Military Report: Mexico, Pakistan at Risk of 'Rapid and Sudden Collapse'
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Mexico and Pakistan are at risk of a "rapid and sudden collapse," according to a recent report from the U.S. Joint Forces Command.
The assessment comes as President-elect Barack Obama prepares to tackle international challenges including the conflict in Gaza, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and tensions between India and Pakistan.
"In terms of worst-case scenarios for the Joint Force and indeed the world, two large and important states bear consideration for a rapid and sudden collapse: Pakistan and Mexico," the report says.
A spokeswoman for the U.S. Joint Forces Command said the latest assessment was likely written before the Mumbai attacks which further inflamed tensions in South Asia.
The Joint Operating Environment report, meant to examine worldwide security trends, says Pakistan, in the event of such a rapid collapse, would be susceptible to a "violent and bloody civil and sectarian war" made more dangerous by concerns over the country's nuclear arsenal.
The report says that "perfect storm of uncertainty" by itself might require U.S. engagement.
The report says a collapse in Mexico seems less likely, but noted that the government infrastructure is "under sustained assault and pressure" from drug cartels and gangs. A collapse within the United States' southern neighbor would also "demand an American response based on the serious implications for homeland security alone."
Obama met earlier this week with Mexican President Felipe Calderon.
Joint Forces spokeswoman Kathleen Jabs told FOXNews.com the purpose of the assessment is not necessarily to predict future crises with 100 percent certainty, but to start a dialogue among world leaders by "looking at the trends."
U.S. military report warns 'sudden collapse' of Mexico is possible
By Diana Washington Valdez / El Paso Times
Posted: 01/13/2009 03:49:34 PM MST
EL PASO - Mexico is one of two countries that "bear consideration for a rapid and sudden collapse," according to a report by the U.S. Joint Forces Command on worldwide security threats.
The command's "Joint Operating Environment (JOE 2008)" report, which contains projections of global threats and potential next wars, puts Pakistan on the same level as Mexico. "In terms of worse-case scenarios for the Joint Force and indeed the world, two large and important states bear consideration for a rapid and sudden collapse: Pakistan and Mexico.
"The Mexican possibility may seem less likely, but the government, its politicians, police and judicial infrastructure are all under sustained assault and press by criminal gangs and drug cartels. How that internal conflict turns out over the next several years will have a major impact on the stability of the Mexican state. Any descent by Mexico into chaos would demand an American response based on the serious implications for homeland security alone."
The U.S. Joint Forces Command, based in Norfolk, Va., is one of the Defense Departments combat commands that includes members of the different military service branches, active and reserves, as well as civilian and contract employees. One of its key roles is to help transform the U.S. military's capabilities.
In the foreword, Marine Gen. J.N. Mattis, the USJFC commander, said "Predictions about the future are always risky ... Regardless, if we do not try to forecast the future, there is no doubt that we will be caught off guard as we strive to protect this experiment in democracy that we call America."
The report is one in a series focusing on Mexico's internal security problems, mostly stemming from drug violence and drug corruption. In recent weeks, the Department of Homeland Security and former U.S. drug czar Barry McCaffrey issued similar alerts about Mexico.
Despite such reports, El Pasoan Veronica Callaghan, a border business leader, said she keeps running into people in the region who "are in denial about what is happening in Mexico."
Last week, Mexican President Felipe Calderon instructed his embassy and consular officials to promote a positive image of Mexico.
The U.S. military report, which also analyzed economic situations in other countries, also noted that China has increased its influence in places where oil fields are present.
Calderon stresses Mexico's security needs to Obama, Bush
By JACK CHANG
McClatchy Newspapers
WASHINGTON -- Reeling from escalating violence at home, Mexican President Felipe Calderon highlighted his country's security needs this week during meetings with President-elect Barack Obama and President George W. Bush.
Calderon's visits with Bush at the White House on Tuesday and Obama at the Mexican Cultural Institute on Monday showed the close relationship between the two countries.
Calderon was the first foreign leader to meet Obama after the U.S. elections. By tradition, incoming U.S. presidents meet first with leaders of their immediate neighbors, Canada and Mexico.
The U.S.-Mexico relationship, however, has come under considerable strain during the Bush administration.
Calderon and his predecessor, Vicente Fox, have urged the Bush administration, without success, to change U.S. immigration policies, which they say unfairly keep out Mexicans hoping to work in the U.S. Fox also resisted Bush's pleas to support the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003.
Such concerns were brushed aside this week, however, as Mexico suffers a bloody drug-fueled organized crime wave that was responsible for more than 5,700 homicides last year, more than double the record set in 2007.
In its 2009 National Drug Threat Assessment, the U.S. Justice Department said that Mexican drug traffickers "represent the greatest organized crime threat to the United States."
While meeting with Calderon, Bush said, "Americans are concerned about the battle that's taking place in Mexico, and I want our fellow citizens to understand that (Calderon) understands the responsibilities of government to provide security."
"The United States of America wants to share and help deal with the issue on both sides of the border."
A day earlier, Obama also was quick to tackle the Mexican security issue, saying Calderon "has shown extraordinary courage and leadership when it comes to the security issues."
The U.S. has tried to help Mexico contain the violence by launching the Merida Initiative, an anticrime measure that received $465 million from Congress last year.
"This is not an isolated problem for any country," Calderon said through an interpreter on Tuesday. "This is a common problem that affects us both. And in order to do so, we have worked together and we have made this resolution."
Calderon also met Monday with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.; Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.; and Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.
Calderon also talked about trade issues with both Bush and Obama, expressing strong support for the North American Free Trade Agreement. Obama had criticized NAFTA during the presidential campaign.
"NAFTA has proved to be very useful, both for the United States and for Mexico," Calderon said on Tuesday. "In that regard, millions of jobs were created here in the United States."
While Obama avoided the topic during his meeting with Calderon, incoming White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said that Obama "expressed his continued commitment to upgrading NAFTA to strengthen labor and environmental provisions to reflect the values that are widely shared in both of our countries."
Although the visit with Obama was mainly introductory, it will set the stage for what promises to be a close relationship during a crucial time, said Maureen Meyer, associate for Mexico and Central America at the liberal Washington Office on Latin America. The U.S. financial crisis, for example, has spilled over into Mexico, while Mexico's crime problems are worse near the U.S. border.
"These meetings do show the importance of Mexico to the United States and that we have shared issues," Meyer said. "I saw clear signs that we will turn over a new leaf in our relationships with Mexico."
A teraz chwila wyjaśnienia po Polsku.
Meksyk od kilku miesięcy targany jest najpotężniejszą falą przestępczości zorganizowanej w swojej długiej historii,tylko w grudniu w jednym przygranicznym mieście zamordowanych zostało z zimną krwią 78 niewinnych osób,natomiast ofiar wojej gangów nikt niż nie liczy.
Rząd praktycznie nie rządzi,jedyne co jest w stanie robić to powoływać pod broń coraz to nowych rezerwistów.Liczni lokalni watazkowie są w praktyce niepodzielnymi władcami swoich miast a nawet całych prowincji.Kraj jako taki praktycznie stanął w obliczu całkowitego rozpadu,a niektórzy wojskowi w USA rozważają mozliwość uderzenia prewencyjnego celem ochrony obywateli swojego kraju.
W Polsce mamy za to Palikota,jakże cudownie medialny temat jak ktos ostatnio zauważył...
Dołączył: 13 Maj 2008 Posty: 125
Post zebrał 0.000 mBTC Podarowałeś BTC
Wysłany: 10:44, 15 Sty '09
Temat postu:
Dzięki Prrivan.
Czyli scenariusz do realizacj przez Obame - zaatakować Meksyk ("prewencyjnie"), "rozwiązać problemy" sąsiadów, wprowadzić Amero.
(O ile wiem w Kanadzie też nie jest ciekawie. Quebeck znowu chce się odłączyć (było o tym głośno pod koniec 2008, zaraz po "wyborach" w US. Do tego maja tam (Kanada) jakieś problemy gospodarcze))
O destabilizacji w azji środkowej i rozwaleniu Pakistanu wspomina pan w filmie w tym wątku.
Cytat:
http://prawda2.info/viewtopic.php?t=4832
Czyli zaczyna się wszystko kleić w sumie.
_________________ Thread killer
Wysłany: 12:29, 19 Sty '09
Temat postu: Meksykowi i Pakistanowi grozi rozpad
Kilka ostatnich dni w Meksyku przyniosło tak gwałtowne pogorszenie sytuacji państwa i stabilności wewnętrznej iż nawet wyważone opinie niezależnych dziennikarzy stwierdzają iż granica za którą rozpoczyna się stan wojny domowej została przekroczona,a eskalacja przemocy nie niespotykaną dotąd na świecie skalę jest kwestią nie miesięcy lecz tygodni,bądź nawet kilku dni.Co ciekawe,władze kraju uparcie odmawiają komentarza a media amerykańskie oraz co dziwne-europejskie konsekwentnie cenzurują wszelkie napływające z rejonu informacje.Na szczęście są niezależni dziennikarze...
Civil war and vigilantism gripping Mexico
Michael Webster, Investigative Reporter
January 18, 2009
A full scale civil war is underway in Mexico. The Mexican President Felipe Calderon and the powerful drug cartels that operate unmolested throughout Mexico are locked in a battle over control of the country. With tens of thousands of the Mexican army fully deployed and often fighting Zetas´ (ex-Mexican army Special Forces trained in the U.S.) who is now working for the cartels. The Mexican government has not been able to curtail the on going gruesome and erupting new violence and confrontations between the two warring parties throughout Mexico. This relentless fighting with casualties on both sides is in truth and scope a civil war. Mexico try´s to hide that fact and the United States is apparently in total denial.
To date some 7,000 Mexicans have died in this war – all attributable to the government versus the rich and powerful Mexican Drug Cartels war.
