Immigration crackdown: U.S. launches new hotline for detainees

latimes.com: "Federal immigration officials Thursday announced the creation of a telephone hotline to ensure that detainees held by local police are informed of their rights. The toll-free number, (855) 448-6903, will field queries from detainees held by state or local law enforcement agencies if the detainees "believe they may be U.S. citizens or victims of a crime," the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency said in a statement." read more

The Border: New fencing doesn’t stop illegal crossings

A look at the questionable effectiveness of the border fence

Washington Post: "Overall, the United States has added 413 miles of new fencing to its southern boundary since 2006, raising to 649 miles the total length of border that has some form of man-made barrier to people or vehicles. ... Now the question is: How much more should be built?

... The new barriers have been particularly effective at stopping vehicles from coming across, Border Patrol agents say. Along one stretch of desert here, the number of drive-through incursions plunged from 350 in 2007 to four so far this year. But agents also say it is not the case that smugglers and illegal migrants on foot simply go to the place in the desert where the fence ends, and walk around it. “Anywhere is a good place to sneak across if we’re not watching,” said Special Agent Jonathan Creiglow, a Border Patrol officer." read more

Mexico Drug War: Days of the dead

From Australia, a thorough, well-written, and appalling look at the horrors of the drug war in Acapulco and Mexico.

Sydney Morning Herald: "Mexico's drug wars are crippling the country. Chief Correspondent for the Sydney Morning Herald, Paul McGeough, reports from Acapulco." read more

Week's Top Articles on Mexico: Dec. 23-29, 2011

Drug war news this holiday week was, inevitably, sad. Four U.S. citizens of Mexican heritage, a mother and her two children and a high school boy were killed in two incidents while visiting relatives south of the border for the holiday.

Meanwhile, the "success" of Ciudad Juarez's chief of police in reducing violence apparently comes at the price of torture and other violations of human rights. This week the supposed "chief of security" of the reputedly biggest and richest cartel, the Sinaloa, was captured, but this may as much point to poor strategy by the Mexican government as to another drug war "success".

As for the cartels themselves, they are looking forward to a productive new year. They are busy expanding their capacities, including building a nation-spanning private radio network and taking over both "paradise," ie. Costa Rica, and "hell," aka Honduras.

Immigration and border news did have its happy holiday components. The immigration Scrooge, Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio, was enjoined by a federal judge from continuing his anti-immigrant arrests. And, surprise! The Pew Hispanic Center announced that two-thirds of Hispanics oppose President Obama's deportation crackdown.

On a merrier note, in reponse to having Mary and Joseph knock on its door on Christmas Day, a Chicago hospital said it would treat undocumented migrants free of charge. And a border news service looks at the mixing of Mexican and U.S. Christmas customs--and commerce--along the border, and elsewhere. But reality, in the form of NAFTA, intrudes of course, especially at Christmas. U.S. Christmas trees--a fairly recently imported tradition, are dominating Mexican ones in Mexican mercados.

Drug War

3 US citizens among 7 killed in bus attacks in northern Veracruz
Washington Post: Dec. 24, " Three U.S. citizens traveling to spend the holidays with their relatives in Mexico were among those killed in a spree of shooting attacks on three buses in northern Veracruz, Mexico.... The Americans killed were a mother and her two daughters from Texas." read more

Chicago area teen killed in Mexico
Chicago Tribune: Dec. 28, "Alexis Marron, 18, a Chicago area high school senior, had worked all summer so he could afford to visit relatives and see his girlfriend in Michoacán, near Guadalajara, over Christmas. On Friday, he was driving with two friends to exchange Christmas gifts with her. He never made it." read more

Mexican Police Chief of Ciudad Juarez Produces Results, and Scrutiny
NYTimes.com: Dec. 24, "Chief Leyzaola ... has been under a spotlight that keeps getting hotter. Positive and negative developments have intertwined: violence has declined in Juárez, ...; at the same time, complaints of human rights abuses by the police have increased, including some against the chief himself; and now that La Linea is gone, ..., the Sinaloa cartel, has become more powerful." read more

Chief of Security for Mexican Sinaloa Drug Cartel Captured
AP/NYTimes.com: Dec. 26, " The Mexican army said Sunday that it had captured the head of security for the Sinaloa drug cartel’s leader, Joaquín Guzmán, known as El Chapo, one of the world’s richest and most wanted men." read more

Capture of Sinaloa Cartel security Chief Shows Mexico Lacks Patience
InSight Crime: Dec. 28, "Mexico's capture of a 'Chapo' Guzman's "security chief" means one of two things: Mexican authorities are close to seizing the most wanted drug trafficker in the world; or Mexican authorities are not disciplined enough yet to capture the most wanted drug trafficker in the world." read more

Mexico’s cartels build own national radio system
AP/Washington Post: Dec. 26, "... stretching hundreds of miles (kilometers) across Mexico, (the Zeta drug cartel has built) a shadow communications system allowing the cartel to coordinate drug deliveries, kidnapping, extortion and other crimes with the immediacy and precision of a modern military or law-enforcement agency." read more

For Costa Rica’s ‘pura vida,’ a drug war test
Washington Post: Dec. 29, "...with Mexican drug cartels moving in, Costa Rican exceptionalism is being challenged by the same criminal forces dragging down the rest of Central America. Costa Rican officials and U.S. drug agents say this country ... is one more chess piece in the traffickers’ push for control of smuggling routes through the region, now the primary conveyance for billions’ worth of South American cocaine bound for the United States. " read more

