America's Mexican Border Wars

[Tosh Plumlee]

I have to agree. I have seen nothing from three administrations for over twenty years in reference to the so called "Drug War". I expect nothing from this one. But I have to plug ahead and give the benefit of doubt to Obama in view of what he has said.

I do not expect anyone in Washington's "Beltway", to work with him (even the ones he has picked) D.C will cover their sins and assassinate whoever gets in their way. That said, for some strange reason.., deep inside, I have to keep trying and not let apathy take over like most Americans..

[David Guyatt]

I agree Tosh. Apathy is a killer and brings everything to a halt. Keep fighting I say.

[Tosh Plumlee]

Yes Dawn, it is. There are a thousand stories like this one in the Naked City.

I am not in my rocking chair as yet, althought close. I am down here, "working" on documenting various aspects of the Zetas operations (Gulf Cartel) here in Juarez. Thats about all I can say at this point in time... perhaps you have seen some of our work on TV these past two weeks.
I'm Hanging out with the Mexican Army. Most of these guys and girls are really good people and they know the ones in their ranks whon have turned "bad". They have their own "Hit Teams" and most of that is not covered by American mainstream media. Its a real war down here between them and the gangs. Secretly they have to work undercover and infiltrate these border gangs and take them out., and they do not work through the Mexican court system. They have their own system to deal with the turncoats and it is not something you want to see on prime time American TV. Its a cat and mouse game within their own ranks and very dangerous for them.

Its kind of like our own situation as to our political system... you have to weed out the crooks before they weed you out... Take care little lady... tell the "Fisty One' hello for me... Tosh

[Tosh Plumlee]

MEXICO UNDER SIEGE
Drug cartels' new weaponry means war



Email Picture

Felipe Salinas / Associated Press

Police officers drive past a burning police vehicle in Zihuatanejo, Mexico. In a three-week period, five grenade attacks were launched on police patrols and stations.


[COLOR=#333333! important]Narcotics traffickers are acquiring firepower more appropriate to an army -- including grenade launchers and antitank rockets -- and the police are feeling outgunned.[/color]
[COLOR=#999999! important]By Ken Ellingwood and Tracy Wilkinson [/color]
[COLOR=#999999! important]March 15, 2009 [/color]
Reporting from Zihuatanejo, Mexico, and Mexico City -- It was a brazen assault, not just because it targeted the city's police station, but for the choice of weapon: grenades.

The Feb. 21 attack on police headquarters in coastal Zihuatanejo, which injured four people, fit a disturbing trend of Mexico's drug wars. Traffickers have escalated their arms race, acquiring military-grade weapons, including hand grenades, grenade launchers, armor-piercing munitions and antitank rockets with firepower far beyond the assault rifles and pistols that have dominated their arsenals.




"There is an arms race between the cartels," said Alberto Islas, a security consultant who advises the Mexican government.

"One group gets rocket-propelled grenades, the other has to have them."

There are even more ominous developments: Authorities reported three thefts of several hundred pounds of blasting material from industrial explosives plants in Durango during a four-day period last month. Authorities believe the material may have been destined for car bombs or remotely detonated roadside devices, which have been used with devastating effect in Iraq, killing more than 1,822 members of U.S.-led forces since the war there began nearly six years ago.

The Mexican army has recovered most of the material, and there has been no reported use of such devices.

Grenades or military-grade weapons have been reported in at least 10 Mexican states during the last six months, used against police headquarters, city halls, a U.S. consulate, TV stations and senior Mexican officials. In a three-week period ended March 6, five grenade attacks were launched on police patrols and stations and the home of a commander in the south-central state of Michoacan. Other such attacks occurred in five other states during the same period.

At least one grenade attack north of the border, at a Texas nightclub frequented by U.S. police officers, has been tied to Mexican traffickers.

How many weapons have been smuggled into Mexico from Central America is not known, and the military-grade munitions are still a small fraction of the larger arsenal in the hands of narcotics traffickers. Mexican officials continue to push Washington to stem the well-documented flow of conventional weapons from the United States, as Congress holds hearings on the role those smuggled guns play in arming Mexican drug cartels.