During 2008 Mexico´s violent deaths broke historic records raising the death toll to 5,630 execution murders, beating out last years all time record.
In 2008, more people lost their lives in Mexico do to violence then were lost in the war torn countries of Iraq and Afghanistan combined.
Were it not for the fact that the cartels are also frequently at war with one another, they might have won the war by now and would be in complete control of Mexico.
Execution-style murders, beheadings, dismemberings and kidnappings are common now in every state in Mexico on a daily basis. Gun battles are frequent events in Mexico City and in Mexican towns all along the border. On Jan. 5, the body of Jose Ivan Vasquez Lopez, 43, was found in a trash drum with his head cut off. On Jan. 7, the body of Ricardo Arturo Alvarado Contreras, 45, was found dead in a vacant lot with his hands chopped off. Mexican border town officials have crossed into the U.S. seeking asylum, fearing for their lives.
Now a third factor is reported to be getting into Mexico´s civil war as the Mexican border towns are void of tourist. Mexican citizens are getting feed up with not having any business and that is making it very difficult to survive and make ends meet said Jose Lopez a shop keeper in what had normally been a busy typical Mexican border town and we the people are done with the fear and the bloody killings on our streets.
A group calling itself the Juárez Citizens Command is threatening to strike back against lawlessness that has gripped the city for a long time they say that they are striking back by killing one criminal a day until order and piece is restored. A potential rise in vigilante justice in Juárez is expected by some experts to spread throughout Mexico and would raise the steaks and escalate an already dangerous and bloody civil war.
The city's police and the Mexican army together have not been able to stop the plague of killings, beheadings, or the extortion targeted business owners, teachers, medical professionals, or the carjackings, kidnappings, robberies and other crime. Last year, more than 1,600 people were slain in Juárez alone.
"Better the death of a bad person, than that bad person continue contaminating our region," the group, named Comando Ciudadano por Juárez, or CCJ in Spanish, stated in a news release spread on the Internet.
"There is a call for the public to remain calm," said Andres Andreu, a Juárez representative in the Chihuahua state congress.
"In anger, this could start an uncontrollable wave of unjust deaths," Andreu said in a statement condemning vigilantism and urging authorities to do more to stop the violence. "Movements of this nature are directed more by a sense of vengeance than of justice."
The El Paso times reported that Howard Campbell, an anthropology Professor at the University of Texas at El Paso stated: "What (vigilantism) says is people do not think the government can fix the violence, you have to remember, there is the whole history -- the killing of the women and the drug killings. The common person feels there is no one to protect them."
The environment exists for the creation for a group such as the CCJ, Campbell said. If the CCJ is real, Howard said, it could be reminiscent of Los Pepes, assassins who in the early 1990s targeted relatives and associates of drug lord Pablo Escobar in Colombia.
It was rumored that Los Pepes might have had links to rival drug traffickers or government special forces, including those in the United States.
Lynchings, mob beatings and other forms of vigilante justice are not unheard of in Mexico and other parts of Latin America, often because of lack of trust in government and law enforcement authorities.
Not long ago an enraged mob swarmed three federal police officers in the Mexico City suburb of San Juan Ixtayopan, and beat them nearly lifeless then doused them with gasoline and then burned two of them alive while thousands watched live on national television.
Dramatic as it was, the cop killings were not an isolated incident. Vigilantism has taken root in Latin America over the past decade, lending credence to the notion that the region is in the throes of a civil war. From Venezuela and Guatemala to Bolivia and Peru, angry crowds are increasingly taking the law into their own hands, meting out physical punishment for crimes real and imagined. Vigilantes often "lynch" common criminals who, in their view, have escaped justice. More recently they've started attacking public officials suspected of malfeasance. A mob in the Peruvian town of Ilave beat their mayor after accusing him of embezzlement, then dragged him into a public square and left him to die.
"Lynching has grown totally out of control," says Mark Ungar, an expert on Latin American police reform at the Woodrow Wilson International School for Scholars in Washington. "It's spreading in the sense that vigilantes are going after criminals, officials, even governments--and once it starts it's hard to stop."
Mexican civil war is also spilling over into the U.S. Reports of incursions into the U.S. by heavily armed men in Mexican army uniforms (and often driving U.S.-made Humvees) now occurs on a regular basis. Sometimes the "soldiers" are cartel men, probably ex-Mexican army; sometimes they are real Mexican army. In many cases, their purpose is to escort and protect a drug run into the U.S. and back off any lightly armed local sheriff or Border Patrol agent in the way.
The evidence is clear Mexico is in a civil war and this civil war is happening in America´s back yard in a neighboring country of a population of well over 100 million people. A 2000 mile open border and with corrupt officials operating on both sides of the Rio Grande River. There are estimates that the Mexican cartels produce, smuggle and sell some $300 billion worth of drugs into the U.S. annually. These drugs are poisoning our children and violently killing citizens on both sides of the U.S. Mexican border.
Editors Note:
Michael Webster´s Syndicated Investigative Reports are read worldwide, in 100 or more U.S. outlets and in at least 136 countries and territories. He has published articles for Maxims News, which is associated with MediaChannel.org and Globalvision News Network, global news and media information services with more than 350 news affiliates in 135 countries. Many of Mr. Webster´s articles are printed in six working languages: English, French, Arabic, Chinese, Russian and Spanish. With ten more languages planed in the near future.
Mr. Webster is America's leading authority on Venture Capital/Equity Funding. A trustee on some of the nations largest trade Union funds. A noted Author, Lecturer, Educator, Emergency Manager, Counter-Terrorist, War on Drugs and War on Terrorist Specialist, Business Consultant, Newspaper Publisher. Radio News caster. Labor Law generalist, Teamster Union Business Agent, General Organizer, Union Rank and File Member Grievances Representative, NLRB Union Representative, Union Contract Negotiator, Workers Compensation Appeals Board Hearing Representative. Mr. Webster publishes the on-line newspaper the Laguna Journal and does investigative reports for print, electronic and on-line News Agencies. Click on or Google Michael Webster´s other writings.
Zwróćcie uwagę na nazwę Juárez Citizens Command,czyli obywatelski ruch do czynnej walki z przestępczością zoragnizowaną.Jeżeli policja jest skorumpowana i bezsilna,ludzie zaczynają kupować broń i nie wahają się użyć przeciwko bandytom.Grupa ma w swoim credo zabicie przynajmniej jednego przestępcy dziennie,i wypełnia owe credu z niezwykłą skutecznością.
A pogrubionego fragmentu o konwojach Armii Meksyku oficjalnie wożących dragi przez granicę do Stanów nie będę komentował.Dokumentny brak słów...
A więc w ten sposób wprowadzą w życie Unie Północno-amerykańską. Wcześniej zastanawiałem się jak się im to uda, a teraz okaże się (jak zwykle), że ludzie sami będą się o to prosić.
Failure of Mexican stimulus package could warn U.S.
By THOMAS BLACK Bloomberg News
Jan. 19, 2009, 12:57AM
Enrique Fernandez is counting on a surge in government construction spending to ignite sales at his lighting installation company in Juarez, Mexico, which saw revenue slide 30 percent last year as projects dried up amid the credit crunch.
“We won’t have growth, but I expect sales not to fall,” Fernandez said in a telephone interview. Economists and bankers say he’s overly optimistic.
Mexican President Felipe Calderon’s infrastructure-spending plan is too small and too slow to lift the economy out of recession this year, said Luis Arcentales, a New York-based economist with Morgan Stanley. That should serve as a lesson for the Obama administration as it prepares an $825 billion stimulus package that includes $90 billion for public works projects in the U.S., he said.
Calderon, who promised to make spending on roads, bridges, hospitals and sewage systems an engine for growth during his six- year term, increased government investment in such projects by 29 percent to 229.8 billion pesos ($16.6 billion) in the first nine months of 2008 from the previous year. The result: a 0.2 percent drop in construction activity from January to October.
“The headwinds facing the economy in 2009 appear to be so strong that probably the construction spending, if it takes place, won’t be able to offset them,” Arcentales said in an interview.
Calderon’s pledge to boost investment from government and private-sector partnerships by 7.5 percent this year may at best keep the industry from declining and adding to the country’s 4.5 percent unemployment rate, the highest since at least 2000, said Gabriel Casillas, an economist with UBS AG in Mexico City. The economy will likely contract 2 percent this year, he said.
“We’re going to see the government doing more public investment, but that’s only going to compensate for the drop in private construction,” Casillas said.
Lending ‘Paralyzed’
Private building and housing, which make up about two-thirds of construction activity in Mexico, are expected to decline this year on lack of credit and slack demand. The postponement last week of a government-backed $4.88 billion port project at the west coast town of Punta Colonet dealt a blow to Calderon’s strategy for public- private partnerships to drive construction in Mexico.
“We have a full-fledged credit crunch going on in Mexico,” said Edgar Amador, strategy director for the Mexican unit of Paris-and Brussels-based Dexia SA, the world’s largest lender to local governments. “My bank and everybody else’s bank are just paralyzed.”
Dexia made 22 billion pesos of loans to Mexican state and local governments for infrastructure projects in the last three years. The bank was looking at more than a dozen projects to finance, including highways, waste-water treatment and railroads before the September credit crunch hit.
“We had to kill them all,” Amador said. “We’re sitting on the sidelines now.”
Limited Impact
The number of construction workers registered with Mexico’s social security system declined to 1.01 million in December from 1.24 million in September, according to the Mexican Social Security Institute.
Construction projects, which can take months to get started, aren’t the best way to stimulate an economy quickly, Arcentales said. The industry is three times smaller than manufacturing and makes up only 6 percent of the Mexican economy, limiting its impact, he said.
