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mises
Joined: 05 Nov 2007
Location: retired
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 Posted: Thu Feb 12, 2009 10:55 am Post subject: |
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Phoenix, kidnap-for-ransom capital
Reporting from Phoenix -- In broad daylight one January afternoon, on a street of ranch-style houses with kidney-shaped swimming pools, Juan Francisco Perez-Torres was kidnapped in front of his wife, daughter and three neighbors.
Two men with a gun grabbed the 34-year-old from his van and dragged him 50 yards to a waiting SUV. His wife threw rocks at the car, then gave chase in her own SUV. Neighbors in northwest Phoenix called police. Yet when police found her later, she at first denied there was a problem.
On the phone later, as detectives listened in, kidnappers said Perez-Torres had stolen someone's marijuana.
But police were used to conflicting story lines by now. It was Phoenix, after all: More ransom kidnappings happen here than in any other town in America, according to local and federal law enforcement authorities. Most every victim and suspect is connected to the drug-smuggling world, usually tracing back to the western Mexican state of Sinaloa, Phoenix police report.
Arizona has become the new drug gateway into the United States. Roughly half of all marijuana seized along the U.S.-Mexico border was taken on the state's 370-mile border with Mexico.
One result is an epidemic of kidnapping that many residents are barely aware of. Indeed, most every other crime here is down. But police received 366 kidnapping-for-ransom reports last year, and 359 in 2007. Police estimate twice that number go unreported.
In September, police spun off a separate detective unit to handle only these smuggling-related kidnappings and home-invasion robberies. Its detectives are now considered among the country's most expert in those crimes.
That Thursday afternoon last month, Perez-Torres' abduction fell to the unit's two most seasoned detectives, Gina Garcia and Arnulfo "Sal" Salgado, as they were about to leave work. Over the next 42 hours, the kidnapping would consume their every waking moment.
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http://www.latimes.com/news/la-na-drug-kidnappings12-2009feb12,0,3927610.story?track=ntothtml |
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Demonicat
Joined: 18 Nov 2004
Location: Suwon
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| Posted: Thu Feb 12, 2009 7:51 pm Post subject: |
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| I'm just returning from Mexico, and I have to say that there are no easy answers there. The crime is really spiraling out of control as the various factions fight for little bits of the country. Hell, even if there were no drugs they would be fighting over kidnapping money. The whole situation is screwed down there. |
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djsmnc
Joined: 20 Jan 2003
Location: Dave's ESL Cafe
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| Posted: Thu Feb 12, 2009 8:01 pm Post subject: Re: Mexico thread |
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| Big_Bird wrote: |
| Come on North Americans. These guys are your neighbours. Shouldn't your interests in current affairs be heavily slanted to this region? If not, why not? |
Well, we've been trying to build a big wall there so they don't have to worry about losing their workforce. What else are we supposed to do? |
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mises
Joined: 05 Nov 2007
Location: retired
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mises
Joined: 05 Nov 2007
Location: retired
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| Posted: Mon Feb 16, 2009 6:51 am Post subject: |
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http://www.miamiherald.com/news/americas/AP/story/905854.html
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Mexico's ex-drug czar charged with aiding cartel
Associated Press
MEXICO CITY -- Officials say Mexico's former drug czar has been charged for allegedly taking $450,000 to inform for the Sinaloa drug cartel.
The federal Attorney General's office says the cartel paid No� Ram�rez to warn its leaders of planned police operations against them.
Ram�rez was detained in November in a government probe meant to catch officials who allegedly share information with increasingly violent drug smugglers.
He has been in jail since then awaiting formal charges, in accord with Mexican law.
The attorney general's office announced those charges Sunday.
President Felipe Calder�n appointed Ram�rez as Mexico's top anti-drug prosecutor in 2006.
Ram�rez resigned last July at the attorney general's request. |
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/americas/02/11/brazil.marijuana/
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RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (CNN) -- Former presidents of Mexico, Colombia and Brazil called Wednesday for the decriminalization of marijuana for personal use and a change in tactics on the war on drugs, a Spanish news agency said.
People march in support of legalized marijuana in late January in Belem, northern Brazil.
People march in support of legalized marijuana in late January in Belem, northern Brazil.
Ex-presidents Ernesto Zedillo of Mexico, Cesar Gaviria of Colombia and Fernando Henrique Cardoso of Brazil made their announcement at a meeting in Brazil of the Latin American Commission on Drugs and Democracy, the EFE news agency said.
"The problem is that current policies are based on prejudices and fears and not on results," Gaviria said at a news conference in which the commission's recommendations were presented.
