|
|
"In the Americas, the biggest threat to public safety comes from drug trafficking and the violence perpetuated by organized crime," said Antonio Maria Costa, executive director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) speaking in Mexico City yesterday.
"Urban violence in the U.S., biker gangs in Canada, violence and kidnapping in Mexico, pandillas and maras in Central America, thugs in the Caribbean, gangs in Brazilian shanty towns, insurgency in Colombia -- in every case there is a connection to drugs," Costa said.
He urged governments not to be tempted to legalize drugs such as cocaine and methamphetamine, saying: "At this point, we know what some people -- the pro-drug lobby, for example -- would say: 'Legalize drugs and crime will disappear.' In other words, while facing an undeniably tough problem, we are invited to accept it, hide our head in the sand and make it legal.
"I do not agree, and let me explain why by using an analogy. Human trafficking is another tough crime problem, worldwide -- perhaps second in size, after drug trafficking. Should we legalize modern slavery, given the intrinsic difficulty in dealing with it? Of course not."
Instead, he called for more to be done across the hemisphere to tackle the problem from the demand and supply end, working more towards reducing the cultivation, processing and trafficking of drugs.
He added: "Until the number of cocaine users falls worldwide, the problems caused by narco-trafficking will be displaced (as we are now seeing in West Africa) rather than solved. Therefore, more attention and resources must be devoted to drug prevention and treatment. Demand and supply reduction measures will inevitably contain the trafficking problem and the crimes associated to it."
Mexico is currently in the grip of surging levels of drug-related violence. President Felipe Calderon has sent 40,000 soldiers and 5,000 federal police officers to secure large swaths of the country against its powerful drug cartels. In the nearly two years since Calderon launched a crackdown against drug gangs, more than 4,000 people have died.
Read the full speech by Antonio Maria Costa, executive director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), here.
Read more about Mexico's drug war here at our "Mexico Under Siege" page.
-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City
Photo: Mexico's military during last year's Independence Day celebrations. Credit: Deborah Bonello / Los Angeles Times.
The birthplace of one of Mexico's most infamous drug cartels looks more and more like its graveyard. Gunmen and associates of the Arellano Felix cartel, rulers of the city's criminal underworld for two decades, are being massacred by the score, reports Richard Marosi from Tijuana.
Their mangled bodies turn up in garbage-strewn lots, a dozen at a time. Killers cut out their tongues, slice off heads, and leave behind taunting messages. Two barrels of industrial acid left on a sidewalk last week are believed to contain liquefied human remains.
In all, at least 57 suspected organized crime members, a majority of them believed to be part of the Arellano Felix organization, were killed in the last week, including 12 dumped in front of an elementary school Sept. 29 and eight tossed in an industrial yard Thursday.
The carnage may be a sign that the cartel named for the Arellano Felix brothers is fractured and vulnerable to contenders, inside and outside the organization, who are looking to get control of lucrative trafficking routes into the United States, according to law enforcement sources.
Click here for more of the latest gruesome news on Tijuana, and go here for more on Mexico.
Go to our "Mexico Under Siege" page for more reporting on Mexico's drug wars.
-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City
Photo: State police officers investigate the scene of a shootout between drug gangs in Tijuana, Mexico, Saturday, Oct. 4. Credit: Guillermo Arias / Associated Press
Stretched thin in an uphill battle against drug gangs, the government of Mexican President Felipe Calderon faces increasingly stark options at a pivotal moment.
A fatal Sept. 15 grenade attack on civilians in western Mexico, coming on top of a steadily rising death toll nationwide, drastically altered the stakes in the nearly 2-year-old crackdown, reports Ken Ellingwood. Calderon now has little room to pull back without appearing beaten. But the attack, which killed eight people during an Independence Day celebration in Calderon's home state of Michoacan, is testing the public's stomach for the increasingly savage conflict.
"The violence is not going to stop soon. There will be more actions," political analyst Alfonso Zarate warned last week in the daily El Universal newspaper.
"However, neither the government nor the public can turn back."
Meanwhile, the BBC is reporting this morning that Calderon has sent a new security plan to Congress that includes a proposal to set up a department to monitor and tackle corruption among Mexican police. Mexico's corrupt police force is one of the biggest obstacles to effectively tackling the drug lords in the country, and reform is underway.
Click here for more on Mexico and go to our Mexico Under Siege page for more on the drug war in the country.
-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City
Photo: A soldier stands guard Sept. 17 over the plaza in Morelia, Mexico, in which explosions two days earlier killed eight people and injured more than 100. Credit: Deborah Bonello / Los Angeles Times.
 Daniel not come home.
Linda LaPorte stood in the kitchen of her home in Pascoag, R.I., holding her cellphone. Her son's Thai girlfriend was calling from San Diego, speaking a mile a minute in fractured English, reports Evelyn Larrubia.
He said call mom if he not come home.
