Mexico’s instability, drug wars, et. al.

[CougarKing]

With these latest attacks, the drug lords seemed to have taken the war right into the Mexican Army's bases.

Associated Press link

VILLAHERMOSA, Mexico – Dozens of gunmen mounted rare and apparently coordinated attacks targeting two army garrisons in northern Mexico, touching off firefights that killed 18 attackers.

The attempts to blockade soldiers inside their bases — part of seven near-simultaneous attacks across two northern states — appeared to mark a serious escalation in Mexico's drug war, in which cartel gunmen attacked in unit-size forces armed with bulletproof vehicles, dozens of hand grenades and assault rifles.

While drug gunmen frequently shoot at soldiers on patrol, they seldom target army bases, and even more rarely attack in the force displayed during the confrontations Tuesday in the border states of Tamaulipas and Nuevo Leon — areas that have seen a surge of bloodshed in recent months.

The violence mainly involves a fight between the Gulf cartel and its former allies, the Zetas, a gang of hit men. The cartel — which has apparently formed an alliance with other cartels seeking to exterminate the Zetas — has been warning people in the region with a series of banners and e-mails that the conflict would get worse over the next two to three months.
(...)

 

[muskrat89]

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/04/04/murdered-ranchers-family-asks-troops-mexican-border/

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/04/03/journals-texas-students-reveal-horrors-border/

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/2010/03/20/20100320arizona-illegal-immigration-laws.html

http://www.azcentral.com/community/tempe/articles/2010/04/02/20100402passengers-flee-vehicle-in-tempe.html

http://www.azcentral.com/community/phoenix/articles/2010/04/01/20100401phoenix-truck-13-suspected-immigrants.html

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2010/03/29/20100329rancher-killed-at-arizona-ranch.html

http://www.kpho.com/news/23047043/detail.html

Bienvenidos a Arizona

 

[muskrat89]

Arizona has just passed the most stringent anti-illegal immigrant law in the country. Lots of court challenges stacking up already.

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2010/04/23/20100423arizona-immigration-law-passed.html

Gov Brewer :

Brewer said that she listened patiently to supporters and opponents and that, although "many people disagree, I firmly believe it represents what's best for Arizona." She criticized the federal government for a lack of action to secure the border, and she said her signature provided "security within our borders."

"We cannot sacrifice our safety to the murderous greed of drug cartels," Brewer said. "We cannot stand idly by as drophouses, kidnappings and violence compromise our quality of life."

 

[CougarKing]

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Gunmen ambushed army troops inspecting flood-risk zones in a northern Mexican border city, killing one soldier and wounding another, authorities said Thursday.

Three gunmen in a car opened fire on the military patrol Wednesday in Piedras Negras, a city across the border from Eagle Pass, Texas, the Defense Department said in a statement. The soldiers had been inspecting neighborhoods to prepare for floods after several days of heavy rains.

One soldier was killed and another was wounded in ensuing battle.

Officials said soldiers arrested the gunmen and seized 12 guns, including 10 assault rifles, ammunition and bulletproof vests from the assailants — an arsenal typical of Mexico's brutal drug cartels.

The statement did not say if the gunmen were affiliated with any particular gang.

Soldiers have increasingly come under attack in northeastern Mexico, where the Gulf cartel is battling its former ally, the Zetas gang of hit men.

Mexican and U.S. officials said the Gulf cartel has aligned itself with the Sinaloa and La Familia gangs to wipe out the Zetas in the region.

Meanwhile, the Defense Department said a member of the Arturo Beltran Leyva cartel was killed in a separate battle with soldiers Wednesday in the northern city of Monterrey.

The agency identified the man as Sergio Adrian Martinez, a former state police officer who was allegedly the leader of the Beltran Leyva cartel in San Pedro Garza Garcia, a wealthy suburb of Monterrey.

 

[sean m]

The only way to stop the violence is to stop the cocaine flow, this comes from Bolivia and Colombia, there you would need to provide the farmers with an alternate crop to grow which is lucrative. Improve the socio economic conditions of these people. Eliminate the coroption there. Easier said then done. The mexican cartels also specialize in marijuana growing, governments need to legalize this drug in order to stop organized crime from profiting. Again easier said than done, this has to be a continental movement.