Grim toll as cocaine trade expands in Honduras
Washington Post: Dec. 29, "Honduras’s ... homicide problem goes back decades. But as Mexico’s billionaire drug mafias expand their smuggling networks deeper into Central America to evade stiffer enforcement in Mexico and the Caribbean, violence has exploded, as if the cocaine were gasoline tossed on a fire. Honduras’s grim tally reached 6,239 killings in 2010, compared with 2,417 in 2005, and researchers say the count will be even higher this year. " read more

Immigration and the Border

Judge Rules Against Arizona Sheriff Arpaio For Illegal Stops
Reuters/Huffington Post: Dec. 24, "A federal judge on Friday barred Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio from detaining people simply for being in the country illegally, in a ruling that faulted the local lawman for enforcing federal immigration law. The opinion by U.S. District Judge G. Murray Snow came on the same day he issued legal sanctions against Arpaio over destroyed documents." read more

Most Latinos Oppose Obama’s Deportation Policy
Pew Hispanic Center: Dec. 28, "By a ratio of more than two-to-one (59% versus 27%), Latinos disapprove of the way the Obama administration is handling deportations of unauthorized immigrants, according to a new national survey of Latino adults by the Pew Hispanic Center. read more

Chicago Hospital Opens Doors to Undocumented Immigrants
Fox News Latino: Dec. 29, "Pro-immigrant activists in Chicago are celebrating a "Christmas miracle." After Members of  Our Lady of Guadalupe Anglican Mission ... and other religious groups and immigration activists ... held a Christmas "posada" ceremony (a traditional re-enactment of Joseph and Mary knocking on doors, seeking a place to stay) on Christmas Day at Rush University Medical Center, the Center said it will provide free treatment for undocumented immigrants lacking health insurance, including several who need urgent organ transplants." read more.

Reclaiming Mexican Holidays North of the Border
Frontera NorteSur: Dec. 26, "The El Paso-Ciudad Juarez borderland was hopping with activity in recent days.... In the reconverted quarters of an old garment plant now rechristened Mercado Mayapan, La Mujer Obrera (The Woman Worker) staged its annual Christmas posada. El Paso’s Mariachi Gala entertained a crowd that enjoyed a corn and chocolate drink called champurrado and bunuelos, sugary pastries, all for free." read more

American Christmas trees take over Mexico
GlobalPost: Dec, 26,  "US and Canadian Christmas trees have flooded into Mexico in recent years .... This holiday season alone, more than a million trees have been imported over the Rio Grande to decorate homes celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ, Mexico’s Environment Department reported. The imports now outnumber the 700,000 trees provided by Mexican growers this year." read more

Immigration Crackdown - Tennessee: Jail immigration policy made in secret, lawsuit says

wbir.com: "A lawsuit in Nashville is seeking to stop jailers across Tennessee from enforcing a state law that requires them to investigate the immigration status of any person who comes into a county or municipal detention facility." read more

Immigration: Chicago Hospital Opens Doors to Undocumented Immigrants

Fox News Latino: "Pro-immigrant activists in Chicago are celebrating a "Christmas miracle" after Rush University Medical Center said it will provide free treatment for undocumented immigrants lacking health insurance, including several who need urgent organ transplants.

Members of  Our Lady of Guadalupe Anglican Mission ... and other religious groups and immigration activists ... held a Christmas "posada" ceremony (a re-enactment of Joseph and Mary knocking on doors, seeking a place to stay) on Christmas Day at Rush University Medical Center. ... A Rush representative ... promised to provide medical care for the uninsured undocumented immigrants, in particular those needing transplants." read more

Immigration Reality: Illegal immigrants pay Social Security tax, won't benefit

Seattle Times Newspaper: "While many Americans believe illegal immigrants don't pay taxes, billions of dollars deducted from paychecks issued to undocumented workers flow to the Social Security Administration (SSA) every year. Those workers almost certainly will never see that money again.

Social Security officials keep a record of wages that do not match up with real names and numbers in their system. The record is called the earnings suspense file. In 2009, the last year for which figures are available, employers reported wages of $72.8 billion for 7.7 million workers who could not be matched to legal Social Security numbers.

Because those wages were reported by employers and not paid under the table, Social Security and Medicare deductions had to be made. A total of 12.4 percent of those wages went into the SSA system — 6.2 percent paid each by the worker and the employer. An additional 2.9 percent was paid into Medicare, half by the worker and half by the employer." read more

Drug War - Central America: Grim toll as cocaine trade expands in Honduras

Washington Post: "Honduras’s ... homicide problem goes back decades. But as Mexico’s billionaire drug mafias expand their smuggling networks deeper into Central America to evade stiffer enforcement in Mexico and the Caribbean, violence has exploded, as if the cocaine were gasoline tossed on a fire.

Honduras’s grim tally reached 6,239 killings in 2010, compared with 2,417 in 2005, and researchers say the count will be even higher this year. " read more

Drug War - Central America: For Costa Rica’s ‘pura vida,’ a drug war test

The destructiveness of U.S. drug prohibition moves into paradise.

Washington Post: "...with Mexican drug cartels moving in, Costa Rican exceptionalism is being challenged by the same criminal forces dragging down the rest of Central America. Costa Rican officials and U.S. drug agents say this country ... is one more chess piece in the traffickers’ push for control of smuggling routes through the region, now the primary conveyance for billions’ worth of South American cocaine bound for the United States. " read more

Immigration Politics: Most Latinos Oppose Obama’s DeportationPolicy

Pew Hispanic Center: "By a ratio of more than two-to-one (59% versus 27%), Latinos disapprove of the way the Obama administration is handling deportations of unauthorized immigrants, according to a new national survey of Latino adults by the Pew Hispanic Center, a project of the Pew Research Center." read more

Drug War: Head of ‘Blondies’ cartel, wanted in US, arrested at Mexico City’s airport

AP/Washington Post: "Federal police say one of the United States’ most-wanted drug traffickers has been arrested at Mexico City’s airport.

