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When U.S. special agent Jaime Zapata was shot dead one year ago on a notorious stretch of highway in central Mexico, he was driving a $160,000 armored Chevy Suburban, built to exacting government standards, designed to defeat high-velocity gunfire, fragmentation grenades and land mines. But the vehicle had a basic, fatal flaw. Forced off the road in a well-coordinated ambush, surrounded by drug cartel gunmen brandishing AK-47s, Zapata and his partner, Victor Avila, rolled to a stop. Zapata put the vehicle in park. The door locks popped up. That terrifying sound — a quiet click — set into motion events...

A former state trooper who was seeking election to the Precinct 1 constable’s seat was arrested Monday on money laundering charges after law enforcement officers found more than $1 million packed inside suitcases stored in his car’s trunk.

Travel Warning U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE Bureau of Consular Affairs Millions of U.S. citizens safely visit Mexico each year for study, tourism, and business, including more than 150,000 who cross the border every day. The Mexican government makes a considerable effort to protect U.S. citizens and other visitors to major tourist destinations, and there is no evidence that Transnational Criminal Organizations (TCOs) have targeted U.S. visitors and residents based on their nationality. Resort areas and tourist destinations in Mexico generally do not see the levels of drug-related violence and crime reported in the border region and in areas along major...

Mexico City - An angry mob of villagers in central Mexico attacked and killed three men they accused of trying to kidnap two local residents. So far, 23 people have been arrested for the mob attack, prosecutors said. A spokesperson for the Mexico State Security Secretariat said the mob numbered "more than 500 people". An initial investigation showed "a group of six women incited local residents to attack three men, who they set on fire", said a statement from the Mexico state attorney general's office. Police tried to rescue the three men but succeeded in pulling only one of them...

by John Hill Stand With Arizona Kris Kobach, architect of Arizona's landmark S.B. 1070 and Kansas Secretary of State, brought needed common sense to the CPAC Conference discussion on immigration. Following remarks by Alex Nowrasteh, a policy analyst at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, in which he denounced E-Verify and claimed - to boos from the audience - that "free market conservatives" should allow employers to hire illegal aliens (see synopsis here), it was Kobach's turn to restore sanity. First Mr. Kobach laid out the concept of "attrition through enforcement" with a simple analogy. He then laid out how Arizona and...

“Our homeland is bleeding painfully,” is how Honduran Cardinal Oscar Andres Rodriguez put it recently at a religious event whose audience included Honduran President Porfirio Lobo. Indeed, Honduras is spiraling into an ungovernable and unstable situation due to the increased operations of international drug syndicates and their local gang proxies within its territory. Last October, the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime reported that Honduras, a nation of 7.6 million, now has the highest homicide rate in the world. Honduras is a victim of what counter-narcotics experts refer to as the “balloon effect,” where heavy pressures on traffickers in Colombia...

by John HillStand With ArizonaFox Phoenix TV (KSAZ FOX 10) on Thursday showed a ridiculous propaganda piece purporting to show "the Arizona border" and how "safe" it is, as they follow Americans from around the nation on a "tour" of the border. Here's how they describe the piece: Make your own decision about life on the border. What is life on the border really like? Hop on the Border Bus Tour, and do your own fact finding about what it means to have a secure border. And in the video, the tour leader, Bob Feinman, tells us on the bus...

Littoral ship named for Gabby ---

..WASHINGTON (AP) — The Navy has named a ship for Gabrielle Giffords, the recently retired congresswoman from Arizona who is recovering from a gunshot wound to the head received in January 2011. In a ceremony at the Pentagon, Navy Secretary Ray Mabus unveiled an artist's rendering of the USS Gabrielle Giffords. The littoral combat ship is among the Navy's most versatile and can operate in shallower coastal waters than larger ships. Mabus said: "God bless the USS Gabrielle Giffords and all who sail in her." Mabus also announced that the ship's "sponsor" is Roxanna Green. She's the mother of Christina-Taylor...