“If you tell me you’re going to build a refinery, which is a multiyear project, it’s probably the right thing to do,” Arcentales said. “In terms of stimulating economic activity immediately, it’s just not there.”
Obama’s Plan
Alfredo Coutino, a senior economist for Latin America at Moody’s Economy.com in West Chester, Pennsylvania, said that most governments, including the U.S., face delays in getting projects out to bid.
“Mexico is not a unique case in that sense,” Coutino said.
In the U.S., Democrats in the House of Representatives are proposing to spend $30 billion on highway construction and $10 billion on transit and rail projects over two years as part of an $825 billion stimulus package. Lawmakers are planning to have legislation ready for President-elect Barack Obama to sign by Feb. 14. Obama will we sworn in tomorrow.
Calderon, who took office Dec. 1, 2006, still is betting on construction to stimulate the Mexican economy. On Jan. 7, he announced plans for record public-private investment of 570 billion pesos this year.
Humberto Armenta, president of the Mexican Construction Industry Chamber, forecasts construction will only increase as much as 1 percent in 2009 as private projects and home building struggle.
Private construction may pick up in the second half of this year as banks and foreign investors begin to lend again, Armenta said.
Too Timid
“Once the global risk capital begins to move, Mexico will be a prime destination,” he said in a telephone interview.
Fernandez, the owner of Juarez-based company Constructora Electrica Fer SA, hopes to win government work and keep sales from sinking further. Fernandez employs 50 workers to provide lighting for shopping centers and hospitals and had sales of $5 million in 2007.
“The situation is very difficult,” Fernandez said.
Bigger contractors also are looking to the government to help weather the recession. Empresas ICA, Mexico’s largest construction company, forecast revenue will rise as much as 30 percent this year from an estimated 29 billion pesos in 2008.
Amador of Dexia bank doesn’t share ICA’s optimism on Calderon’s spending plan.
“You need a serious package here, something massive to keep the economy out of the doghouse,” Amador said. “I think they’re being very timid.”
Jeżeli sprawdziłby się zakładany pesymistyczny scenariusz,pod koniec tego roku za południową granicą USA będziemy mieli zespół małych bandyckich państewek albo...
...albo przesunie się granicę
Media ujawniły, że Barack Obama, zanim objął urząd prezydenta USA, odbył już spotkanie z głową obcego państwa – informuje serwis CNN.
Obama spotkał się w zeszłym tygodniu z prezydentem Meksyku Felipe Calderonem. – Chcę ogłosić, że moja administracja będzie gotowa, już od dnia pierwszego do budowania silnego partnerstwa z Meksykiem – oświadczył Obama.
Meksyk to ważny gospodarczy partner Stanów Zjednoczonych w ramach układu NAFTA, funkcjonującego od 1994 roku.
The Revolution in Mexico has began
Michael Webster, Investigative Reporter
January 20, 2009
Mexico´s Drugs, Violence and corruption and all of its related ramifications will bring the country down through revolution by its people.
According to a spokesperson for a new radical group calling itself the Juárez Citizens Command is threatening to strike back against lawlessness that has gripped Mexico for a long time, they say that they are going to strike back by killing one criminal a day until order and piece is restored. Similar groups are popping up all across Mexico.
Over the years, with the help of corrupt Mexican officials and corrupt or myopic American officials, and with American politicians nurturing a lack of foresight and discernment therefore developed at the very least a narrow view of what´s actually happening in Mexico and are now in denial of a failed state. As a result of this corruption the failed state of Mexico has become one of the most dangerous places in the world where violence runs rampant and Citizens wake up to executed headless bodies in their streets. The spokesperson stated.
Juan Lopez a shop keeper in the border town of Nogales says "The people of Mexico feel that the government is losing the war against the Mexican Drug Cartels bloody violence and that the government is unable to protect us."
The Mexican border towns are like ghost towns with no tourist and no customers to buy their goods. Tourist mainly Americans have stopped shopping in Mexico because of that violence. To make things even more untenable the cartel gangs are demanding protection money from the small Mom and Pop shop owners in Mexico City and throughout the country and it seems the current Calderon government cannot or will not stop it.
Other industries big and small including rich drug traffickers are believed to spend millions buying politicians in the failed hope of government protection as the Calderon administration turns a deaf hear and appear to be in lock step with the U.S. Some say it is because the U.S. is willing to pay more.
Mexico has become the drug capital of the world and the drug superhighway to the United States, delivering its poison of heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine and marijuana to the drug hungry U.S. market.
According to a DEA undercover operative the Mexican drug cartels have gained more and more of the American market. They have grown bolder in their attempts to expand their operations in Mexico and the United States. They now control the ruling party in Mexico and operate the biggest drug business on earth right here in the USA, right under our noses.
Law enforcement on both sides of the border say this is being done through the cartels surrogates Mexican and American gangs. These surrogates smuggle drugs from Mexico to the states and sell or front the drugs to American gang leaders who in turn sell or front the drugs to its members who move the drugs to local dealers and drug addicts for distribution and sales on the streets of America. These same surrogates, conduct murder for hire on behalf of the cartels interests, kidnap and transport victims to Mexico for executions and enforce the cartels will. Many of the drive by and other gang shootings are the result of orders from Mexico.
The Laguna Journal has reported in the past that large amounts of cash from the Mexican drug cartel gangs whom are selling drugs on the streets of American cities are being smuggled back into Mexico.
In its last report, the US Department of Justice disclosed that 17.2 billion dollars in cash entered Mexico in only the past two years as a result of money laundering operations in their country. The report advised that Mexico and Colombia are the principal destinations of narco resources that operate in the US and that "the laundering of drug money is a global industry" with transnational organizations present in various countries.
General Barry McCaffrey, ex-US anti-drug czar, urged a halt to the "hundreds of millions of dollars" smuggled into Mexico since, with those resources, the drug cartels acquire more force and power. He warned that Mexico is in a national emergency. The report, drawn up by the National Drug Intelligence Center (NDIC), said that smuggling cash is a method used by traffickers to move profits from drug sales from the US market to the foreign supplier, mainly Mexico and Colombia. It is estimated that those two drug countries launder between 18 and 39 billion dollars annually. "a large part is smuggled in bulk from the US over the southwest border," the report said.
The Mexican Drug Cartels begin their take over of the Mexican Government by infiltrating the 71-year reign of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) by buying its officials and by contributing huge amounts of cash to their cause. When that didn´t work as well as they liked they went after the ultimate control of government by causing to be formed the new National Action Party, or PAN they than looked for and found a likely candidate that they felt they could control and as a result President Vicente Fox of the PAN, finally ousted the PRI in 2000.
As most new Mexican administrations in March, Fox declared that his administration was in a "head-on battle against corruption."
"Together, we work for a Mexico full of justice, legality and democratic opportunities," the president said.
Some recent photo´s were published in the magazine Quien which gave insight into the before and post-presidential life style and it has sparked outrage among many Mexicans.
"The photos show that he got rich during his six years in office, in a very shameless and cynical way," Lino Korrodi, Mr. Fox's former chief campaign fundraiser, said in one interview of the former president. Leading the chorus of disapproval, Mr. Korrodi claims that as a candidate Mr. Fox was a terrible businessman, permanently in financial straits and keeper of a simple house with servants paid for out of campaign funds.
Mr. Korrodi claims he raised millions for Fox through the very rich and known drug traffickers. His accusations have prompted calls by many for a congressional investigation into Mr. Fox's apparently lavish new found wealth.
Hailed as a hero of democracy when he defeated 71 years of one-party rule in elections in 2000, Mr. Fox left the presidential office vilified by much of the press.
At best, he was accused of living in a fantasy world dubbed Foxilandia and of ignoring the need to shore up democracy. At worst he was charged with orchestrating an electoral fraud favoring his personal choice and colleague, the current president, Felipe Calderón Hinojosa who was to carry on the Fox traditions.
But the latest measurement of corruption by Berlin-based Transparency International found that more than 50 percent of Mexicans remain pessimistic about corruption and believe it will get worse. That number is believed to have risen to as much as 75 percent today.
Even the U.S. military recognizes that Mexico is in danger of a "rapid and sudden collapse" due to criminal gangs and drug cartels, according to a troubling new report by the U.S. Joint Forces Command on worldwide security threats.
Bernard Wasow reported that it is no secret that law enforcement in Mexico is a "for-profit" business. Scenes of Mexican policemen taking bribes from tourists and locals alike are commonplace throughout the country. It is hard to view such an experience as many businessmen are said to view corruption: bribery is just another cost of doing business.
In a series of papers, Shang-Jin Wei, formerly of the Kennedy School at Harvard and the IMF, explored the economic effect of corruption. Contrary to the notion that corruption is a relatively minor cost of doing business, Wei found that corruption has a stifling effect on foreign investment and economic growth. That may be much of the reason that the economy of Mexico just never seems to get going. Corruption in Mexico has been a force in public life there since colonial times, said Claudio Lomnitz, a Professor in History at U of M.
In Mexico, corruption consists of an intricate system of exchanges in which support for public officials is given in return for certain privileges. Payments of money to ensure that routine services are rendered are also part of the mix, as are elaborate public ceremonies in which hosts extract favors from their politician guests in return for support. "Corruption as a series of phenomena has played an important role in social change and in social reproduction in Mexico," Lomnitz writes in this environment, the police are expected to resist a combination of deadly threats and bribes that can run to hundreds of thousands of dollars.
" It's kind of like this," says Robert Nieves, a former chief of International Operations for the DEA. "You're offered a bribe. If bribery doesn't work, you're offered violence. And that violence will be exacted against you or your family members." In Mexico, the choice is called "plata o plomo," silver or lead.