U.S. authorities offered a reward of up to $5 million for Luis Rodriguez Olivera, or “Whitey.” Olivera and his brother Esteban are accused of smuggling tons of cocaine and methamphetamine into Europe and the U.S." read more

Drug War Bloodshed: Chicago area teen's killing in Mexico prompts fear among Mexican immigrants in Chicago

Chicago Tribune: "In a small town in western Mexico, Jazmin Reyes, 16, waited for her new boyfriend from the United States. She and Alexis Marron had been emailing each other for months, but when they finally met a few weeks ago, she said it was "love at first sight."

Marron, 18, a Rolling Meadows High School senior, had worked all summer so he could afford to visit relatives and see Reyes outside Guadalajara over Christmas. On Friday, he was driving with two friends to exchange Christmas gifts with her. He never made it." read more

Drug War: Capture of Sinaloa Cartel security Chief Shows Mexico Lacks Patience

InSight Crime: "Mexico's capture of a 'Chapo' Guzman's "security chief" means one of two things: Mexican authorities are close to seizing the most wanted drug trafficker in the world; or Mexican authorities are not disciplined enough yet to capture the most wanted drug trafficker in the world." read more

Mexico Occupy Movement: Youth on the Front Lines of Protest Movement

IPS ipsnews.net: "On Oct. 15, ... a group of ... young Mexicans joined the global Indignados/Occupy movement of protesters who are "indignant" over the effects of the economic policies that have led to the profound crisis affecting much of the world, and particularly the countries of the North.

... (They have) set up a camp on the main avenue of the Mexican capital, which has attracted young people aligned with a wide diversity of causes, including anarchists, environmentalists, pacifists and members of the Movement for National Regeneration, led by leftist former presidential candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador. " read more

MexicoBlog Editorial: The U.S. Feeds Violence, Corruption and Impunity in Mexico

In the past few weeks a number of Mexican activists have been brazenly killed, attacked or kidnapped. Twelve journalists have been killed in Mexico in 2011. Local and state government officials are all too frequently assassinated. Human Rights groups have collected evidence that the Mexican army is systematically engaging in torture, forced disappearances and murder.

The cartels continue to engage in grisly tortures and murders of all who oppose them. Drug war deaths in Mexico over the past five years now exceed 45,000. Possibly 10,000 people have disappeared. The federal government has stopped issuing any accounting. Very few of these deaths and disappearances have been investigated, and only a miniscule number of investigations have resulted in convictions.

Meanwhile, large numbers of local, state and federal police are accused of corruption--of working for the drug cartels. Most recently, the entire local police force of the city of Veracruz was dismissed and replaced by the Mexian army.

Violence, corruption and impunity continue to overwhelm the rule of law in Mexico. Eleven years ago, with the election of Vicente Fox, the first president in seventy years who was not from the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), it was thought that Mexico was moving from an authoritarian government, rife with corruption, to a democratic government that would cleanse itself and live under the rule of law. President Fox made a campaign against corruption a centerpiece of his administration.

But Fox's campaign and the campaign of his successor, Felipe Calderón, against the drug cartels have evidently come to naught. The violence of the drug war continues, as does that against human rights and other activists, journalists and innocent Mexicans. Violence, corruption and impunity reign.

Origins of Mexican corruption

A number of scholars and students of Mexican history have pointed out that corruption, violence and impunity have been forces running throughout Mexican history from the Spanish Conquest up to today. Spanish viceroys and other officials in New Spain frequently bought their positions and were expected to extort money from Mexicans to pay their way. Public position was a means to private gain.

Claudio Lomnitz, professor of history at Columbia University (Understanding the history of corruption in Mexico) describes corruption as an intricate system of exchanges in which support for public officials is given in return for certain privileges. Payments of money to ensure that routine services are rendered are also part of the mix.

The New York Times journalist and one-time Mexico bureau chief, Anthony DePalma once asserted, “Corruption is not a characteristic of the system in Mexico . . . it is the system.” It is estimated that the drug cartels spend hundreds of millions of dollars each year paying off officials at all levels of Mexican government, who in turn use the system of bribes to play off one cartel against another. (see: The Political Economy of Narco-Corruption in Mexico, by Peter Andreas)

History of violence

After independence was won from Spain in 1821, but lacking preparation for democratic self-rule, Mexico spent most of a century in coup d'etats, civil wars and political assassinations. While the coups and civil wars ended with the rise of PRI to power in the 1920s, assassinations of political leaders at the national level have occurred as recently as that of Luis Donaldo Colosio in 1994. Assassinations of state and local officials are still a regular occurrence.

Lack of rule of law

Stephen D. Morris, in an article published in the Mexican Law Journal,  Mexico’s Political Culture: the Unrule of Law and Corruption as a Form of Resistance, points out that Mexico has never functioned under the rule of law. Mexicans, he says, have never given any government legitimacy. They do not trust the law, government institutions or politicians. There is a pervasive, underlying assumption that all political acts are self-serving and corrupt.

Mexicans then use this belief to justify their own evasion of the law when it is to their benefit and they do not think they will be caught, as in avoiding paying taxes. This is expressed in the dicho or saying, "Obedezco pero no cumplo," "I obey but I don't fulfill." Because political leaders are perceived as ignoring or using the law for personal ends, a citizen's manipulating or getting around the law is seen as a legitimized form of protest. Impunity begets impunity.