The 17-member panel worked on the report for a year and will forward it to all Latin American governments as well as the United States and the European Union, EFE said. Gaviria said the time is right to start a debate on the subject, particularly with the pragmatic openings provided by the election of President Barack Obama in the United States. |
I do hope that nations in the Americas start to have this conversation. |
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mises
Joined: 05 Nov 2007
Location: retired
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| Posted: Thu Feb 19, 2009 12:56 pm Post subject: |
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Steven Greenhut: Mexicans dying in our drug war
Drug prohibition lies at the heart of violence in Mexico.
What if I mentioned that thousands of people have been killed � 7,337 at last count � since 2007 in open warfare just a short drive from here? Or that the grisly violence has reached close to areas within the readership of this newspaper? What if I noted that the violence has altered the lives of many of our neighbors, friends and co-workers, who have family members who dwell in the heart of the war zone? What if I added that, because of this war, we place our lives in jeopardy by simply visiting some of our favorite vacation spots? Would that cause you to think twice about your foreign-policy priorities?
I am referring, of course, to Mexico, which has turned into a horror show in the past couple of years. There's been sporadic news coverage of these events. But the average American � and the average politician, for that matter � doesn't seem attuned or interested in a human tragedy that's starting to spill not just across the border, but deeply into the American interior, to cities such as Dallas, Atlanta and Sioux Falls, S.D., where Mexican drug gangs have murdered and abducted people.
I still receive many phone calls and e-mails from readers upset about the "Mexican" situation, but they aren't talking about the beheadings, murders, kidnappings, assassinations of newspaper editors, gunfights in town squares between drug lords and the military, killings of bystanders and children, or about the huge numbers of Mexican police who work for the cartels. No, they are referring to the immigration situation, and they generally are upset at the number of Mexican nationals who come north mainly to escape grueling poverty. But, as former House Speaker Newt Gingrich pointed out at a recent speech to an Orange County trade association, there isn't a wall big enough to keep out the nasty problems now destroying Mexico. Americans need to think more broadly about this matter. Since hearing Gingrich, I've been reading about, and fuming over, these horrors.
American policy � in particular, the federal government's insistence on funding and fighting a drug war here and in pushing the Mexican government to battle the drug cartels down south � has exacerbated the carnage in Mexico. That's not to reduce the responsibility of the evil folks committing evil acts. But as Ted Galen Carpenter of the libertarian Cato Institute explained in a 2008 article for The National Interest, "U.S. policy seems to assume that if the Mexican government can eliminate the top drug lords, their organizations will fall apart, thereby greatly reducing the flow of illegal drugs to the United States." But Carpenter notes that cutting off the head of one drug Hydra leads only to more heads sprouting. He gets to the real problem: "If Washington continues to pursue a prohibitionist strategy, which creates the enormous black-market profits in drug trafficking, violence and corruption will become a dominant and permanent feature of Mexican life."
Unfortunately, not many Americans on the political Left or Right are willing to even discuss the real answer, which is the decriminalization of drugs. Indeed, it's hard to even get any support for the modest goal of allowing people to sell small amounts of marijuana to terminally ill people. Yet it's the illegality of drugs that makes them so lucrative, and which assures that only the most vicious gangsters will thrive as the price goes ever higher. Even those Americans who see Mexico merely in terms of illegal immigration ought to broaden their horizons. If the lawlessness down south isn't reduced, pressure will increase for immigration, legal or otherwise, as more Mexicans seek refuge from the violence outside their doors.
Americans need to stop being so childish about drug issues. Yes, drugs are bad, but some people will always use them. Government cannot stop this desire, and government interdiction efforts only succeed in raising the price of the contraband, which leads to an even bigger reason to violently fight it out over the market. It provides the money needed to buy off cops and corrupt an entire justice system. We don't see Budweiser dealers shooting it out on Main Street with Miller dealers to control the beer trade. That's because beer sales are legal. That may seem absurd, but consider that the same sort of battles took place in the United States between bootleggers when alcohol was illegal in the 1920s and early 1930s.
"During Prohibition, there were undoubtedly people � claiming, 'Booze consumption is down. We're winning the war on booze. Al Capone is in jail. We've got to keep on waging the war on booze until we can declare final victory,'" wrote Jacob Hornberger, president of the free-market Future of Freedom Foundation. "Fortunately, Americans living at that time finally saw through such nonsense, especially given the massive Prohibition-related violent crime that the war on booze had spawned. They were right to finally legalize the manufacture and sale of alcohol and treat alcohol consumption as a social issue, not a criminal-justice problem."