There is no comprehensive data on how many people have been killed by heavier weapons.

But four days after the assault on the Zihuatanejo police station, four of the city's officers were slain in a highway ambush six miles from town on the road to Acapulco. In addition to the standard AK-47 and AR-15 assault rifles, the attackers fired at least six .50-caliber shells into the officers' pickup. The vehicle blew up when hit by what experts believe was a grenade or explosive projectile. The bodies of the officers were charred.

"These are really weapons of war," said Alberto Fernandez, spokesman for the Zihuatanejo city government. "We only know these devices from war movies."

U.S. law enforcement officials say they detected the smuggling of grenades and other military-grade equipment into Mexico about a year and a half ago, and observed a sharp uptick in the use of the weapons about six months ago.

The Mexican government said it has seized 2,239 grenades in the last two years, in contrast to 59 seized over the previous two years.

The enhanced weaponry represents a wide sampling from the international arms bazaar, with grenades and launchers produced by U.S., South Korean, Israeli, Spanish or former Soviet bloc manufacturers. Many had been sold legally to governments, including Mexico's, and then were diverted onto the black market. Some may be sold directly to the traffickers by corrupt elements of national armies, authorities and experts say.

The single deadliest attack on civilians by drug traffickers in Mexico took place Sept. 15 at an Independence Day celebration in the central plaza of Morelia, hometown of President Felipe Calderon and capital of Michoacan. Attackers hurled fragmentation grenades at the celebrating crowd, killing eight people and wounding dozens more.

Amid the recent spate of attacks in Michoacan, federal police on Feb. 20 announced the discovery of 66 fragmentation grenades in the fake bottom of a truck intercepted in southern Mexico, just over the border from Guatemala. The two men arrested with the cargo told police they were transporting the grenades to Morelia.


http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/d08a936e-0ff9-...fd2ac.html

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/...ory?page=1

NOTE: We were told by a Mexican Army informat that a major push is in the works for next week... roadside bombings and an attempt to blow up the 'Bridge of the Americas", between Juarez and El Paso. Also, "... the border town south of Columbus New Mexico will come under fire because there is a rival gang from the Baja holding up there and stockpiling weapons in and around the Mexican town...".

This area is under control at present by the Gulf faction of the Gulf Cartel and has control of that cross over point. The informat says its going to be a real "Blood Bath". ref; Mexican Army and Mexican Police Intell report. The American Border Patrol is on 'High Alert".

Stay tune. If it happens.... you heard it first on this FORUM.

note:

Keep your eyes on a little very little known Mexican town called "Palomas", south of Columbus New Mexico..., as well as another small crosover point on the Arizona border called, 'Aqua Prieta', south of Douglas Arizona. In the next few weeks things may prove very interesting if our information proves true.

(motive? Information before the fact) Our Federal government and the Homeland Security Agency, have been notified of this Intell from Mexico, as well as other United States Federal agencies.


Going back over the border tonight... somethings in the works..... Border Patrol is on HIGH ALERT!

[Tosh Plumlee]

Fr Brookings.edu

The Violent Drug Market in Mexico and Lessons from Colombia
Vanda Felbab-Brown
March 2009
Drug-related violence and the breakdown in security in Mexico have escalated to extraordinary levels over the past two years. Vanda Felbab-Brown examines this growing threat to civil society in Mexico, the spillover of crime into the U.S., how the situation compares to similar struggles in Colombia, and offers recommendations for a new strategy in the region.

To view the full page, go to:
http://www.brookings.edu/papers/2009/03_mexico_drug_market_felbabbrown.aspx?emc=lm&m=223288&l=4&v=192882

From article:

"... Some of the violence is also spilling across the border to the United States. Border patrol officers are increasingly confronted by drug traffickers with firepower. Perhaps as much as 90% of the firearms used by Mexican drug trafficking organizations5 have been purchased in the United States. Murders and kidnapping of U.S. residents who (or whose relatives) are caught up in the drug trade have increased dramatically. So has the kidnapping of illegal immigrants who, sometimes snatched en masse from coyotes (people smugglers), are held for ransom to be extorted from their relatives in the United States. More and more, coyotes force illegal immigrants to carry drugs (mainly marijuana) as a payment.