 

[Neolithium]

If you find a crop for those farmers that is more lucrative than cocaine you could find yourself with a Nobel prize.  It would be far better to fire more money into rehabilitation services here where the demand for the drugs come from.  If there's no one to buy the cocaine, Cartels lose the income.  They aren't in it for the enjoyment, they are in it for the billions of dollars it generates.

Edited because I fail at English.  :crybaby:

 

[sean m]

Um this people live in absolute garbage, they have absolutely nothing, they are at the bottom of the  bottom. I think that all these people want is to live a good life, the same as most people here, with decent money coming in. Obviously there are not in it for the enjoyment, I doubt that growing something as a farme; you dont make much profit anyway, you have the chance of being killed and/or arrested, I doubt that you would enjoy it. You say pay for rehab, that is taking care of one problem but not at the source. You can spend all you want on rehab clinics, there will constantly be people buying cocaine it is probably the biggest selling drug in north america. You are gonna waste millions of not billions on this, arrest the drug dealers wont work either or the suppliers, there will always be money to made and people will always be dealing drugs. You fill up the prisons which creates over crowding, even more anger, lack of opportunity etc etc. There are natural good out there whose industries are in the billions ex. coffee and tobacco. If only the titans in the industry would give a damn about the cultivators producing the crop and giving them much better salaries and insurance, I am almost 100% certain the farmers would choose this.

If you find a crop for those farmers that is more lucrative than cocaine you could find yourself with a Nobel prize.  It would be far better to fire more money into rehabilitation services here where the demand for the drugs come from.  If there's no one to buy the cocaine, Cartels lose the income.  They aren't in it for the enjoyment, they are in it for the billions of dollars it generates.

Edited because I fail at English.  :crybaby:

 

[CougarKing]

Federal police officers stand in formation after their arrival at Mariano Escobedo international airport in Apodaca, neighbouring Monterrey August 26, 2010. About 150 police officers arrived on Thursday to take part in an operation to curb drug-related violence, according to local media. REUTERS/Tomas Bravo

In this image released by Mexico's Public Safety Department on Monday Aug. 30, 2010, Edgar Valdez Villarreal, alias 'the Barbie,'' is escorted by police officers in the state of Mexico, which borders the capital, Mexico City. Federal police on Monday, Aug. 30, 2010, captured Valdez Villarreal, a Texas-born alleged drug kingpin, who faces trafficking charges in the U.S. and has been blamed for a vicious turf war that has included bodies hung from bridges and shootouts in central Mexico.
(AP Photo/Mexico's Public Safety Department)

Agence-France-Presse link

Army clashes with drug gangs in eastern Mexico: seven dead

55 minutes ago


VERACRUZ, Mexico (AFP) - At least seven people have been killed in clashes between Mexican soldiers and likely drug gangs not far from where 72 migrants were massacred last week, the military said Monday.

The clashes began Sunday night in the city of Panuco, bordering northeastern Tamaulipas state which has seen a recent eruption of violence, including explosives attacks and the murder of a mayor in recent days.


Six suspects and one soldier were killed and five soldiers were wounded, the statement said.


The soldiers were attacked with fragmentation grenades and guns when they arrived at an alleged safe house used by drug gangs following a tip-off, the statement said.


The shootout lasted through the night, and skirmishes were also reported elsewhere in the city, which is in Veracruz state.


Six people were detained, as well as several weapons including 11 AK-47s, the army said.

Blame for the massacre of 72 Central and South American migrants last week fell on the ruthless Zetas drug gang set up by former elite soldiers...

(...)

 

[a_majoor]

The entire Mexican State is unraveling, which has far more serious security implications for us than any number of "peacekeeping" or stability adventures in Africa of central Asia:

http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/failed-state-watch-how-much-longer-for-mexico-part-one/

Failed State Watch: How Much Longer for Mexico? (Part One)

Posted By Alberto de la Cruz On January 3, 2011 @ 12:00 am In Crime,Homeland Security,Immigration,Latin America,US News,Uncategorized,World News | 7 Comments

For years now, the drug war raging between the well-armed Mexican drug cartels and the Mexican government has been well documented by the international press. And with that war now spilling into American cities located near the Mexican border, news agencies here are paying more attention to the escalating violence. But while there has been no shortage of reportage on the drug war, few reporters are investigating the rampant corruption within the Mexican government itself that has facilitated the spread and growth of that drug trade — and in many cases has participated in it.

