TX - A day in the life of a Zeta cartel kill camp, San Antonio

LAREDO — A Zeta hit man on Wednesday offered a peek into the slaughter that took place in the small Mexican town of San Fernando, where the remains of 200 bodies were unearthed last year, testifying how new cartel recruits were trained to kill there.

“They would show new recruits how to kill,” testified Wenceslao Tovar, 26, an admitted Zeta sicario, or hit man. “They would give them a machete. If not, they'd give them a sledge hammer and they'd tell them to kill the people they had tied up.”
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Those who successfully completed the training were treated to a party that included a raffle with winners getting watches, vehicles and cash, Tovar said. Those who couldn't kill were made halcones, the Spanish word for “hawks,” used to describe cartel lookouts, he said.
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Drug Enforcement Administration Agent Chris Diaz told jurors in a federal drug conspiracy trial here that agents who tapped a Zetas hit man's phone heard him bragging about using blood from one of two teenage victims to toast the Santa Muerte, a folk saint favored by Mexican drug traffickers.

“They tortured him, and he ended up splitting their bellies open and he poured the blood into a cup and he made a toast to the Santisima Muerte,” Diaz testified.
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Jasso said he didn't stick around to see what happened, but heard Cardona killed the two and put their bodies in what cartel members call a guiso, the Spanish word for stew, in this case used to describe a grisly way of disposing of bodies.

“They're thrown into barrels and they pour gasoline on them and burn them until they're powder,” Jasso, 29, said through a translator.
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