The result is a breathtaking level of corruption. A large percentage of Mexico's federal law enforcement has been fired for corruption by the Calderon administration or killed by the Mexican drug cartels. In the last year alone, the federal government has fired hundreds if not thousands of Federal Judicial Police and local police for suspected offenses that included theft, extortion, guarding drug shipments--and even murder. " But everyone involved in the effort against the Mexican drug trade says there remains massive corruption.
One DEA agent whom was asked about corruption in Mexican law enforcement pulled out a thick file full, he said, of information about commanders still in power who are suspected by the U.S. of facilitating the transport of drugs into this country.
Former Mexican Attorney General Antonio Lozano said drug money fuels industries and distorts competition. It is not an equal trade partnership when American business people are competing against enterprises that have extraordinary access to illegal capital. Corruption is so deeply embedded in the society that there's no prospect of eliminating or even curbing it anytime soon.
"Unfortunately, corruption seems to be part of our DNA," said political analyst Jorge Chabat.
"What we have discovered ... is that this is not endemic," said Eduardo A. Bohorquez, executive secretary of Transparencia Mexicana, or Mexican Transparency. "It's more epidemic."
For Bohorquez, whose agency measures corruption in Mexico, "Corruption is the abuse of the public trust to gain a private benefit. You take a mandate from a public group and act on your own behalf."
But other experts say the problem goes far beyond that, extending from the ordinary citizen to high reaches of government. They say most Mexicans have become accustomed to paying bribes and to the notion that the average police officer will try to shake them down in some way.
"The state has come to be seen as a giant pyramid with the most influential people at the top and everyone else below them also benefiting from bribes, tips, patronage or misappropriations of funds and resources. This particular version of 'trickle-down economics' developed its own set of norms and public expectations," he explained.
Presidential corruption in Mexico is nothing new all Mexican presidents have been charged or suspected of corruption.
A show of wealth snares ex-president Fox recently, he entered Mexican politics´ with little money and left as the former president as a wealthy man. In a picture of self fulfillment as well as romance, Vicente Fox and his wife, Marta Sahagun, gaze at each other beside a new lake constructed in their extensive remodeled estate and grounds. Behind, their ranch-turned-mansion shows off gilded carpets, a desk with hand carved stone horse heads for legs, and life-sized portraits of themselves on the walls. They say when Fox took office his ranch was modest at best and after office the same ranch became opulent mansion. Many believe it was paid for by the Mexican drug cartels.
One of Fox´s predecessors former Mexican President Mario Villanueva Madrid, was reported to be under investigation for his helping to facilitate the smuggling of drugs, particularly cocaine, up from Columbia, up to the Yucatan peninsula, then into the USA.
The United States has a long history of supporting crooked regimes in Mexico, praising their efforts to cooperate with our drug eradication programs, while our corporate interests loot the country's coffers, hand in hand with Mexico's elite.
Of course the rumors and charges of corruption and complicity in the drug trade by the Salinas government become well known even though there were hushed up, brushed aside by US officials in the Bush (the first) and Clinton administrations. As one Mexican paper, The daily El Financero, reported, "...up to 95 percent of the people working in the attorney generals office had been bribed by the Gulf Cartel, run by Juan Garcia Abrego."
By the time Carlos Salinas left office, he and his brother Raul had looted the country of all the money they could get their hands on. Using the recently bailed out and US owned Citibank to launder massive amounts of illicitly gained drug profits; the two brothers amassed an estimated $6 billion dollar fortune between them both.
Raul Salinas was arrested in Mexico City for murder in February of 1995. While his brother Carlos enjoys the life of a jet- setting playboy, enjoying the plunders he accrued while in office.
However it was not long after Calderon took office he started responding to the unlimited amounts of U.S. government money available to his country should he cooperate and become a puppet of the CIA. It boiled down to the U.S. could offer more than the Mexican Drug cartels could so Calderon was groomed to get the Mexican government certified so the U.S. government could funnel hundreds of millions into the Calderon government coffers in the form of the Merida Initiative.
Just today according to the National Association of Former Border Patrol officers government leaders reached a new stage in the narco-war. The leaders of Mexico, Guatemala, Colombia and Panama agreed to create a united front against narcotrafficing drug cartels. In a four-hour summit meeting, the presidents of those countries stressed that organized crime represents a danger to social stability and democratic government. They resolved to compile the existing bilateral and multilateral agreements for combating organized crime and, in the near future, to shape them into a unified legal instrument open for signing onto by other countries in the region.
Responding to this story, one reader ventured the opinion that it was lamentable that those countries feel the need to organize against narco bands which already have a higher level of organization than the affected countries. He asserted that the real risk to those countries is the internal corruption of each.
Editors note:
Michael Webster´s Syndicated Investigative Reports are read worldwide, in 100 or more U.S. outlets and in at least 136 countries and territories. He has published articles for MaximsNews, which is associated with MediaChannel.org and Globalvision News Network, global news and media information services with more than 350 news affiliates in 135 countries. Many of Mr. Webster´s articles are printed in six working languages: English, French, Arabic, Chinese, Russian and Spanish. With ten more languages planed in the near future.
Mr. Webster is America's leading authority on Venture Capital/Equity Funding. A trustee on some of the nations largest trade Union funds. A noted Author, Lecturer, Educator, Emergency Manager, Counter-Terrorist, War on Drugs and War on Terrorist Specialist, Business Consultant, Newspaper Publisher. Radio News caster. Labor Law generalist, Teamster Union Business Agent, General Organizer, Union Rank and File Member Grievances Representative, NLRB Union Representative, Union Contract Negotiator, Workers Compensation Appeals Board Hearing Representative. Mr. Webster publishes the on-line newspaper the Laguna Journal and does investigative reports for print, electronic and on-line News Agencies.
Corrupt U.S. dealers arm Mexican drug cartels
Authorities estimate 95 percent of cartels' weapons illegally smuggled
updated 7:06 p.m. ET Jan. 27, 2009
PHOENIX - As police approached a drug cartel's safe house in northwestern Mexico last May, gunmen inside poured on fire with powerful assault rifles and grenades, killing seven officers whose weapons were no match.
Four more lawmen were wounded in the bloodbath and a cache of weapons was seized, including a single AK-47 assault rifle that authorities say was purchased 800 miles (1,300 kilometers) away at a Phoenix gun shop and smuggled into Mexico.
The rifle's presence in Mexico underscores two realities in the government's war against drug traffickers: Nearly all the guns the cartels use are smuggled into Mexico from the U.S., and officials say a small number of corrupt American weapons dealers are making the gun running possible.
"It's a war," said Bill Newell, special agent in charge of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in Arizona and New Mexico. "It's a war between the drug cartels. And it's a war between the government and the drug cartels. And the weapons of war are the weapons that they are acquiring illegally here in the United States."
Gun running on the rise
Authorities don't know how many firearms are sneaked across the border, but the ATF says more than 7,700 guns sold in America were traced to Mexico last year, up from 3,300 the year before and about 2,100 in 2006. The increase is attributed both to a higher volume going south and a growing interest among Mexican authorities in running recovered weapons through a U.S. gun-tracing database.
Mexican and U.S. officials estimate the cartels get 95 percent of their guns from the United States; others are stolen when cartels overrun Mexican authorities. Cartels recruit "straw buyers" in the United States who make purchases on their behalf. Then people are paid to bring the weapons across the border.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection, whose inspectors scrutinize border-crossers at ports of entry, declined to characterize the frequency of its searches of vehicles driving into Mexico, but conceded that not all traffic leaving America is searched.
Inspections of vehicles coming into the United States are considered a bigger priority, because they are aimed at stopping weapons, terrorists and other dangerous elements from coming into the country. Periodic searches of outgoing traffic are done as spot checks and in response to tips of upcoming attempts to smuggle guns or cash.
"We just don't have the manpower to do 100 percent inspections of outgoing traffic," said agency spokesman Jason Ciliberti.
Federal agents say the small number of dealers who knowingly sell guns to smuggling rings have the potential to inflict a lot of damage. As evidence, they cite the Arizona gun dealer accused of selling the AK-47 recovered at the May 27 shootout in Culiacan involving the powerful Sinaloa cartel.
George Iknadosian, owner of X-Caliber Guns in Phoenix, is accused of selling guns to two groups of straw buyers when he knew the weapons were going to be smuggled into Mexico. He also was targeted in stings in which he allegedly sold guns to undercover officers posing as straw buyers.
Phoenix gun seller accused
Iknadosian is set for trial Feb. 3 on fraud and other charges. His lawyer, Thomas M. Baker of Phoenix, didn't return calls seeking comment.
Investigators believe 600 guns sold by Iknadosian ended up in Mexico, most headed to the violent Pacific Coast state of Sinaloa.
Authorities say several have surfaced. They include:
An AK-47 and .38-caliber Super pistol with diamond-encrusted grips found after the Nov. 2 killing of the police chief of the northern state of Sonora as he walked into a hotel about two miles south of the Arizona border.
A .38-caliber Super pistol seized a year ago when Mexican special forces captured a top Sinaloa cartel lieutenant, Alfredo Beltran Leyva, and three members of his security team in Culiacan.
Three assault rifles recovered after patrolling federal police officers were fired upon and responded by killing four gunmen from the Beltran Leyva drug gang on July 2 at a house in Culiacan.
Gunds traced to border states
The overwhelming majority of guns recovered in Mexico come from America's four southern border states, with Texas first, followed by California, Arizona and New Mexico, according to the ATF. Many of the rest come from other Western states (Washington, Nevada, Colorado and Oklahoma), the South (Georgia, Florida and Louisiana) and the Midwest (Illinois, Ohio and Indiana).
Gun smuggling corridors are usually dictated by proximity to the nearest and easiest sources of weapons.
Drug smugglers seek out guns in America because gun laws in Mexico are more restrictive than in the United States. Mexicans must get approval for a gun purchase from the Mexican defense department and are limited to guns with a caliber no higher than the standard .38-caliber. Larger calibers are considered military weapons and are off-limits to civilians.