If Americans can't figure out that the drug war is no different from the booze war, then we are destined to read more headlines such as these, which were taken from recent newspaper articles: "Mexican drug violence spills over into the U.S."; "Bloodshed on the Border: Life in Juarez, where drug violence has created the equivalent of a failed state on our doorstep"; "Mexico vs. drug gangs: A deadly clash for control"; "Drug war mayhem instills a new fear: Drug-related killings have taken thousands of lives, but now those uninvolved in the cartel battles are falling victim, even children"; "Mexican police linked to rising kidnappings: Many are afraid to contact authorities about abductions, fearing officers could be involved."
I think back to ancient history � the early days of the Bush administration. Our new president touted America's special relationship with Mexico and met several times with then-Mexican-President Vicente Fox in an effort to bring about a more open border and better relationships between our two democracies. The idea seemed sensible, especially from the vantage point of Southern California, with its close connections and proximity to Mexico. The issues of the time � illegal immigration, Bush's proposed guest-worker program and the plan to make it easier for Mexican trucks to travel into the United States � were contentious, but seem like minor-league stuff compared to today's goings-on. Now Tijuana and even Rosarito Beach are war zones. This is from the L.A. Times in October: "As Tijuana's latest flare-up in the drug war rages into its fifth week, with the death toll approaching 150, violence is permeating everyday life here, causing widespread fear, altering people's habits and exposing the city's youngest to carnage."
I'd hate to think of this going on for years, but it probably will. The root of the problem � drug prohibition � seems obvious, but for some reason Americans and Mexicans are unwilling to consider an end to it. But even if few people are willing to discuss the solution, it's high time that Americans pay more attention to this problem. |
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/drug-mexican-war-2308232-americans-people
It is nice to see more of these types of articles is widely read MSM papers. |
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Leslie Cheswyck
Joined: 31 May 2003
Location: University of Western Chile
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mises
Joined: 05 Nov 2007
Location: retired
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man_of_words
Joined: 18 Oct 2008
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Sun Feb 22, 2009 3:15 am Post subject: I think |
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| Law Enforcement needs to stop being such a bad joke over there first. On all levels. there needs to be a serious house cleaning. Their judges bust be protected and at the same time examined for their own ties to crime. There has to be some real effort at maintaining a sane system of justice. If new laws have to be written to take the earning power out of the hands of the cartels then so be it. What happened to the gangs that ran chicago after the prohibition of alcohol was repealed? |
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Ya-ta Boy
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Established in 1994
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| Posted: Sun Feb 22, 2009 3:44 am Post subject: |
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| Grrrrrr. Wrong thread. |
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Kuros
Joined: 27 Apr 2004
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| Posted: Sun Feb 22, 2009 9:28 am Post subject: |
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Wow. Wouldn't it be cool if Obama could decriminalize marijuana in exchange for foreign policy concessions from Latin America?
Play the hand well, Obama! |
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On the other hand
Joined: 19 Apr 2003
Location: I walk along the avenue
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| Posted: Sun Feb 22, 2009 9:57 am Post subject: |
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| Kuros wrote: |
Wow. Wouldn't it be cool if Obama could decriminalize marijuana in exchange for foreign policy concessions from Latin America?
Play the hand well, Obama! |
Yes, and if that happens, you can count on the Republicans to run ads in the following election telling people that Obama gave foreign-policy CONCESSIONS to Latin America, in exchange for making it easier to poison America's youth with drugs.
And if between now and then one of the relevant Latin American countries gets taken over by a Chavez-style leader, all the better for the GOP. |
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bucheon bum
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Sun Feb 22, 2009 2:21 pm Post subject: |
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| Kuros wrote: |
Wow. Wouldn't it be cool if Obama could decriminalize marijuana in exchange for foreign policy concessions from Latin America?
Play the hand well, Obama! |
I think such a move would benefit Canada and the western states more than Latin America  .
Cocaine, on the other hand, would catch the attention of Mexico et al. |
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Ya-ta Boy
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Established in 1994
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| Posted: Sun Feb 22, 2009 2:53 pm Post subject: |
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| bucheon bum wrote: |
| Kuros wrote: |
Wow. Wouldn't it be cool if Obama could decriminalize marijuana in exchange for foreign policy concessions from Latin America?
Play the hand well, Obama! |
I think such a move would benefit Canada and the western states more than Latin America .
Cocaine, on the other hand, would catch the attention of Mexico et al. |
In the old days, we used to say, "Dope gets you through times of no money better than money gets you through times of no dope."  |
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Gopher
Joined: 04 Jun 2005
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| Posted: Sun Feb 22, 2009 4:49 pm Post subject: |
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Yes, as it appears to be becoming a dangerous variant on the theme of plutocracy, the narcostate... Kind of like Al Capone during prohibition, but more powerful and violent. |
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