The Secretary of the Navy announced on Friday that a new littoral combat ship will be named after former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.). The announcement comes the same day that President Obama signed the last piece of legislation sponsored by Giffords, a bill aimed at reducing drug trafficking along the American borders with Canada and Mexico. Giffords, who recently stepped down from office, was the target of a shooting rampage in early January 2011. “The name this ship bears and the story represented by that name will inspire all those who come in contact with her,” said Navy Secretary Ray...

HARLINGEN, TX -- Noel Shankle of Carrollton, Texas calls his daughter every night to wish her sweet dreams. "He has a 4-year-old and calls her every night to say goodnight," said Nelly Shankle, Noel's mother. The 28-year-old father hasn't made that call since last Friday. In fact, he hasn't spoken to any of his family members in the Dallas area since flying into Harlingen. "We know he rented a car from Hertz in Harlingen and even got insurance to drive it into Mexico." said Shankle Noel was heading south of the border to Matamoros or Reynosa to have dental work...

EDINURG — A capital murder suspect made his involvement in the kidnapping and slaying of a coworker too obvious when he hid the body at his brother’s property, Sheriff Lupe Treviño said. A passer-by found the body of German Duque Gonzalez, 65, on Feb. 1 under a pile of tires in the 4600 block of Marshall Street north of Palmview. Gonzalez, a baker, left his Alton home at 1 a.m. that same morning to begin his bread-making shift at Valeria’s Bakery in Mission — a routine he had followed for the past two years. He never made it to work....

Something is really, really, really not right… The New York Times has a really bizarre story on the front page today. I will make some remarks about the story and then there is a link at the bottom for you to read the entire story. I don’t want to run wild with crazy conspiracy stories but there are some really peculiar parts of this New York Time story that warrants further investigation. First some bullet points: * Juan Jose Rojas Cardona (“Pepe” and hereinafter I will refer to him as that) lives in Mexico and is part of the casino...

by John HillStand With ArizonaMore than 10,000 people in 24 hours viewed our video "14 Illegals in 24 Seconds", showing illegal aliens - most with large backpacks - easily moving over terrain near Tucson, 30 miles North of the border. Floods of illegals crossing the Arizona desert occur continually, thanks to the failure of the Federal government to provide secure border fencing or adequate border patrol agent numbers. But what of the fencing that does exist in parts of Arizona? How well does that stop those determined to get in? Well this next video should give you a clue, and...

Mexico arrests figure in Fast and Furious gun-smuggling scandal REPORTING FROM MEXICO CITY -- Mexican authorities have arrested a reputed enforcer for the country's most powerful drug cartel -- a man also alleged to have amassed weapons from the U.S. government's failed Fast and Furious gun-smuggling operation (link, in Spanish, includes video). Jose Antonio Torres Marrufo, 33, is also wanted by U.S. officials on drug-trafficking charges in El Paso. Mexican and U.S. authorities say he served as a top lieutenant to Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman and the Sinaloa Cartel and was in charge of operations in the border state of...

Obama campaign returning $200K in contributions connected to Mexico casino ownerArticle by: KEN THOMAS, Associated Press Updated: February 7, 2012 - 12:21 AM WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama's campaign is returning about $200,000 in contributions collected by family members of a Mexican casino owner who fled the U.S. after facing drug and fraud charges. The Obama campaign said Monday it had decided to return the donations arranged by Chicago brothers Carlos Cardona and Alberto Rojas Cardona, who had begun raising money for the campaign and the Democratic National Committee last year. The New York Times reported late Monday that the...

Voters from Mexico's ruling conservative party selected their first woman presidential candidate on Sunday, choosing a former education minister to battle the opposition's nominee, who has a big lead in the polls. National Action Party (PAN) voters threw their support behind former party congressional leader Josefina Vazquez Mota, pushing aside Ernesto Cordero, a close ally of President Felipe Calderon. Jose Espina, who organized the vote, announced Vazquez Mota was ahead with 55 percent support with around 87 percent of the votes counted, more than enough to secure the party nomination. Cordero came in second with 38 percent. National polls show...