Ongoing impunity

Furthermore, Morris points out, the lack of a functioning justice system--police, courts and prisons--leads to the conclusion that, as there is no justice, no rule of law, it is legitimate to use extra-legal  means to seek justice. Demonstrations that block streets and highways, the commandeering of buses and radio stations, even vigilante killing of apparent criminals and corrupt police are justified. Beyond that, for those who enter the explicit criminal realm, there are no limits to the uses of violence. 

The U.S. inserts itself 

And where does the the U.S. stand in relation to all of this violence, corruption and impunity? Throughout the past year, the US law enforcement role in Mexico drug war has grown significantly. The Merida Initiative, administered by the State Department, has gone beyond providing miltary and police equipment to seeking to promote the rule of law by training Mexican police, attorneys, prosecutors and judges and funding NGOs to undertake projects to develop the "rule of law" in Mexico. The U.S. Army Northern Command trains Mexican soldiers. The Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) has hired former Mexican police and government officials to act as undercover spies of the cartels.

However, as Morris points out, "without addressing the critical issue of legitimacy, more enforcement tools, a stronger state and more laws will be insufficient. If government and society are unable to control the police, then more police will not solve the problem; it will exacerbate it." There is ample evidence that U.S. trained military personnel have gone on to become paramiltary and criminal forces in Guatemala. The infamous Zetas are possibly an example in Mexico.

Then there was the revelation that the DEA has been actively laundering millions of dollars for the drug cartels.  As the New York Times put it, "The high-risk activities raise delicate questions about the agency’s effectiveness in bringing down drug kingpins, underscore diplomatic concerns about Mexican sovereignty, and blur the line between surveillance and facilitating crime." This came after the revelation that the Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agency (ATF) was letting guns "walk" across the border in Operation Fast and Furious. At what point do law enforcement tactics become facilitation of crime and corruption?

But overriding all is the fact that the drug market in the U.S. provides billions of dollars a year to the Mexican cartels and that it is for control of these billions that the cartels are so violently fighting. This fact was presented recently by the presidents of Mexico and all the Central American countries, when they stated that "a significant reduction in the demand for illegal drugs" in the United States and other drug consuming countries would be desirable.

They then diplomatically but pointedly added, "Nevertheless, if that is not possible, as recent experience demonstrates, the authorities of the consuming countries ought then to explore the possible alternatives to eliminate the exorbitant profits of the criminals, including regulatory or market oriented options to this end. Thus, the transit of substances that continue provoking high levels of crime and violence in Latin American and Caribbean nations will be avoided."

Undermining the fragile rule of law

Democracy and the rule of law are new and fragile processes in Mexico and the rest of Latin America. Violence, corruption and impunity have been the rule for centuries and remain major threats to the stability of these nations and the well-being of their peoples. The U.S.'s continuing insistence on drug prohibition, while requiring and funding a war in Latin America against drug suppliers, only serves to create dynamics and provide the money that fuels that violence, corruption and impunity. Against this, democracy and the rule of law stand little chance. 

Drug War Corruption: Former high-ranking Mexico police official gets 10-year sentence for drug ties

AP/Washington Post: "A former high-ranking federal police official has been sentenced to 10 years in prison in Mexico for helping the Sinaloa drug cartel. The case of former regional police security coordinator Javier Herrera Valles had been a scandal and for some a cause celebre, in part because he was arrested after having publicly accused some of his superiors of corruption or incompetence." read more

Drug War Bloodshed: Chicago-Area High School Student Found Dead In Mexico

Huffington Post: "An 18-year-old student at a suburban Chicago high school was found dead in an apparent homicide over the weekend in Mexico, where he was visiting family, police said Monday. Alex Marron and two other men were found dead in the trunk of a burned car in Michoacán, Mexico, the Daily Herald reports. Police say Marron was visiting relatives in the small town of Quiringüicharo in central Mexico." read more

Human Rights Abuse: 5 police face torture charges in case of videotaped abuse in Mexico City operation

AP/Washington Post: "The Mexico City prosecutors’ office says five police officers have been arrested in connection with a video that appears to show the abuse of a suspect. Milenio Television reported last month that one of its reporters had taken the video of an officer repeatedly pushing the man’s head into a bucket of water while his T-shirt was pulled up over his head and face." read more

Drug War: Violence creeping into Mexican capital

Reuters: "In a nation wracked by drug violence, this sprawling capital city of more than 20 million has been an oasis of relative peace. But the key to that calm - an informal truce among rival gangs - may be cracking.

... Mexico City includes the inner Federal District, home to almost 9 million people, and another 12 million in outer suburbs and slums governed by the State of Mexico." read more

Drug War in Ciudad Juarez: Federal forces sully Mexico's war on drugs

Reuters: "Business owners, security experts and ordinary residents (in Ciudad Juarez) told Reuters that official corruption at all levels of the security forces has fanned violence in the city, with local and federal police and soldiers complicit in, or actually committing, many of the murders.

