In a stunning front-page editorial the principal Juarez, Mexico newspaper El Diario has called for a truce with the ultra violent Juarez and Sinaloa Mexican drug cartels in wake of the murder of an El Diario photographer and severe wounding of a colleague in Juarez on Thursday of last week. Luis Carlos Santiago Orozco, 21, and co-worker Carlos Sanchez were ambushed in a gangland style “hit” in the parking lot of a busy market area on Thursday, September 16, Mexico’s Bicentennial celebration day. Orozco had recently ascended from intern to full time employee of the newspaper and he and Sanchez were going to lunch at a market close to the newspaper’s offices. The second victim was hospitalized in serious condition. In a front page editorial, El Diario clearly asks the cartels “¿Qué Quieren de Nosotros?” or “What Do Want From Us?” The editorial plainly states what has been obvious to many outside observers — the government of Mexico and its law enforcement entities are losing the drug war to the Sinaloa and Juarez cartels. This is a translation of part of the editorial in Sunday‘s El Diario, in which it lays out its new position for reporting on the drug war; I’ve added some text missing from the Spanish version in parentheses to ease readability. From “El Diario” published Sept.19, 2010 – Lords of the different organizations that are fighting (for) the square of Ciudad Juarez, (i.e. control of the drug trade in Juarez) the loss of two reporters of this publishing house in less than two years represents an irreparable breakdown for all of us who work here and, in particular, for their families. Therefore, as information workers (we) want (you) to explain to us what (you) want from us, what (you) intend (us) to publish or fail to publish, (or to know) what to expect. You are, at present, the de facto authorities in this city, because the legally instituted controls could not do anything to prevent our colleagues (from) continue to fall, although we have repeatedly demanded (these protections, as promised by the Mexican government). That is why, faced with this indisputable fact, we write to you to ask, because at least we want is another one of our colleagues again be the victim of his (the cartel’s) shots.” This is the second time in a week an El Diario editorial proffered what many of us living here on the U.S./border Mexican had already suspected, that although local Mexican law enforcement, the Mexican Army and the Mexican Federal police have a large presence in Juarez and other Mexican “hotspots” of violence, the government of Mexico has essentially lost control of the situation and cannot control the violence or stop the cartel wars currently raging in Mexico. Comparisons of Mexico to the near failed state status of 1990’s, Columbia, are more and more common. In the earlier editorial, El Diario bristled at the suggestion by a Mexican federal education official that the news outlets themselves were somehow responsible for the “terrorism” and the implication that the media had somehow brought the violence on itself. It is commonly known that Mexican governmental officials are being bribed by a practice known in Mexico as “plata o plomo” which translates to “silver or lead.” This means that the cartels, awash in U.S. cash, buy the cooperation of Mexican (and increasingly some American) governmental officials by giving these officials the impossible choice of taking bribes, the silver, or being gunned down: the lead. This type of corruption has long been endemic in Mexican government. Cocaine from South America and marijuana, ecstasy and now even methamphetamines from Mexico flow through the major drug corridors around the Juarez/El Paso area and west to Arizona. The illegal drugs that once entered the country through the ports of Miami and the West Coast now come overland through the U.S./Mexico border, as was recently illustrated by Sheriff Larry Dever in his Big Journalism piece and by the testimony of many other courageous citizens and U.S. law enforcement personnel. As the Mexican drug cartels tighten their grip on Mexico and branch out into protection rackets and smuggling of humans in addition to illegal drugs, the cartels have sought to muzzle the Mexican media. With El Diario ’s decision to step back, the cartels have achieved another win in this effort. The Committee to Protect Journalists, a New York City-based watchdog group, estimates that 22 journalists have been killed in Mexico during the last two years as many media outlets in Mexico have stopped reporting on the drug cartel violence that engulfs the country. The threat to American is clear and present. We share over two thousand miles of common border often delineated by little more than a weak fence or the shallow trickle of river that the Rio Grande becomes in some areas of the border, areas which are easily forded by a pickup truck. Unless something is done, the future for Americans and their national sovreigntyare frightening.