A couple from Texas who moved to a violence-plagued area of northern Mexico to run a Baptist church were found murdered on Tuesday in their ransacked home, relatives said. John and Wanda Casias, originally from Amarillo, Texas, moved to an area outside of Monterrey, Mexico, in the late 1970s or early 1980s to make it their home. Valerie Alirez, the eldest child of John Casias, said one of her brothers found her father and stepmother dead on Tuesday in their home in Santiago, Nuevo Leon. John Casias, 76, was a Baptist preacher and the couple ran the First Fundamentalist Independent...

You know the border is a place where drugs and illegal immigrants transit every day. But you have no idea how bad things really are.

TIJUANA — Less than four months after he was released from a Nevada prison and deported to Mexico, Fermín Pérez Juárez is in trouble again. He is now behind bars in Tijuana, accused along with four others in the kidnapping and torture of a man who was hoping to be smuggled into the United States. It wasn’t just the brutality of the crime, committed last month in the city’s Zona Norte, that commanded attention in Tijuana newspaper headlines and on TV broadcasts. It was the people allegedly behind the crime: Pérez and the other suspects are deportees with U.S. criminal...

Park Romney says some pretty wild things. Mormonism, he writes on the Web site parkromney.com, “is an insidious contemporary fraud.” The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is “an American cult,” he professes. Mitt Romney, he claims, would be conflicted in office because “obedience to the leadership of the Mormon Church is part of the covenant of the temple ordinances to which Mitt Romney is absolutely a party.” Were you to come across a man articulating such views on a street corner, you probably would give him a wide berth and look over your shoulder to make sure he...

One man is dead and another is wounded after the Mexican military allegedly shot them while they were fleeing into the United States. It all happened just east of Sullivan City late Thursday afternoon. Law enforcement officials told Action 4 News that the men are believed to have been involved in a gun battle south of the border in Diaz Ordaz, Tamaulipas. Mexican military officials did not cross into the United States during the incident but opened fire on the two men as they fled across the Rio Grande River. Law enforcement said a body was found on the American...

Last night, we brought you Glenn Beck’s commentary regarding the establishment of an Islamic caliphate (something he says Islamists “are succeeding” at accomplishing). Now, we have a report by Beck’s expert panel on radical Islam, including Retired Lt. Gen. William G. Boykin, CBN News’ Erick Stakelbeck and Frank Gaffney from the Center for Security Policy. The group discussed the potential calamity and international unrest that may be coming as a result of the growing prominence of radical Islamists. And it’s a segment that Beck categorized as “scary” on Thursday morning.

The video link at breitbart.tv is both instructional and revealing. It gives Romney's Mormon family history including the polygamy of his great-grandfather. Some may think that this is unfair journalism. Others would agree that when the GOP is vetting a candidate for President, the GOP should get this info out there before Obama's team uses it to destroy Romney if he is in the general election. What do you think? The Breitbart.tv link is below. http://www.breitbart.tv/msnbcs-odonnell-whiter-than-white-romney-tried-to-rewrite-ethnicity/

MEXICO CITY -- The U.S. Embassy in Mexico says two Americans have been slain outside the northern industrial city of Monterrey, an area plagued by drug violence. It identifies them as John and Wanda Casias. The embassy says the former Amarillo, Texas, couple's family has been notified and it is providing relatives consular services. The embassy hasn't confirmed reports that the killing happened Tuesday. Its statement provides no other details. Valerie Alirez in Greeley, Colo., is John Casias' eldest child. She says he and his wife were found dead Tuesday in Santiago, Nuevo Leon, by one of her brothers.

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico --Police in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez are spending their time between shifts in heavily guarded hotels after a wave of killings targeting police. Eight officers were gunned down in January. Most were off duty. The murders are the latest challenge for police chief Julian Leyzaola as he works to restore law and order in Mexico’s murder capital. The U.S. government has provided $1.5 billion worth of aid to Mexico under the Merida initiative, including including training and equipment to help police fight violent drug cartels. Police officers in Juarez say they’re in a fight...