Linda and her husband, Joseph, had called their son just days earlier to wish him a happy 27th birthday. He'd said nothing about traveling anywhere.
Yet here was his girlfriend saying he'd gone to Mexico on business with a guy named Big Daddy. And he hadn't come back.
"What she was trying to convey to me didn't make sense," Linda recalled.
Dozens of American citizens have been kidnapped and killed in Mexico in the last year. They are a small fraction of the more than 3,000 people, the vast majority of them Mexicans, who have been slain gangland-style. Countless others have been kidnapped for ransom.
Read the rest of the dispatch about the disappearance of Daniel LaPorte here.
Click here for more on Mexico and here for our special report on the drug wars in Mexico, Mexico Under Siege.
— Deborah Bonello
In what prosecutors said was a significant step in fighting the drug wars raging on the U.S.-Mexico border, the Justice Department said Wednesday that 175 people believed to be connected with one of Mexico's most violent drug cartels were arrested this week in a dozen states.
The arrests Tuesday and Wednesday were part of a 15-month investigation led by the federal Drug Enforcement Administration targeting the drug trafficking organization known as the Gulf Cartel. The group is a key target of Mexican President Felipe Calderon's 21-month offensive against drug mafias, reports Richard B. Schmitt.
Click here to read more about the arrested drug suspects, and here for more on the drug trade across Latin America.
For more on Mexico in general go here, and go to our Mexico Under Siege page for up-to-date coverage of the drug war in Mexico.
-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City
Two explosions during Mexican Independence Day celebrations in the western state of Michoacan killed eight people Monday night and injured dozens more, according to local media reports this morning.
Thousands of people were gathered in the center of Morelia, the state capital, when the explosions went off in front of the city's national palace. El Universal is reporting this morning that the explosions were caused by grenades thrown into the crowd during the celebrations. In addition to the deaths, at least 100 people were injured, according to Reforma and El Universal.
Gov. Leonel Godoy, quoted in this Reforma report, said: "Technically, this is a terrorist act. We have no doubt that we're facing a terrorist attempt."
No one has claimed responsibility for the explosions, but media reports are making connections between the attacks and the country's organized crime networks, against which President Felipe Calderon is waging a war using the nation's army and police.
Michoacan is Calderon's home state. Speaking this morning -- Independence Day -- at a ceremony in Mexico City, Calderon called on all Mexicans to condemn the events in Michoacan.
Mexico is not only in the midst of a violent war against its powerful drug lords, but crime and kidnappings are also soaring. Insecurity in the country has led the public to demand action from its government.
Calderon did not pin blame for the blasts on any particular group, but he called for unity in Mexico and said: "We are against all of those who, in defense of their meager interests, are damaging the population."
Click here for our special report on Mexico's drug wars, Mexico Under Siege, and here for more on Mexico.
-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City
edited at 14:42pm Mexico City time. Photo and video added.
Image: Mexico's military march down Avenida Reforma in Mexico City during the country's Independence Weekend celebrations Tuesday, and the day after at least seven people were killed in an explosion in the western state of Michoacan. Deborah Bonello / Los Angeles Times
Drug-related violence in Mexico is soaring, as are crimes against civilians such as kidnappings. The country's police force is key in helping to bring back stability and a sense of security to the Mexican people. But public confidence in the nation's cops is low (see the video above) -- and for good reason.
Drug money and corruption have long tainted law enforcement in Mexico, reports Ken Ellingwood.
But Mexico's top police official, Genaro Garcia Luna, with President Felipe Calderon's backing and the aid of technology, may succeed in reforming the system, analysts say.
Read on »
The drug-related violence continued in Mexico this weekend, with the biggest mass killing since the country's relentless drug war exploded two years ago. The Times' Tracy Wilkinson reports: "Gagged and bound, the bodies were dumped on a grassy roadside littered with trash. Most had been shot in the head, probably on the spot, judging from the spent shell casings. Some were carted there, already dead, authorities believe.
"In what appears to be the largest single mass killing since Mexico's vicious drug war exploded nearly two years ago, the bodies of 24 men were discovered late Friday about 30 miles from this capital. The execution-style slayings probably were the latest battle between rival drug gangs, officials said Saturday."
There appears to be no let-up in sight to the killings, which analysts say are designed to frighten the public and erode faith in President Felipe Calderon's war against the country's powerful drug cartels.
Earlier this week, Mexican Foreign Relations Secretary Patricia Espinosa urged the United States government to release the $400 million promised to Calderon's government as part of a bill called the Merida Initiative. Approved in June, the money was pledged in order to help Mexico in its fights against its drug lords and organized crime networks, but the funds have yet to be released.
The Merida Initiative has proved controversial with activists on both sides of the political spectrum in the United States. Some who worry that the funds will go into the hands of a police force and legal branch in Mexico with a long history of corruption. See the bill discussed here.
Read more about the Merida Initiative here and more about Mexico here.
For our special report on Mexico's drug wars, go to our Mexico Under Siege page.
