon going to be over. He originally planned to escape by disappearing into the scattering crowd after firing only one or two shots in Clinton’s direction and using his payment to flee to Belize before he could be identified on surveillance footage. After Ginosé’s Cartel-connections were revealed, Hillary Clinton famously stated in a public address on January 1st, 1995, “This incident should illustrate why we believe so strongly in this crime-fighting legislation. As this event illustrated, nobody is safe in this current climate if nothing is done. Not even the most insulated people in our society can be guaranteed safety until action is taken.” Ginosé also claimed under interrogation that he was able to get a loaded handgun into a heavily-policed event featuring a high-ranking American politician due to the influence of Cartel bribery among the security staff at the event, leading to major concerns in the American government and the public about the extent corruption and how much power it gives to Cartel actions.

* The bombing of a police station in Las Cruces, New Mexico, perpetrated by members of the Sinaloa Cartel on December 30th, 1994. 14 police officers are killed and 3 are injured.

* The assassination of Thomas A. Constantine, the Administrator of the DEA, on January 3rd, 1995. Constantine is shot to death by an unknown assailant while entering his car in his driveway during the early morning hours. This was the first time he had been occupying his residential home in Arlington, Virginia, having previously been moving between several locations due to both increased DEA activity and safety concerns. This may indicate that the party responsible for his death may have been planning for it and prepared for it for an extended period of time and then acting at the first opportunity. While the individual or individuals responsible are currently unknown and still under investigation by the FBI, less than a day after the assassination members of the Medellín Cartel publicly claim responsibility for the act.

These incidents, receiving heavy news-coverage and government attention, serve to heavily alter the political climate in both the United States and Mexico. Many of the incidents have either surveillance footage of the event taking place or footage of criminals involved confessing participation in them, which are
widely viewed by the general populous on televised news programs in both nations. Friends and family members of those killed by narcoterrorism, including Thomas A. Constantine's wife and six children, often become outspoken advocates of decisive government action and public activists lobbying Washington.

## Full Measures

In the wake of these violent and high-profile acts of terrorism, public pressure for swift and drastic government action increases dramatically. In a joint referendum between United States President Bill Clinton and President of Mexico Ernesto Zedillo on January 30th, 1995, a controversial but heavily popular bill proposed by a joint Mexican and American congressional staff is officially approved by both leaders. This bill reclassifies known cartel members and their allies from being wanted criminals to being Enemies of the State and a threat to national security, comparable to an aggressive foreign power occupying native soil. This bill, nicknamed the “Aranque de Dios” bill in Mexico, essentially declares war on the drug cartels of Mexico by a Mexican-American military coalition.

Though seen as drastic by various global powers and the UN, the bill passes with great support from both politicians and the public. As per the direction of Janet Reno, the Attorney General of the United States and one of the bill’s drafters, the bill stipulates a policy of “One Chance to Surrender” to be utilized by coalition forces. In practice, this means all attacks on known cartel strongholds are announced to the target immediately before the attack begins (often via phone-line, and sometimes via megaphone), and any and all parties are given the chance to peacefully surrender before the attack begins in an attempt to mitigate needless casualties. The policy is controversial, both with opponents of the war who consider it not enough of an effort to mitigate needless casualties, and proponents of the war who contest that it deliberately gives the enemy a chance to prepare and entrench, costing coalition  and potentially civilian lives.

## A More Literal War on Drugs

    Even in the face of the overwhelming firepower of the Mexican-American military coalition, this option to surrender peacefully is often declined by cartel forces that choose to instead go down fighting. J.H. Binford Peay III, the Commander-in-Chief of the United States Central Command at the time of the Cartel War, famously stated at a press-meeting in February of 1995 “If they were of high intelligence or low recklessness, they wouldn’t have joined the cartels”.

Though this is the trend, major exceptions still occur. Miguel Rodríguez Orejuela, one of the leaders of the Cali Cartel, famously turns himself over to the police on February 27th, 1995, without even being threatened by a direct raid and instead being motivated by the obvious overwhelming power of the coalition and the imminent deaths of targets that fail to surrender. His older brother, Gilberto Rodríguez Orejuela, also a major leader of the Cali Cartel, surrenders to police less than a week later.

Known cartel encampments, if isolated enough, are carpet-bombed into oblivion by overhead jet fighters on several early instances of the war in places including Puerto Penãsco, Tampico, Oaxaca, Coatzacoalcos, Matamoros and Merida. More entrenched compounds are subjected to precision raids by military Special Reaction Teams. With very rare exception, the trend is cartel forces being utterly annihilated. In the first month major blows are struck against the Medellín, Gulf, Cali and Sinaloa Cartels as their known headquarter locations are wiped-out, with the more elusive movements of the Tijuana Cartel needing to be more carefully tracked as they have an easier time clearing-out a base of operations before they are raided.

As the war rapidly progresses, organizations such as the ACLU take issue with the presence of collateral damage during the raids, with many cartel bosses moving their wives and children to their bases of operations (sometimes at gunpoint) in an attempt to dissuade attacks. Cartel forces also begin a strategy of using human shields during SRT raids, often even shielding themselves with children. Juan García Ábrego, one of the major heads of the Gulf Cartel, famously paid five Mexican homeless women for ownership of their infant children, which he utilized a week later as hostages/human shields during a raid by the Mexican-American coalition on July 28th, 1995, in a standoff that lasted more than 7 hours. Ábrego was eventually felled by a Coalition sniper with the children completely unharmed.

Despite the increase of public opposition and the staging of protests in the United States, the campaign (humorously nicknamed “World War Narc” by many newspapers) remains overall popular with the American and Mexican public.

## The Ongoing Results of the Narc Wars

In the Current Year of September of 1995, cartel power has been drastically reduced as the war proceeds to be considerably one-sided in terms of victories. Prices for Cocaine and Amphetamines skyrocket in the United States as the drug-trade across the border grinds to a near complete stop, along with illegal arms-trade.

The Tijuana Cartel is the only major cartel so far that hasn’t had at least one of its chief commanders surrender to the government or be captured or killed yet as coalition forces continue to pursue them. Rumors propagate that various members of cartel leadership have fled to places in South America, or even Eastern Europe or North Africa.

Tremendous reform is being made in combating internal corruption in both the Mexican and American governments. As influential and connected members of cartels either surrender themselves to state custody or are captured alive during raids, they often seek to reduce the inevitable heavy sentencing they will receive in court by providing information on cartel activities. A considerable number of members of American law-enforcement and even state and federal government have been implicated on accounts of corruption and are under current investigation.

An unintended consequence is the ceasing of border drug-flow becoming financially beneficial for American drug-producers, but many are becoming progressively more scared of the repercussions of continuing considering what they’ve seen happen in Mexico.

Global reactions to the Cartel War Campaign in Mexico remain mixed, but with several countries even having similar campaigns proposed in order to deal with stifling levels of corruption and organized crime, including Chile, China, Estonia and Russia.