Today, as Mexican drug cartels become more emboldened and lawlessness spreads throughout the country, the Mexican government is struggling to maintain control. One by one, cities within Mexico are being taken over by drug lords and criminal kingpins, as mayors, police chiefs, and police officers are either bought or assassinated by the cartel leaders.

During his campaign for president in 2006, Mexican President Felix Calderon vowed to go after the drug cartels and to reduce drastically the drug-related crime wave that besieged the nation. However, what President Calderon apparently did not take into consideration when making this campaign promise was the rampant corruption within the government itself, from its judicial system to law enforcement, which has allowed this unprecedented growth in power and influence by the Mexican drug lords.

Only four short years ago, it seems Felipe Calderon had no idea how insidious the corruption had become. In a leaked diplomatic cable from the U.S. embassy in Madrid, a conversation in 2007 between the Mexican president and the visiting former Spanish President Jose Maria Aznar reveals that Calderon had admitted that the Mexican government had completely miscalculated the corruption in Mexico and the influence wielded by the drug cartels:

    Aznar had just completed a trip to Mexico and believes that President Calderon is doing a “credible job.” Aznar said Calderon admitted to having completely misjudged the depth and breadth of corruption in Mexico and that the pervasive influence of narcotics in the country was beyond comprehension.

The “credible job” Aznar referred to is debatable when you consider that three years later the drug war in Mexico has only gotten worse, and the corruption that has permeated the Mexican government has grown and continues to provide aid and shelter to the criminal rings that operate virtually unchallenged within the country. It is estimated that 90% of the cocaine that is brought into the U.S. comes through Mexico, and while close to 40,000 Mexicans have been killed by drug violence in the past four years, only 2% of the crimes committed are ever punished. This gives the drug lords an immense advantage not only over the Mexican president, but over the Mexican population as well, which is powerless to combat the violence.

What hope for a normal and safe existence can a law-abiding Mexican have when he or she knows that for every 100 of their fellow countrymen beaten, raped, or murdered, only two will see justice prevail?

Even when the Mexican government manages to capture one of the capos, as they refer to the drug kingpins, too often these ringleaders go free due to lack of evidence, legal errors, or unlawful actions committed by government law enforcement officials during their investigations. Blog del Narco (www.blogdelnarco.com [1]), a popular Mexico based blog run by two anonymous bloggers reporting on the drug-related violence happening throughout the country, reported recently on five high-profile cases of captured capos who ended up going free:

    Whenever the federal government captures a capo they display them like collected trophies, going as far as showing them on national television. However, when the time comes to prove their guilt to judges, all the sub-secretary of the Organized Crime Special Investigations department (SIEDO) collects is defeats.

    Five cases of accused high-profile drug traffickers, some included in government television spots, have been thrown out by the judicial authorities this past year for lack of evidence, omissions or errors in the case files, or for illegal actions undertaken by the investigative authorities.

As the violence increases and the drug lords gain control of more cities, the Mexican government finds itself struggling to defeat an enemy that seems to grow stronger with each passing day. This reality calls into the question the stability of the country itself: how much longer can the government of Mexico continue to hold power while it continues to lose control?

A nation sharing a border with the U.S. descending into anarchy is a frightful thought for Americans, and the obvious implications of such an event should be causing concern throughout the halls of the White House and the State Department. To complicate matters further, consider that Mexico is home to over 112,000,000 people and is an important trading partner to the U.S. And in spite of the corruption and mismanagement, the country is one of the world’s top producers of petroleum with an impressive trillion-dollar economy. A collapse of the government there would not only cause a security threat on our southern border, it would also send harmful shockwaves through the American economy and the world economy as well. And that would only be the beginning.