The human rights commission of the local state of Chihuahua registered 1,250 complaints of torture, forced disappearances and extrajudicial executions by the army during its two-year deployment in Ciudad Juarez. It counts 400 similar grievances against the federal police who moved in when the soldiers were pulled out. These numbers document only 20 percent of the violations taking place, it estimates." read more

Drug War: Mexico Extradites Suspect in US Consulate Slaying

AP/ABC News: "Mexico says it has extradited to the United States another suspect in the 2010 killing of a U.S. consulate employee, her husband and another man . Suspect Joel Abraham Caudillo faces charges of racketeering, drug trafficking, money laundering, and obstruction of justice." read more

Drug War: Inside Mexico's Criminal Insurgency -- Review of 'El Narco'

Border Lines: "No doubt that the drug-related violence and crime are products of drug-prohibition and counternarcotics policies instituted by the United States and later give international legitimacy by the United Nations. Yet the essence of the turmoil and terror in Mexico is the product of a drug war (a war over control of the drug market)." read more

Drug War: Mexico’s cartels build own national radio system

AP/Washington Post: "... stretching hundreds of miles (kilometers) across Mexico, (the Zeta drug cartel has built) a shadow communications system allowing the cartel to coordinate drug deliveries, kidnapping, extortion and other crimes with the immediacy and precision of a modern military or law-enforcement agency." read more

Mexico Violence: Assault vehicle Coahuila governor's security

Translated by MexicoBlog

Excelsior: "The lead reconnaissance vehicle accompanying Governor Ruben Moreira Valdés of Coahuila, who was traveling in a convoy, was shot by a group of gunmen ... north of the city of Saltillo. The Attorney General's Office confirmed the violent act occurred on the afternoon of December 25 to 17: 45 pm.

The State Attorney's Office reported that neither the Governor nor his family suffered any damage and at no time were in imminent danger." Spanish original

Drug War Bloodshed: More than a thousand missing in Coahuila, the governor admits

Translated by MexicoBlog

La Jornada "The number of victims of enforced disappearance in Coahuila could be up to five times more than the cases that have been reported, said the state's governor, Ruben Moreira Valdez. He elaborated, "Today we have  200 reported, but the figure could grow a lot; I think it's going to pass a thousand," he calculated in an interview with La Jornada.

The governor announced that in January 2012 he will launch a plan to determine the exact number of missing persons and find them." Spanish original

NAFTA: American Christmas trees take over Mexico

GlobalPost: "US and Canadian Christmas trees have flooded into Mexico in recent years .... This holiday season alone, more than a million trees have been imported over the Rio Grande to decorate homes celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ, Mexico’s Environment Department reported. The imports now outnumber the 700,000 trees provided by Mexican growers this year.

But not everyone sees the southward flow of pines as a welcome present. Some Mexican farmers and politicians complain they are fighting unfair competition from the wealthy subsidized US plantations." read more

¡Viva Mexico!: Reclaiming Mexican Holidays North of the Border

A somewhat rambling but worthwhile look at the mixing of Mexican and U.S. customs and commerce along the border, and elsewhere.

Frontera NorteSur: "The El Paso-Ciudad Juarez borderland was hopping with activity in recent days....
In the reconverted quarters of an old garment plant now rechristened Mercado Mayapan, La Mujer Obrera (The Woman Worker) staged its annual Christmas posada. El Paso’s Mariachi Gala entertained a crowd that enjoyed a corn and chocolate drink called champurrado and bunuelos, sugary pastries, all for free." read more

Drug War Bloodshed: 13 found dead in truck in Mexico drug war

news.ninemsn.com.au: "Troops ... found 13 bodies in a truck, in the latest violence between warring drug cartels. Soldiers found two messages at the scene in Tamaulipas state "alluding to the rivalry between criminal groups" in the northeast, the Department of Justice said in a statement early Monday." read more

Mexico & U.S. Politics and the Drug War: Fuentes Pessimistic about Mexican Politics, No Hope for Drug War Solution without U.S.

Border Lines: "In a recent BBC Mundo interview, noted Mexican writer and intellectual Carlos Fuentes discussed the current tumultuous political situation in Mexico.

... Fuentes stated that the traditional parties in Mexico –PRI, PAN and PRD -- offer no solutions for the grave crisis affecting the country, and that their proposals to address the power of organized crime lack clarity and have attracted little public enthusiasm. “The problems are too big, and the politics are too small,” the writer said with regard to the situation in Mexico.

... Fuentes has also observed that all efforts directed toward fighting drug trafficking in Mexico will be useless unless the United States addresses the demand for drugs in its territory. In 2010, through a live chat with readers of the Spanish newspaper El Pais, Fuentes said that drugs are largely bought in the United States and it is there that decriminalization should begin." read more

Drug War: Chief of Security for Mexican Sinaloa Drug Cartel Captured

AP/NYTimes.com: " The Mexican army said Sunday that it had captured the head of security for the Sinaloa drug cartel’s leader, Joaquín Guzmán, known as El Chapo, one of the world’s richest and most wanted men." read more

Immigration Crackdown: Deportation Without Representation

New York Times editorial

NYTimes.com: "In deciding who may stay and who must leave this country, the deportation process for immigrants tolerates unfairness at every turn. Current laws have denied basic due process protections to people held in immigration detention. And now, a new report in the Cardozo Law Review reveals a severe shortage of competent legal assistance for tens of thousands facing deportation. The study examines cases in New York, but New York is hardly unique in this failing." read more

¡Viva Mexico!: Mexico's UNAM aims to put it all online

latimes.com: "the 100-year-old National Autonomous University of Mexico, or UNAM, is placing its work on the Internet. All of it.

In an effort of staggering scope, UNAM hopes to upload everything it has — from 18th century newspapers and vintage films to hundreds of thousands of student theses and a still-to-be-gauged sea of classroom teaching items — and let the world have it free of charge. The project, called Toda la UNAM en Línea (All of UNAM Online), made its debut last month with an interactive website (www.unamenlinea.unam.mx) following a year of planning and preparation." read more

Mexico Education: Only 60 percent of Mexican students conclude sixth grade

Translated by MexicoBlog

Excelsior: Official figures from the Fifth Government Report show that 99 percent of children six years in first grade of primary school, ... however, for every 100 who enter this level, only 64 complete the sixth grade at age 11.

