the Mexican Drug War

MattDaddy wrote:

I'm surprised by the lack of media coverage of this in the US. You hear a story now and then, but it's hardly noticeable. These stories read like horror movie scripts. How bad does it have to get before we really start paying attention to this?

[sarcasm]It's not US policy to interfere with another country's civil conflicts. [/sarcasm]

Actually, I am surprised we aren't seeing any news coverage about this at all. This is a diplomatic (and possible/probable military) issue that would have bipartisan support, I would think.

KrazyTacoFO wrote:
MattDaddy wrote:

I'm surprised by the lack of media coverage of this in the US. You hear a story now and then, but it's hardly noticeable. These stories read like horror movie scripts. How bad does it have to get before we really start paying attention to this?

[sarcasm]It's not US policy to interfere with another country's civil conflicts. [/sarcasm]

Actually, I am surprised we aren't seeing any news coverage about this at all. This is a diplomatic (and possible/probable military) issue that would have bipartisan support, I would think.

A greatly sanitized version was on the front page of CNN.com today.

I'm surprised by the lack of media coverage of this in the US. You hear a story now and then, but it's hardly noticeable. These stories read like horror movie scripts. How bad does it have to get before we really start paying attention to this?

It's starting to hit the BBC a little, but not much even there.

Boing Boing has a summary of the coverage including some damn grisly pictures from Reuters. Writing a taunt on a wall using blood from a severed leg? That's some seriously messed up sh*t there.

If I recall, Mexico is one of our largest suppliers of oil. It's really confusing that we'll go belt Libya on the mouth, but don't really mind that there's a large scale usurpation of the federal Mexican government.

Here in Monterrey, among other things, it has become riskier to travel to the US by land. You hear about families being stopped in the highway by men with machineguns, robbed and left in the middle of nowhere. You don't even need to be in the highway, it happens a few blocks away from the border too. Then, on the other side, there's the people who go there and back again with no incident.

This breaks my heart, you hear about this all the time but seeing it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7vji...

In front of a kinder school there's a base of unlicensed taxis that also sells illegal drugs. A team of 5 armed persons arrives and starts killing them, the schoolteacher makes the kids sing a song to calm them down and stop them from going into panic.

Right now I can hear police sirens wailing outside my house, but what do you do? I have to go out and do my things.

edit: the song
If rain drops were made of chocolate, I'd love to be right below them...

Who doesn't love Raffi?

Narcoterrorists, that's who.

Damn, Monterrey's on the path to hit 1,200 murders this year. Just for sake of comparison, NYC (with a population 17x bigger than Monterrey) only had 400 murders. LA County (with a population some 10x more than Monterrey) only had 622 murders.

Even our Department of State issued a lovely report about the security of Monterrey that had these tidbits: carjackings went up 1,000% in 2010 and the area is now averaging 200 to 300 kidnappings per *month*.

To put it another way if Monterrey was in the US and was putting up similar crime stats then the National Guard would likely be called out to get things under control while the media shrieked about the horrors of the lawlessness. Man, we really don't have a f*cking clue what's happening in Mexico, which means it's going to bite us in the ass hard in a few years when it spills over the border for real.

OG_slinger wrote:

Man, we really don't have a f*cking clue what's happening in Mexico, which means it's going to bite us in the ass hard in a few years when it spills over the border for real.

Sadly, that's the only thing that's going to get our attention. Every time I come to this thread I'm reminded (and surprised) at how the US has totally ignored this.

The description of abductions and roadside robbery (and worse) are the most chilling to me. Some places it seems are even worse than living in a war zone, because you never know who's going to attempt to rob and maybe shoot you if they don't like what they got.

"The crime of forced disappearances doesn't exist in the penal code and the government is in denial. The few parents who come forward are met by ridicule from authorities," said Carlos Trevino, a lawyer for CADHAC [a human rights group].

"The prosecutor's office says to the mothers: 'I'm sure your son's just out partying, he'll be home soon," he added. The state attorney general's office denied such accusations and said many cases are under investigation. But many law-abiding Monterrey residents have fallen into the habit of assuming that anyone who goes missing is a criminal, inhibiting proper investigation. "People want to be rid of this situation, so you see a lot of comments in chat rooms such as: 'kill them all' or 'that's one less bad guy,' but that is no way to deal with the problem," said CADHAC investigator Maria del Mar Alvarez.

So this bunch of guys arrives at a very busy traffic intersection in the middle of the day.

In the span of about 10 minutes, they take out 3 passengers from their truck, and hang 2 guys who have clearly been tortured and are barely alive. A third one, supposedly aged 12-13, tries to run when he sees this but he's shot on the street.

The narcos shoot the hanged men for everyone to see, and leave some message threatening the Zetas.

Some photos:

http://www.blogdelnarco.com/2011/06/...

The executions are not the news here, happens every day, but it's news because a lot of civilians were just standing there watching, and many cars too. There's really no law here.

I'm starting to worry that one of these days we're just going to stop getting updates from Mex.

BadKen wrote:

I'm starting to worry that one of these days we're just going to stop getting updates from Mex. :(

I think it's time to smuggle Mex out.