January 29 through the 31st, 5% of the sheriffs in America are in Las Vegas Nevada, learning how to tell the Federal government agents to pack sand and get out of town. 20% of the 50 United States of America have been presented with lawsuits and or legal filings challenging the eligibility of Barack Obama to be on the ballot for the 2012 election. Congressional representative Allen West summed up the American people's feelings for the Obama administration today when he told Obama, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid to, "Get the hell out of The United States of America!". His...

A composite photograph of the front and back of the jade gouge shown with a centimeter scale. CREDIT: Les O’Neil, University of Otago The discovery of a 3,300-year-old tool has led researchers to the rediscovery of a "lost" 20th-century manuscript and a "geochemically extraordinary" bit of earth. Discovered on Emirau Island in the Bismark Archipelago (a group of islands off the coast of New Guinea), the 2-inch (5-centimeters) stone tool was probably used to carve, or gouge, wood. It seems to have fallen from a stilted house, landing in a tangle of coral reef that was eventually covered over...

Several Mexican soldiers were killed when gunmen ambushed them Thursday afternoon in Reynosa, said sources outside law enforcement familiar with organized crime. The ambush came in response to heavy casualties the military inflicted on gunmen Thursday morning, the sources said. The clashes continued a violent week along the northern Tamaulipas border, which had experienced weeks of relative calm until a reported push by the Zetas drug cartel to take over Gulf Cartel territory in Reynosa and Matamoros. In Thursday’s clashes in Reynosa, roads were blockaded and gunbattles pitted the Mexican military against gunmen, and rival groups of gunmen against each...

It’s not the crime, it’s the coverup, goes the old Washington cliché. In the case of the Fast and Furious gun-walking scandal, it’s both. As Attorney General Eric Holder gets ready to face more congressional grilling Thursday, something’s clearly rotten at the Justice Department. The stench goes all the way to the top — to Holder. Friday, the feds disclosed documents that show that despite Holder’s claim during congressional testimony that he’d only learned of F&F “a few weeks” earlier (a claim later amended to “a couple of months”), he has known (or should have known) about it all along...

Organized crime-related deaths in one Mexican border state during the first nine months of 2011 exceed the number of Afghan civilians killed in roughly the same period in all of war-torn Afghanistan. According to the Mexican government, from January through September 2011 2,276 deaths were recorded in the Mexican state of Chihuahua, which borders Texas and New Mexico. A Nov. 2011 Congressional Research Service (CRS) report states that over nearly the same period – January through October 2011 – 2,177 civilians were killed in Afghanistan, where a U.S.-led war against the Taliban is underway. It did not provide a breakdown...

Operation 'Fast and Furious' has taken a new turn. Late Friday night, the Department of Justice (DOJ) released documents that show Attorney General Eric Holder was alerted of border patrol agent Brian Terry's death the day it occurred- contradicting Holder's statements when he testified before the House Judiciary Committee on May 3, 2011. At the time, Holder said he was informed of Terry's murder only "a few weeks" before the hearing.

Wonder how the Mexican drug cartels smuggle $50 billion in product over the United States border each year? Much of it is waved through by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The so-called border security agency is issuing passes to daily commuters from Mexico into the United States which exempts them from vehicle checks at the crossing as reported by Emily Smith for CNN. Although the passes only are issued to those who pass "a rigorous background check" -- for whatever that's worth -- the drug cartels can either scrounge up a clean applicant as a cooperative front or plant...

LAREDO — A former hit man for the Zetas cartel calmly related to jurors his role in killings on both sides of the border, testifying Monday in the drug conspiracy trial of a man prosecutors say was also a hired killer. From the witness stand in U.S. District Judge Micaela Alvarez's courtroom here, Rosalio Reta pointed to Gerardo Castillo Chavez, 25, and identified him as a fellow Zeta. Pressing his fingertips together and speaking in a slow, soft voice, Reta, 22, told jurors that he had been in a team of hit men headed by Gabriel Cardona, an admitted Zeta...

