IT'S THE DRUGS NOT THE ILLEGALS
The Juarez style "narco-crimes" are now invading Tucson in the "narco" community. This is going to become more and more the norm all along the border as Mexico's narco-war invades the US. It makes a person wonder why the House Democrats want to cut anti-drug aid to Mexico just when the nation needs it the most! Fortunately, we have a GOP Presidential nominee who "Gets it".
"...Until now, Republicans and Democrats had tried to make as little noise as possible about the Bush administration's Mérida Initiative, a request for $500 million to help Mexico fight its drug cartels. They hoped to pass it quietly, fearing that a high-profile debate would stir up political passions on both sides of the border and kill the proposal. But with drug war violence in Mexico escalating to record levels in recent memory, that's changing fast. Likely Republican candidate Sen. John McCain will probably try to cut into the Democrats' growing lead among Hispanics by saying that their proposal to reduce the Mérida Initiative by up to $190 million amounts to ''abandoning'' Mexico at a time when President Felipe Calderón's government is facing a bigger than ever attack from the drug cartels. It may be much like when McCain blamed Democrats for ''abandoning'' Colombia by resisting ratification of the U.S.-Colombia free-trade agreement. Only that, in Mexico's case, the political stakes at home are higher because more than 65 percent of the more than 10 million Hispanic voters are of Mexican origin. When I asked the McCain campaign Friday evening for a reaction to the Democrat majority-proposed cuts to the Mérida Initiative, I got a statement from McCain's top foreign policy advisor Randy Scheunemann that sounded like the opening salvo of the coming Republican offensive...."
Unfortunately, as a nation, the hard-core anti-immigration supporters have bullied the cowardly Republicans in Congress to the point where all they can see is hard-line immigration reform, and not the "real picture". As a result, Republicans are losing race after race for Congress. Show me a hard-line anti-immigration Congressperson and I'll show you a potential unemployed conservative. AJ Strata wrote:
"...Another Amnesty Hypochondriac bit the dust - the one issue that lingered in 2006 and the GOP dared America to consider in the voting booth. Legislation was held up by Dennis Hastert and company in the House as they went on a tour to sell America for the 2006 election. Haster lost his job as Speaker of The House and the GOP lost his seat to another Amnesty Hypochondriac far right candidate in another special election. All those GOP presidential candidates that were tied to the Amnesty Hypochondriac movement, which torpedoed another chance at reform under the current democrat led Congress, failed miserably this year. Is it any surprise that the one man on the GOP side who openly supported the Iraq war and comprehensive immigration reform is the GOP nominee to be President? This is not all coincidence folks...."
I've been telling you that guns from the US are helping to feed the drug wars in Mexico. Well, I told you so!
"...Federal agents swooped down on a north Phoenix gun store Tuesday in the biggest weapons bust in years, highlighting Arizona's major role as an arms conduit to violent drug cartels in Mexico.
Authorities said the store was a source for at least 650 high-powered weapons, including 250 AK-47 automatic weapons, smuggled to drug cartels for use in the escalating Mexican drug war. That war left 2,500 dead last year, and Arizona weapons were used to assassinate police and battle army squads near the border, authorities said. The raid on X-Caliber Guns on North Cave Creek Road capped an 11-month investigation by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Phoenix Police Department and the Arizona Attorney General's Office. Agents pored over evidence in the store, seized 1,300 weapons and closed down the business. ...The federal Attorney General's Office in Mexico issued a statement Tuesday saying the office "recognizes and salutes these actions carried out by the U.S. authorities to interrupt the illegal trafficking of firearms into Mexican territory." Iknadosian was arrested Tuesday at his Glendale home and is accused of fraud, money laundering, illegal arms-trafficking and running an illegal enterprise. He started selling guns in Arizona in 2004.
The Gamez brothers are accused of setting up a network of straw purchasers who acted as go-betweens to buy the guns on the brothers' behalf. The two are suspected of then transporting the weapons to Mexico. Hugo is a U.S. citizen, and Cesar is a Mexican citizen living legally in Phoenix. ATF Supervisory Special Agent Pete Forcelli said Iknadosian knew the guns were going to cartels. In making the case, undercover agents bought weapons, and he coached them on how fill out paperwork to disguise the sales. Weapons traced to X-Caliber turned up at several Mexican murder scenes. In one recent Mexican case, an X-Caliber AK-47 was found alongside grenade-launcher equipment and 3 tons of marijuana. One of the guns sold by X-Caliber was a .38-caliber pistol recovered in January when the Mexican army arrested a Sinaloan cartel leader, Alfredo Beltran Leyva, in Culiacan. Leyva was suspected of running hit squads and is right-hand man to Mexico's most-wanted fugitive, cartel boss Joaquin "Chapo" Guzman...."
Authorities said the store was a source for at least 650 high-powered weapons, including 250 AK-47 automatic weapons, smuggled to drug cartels for use in the escalating Mexican drug war. That war left 2,500 dead last year, and Arizona weapons were used to assassinate police and battle army squads near the border, authorities said. The raid on X-Caliber Guns on North Cave Creek Road capped an 11-month investigation by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Phoenix Police Department and the Arizona Attorney General's Office. Agents pored over evidence in the store, seized 1,300 weapons and closed down the business. ...The federal Attorney General's Office in Mexico issued a statement Tuesday saying the office "recognizes and salutes these actions carried out by the U.S. authorities to interrupt the illegal trafficking of firearms into Mexican territory." Iknadosian was arrested Tuesday at his Glendale home and is accused of fraud, money laundering, illegal arms-trafficking and running an illegal enterprise. He started selling guns in Arizona in 2004.
