Tag: Mexico

So says the BBC.

Drug Killings Haunt Mexican Schoolchildren

See the New York Times for the whole terrible story.

As reported by James McKinley Jr. in the New York Times:

On the night of May 17, dozens of men with assault rifles rolled into town in several trucks and shot up the place [Villa Ahumada]. They killed the police chief, two officers and three civilians. Then they carried off about 10 people, witnesses said. Only one has been found, dead and wrapped in a carpet in Ciudad Juárez.

The entire municipal police force quit after the attack, and officials fled the town for several days, leaving so hastily that they did not release the petty criminals held in the town lockup. The state and federal governments sent in 300 troops and 16 state police officers, restoring an uneasy semblance of order. But townspeople remain terrified.

That’s what Mexico may tell the U.S. So reports Laurence Iliff in the Dallas Morning News. Good for them.

Here’s the backstory: The U.S. offers money to other countries so they can join our glorious war on drugs. To get the money–and here’s the catch–other countries had to pass a formal (now less formal) “certification” process where we tell them if they’re doing enough to fight the war on drugs, if their judicial system is good, and if their human rights record passes our test. We obviously can judge these things, you know, because our record in the war on drugs has been nothing but success after success in what is now a drug-free America!

Mexico considered certification a violation of its sovereignty. “Why don’t we tell the Americans to use those [funds] for their own interdiction forces or interception forces … and stop the flow of weapons,” [Mexican assistant attorney general for international affairs] Santiago Vasconcelos said in a radio interview. “Rather than giving them to Mexico, they can be used by the Americans to reinforce their Customs service, their Border Patrol, and stop the arms trafficking to our country.”

Oh, snap!

I’m always amazed how arrogant the war on drugs makes us. Mexican police are getting killed in battle right and left, but we’ll tell them if they’re doing enough to fight drugs. Can you imagine our reaction if, after September 11, 2001, other countries offered us big bucks but only if we could certify to their standards that we were really serious about fighting terrorists?

What if Mexico offered us billions of pesos to protect New Orleans from hurricane damage, but only if we let their army corp of engineers certify the quality of our levies? (I mention this example because time and time again, Mexico proves very able at hurricane disaster relief. Kudos to them.)

Can you imagine how insulted we would be if Cuba offered us billions of dollars, but only if we, say, ended the practice of electing judges, abolished the death penalty, found a way to cut our prison population by 80%, and agreed to end our Cuban embargo?

As soon as New Orleans was destroyed by hurricane Katrina, Cuba offered us 1,500 doctors and 26 tones of medicine and aid. No strings attached (except political embarrassment)! We turned them down. Seems we were already doing a heck of a job. About 2,000 people died (we don’t even know for sure) and we couldn’t get clean water in for days.

Anyway, I hope Mexico doestell the U.S. to stuff it. Often these countries know the war on the drugs is stupid and hurts them, but $1.4 billion sure is tough to turn down. That’s a lot of change to fill a lot of pockets. If we bribe enough people, they’ll poison their fields or arm militias or whatever else we tell them to do. I’ve been to both Mexico and Egypt, and let me tell you, they sure have nice police cars… thanks to our money. Too bad none of this money is going to the Baltimore P.D.

Duncan Kennedy writes in the BBC:

Seven policemen have been killed and four injured in Mexico’s latest incident of drug-related violence.

The officers were killed during a raid on a home in Culiacan, in north-west Mexico, police said.

Arriving at the house to search for weapons and drugs, police were fired upon and a grenade was thrown at them.

Despite obvious failure, the Mexican president has vowed to “stay the course” of drug prohibition. As if he were standing in front of a “Mission Accomplished” banner, President Calderón says the murder of Police Commissioner Millán, is a sign of government success against the drug cartel. He’s full of shit.

James McKinley Jr. writes the story in the New York Times:

Top security officials who were once thought untouchable have been gunned down in Mexico City, four in the last month alone. Drug dealers killed another seven federal agents this year in retaliation for drug busts in border towns. Others have died in shootouts.
…
Drug traffickers have killed at least 170 local police officers. … Some were believed to have been corrupt officers who had sold out to drug gangs and were killed by rival gangsters. … Others were killed for doing their jobs.
…
All told, 4,125 people have been killed in drug violence since Mr. Calderón took office.
…
Several terrified local police chiefs have resigned, the most recent being Guillermo Prieto, the chief in Ciudad Juárez, who stepped down last week after his second in command was killed a few days earlier.

As quoted in the Times, President Calderón says, “The question is, should we persevere and go forward or simply hide in our offices and duck our heads. No way is the Mexican government going to back down in such a fight.”

Really? Why does it never occur to stupid leaders of failed strategies that they’re wrong? Is it pride? Hubris? How bad do things have to get before you try a new strategy? Apparently, much, much worse.

Read the whole article.

Mexican police chiefs are getting killed right and left, thanks to the war on drugs. Brendan McKanna of the Dallas Morning News reportsthat other chiefs are quitting their posts and three police chiefs have applied for political asylum in the United States out of fear for their lives.

When they stand down, who’s going to stand up?

You probably heard about the mass of San Diego State University students arrested for drug dealing. That college students take drugs shouldn’t be a big surprise for anybody who went to college. College students drink, too. Nor, if it weren’t for the guns involved, would I see it as a big problem.

The far more worrisome news comes from Mexico. On May 8, the acting chief of Mexico’s police force was assassinated by drug gangs. That’s huge. We don’t have an equivalent of that position here. This is the chief of all police for all of Mexico.

On May 10, The number two policeman in Ciudad Jauarez was killed. The sixth senior policeman killed in Mexico this week.

The war on the drugs is not being won.

Killing police chiefs is not a sign of desperation and defeat. It’s a high-stakes sign of domination and control. God bless any non-corrupt police officers in Mexico. Would I risk my life for paltry pay to fight the war on the drugs? No.

To me, 75 college students–idiot frat boys, mostly–getting arrested for drug dealing is funny.

Drug dealers defeating the police force of Mexico is not funny. It is entirely possible that drug cartels will take over the Mexican police and to some extent, the entire elected government.

Losing Mexico is a price way too high to pay for the privilege of continuing to fight the endless war on drugs. Especially when the solution–legal drug regulation and an end to drug prohibition–is so simple.