Because of their involvement in illegality, both groups are likely to significantly underreport abductions and kidnappings. Increasingly, such crime is leaking from border communities deeper into the U.S. border states. The number of kidnappings in Phoenix, Arizona, for example, tripled from 48 in 2004 to 241 in 2008.6 Drug turf wars among the drug trafficking organizations are beginning to occur in major cities in the U.S., such as Dallas, Texas. Still, the violence and criminality on the U.S. side of the border remain relatively low, and nowhere close to their levels in Mexico. ..".

(as yet)

from my notes on Sunday March 15,2009

Our Homeland Security Agency is doing nothing except just watching the problem get worse, and does nothing toward protecting American citizens along the borders.

Our State Department also is in 'limbo" not knowing what to do. Our Secretary of State is in god knows where and also has no clue on how to handle this can of worms.

This war down here has now crossed over the border in six places and these gangs are now heavily armed and embedded deep within our major cities, waiting for the call to attack Americans and anyone else who gets in their way.

Our Law Enforcement agencies are out gunned and spread to thin to handle this problem. Its about to get worse. So far the media has been put under wraps so "as not to spread panic". Our elected officials only hope this problem will just go away.

But, as of today American citizen as well as Mexican citizens are getting kidnapped and murdered at an alarming rate.

I just got back from Juarez Mexico and it was a real education. I went out to a site where two American bodies were found. One was a sixteen year old girl.., shot in the head after she was raped. Her boyfriend 20years old was bound and gagged and brutally tortured and castrated. In the girls clutched hand was the badge of a Mexican policeman. I was told she had ripped it from one of her abductors in a struggle. It was in the grave with her. They would not let me take pictures. As they removed the bodies, they gave me a mask to put over my nose and a swatter to swat the flies away. The masked Mexican Sargent told me it was a "common thing nowadays". These two are the twenty sixth and twenty seventh bodies he had recovered in the last two weeks. The couple were from El Paso across the border from Juarez Mexico. They had been reported missing three days ago.

Tomorrow we go to another grave site. This secret Mexican team is a select bunch of fine dedicated law enforcement personal and take exception as to how some of them are viewed in the American media. They cannot understand how our government stands by and lets this sort of thing happen to its citizen. I had no answer for them. And too, it was a debate I did not want to get involved with them. Their nerves are worn a little thin and their very jumpy.

They have invited me back in hopes I can help them get the right story out there for them in their fight in their Drug War. I consider it an honor and I will do my best, but its an up hill battle. The media and our government does not want to know these things. "It may cause bad relations with Mexico and the United States, if we cover this sort of thing", I am told. "It would be best if I let the experts handle these matters...., if for no other reason than my safety". Good Lord willing I'll be back tomorrow.


I wonder who is on survivor tonight? Looks like I am going to miss it. DAMN.

(hopefully to be continued)

P.S from a friend concerned about safty:

Watchdog: Press freedom deteriorated in America

Mon Mar 16, 4:37 pm ET



ASUNCION, Paraguay – Freedom of the press has deteriorated in the Americas, with Mexico among the most dangerous countries in the region to be a journalist, the Inter American Press Association said Monday.
"Press freedom has worsened in the hemisphere in the last six months," the IAPA said as the association's four-day midyear meeting drew to a close in the Paraguayan capital.

Mexico "continues to be one of the most dangerous places for journalists," the group reported, pointing to four recent murders and eight attacks by criminal organizations.
"Unfortunately, their actions are bearing fruit. Self-censorship is a reality in the Mexican press," the organization said.

IAPA also expressed concern that the international financial crisis is forcing United States news media to shed thousands of jobs, eroding the sector's crucial role as whistle-blowers for corruption cases in the private and public sector.
The Miami, Florida-based organization accused Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez of "humiliating the press," and said his "incendiary rhetoric" has been adopted by other heads of state in Bolivia, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Honduras, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Brazil and Argentina.
Twenty-six journalists remain imprisoned in Cuba, said the IAPA, which called on President Raul Castro to "relax repression against liberty of expression."
IAPA applauded a drop in violence against journalists in Colombia.