Gun traffickers break caches into small loads to lower the risk of losing them all in a bust. Some guns are walked into Mexico, but most are driven through ports of entry, stuffed inside spare ties, fastened to undercarriages with zip ties, kept in hidden compartments, or bubble-wrapped and tucked in vehicle panels.
Investigators say smugglers sometimes wait until inspectors on both sides are busy with peak border traffic to drive across.
Smuggling adviser?
Prosecutors allege Iknadosian offered smuggling advice to a confidential informant during a police sting at his shop in Phoenix, telling the informant to break up purchases. "If you got pulled over two is no biggie," Iknadosian is quoted as saying in a search-warrant affidavit. "Four is a question. Fifteen is what are you doing. So if you got two, hey me and a buddy are going to go out shooting."
Arturo Sarukhan, the Mexican ambassador to the United States, says his country wants the U.S. government to fully enforce gun exportation laws, crack down on more straw buys at guns shows and gather more information on which firearms dealers are selling to rings.
For its part, Mexico must put more money and people into searching incoming border traffic, Sarukhan said.
"If Mexico and the United States are going to be successful, we are going to have to tango together," Sarukhan said.
Temat moim zdaniem niezwykle ciekawe. Choć brzmi to trochę, jak kolejny odcinek South Parku, to w mojej wyobraźni powstaje wiele możliwych scenariuszy, tym ciekawszych, że my tu w Europie w ogóle nie mamy świadomości co tam się naprawdę dzieje. Sam podzielam opinię, że Ameryka Pn to USA i na tym koniec. Jak widać jednak, tak do końca nie jest. Ciekawe jak zareagują Stany na taki rozwój sytuacji. W końcu na południu USA 95% ludzi mówi po hiszpańsku. Może znowu oderwą kawał Meksyku i przyłączą do siebie. Drugie Alamo? Hmm ^^
Ja jestem też bardzo ciekaw co się stanie z Kanadą po śmierci królowej brytyjskiej. W końcu Kanadyjczycy od dawna powtarzają, że są niepodległym państwem, a kwestia suwerenności, tylko teoretycznie zależy od korony brytyjskiej, od której mają się odciąć po śmierci Elżbiety. Osobiście nie liczył bym na wielkie zamieszanie z tego powodu, ale z drugiej strony, skoro tak anonimowe państwo jak Meksyk stać na wywołanie sporego zamieszania, to może dwujęzykowa Kanada też zapragnie jakichś podziałów.
Szkoda tylko, że moje największe marzenie, by pod nosem USA wyrósł, drugi Iran, lub choć zamienić miejscami jakiś stan z Wenezuelą, musi pozostać w sferze marzeń.
Wysłany: 08:37, 30 Sty '09
Temat postu: Meksykowi i Pakistanowi grozi rozpad
Dobiega budowa sieci zapór tak potężnych że mur oddzielający Izrael i Palestynę wydaje się być przy nich zbudowaną z klocków dziecinną fortecą.Mają 1200 kilometrów długości i kosztowały 2,7 mld $,były budowane w niemal całkowitej ciszy medialnej od 2006 roku.
Przetarg na ich budowę przy użyciu najnowszych technologii wojskowych wygrała wtedy firma Boeing.
A gdzie one się znajduje?
US-Mexico border fence almost complete
The Associated Press
Published: January 27, 2009
WASHINGTON: The fence along the U.S.-Mexico border is mostly finished.
Customs and Border Protection spokesman Lloyd Easterling says that 601 miles of the project had been completed as of a week ago.
Easterling says 69 miles of the fence still must be built to meet the goal set during the Bush administration.
In December, then President-elect Barack Obama said he wanted to evaluate border security operations before he considers whether to finish building the fence under his administration.
Easterling said the Obama White House has not told Homeland Security to stop building the fence.
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has said a fence alone will not stop illegal immigration along the 2,000-mile border. About half of the fence has been built in Arizona, where Napolitano was governor.
The overall plan for security on the Southwest border — set by the Bush administration — includes additional Border Patrol agents, more enforcement of immigration laws, the fence and a high-tech "virtual fence" using surveillance technology.
At her Senate confirmation hearing, Napolitano said there is a role for fencing around urban areas. "It helps prevent those who are crossing illegally from blending immediately into a town population," Napolitano told senators.
Officials have said the border security improvements — like the fence — are working, and fewer people are trying to illegally cross from Mexico into the United States. Some of that can be attributed to economic woes and fewer jobs in the U.S.
The fence has been controversial since its inception and has faced several lawsuits, none successful so far.
Congress authorized the fence in 2005 to help secure the border and slow illegal immigration. Lawmakers also gave the Homeland Security secretary the power to waive federal laws, such as environmental protections, when erecting the fence. Obama, as a senator, voted for the project.
Congress has set aside $2.7 billion for the fence since 2006. There's no estimate how much the entire system — the physical fence and the technology — will cost to build, let alone maintain.
The Sept. 11 terrorist attacks revived the immigration debate and advanced the idea of a border fence. Intelligence officials have said gaps along the Southwestern border could provide opportunities for terrorists to enter the country.
Boeing Co. has the contract for the technology portion of the fence, as well as for some construction work. The company's contract for the technology expires this year.
Na najbliższe dni spodziewane są uroczystości z okazji narodzin i objęcia władzy przez Wielkiego Brata
February 03, 2009
Memo From Middle America, By Allan Wall
Wargaming Mexico—Will The U.S. Have To Invade?
In Mexico, the ongoing battles between the drug cartels, and between the drug cartels and the government, go on and on—and the body count continues to mount.
The statistics are grim indeed, and getting grimmer . In calendar year 2008, there were 5,612 Mexicans killed in narco-related violence, doubling the 2007 figure of 2,700.
In 2009, the killings began almost immediately, with the first cartel execution taking place about half an hour after midnight. On January 27th, Mexico’s paper of record El Universal reported that since January 1st, there had already been 400 cartel-related executions. That’s 400 in less than a month! By the time you read this, it’s almost certain to be more. [En 25 días suman ya 400 ejecuciones, January 27, 2009]
Most of those killed in cartel violence are either (a) security personnel, that is, police or soldiers, (b) cartel operatives, or (c) both. Nevertheless, the violence has begun to spill over into the general population.
When I visited Mexico during Christmas vacation (my first visit to Mexico after having moved back to the U.S.) I didn’t personally witness any such violence. However, in the metropolitan area in which I was visiting, there was a shootout in an exclusive neighborhood and another shootout downtown, in which gunfire endangered the lives of shoppers in a traditional marketplace.
Where is all this going? Nobody knows of course, but a number of analysts have tried to figure it out.
A recent scenario that has already attracted a lot of attention, including a response from the Mexican government, came from the United States Joint Forces Command [USJFC], which is the military command overseeing most military forces in the continental U.S. According to its official website,
"… the command helps national decision makers make informed choices on supporting operations, assists military commanders to identify potential readiness problems and develop appropriate strategies and maintain the nation's forces at the highest possible level of readiness."
The USJFC recently released its 2008 analysis, the "The JOE 2008" [PDF]("JOE" being an acronym for Joint Operating Environment).
This document, released Nov. 25th, 2008, contains an analysis of the world situation along with some speculation on possible future scenarios.
Regarding Latin America in general, the report has this to say (on page 3:
“A serious impediment to growth in Latin America remains the power of criminal gangs and drug cartels to corrupt, distort, and damage the region’s potential. The fact that criminal organizations and cartels are capable of building dozens of disposable submarines in the jungle and then using them to smuggle cocaine, indicates the enormous economic scale of this activity. This poses a real threat to the national security interests of the Western Hemisphere.”
Then, zeroing in on Mexico:
"In particular, the growing assault by the drug cartels and their thugs on the Mexican government over the past several years reminds one that an unstable Mexico could represent a homeland security problem of immense proportions to the United States."
Later, on page 36, it says that
"In terms of worst-case scenarios for the Joint Force and indeed the world, two large and important states bear consideration for a rapid and sudden collapse: Pakistan and Mexico."
After discussing Pakistan, the USJFC presents its Mexico scenario:
"The Mexican possibility may seem less likely, but the government, its politicians, police, and judicial infrastructure are all under sustained assault and pressure by criminal gangs and drug cartels. How that internal conflict turns out over the next several years will have a major impact on the stability of the Mexican state. Any descent by Mexico into chaos would demand an American response based on the serious implications for homeland security alone."
It’s important to point out that the JOE report is not predicting a "rapid and sudden collapse" of Mexico. It is, however, presenting the possibility as a worst-case scenario. After all, the purpose of the report is to analyze the situations and set out scenarios.
Unsurprisingly, the report was rehashed and recycled through various media—and rejected by the Mexican government.
Mexican Foreign Minister Patricia Espinosa, responding to the USFCG report, (and another by General Barry McCaffrey) pointed out (correctly) that most of the violence is occurring in only six Mexican states, and that 93% of those killed were either drug dealers or security forces, which means that only 7% were "innocent bystanders". [Mexico Rebuffs ‘Failed State’ Claim, By Adam Johnson Financial Times, January 18, 2009]
That’s all true, and helps to put the situation in perspective. But it’s still bad enough. As mentioned earlier, the "innocent bystanders" are in more and more danger.
The highhanded impunity of the narco-gangs to do as they please is still unabated, as the gruesome murders continue to pile up. Massive corruption within various Mexican police forces frustrate the government’s attempt to get control of the situation.
Mexico has a way of frustrating tidy predictions. Nobody can say with authority where the situation will wind up because there are many factors in play.
As the saying goes, there is a lot of ruin in a nation, and I personally don’t see a rapid governmental collapse as imminent. (Brenda Walker, my VDARE.COM colleague, disagrees).