The Gamez brothers are accused of setting up a network of straw purchasers who acted as go-betweens to buy the guns on the brothers' behalf. The two are suspected of then transporting the weapons to Mexico. Hugo is a U.S. citizen, and Cesar is a Mexican citizen living legally in Phoenix. ATF Supervisory Special Agent Pete Forcelli said Iknadosian knew the guns were going to cartels. In making the case, undercover agents bought weapons, and he coached them on how fill out paperwork to disguise the sales. Weapons traced to X-Caliber turned up at several Mexican murder scenes. In one recent Mexican case, an X-Caliber AK-47 was found alongside grenade-launcher equipment and 3 tons of marijuana. One of the guns sold by X-Caliber was a .38-caliber pistol recovered in January when the Mexican army arrested a Sinaloan cartel leader, Alfredo Beltran Leyva, in Culiacan. Leyva was suspected of running hit squads and is right-hand man to Mexico's most-wanted fugitive, cartel boss Joaquin "Chapo" Guzman...."
Last week Defense Secretary Robert Gates even mentioned the problems along the border in a speech. Why are we having such problems? Let's face it. The reason for all of this? It’s the demand for illegal drugs here in the US. Mary O’Grady writs in the WSJ:
“…That success didn't change the U.S. appetite for the mind-altering substances. Instead, drugs started flowing over land routes and Mexican cartels took charge. Now they are rumored to be in control of most of the traffic from the Andes northward. They are also suppliers of marijuana and synthetic drugs. Prohibition puts value in their product, because customers at places like San Diego State are willing to pay the premium that illegality exacts. A U.S.-Mexican joint assessment estimates that more than $10 billion in cash from drug sales flow from the U.S. to Mexico every year.
The upshot: Americans underwrite Mexico's vicious organized crime syndicates. The gringos get their drugs and the Mexican mafia gets weapons, technology and the means to buy off or intimidate anyone who gets in their way. Caught in the middle is a poor country striving to develop sound institutions for law enforcement.
The trouble for Mexico is that, even if it understands that U.S. demand is not going away, it cannot afford to cede large swaths of the country to the drug cartels. Thus Mexican President Felipe Calderón has made confronting organized crime a priority since taking office in December 2006. His attorney general, Eduardo Medina Mora, told me in February that the goal is to reclaim the state's authority where it has been lost to the mafias.
But after 17 months of engagement, while San Diego students party on, victory remains elusive and the Mexican death toll is mounting. Most of the drug-related killings since Mr. Calderón took office seem to be a result of battles between rival cartels. Still, the escalating violence is troubling. The official death toll attributable to organized crime since the Calderón crackdown began now stands at 3,995. Of that, 1,170 have died this year.
Especially alarming are the number of assassinations among military personnel and municipal, state and federal police officers. The total is 439 for the 17 months and 109 so far this year. Many of these victims have been ordinary police officers whose refusal to be bought off or back off cost them their lives.
But as the murder of police chief Millan makes clear, high rank offers no safety. Two weeks before he was gunned down, Roberto Velasco, the head of the organized crime division of the federal police, was shot in the head. The assailants took his car, which leaves open the possibility that it was a random event, but most Mexicans are not buying that theory. Eleven federal law enforcement agents have been killed in ambushes and executions in the last four weeks alone….”
Makes you wonder why those dastardly illegal migrants wanted to get the heck out of Mexico, doesn't it. Well, it's like this, since 2006 over 3000 people have been murdered in the drug wars in Mexico with something like 1000 murders already in 2008. The upshot: Americans underwrite Mexico's vicious organized crime syndicates. The gringos get their drugs and the Mexican mafia gets weapons, technology and the means to buy off or intimidate anyone who gets in their way. Caught in the middle is a poor country striving to develop sound institutions for law enforcement.
The trouble for Mexico is that, even if it understands that U.S. demand is not going away, it cannot afford to cede large swaths of the country to the drug cartels. Thus Mexican President Felipe Calderón has made confronting organized crime a priority since taking office in December 2006. His attorney general, Eduardo Medina Mora, told me in February that the goal is to reclaim the state's authority where it has been lost to the mafias.
But after 17 months of engagement, while San Diego students party on, victory remains elusive and the Mexican death toll is mounting. Most of the drug-related killings since Mr. Calderón took office seem to be a result of battles between rival cartels. Still, the escalating violence is troubling. The official death toll attributable to organized crime since the Calderón crackdown began now stands at 3,995. Of that, 1,170 have died this year.
Especially alarming are the number of assassinations among military personnel and municipal, state and federal police officers. The total is 439 for the 17 months and 109 so far this year. Many of these victims have been ordinary police officers whose refusal to be bought off or back off cost them their lives.
But as the murder of police chief Millan makes clear, high rank offers no safety. Two weeks before he was gunned down, Roberto Velasco, the head of the organized crime division of the federal police, was shot in the head. The assailants took his car, which leaves open the possibility that it was a random event, but most Mexicans are not buying that theory. Eleven federal law enforcement agents have been killed in ambushes and executions in the last four weeks alone….”
But - we are diverting money into fighting illegal migrants, not the drug war - here in the US and on the border.
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