(end)




.

[Tosh Plumlee]

There is something I do not understand: I remember when the Contra and the Sandinista matter was escalating in the mid eighties. We were concern that the little war down there was going to spread through out Latin America and into the United States. So we sent the 82nd and the 101st Airborne Divisions down there on maneuvers to show a form of strength to anyone who wanted to escalate the war or spread the war into other neighboring countries. It was a show of strength. We have done that many times with the Navy and our aircraft carriers in the middle east..

BUT, we now have gangs of drug cartel terrorist crossing over from Mexico and filtering into our major cities. These gangs are heavily armed and in place. Mexico has a real war going on down there. Juarez across from El Paso, Texas is a real war zone; yet the United States has not made a move to show these Cartels and their gangs the strength of the American Military, or its people. We have not sent any kind of a message to these thugs. We have not made a move like we did in Central America.

Our border is wide open and these misfits of a contaminated society are not coming across our borders looking for our jobs. Their coming here to kill us and our children..., their worst than the Taliban and I see it as a National Security matter. Maybe we need to send an aircraft carrier across the desert, perhaps the whole seventh fleet and a Division of Marines; and let them and others know not to F with us or the good people of Mexico anymore.

America its time to get our heads out of our butts; shutt the TV off and take a stand for your country. OR apathy is going to kill whats left of our freedoms.

P.S A Mexican Army officer just ask me to post the following... somewhere... so here it is;

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico – A retired Mexican army general took over as head of public safety in the violence-plagued border city of Ciudad Juarez on Monday and a retired colonel was sworn in as police chief, as part of a militarization that includes 7,000 soldiers dispatched to keep the peace in the city of 1.3 million.
Gen. Julian Rivera Breton was sworn in as city public safety secretary to replace a man who resigned after criminals threatened to kill a policeman every other day until he left. Two such signs appeared on the bodies of a dead officer and a jail guard.
"All I ask is that the public continue to cooperate with us, that the public share their confidence and information with us," he said.
Col. Alfonso Cristobal Melgar was sworn in as head of the city police force after the previous chief, Sacramento Perez Serrano, was shot to death along with three other police officers in February.
Hundreds of army troops arrived over the weekend, bringing the total number of soldiers patrolling the city to around 7,000,
More than 2,300 federal police also are on patrol here, said joint security operation spokesman Enrique Torres Valadez.
An active-duty military officer, Mario Hernandez Escobedo, was also named security adviser to Mayor Jose Reyes Ferriz, who said the troops would remain under army command, but would coordinate with the city police force.
Following hundreds of drug-related killings, the city appears finally to be experiencing relative calm.
The city's streets were thick with checkpoints and convoys manned by federal police, which irritated some city residents.
"The police are very pleasant and courteous, but I'm losing time in getting to work, said Rodolfo Terrones, 24. "I'm always in a rush, and then I hit this," he said of a checkpoint where motorists are questioned and some vehicles searched.
Motorist Sarai Martinez Rosales took a calmer view. "Those who haven't done anything wrong, don't have anything to fear," Martinez Rosales said.
Elsewhere Monday, the bound, tortured bodies of two prison guards were found near the Michoacan state capital of Morelia. One of the men had been reported missing three days earlier.




(END

[David Guyatt]

US poised to join Mexico drug war

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7949665.stm

US poised to join Mexico drug war


The general praised Mexican efforts, but said the US needed to do more

The US is drawing up comprehensive plans to help Mexico in its fight against drug-trafficking, a senior military official has told Congress.

Gen Gene Renuart, head of the US Northern Command, told a Senate hearing that troops or anti-narcotics agents would be sent to the Mexican border.

The plan could be finalised as early as this week, he added.

Correspondents say Mexico's mounting drug violence has emerged as a real national security threat to the US.

"Certainly, there may be a need for additional manpower," said Gen Renuart, who oversees US military interests in the border region.