-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City
Photo: A police officer guards the area of La Marquesa park where the bodies of 24 men were found about 30 miles from Mexico City. The dead ranged in age from 20 to 35, and all had been shot in the head, the attorney general’s office said. Credit: Dario Lopez-MIlls / Associated Press
 Mexico is urging the United States to release the $400 million of first-year funding that it promised President Felipe Calderon to help him fight the country's powerful drug cartels and organized crime networks.
The money was pledged back in June by the U.S. Congress as part of a controversial bill called the Merida Initiative. But as the Associated Press and local media report, the financial aid has yet to be handed over. According to the Associated Press: Mexican Foreign Relations Secretary Patricia Espinosa says the U.S. Congress is still analyzing supporting documents that were requested of Mexico.
But Espinosa says Mexico needs the aircraft, inspection equipment and other aid as soon as possible.
Espinosa told reporters on Tuesday that "we are insisting that we need the equipment," and "we hope it will come very soon."
The aid package includes equipment and training to help Mexico combat powerful drug cartels operating in the country.
Calderon has unleashed the nation's army against the "narcos" and the last year has seen drug-related violence within the country escalate. The discovery of headless bodies and written warnings from drug cartels operating across the country have become increasingly common.
Unofficial tallies by Mexican news outlets put the death toll from drug violence this year at more than 2,700. By some counts, it has already exceeded the total for 2007, which set a record, reported Ken Ellingwood last month.
Earlier this year, two experts discussed the pros and cons of the Merida Initiative. Critics of the aid package say it focuses on armed forces, which has a history of human rights abuses, and a weak and corrupt legal system.
Read more about the Merida Initiative here.
For full coverage of Mexico's drug wars, go to our Mexico Under Siege page.
— Deborah Bonello in Mexico City
Photo: A forensic expert lifts a human head from the scene where two decapitated heads were found in the city of Ciudad Juarez, in northern Mexico, on June 2. Credit: David Cruz / Associated Press
The bullet-riddled, decomposing body of 14-year-old Fernando Marti was discovered in the trunk of a stolen Chevy in early August. The boy -- the son of the owner of a chain of sports shops in Mexico -- had been kidnapped in June. Despite the fact that his parents reportedly paid a hefty ransom for his safe return, the teenager became another victim of the increasing number of fatal kidnappings sweeping the nation.
Three men -- two of them policeman -- were arrested in August on suspicion of involvement with Fernando's kidnapping. Now more arrests have been made in connection with the boy's case, which shocked and outraged the nation. "Mexico City police said they have detained five suspects in the kidnapping and killing of a 14-year-old boy, a crime that prompted protests across the nation.
"Officials said kidnappers dressed as police and set up a fake checkpoint on a busy street to snare victim Fernando Marti, revealing the complexity and sophistication of Mexico's organized crime gangs.
"City prosecutor Miguel Mancera said the suspected ringleader, Sergio Ortiz, posed as a well-heeled society type to move among the wealthy and collect information on potential victims. Mancera said Ortiz was a former agent of a now-disbanded city detective force," according to Times wire reports this morning.
According to a statement from Mexico City's attorney general, one of those in detention is Marco Antonio Moreno Jiménez, who was one of the three original arrests made in August. The four other people are new suspects in the case.
Mexico is currently in the grip of a crime wave that prompted people of all classes and ages to hit the streets in protest in cities across the country on August 30th demanding action from the government of Mexican President Felipe Calderon (see video below). The combination of high levels of kidnapping and increasingly gruesome violence meted out by the country's violent drug cartels has people living in fear.
The U.S. Congress approved a cash injection of $400 million in June -- in a bill called the Merida Initiative -- to help Calderon in his fight against the country's organized crime networks and drug cartels. We're yet to see any results.
You can read more about the kidnap and murder of Fernando Marti here.
This report from Ken Ellingwood details Mexico's kidnapping wave and how it is affecting people of all classes.
Click here for more about Mexico, and here for more about the Merida Initiative.
For our special report on Mexico Under Siege, click here.
-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City
Juan Jose Soriano, deputy commander of the Tecate Police Department in Mexico helped U.S. authorities find a drug-smuggling tunnel. The next morning, gunmen shot him 45 times in his bedroom, writes Richard Marosi. The veteran officer told only a few trusted aides about the tunnel. Later that day, the officers went into the U.S. and traversed the length of the passageway to an empty building, where they found computers, ledgers and other key evidence.
For U.S. authorities, it was an encouraging example of cross-border cooperation in the drug war. For Mexico's crime bosses, it was a police victory that could not go unpunished.
That night last December, while Soriano slept with his wife and baby daughter, two heavily armed men broke into his house and shot him 45 times. The 35-year-old father of three young daughters died in his bedroom. He had lasted two days as the second-in-command of the department.
The death of a police officer is generally greeted in Mexico with a knowing smirk. All too often, it is assumed the cop in question was playing for both sides in the raging drug war that has claimed at least 2,000 lives in Mexico this year.