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As Citizens Flee Juarez, Mexican Newspaper ‘El Diario’ Calls for Truce with Drug Cartels
( Desert USA map) Mexican drug smugglers fired across the Rio Grande at US Border Patrol Agents near Anzalduas Park this morning. KRGV reported: The FBI is investigating after armed men shot at border patrol agents on the Rio Grande. A Border Patrol Spokesperson tells CHANNEL 5 NEWS agents chased a vehicle to the river’s edge near Anzalduas Park this morning. The driver swam to Mexico leaving behind his vehicle loaded with drugs. As agents were removing over a thousand pounds of marijuana armed men in Mexico began shooting at agents patrolling on boats. The agents returned fire several times forcing the gunmen in Mexico to flee. No injuries were reported. Nogales International has more on the attack on the border agents. Border Patrol agents returned fire after being shot at by unidentified assailants west of Nogales last Sunday, the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office reported. The Border Patrol notified the Sheriff’s Office of the exchange of fire shortly before 6 p.m. on Sept. 5 and deputies responded to Bellota Canyon, northeast of Peña Blanca Lake and 5 1/4 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border, sheriff’s spokesman Lt. Raoul Rodriguez said. Rodriguez said agents were patrolling the canyon on foot when three or four armed individuals began shooting at them. “Luckily the agents were not injured and were able to return fire,” Rodriguez said. Border Patrol saturated the area with aerial recon and also deployed its special response team, while sheriff’s deputies also searched for the shooters.
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Mexican Drug Smugglers Fire On US Border Patrol Agents
Paul Michael Oren, Israel’s stellar ambassador to the U.S., is warning that Hezbollah has amassed an arsenal of approximately 15,000 rockets in South Lebanon, near the border with Israel. That’s about four times more than Hezbollah had in 2006, when it launched constant rocket attacks deep into Northern Israel. Moreover, according to Oren, Hezbollah’s rockets can now reach every Israeli city, even Eliat in the South. To make matters worse, this time Hezbollah has placed its rockets under hospitals, homes and schools. So, if Israel were to try to take the rockets out, it would face howls of protest from the “international community” including, I suspect, President Obama. Israel may well have to pay a steep price for its cautious approach to the 2006 fight against Hezbollah and for not finishing that fight.
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The wages of not finishing the job
Former Border Patrol Chiefs (NAFBPO) join ICE and Border Patrol Agents in a vote of “No Confidence” in the Obama Department of Homeland Security and Department of Justice. Here is their press release: Brunswick GA – 28/8/2010 – Recently, the Union representing Border Patrol Agents joined the one representing ICE Agents in stating they have no confidence in the current DHS & ICE upper management. Now the Association of Former Border Patrol Officers has stated their support of the two union’s positions. The Nat’l Association of Former Border patrol Officers, or NAFBPO ( www.nafbpo.org ) strongly believes that with illegal aliens entrenched in every single state of our nation, interior enforcement of our Immigration laws is woefully lacking. This has been caused by a lack of resources, and continues to worsen under faulty operational policies and a non-willingness by upper management to enforce existing Immigration laws. NAFBPO is adamant there are two primary tasks that must be accomplished to improve our system for legal Immigration while eliminating the blight of illegal Immigration. These are a secured border and strong interior enforcement. NAFBPO’S collective experience in dealing with border and Immigration matters, as well as an institutional knowledge dating back over a half century leads us to emphatically state that without these two tasks being implemented successfully, Immigration control will never be possible. Buck Brandemuehl, retired Chief of the Border Patrol and a founder of NAFBPO says “The U.S. has reached a critical crossroads in dealing with the illegal alien problem. This problem must be addressed now, as it is strangling our democracy and threatening our national security.” There are a number of steps required in addressing the two essential tasks. In the near future, NAFBPO will be posting a comprehensive Immigration enforcement and reform proposal setting forth those steps, which if implemented collectively, will provide a common sense Solution to illegal l Immigration, and a return to the rule of law. NAFBPO is the National Association of Former Border Patrol Officers, an organization advocating for increased homeland security through a controlled border, and effective Immigration enforcement. In 2006, a group of retired Border patrol Chiefs and Agents formed NAFBPO in order to use our collective knowledge and experience to educate America to the realities of border and Immigration issues, while actively working for no amnesty and for effective Immigration reform. One of the our most effective tools is the M3 Report, a collection of translated Spanish-language news media from south of the border. This free report is often quoted by Legislators and news media. To subscribe to this free report, go to: http://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailverify?uri=wordpress /m3report . The no confidence votes are falling like rain upon the Obama administration. Hat Tip Rachel P.