This means that on average four out of ten children entering primary school drop out or fail, according to the study "Goals: The state of education in Mexico 2011," done by the Mexico First Association. This shows that the percentage of coverage does not mean that children maintain a constant pace in their studies, because in the course of elementary school, many drop out and some fail or don't enroll in middle school, so that universal access to education does not guarantee staying enrolled or progressing according to the students' corresponding age.

Thus, for every 100 children entering elementary school at six years, more than 50 percent cannot enter middle school, ... And worse, in high school, only 45% of young people achieved graduation." Spanish original

Mexico Violence: Mexico is in first place in sexual violence: UN

translated by MexicoBlog

Milenio: Mexico ranks first in sexual assaults against women, according to a 2010 United Nations Organization (UN) report. A global comparative study of the body of women who have suffered sexual violence indicates that Mexico stands out with 44 percent, followed by Costa Rica with 41, the Czech Republic 35 and Denmark with 28 percent.

... The Ministry of Health estimates that in the country around 120,000 rapes occur per year, ie. one every four minutes, although to date no comprehensive care is provided to the victims because there is no effective follow-up of cases. This results in only one in ten cases of sexual violence against women in Latin America being punished by the justice system, according to figures from the Regional Office of Population Fund of the United Nations.

Nationally, there is a high level of crime victimization, (85 percent), with only 15 percent of crimes are reported to the authorities and of these only five percent come before a judge." Spanish original

Immigration Crackdown: Judge Rules Against Arizona Sheriff Arpaio For Illegal Stops

Reuters/Huffington Post: "A federal judge on Friday barred Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio from detaining people simply for being in the country illegally, in a ruling that faulted the local lawman for enforcing federal immigration law. The opinion by U.S. District Judge G. Murray Snow came on the same day he issued legal sanctions against Arpaio over destroyed documents." read more

Drug War Collateral Damage: Alone for Christmas: South Texans separated from Mexican relatives by drug violence

Corpus Christi Caller-Times: "Frayed family ties, another casualty of the drug war, are an especially stark reality during the Christmas season. For many with family across the border, December can be a lonely month.

"I'm very sad, very sad," Silvia Rodriguez of Corpus Cristi said. "Because with all my heart I want to go to Mexico."

Violence fueled by the drug cartels has spiraled out of control in recent years, making it increasingly difficult for South Texans to see their parents, siblings, grandparents, cousins and, in some cases, their own children in Mexico." read more

Mexico Justice: Survivors and relatives of the Royale casino fire will reconsturct the attack

CNN Mexico: Survivors and relatives of the 52 victims of the bombing of the Casino Royale will give their testtimony to refute the results of the official investigation performed at the gambling house, which concluded that the tragedy was inevitable. This was told to CNNMéxico  by Samara Pérez Muñiz, who survived the attack which occurred last August 25 in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon.

"(It is intended to) provide much evidence as survivors. There is a lot, such as that employees told us where to get out. There should be a reconstruction of the facts," she said. The reconstruction will be done with the prosecutor handling the case and a dozen family members and survivors, and the tentative date is during January 2012.

... The Attorney General's Office (PGR) had announced on December 8 ... that the building did not meet the safety conditions of Industrial Safety and Civil Protection laws, (it was reported that emergency exits were sealed or blocked) but ... noted that these failures were not decisive in causing or contributing to the tragedy. Spanish original

Mexico Drug War Bloodshed: 3 US citizens among 7 killed in bus attacks in northern Veracruz

Washington Post: " Three U.S. citizens traveling to spend the holidays with their relatives in Mexico were among those killed in a spree of shooting attacks on buses in northern Mexico, authorities from both countries said Friday. A group of five gunmen attacked three buses in Mexico’s Gulf coast state of Veracruz on Thursday, killing a total of seven passengers in what authorities said appeared to be a violent robbery spree.

The Americans killed were a mother and her two daughters who were returning to visit relatives in the region, known as the Huasteca, said an official in the neighboring state of Hidalgo, where the mother was born." read more

Drug War: Mexican Police Chief of Ciudad Juarez Produces Results, and Scrutiny

NYTimes.com: "Chief Leyzaola — already Mexico’s most renowned and controversial policeman — has been under a spotlight that keeps getting hotter. Positive and negative developments have intertwined: violence has declined in Juárez, with murders down by around a third over the last year; at the same time, complaints of human rights abuses by the police have increased, including some against the chief himself; and now that La Linea is gone, one of its rivals, the Sinaloa cartel, has become more powerful." read more

Mexico Drug War: Gunmen set fire to two passenger busses in Guerrero

Milenio: Acapulco • A group of armed men set fire to two passenger buses belonging to the company "Acabus", which serves residents of the residential complex "Luis Donaldo Colosi." A message left at the scene warned the carrier that it had 24 hours to cease serving the area. Spanish original

Drug War Bloodshed: Juarez Police Officer Burned Alive on City Street

InSight Crime: "A police officer has been burned alive in front of onlookers in Ciudad Juarez, suggesting a new escalation of brutality on the part of criminal groups in the embattled Mexican border city." read more

Week's Top Articles on Mexico, Dec. 16-22, 2011

Mexico Political news centers on the official filing of candidacies for next July's presidential election. And the Mexican ambassador to the U.S. warns that, with a presidential election season in both countries, "there will be looniness and stupidity and flatulence on both sides of the border."