But all indications, from U.S. and Mexican sources, suggest that Soriano was among the good ones, poorly paid but somehow immune to the lure of big money and the threat of deadly firepower from Mexico's violent drug gangs.
Read more of Marosi's report on Juan Jose Soriano and Mexico's drug wars here.
For complete coverage of Mexico's drug wars, go to our Mexico Under Siege page.
And click here for more on Mexico.
Image: Amid vendors and musicians in the tree-lined central plaza, police in Tecate, Mexico, handcuff a man on unspecified charges. Last December, deputy commander Juan Jose Soriano was assassinated after he reported a cross-border smuggling tunnel. Some suspect the police force has been corrupted by drug lords. Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times
The recent violence in Mexico, much of it drug-related, is showing no signs of letting up.
A grisly discovery Thursday on the Yucatan peninsula -- one of the country's most popular tourist destinations -- saw the violence spread to a state that, until now, largely has been spared the problems seen in other parts of Mexico. Although the Yucatan has seen scattered violence, it had not been a scene of severe fighting between drug-trafficking groups. Ken Ellingwood reports: "In a sign of the spreading violence in Mexico, 11 decapitated bodies were found late Thursday near the colonial city of Merida on the Yucatan peninsula, officials said."
"The bodies bore signs of torture and some were unclothed. Yucatan state officials said a 12th decapitated body was found later about 120 miles south of Merida, a city that is often used as a tourist gateway to the famed Maya ruins at Chichen Itza."
Warring drug gangs have routinely decapitated rivals during the last two years as they battle for coveted routes for smuggling drugs into the United States.
Four decapitated bodies were found in Tijuana earlier this week in a incident likely linked to drug trafficking.
Drug-related violence in Mexico has grown more savage amid a crackdown on traffickers by the government of President Felipe Calderon, says Ellingwood, and more than 2,500 people have died in drug violence, according to unofficial tallies by Mexican news organizations.
Go here for our special report on the drug-related violence in Mexico, Mexico Under Siege.
Click here for more on Mexico and here for more on the drug trade across Latin America.
-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City
Photo: Mexican soldiers march in last year's Independence Day parade in Mexico City. President Felipe Calderon has deployed 40,000 soldiers and 5,000 federal police officers to try to secure large swaths of the country against entrenched drug traffickers. Credit: Deborah Bonello / Los Angeles Times
The gruesome discoveries this week of five bodies in Tijuana, four of them decapitated, have shattered a period of relative calm and revived concerns that organized crime groups are escalating their battle for control of this border city.
Two bodies were found Monday morning on a hillside, one with its head placed on its upper back, reports Richard Marosi.
Three more bodies were discovered Tuesday morning in an illegal dump.
Their heads, charred from gasoline burns, were placed at their feet, according to the Baja California state attorney general's office.
Authorities have not identified the victims.
To read the full report on the bodies found in Tijuana, click here.
For more on the drug trade across Latin America, click here.
For our special report on Mexico Under Siege, see here.
-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City
The number of civilians killed by Colombian armed forces has soared, activist groups allege, with many of the abuses committed by army units that had been vetted by the State Department. There were 329 so-called extra-judicial killings by the Colombian military and police last year, a coalition of Colombian rights groups asserts in a report, a 48% increase from the 223 reported in 2006, reports the L.A. Times' Chris Kraul.
According to this report, the continuing allegations against the Colombian military have led Congress to criticize U.S. military aid under Plan Colombia and have been an obstacle to approval of a binational free trade agreement.
Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, chairman of the Senate subcommittee on State Department and foreign operations and author of the 1996 law that makes foreign military aid conditional on human rights compliance, expressed dismay.
"While the secretary of State certifies sufficient progress on human rights in Colombia, multiple sources report that unlawful killings by the Colombian army are continuing despite efforts by the minister of defense to stop it," he said in an e-mailed statement. "After providing billions of dollars in training and equipment to the Colombian army, we should expect better, including vigorous investigations and prosecutions of these crimes."
The United States Congress just approved a similar injection of funding into Mexico under a bill called the Merida Initiative, under which $400 million will go toward helping President Felipe Calderon fight powerful drug cartels and organized crime networks. You can read Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont defending that bill here.
Read the whole dispatch on unlawful killings by the Colombian military here.
For more on Colombia, click here.
And click here for more on the Merida Initiative.
-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City
Photo: Forensic anthropologist Maira Martinez works in a shallow grave near Santa Marta, Colombia. Martinez is a member of a dozen exhumation teams that have fanned out across Colombia to dig up remains of thousands of victims of a decades-long conflict. Credit: Chris Kraul / Los Angeles Times
The governor of violence-torn Chihuahua state on Monday urged President Felipe Calderon to revamp his anti-crime strategy after a weekend shooting there killed 13 people, including a baby, reports the L.A. Times' Ken Ellingwood.