The corruption within Mexico does not only manifest itself in the drug trade, it is apparent in society as well. With its trillion-dollar economy and petroleum production, Mexico still manages to have 47% of its population living below the poverty line according to 2008 figures. This makes the narcotics trade not only a viable and acceptable option for many Mexicans, but in some cases an unavoidable one.

Nothing illustrates the societal shift away from the rule of law that appears to be taking place south of the border better than the latest trend among Mexican children. Instead of emulating superheroes and sports stars during playtime, children are now emulating drug cartel assassins.

In another report from Blog del Narco, we learn that Mexican children have given up playing typical children’s games such as soccer, and have traded in their soccer balls for toy weapons in order to play “assassins”:

    It may seem incredible to some that the children no longer play soccer on the streets as before. Now they pretend to be assassins. They form teams, just as before, but now they arm their mini commando units to engage in imaginary battles that perhaps in the future will be their reality.

    The girls too form part of this game, leaving their dolls to the side to turn themselves into assassins. Some are even the commanders in these play groups of children.

The situation with the Mexican children has gotten so out of hand that parents have begun prohibiting their children from having plastic guns and weapons. Even the Mexican government’s consumer protection agency, PROFECO, launched a campaign during the Christmas season exhorting retailers to remove plastic guns, rifles, and machine guns from their toy shelves.

The drug war taking place in Mexico deserves the coverage it has received, but the corruption within the Mexican government and its inability to effectively combat the drug cartels merits as much or more of that coverage. It is a deadly combination that threatens to destabilize a nation with 112 million inhabitants to the point of anarchy. A nation bordering the U.S. with an out-of-control drug war is a serious threat. A nation bordering the U.S. in a state of anarchy, with the only authority being well-funded and well-armed drug kingpins, is a clear and present danger.

Article printed from Pajamas Media: http://pajamasmedia.com

URL to article: http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/failed-state-watch-how-much-longer-for-mexico-part-one/

URLs in this post:

[1] www.blogdelnarco.com: http://www.blogdelnarco.com/

 

[a_majoor]

The Secretary of State makes some helpful comments. Explained here.

Too funny to resist, but also a sober truth...

 

[a_majoor]

The Drug War may become more than a metaphore:

http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/failed-state-watch-how-long-before-u-s-military-confrontation-with-mexico-cartels/

Failed State Watch: How Long Before U.S. Military Confrontation with Mexico Cartels?
Posted By Alberto de la Cruz On February 24, 2011 @ 12:00 am In Uncategorized | 10 Comments

The violence rolling across Mexico continues to destroy everything and everyone in its path, threatening the further destabilization of an already besieged society teetering on the brink of anarchy. That wave is crashing on our border as Mexican drug cartel-related incidents increase in the United States.

This month’s murder [1] of a U.S. ICE agent and wounding of another — when their armored Suburban was attacked by assailants on a Mexican highway — is just another example of the drug-related crime that has become commonplace in Mexico. The 83 shell casings found at the scene indicate this was a premeditated hit on U.S. agents trying to help the Mexican government in their losing battle against the cartels.

A quick recap of only a few of the other violent crimes that took place in Mexico just the past weeks:

In Guadalupe, five youths believed to be drug dealers were murdered execution style. Their bullet-riddled bodies were then picked up from the scene of the crime, placed in a truck, and delivered to the victim’s homes in a final act of gruesome contempt.

In the city of Juarez, 16 people were murdered in one single day. Five of them were young men traveling in a car who died in a hail of bullets after gunmen forced their vehicle to stop and opened fire. Minutes earlier, a young girl who had accompanied the murdered men had just entered her home after being dropped off, fortunate timing being the only thing that saved her life.

In Acapulco, gunmen in at least ten trucks went on a terror spree through the city. Their indiscriminate gunfire knocked out power to some areas of the city, while they damaged twenty vehicles by setting them on fire or carjacking them to use as roadblocks. One witness described the melee as a war, with bullets flying everywhere. The early morning attack resulted in nine innocent people murdered, including taxi drivers [2], and many more wounded. Later in the day, five more victims were added to the death toll when their dismembered bodies were discovered by the police.

In Veracruz, the dismembered bodies of six unidentified murder victims were thrown outside a surveillance post run by the Mexican Department of Public Safety. The six severed heads and associated body parts were spread about to form a message from the Gulf Cartel.

