I have been off line for a while now and while much has occurred in Mexico, new elections new far left political party in power, San Carlos, in an ever changing world, has not really changed that much since I left the blog to work on our Non Profit Worlds Aquarium along with our sea lion disentanglement program. I also spent much time working on our 40 foot trimaran Windsplitter so it has been over two years now since I have written much of anything. Now that Windsplitter is finished in the water and sea worthy once again I am going to get back to work on projects that I hope will benefit the environment and the tourism industry in San Carlos and the greater Sea of Cortes. This post is kind of like my last hurrah on the subject of San Carlos as a “Pueblo Magico” and Politics in general in this town, so here goes!
Lets start with the making San Carlos a “Pueblo Magico” bullshit that has been circulating for several years now. Honestly does San Carlos deserves the designation? The realtors in this town are just dying for the it but lets please just seriously take a look at the aesthetics, which is one of the primiary requirements of the designation. We are talking about garbage here! As much as each Guaymas mayor might try, they simply can’t run away from the garbage problem. The disgusting quantities of trash that fill our streets and beaches, the stench of garbage cans and garbage bins all over town is only the first of many reasons why San Carlos could not in it’s wildest dreams ever hope to be a “Pueblo Magico”. I have preached this before and I will simply mention it this last time. The only way San Carlos can move forward is if it becomes it’s own municipality. There are still a few people working on this option and I am told by Juan Carlos Gonzales that soon he will finally deliver paper work to the legislature in Hermosillo. The paper work will document all of the illegalities of CEA the water company as well as show how Lorenzo de Cima ignored the will of the people of San Carlos and violated the law, by refusing residents the right to choose their own comisario. Of course in less than a week Lorenzo will be just another bad memory and another corrupt mayor of Guaymas who stole money from the budget of San Carlos and put it into his own back pocket.
The slide show below are old pictures of Garbage around San Carlos from a couple of years ago. It is worse now, far worse as everyone knows.
The Security issues. San Carlos has been turned into a dumping ground for corpses in Mexico’s failed drug war. A drug war that the new president of Mexico Andres Lopez Obrador realizes can never be won under current drug policy in Mexico. I have lost count of the bodies. The huge clandestine grave out by Nacapuli had well over 100 bodies discovered in it. Today as I started to formulate this blog another body was found/purposely left on the streets of Guaymas in the suburb of Las Golondrinas just last night. It was reported that the victim’s head was covered in a plastic bag and his body showed obvious signs of torture. If you have not seen the Netflix series “Narcos” yet then I suggest you take a look at it. Season one deals with Pablo Escobar and the Colombian cocaine empire he built and then subsequently lost when he was hunted down like the animal he was and assassinated by the Columbian military and America’s DEA in Medellín, Colombia. Season two deals with the dismantling of the Cali cartel and season three will be guess where? Yes Narcos season three comes to Mexico! The show is pretty graphic and that is why I recommend watching it. Because what you will see in Narcos, if you choose to watch it, is exactly what takes place here in the Municipality of Guaymas and that includes San Carlos on a daily basis. Just two weeks ago local San Carlos police officers did something so incredibly stupid I had a hard time myself believing it. This forced the Governor of the state to call in federal and state police to take over security for Guaymas and of course San Carlos. Fortunately for me I was out of town during the whole fiasco but if you have not heard about this then get ready for a story. This is right out of the Narcos 101 playbook.
Here in a nutshell is what has been reported. Three guys from the area of Navajoa and Alamos came to San Carlos for a vacation. They got both of their vehicles stuck on San Francisco Beach. The police showed up to help and then eventually came to some kind of realization that the guys who vehicles they helped 
belonged to a drug cartel from the area of Navajoa/Alamos. Once they came to this realization they decided to turn these guys over to the local Guaymas area drug cartel. Certainly the police who did this must have called their supperiors to get the ok. Now here is where it goes south. These idiot cops allowed the guys to leave the beach and stopped them on the way out of town. Where did they stop them? Right on the boulevard infront of the brightly colored letters that spell out San Carlos!! Where everyone and there mother stops with a dozen cell phones to take selfies. Someone with a pair of cajones the size of sandias filmed these local San Carlos cops delivering the subjects to the Guayms cartel. See first video below, in this video which I received on WhatsApp on July 31st, you can here a girl extremely worried about what was being filmed. This video went viral on WhatsApp, I received it while I was in Tucson. The police where screwed, now there was evidence of them doing something that is a kin to an execution on camera. Once you are delivered to a rival cartel the odds of you surviving are pretty low. The three guys who were turned over in this video were just a week ago found murdered. The day after the bodies were recovered there was an attempted assassination of one of the Municipal police commandantes, a women who was shot multiple times as she entered Golds Gym in Guaymas. Several of my daughters high school class mates witnessed the shootings.
July 31st WhatsApp video of Guaymas/San Carlos police kidnapping suspected cartel members from Navajoa.
The Cartel from the south has now declared a full on war with the Municipal police of San Carlos and Guaymas. The attempted murder at Golds Gym is most likely just the beginning.
By the 2nd of August, 17 busses from southern Sonora, Navojoa/Alamos area were filled with approximately 50 people per bus. They closed the entrance to San Carlos for a great part of the day. The pictures and video below are from that day that I received while in Tucson.
This video is rather self explanatory. Family members and drug cartels protesting the fact the San Carlos police kidnapped three guys who apparently not here on official cartel business but just taking a day at the beach. Later in the day the below video shows how the protestors actually took over the Comisarios office. Of course by then everyone at the office of the Comisario in San Carlos left the building.
After taking over the office of Comisario in San Carlos and then realizing there was no one there it was reported the group went to Guaymas and took over the Palacio. I also heard that by the time the protestors got there all city official in Guaymas had left the Palacio. Sounds about right to me. Cowardly government officials certainly don’t want to here about how there municipal police are working for local drug cartels!!!
On July 31st Lilian Arce a Comandante for the Municipal Police in Guaymas was shot as she entered Golds Gym in Guaymas to work out. Several of my daughters class mates were working out at the gym and witnessed the attempted assassination. Miraculously the Comandante survived the three bullet wounds recieved to her right leg, shoulder and liver. She was evacuated by helicopter to Hermosillo which is most likely the reason she survived. Undoubtedly a bullet to the liver of someone in Guaymas is a death sentence if you can not be evacuated to Hermosillo quickly. Pics below are Lilian Arce and images of the day of the shooting at Gold’s Gym.
San Carlos, Pueblo Magico right smack in the middle of Mexico’s drug war. San Carlos will never be a Pueblo Magico until it breaks away from Guaymas and forms it’s own distinct municipality.
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