Mexican violence a crisis: top U.S. military officer

[CHIMO]

Source: Associated Press

WASHINGTON — Mexico could borrow from U.S. tactics in the fight against terrorism as it battles a crisis of drug-related violence along the U.S.-Mexico border, the top U.S. military officer said Friday.

Returning from a six-day trip to Latin America punctuated by news of beheadings and intimidation by Mexican drug cartels, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said the United States could help with equipment and intelligence techniques.

Admiral Mike Mullen would not be specific about what kind of intelligence or surveillance help the United States might offer, but said he saw ways to employ experience the United States has gained in the ongoing hunt for extremists and terrorists. He would not say whether there may already be U.S. drones flying over bloodstained cities such as Ciudad Juarez, where 17 bodies came into the morgue on one day recently, including the city police force's second-in-command and three other officers.

“Obviously it affects us because of the relationship between the two countries,” Adm. Mullen said during a telephone news conference as he flew to Washington following meetings in Mexico, his last stop.


Read more: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090306.0306wmexicoviolence/BNStory/International/home

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. Color me surprised

they are trying to stop this from crossing the border

It already has

THe thing they need to do, they won't

[4lbs]

2. You mean....

"Welcome to CVS Pharmacy, may I help you?"

"Yeah, can I have a pack of joints and two ounces of coke please."

"Here you go sir, anything else?"

"I'm good."

"That'll be $20 sir."

[nadinbrzezinski]

3. Exactly that

This prohibition has been going on for a hundred years (1909 is when it started)

The last forty we have had how many narco states? We're next

[junior college]

4. I remember in high school when it was easier to get weed and coke

than it was to get a six pack of beer. Beer was worth more than weed and coke to us because it was so hard to get

[martymar64]

27. It's strange, the first city to outlaw Mary Jane was El Paso

Right across the river from Ciudad Juarez.

[Idealism]

5. Billions in additional tax revenue if we would only slap tariffs on this shit.

Instead, we prop up failing states and send billions to the Columbian dictator who then uses it to repress his own people.

We are so ass-backwards on foreign policy it is scary.

[ProudDad]

6. Decriminalize and there's no problem any more

Stupid, stupid Yanquis

[Dreamer Tatum]

8. Wrong

Legions of people armed to the teeth who will kill anyone who interferes with their business will just put their guns away if drugs are legal here?

Um, no. Smart money says the private armies will continue to kill over the right to supply the "yanqui" firms that will sell legal
drugs. Decriminalizing drugs here is likely to intensify the competition down south to provide the supply.

[Fumesucker]

28. Didn't happen when alcohol was relegalized after Prohibition..

Why would it be different for other drugs?

[Dreamer Tatum]

29. Men with guns are destroying Mexico to control the flow of drugs

I fail to see how legalization will change their incentives one iota. Legalization won't eliminate the black market...it'll GROW the black market. I think legalization will just give Uncle Sam a few bucks for the trouble of thousands of innocent Mexicans dying.

[bemildred]

31. There is no such thing as a legal black market.

Just saying. Legalization would eliminate the "black market", and replace it with a legal market.

[Dreamer Tatum]

32. Disagree

Most of my friends here in the burbs smoke pot. I can assure you, legalization will not bring them out in the open. Even if it were completely legal, are you telling me that the drug traffickers will shrug, put down their weapons, and start selling peanuts? Please.

It's hard to make and sell your own whiskey. It's really easy to grow and sell dope with no taxes...they've been doing it for decades.

I think there is some Freakonomics-type stuff likely to happen if it's legalized. I just don't see legalization as the key to huge tax revenues and the end of the cartels.

[bemildred]

33. I'm just pointing out what a "black market" is, that is, an illegal market.

If the product is legal, then a market in it is legal, hence it is not a "black market". I am not in any sense suggesting people will smoke less pot if it is legalized.

