Janet Napolitano, Director of Homeland Security, has announced the U.S. will soon send a large contingent of federal agents to its southern border to help stem recent violence in northern Mexico. The new initiative will mobilize more border-enforcement teams, multiply the number of intelligence analysts working on the border, step up searches of vehicles going into Mexico from the U.S. and stem the flow of illegal guns and drugs going into Mexico. Napolitano said the increase in agents is in response to violence by drug cartels, including murders of police, kidnappings and beheadings in Mexican border towns in the past year. As the number 1 user of illegal drugs in the world and the largest provider of illegal weapons to Mexican Drug Cartels, the U.S. has culpability in these Drug Wars. Law-enforcement officials say gun dealers in Arizona and other southern border states provide three-quarters (MSNBC reports 95%) of the black-market firearms to Mexico, a nation that strictly controls gun ownership. Phoenix is considered a hub for illegal exportation of AK-47s, SKS rifles, .50-caliber rifles and other weapons favored by narcotics gangsters.
Democratic House members pressed officials about whether Congress should strengthen U.S. gun laws to try to make it more difficult for the cartels to arm themselves. "My personal opinion is we could tighten up our gun laws," said retired Vice Adm. Roger T. Rufe Jr., director of Homeland Security's Office of Operations Coordination. "We shouldn't be selling assault weapons on the streets."
"We take this extremely seriously and intend to make some significant movements to the southwest border," Napolitano said. "Every American has a stake in this. Violence on the border can easily seep into our communities. It also creates a fear in border communities that the rule of law doesn't apply anymore, and that's just unacceptable."
Reference:
"As the number 1 user of illegal drugs in the world and the largest provider of illegal weapons to Mexican Drug Cartels, the U.S. has culpability in these Drug Wars."
ReplyDeleteYes, the model of the Drug War simply does not work and just results in more violence and suffering for civilian populations. It has been a miserable failure in Colombia where coca cultivation and cocaine production levels increased by about 15 percent from 2000 to 2006 (according to the GAO), and it will not work in Mexico under the Merida Initiative either. Laura Carlsen explains why (March 13 program on DemocracyNow):
"One of the items included in the Mérida Initiative, a number of them have to do with increased training for the army and police forces. What we know is that with the high desertion rates that we have in the Mexican army and the high levels of corruption in both the police and the army, much of that training is going to go straight to the drug cartels."
http://www.democracynow.org/2009/3/13/obama_signals_readiness_to_further_militarize
It is well worth your time to read her piece in Counterpunch, too:
http://www.counterpunch.org/carlsen03132009.html
And here's another great article that explains "why Plan Mexico will crash and burn" by Kristen Bricker:
http://narcosphere.narconews.com/notebook/kristin-bricker/2008/12/why-plan-mexico-will-crash-and-burn
I think we need new models that emphasize what's going on on the U.S. side of the border (the guns, drug treatment, etc). Thanks for sharing this, Dee.
We constantly witness all the Hate, Hype, Lies, Half-Lies, Exaggerations, Occultations and No-Informations of Hate TV and Hate Radio :
ReplyDeleteConstante barrage of Lies and Biased Information.
The Racist TV is promoting Fear about Drugs, Mexico falling, etc.., the result is that all Latinos are considered to carry lots of cash inside pockets.
Lot of aggressions of robbers against Latinos.
The Charleston attack in South Carolina. And now Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Hispanics are favorite targets for robbers :
Because they are assumed to carry a lot of cash inside their pockets. "Illegal Aliens" are not allowed to open bank accounts of saving accounts, fueling the Attacks and Aggressions on the part of Robbers.
Also the Big Prevalent Racist TV and Racist Radio increase every day the Hate Against Hispanics and Latinos, portraying them as monsters of Evil, Cruelty, Bastardy, Disease, Shrewdness, Cunning, Swindling the State and Welfare, etc ...
The Racist TV and Racist Radio almost never informs of attacks against Latinos or of their progress in Economic or Business Matters. They always portray them as rapers of White Women.
The most incendiary things are presented every evening against Latinos in order to increase the Hate against them. The TV Anchors claim that they have no reposponsibility in the many attacks, aggressions and murders against Latinos.
This is a Beatiful Business for the Merchants of Hate that mesmerize millions of fools and prod some madmen to murder every month, not to say every week.
And the Clockwork Orange takes shape. Forget the Big Apples.
Information on the most recent attacks and the profile of some Racist Murderers here :
Raciality.com
Milenials.com
Vicente Duque