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Retired Border Security Agents Join ICE and Border Agents In No Confidence Vote of Obama Administration
If President Obama’s visitors ever grow bored, they can always read the mottos woven into the border of the Oval Office’s new rug. There are five of them “of meaning to the president” on the outskirts of the traditional presidential seal, according to a White House spokesman, and definitely not …
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Obama takes philosophical approach to Oval Office
Rampant violence plagues Mexico and on occasion spills over the border. Mexico has had, for some time, a higher murder rate than Iraq, if nowhere near as high as Venezuela. In that context, this story has a happy ending: an 18 year old girl was kidnapped in the U.S., taken across the border into Mexico and held for ransom. When it turned out that her family couldn’t pay, the criminals dumped her in a Mexican field. Eventually she was rescued and returned, alive, to her parents. It is the details of the story that are revealing. Policemen in her own town were able to talk with the girl on her cell phone, but they couldn’t cross the border to help her: U.S. authorities did not contact their Mexican counterparts because they did not know whether they were corrupted or connected to the girl’s captors, [San Juan Police Chief Juan] Gonzalez said. So corruption in Mexican police forces is so common that American authorities don’t dare tell Mexican policemen the whereabouts of a kidnap victim. Random people the girl encountered would not help, either. “People that she came across didn’t want to help,” the chief said. “People are living in fear in Mexico.” Gonzalez would not specify exactly who went to pick up the girl — only that a “courageous person” crossed and found her covered in dirt, but unharmed. So the authorities apparently carried out an “unofficial” rescue. I’m not surprised that people are living in fear in Mexico, given the level of violence there. But this kind of incident suggests a breakdown in the social order that may not be sustainable for much longer.
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Trouble to the South
Read Part One here . Another reason for the spotty media coverage of the war along our southern border is manpower. Local media simply doesn’t have the resources to investigate and cover all of the stories in their area — even when they are aware of them. The reliably liberal Mainstream Media has more resources, but is hamstrung by ideology. Amnesty proponents have spokesmen ready to downplay any news story that hurts their cause and the national media makes ample use of those spokesmen. The battles along the border don’t fit the MSM narrative. Money and fear are the cartels’ big weapons–and they use them both. Journalists are a favorite target of the Mexican cartels. According to Reuters, they’ve already succeeded in silencing journalists along much of the Mexican side. Hitmen from the Gulf cartel based over the border from Texas are paying reporters around $500 a month and showering them with liquor and prostitutes to intimidate and silence colleagues at radio stations and newspapers in towns near the Laredo-Brownsville area, journalists and editors say. “Our newsrooms have been infiltrated by these reporters, they monitor what we write, they know where we live. With this system, the narcos have direct control over us,” said a local newspaper editor who declined to be named for safety. Cartel money has also been showered on the U.S. officials for several years. The number of Border Patrol agents charged with corruption has seen a dramatic rise since 2007, according to a CBS News report . “The AP tallied more than 80 corruption-related convictions against enforcement officials at all levels since 2007. Even Mexican President Felipe Calderon is aware of the corruption on the U.S. side. “To get drugs into the United States the one you need to corrupt is the American authority, the American customs, the American police – not the Mexican. And that’s a subject, by the way, which hasn’t been addressed with sincerity,” the Mexican president said. “I’m waging my battle against corruption among Mexican authorities and we’re risking everything to clean our house, but I think there also needs to be a good cleaning on the other side of the border.” The cartels have many targets on both sides of the border. At the 7th Annual Border Security Conference , concluded this past week in El Paso, one speaker showed a video of cartels “overpowering a port of entry in Mexico” while another included remarks of the increasing violence — and the corruption — on both sides of the border. When drug cartels can’t buy silence or compliance, other means are tried. Cochise Co. (AZ) Sheriff Larry Denver says there are areas “the Border Patrol will not allow their agents to work on the border because it is too dangerous.” President Obama has largely resisted the calls of border state governors for troops