BLOOD MARKS NEW PEOPLE'S ENTRANCE INTO THE DRUG WAR

LAREDO -- A series of chilling notes found attached to the bodies of
homicide victims last month in Veracruz, Mexico, announced a new
actor in the country's ongoing drug wars.

But no one is quite sure what to make of the shadowy and violent
group that calls itself the "Gente Nueva," or New People -- and
authorities don't want to talk about it.

The methods employed by the Gente -- the menacing notes, Web-posted
videos, the types of torture and execution, the quasi-patriotic
rhetoric -- suggest a vigilante group is confronting the Gulf Cartel
and its enforcement arm, known as Los Zetas, in the old port city.

"It's an ominous sign if that is in fact true," said Bruce Bagley, an
expert on drug trafficking at the University of Miami.

Nationwide, some speak of the "Colombianization" of Mexico because
the drug violence still is in full swing -- with more than 700
narco-killings reported this year -- despite strenuous federal
efforts to tamp it down.

But Colombia's drug violence of the 1980s and 1990s was part of a de
facto civil war involving guerillas and private armies.

Until now, Mexico's battles have been limited to feuding cartels and
their enemies and allies among the police.

Mexican officials refused to talk about the Gente Nueva. One U.S.
official familiar with the Veracruz area said, "we don't know much"
about the group.

Another U.S. official based on the border referred to the Gente as
vigilantes in one interview, but later said the group worked for the
Sinaloa Cartel, the Gulf Cartel's bitter rival.

The only thing known for sure is that the group has stirred fear. In
the Gulf Coast state of Veracruz, a new chapter of the drug war is playing out.

Note 1: "We're Gente Nueva and this will befall everyone who supports
the Zetas. For a clean Mexico. Sincerely, Gente Nueva."

Mexico was introduced to the Gente Nueva in a note found March 27
next to two bodies dumped in the port of Veracruz.

Unlike most cartel killings, where victims are usually executed with
a shot to the head, these two had no bullet wounds. One had his
throat slit, and the other was strangled, according to the state
attorney general's office.

While police still were sorting out the crime and deciphering the
note, a video was released on the Internet that answered some of the questions.

It showed the two victims, who identified themselves as Jesus Arano
Servin and Victor Manuel Perez Rocha, tied to chairs and answering
questions from an unseen interrogator, with four masked men holding
automatic rifles behind them.

The pair claimed to be members of the Gulf Cartel. They spilled the
beans about local cops on their payroll, listing names. They said
that a new leader from Nuevo Laredo, identified only as Z-40, had
been sent to take over Veracruz operations for the cartel.

Three days later, another video surfaced on the Web. A shirtless man
also claiming to be a Zeta was beaten and then beheaded with a
garrote -- a brutal strangulation method associated with paramilitary groups.

"Do your patriotic duty, kill a Zeta," was the title of the video.

Note 2: "Greetings from the Gente Nueva: Z-40, here is Alvarado the
errand-boy. And any (expletive) who supports the Zetas will be found
just like this (expletive). You're next: Claudia, Andres, Javadia,
Carranza, Napo, Norteno, Feyo, Travieso, Diego, Rosario and you
Muneco, you're following soon. Sincerely, Gente Nueva"

This second note, another threat against the Zetas, was attached to a
body found in the city of Xalapa on April 8.

Officials said the man had been executed but didn't identify him.
Reporters recognized some of the names on the note from the video
confession of the first victims.

The mysterious Gente Nueva grabbed headlines in local newspapers,
though no one knew who they were -- some reports labeled the group as
"paramilitary," some as just another drug gang.

The regional office of the federal attorney general's office, known
by its Spanish acronym PGR, is investigating the slayings. It
wouldn't comment on the case.

A week after the second note, a ferocious gun battle erupted on a
highway near the town of Soledad de Doblado, near the port. Notiver,
a local newspaper, said it was between the Zetas and the Gente Nueva
and an unknown number of people were killed.

Police recovered a small arsenal of weapons and more than 3,000 spent
shells and live rounds at the scene, the paper reported.

Note 3: "This for lending my ranch to those (expletive) who said they
would protect me when the Zetas arrived, but left me to die alone.
This is for you Florentino Estrada Rosas. I'm the deceased, Mario
Cano Sanchez, Tenexpan," (sic)

The Zetas sent their own note April 16. It was found on a body in Xalapa.

The victim actually was named Mario Camo Sanchez, from Tenenexpan, a
ranching community in Veracruz state. Camo was identified by local
media as an area rancher whose land the Gente Nueva allegedly used as a base.

The street shootout and the tit-for-tat killing resembled a
long-established pattern in other cities of reprisals between the
Gulf and Sinaloa cartels.

The Gente Nueva "are paid and supported by Chapo's people," asserted
the U.S. official who believes the group works for the Sinaloa
Cartel, whose leader is Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman.

Rather than a vigilante group, the Gente Nueva could be part of an
increasing number of minicartels, or "cartelitos," who align
themselves with bigger operations, said Bagley, the university professor.

Because the evidence of its vigilante nature is strong, history says
the Gente Nueva could be both.

In Colombia in the early 1990s, a vigilante group called Los Pepes
went after drug kingpin Pablo Escobar in a similar fashion, killing
his men and leaving threatening notes.

Los Pepes operated on its own but received some funding from rival cartels.

The danger in this precedent, Bagley said, is that Los Pepes
eventually morphed into the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia,
or AUC, a paramilitary group responsible for numerous human rights
abuses. It continues to haunt that country.

Note 4: "Here we send you a gift (expletive) reporters (expletive).
Many more heads will roll like this, Milo Vela knows and others will
too. 100 heads for my father. Sincerely, son of Mario Camo Sanchez
and the Gente Nueva."

The most recent note, found next to a human head in the city of
Veracruz on May 3, was disconcerting to reporters, who took it as a
threat to their profession.

"As simple mortals we can't do anything. We're always powerless
against those who arrive with all of the power that some mob boss has
given them," Notiver columnist Antonio Armenta Nunez wrote about the
wave of violence.

The note appeared to single out Emilio Vela, one of his Notiver colleagues.

As the killings continue, Veracruz is cowering.

"I've heard of the group, we all have," said Moises Gonzalez,
spokesman for the state's ministry of public safety. "But I can't
help you. I don't know who would dare to talk about that."