All of the above violent incidents took place over a few days. While the Mexican government is attempting to break the wave of violence that is overtaking the nation, it has not had much success in stopping the drug cartels who not only threaten the Mexican people but the stability of the Mexican government as well.

That same wave of violence is crashing on our southern border and sending a stream of mayhem into our border states. The drug cartels have no issue using the same brutal methods in the U.S. that they use in Mexico. The rising intensity has prompted Pinal County, Arizona, Sheriff Paul Babeu to state that armed conflict between U.S. police forces and heavily armed drug cartel squads is inevitable:

We’re expecting a conflict. I absolutely believe you’re going to see that happen in the next 30 to 60 days. It’s not like I’m trying to start a war with the cartels. They’re coming through like they own this place, and we’re trying to stop them. I pray that every time, they surrender.

…

And we’re not just talking about illegal immigrants. We’re talking about cartels that have almost toppled the Mexican government and believe they can come into our county and commit these crimes and acts of violence. This is not going to happen here.

Until our southern border is secured, there is little that law enforcement officers like Sheriff Babeu can do about these attacks. As police departments, they are trained and equipped to deal with domestic crime, not organized and well-funded militant drug cartels with military-style armament. They must do their best to protect civilians as well as their own officers from a formidable menace that comes and goes across the border at will — all with no help or sympathy from the federal government.

While Janet Napolitano and the Department of Homeland Security continue to play politics with the border situation, refusing to admit there is a problem and proclaiming the situation to be improving, our border patrol and law enforcement officers are fending off attacks by soldiers of well-armed, well-funded, and ruthless drug cartels. Sooner rather than later, the wave of violence that is inundating Mexico will come crashing into the U.S. If we do not secure the border, the violence that has become commonplace in Mexico will become commonplace in our bordering states.

Article printed from Pajamas Media: http://pajamasmedia.com

URL to article: http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/failed-state-watch-how-long-before-u-s-military-confrontation-with-mexico-cartels/

URLs in this post:

[1] murder: http://www.ktsm.com/news/six-arrested-in-ice-agent-murder
[2] taxi drivers: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/02/21/501364/main20034382.shtml

 

[Edward Campbell]

Further drug/gang turmoil in Mexico - this time a prison riot:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/video-machinegunning-prisoners-riot-2328159.html

How much worse can things get?

 

[Edward Campbell]

And yet more, in this report which is reproduced under the Fair Dealing provisions of the Copyright Act from the Globe and Mail:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/americas/woman-decapitated-in-mexico-in-retaliation-for-social-network-posts/article2179337/

Woman decapitated in Mexico in retaliation for social-network posts

MARK STEVENSON
MEXICO CITY— The Associated Press

Published Saturday, Sep. 24, 2011

Police found a woman’s decapitated body in a Mexican border city on Saturday, alongside a handwritten sign saying she was killed in retaliation for her postings on a social networking site.

The gruesome killing may be the third so far this month in which people in Nuevo Laredo were killed by a drug cartel for what they said on the internet.

Morelos Canseco, the interior secretary of northern Tamaulipas state, where Nuevo Laredo is located, identified the victim as Marisol Macias Castaneda, a newsroom manager for the Nuevo Laredo newspaper Primera Hora.

The newspaper has not confirmed that title, and an employee of the paper said Macias Castaneda held an administrative post, not a reporting job. The employee was not authorized to be quoted by name.

But it was apparently what the woman posted on the local social networking site, Nuevo Laredo en Vivo, or “Nuevo Laredo Live,” rather than her role at the newspaper, that resulted in her killing.

The site prominently features tip hotlines for the Mexican army, navy and police, and includes a section for reporting the location of drug gang lookouts and drug sales points – possibly the information that angered the cartel.

The message found next to her body on the side of a main thoroughfare referred to the nickname the victim purportedly used on the site, “La Nena de Laredo,” or “Laredo Girl.” Her head was found placed on a large stone piling nearby.

“Nuevo Laredo en Vivo and social networking sites, I’m The Laredo Girl, and I’m here because of my reports, and yours,” the message read. “For those who don’t want to believe, this happened to me because of my actions, for believing in the army and the navy. Thank you for your attention, respectfully, Laredo Girl...ZZZZ.”