[defendandprotect]

7. As far as I can see, many elites/corrupt government officials are making

"gold" out of drugs --- and they don't want it stopped --

Plus this violence just provides more "shock and awe" for Mexico and US ....

agree, we're probably next as this drug violence grows. The more violence, the

higher the prices!

We need to legalize drugs/plants -- now.

[Jambalaya]

18. Si,si,says Citibank

Citigroup Mexico insiders buy shares in bank

Thu Mar 5, 2009 NEW YORK/MEXICO CITY, March 4 - The recent purchase of shares in Citigroup by its top executives in Mexico is a show of confidence in the troubled bank’s eventual recovery, a spokesman for the group’s Mexican unit said on Wednesday.

Citigroup Inc’s (C.N: Quote, Profile, Research) Roberto Hernandez, chairman of its Mexican Banamex unit, bought 6 million shares of Citi and Manuel Medina-Mora, in charge of the group’s Latin American business, bought 1.5 million shares, according to an SEC filing.

Both executives have denied market speculation in recent weeks that they were planning to buy Citigroup’s Mexican bank Banamex.

“They (the share purchases) are a show of confidence in the company’s future and its return to profitability,” Banamex spokesman Paulo Carreno said in a statement to Reuters.

Mexico’s bank regulator said on Friday it is analyzing the legal implications of the U.S. government’s plan to boost its equity stake in Citigroup Inc.

Analysts say Citi might have to sell Banamex because of a Mexican law prohibiting foreign governments from owning Mexican banks.

Hernandez resigned from Citigroup’s board last month, stirring speculation that he might be preparing a bid. Hernandez also has a stake in a Mexican mutual fund that owns 14.6 million shares of Citigroup, according to the filing_____________

Excerpt,Reuters

[coalition_unwilling]

9. There's a low-level civil war taking

place in Mexico right now, and the US is taking sides.

See how well that's worked in the distant and recent past . . . Vietnam, Iraq.

[G_j]

10. US military speeding help to Mexico: admiral

Source: AFP

US military speeding help to Mexico: admiral

The United States is working to rush assistance to Mexico as it fights violent drug cartels, including equipment to help authorities track the narcotics mafia, according to the top US military officer. Skip related content

"We're all working very hard to move the capabilities that are desirable to Mexico as quickly as we can," Admiral Mike Mullen told reporters by phone from his aircraft after holding talks in Mexico.

During his meetings with the country's military leadership, Mullen said he discussed how Washington could help in the battle against the powerful cartels, citing intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) as a crucial element.

"ISR, that kind of capability is certainly a big part of it," Mullen said, using a term that can refer to manned surveillance aircraft as well as unmanned drones.

He said the emphasis would be on sharing intelligence "but in recognition that there are additional assets that could be brought to bear across the full ISR spectrum."

Read more: http://uk.news.yahoo.com/18/20090307/twl-us-military-speeding-help-to-mexico-2802f3e.html

[DUlover2909]

11. How about just legalizing the stuff and be done with it altogether once and for all?

:shrug:

[Joanne98]

12. All they have to do is legalize drugs and the market would dry up.

But NO! That would be to easy. Let's spend billions of dollars a year patroling the world and billions of dollars a year on law enforcement and billions of dollars a year on prisons. And NO money on re-hab or medical research.

The war on drugs is an expensive waste of time, money and lives!

They might as well just throw the money down a RAT HOLE!

[Kolesar]

13. Americans *could* quit patronizing the gangsters

That would be another solution.

[Fumesucker]

21. Americans *could* have quite patronizing gangsters during alcohol Prohibition..

But they didn't.

It is possible to change legislation, human nature not so much.

[jody]

14. "There are two sure ways to end this war swiftly: Milton's way and Mao's way. Mao Zedong's

communists killed users and suppliers alike, as social parasites. Milton Friedman's way is to decriminalize drugs and call off the war."

Afghanistan South by Patrick J. Buchanan.

