The Pink Flamingo :: Another Pink Flamingo I Told You So – It’s the Narco-War

If you think illegal immigration is bad now, just wait. If what I think is happening, we are in for a massive tide of illegal immigration – refugees fleeing the growing narco-war in Mexico. This is a war, perhaps involving Hugo Chavez, the FARC, and his plans to undermine Mexico and bring terror to the border.

Our precious little conservatives, who are pandering to hard-line racists who have nothing to do with the GOP are diverting money that needs to go into the fight against narco-terror. That is what it is. Wait, maybe you can comprehend the word “TERROR” and protecting our borders from TERROR. The problem is the damn fence isn’t worth a hoot. It’s all about the drugs. When are you going to realize this. The sooner we enjoin the real battle, the sooner we can secure our borders.

I have problems with Barack Obama's friend Bill Ayers, who is a staunch supporter of Hugo Chavez. We are going to be fighting a new war - on our borders. If our attention wasn't diverted by all this immigration stupidity we might be ahead of the game. Unfortunately, we aren't, and people are dying. I've written about how dangerous it is to drive certain roads along the border. Well, maybe you will believe someone else.

IT IS NOT ABOUT IMMIGRATION, STUPID
Let’s try this: Storm Warning

“…It is time that we wake up America! The Rio Grande Valley along the Texas-Mexican border is a war zone…and it is going to be a battlezone for freedom if we are not careful. If the battles between the Sinaloa and Juarez cartels aren’t enough to scare the crap out of you (along with the viciousness of the Gulf Cartels’ henchmen, Los Zetas), then examine more closely the gunning down of Edgar Eusebio Millán Gómez. As the public face of the Mexican government’s war on drugs, his being killed on the doorstep of his apartment in Mexico City, no less, holds in it the risk that the cartels will be emboldened (see Washington Post article). We are witnessing the first real protracted battles of the War on Terrorism in our Hemisphere.
“This could have a snowball effect, even leading to the risk of ungovernability,” Luís Astorga, a Mexico City-based sociologist and drug expert, said in an interview. “It indicates terrible things, a level of weakness in our institutions — they can’t even protect themselves.”

Already, there have been more than 6000 deaths in this Drug War within the country that lies to the south of our porous border. Millán Gómez’s murder is not the first high level (and visibility) murder.

Before Millán Gómez was slain, assassins also killed Robert Velasco Bravo, the head of the federal police agency’s organized crime tactical analysis office, as well as two other top police officials, all of them in Mexico City. One of the killings was in Coyoacan, an old-money haven popular with tourists.

The message seems clear. The Drug Lords and their cartels reign supreme in Mexico. I don’t care about the Merida Initiative! It won’t work (IMO of course). Merida is the appropriation of funds for the U.S. to help Calderon quell the violence and stop the drug trade. Who the hell are we kidding? The problem is that the problem is going to become more difficult to stop.
The worst part of all of this is the International connections to the Mexican Drug War…the first battles on the War on Terrorism in the Western Hemisphere are being fought today in Mexico. In his post on the Counterterrorism Blog, Doug Farah connects the dots for those who cannot or do not already see (anyone who has a familiarity with counter-narcotics issues already knew this).

It is worth remembering that the chaos the traffickers are wreaking in Mexico is not just aimed at the Mexican state, it is also aimed at undermining the already-battered viability of our southern border. The hundreds of dead across the border states of Mexico show where the battles are being fought.

The easier it is to cross dope, weapons, illegal aliens from around the world, the higher the profits for the traffickers.
And the FARC rebels in Colombia are now in a direct business relationship with Mexican trafficking organizations, according to the recently-captured FARC documents resulting from the raid that killed rebel leader Raul Reyes.

The FARC, in turn, is allied with Nicaragua (Ortega) and Venezuela (Chavez), who in turn are allied with Iran, which in turn runs Hezbollah, which in turn is actively working to expand its beach head in Latin America….”