The letter “Z” refers to the hyper-violent Zetas drug cartel, which is believed to dominate the city across from Laredo, Texas.

It was unclear how the killers found out her real identity.

By late Saturday, the chat room at Nuevo Laredo en Vivo was abuzz with fellow posters who said they knew the victim from her online postings, and railing against the Zetas, a gang founded by military deserters who have become known for mass killings and gruesome executions.

They described her as a frequent poster, who used a laptop or cell phone to send reports.

“Girl why didn’t she buy a gun given that she was posting reports about the RatZZZ ... why didn’t she buy a gun?” wrote one chat participant under the nickname “Gol.”

Earlier this month, a man and a woman were found hanging dead from an overpass in Nuevo Laredo with a similar message threatening “this is what will happen” to internet users. However, it has not been clearly established whether the two had in fact ever posted any messages, or on what sites.

Residents of Mexican border cities often post under nicknames to report drug gang violence, because the posts allow a certain degree of anonymity.

Social media like local chat rooms and blogs, and networking sites like Twitter and Facebook, are often the only outlet for residents of violence-wracked cities to find out what areas to avoid because of ongoing drug cartel shootouts or attacks.

Local media outlets, whose journalists have been hit by killings, kidnappings and threats, are often too intimidated to report the violence.

Mexico’s Human Rights Commission says eight journalists have been killed in Mexico this year and 74 since 2000. Other press groups cite lower numbers, and figures differ based on the definition of who is a journalist and whether the killings appeared to involve their professional work.

While helpful, social networking posts sometimes are inaccurate and can lead to chaotic situations in cities wracked by gang confrontations. In the Gulf coast state of Veracruz, just south of Tamaulipas, the state government dropped terrorism charges last week against two Twitter users for false posts that officials said caused panic and chaos in late August.

Mexico, a NAFTA and G20 partner, is in some (I don't know how much) danger of slipping into the failing state category - not because of a lack of money or technology but, rather, because the civil power, the government, is unable to maintain law and order.

 

[Fishbone Jones]

And yet more, in this report which is reproduced under the Fair Dealing provisions of the Copyright Act from the Globe and Mail:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/americas/woman-decapitated-in-mexico-in-retaliation-for-social-network-posts/article2179337/

Mexico, a NAFTA and G20 partner, is in some (I don't know how much) danger of slipping into the failing state category - not because of a lack of money or technology but, rather, because the civil power, the government, is unable to maintain law and order.

And it doesn't help when the Obama administration and the BATF are supplying said gangsters with assault weapons through programs like Fast and Furious.

 

[Edward Campbell]

And it doesn't help when the Obama administration and the BATF are supplying said gangsters with assault weapons through programs like Fast and Furious.

 

[57Chevy]

See the Mexican cartels' main areas of influence :

Updated Cartels map showing disputed areas.

 

[Rifleman62]

The following was in the news a couple of weeks ago.

Picture caption: Brutal: The disemboweled corpses of a man (right) and a woman hang from a pedestrian bridge in Nuevo Laredo after they were murdered by a drugs cartel.

                        This sign was left on the bridge, translated from Spanish: 'This is going to happen to all those posting funny things on the internet'


Mexican couple killed, mutilated, hung on bridge over blogging about violence

A couple have been found hanging from a bridge in the Mexican border city of Nuevo Laredo after being disembowelled and mutilated by attackers.

The motive for the gruesome attack was to warn social media users not to criticise Mexican drug cartels on the internet.

Next to the battered bodies was a sign reading: ‘This is going to happen to all those posting funny things on the internet, You better (expletive) pay attention. I’m about to get you.’

The woman, thought to be in her 20s, was tied to the bridge from her feet and hands as her body dangled topless with her innards protruding.

The man’s body, also believed to be in his early 20s, was hanging from just his hands.

Online blogging about violence in Mexico is currently one of the loudest ways it is reported, after some traditional media outlets have been silenced by cartel threats.

Bloggers who release information about trafficking have faced threats in the past, but this might be the first warning to social network users, CNN reported.