To expedite his commute to the University of Texas at El Paso, where he studies music education, Andres received a special pass from U.S. Customs and Border Protection after passing a rigorous background check. Applicants have their fingerprints taken and must complete an in-person interview with a Customs and Border Protection officer. They cannot have any previous criminal history. The SENTRI (which stands for Secure Electronic Network for Travelers Rapid Inspection) pass allowed Andres to waive the standard vehicle check at the border crossing. Most of the time, the border guards just peered inside his vehicle and waved him through....

NEAR ALTON — Two men stepped down from a white truck at a house near Alton. A pair of Jeeps pulled up close behind. It was Memorial Day weekend 2011. The truck’s driver said he was a policeman, complete with handcuffs, a pistol and an embroidered shirt. He wasn’t a cop. But he handcuffed Ovidio Olivares Guerrero and loaded him into the truck and drove off, court records state. Guerrero hasn’t been seen since the pseudocops took him from his cousin’s house that day. And court records suggest he wasn’t even the target of a Gulf Cartel-ordered kidnapping. Olivares’ wife,...

WESLACO - Three people from Afghanistan are in Border Patrol custody in the Valley. Border Patrol acknowledges they apprehended the three Afghanis in the Valley. They were found in two different groups. One was found south of Mission by the river. The other two were found in a stash house north of Moorefield Road. Samuel Freeman, a political science professor at the University of Texas Pan American and expert on U.S. foreign policy, says it's unusual for Afghanis to show up in the Rio Grande Valley. Freeman says the three could be drug runners. He says there's a huge pipeline...

HONOLULU: Canada, Mexico and at least two other countries have expressed interest in joining US-led talks for a pan-Pacific trade pact, a US Republican lawmaker said on Friday after Japan asked to take part. “There’s a good deal of momentum for the TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership),” Representative Kevin Brady said after meetings with members of President Barack Obama’s administration at the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum. That momentum was evidenced by Japan’s announcement earlier on Friday that it was interested in joining the talks “and what seem to be very solid inquiries from Canada, Mexico and a few others,” Brady...

STARR COUNTY - Valley ranchers say they are arming themselves with high-powered rifles to protect their property. Ranchers say handguns aren't enough anymore. They need more firepower. An AK-47 semiautomatic assault rifle holds 30 rounds. It protects this ranch in Starr County, hundreds of acres. "It does have fire power and it's reliable," says the rancher. Barbed wire fencing doesn't keep illegal immigrants off the property anymore. This rancher doesn't care about the illegals. He worries about the smugglers protecting their loads. "I don't think they would have any conscience of taking someone's life," the rancher says. He saw that...

Religious and community leaders gathered outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement offices in Baltimore to protest the looming deportation of a Mexican woman who has four grandchildren in the United States. Josefina Rodriguez Vega, a 58-year-old undocumented immigrant living in Hagerstown, Maryland, was arrested last June for driving without a license and turned over to ICE. After several months under house arrest, Rodriguez Vega was taken last Thursday to an ICE detention center on Maryland's Eastern Shore, far from her home. With the legal options all but exhausted, she now faces imminent deportation to Mexico.

In March Janet Napolitano assured us that the US-Mexican border was safer than ever. This in spite of Barack Obama and Eric Holder willingly sending 2000 automatic weapons into the hands of the drug cartels south of the border. Well, it turns out that the border is not so safe. The Mexican state of Chihuahua, which borders Texas and New Mexico, is in anarchy. The US-Mexican border is less safe than Afghanistan. Organized crime-related deaths in one Mexican border state during the first nine months of 2011 exceed the number of Afghan civilians killed in roughly the same period in...

Thanks to the efforts of Catholic Charities, Arkansas Advocates for Families & Children, the ACLU, and other "undocumented" immigrant groups, several private sector jobs were created and healthcare was provided for the poor! According to Cherith Beck, The Public Information Office for the US. Attorney's Office for East Arkansas, at least 5 of the people involved are here illegally or to use the politically correct term "undocumented immigrant". Only 1 has been mentioned by the media. Other members of this business are here on immigrant visas processed by the system that is supposed process millions of "undocumented people" if a...