Gunmen opened fire Saturday on a family gathering in the northern border state, which has become Mexico's most violent spot amid bloody feuding between drug gangs and a government crackdown on them.
Following the attack, Chihuahua Gov. Jose Reyes Baeza called on federal authorities to improve intelligence gathering, clean up corrupt police forces and review a government offensive that has deployed more than 3,000 troops and federal agents in Chihuahua.
Read on »
Gunshot victims of drug violence in Mexico are being treated in the United States at tax payers' expense, according to this report from the L.A. Times' Miguel Bustillo.
Using the wounding of deputy police chief Lorenzo de la Torre Torres as an example, Bustillo writes: "The only hospital within a 280-mile radius to offer state-of-the-art trauma care, Thomason has become an unwilling treatment center of choice for law enforcement officials and others in the vicinity wounded in Mexico's drug turf battles. The violence has killed more than 2,000 people this year, and more than double that number in the 20 months since President Felipe Calderon began deploying 40,000 troops across the country to crack down on narcotics trafficking."
Meanwhile, in Mexico City, Ken Ellingwood reports that anti-crime activists in Mexico say they have audio proof that the former attorney general of coastal Tabasco state was in league with drug traffickers while in office.
For more on our Mexico Under Siege series, click here.
Click here for more on the drug trade and here for Mexico.
— Deborah Bonello in Mexico City
Drug and gang-related violence continued in Mexico this week. In the northern border town of Juarez, gunmen broke into a drug rehabilitation center on Wednesday night.
They shot and killed eight patients and injured six others, the BBC reports this morning. The hooded gunmen, all wearing body armor, burst into the drug-and-alcohol rehabilitation center, dragged the patients to the patio and shot them.
About 40 people have been killed in drug cartel-related violence in the city this week.
In July, Tracy Wilkinson reported from Juarez on how drug-related killings have taken thousands of lives. Ciudad Juarez has become a singular symbol of Mexico's drug war, a concentration of everything that can go wrong. About 3,000 troops of the Mexican army arrived here after President Felipe Calderon launched an all-out offensive against drug traffickers, yet the killings have soared.
Read on »
In Mexico's drug war, Gen. Sergio Aponte Polito racked up crime-fighting credentials worthy of the Dark Knight, making record seizures of drugs and weapons and forcing out top Baja California law enforcement officials he accused of corruption and of having links to organized crime, writes the L.A. Times' Richard Marosi. "But in a surprise move Thursday, the general was relieved of his command, abruptly ending his controversial 20-month stint as the leader of President Felipe Calderon's army-led battle against organized crime in the northern states of Baja California and Sonora."
"Aponte won broad public support for aggressive tactics against drug gangs whose turf wars have left hundreds dead here, but he generated controversy by denouncing scores of police officers, prosecutors and officials by name in blistering letters published in newspapers across the state."
Meanwhile, Richard A. Serrano reports on how high-powered automatic weapons and ammunition are flowing virtually unchecked from U.S. border states into Mexico, fueling a war among drug traffickers, the army and police that has left thousands dead. "The munitions are hidden under trucks and stashed in the trunks of cars, or concealed under the clothing of people who brazenly walk across the international bridges. They are showing up in seizures and in the aftermath of shootouts between the cartels and police in Mexico."
"More than 90% of guns seized at the border or after raids and shootings in Mexico have been traced to the United States, according to the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Last year, 2,455 weapons traces requested by Mexico showed that guns had been purchased in the United States, according to the ATF. Texas, Arizona and California accounted for 1,805 of those traced weapons."
Click here to read more on Gen. Sergio Aponte Polito and here for more U.S arms heading south of the border into Mexico.
For more on the drug trade in general, click here.
Photo: General Sergio Aponte Polito, (center) commander of the military forces of Baja California and Baja California Governor José Guadalupe Osuna Millán (in suit left to Aponte) pass in reviue of the assembled federal troops, police and military in Tijuana, Mexico's City Hall April 29, 2008. Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times
— Deborah Bonello in Mexico City
Corrupt police are nothing new in Mexico. However, the latest development in the country -- in which two police officers have been arrested in suspicion of the kidnapping and slaying of the 14-year-old son of a rich businessman -- is a shocking reminder of the levels to which the nation's police work in collusion with the criminal underworld. A third man -- allegedly a civilian -- was also taken into custody in connection with the crime.
Read on »
Alleged drug kingpin Ever Villafane Martinez, a Colombian believed to be the main cocaine supplier to an offshoot of Mexico's notorious Sinaloa cartel, was arrested in Mexico City, federal police said Friday.
One of the hemisphere's most wanted fugitives, Villafane Martinez has been on the lam since 2001, when he escaped from a maximum-security lockup in Colombia while awaiting extradition to the United States on narcotics charges, writes Marla Dickerson.