But one has to consider the possibilities, and yes, even consider worst-case scenarios. After all, it doesn’t take a big imagination to guess where refugees from a breakdown in Mexico would be heading. A big hint—most of them would not likely be fleeing to Guatemala!
Plus, we don’t have to speculate about Mexico becoming a security threat to the United States. It already is a security threat to the United States, with illegal immigration, drug trafficking and general lawlessness along the border. Moreover, Mexican cartels are already operating north of the border.
So while we can wish Mexico’s President Calderon well in gaining control of the situation—and I certainly do—our policy-makers need to be working on some viable contingency plans in case a worst-case scenario—or even just a worse scenario than the current one—come to pass.
We already know that we need to get control of our border. That’s a given, regardless of what happens. The best way to show Mexico and the rest of the world that we are serious about that is to put the U.S. military on the border.
I used to be against putting the military on the border, because I didn’t think patrolling the Mexican border was the role of the military. Maybe it wouldn’t be, under normal situations. But this situation isn’t normal.
Besides, the border is already militarized—on the Mexican side! (See my previous article on the subject here .)
Since the Mexican army is already on the south side of the border (with repeated crossings by Mexican soldiers and/or facsimiles thereof) ours might as well be on our side of the border. It’s only logical, and would stabilize the situation if done properly.
When I was serving in Iraq with the National Guard in 2005, I wrote up a proposal for putting the National Guard on the border. You can read it here .
Coincidentally, after I returned there was a National Guard deployment to the border—sort of, but not really what I had proposed. It wasn’t serious enough. What we really need is a massive, permanent, and serious joint force deployment on the border.
Such a deployment could be effective regardless of wherever else our military forces are engaged worldwide. That is, if we continue to deploy troops to the Middle East, which we are likely to do for some time, then border duty is good training. After all, much of the Southwest physically resembles much of the Middle East. And if, in the future, we withdraw troops from the Middle East, we can deploy more troops on the border. Either way, it’s a winning strategy.
Another action we can take that might actually improve the situation: completely reconsider our narcotics policy. We need to take a close look at drug prohibition, asking ourselves if it’s really the best way to deal with the very real problems of drug abuse. Such an analysis involves thinking outside the box and defying longstanding taboos, neither of which is popular in the political world.
On the U.S. side of the border, our government’s "War on Drugs" has been an abject failure. It hasn’t reduced the consumption of illegal drugs, and has endangered our civil liberties. Plus, it raises unrealistic hopes in what our form of government should even be expected to handle, in solving this and other problems. As Ron Paul put it so succinctly on the Morton Downey Jr. show back in 1988, "The government can’t make you a better person." (For an entertaining video of the exchange, view here.)
Our War on Drugs bears many historical similarities to the Prohibition of Alcohol of a previous generation, which also involved Americans buying the prohibited substance from Mexico!
But at least back in the Prohibition days, U.S. lawmakers had enough respect for the Constitution that they felt the need to amend it in order to prohibit alcohol (the 18th Amendment ) and later to repeal prohibition with the 21st Amendment. Nowadays, our lawmakers don’t even give a hoot about justifying the War on Drugs (and many other policies) constitutionally.
South of the border, our failed War on Drugs has helped to cause the current situation, by financing the warring drug cartels. It’s no coincidence that there is so much violence in border towns such as Tijuana and Ciudad Juarez. Those cities are right next to the U.S., and the cartels are fighting over drug routes into the United States, their biggest market.
So what’s the better strategy to help Mexico’s war on the cartels? Is it giving Mexico weaponry, or is it legalizing drugs?
Let’s face it; a big part of the problem is the enormous demand for drugs in the United States. It’s not a simple question of evil Mexican drug dealers and innocent Americans. A significant proportion of the American populace is voluntarily buying narcotics. Americans are thus the principal financiers of Mexican drug cartels. And drug prohibition drives the prices up, providing yet more incentives for Mexican drug dealers and the cartels to sell more drugs and fight for their smuggling routes.
And with the increasing integration of our own government with that of Mexico, we pressure Mexico to go after the cartels when we can’t even reduce demand!
The late Milton Friedman was a critic of the war on drugs, and the deleterious effects it has on other countries. In 1998, Friedman described it thusly:
"Our drug policy has led to thousands of deaths and enormous loss of wealth in countries like Colombia, Peru and Mexico, and has undermined the stability of their governments. All because we cannot enforce our laws at home. If we did, there would be no market for imported drugs. There would be no Cali cartel. The foreign countries would not have to suffer the loss of sovereignty involved in letting our advisers and troops operate on their soil, search their vessels and encourage local militaries to shoot down their planes. They could run their own affairs, and we, in turn, could avoid the diversion of military forces from their proper function." It’s Time to End the War on Drugs, Hoover Digest, 1998, #2
That was in 1998, when the main danger was in relatively faraway Colombia. Now, our principal problem is right next door—in Mexico. But the analysis is the same.
(Milton Friedman also said that "It’s just obvious that you can’t have free immigration and a welfare state." They didn’t listen to him on that topic either!)
And what about the weapons? While the drug smuggling goes from south to north, weapons smuggling, both countries agree, goes from north to south. The cartels obtain most of their weapons from the U.S. and bring them to Mexico, despite Mexico’s stricter gun laws.
This is a sore point with the Mexican government, whose attorney general has complained of "absurd" American gun laws.
But if you have a porous border you can’t start to get picky about who or what is crossing it, because a porous border will have illegal aliens, drug smugglers, weapons smugglers, and all sorts of other persons and contraband moving back and forth over it.
Which brings us once again to the need to get control of the border, which would help Mexico too in the long run.
The Bush administration, rather than defending and explaining our gun rights to Mexico, announced a project called Operation Gunrunner to share databases of American gun dealers with the Mexican government, potentially endangering our own citizens' rights to bear arms. And who can doubt that the Obama administration is continuing such a project?
Our ability to influence developments in Mexico is limited. But sensible and pragmatic drug and border policies would greatly improve the situation for us, and to a certain extent for Mexico as well. Drug legalization could potentially reduce the high prices and reduce the violence in Mexico. Controlling the border needs to be done anyway to stop mass illegal immigration. A serious U.S. military presence on the border could bring much-needed order and send a powerful message.
Nevertheless, we also need to be wargaming contingency plans for various worst-case scenarios. It’s about having viable plans available for use in disastrous situations we can hopefully avoid. But at least you have the plans, in case the disasters do occur.
For example, what would we do if an absolutely chaotic situation in Mexico resulted in millions of refugees streaming northward? Would we keep them out? Would we just let them in to settle wherever they liked and further destabilize our own country? Or could we temporarily settle them in refugee camps on the border, to eventually return them to Mexico?
Is somebody somewhere figuring this out?
It may even be necessary at some future point to militarily intervene in some form or fashion in Mexico itself. This ought to be a last resort, but it can’t be ruled out. Besides all the practical challenges, the danger of invading Mexico is that it would directly entangle our military in Mexican society with all its various factions and attendant complications. All sorts of no-win scenarios could result.
In such a scenario, the U.S. might actually wind up annexing Mexico. Given the current demographic composition of both countries, this could transform our population overnight (as if we’re not transforming enough already). Annexing Mexico would definitely not be like when we annexed the mostly empty Southwest back in the 19th century. If we annexed all of Mexico, in reality, Mexico would be annexing us!
So we also need to wargame possible Mexico interventions with a view of getting in, getting the job done, and getting out.
If the U.S. ever does have to invade, I’d like to volunteer to serve as American Governor of Occupation in Mexico, for as long as such a position is necessary.
It’s the least I could do. But I hope it never comes to that.
American citizen Allan Wall (email him) recently moved back to the U.S.A. after many years residing in Mexico. In 2005, Allan served a tour of duty in Iraq with the Texas Army National Guard. His VDARE.COM articles are archived here; his Mexidata.info articles are archived here and his website is here.
W Meksyku prawdopodobnie mamy do czynienia ze scenariuszem realizowanym wcześniej w Gruzji, Azerbejdżanie i byłej Jugosławii, z tym, że do destabilizacji państwa zamiast islamistów używa się latynoskich karteli narkotykowych, pozostających w dobrej komitywie z CIA, organizatorem światowego handlu narkotykami. Dalszy ciąg nie jest trudny do przewidzenia - pucz pod pozorem "przywrócenia demokracji", czyli rządów agentury USA i eksploatacja gospodarcza kraju. Ale w Meksyku może im nie przejść to tak łatwo, biorąc pod uwagę temperament tamtejszej ludności.
08:22, 11.02.2009 /BBC News
Meksyk tonie we krwi
ROZSTRZELALI CYWILÓW I POLICJANTÓW
ReutersTV, fot. PAP/EPA
Co najmniej 21 osób zginęło w regularnej bitwie, do jakiej doszło między członkami gangów a policją w północnym Meksyku. To kolejna odsłona niekończącej się, jak dotąd przegrywanej przez władze, walki ze zorganizowaną przestępczością.
Wszystko zaczęło się, gdy do miasteczka Villa Ahumada wjechali uzbrojeni przestępcy i zaczęli wyciągać ludzi w domów. Zabili co najmniej 6 osób, w tym oficerów policji.
Gdy na miejsce dotarli żołnierze, doszło do strzelaniny. Zginęło w niej 15 osób, w tym jeden wojskowy.
Meksyk bezradny wobec przemocy
Każdego roku przemoc związana z przemysłem narkotykowym jest przyczyną śmierci kilku tysięcy Meksykańczyków. Wojnę kartelom wypowiedział prezydent Felipe Calderon. Jednak mimo zmobilizowania w tym celu 40 tys. żołnierzy, fala przemocy nie została zatrzymana.
Przerywamy audycję: zginiesz następny!