"Whether that is best suited or best provided by National Guard or additional law enforcement agencies, I think, this planning team will really lead us to," he told the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Broad initiative

Governors of states that border Mexico have expressed concern both about the cartels, whose main source of income is exporting drugs such as cocaine into the US, and at the prospect of effectively militarising the US-Mexico frontier.

The military is already employing border security techniques mastered in the war zones of Iraq and Afghanistan, including unmanned aerial vehicles and technology capable of locating underground tunnels, reports say.

But an inter-agency government team, meeting this week at the Department of Homeland Security, is now expected to produce a broad new initiative to confront a drug war that has killed thousands in Mexico and spilled over into US cities.

"I think we'll have good plans come out of this work this week," Gen Renuart told the hearing.

A separate Senate committee in Washington heard that the presence of the Mexican drug cartels in the US had more than quadrupled since 2006.

The news came as Mexico and the US remained locked in a trade dispute centred on their busy border.

The US government stopped a pilot scheme earlier this month which allowed Mexican trucks to use roads in the US.

Mexico said the decision violated a free-trade deal between the countries and says it will impose tariffs on a range of American exports.

[Peter Lemkin]

Great idea! A war against Mexico! Much more convenient than Iraq - close enough to take R&R home...and the food is great! Chicken fajitas for all troops daily! Hey, and the Tequilla!! We already took about half of Mexican territory, so why not the other half. They'd make a great and close bombing range, nuclear and toxic waste dump and what the hell, most of them are brown and short. Since some aspects of the military are already involved in the drugs coming through or from Mexico, how better to 'watch the store' than be there....and a chance to build more permanent bases and then move south and take 'back' the Central and South American governments now in open 'rebellion' to N. Americano imperialism. Chips and salsa for all!

[Magda Hassan]

Don't forget that the US Sth American naval fleet has been re-commissioned and taken out of mothballs where it has been dormant since WW2 too. It has a nice base in Florida somewhere close to the Gulf of Mexico. And Cuba. And Venezuela and now El Salvador. A bit of gun boat diplomacy.

[Tosh Plumlee]

US poised to join Mexico drug war

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7949665.stm

US poised to join Mexico drug war


The general praised Mexican efforts, but said the US needed to do more

The US is drawing up comprehensive plans to help Mexico in its fight against drug-trafficking, a senior military official has told Congress.

Gen Gene Renuart, head of the US Northern Command, told a Senate hearing that troops or anti-narcotics agents would be sent to the Mexican border.

The plan could be finalised as early as this week, he added.

Correspondents say Mexico's mounting drug violence has emerged as a real national security threat to the US.

"Certainly, there may be a need for additional manpower," said Gen Renuart, who oversees US military interests in the border region.

"Whether that is best suited or best provided by National Guard or additional law enforcement agencies, I think, this planning team will really lead us to," he told the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Broad initiative

Governors of states that border Mexico have expressed concern both about the cartels, whose main source of income is exporting drugs such as cocaine into the US, and at the prospect of effectively militarising the US-Mexico frontier.

The military is already employing border security techniques mastered in the war zones of Iraq and Afghanistan, including unmanned aerial vehicles and technology capable of locating underground tunnels, reports say.

But an inter-agency government team, meeting this week at the Department of Homeland Security, is now expected to produce a broad new initiative to confront a drug war that has killed thousands in Mexico and spilled over into US cities.

"I think we'll have good plans come out of this work this week," Gen Renuart told the hearing.

A separate Senate committee in Washington heard that the presence of the Mexican drug cartels in the US had more than quadrupled since 2006.

The news came as Mexico and the US remained locked in a trade dispute centred on their busy border.

The US government stopped a pilot scheme earlier this month which allowed Mexican trucks to use roads in the US.

Mexico said the decision violated a free-trade deal between the countries and says it will impose tariffs on a range of American exports.

David; I think this is what I was saying last week... Forum members heard it first on this Forum before it was announced by Washington..

In my strange way... I see this as some form of protection for myself... going back over and work with the Mexican Army, tonight... Tosh

P.S Don't forget.. the announcement about a "Secret' military (civ) team already working in Mexico was first mentioned on this Forum last week... see Ya.