His arrest was a rare piece of good news for President Felipe Calderon in his U.S.-backed war against Mexico's violent drug cartels. Authorities nabbed Villafane Martinez on Wednesday at a home in the Mexican capital's upscale Jardines del Pedregal neighborhood, where he apparently had lived for some time alongside millionaires and captains of industry.
Meanwhile, north of the border two Mexican federal agents were charged Friday with possession of alleged drug money after they were arrested at a West Covina home with more than $500,000, according to the Los Angeles County district attorney's office, reports Richard Marosi.
Carlos Cedano Filippini, 35, the lead agent from the Mexicali office of the Agencia Federal de Investigacion, and Victor Manuel Juarez, 36, were arrested Wednesday as part of an ongoing narcotics investigation by the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Los Angeles Police Department.
Read the rest of this story about the arrest of Ever Villafane Martinez here.
To read on about the arrest of the two Mexican federal agents in Los Angeles, click here.
For more posts about the Mexican drug trade, click here.
-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City
La Plaza tries to follow discussion as it develops on the Merida Initiative, a bill that was approved by the United States Congress under which the Mexican government receive $400 million of help from the U.S in its fight against the country's powerful drug cartels and organized crime networks.
Reactions to the bill have been mixed. Some feel it's a good way to fight drug-related crime and violence in Mexico. Others are worried that the legislation puts more money into the hands of an already corrupt law enforcement branch in Mexico, which has a terrible human rights record. Click here for a la Plaza report on videos that surfaced in the country and show the Mexican police allegedly receiving lessons in torture.
The following links show the bill discussed on Democracy Now and Al Jazeera -- thanks to Americas MexicoBlog for the heads up:
Read on »
Mexico is as famous for its drug violence as it is for its tequila these days. As the country continues its bloody battle against the powerful drug cartels in the region, the popularity of some of the cultural facets that surround the drug trade are dropping. The whiskey is flowing at La Cantina when Calor Norteña kicks out the accordion jams for a homage to gangster Arturo Villarreal, who rose from drug cartel protege to crime boss in a six-year reign of mayhem and murder, writes Richard Marosi from Tijuana.
"The law calls me a dangerous [criminal] so don't dare take me on because I have bullets to spare," the band members sing, as beer-swilling youths shout and long-nailed women twirl on the dance floor.
Since drug traffickers set foot in this border city, Mexican musicians have strummed along, chronicling their exploits in the traditional polka-based rhythms of the corrido. The sub-genre has been a soundtrack for the city, with bands like Calor Norteña sprinkling their repertoires with tunes about the city's most feared gunmen. But with drug war violence and kidnappings escalating, the narcocorridos are losing their swagger.
Radio stations have stopped playing the songs and promoters have banned the music from many public events. Nightclub owners ask bands to turn down narcocorrido requests. At the cavernous Las Pulgas nightclub downtown, managers banned the music two months ago -- a decision tantamount to West Hollywood's Whisky A Go-Go banning heavy metal hair bands in the 1980s.
Read more of Richard Marosi's report on about narcocorridos in Tijuana, "Mexico under siege: Muting the music of mayhem."
For more on Mexico's drug trafficking problems click here.
Photo: Alfredo Madrigal, a member of Herederos de la Frontera, plays accordion for admiring fans at the Baby Rock club in Tijuana. His group specializes in traditional Norteño-style ballads. Credit: Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times
The Dominican Republic's drug czar has criticized the United States for failing to support Caribbean nations in their fight against drug wars, while at the same time handing millions of dollars to Mexico and Central America to help them fight their powerful drug cartels and organized crime.
Quoted in Dominican Today this morning, Marino Vinicio Castillo, who is the drug advisor to the country's executive branch, said that the United States government's neglect of the Dominican Republic is obvious. "As an example he said Plan Merida, in which the U.S. gives US $500 million to Mexico and Central America to fight drug cartels, organized crime and human trafficking, but donates only US $2.5 million to Dominican Republic and Haiti for the same effort."
The Merida Initiative has been criticized as being too much money, coming too late, by some, and not enough money by others. Read here to see a discussion by two experts, and here to read more about Plan Merida in general.
-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City
"At least 21 people, including a 12-year-old girl and other ordinary citizens, have been killed by warring drug gangs since Thursday in the western Mexican state of Sinaloa, in one of the worst spasms of violence in memory in a region long conditioned to narcotics-related savagery," writes the Times' Marla Dickerson and Cecilia Sanchez.
The wave of deadly mayhem began with the audacious daytime shooting of a dozen people in the capital, Culiacan, and continued during the weekend and into Monday. The deaths of innocents, including the young girl, who had just left a party, have terrified the public and left many questioning the effectiveness of the federal government's ongoing crackdown on drug trafficking.
The United States Congress recently approved The Merida Initiative, which will give the Mexican Government U.S. $400 million to spend on their fight against the country's drug cartels.
-- Deborah Bonello in Los Angeles
At the end of last month, the Merida Initiative -- a $400 million aid package for Mexico aimed at helping the country fight its powerful drug cartels and organized crime networks -- was approved by the United States Congress.
