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210012
2009-06-03 17:37:00
09MONTERREY210
Consulate Monterrey
CONFIDENTIAL

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C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 MONTERREY 000210 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR DS/IP 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL:  6/3/2019 
TAGS: KCRM ASEC SNAR CASC PGOV MX
SUBJECT: NUEVO LEON STATE PUBLIC SECURITY SECRETARY SEES A MIXED 
FUTURE FOR ANTI-CRIME EFFORTS 
 
MONTERREY 00000210  001.2 OF 002 
 
 
CLASSIFIED BY: Bruce Williamson, Consul General, Monterrey, 
State. 
REASON: 1.4 (b), (d) 
1 .   (C)   Summary.  In a recent conversation Nuevo Leon's 
chief public security aide told post officials that after nearly 
two years in office he was leaving the state in better shape 
than he found it.  However, he added, significant amounts of 
work would need to be done by his successor before Nuevo Leon 
could rely on state/local police to confront organized crime. 
Indeed, offering `plata o plomo' narco-traffickers were easily 
able to recruit allies among the law enforcement community, as 
the authorities had no capacity to protect officers threatened 
during the course of their official duties.  End Summary. 
 
¶2.    (C)   On May 28 Consul General and RSO met with Nuevo Leon 
state Public Security Secretary Aldo Fasci to get his 
perspectives on the status of government efforts against 
organized crime.  Fasci, a lawyer by trade, has served nearly 
six years in Nuevo Leon's law enforcement apparatus - four as 
deputy state procurador and coming up on two as public security 
secretary.  He clearly relished the prospect of handing over the 
reins to his successor sometime shortly after the upcoming July 
5 gubernatorial election, and hoped that the continuing series 
of death threats he received would cease after he left office. 
 
¶3.   (C)   Fasci opined that Monterrey had quieted down compared 
to the previous year given the emergence of an effective 
intel/interdiction capability on the part of the local Mexican 
army command.  He saw recent attempted mob hits in the area as 
friction between the Gulf Cartel and the Arturo Beltran Leyva 
band as the narco-traffickers sought to reorganize after a 
string of high-profile detentions by the military.  Indeed, he 
noted that the word on the street was that the two cartels 
jointly planned to bring in a high-level figure to help right 
operations.  Fasci stated that  non-narcotics related abductions 
were also declining in the wake of arrests by his state police 
of members of several kidnappings rings.  (One reliable 
independent security consultant we spoke with the same day 
disputed this assertion, noting that information pools from 
various security industry sources had resulted in a tally of 200 
non-drug related kidnappings in 2008 and that 2009 was 
proceeding at the same rate.) 
 
¶4.    (C)   As he does in many of his public statements, Fasci 
lamented the precarious condition of Nuevo Leon's 
state/municipal police forces.  A good number of the region's 
local cops worked for the drug cartels, he said, either out of 
greed or fear.  The state, as well as some cities, had made 
progress in raising police salaries to reasonable levels, but 
what they were finding is that they have no way to protect 
officers who are threatened in the course of their official 
duties.  In February during the wave of narco-inspired street 
demonstrations, a state police commander arrested one of the 
protest organizers.  Several days after refusing a cartel demand 
to release the detainee, the commander was gunned down outside 
his house.  Note:  on June 1-2, subsequent to our meeting with 
Fasci, military troops, supported by state police elements, 
surrounded municipal police installations in three cities in the 
metro area (Monterrey, Apodaca, and San Nicolas) to arrest 
suspected narco-cops.  Subsequently, the military detained five 
`big fish':  the Monterrey city Transit Secretary and the 
municipal Secretaries of Public Security for the satellite 
cities of Guadalupe and Escobedo, along with their police 
chiefs.  Per preliminary June 3 reports, all five have now been 
released. 
 
¶5.   (C)   Looking back, Fasci opined that one mistake Nuevo 
Leon had made was to view the current wave of violence as simply 
a problem to be handled by the police.  In reality, he 
continued, a multi-disciplinary effort would be needed if any 
lasting progress was to be made.  Defensive policing could help 
to protect the public from common crime, but an offensive 
capability - to be supplied by the military forces - was 
necessary to attack the cartels.  Meanwhile, public relations 
and community outreach needed to be undertaken at the political 
level to urge citizens to report crimes and other suspicious 
events to the authorities.  (Note:  during the past two years, 
Fasci himself has had two relatives kidnapped and it appears 
that no one filed an official `denuncia' in either incident 
after the victims were released.) 
 
¶6.  (C)   Another dead-end, Fasci lamented, had been his efforts 
to get neighboring U.S. states, such as Texas, to provide 
training to Nuevo Leon's police forces.  Discussions on joint 
training within the U.S.-Mexico Border Governor's Conference had 
foundered, he said, because of disagreements among U.S. states 
(California vs. Texas/Arizona) and lack of funding.  Meanwhile, 
Merida initiative funding although welcome, took so long to 
 
MONTERREY 00000210  002.2 OF 002 
 
 
disburse that it had not proven any help, he observed.  Finally, 
while the Governor had inaugurated Nuevo Leon's ballyhooed C-5 
center (so named because it would coordinate the activities of 
various municipal C-4 centers), Fasci admitted that in many ways 
the building remained a hollow shell since the state did not 
have funds to pay its contractor - Northrop-Grumann - for needed 
communication software. 
 
¶7.  (C)    Looking ahead, Fasci hoped to provide informal 
assistance and counsel to his successor once he left office. 
As there is a tradition in Nuevo Leon, and Mexico in general, of 
nominating political insiders - and not security professionals - 
to the office of Public Security Secretary, his successor may 
have a steep learning curve at the outset.   All of his aides 
and unit chiefs would be new to the job as fresh faces were 
rotated in.   Reflecting upon what happened to him, Fasci noted 
that upon assuming the Secretary-ship in September 2007, his 
staff received unexpected, highly-detailed tips about organized 
crime safe houses.  After weighing whether the information was a 
set-up or not, he decided to send his officers in - whereupon 
they seized significant quantities of narcotics, arms, and cash. 
 Only later did he realize, Fasci commented, that the tips the 
Secretariat had received were from the traffickers themselves. 
This `gift' upon entering office was intended to trick him into 
believing that he oversaw an effective, reliable police force 
(which he does not). 
 
¶8.  (C)   Comment.  Though Fasci claims that the state police 
are in better shape now than when he took office, this 
contention is debatable.   While he has made progress in raising 
police salaries,  he told post officials upon entering office 
that during his tenure he planned to create a separate clean 
police force and sideline  the corrupt cops by assigning them to 
pointless jobs like guarding buildings -- and none of this has 
happened.  In the end, he likely discovered that there were too 
many rotten apples and not enough money to support the few good 
ones. 
WILLIAMSON