Yeah, when are we gonna start a get Mex outa Mexico fund?

I think some one will have to marry him.

Aww

Although I'd love to marry someone from the forum (it's legal in California, right? ) I'll always stick with my family, this is where our roots are, and as long as we can make a living...

It kind of sucks because if it wasn't for the whole drug war thing, Mexico would be doing great financially.

Mex wrote:

Aww

Although I'd love to marry someone from the forum (it's legal in California, right? ) I'll always stick with my family, this is where our roots are, and as long as we can make a living...

It kind of sucks because if it wasn't for the whole drug war thing, Mexico would be doing great financially.

That's fine we'll just include them too, your mom, your dad, your brothers, your sisters, every girl you've ever slept with.... errr never mind the list is just getting to long even for the Goodjernatti.

Mex wrote:

It kind of sucks because if it wasn't for the whole drug war thing, Mexico would be doing great financially.

More than kind of, in my opinion. My mother weeps for the state that Mexico is in right now. She majored in Spanish and spent a great amount of time in Mexico since she was a child. Her father was an amateur scholar on ancient Mesoamerican civilization, and dedicated a lot of his life toward its study. Through them I have developed a certain understanding of what Mexico would be without this nonsense, and feel ashamed at what our friends to the south are enduring because of our people's inability to either kick their drug habits or choose a better way to handle them.

It's not an inability to kick drug habits. It's an inability to provide adequate funding for treatment. Drug habits are frequently associated with people who have mental health issues and use drugs as a way to "cope" or "relax". If we had more preventative care and less incarceration in the US we'd be much better off. Once you see a loved one with a drug habit up close you realize that it's not entirely voluntary. That they're often broken people that could stand get a lot of help.

DSGamer wrote:

It's not an inability to kick drug habits. It's an inability to provide adequate funding for treatment. Drug habits are frequently associated with people who have mental health issues and use drugs as a way to "cope" or "relax". If we had more preventative care and less incarceration in the US we'd be much better off. Once you see a loved one with a drug habit up close you realize that it's not entirely voluntary. That they're often broken people that could stand get a lot of help.

I have plenty of life experience there, friend. Good for others to read, though. I put mine in order of preference.

because of our people's inability to either kick their drug habits or choose a better way to handle them.

Easy words, hard subject.

EDIT - I'm also not here to argue that. Just in case my point didn't come across: My post was an honest expression to Mex about how I feel about the situation there. I summarized my feelings about drugs in America because that's not the point.

http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/06/14/mex...

In brief, the senate's usual suspects are using the same ATF report we discussed in this thread and misinterpreting it in the same ways to push their regular agenda of regulations that have nothing to do with stopping guns from getting into Mexico.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-13785080

My favorite part was this

Lawmakers on the House of Representatives Oversight Committee said they demanded answers from the Obama administration about why no arrests were made while investigators were tracking the firearms.

Letting smaller fish go to get bigger fish is an often used tactic for US law enforcement.
I feel certain those lawmakers are aware of this, it's just this time it didn't work.

RolandofGilead wrote:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-13785080

My favorite part was this

Lawmakers on the House of Representatives Oversight Committee said they demanded answers from the Obama administration about why no arrests were made while investigators were tracking the firearms.

Letting smaller fish go to get bigger fish is an often used tactic for US law enforcement.
I feel certain those lawmakers are aware of this, it's just this time it didn't work.

For whenever anyone asks about how this is just Mexico's problem and the US has nothing to do with it, etc.

RolandofGilead wrote:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-13785080

My favorite part was this

Lawmakers on the House of Representatives Oversight Committee said they demanded answers from the Obama administration about why no arrests were made while investigators were tracking the firearms.

Letting smaller fish go to get bigger fish is an often used tactic for US law enforcement.
I feel certain those lawmakers are aware of this, it's just this time it didn't work.

Eh, it is more about the reps on the committee that are Republicans, like Chuck Grassley, just want to bash on anything tangentially connected to Obama, like he has something to do with the day-to-day operations of the ATF.

Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) and Barney Frank (D-MA) plan to introduce a bill that would end the federal prohibition on marijuana.

I know it'll die in committee but at least someone is trying to change a failed policy.

Anyone ever heard of this site and whether I can take them seriously?

State Dept. sells arms to the Zetas

Edwin wrote:

Anyone ever heard of this site and whether I can take them seriously?

State Dept. sells arms to the Zetas

The site has been around awhile, but does have a strong conservative bias.

Sorry, Mexico. We're trying to help, but it's critical to the NRA that some gun shops along the border make a profit out of your problems:

WASHINGTON — The National Rifle Association on Wednesday filed a lawsuit challenging a new federal regulation requiring gun merchants along the border with Mexico to report bulk sales of certain semiautomatic rifles, contending that the Obama administration exceeded its powers by imposing the rule last month without Congressional permission...The rule requires licensed firearms dealers in Arizona, California, New Mexico and Texas to report within five days whenever someone buys more than one weapon like a variant of the AK-47 assault weapon. The rule covers any semiautomatic rifle capable of accepting a detachable magazine and ammunition larger than .22 caliber.