Investigator Ricardo Mancillas Castillo told CNN that this form of torture, including disembowelment, has been seen before in drug-related violence but he has not encountered it before with internet threats.

The investigator said the victims will be almost impossible to identify because of the severe mutilation and there were no witnesses.

The bodies were found on Tuesday morning, which is thought to be 36 hours after they were killed.

It will also be impossible to find out whether the victims actually posted anything online about the cartels too, he said.

The two blogs that the attackers signalled out as a warning to internet users were Al Rojo Vivo and Blog del Narco.

Blog del Narco is a site that only posts news in relation to Mexican drug violence.

The site made a statement to CNN, saying that Blog del Narco is not dedicated to criticising crime and added: ‘We are not in favour or against any criminal group, we only inform as things happen.’

While Al Rojo Vivo is a forum where bloggers can make anonymous tips about crime.

Over the last five years more than 34,000 people have died in drug-related violence in the country.

SOURCE: Daily Mail

 

[Colin Parkinson]

At Canadiangunnutz someone posted a link to people being excuted by chainsaw, didn't watch the whole thing, but you know the whole purpose is to terrorize everyone. Mad Max is alive and true. You can bet the population is going to let democracy go in the hopes that someone will stamp out these thugs, at least a dicatorship will generally give you warning to behave before they kill you.

 

[a_majoor]

Even sadder is the role of the current US administration in fueling the violence (and the cover-up by both the politicians and the media):

http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/msm-sheep-ignoring-the-scandal-of-the-century/?print=1

MSM Sheep: Ignoring the Scandal of the Century

Posted By Bob Owens On September 28, 2011 @ 9:33 am In Uncategorized | 78 Comments

Monday’s revelations by Mike Vanderboegh at Sipsey Street Irregulars [1] and David Codrea at the Gun Rights Examiner [2], corroborated here [3] at PJMedia and expounded upon at Fox News [4], comprise a “smoking gun” of the one of the most stunning political scandals in U.S. history.

As William Lajeunesse writes at Fox:

    Not only did U.S. officials approve, allow and assist in the sale of more than 2,000 guns to the Sinaloa cartel — the federal government used taxpayer money to buy semi-automatic weapons, sold them to criminals and then watched as the guns disappeared.

I don’t wish to understate it: elements of the U.S. Departments of Justice, State, Homeland Security, and Treasury are responsible for supplying an arsenal to narco-terrorists waging a civil war against an American ally. Our federal government may bear responsibility for at least 200 murders committed with “walked” firearms, in what Mexican Attorney General Marisela Morales describes as a “betrayal [5]” of her country by the Obama administration.

Are there legal ramifications? Perhaps. According to Title 18, 2331 of the U.S. Code, Operation Fast and Furious may amount to international terrorism [6], which carries with it stiff penalties for conspiracies that result in homicide [7]. The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations [8] (RICO) Act — which was originally used to prosecute the mafia — and the Arms Export Control Act [9] (AECA) may also fit, as may assorted state and federal charges. Charges may also result from two investigations launched by Mexican authorities, and Mexico could conceivably file charges with the International Criminal Court.

This is objectively the most important political and legal story in America right now.

But despite the revelations from of documents and testimony obtained by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and repeated calls for full disclosure from senators and congressmen, mainstream media organizations have done everything in their power to bury the scandal. This can only be viewed as a partisan media’s attempt to protect a criminal executive branch.

Let’s play “if Bush did it.”

If thousands of firearms had been provided to the Sinaloa cocaine cartel by the Justice Department; and if those guns had been blamed for not one or two, but hundreds of murders by Mexico’s lead prosecutor, would there not be wall-to-wall front page coverage every day on the pages of the New York Times … if Bush were still president?

Under Bush, the MSM did provide blanket coverage for the warrantless wiretapping program — which was deemed legal by the courts and caused no deaths.

If circumstantial evidence, political speeches, and talking points from Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, and President Bush all suggested that the solitary goal of a gunwalking conspiracy was to put American weapons in the hands of criminals in hopes they would commit violent crimes in order to undermine the Constitution and Bill of Rights … the Washington Post columnists would call for impeachment and criminal prosecution each day.