Drug War news brings more revelations about U.S. involvement in Mexico; this time it is using former Mexican government officials as hired agents. Meanwhile, a poll finds that a majority of Mexicans would accept U.S. agents on their soil, a striking change from opposition to intervention that goes back to the Mexican-American War.

A study on falling crime rates presents an intriguing hypothesis: there is less crime because of lower drug prices and the lower prices are due to a paradoxical effect of the war on drugs: it has made drugs more available by changing market dynamics! Finally, there is a close up and sobering look at how the Zeta drug cartel has shut down all news about themselves in the Mexican border city of Nuevo Laredo in the state of Tamaulipas, on the Texas border.

Immigration and Border news brings a study in which immigration judges assess that much of the lawyering they have witnessed in their courtrooms is “inadequate.” Another study finds that the U.S. regime of immigration enforcement is the reason why the wages of Mexicans in the U.S. have not risen in real dollars since the 1960s. Increased border enforcement keeps those who are in the U.S. without documents trapped in the country and those who come on work visas are denied labor rights and fair wages.

Meanwhile, the battle between the states and the U.S. government over who is in charge of immigration enforcement continued, with the Justices Department filing suit against Utah, a federal judge enjoining parts of South Carolina's law and Homeland Security shutting down Arizona's Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio's operation. And Alabama seems to have wised up a little more, deciding that a number of citizen transactions at its county courthouses do not, upon second thought, constitute "doing business" that, under its immigrant crackdown law, require proof of legal residency.

At the border, the politics of using unmanned drones heats up.

Mexico Politics and Relations with the U.S.

Mexican Presidental Race Begins in Earnest
Reforma, Dec. 19,  "On the first day of the primaries leading to the election of the Presidency of the Republic next July, the three candidates of PAN (National Action Party) launched their campaigns against the PRI (Institutional Revolutionary Party) candidate Enrique Peña Nieto (who leads in the polls). translated by MexicoBlog from Reforma, which allows only subscribers to access its website.

Mexico-U.S. relations: beyond 'looniness, stupidity and flatulence'
MinnPost: Dec. 22, ""As in all good families, there will be looniness and stupidity and flatulence on both sides of the border." Mexico's Ambassador to the U.S. Arturo Sarukhan, shared that colorful observation with an appreciative audience (in) Minnesota last week as he warned about political rhetoric during both nations' 2012 presidential elections. read more

Drug War

80 Former Mexican Officials Spying For The U.S.
EFE/Fox News Latino: Dec. 19, "At least 80 former members of the Mexican government are working as spies for U.S. agencies, the La Jornada newspaper reported ... officials ranging from police officers to high-level officials have been detected working for the United States. ... as agents for the Drug Enforcement Administration, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, or ATF, and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, La Jornada said." read more

Majority of Mexicans Would Accept the Sending of U.S. Agents
Translated by MexicoBlog from El Universal: Dec. 19, A survey taken by the Mexican Center for Economic Research and Teaching (CIDE) found that 57% of Mexicans would accept help from the U.S. in fighting the drug cartels, including the sending of U.S. personnel into Mexican territory. Spanish original

Reagan's War on Drugs Reduced Crime in an Unexpected Way
The Atlantic Wire: Dec. 21, "... anthropologists at City University of New York floated a theory for the ongoing crime reduction in New York that they extrapolated nationally: Crime is falling because drugs are getting cheaper. ... if drugs are cheaper, users will commit fewer crimes to buy them. ... The paper hangs the decrease in drug prices largely on Ronald Reagan's strict drug policies, ... those policies didn't stem the flow of drugs. Rather, they helped make drugs cheaper, which eventually reduced the need for users to commit so many crimes." read more

The press silenced, Nuevo Laredo tries to find voice
Committee to Protect Journalists: Dec. 22, "... for the most part, there are no stories about what most affects the people in Nuevo Laredo. There are no stories about the war or the Zetas or the army or the police. There are also no stories about the Zetas' businesses of retail drug sales in town or their kidnapping and extortion of residents, according to journalists. ... Since the Zetas don't want anything reported, nothing about them is reported. Not in the papers, or on TV or radio." read more

Immigration and the Border

Judges Give Low Marks to Lawyers in Immigration Cases
NYTimes.com: Dec. 19,  "In a new report ... immigration judges themselves ... offer a scathing assessment of much of the lawyering they have witnessed in their courtrooms. Immigrants received “inadequate” legal assistance in 33 percent of the cases between mid-2010 and mid-2011 and “grossly inadequate” assistance in 14 percent of the cases, the judges said. read more

Why Mexican Immigrants Can't Get Ahead
Miller-McCune: Dec. 22, "A recent report by two researchers at Princeton University reveals that the average wages of Mexican-born immigrants in the U.S., adjusted for inflation, were no higher in 2007... than they were in the early 1960s. ... (The authors) argue that a “new regime of immigration enforcement” is to blame for the stagnant wages of Mexicans in the U.S."  read more

Utah Immigration Laws Should Be Blocked, U.S. Government Argues
Businessweek: Dec. 16, "Utah violated the U.S. Constitution by passing a set of immigration laws the state’s governor has called the “Utah solution,” the federal government argued in a request for a court order blocking the measures.  read more

Judge blocks parts of South Carolina immigration law
Reuters: Dec. 22, "South Carolina is barred from enforcing several key parts of its new law aimed at curbing illegal immigration, a federal judge ruled on Thursday, making the state the latest to see such efforts halted by the courts." read more

