Free Republic

Mexico’s Other Export by: Heather Latham, March 10, 2009 Mexico has a major export that never gets discussed in free-trade agreements. “There has been an alarming spike in violence in Mexico in recent years, most of which is associated with the trafficking in illegal drugs and the efforts of the Mexican government to shut down that trade,” Ted Galen Carpenter writes in a recent CATO Institute Policy Analysis titled “Troubled Neighbor: Mexico’s Drug Violence Poses a Threat to the United States.” He continues, “The turf battles have been ferocious. In 2005, more than 1,300 people perished in drug-related violence. By...

AUSTIN — Mexican drug cartel violence is not spilling into Texas, several frustrated border mayors told a state legislative committee Monday in an effort to dispel public perceptions that their communities are under siege. “For me to believe that our cities are so endangered by all this violence that we need to send the military to the border is a knee-jerk reaction,” McAllen Mayor Richard Cortez told the House Border and Intergovernmental Affairs Committee. Cortez, mayor for 19 years, said his daughter in San Antonio recently called to express apprehension about his re-election because of fears he might become an...

You can drive into this dusty fleck of a town near the Texas-Louisiana border if you're African-American, but you might not be able to drive out of it—at least not with your car, your cash, your jewelry or other valuables. That's because the police here allegedly have found a way to strip motorists, many of them black, of their property without ever charging them with a crime. Instead they offer out-of-towners a grim choice: voluntarily sign over your belongings to the town, or face felony charges of money laundering or other serious crimes. More than 140 people reluctantly accepted that...

With U.S. forces fighting two wars abroad, the nation's top military officer made an important visit last week to forestall a third. He went to Mexico. Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, made the trip to confer with Mexican leaders about the Merida Initiative, a three-year plan signed into law last June to flood the U.S.-Mexican border region with $1.4 billion in U.S. assistance for law-enforcement training and equipment, as well as technical advice and training to bolster Mexico’s judicial system. That’s about 100 people every week for the last 14 months. The cartels usually do...

Members of Congress are raising the alarm that war-like conditions on the Mexican border could lead to Mexican drug cartels helping terrorists attack the U.S. “When you have…gangs and they have loose ties with al Qaeda and then you have Iran not too far away from building a nuclear capability, nuclear terrorism may not be far off,” said Rep. Trent Franks (R- Ariz.), a member of the House Armed Services committee. The Mexican drug cartels’ violence accounted for more than 6,000 deaths last year, and in recent months it has begun spilling over into the districts of lawmakers from the...

Recent arrests in a mistaken killing point to the perilous presence of gangs The order was clear: Kill the guy in the Astros jersey. But in a case of mistaken identity, Jose Perez ended up dead. The intended target — the Houston-based head of a Mexican drug cartel cell pumping millions of dollars of cocaine into the city — walked away. Perez, 27, was just a working guy, out getting dinner late on a Friday with his wife and young children at Chilos, a seafood restaurant on the Gulf Freeway. His murder and the assassination gone awry point to the...

Death froze his exhausted face. The attackers lashed or punctured nearly every part of his body. Then they cut off the dead man's head, wrapped it in a plastic grocery bag and dumped it with his body between two tractor-trailers on a city street. As with most murders in Ciudad Juarez, police found no witnesses, no weapons. Only the battered corpse on the steel coroner's table carries clues to who he was and how he died. "Every organ speaks," says Dr. Maria Concepcion Molina, who gently removes packing tape from the head of her third decapitated victim in a week....

Many people ABC-7 talked to in Juarez believe if the military does indeed take over the police department, which we refer to as “martial law” in the U.S., the calm will end and the attacks will increase to a whole new level.

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama was briefed Saturday by Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen about the drug wars in Mexico and wanted to know how the United States can help. "Clearly one of the things the president was interested in was the U.S military capability that may or may not apply to our cooperation with the Mexicans," said a U.S. military official who requested anonymity because the discussions were private. "He was very interested in what kind of military capabilities may be applied." Mullen briefed Obama Saturday morning about discussions with Mexican military leaders about the drug...

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico -- Few Americans enter this border city anymore. Crossing south on the right side of the bridges is lonely, with only a smattering of people, mostly Mexicans living in El Paso. The army base has banned soldiers from crossing, and few if any kids come looking for a good time -- most of the bars have closed anyway. The reason: Juárez is at war. The city is fighting drug cartels, and the cartels are fighting each other. In 2008, more than 1,600 people were killed in Juárez in drug-related violence, often assassinations carried out in daylight. Some...