The Merida Bill faced stiff opposition across the political spectrum and from both sides of the border. Detractors in the United States worry that the funding will put more resources into already corrupt law enforcement agencies in Mexico. Here in Mexico, critics are concerned that the help from the U.S. administration signals American interference in the country's affairs.
Here on La Plaza, we receive many comments and questions in response to posts on the issue of what is also known as Plan Mexico, which we have covered extensively. So today, we put questions about the aid package to two specialists on the subject.
Laura Carlsen is the director of the Americas program for the Center for International Policy, which advocates foreign policy based on demilitarization and a respect for human rights. She writes extensively on Mexico.
Senator Patrick Leahy is a Vermont Democrat who heads the foreign operations subcommittee and is an advocate of the package.
Read on »
Presidential hopefuls Barack Obama and John McCain go head to head in this BBC piece on their policy differences over Latin America this morning.
But other than a difference in tone and Obama's opposition to free trade, there's not much difference between their approaches to the region, writes Lourdes Heredia.
Both McCain and Obama support United States interventions in the fight against drug trafficking throughout Latin America, with both candidates behind Plan Colombia and the recently approved Merida Initiative.
Obama -- who apparently has never set foot in Latin America -- has a higher profile here because he is perceived as representing a fresh start for a region in which the Bush administration is unpopular.
Read the rest of the BBC's assessment of the rivals here...
-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City
During his visit to Mexico this week, John McCain reiterated his support for allowing more immigrant workers to enter the United States on a temporary basis. But he said broad immigration reform should come only after the U.S. government has tightened the border adequately, including by building fences, reports the L.A. Times' Ken Ellingwood from Mexico City.
Migration is a big issue in Mexico, the main source of undocumented immigrant labor to the United States. Mexican migrants in the United States sent home about $24 billion in remittances last year.
"We must have comprehensive immigration reform, but the American people want our borders secured first," McCain said.
McCain's visit to Mexico, seen by some commentators here largely as a play for Latino votes in the United States (as was reported in La Plaza yesterday), came as the Calderon government has pursued a crackdown on drug trafficking. That crackdown will receive additional funding from the recent U.S-approved Merida Initiative aid package, which McCain also praised during his trip.
Click here to read Ellingwood's full report on McCain's visit.
-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City
Photo: Sen. John McCain gets a blessing from Msgr. Diego Monroy Ponce at the Basilica de Guadalupe in Mexico City as McCain’s wife, Cindy, looks on. The basilica, built where a 16th century Indian peasant described a vision of the Virgin of Guadalupe, holds strong symbolism for Latino voters; credit: L.M. Otero / Associated Press.
John McCain arrived in Mexico last night from Colombia, where he had praised Colombian President Uribe's efforts to crack down on the drug trade and where his visit coincided with the liberation of a number of long-held hostages.
At around 8 a.m today, the presumptive Republican presidential candidate of the United States paid a visit to Mexico City's Basilica de Guadalupe, a major center of worship for the nation's millions of devout Catholics, where he signed the visitors' book and toured the religious site.
Commentators said that McCain's visit to Mexico could impress the millions of Mexicans currently living in the United States. "Images of Mr. McCain at the basilica are being directed at the Mexican community in the United States because they are symbols Mexicans over there also identify with," said political commentator José Antonio Crespo in the Dallas Morning News.
McCain will also meet with President Felipe Calderón during his time in Mexico, at which point the two politicians will no doubt discuss the recently approved yet controversial cash injection from the United States of $400 million U.S. -- known as the Merida Initiative -- aimed at helping Mexico in its fight against powerful drug cartels and organized crime networks.
He is also expected to address the thorny issue of illegal immigration to the United States during his time here -- an issue about which detractors say the presidential candidate has flip-flopped.
Click here for our coverage of Merida Initiative developments.
Read the Dallas Morning News report on McCain's visit here.....
-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City
 Videos that emerged in Mexico yesterday -- reported here on La Plaza -- that apparently show policemen in the city of León practicing torture techniques on a fellow officer have created an uproar in Mexico, the Associated Press reports.
The country has struggled to eliminate torture in law enforcement.
Following the emergence of the tape, human rights investigators in Guanajuato state are looking into the matter and the National Human Rights Commission also expressed concern.
"It's very worrisome that there may be training courses that teach people to torture," said Raul Plascencia, a top commission inspector.
There are some things that don't seem to be worrying officials here. For example, where these videos came from and why they emerged now, just when Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard of the rival PRD party (León's mayor is from the PAN, President Calderon's party) is embroiled in political upheaval following the News Divine nightclub tragedy. And what about the authenticity of the tapes?
Meanwhile, the Washington Post rightly elaborates on a point we raised Tuesday, which is that Mexico's law enforcement branches are currently waiting to receive a cash injection from the United States as part of the Merida Initiative.