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said her agency is working with Mexican officials on the threat posed by individuals from countries with terrorist links or “special interest aliens.’ Napolitano’s remarks came during a panel discussion on Tuesday in Washington, D.C., about the global role of DHS in the ongoing effort to fight terrorist threats to the United States, including efforts to stop threats abroad before they arrive at U.S. airports or seaports. CNSNews.com asked the secretary about the threat posed by individuals linked to terrorist groups in countries like Somalia and Yemen that might

I knew this would happen and in a way, it is a good thing because it will also bring focus to Barack Obama's eligibility. Reading the paperwork on this I found out some things I wasn't aware of pertaining to our citizenship statutes back in the 1940's such as the statute listed in this challenge, U.S. Nationality Act of 1940 Sect 201, 54 Stat. 1137 which provides provides the law by which a person born outside the U.S. is bound by in order to qualify legally as a U.S. citizen. For some that do not know, according to Mexican law...

A funny thing is happening to Mitt Romney on his way to Florida: ¡He is becoming so aware of Latino voters, that he’s practically becoming Latino himself! Oh, wait, amigos -- ¡Mitt is suddenly so Latino that he’s eligible for Mexican citizenship! ¿You think I’m kidding? Although up to now about the only time he’s mentioned Latinos is to say NO (a word conveniently the same in both English and Spanish), in one of his last appearances in New Hampshire, ¡he dropped the little known fact that his dad was born in Mexico! Yup, suddenly, Romney’s so one of us,...

CARACAS, Venezuela — Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Friday that his government will close its consulate in Miami after the U.S. government expelled a diplomat. Chavez said he decided the consulate will shut its doors in response to what he called an unfair action by the U.S. State Department...Livia Acosta Noguera, Venezuela’s consul general in Miami, was ordered out of the U.S. last weekend followed an FBI investigation into allegations that she discussed a possible cyber-attack on the U.S. government while she was assigned to the Venezuelan Embassy in Mexico. The allegations were detailed in a documentary aired by the...

·11250 Waples Mill Road ·   Fairfax, Virginia 22030    ·800-392-8683   Federal Court Upholds Obama/Holder Gun Registration Scheme; Congressional Action Needed   Friday, January 13, 2012   Moments before this alert was to go out, a federal district court in Washington, D.C. issued a ruling upholding an Obama administration policy that requires federally licensed firearms retailers in states bordering Mexico to report multiple sales of semi-automatic rifles.  The case was brought by two NRA-backed firearms retailers and by the National Shooting Sports Foundation acting on behalf of its affected members.  Plaintiffs plan to appeal immediately—but in the meantime, your help is urgently...

San Diego (CNN) -- Mitt, we hardly knew ye. Or should I say, "primo!" As much as it embarrasses me to admit it, given some of his views and how he expresses them, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee and I could be distant cousins. Romney's father, George, was born in Chihuahua, Mexico, and so was my grandfather, Roman. Que? You didn't know that Mitt Romney was half-Mexican? It's true. In fact, if he makes it to the White House, in addition to becoming the first Mormon in the Oval Office, he could also be the nation's first Hispanic president. Don't...

Paramedics drop organ in front of photographers after it was rushed to hospital by police helicopter for transplantIt was a heart-stopping moment – or nearly so: rushing from a helicopter, two Mexican medics dropped a human heart being ferried to hospital for a transplant. And to compound their embarrassment, press photographers were there to capture the mishap. Thankfully, the transplant was carried out successfully, although that has not stopped the medics being widely ridiculed online. The heart was being transported by a police helicopter to a hospital in Mexico City on Wednesday, in what police described as "a rapid,...

The figures came as two decapitated bodies were found inside a burning SUV early on Wednesday at the entrance of one of Mexico's most luxurious malls, feeding fears the drug violence is beginning to infiltrate privileged realms previously thought safe. Police recovered the mutilated bodies before dawn off a toll highway at a shopping mall entrance in the heart of the Santa Fe district that is a haven for international corporations, diplomats and the wealthy. The heads and a threatening message were dumped a few yards away, Mexico City prosecutors said in a statement. Hours later, the government released the...