Weekend Update

From the SA newspaper

Assasins have killed more than 11,000 people amid Mexico's 30 month campaign against organzied crime.

The this unbelievable comment about a 30 year old priest shot in the back this past week. 

This is the  beginning an indication that they (the gangsters) do not respect anything. Comment by another priest

The beginning, what about the 11,000? There is no real legal system in Mexico, judges are regularly bribed which is why the outlaws operate so brazenly, they know nothing will happen to them. Apparently the drug trade is everything it is touted to be in the movies, one gets filthy stinking rich if one lives thru the ordeal. 

Meanwhile in Afghan we have given up on whatever the last plan was to squash the opium trade, Let's see, you and I are Afghans, we can grow opium or pistachio nuts, what shall we do....

But I digress. We should be focused on Mexico.   Legalizing at least marijuana as FDR repealed Prohibition would be a start, unless one takes the money out of the drug trade, no telling how high the body count will rise. And of course that would be the real way to defeat the taliban in Afghan, take away the money.   Does anyone really think the Mexican govt will dissuade the murderers of 11,000- people?

The population of Mexico is expected to rise from the current 45 M to much higher levels. THere is not an existing economic structure to support almost any population increase. 

WE cannot hope to build an economy in a country brutalized by open warfare with no real legal system. 

OH, your tax dollars at work dept....

The governors of Tx, Az, CA NMx want help on the border

Gates at the Penatgon does not want a permanent military on the border.

Napolitano at Homeland Security requested Nat Guard when Gov of AZ and now she disagrees with Gates

Meanwhile Obama wants Congress to spend $250 M to send troops while saying he does not 'want to militarize the border.' Folks I am not making this stuff up, see page 16A in the paper today.

Anyway, the goal of NAFTA was a free trade zone in the Americas which if you look at Laredo has increased trade. But hard to see how things are going to work out at this rate, I am not planning any trips to Mexico, are you?  Would you locate a manufacturing business in Mexico, don't worry it is just the outlaws killing outlaws.....

I report, you decide. 

 

Comments

[Harrison Belt]

A few years ago my father was auditing a French company's manufacturing plant based in Nuevo Laredo and had to be escorted every morning over the border by armed gaurds in bulletproof cars. When I asked my father why they would build a plant there he said it was because with enough bribes the Mexican government did not care what kind of ecological impact that the plant would have and that most countries would never let them in. What goes on south of us can be a real problem sometimes

[vince]

I believe that the one way to put and end to the drug cartel and the drug wars is to bombard them with military force. But i guess that will not happen until something really trajic happens to an amercian official or someone of significant importance. I guess we would have helped Mexico out in putting an end to their drug problems if we had interest, just like we are doing now in the middle east(oil).

[Dennis Elam]

This is precisely why Gates wants no part of this. South American countries are notorious for mixing military with police matters giving the military control over the civilian population.

Johnny Depp'latest movie is apparently an artistic take on the Dillinger story. I cannot imagine Dillinger conceiving of killing 11,000 people. Yet that is what has happened. Just how would this military force differentiate between the outlaws and the innocent. How indeed would this be enforced short of a total police state. Gates understands that.

[Felix Duque]

I am very familiar with these things that are happening in Mexico. I used to live over there, and it is sad to know that the place that you grew up at, is now a war zone basically. I have family over there and I go visit them when I can, and let me tell you it is scary. The police cannot do anything, what can a police man do with old rusty gun, compared to the automatic weapons that the drug dealers carry, guns that they mainly got from Texas. That's right from Texas, if you don't believe me read the following article.

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/mexico/Texas_top_source_for_smugglers.html

Anyways, about the corruption in Mexico, it has always been there, but I believe that before there was corruption because some of the police members did not care about ethics, they just wanted to get money, but I honestly believe that now it is more about life and death. If any local police officer shows any opposition, they will end up dead.

This is sad....

[Dennis Elam]

Felix

A good perspective. The guns are the derivative of the problem, any war zone be it Afghan, Iraq, Viet Nam spawns a black market in weapons. The problem is an unrealistic drug law and the inability to enforce it. I wrote a paper on drugs in 1968. Back then it was the Turkish and Greek police that were corrputed by the drug dealers as the stuff worked its way through the Mediterrean. It is the worst of both worlds for the rest of us here is why.
On the one hand the police get more funding, larger departements, etc to 'fight' drugs. This never works. On the other hand the drug lords pay the police to look the other way while landing various small dealers to show they are doing something.