Opublikowano: 11.02.2009 | Kategoria: Prawo
Może niektórzy pamiętają film Krąg, w którym po obejrzeniu taśmy wideo dzwonił telefon, a nieszczęśliwemu odbiorcy pozostało siedem dni życia. To była tylko rzeczywistość filmowa. Trochę inaczej, bo przy wykorzystaniu radia, “zabawiają się” z policjantami w Meksyku narkotykowi gangsterzy.
Bandyci zajmujący się szmuglowaniem narkotyków przez granicę meksykańsko-amerykańską znaleźli nowy sposób na walkę z policją. “Włamują się” na policyjne fale radiowe i, przy podkładzie muzycznym, ogłaszają nazwiska policjantów, którzy wkrótce zginą. Wskazani stróże porządku nie mają większych szans na przeżycie, zazwyczaj po kilku godzinach są już martwi. “Nikt nie może im pomóc”, powiedział jeden z oficerów. Tak dantejskie sceny mają miejsce w Tijuanie, meksykańskim mieście położonym zaledwie 20 kilometrów od San Diego.
W Meksyku od dwóch lat trwa regularna wojna pomiędzy państwem a potężnymi kartelami i gangami narkotykowymi. Prezydent Felipe Calderon “tymczasowo” wysłał wojsko na ulice kilku stanów i skierował żołnierzy do walki z narkoprzestępcami. Tymczasowe rozwiązanie trwa do dziś, a przemoc osiąga apogeum. Jak w filmach Quentina Tarantino, trup ściele się gęsto, a przestępcy są wyjątkowo zuchwali, bezczelni i pozbawieni jakichkolwiek skrupułów.
W ubiegłym roku, jak podaje Reuters, w Meksyku zginęło ponad 500 policjantów. Część z nich była skorumpowana; tych zabili członkowie wrogich gangów. Jednak spora część stróżów prawa musiała zginąć, gdyż nie chciała przymknąć oka na przestępczą działalność. W ubiegłym roku w wyniku walk z narkoprzestępcami zginęło w Meksyku ponad 5300 osób, dwukrotnie więcej niż w roku 2007. Oznacza to, że w ciągu dwóch lat śmierć poniosło 7000 osób. Strait Times donosił 16 grudnia br., że w ciągu kilku wcześniejszych dni zginęły 44 osoby. Większość zgonów nastąpiła w graniczącym z Texasem Ciudad Juarez w stanie Chihuahua, gdzie w bieżącym roku zginęło ponad 1500 osób.
Tuż przed Świętami Bożego Narodzenia znaleziono ciała dziewięciu mężczyzn pozbawione głów. Jak się później okazało, bestialsko zamordowani byli żołnierzami, a jeden z nich ex-policjantem. Na początku maja ub.r. narkobandyci zabili szefa meksykańskiej policji w jego własnym domu.
Kilkadziesiąt tysięcy żołnierzy rzuconych do walki z kartelami nie radzi sobie z postawionym przed nimi zadaniem. Wojsko nie jest przygotowane do prowadzenia walki z bandytami, żołnierzom brak odpowiedniego szkolenia. Kto zresztą widział, żeby armia załatwiała sprawy, którymi powinna zająć się policja? Na niej nie można jednak polegać, gdyż jest słabo opłacana, kiepsko uzbrojona i strasznie skorumpowana. Kto zaś nie chce się podporządkować narkotykowym baronom jest zastraszany albo eliminowany. Jak pokazują przytoczone we wcześniejszym akapicie dane, życie w Meksyku jest dość tanie i łatwo je stracić.
Kartele szmuglujące narkotyki do Stanów stworzyły państwo w państwie, zapewniając sobie swoistą autonomię. Jeśli nie mogą kogoś kupić, po prostu go zabijają, a biznes kręci się dalej. Trudno się temu dziwić, jeśli zyski gangów wahają się między piętnastoma a ponad dwudziestoma miliardami dolarów rocznie . Tymczasem Stany Zjednoczone, które są głównym odbiorcą narkotyków szmuglowanych przez meksykańskie kartele, przeznaczyły na pomoc dla Meksyku zaledwie 1,4 miliarda dolarów (z czego do tej pory Meksyk otrzymał niecałe 200 milionów w postaci sprzętu).
Dwuletnia “ofensywa” rządu przynosi jak na razie efekty odwrotne od zamierzonych. Wydaje się, że przestępcy nigdy nie byli tak silni i zdeterminowani . Policja jest zbyt słabo opłacana i wyszkolona, a także skorumpowana, żeby poradzić sobie z kartelami. Wojsko, jak pisałem wyżej, nie jest odpowiedzią. Potrzebne jest ulepszenie strategii, na które Meksyk nie za bardzo stać. Jednak porażka oznacza upadek państwa i usankcjonowanie samowoli gangsterów. Może Meksyk powinien zintensyfikować współpracę z Kolumbią, której rząd odniósł na polu walki z przestępcami spore sukcesy. Jedno jest pewne - obecny stan jest nie do zaakceptowania.
Gang violence claims 30 lives in Mexico
Published: Sunday 15 February 2009 21:16 UTC
Last updated: Monday 16 February 2009 10:28 UTC
Continuing gang violence cost the lives of at least 30 people in Mexico this weekend. Eight were killed outside a bar in northern Coahuila state when a group of armed men arrived in three trucks and began shooting at people as they left, at around three in the morning. Nine bodies were discovered in neighbouring Chihuahua state, and at least six children and six adults were killed in the southern state of Tabasco when three homes came under fire from heavy weapons. One of the victims was a police officer. Finally in the southern town of Iguala a newspaper reporter was shot and killed in broad daylight, and a photographer was seriously injured.
Tam jest stan wojenny ogłoszony ? przecież tam trzeba już normalna operacje militarna przeprowadzić, wjechać czołgami, transporterami i zastosować lotnictwo. Bo gangi rosną w siłę. No ale musi powstać ta unia północna ;/, ludzie giną a wojsko swojego statutu nie wypełnia.
Wysłany: 09:08, 18 Lut '09
Temat postu: Meksykowi i Pakistanowi grozi rozpad
@zibi123
Operacja wojskowa już tam trwa na pełną skalę,a wojsko niemal całkowicie ograniczyło podstawowe prawa człowieka.Ludzie są teraz wywlekani z domów nie tylko przez mafię ale przez własną armię,i zaczynają się przeciwko temu protesty na niespotykaną skalę.
CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico (AP) — Hundreds of people are blocking international bridges to the U.S. to protest alleged army raids and arrests.
Officials say the protests are happening in three cities: Ciudad Juarez, across the border from El Paso, Texas; Nuevo Laredo across from Laredo, Texas; and Reynosa, across from McAllen, Texas.
The demonstrators are blocking three bridges leading to El Paso and two bridges to Laredo.
Many of the protesters are holding signs demanding the army leave. Many are masked men, but some are women and children.
The army has blamed previous protests on drug cartels that they say are trying to disrupt the government's anti-drug crackdown.
(CNN) -- A shootout in a border city that leaves five alleged drug traffickers sprawled dead on the street and seven police wounded. A police chief and his bodyguards gunned down outside his house in another border city. Four bridges into the United States shut down by protesters who want the military out of their towns and who officials say are backed by narcotraffickers.
Mexican police carry a body after a clash with gangs that left 21 dead in the state of Chihuahua on February 10.
That was Mexico on Tuesday.
What is most remarkable is that it was not much different from Monday or Sunday or any day in the past few years.
Mexico, a country with a nearly 2,000-mile border with the United States, is undergoing a horrifying wave of violence that some are likening to a civil war. Drug traffickers battle fiercely with each other and Mexican authorities. The homicide rate reached a record level in 2008 and indications are that the carnage could be exceeded this year.
Every day, newspapers and the airwaves are filled with stories and images of beheadings and other gruesome killings. Wednesday's front page on Mexico City's La Prensa carried a large banner headline that simply said "Hysteria!" The entire page was devoted to photos of bloody bodies and grim-faced soldiers. One photo shows a man with two young children walking across a street with an army vehicle in the background, with a soldier standing at a turret machine gun.
Larry Birns, director of the Washington-based Council on Hemispheric Affairs, calls it "a sickening vertigo into chaos and plunder."
By most accounts, that's not hyperbole.
"The grisly portrait of the violence is unprecedented and horrific," said Robert Pastor, a Latin America national security adviser for President Jimmy Carter in the late 1970s.
"I don't think there's any question that Mexico is going through a very rough time. Not only is there violence with the gangs, but the entire population is very scared," said Peter Hakim, president of the Inter-American Dialogue, a Washington-based policy center.
Speaking on a news show a few weeks ago, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich called it a civil war. Birns agrees.
"Of course it's a civil war, but that only touches the violence of it," he said Wednesday. "It's also a civic conflict, as an increasing number of people look upon the law and democratic values as something that can be violated."
Hakim is not prepared to go that far.
"One has to be careful and not overdo it," he said. "Mexico is a long way from being a failed state. Mexico has real institutions. It paves roads and collects the garbage. It holds regular elections."
Enrique Bravo, an analyst with the Eurasia consulting group, points out that the violence so far is mostly affecting just drug gangs and is primarily localized along the U.S. border and Mexico's western coast.
The violence along the border is particularly worrisome, analysts say.
"The spillover into the United States is bound to expand and bound to affect U.S. institutions," Birns said.
Pastor and Hakim note that the United States helps fuel the violence, not only by providing a ready market for illegal drugs, but also by supplying the vast majority of weapons used by drug gangs.
Pastor says there are at least 6,600 U.S. gun shops within 100 miles of the Mexican border and more than 90 percent of weapons in Mexico come from the United States.
And it's not just handguns. Drug traffickers used a bazooka in Tuesday's shootout with federal police and army soldiers in Reynosa, Mexico, across the border from McAllen, Texas.