[ConcernedCanuk]

15. US still doesn't get it - they can't fix everything with bullets and bombs - -

. <<<<<<< Wishful Thinking
.

Trouble is

that's about all they got

The World needs a few dozen Ghandis, JFKs, MLKs, and the like

but we keep killing them . . .

so we are sorta, hmm

FUCKED???

[amandabeech]

26. If we give them the technology, we'll give them people who know how to operate it.

They will be called advisers. I'm thinking 1962 here, maybe earlier.

DON'T GO THERE!

Do not send anybody down there! Do not pick sides. It will only end badly up here!

[bemildred]

16. Mullen continues to show a talent for stating the obvious,

while avoiding drawing any obvious conclusions from it. For example, it would be easy and obvious to draw the conclusion from this that our drug policies are disastrous failures, but Mullen suggests only that we need more and better of the same thing.

[Jambalaya]

17. Blacklisted News

US military speeding help to Mexico: admiral
The United States is working to rush assistance to Mexico as it fights violent drug cartels, including equipment to help authorities track the narcotics mafia, according to the top US military officer. ____________________________

Her's another take on the story from Blacklisted News website.

[Jambalaya]

19. FEMA camps

Hmm,all that riot training and gear the Army has been providing the Posse Comitatus army brigade might come in real handy,real soon.

[Jambalaya]

20. Links to "Posse Coming at U.S."

Why is a U.S. Army brigade being assigned to the "Homeland ... Sep 24, 2008 ... The Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 tightened these restrictions, ... But there is a loophole: Posse Comitatus is waived if the president ...
www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/09/24/army/ - Similar pages

Posse Comitatus The Posse Comitatus Act - Prohibits search, seizure, or arrest powers to US military personnel. Amended in 1981 under Public Law 97-86 to permit increased ...
www.au.af.mil/au/aul/bibs/posse/posse.htm - 37k - Cached - Similar pages

Democracy Now! | Is Posse Comitatus Dead? US Troops on US Streets Oct 7, 2008 ... In a barely noticed development, a US Army unit is now training for domestic operations under the control of US Army North, the Army service ...
www.democracynow.org/2008/10/7/us_army_denies_unit_will_be - 52k - Cached - Similar pages

[Arctic Dave]

22. I just came back from Mexico and I didn't have a problem one.

Maybe the news should slow down a bit on the hyperboley. What is happening in few known towns is not an accurate picture of Mexico.

[carlyhippy]

23. this has been going on in Juarez, nuevo Laredo for years

It just has gotten to fever pitch enough to be in the news. Yes, probably if one is a tourist, not a drug dealer or is involved in any way, probably nothing will happen, but all it takes is a stray bullet during a shootout, or a car chase gone wrong, I have been to Mexico several times, Reynosa, Nuevo Laredo and Juarez, as well as cancun and cozumel with nothing occuring, but today, I would more than likely stay out of these border cities myself.

[Arctic Dave]

25. Before I became Arctic Dave, I was Southern California Border Dave

You are right, this has been going on for years. Living on the border has always come with a little risk.

[Dreamer Tatum]

30. That's irresponsible

People are getting murdered in droves down there. We put out an APB for bad freaking peanut butter, so I see no problem with warning people that they could get kidnapped or get caught in crossfire.

Glad you were fine...others might not be so lucky.

[Arctic Dave]

34. I would say that no more people are murdered in LA County in a weekend then

on the border. The way the are killed and the reasons are a little severe. After all, a bullet is a bullet.

[Dreamer Tatum]

35. Boy, are you wrong

2000 people killed in Juarez last year alone...100x more than just across the border, in El Paso.

Mexico is a horribly dangerous place right now. There's no way around it.

[Arctic Dave]

36. 200,000 people? I think you are a little off base.

[ReliantJ]

24. There is an article in Rolling Stones

check it out. Crazy

[defendandprotect]

37. I'm wondering what illegitimate actions may be ....

involved in this Mexican uprising of drug violence -- ???