Mexican military forces take over police duty in Juarez, Mexico to combat drug cartel violence. Death count expected to increase.

The Mexican president has blamed US "corruption" for hampering his nation's efforts to combat violent drug cartels. Felipe Calderon also told the AFP news agency that the main cause of Mexico's drug gang problems was "having the world's biggest consumer [of drugs] next to us". "Drug trafficking in the United States is fuelled by the phenomenon of corruption on the part of the American authorities," he said on Wednesday. The Mexican president launched a massive assault on drug cartels after entering office in late 2006 but the cartels have responded with campaigns of violence and intimidation that left 6,000 dead...

HELPING OUT IS IN OUR INTEREST Today's terror in Mexico is tomorrow's terror on US soil; the violence has already started crossing the border. To protect ourselves, we must help our beleaguered neighbors decisively and effectively put an end to the rippling massacres. Violence isn't all that will cross the border - corruption will spread, too. In 2007, the DHS opened 79 investigations into border corruption in four US states along the Mexican border, more than twice the number four years earlier.

Heeding the advice of Gen. David Petraeus, Barack Obama has committed 17,000 more troops to Afghanistan and will keep 50,000 in Iraq after U.S. combat operations end in August 2010. But are U.S. vital interests more threatened by what happens in Anbar or Helmand than in the war raging along our southern border? Prediction: After all U.S. troops in Iraq, Afghanistan and Korea have come home, there will be a U.S. army on the Mexican border. For this is where the fate of our republic will be decided, as the fate of Europe will be decided by the millions streaming...

In case you haven't noticed, the violence and mayhem along the Mexican border is spilling into the United States. Years of lackadaisical enforcement and a booming drug trade has spiraled the murder rate in what used to be a bucolically quiet region. Now south Texas is starting to look more and more like north Mexico... the highway in Brownsville was closed the other day because of a shootout. Senator Cornyn sent this letter to Obama today, asking him to please enforce the borders. Fat chance, really... especially after Bush left it wide open after 9/11. Democrats probably love it... new...

The Administration is Not Dealing Straight With Us on Mexico's Gun Problem Let's set things straight right up front. Yes, some guns are being smuggled into Mexico from the U.S. Most are handguns. But, handguns are being illegally trafficked from state to state and from the U.S. to Canada. It should come as no surprise that guns are smuggled into Mexico. But, the problem being portrayed by the U.S. media and our government is not as it seems. You see, Mexico doesn't allow ownership of most firearms, so ordinary Mexican people seeking self-protection will find a way to get them...

Armed to the hilt, they came from land and air, determined to restore order to Mexico's most violent city. Nearly 2,000 Mexican soldiers and armed federal police poured into the border town of Ciudad Juarez last weekend. The city - just across from El Paso in Texas - has been ravaged by drug gangs. Just this month 250 people were killed there by hitmen fighting for lucrative smuggling routes.

Mexico troops enter drug war city Mexico hopes to have up to 7,000 troops in the city in a few days More than 1,500 Mexican troops have moved into a city on the US border being fought over by rival drug gangs.Soldiers moved into Ciudad Juarez to try to regain control of a city in which more than 2,000 people have been murdered over the past year. Officials say they intend to have 7,000 troops and police in position by the end of the week. Rival gangs are battling for control of the city, which is a key entry...

Defense Secretary Robert Gates has said the US wants to increase the military assistance it provides Mexico for its fight against drugs trafficking. Mr Gates said Washington was more prepared now to help Mexico in its fight against the cartels which control the flow of illegal narcotics. Mr Gates said aid could come in the form of military hardware, training and intelligence support to help the Mexican authorities in their fight against the well-armed and organised drugs traffickers. "It clearly is a serious problem," Gates said. But he pointed to Mexican President Felipe Calderon as the main reason for this...

Two of Mexico's deadliest drug cartels have reached a combined force of 100,000 foot soldiers, wreaking havoc across the country and threatening U.S. border states, the U.S. Defense Department told The Washington Times. The cartels rival the Mexican army in size and have both Mexico and the U.S. in crisis mode as they deal with what they fear is a coming insurgency along the border. "It's moving to crisis proportions," an unidentified defense official told The Times. The official also said the cartels have reached a size where they are on par with Mexico's army of 130,000. About 7,000 people...