"The drug gangs are better equipped than the army," Hakim said.
Pervasive corruption among public officials is central to the drug cartels' success.
"There is so much money involved in the drug trade, there is so much fear involved in the drug trade, that no institution can survive unaffected," Birns said.
"This has really revealed just how corrupt Mexican officeholders are," Hakim said.
In one recent instance, Noe Ramirez Mandujano, who was the nation's top anti-drug official from 2006 until August 2008, was arrested on charges that he accepted $450,000 a month in bribes from drug traffickers while in office.
Such dire problems call for a new way of looking at the situation, some say.
Pastor calls the problem in Mexico "even worse than Chicago during the Prohibition era" and said a solution similar to what ended that violence is needed now.
"What worked in the U.S. was not Eliot Ness," he said, referring to the federal agent famous for fighting gangsters in 1920s and '30s. "It was the repeal of Prohibition."
That viewpoint has picked up some high-level support in Latin America.
Last week, the former presidents of Mexico, Colombia and Brazil called for the decriminalization of marijuana for personal use and a change in strategy on the war on drugs at a meeting in Brazil of the Latin American Commission on Drugs and Democracy.
"The problem is that current policies are based on prejudices and fears and not on results," former Colombian President Cesar Gaviria said at a news conference, in which the 17-member commission's recommendations were presented.
Mexican President Felipe Calderon has taken the war on drugs to the cartels and some say it's not working.
"It's as if the burden of being the main arena of the anti-drug war has overwhelmed Mexican institutions," Birns said. "The occasional anti-drug battle is being won, but the war is being lost. And there's no prospect the war is going to be won."
In the meantime, the killings will continue at a record pace.
On Wednesday, the Mexican cities of Correon and Gomez Palacio reported at least eight shootouts involving heavily armed men.
Skandal związany z teksańskim miliarderem Allenem Stanfordem zatacza coraz szersze kręgi. W Kolumbii, Wenezueli i Ekwadorze tłumy zdesperowanych klientów banków z jego grupy szturmują placówki i próbują odzyskać oszczędności. Miliarder podejrzewany jest o defraudację co najmniej 8 miliardów dolarów.
Amerykańskim władzom na razie nie udało ustalić się miejsca pobytu Stanforda. Według CNBC miliarder próbował wynająć w Houston prywatny samolot, ale nie zaakceptowano jego karty kredytowej.
Teksański miliarder i sponsor krykieta, Sir Allen Stanford, został... czytaj więcej »
Amerykańska Agencja Kontroli Finansowej złożyła do sądu federalnego w Dallas formalne oskarżenie wobec Sir Allena Stanforda i jego dwóch współpracowników z Stanford Financial Group. Zarzucono im nieuczciwą sprzedaż wysokooprocentowanych obligacji o łącznej wartości 8 miliardów dolarów.
Notowania zawieszone
W Kolumbii i Ekwadorze zawieszono giełdowe notowania spółek Stanforda. Według FBI miliarder może być też zamieszany w pranie brudnych pieniędzy meksykańskiego kartelu narkotykowego.
Stanford International Bank oferował nadzwyczaj wysokie oprocentowanie dla swoich obligacji, wielokrotnie przekraczające proponowane przez tradycyjne banki. Obecnie bank Stanforda znalazł się pod zarządem komisarycznym.
Allen Stanfrod jest znanym finansistą, filantropem i sponsorem sportu. Wszystkie aktywa jego grupy sięgają 50 miliardów dolarów, a jego bank ma 30 tysięcy klientów pochidzących ze 136 krajów.
Szef policji w Ciudad Juarez składa rezygnację
Opublikowano: 22.02.2009 | Kategoria: Wiadomości ze świata
MEKSYK. Szef policji w meksykańskim Ciudad Juarez, Roberto Orduña Cruz, złożył w piątek dymisję. Jest to odpowiedź na ultimatum postawione przez narkotykowe gangi - zrezygnuj lub bedziemy zabijali Twoich policjantów.
W środę, 17. lutego, gangsterzy zapowiedzieli, że jeśli Orduña nie zrezygnuje ze stanowiska, co 48 godzin będą zabijać co najmniej jednego oficera policji. Dwa dni później spełnili swoją groźbę - zamordowali policjanta i strażnika więziennego, a na ich ciałach zostawili znaki nawiązujące do postawionego ultimatum. Kilka godzin później komendant ogłosił swoją dymisję, tłumacząc, iż nie może dłużej narażać życia swoich pracowników. Oficer Cesar Ivan Portillo jest piątym zamordowanym policjantem w Juarez w tym tygodniu.
Od początku roku Meksyk wstrząsany jest bardzo brutalną wojną narkotykową. Gangi walczą z armią rządową, a także między sobą o terytorium i wpływy. W ciągu ostatnich 12 miesięcy w wyniku konfliktu zginęło ponad 6 tysięcy ludzi, z czego blisko 2000 w Ciudad Juarez. Jest to największe miasto na granicy meksykańsko-amerykańskiej, a tym samym najważniejszy punkt przerzutowy narkotyków do USA.
W mieście ogłoszono czerwony alarm. Policjanci nie mogą sami wychodzić na patrole, a na ulicach poruszać muszą się z bronią w ręku. W zeszłym roku zamordowano tu ponad 60 oficerów.
Orduña, emerytowany major, przejął urząd w maju 2008 roku. W współpracy z burmistrzem miasta, Jose Reyesem Ferrizem, w październiku zwolnił 300 policjantów podejrzanych o korupcję. Wobec zagrożenia życia bardzo rzadko opuszczał komisariat. Dla bezpieczeństwa komendanta w budynku wybudowano nawet sypialnię, w której spędzał większość nocy w roku.
Nie ogłoszono nazwiska następcy. Burmistrz zastrzega, iż dymisja Orduñy nie oznacza, że władze mają zamiar ustąpić gangsterom.
Opracowanie: Michał Staniul
Na podstawie: latimes.com, news.yahoo.com
Źródło: Portal Spraw Zagranicznych
no coz bedzie aneksja meskyku przez usa, a powodem bedzie niestabilnosc i potencjalne ryzyko terroryzmu.. tylko czekac kiedy usarmy wejdzie - czekaja chyba az prezydent meksyku bedzie blagal...
ciekawi mnie tylko jaki maja plan wzgedem kanady....
_________________ www.DavidIcke.pl
"Nasze poglady sa wyuczone, co nie znaczy ze sa prawdziwe.." Bill Hicks
Wiara to Ja, a Wiedza to moj Miecz.
No tam policja to sobie może, jak wojsko praktycznie zrobiło się w inny gang to wiadomo, że tam to już tylko pozostało kupić bron i walczyć albo spróbować uciec dalej w kraj, ewentualnie uciec do USA.
FBI investigates possible links with Mexico drug gang
* Ed Vulliamy and Paul Harris in New York
* The Observer, Sunday 22 February 2009
* Article history
The FBI is probing possible money laundering linked to Mexico's infamous narco-trafficking Gulf Cartel in its investigation of Texan billionaire Sir Allen Stanford, US law enforcement sources have told the Observer.
An FBI source close to the investigation would not give exact details but confirmed the agency was looking at links to international drug gangs as part of the huge investigation into Stanford's banking activities. Reports in the US have said Mexican authorities have detained one of Stanford's private planes as part of an investigation into possible links to the Gulf Cartel. It has been alleged cheques found inside the plane were linked to the cartel, which is one of the most violent criminal organisations in the world.
Sources in the US Drug Enforcement Administration also confirmed that while the investigations into Stanford's affairs were "with the FBI and Securities Exchange Commission, there may well have been a trail connecting his Mexican affairs to narco-trafficking interests. So far as we understand from information partially in the public domain, this has pertained to the Gulf Cartel, and items found aboard a private light aircraft. I think we'll find that any possible drug-related trail and SEC priorities are not all in the same frame."
Asked whether the aircraft seizures were an isolated incident in the overall investigation, the official said: "It's not going to be as if they would check every plane. Any connections to the narcos would have been followed for some time, and US law enforcement has been working with Mexico's banking regulators on a vast range of investigations, including Stanford's interests, for some time.
"This would not be the first investigation like this following trans-border investments to lead to narco-traffic interests."
While Mexico's current narco war, which has claimed 7,000 lives in two years, has been billed as one "between cartels", it is, on the ground, something closer to an anarchic scramble between street-level gangs to whom dealing and smuggling have been "outsourced", while the Gulf Cartel and its peers concern themselves with a takeover of the Mexican economy and all-out war against what is left of the Mexican state the cartels do not control.
Another US drug enforcement official said: "Any major US interest seeking to avoid fully disclosed investments would have to go to pretty careful lengths to avoid encountering cartel interests, and anyone seeking to conceal or launder money would find it in safe and lucrative hands were they to forge alliances with, rather than skirt, the cartels.
"Through the other end of the lens, anyone wanting to help the cartels launder their money would find them accommodating in terms of remuneration, but that's nothing anyone will confirm for Stanford right now."
...a tymczasem samosądy na przestępcach stają się w Meksyku chlebem powszednim...
TUXTLA GUTIERREZ, Mexico (AP) — Police say teenagers stoned a 22-year-old man to death in southern Mexico because they believed he had stolen a cell phone and a bicycle from one of their friends.
Police officer Jaime Sanchez says Alejandro Lopez tried to flee Saturday when the teenagers approached but was cornered.
Sanchez says the teenagers had fled by the time police arrived and found Lopez's body on the doorstep of a house. He says Lopez apparently knocked on the door seeking help but nobody answered.
Sanchez says police believe the teenagers, ages 14 to 16, belonged to a neighborhood gang in Tuxtla Gutierrez, the capital of Mexico's southernmost state of Chiapas.
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