Red Alerts has more:

“…Fingers are pointing at the powerful Sinaloa Cartel which has its own military wing and has been known to contract MS-13 and Mexican Mafia to kill rivals. The Sinaloa Cartel has pushed well into the American southwest and has increasingly shown a willingness to engage Mexican forces and rival cartels in open firefights on the streets.Mexico’s inability to maintain order has direct implications for American security, and this violence will spill into our country eventually…”

From Stratfor:

“…In the aftermath of the May 8 assassination of Edgar Millan Gomez, General Coordinator of Regional Security of the Mexican Federal Police, Stratfor sources in Mexico say other government officials could also be targeted, specifically Mexican Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora or President Felipe Calderon….”

The WPost:

“…Edgar Eusebio Millán Gómez, the public face of Mexico's offensive against drug cartels, became the highest-ranking law enforcement official to be killed since the launch of the effort 17 months ago. The assassination could give new confidence to drug cartels blamed for 6,000 killings in the past 2 1/2 years, and embolden other anti-government groups in this violence-plagued nation.

"This could have a snowball effect, even leading to the risk of ungovernability," Luís Astorga, a Mexico City-based sociologist and drug expert, said in an interview. "It indicates terrible things, a level of weakness in our institutions -- they can't even protect themselves."
Mexico's drug and violence problem now engulfs the entire country, swamping cities along the U.S.-Mexico border and rugged drug cartel redoubts in the western mountains, and piercing into the heart of national power in Mexico City. The capital, once relatively immune to such brazen drug killings, has been the scene of four assassinations of high-ranking federal police officials in about a week.

Millán Gómez's forces have conducted large-scale counter-narcotics operations throughout much of Mexico. He had ordered thousands of federal police to take over crime-fighting responsibilities from local police suspected of aiding drug traffickers. Those field operations -- often conducted with the military -- have led to widespread resentment among local and state law enforcement offices plagued by corruption.

It has long been common for assassins to target local and state police chiefs in Mexico, but this year, cartels have been increasingly going after some of the biggest names in the federal law enforcement structure. In January, police in Mexico City confiscated grenade launchers and arrested three men who have been accused of planning to assassinate José Luís Santiago Vasconcelos, a top prosecutor who oversees the extraditions of drug traffickers.

Before Millán Gómez was slain, assassins also killed Robert Velasco Bravo, the head of the federal police agency's organized crime tactical analysis office, as well as two other top police officials, all of them in Mexico City. One of the killings was in Coyoacan, an old-money haven popular with tourists.

Alejandro Gertz Manero, Mexico's former secretary of public safety, said in a Thursday interview on Radio Formula that Millán Gómez's killing demonstrated "a desire to generate an atmosphere of terror."

The capital is also on edge because the once-dormant People's Revolutionary Army, a rebel group that bombed oil pipelines last year, has been demanding the release of several jailed members. The rebels could see the killing of Millán Gómez as a sign of weakness, Astorga, the sociologist, said….”

Counterterrorism Blog

“…It is worth remembering that the chaos the traffickers are wreaking in Mexico is not just aimed at the Mexican state, it is also aimed at undermining the already-battered viability of our southern border. The hundreds of dead across the border states of Mexico show where the battles are being fought.

The easier it is to cross dope, weapons, illegal aliens from around the world, the higher the profits for the traffickers.
And the FARC rebels in Colombia are now in a direct business relationship with Mexican trafficking organizations, according to the recently-captured FARC documents resulting from the raid that killed rebel leader Raul Reyes.

The FARC, in turn, is allied with Nicaragua (Ortega) and Venezuela (Chavez), who in turn are allied with Iran, which in turn runs Hezbollah, which in turn is actively working to expand its beach head in Latin America.

It is not a conspiracy to see all these developments as inter-connected. As I often tell military audiences and others, every piece of the mosaic, looked at individually, is serious but not alarming. But when the tiles of the mosaic are assembled into a picture, even if the picture is a bit blurry, it is astonishing and dangerous.

The Colombians have been through this (the assassination of an attorney general and three top-tier presidential candidates in the span of three years in the 1980s), and have paid a tremendous price for taking on the cartels and criminal/political groups like the FARC. The effort, however, has paid off in the destruction or significant weakening of the groups, to the point where they no longer represent a direct challenge to the state.

Mexico is at the beginning of a cycle that will likely get worse before it gets better. The allies of the Mexican cartels are stronger and more vicious than those of the Medellin and Cali cartels in Colombia….”