Recall how they breathlessly reported the minute details and speculations of the Valerie Plame affair, which had much smaller stakes.

Instead, both the New York Times and Washington Post have responded to Gunwalker with attempted character assassinations of Congressman Darrell Issa, the lead investigator.

The Post ran a desperate hit piece [10] on Issa, a story turned down by at least two other news organizations and left-wing blog Talking Points Memo for being too thinly sourced. They gave the byline to a reporter returning from a plagiarism suspension.

After that failed to stop Issa, the New York Times produced a hit piece so rife with errors that it amounted to fiction [10].

Among the MSM, only Richard Serrano of the Los Angeles Times, Sharyl Attkisson of CBS News, and William Lajeunesse of Fox News have faithfully reported on the story.

Nobody died in the Watergate break-ins, but the Washington Post’s dogged coverage of the story created a reputation that the now clearly partisan newsletter coasts upon to this day. The New York Times spent untold man-hours and and money exposing the FISA warrantless wiretapping program — to the detriment of the nation’s national security — even though no laws were broken by the wiretaps.

Yet perhaps hundreds have died as a result of this administration’s conspiracy to supply weapons to a narco-terrorist organization, and the crack ABC News investigative team at the Blotter [11] can’t be bothered. 60 Minutes is more enthralled by the murder of an American Nazi [12] than the Obama adminstration’s Reichstag fire [13]. CNN may as well be protecting Saddam again [14]. Need we mention PBS or MSNBC?

The Gunwalker conspiracy is the kind of story that journalists dream of breaking their entire careers. It is now in the palms of their hands: a story in which they can make a difference, take down the evil and corrupt, and ensure justice is served.

Instead of reporting, however, they are complicit. They have chosen to acquiesce to a clear and obvious evil, an aberration of our most basic values. They are no longer watchdogs, but docile sheep.

More news organizations are shrinking, merging, and consolidating as they face a decrease in circulation and credibility. When they die, point back to this moment in time, and write as their epitaph:

    The could have lived, but chose death.

Unlike those they allow this government to terrorize and murder with impunity.

Article printed from Pajamas Media: http://pajamasmedia.com

URL to article: http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/msm-sheep-ignoring-the-scandal-of-the-century/

URLs in this post:

[1] Sipsey Street Irregulars: http://sipseystreetirregulars.blogspot.com/2011/09/vanderboegh-codrea-exclusive-us-govt.html

[2] Gun Rights Examiner: http://www.examiner.com/gun-rights-in-national/breaking-letter-implicates-atf-committing-straw-purchases-for-gunwalker

[3] here: http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/gunwalker-atf-walked-guns-directly-to-cartel-using-taxpayer-dollars/

[4] Fox News: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/09/26/us-government-bought-and-sold-weapons-during-fast-and-furious-documents-show/

[5] betrayal: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-mexico-fast-furious-20110920,0,5544168.story

[6] international terrorism: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/18/2331.html

[7] conspiracies that result in homicide: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/18/usc_sec_18_00002332----000-.html

[8] Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racketeer_Influenced_and_Corrupt_Organizations_Act

[9] Arms Export Control Act: http://www.pmddtc.state.gov/regulations_laws/aeca.html

[10] desperate hit piece: http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/the-darrell-issa-hit-piece-most-inaccurate-nyt-article-%E2%80%A6-ever/

[11] Blotter: http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/

[12] murder of an American Nazi: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/09/25/60minutes/main20110803.shtml?tag=contentMain;cbsCarousel

[13] Reichstag fire: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reichstag_fire

[14] protecting Saddam again: http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/11/opinion/the-news-we-kept-to-ourselves.html

 

[Edward Campbell]

Part of Mexico's problem is that fools - right word - like Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano are downplaying Mexico's crisis in order to pander to Hispanic voters in the USA. Thus that stupid woman compares the problems on the Canadian border with those on the Mexican one - an act that actually helps the Mexican drug lords by taking critical US law enforcement and border security resources away from where they are needed and putting them where they help serve her partisan political agenda.

Source:  http://bloviatingzeppelin.blogspot.com/2009/04/napolitano-canadas-border-problem.html - which is worth a read