Around U.S. $200 million will go to Mexico's Armed Forces, according to this analysis by Laura Carlsen, director of the America's Policy Program. But will it be used to "retrain" them, as the Merida bill stipulates, or just put more money to bad use in the hands of corrupt officials?
-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City
Photo: A screen grab of the leaked videos, in which a policeman is shown being forced to roll in his own vomit.
President Felipe Calderon on Friday welcomed the U.S. Congress' approval of the Merida Initiative a day earlier, an aid injection from the United States that is aimed at helping Mexico in its fight against powerful drug cartels.
The bill has dropped a controversial requirement that Mexico meet certain human rights standards in order to receive the aid. Mexicans had objected to the human rights provision, saying that it amounted to outside meddling by the United States in Mexican affairs. But dropping the human rights requirements seems certain to anger numerous opposition groups to the aid package -- see this La Plaza post on the issue. Writes the Associated Press: Calderon said the bill "was an important step in the fight against international organized crime." He said its passage was due in part to Mexico's insistence that the United States share the burden in the fight against drug trafficking.
Quoted in the New York Times, José Miguel Vivanco, executive director of the Americas division of Human Rights Watch, says of the approved package: “The big victory is for the rule of law. This will push the security forces in Mexico to a higher level of professionalism.”
Read on...
Mexico's Interior Secretary and Foreign Relations Secretary Patricia Espinosa stressed that the anti-drug aid would include equipment, systems and training, not cash, and that no U.S. soldiers would be allowed to operate in Mexico as part of the plan.
"Mexico will not accept the presence of U.S. military personnel in Mexico," Espinosa said.
Meanwhile, Mexico's raging drug war claimed the lives of six more police officers, ambushed on patrol in the marijuana-rich state of Sinaloa, authorities said Friday.
The attack followed the slaying Thursday of a senior police commander, part of a long string of killings apparently aimed at eroding public confidence in the government's ability to challenge drug gangs, reports the L.A. Times' Tracy Wilkinson.
Last week, a report in the Christian Science Monitor questioned Calderon's use of the military in the fight against the country's drug cartels -- see that post here.
Read on...
-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City
 A gunman killed a high-ranking commander in the federal police and a bodyguard as they ate lunch at a busy restaurant here yesterday, writes the New York Times.
The shooting appears to be the latest attack on law enforcement officials who are waging a campaign against drug traffickers, the authorities said. "At 12:50 p.m., a man walked in and opened fire on their table with a pistol. Commander Labastida died at the scene. One bodyguard was also killed, while the others and the aide were seriously wounded. The gunman sprinted out, jumped into a waiting sedan and escaped, Mr. Caño said."
Meanwhile the Christian Science Monitor asks this morning whether President's Felipe Calderon's use of the military in the country's ongoing battle against its powerful drug cartels is doing more harm than good. "As Mexico throws an unprecedented 25,000 troops and police into its war against narcotrafficking, more citizens here are wondering if the illegal detentions and unlawful searches are worth the price. It's a security versus loss of liberties trade-off that echoes concerns raised by Americans in their war on terrorism."
Read on...
-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City
Photo: A forensic expert lifts a human head from the scene where two decapitated heads were found in the city of Ciudad Juarez, northern Mexico on June 2. The killings were the latest macabre message from Mexico's drug cartels. Credit: David Cruz/Associated Press
In anticipation of the scheduled debate around the controversial Merida Initiative aid package in the U.S. Senate this week, the British newspaper Financial Times urges President Felipe Calderon to accept the human rights conditions attached to the plan aimed at helping Mexico fight its drug barons: "Mr Calderón should also accept the conditions. Co-responsibility is more than just sharing the financial and logistical burden of fighting the war against drugs. In its broadest expression, it encompasses many related spheres, including human rights. If he is to use the argument of co-responsibility as a way to get the US to pay more, he must also accept that it implies doing more to improve his country’s human-rights performance," writes the newspaper's Mexico correspondent, Adam Thompson.
The $1.6-billion Merida Initiative was approved by House lawmakers this month, and the Senate is expected to follow suit. You can read here about the controversial package, which is opposed by groups on both sides of the border and from all parts of the political spectrum, from Amnesty International and Friends of Brad Will (named for the journalist-activist who was shot dead in Oaxaca in 2006) to Republican groups.
The main worry is that the cash boost will place more arms and power in the hands of an already corrupt police and army in Mexico, and that the money should instead be spent on poverty-reduction programs or, as advocated by the Republicans, strengthening the border.
Meanwhile, as The Times' Ken Ellingwood reported this month, opposition is also coming from within Mexico. Senior Mexican officials have called the provisions a form of U.S. interference and threatened to turn down the first-year installment if the conditions survive in a final version yet to be worked out by the House and Senate. They want the human rights provisions on the initiative deleted.
The Minuteman border group already has a plan in case the Merida Initative doesn't pan out....
-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City
| |