to help restore order and protect U.S. citizens. The administration’s much-ballyhooed announcement of sending 1,200 National Guardsmen to the border? The 1,200 are to be split between the border states. How effective is Obama’s move? As of last week, only 420 have been deployed or are in training. In addition, “once they arrive they are not to come in contact with any suspicious persons,” serving in administrative and monitoring roles only. Other Obama efforts include warning signs and sending $270 million to Mexico for a mix of Clinton-era crime/pork : midnight basketball leagues, orchestras and art classes. “This will surely create fear and horror in these gangsters. Students doing a Mexican hat dance will stop the cartels in their tracks,” quipped former New York narcotics officer Charles Santiago. That the Obama administration has a stake in keeping many of these stories quiet is demonstrated by the Department of Homeland Security’s ignoring Judicial Watch FOIA requests on Mexican military incursions and media reports of federal officials being muzzled .” “I don’t want to get him [the federal official] involved because it sounds like they’re going to fire him for saying the truth,” [Zapata County Sheriff] Gonzalez said of the officer. If the federal government’s policy is not to protect or enforce the border, it’s hardly surprising that agencies are not only not cooperative with the media, but cracking down on federal officials who are. One reporter spoke of being contacted by the DHS solely “to learn the identity of an agent he [the reporter] had spoken to” for a story. The FBI article referenced at the beginning of this piece referenced a crime spree by Los Palillos–the “Toothpicks.” From 2004 to 2007, the San Diego street gang carried out a brutal crime spree in which 13 people were abducted and nine were killed. “This level of extreme violence is very typical of the way the cartels operate south of the border,” Giboney said. Unfortunately, Los Palillos is not an isolated case north of the border, either. Until the U.S. southern border is secured, expect the fog of war to continue.
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The Fog of War on America’s Southern Border, Part Two
Sheriff Larry Dever of Cochise County, Arizona told reporters this week that border patrol officials are pulling their men away from the border because it’s too dangerous. CNS News Video: The border patrol managers are also afraid of cross border fighting that could stir up an international incident. CNS News reported: Sheriff Larry Dever of Cochise County, Ariz., one of four Arizona counties contiguous with the U.S-Mexico border, said Friday that the U.S. Border Patrol has pulled back from parts of the border in his and neighboring counties because manning those areas has become too dangerous. “And you frankly have Border Patrolmen–and I know this from talking to Border Patrol agents—who will not allow their agents to work on the border because it is too dangerous, ” Dever told CNSNews.com in a videotaped interview. “Now what kind of message is that for crying out loud?” Dever, a native of Cochise County, has been in local law enforcement in the county for three decades. He was elected the county sheriff in 1996. Dever stressed that the Border Patrolmen are ready and willing to perform their mission of securing the border, but that Border Patrol managers had determined that in “some places” the danger was too great and they wanted to avoid the risk of an international incident such as a cross-border firefight.
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Arizona Sheriff: Border Patrol Abandoning Border Because It’s Too Dangerous (Video)
From the President’s statement on the new Southwest Border Security Act: I have made securing our Southwest Border a top priority since I came to office. That is why my administration has dedicated unprecedented resources and personnel to combating the transnational criminal organizations that traffic in drugs, weapons, and money, and smuggle people across the border with Mexico. “Unprecedented resources?” Well, yeah, if you include a White House lawsuit to prevent the state government of Arizona from helping the Federal government to enforce its own laws. That seems pretty unprecedented to me.
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You Keep Using That Word
(Laredo, Texas) This report should be the headline story put out by the American media. The idea that drug cartel raiding parties are attacking and seizing territory inside the United States is major. There is currently a standoff between the unknown size Zeta forces and U.S. Border Patrol and local law enforcement on two ranches on our side of the Rio Grande. The source tells us he considers this an “act of war” and that the military is needed on the border now! It’s unforgivable that this story isn’t being reported by the elite media. More at the link.
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Drug Cartel Gunmen Invade Texas, Ranches Seized