The people you see in the picture above are the result of Mexican drug lords "right sizing" their consumer base by removing their heads. At least that's what the ambassador from Mexico thinks. The editorial should be better headed "Let's Call Mexico's cartels what they are: very violent, well-financed transnational criminal organizations."Thank you Ambassador Arturo Asshat for regurgitating your El Presidente's palaver. Nothing like having a third world dungheap take a snot-encrusted finger out of their nose and wave it under yours. Calling a vicious criminal enterprise an "illegal business" is like calling a serial rapist a "non-board certified gynocologist."
These transnational criminal organizations, which operate in both our countries, are not terrorist organizations. They are very violent criminal groups that are well-structured and well-financed. They pursue a single goal. They want to maximize their profits and do what most business do: hostile takeovers and pursue mergers and acquisitions. They use violence to protect their business from other competitors as well as from our two governments' efforts to roll them back. There is no political motivation or agenda whatsoever beyond their attempt to defend their illegal business.
Misunderstanding the challenge we face leads to wrong policies and bad policy making. If you label these organizations as terrorist, you will have to start calling drug consumers in the U.S. "financiers of terrorist organizations" and gun dealers "providers of material support to terrorists." Otherwise, you really sound as if you want to have your cake and eat it too. That's why I would underscore that the editorial page should be careful what it advocates for.
Arturo Sarukhan, Ambassador of Mexico to the U.S., Washington, D.C.
I am so sick and tired of Mexican officials trying to put a happy face on the slaughter and mayhem plaguing their hopelessly corrupt nation. There's just no way to put lipstick on this cerdo. Here is a Dallas Opinion Blog that says pretty much what I think-
Unlike Pablo Escobar's Colombian reign of terror in the 1990s, the Mexican cartels are engaged in serious insurgent campaigns. Armed with military infantry weapons, their gunmen use complex small-unit tactics that differ from the usual "pray and spray" methods beloved by criminals. Cartels run training camps for assassins on the border. They attempt to agitate the populace against the Mexican military through political subversion. And they control towns and neighborhoods that the military tries to retake through force.Congratulations Ambassador, you've managed to ignore a large scale, weapons grade Weatherman faction that is working up a big head of steam right in your own livingroom.
Mexico's cartels are evolving distinct political aims. La Familia is exemplary in this regard. Using social services and infrastructure protection as levers in rural areas and small towns, they are building a social base. In urban areas, they are funding political patron-client relationships to extend their reach. Reinforced by corruption, propaganda, political marches and demonstrations, as well as social media such as "narcocorridos," such activity helps to shape the future conflict.
11 comments:
When a bad government is too weak to enable population control (elimination), and too corrupt to support the growing population, outsourcing the genocide and then lying about it seems to be a way around the problem. I am sure they, as well, profit greatly from the exercise as well. At least, until it is time for the real "government" of Mexico to stand up.
Our choice, should we choose not to be eaten by the same monster, if we haven't been already, is to install a puppet democracy. You know, much of our economic, foreign, and domestic policy issues which seem insane might at least in part be explained by our institutions of government having been corrupted by these same forces. With Homeland Security chief, or whatever they call that toad, saying our borders are safer than ever... what other proof do you need?
This is such a sad situation, thanks for sharing.
Doom - problem is, there is no real government in Mexico. It is a furball of corrupt officials, narcolords and scared civilians waiting for the other shoe to fall.
In 2009 the Mexican murder rate was about 11 per 100,000 - down from 16 in 1997. If the US had a comparable murder rate it would more than double the murders we had in 2009 (from 15,240 to 30,480). Our murder rate in 2009 was just under 5 per 100,000.
Toyin - the cost in human suffering and terror is inestimable.
From yesterday's LA Times:
"Death toll in mass graves in Mexico reaches 116"
"As authorities unearth 28 more bodies in Tamaulipas state while investigating bus kidnappings, the federal government sends in more troops to monitor highways. Officials have arrested 17 people in the case."
The news from Mexico is so bad that we are almost beyond being shocked anymore.
"Pronouncing gross diversion as the label for the dog".
Of course using the term "terrorist" for narco crooks is foolish; it simply dilutes the word until it becomes meaningless in much the same way as "nazi", "pedo" or "racist".
Figures from UK this week. Police "stopped and searched" 96,000 people last year under the Prevention Of Terrorism Act. Number of arrests? Two. Two individuals, one bloke plus another.
That is how to bring the law into disrespect and labelling drug gangsters as "terrorists" does likewise.
banned - the gun control provisions passed under the Brady Bill produced less than a dozen prosecutions in ten years, none at all from 1996 through 1998. That's why it was allowed to expire. Almost all federal gun cases arise from violations of Title 18 U.S.C.
Sig94, I don't know what Title 18 U.S.C. means; my point is that the police, under the misguided impression that "we" are all living in fear of terrorism will allow them to use anti-terrorism laws to harrass anyone they don't like the look of.
They used to do this with what was called "Sus" ( stop & search which is so old I can't remember what its real name was) but they misbehaved so badly that the power was taken away from them only to be returned thinly disguised as a tool in the "war on terror" when in reality it is a war on the general population.
banned - point well taken. From my experience, the laws are already in place to do what is needed to be done. They are never enforced adequately and then, to appear to be responsive to a manufactured crisis, politicians pass ever more restrictive laws until the draconian measures they wanted in the first place are reached.
The firepower of these cartels is remeniscent of the Lebanese militias of the 1980's. What I find amazing is the rhetoric of those who insist that its "American guns" that are fueling this carnage. Now, no doubt, I'm certain that stolen handguns/long guns make their way south, but the firepower carried by these narco-militias is far and aboove that can be purchased at your local Bass Proshop. I suspect that this is either Chinese or Iranian hardware.
I fear too that with our neglected borders, we'll be seeing this type of activity in our SW Border cities like Tuscon, El Paso,San Antonia, and the like.
Andy - what is amazing is that one of the most violent cities in the world, Ciudad Juarez, is right across the Rio Grande from El Paso. Yet El paso, a city of 500,000 souls, has a relatively low crime rate.
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