THE US DEMAND FOR DRUGS
Patrick Oslo, Jr. has a commentary in Hispanic Vistas:

“…It’s time to take the gloves off and lay the responsibility for the bloodbath taking place on a daily basis in Mexico where it belongs – U.S. drug users. Mexican style Mafiosos are killing each other along with Mexican police officers, judges, prosecutors, journalists and innocent bystanders be they adults or children to gain transportation corridors from which to smuggle illicit drugs into the waiting hands of U.S. drug users.

And how does U.S. media report such events? Report how lawless Mexico is. And, for good measure, most articles insert the note “corrupt Mexican lawmen” in the story. Hardly any report ever mentions the end user in the U.S. as though that’s not the major part of the story unfolding before their very noses, when in fact they are the very reason for the carnage.
"It would stop being a business if the United States didn't want drugs," Benjamin Arellano Felix, one of the most ruthless and merciless drug capos responsible for hundreds of killings, told the Washington Post in a prison interview after Mexican authorities apprehended him.

Corruption in Mexico is no different than it was during the prohibition era in Chicago, New York, New Jersey and most major cities where the Mafia fought for territorial rights to sell liquor smuggled from Canada. And today, is there still one naïve U.S. citizen who believes there is no official corruption in any town USA?

Yes, there is corruption in Mexico, more than a country deserves, but Mexico does not have, or ever had, a monopoly. Like in the U.S. there is a fair share, and steadily growing numbers of honest non corrupt officials throughout Mexico.

During the U.S. prohibition era there were many non corrupt officers throughout the US who valiantly fought to defend law and order; many fell along with numerous innocent victims who were caught in the battles. This is now happening in Mexico.
U.S. news media touches on the administration of President Calderon’s declaration of war against organized crime in Mexico. This war is as real as our war against terrorism, and as all wars, it causes casualties. But instead of celebrating the bravery and ultimate sacrifice by the many that fall in the line of duty to keep drugs away from American families, news reporting marks Mexico as “lawless.” What injustice, what lack of fair reporting.

The recreational use of drugs, marijuana in particular, along with the more dangerous addictive stimulant drugs, has over several decades become entrenched in American culture greatly aided by Hollywood’s glamorizing drug usage in films. Though Marijuana is the most used, in the 1970s, Cocaine became the darling of the “successful” be they in the entertainment, sports or professions. It was the high cost of cocaine that created the link between U.S. users and Latin American producers; who originally used Mexico as a transportation corridor when it became more difficult to use Florida’s coast as entry points. This gave way to the Mexican capos and the beginning of the reign of terror in Mexico – all to satisfy U.S. recreational drug usage, eventually leading to addiction.

There should be no mistake, if Mexico loses the war against the drug trafficking capos, the U.S. is the biggest loser as every year 17,000 American lives are lost to drugs; where over 60 percent of the jail population is due to drug related crimes. And, where the annual cost, not counting what states and municipalities spend, exceeds $200-billion. But the biggest cost is in the lives and families destroyed and continuing fall into an abyss of national decadence.

With “my drug use doesn’t harm anyone but me” users excuse their repugnant behavior. But drug usage creates carnage, real people are being killed, families destroyed, children left orphans, mothers left without children, wives widowed in both Mexico and the U.S….”

THE WAR CONTINUES
According to the Guardian, just a few hours ago:

“…MEXICO CITY - A son of Mexico's most wanted drug kingpin, Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman, has been gunned down and killed by rival cartel hitmen, authorities said on Saturday….”

On Friday, sons of another kingpin were killed.

“…The official with the Attorney General's office says Edgar Guzman was killed in a gunfight on the Pacific coast on Friday. Guzman is the son of Joaquin Guzman, alleged leader of the powerful Sinaloa cartel. Joaquin Guzman escaped from prison in 2001 and allegedly started a bloody turf war that has killed hundreds. Also killed Friday was Arturo Meza Cazares. The U.S. government claims his mother, Blanca Margarita Cazares, is a key money launderer for the cartel. The official said Edgar Guzman was identified by his girlfriend and Cazares by his wife. The official was not authorized to give her name….”