Federal agents to screen Maricopa County, Arizona jail inmates
latimes.com: Dec. 20, " The Homeland Security Department will use 50 immigration agents to screen jail inmates in Arizona's most populous county after revoking the sheriff's authority to access its systems... The agents will replace county officers who had special training and the authority to perform the task in Sheriff Joe Arpaio's lockups." read more

Alabama excludes some transactions from immigration law
CBS News: Dec. 22, "The state Revenue Department has changed its position on parts of Alabama's new immigration law and now says several common transactions at county courthouses are no longer considered "business transactions" where people have to prove their legal residency." read more

More Predator drones fly U.S.-Mexico border
Washington Post: Dec.  21, "There are now eight Predators flying for U.S. Customs and Border Protection — five, and soon to be six, along the southwest border.... Fans of the Predators say the $20 million aircraft are a perfect platform to keep an watchful eye on America’s rugged borders, but critics say the drones are expensive, invasive, finicky toys that have done little ... to stem the flow of illegal crossers, drug smugglers or terrorists." read more

Drug War Bloodshed: 11 killed in attack on Mexican buses and in town in Veracruz; 5 assailants shot later by police

Washington Post: "Mexican officials say a group of armed men attacked people traveling by bus through the Gulf coast state of Veracruz, killing seven. ... the same gunmen killed four other people in the Veracruz town of El Higo. Both attacks took place early Thursday." read more

Drug War Collateral Damage: The press silenced, Nuevo Laredo tries to find voice

A close up look at how the Zeta drug cartel has shut down all news about them in the Mexican border city of Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas

Committee to Protect Journalists: "It seems that all information about the war against them belongs to the Zetas also. Journalists said they cannot report a thing that might upset the Zetas without the serious risk of being killed. And, they say, since the Zetas don't want anything reported, nothing about them is reported. Not in the papers, or on TV or radio.

So, for the most part, there are no stories about what most affects the people in Nuevo Laredo. There are no stories about the war or the Zetas or the army or the police. There are also no stories about the Zetas' businesses of retail drug sales in town or their kidnapping and extortion of residents, according to journalists. " read more

Immigration Wars: How to Waste Money and Treat People Cruelly

NYTimes.com: "Lawrence Downes, who covers immigration issues for the editorial page, pointed out an article today by Nina Bernstein about a Mexican immigrant in Brooklyn, a waiter named Angel, whose kidneys are failing. Dialysis keeps him alive. His brother is willing to donate a kidney, but Angel can’t get a transplant because he is here illegally.

Hospitals won’t agree to the transplant because they are not sure they’ll get reimbursed. So they want to be paid up front, with money Angel doesn’t have. He can’t buy private insurance because of his pre-existing condition. And he can’t go home to Mexico without risking both his livelihood and his family. His children are American citizens.

Instead Angel gets outpatient dialysis, which costs taxpayers $75,000 a year because it is emergency treatment under Medicaid in New York. A transplant would cost $100,000, end the dialysis and double Angel’s life expectancy." read more

Immigration Reform: Congressional proposals hope to mend cracks in H-2A agriculture migrant workers program

From the dairy section of an agriculture industry newsletter, a look at attempts to change the current system for temporary agrigulture workers visas

Dairy News: "The mounting difficulty of securing agricultural laborers through the H-2A temporary foreign agricultural worker program has led many potential employees to enter the country illegally. With hopes of helping illegal workers and creating a viable way for immigrant employees to enter America, several politicians have proposed solutions.

... In the U.S. House of Representatives, the two proposals gaining the most momentum are the American Specialty Agriculture Act (H.R. 2847, proposed by Representative Christopher Smith (R-NJ)) and the Legal Agriculture Workforce Act (H.R. 2895, proposed by Representative Daniel Lundgren (R-Calif.). ... Proposed by Senator Saxby Chambliss (R-GA), ... the Harvest Act (S. 1384) is "the most comprehensive agriculture guest worker bill in the Senate."" read more

Immigration Crackdown: Alabama excludes some transactions from immigration law

It appears that Alabama is continuing to wise-up, somewhat.

CBS News: "The state Revenue Department has changed its position on parts of Alabama's new immigration law and now says several common transactions at county courthouses are no longer considered "business transactions" where people have to prove their legal residency." read more

Immigration Crackdown: Judge to mull arguments in lawsuit alleging profiling in Arizona sheriff’s immigration patrols

Washington Post: " A judge will hear arguments Thursday in a lawsuit that alleges racial profiling in Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s immigration patrols, a week after federal authorities accused the Sheriff’s Office of a wide range of civil rights violations.

The lawsuit was filed by a handful of Latinos who claim officers based some traffic stops on the race of Hispanics in vehicles, pulling them over without probable cause to inquire about their immigration status." read more

Immigration Crackdown: Judge blocks parts of South Carolina immigration law

Reuters: "South Carolina is barred from enforcing several key parts of its new law aimed at curbing illegal immigration, a federal judge ruled on Thursday, making the state the latest to see such efforts halted by the courts.

U.S. District Judge Richard Gergel temporarily blocked parts of South Carolina's measure. He ruled the federal government has exclusive constitutional authority to regulate immigration and the state's law would disrupt federal enforcement operations." read more

Mexico-U.S. relations: beyond 'looniness, stupidity and flatulence'

MinnPost: ""As in all good families, there will be looniness and stupidity and flatulence on both sides of the border." The speaker, Mexico's Ambassador to the U.S. Arturo Sarukhan, shared that colorful observation with an appreciative luncheon audience of the Economic Club of Minnesota last week as he warned about political rhetoric during both nations' 2012 presidential elections.

Sarukhan said both countries "will have to Teflon-coat our bilateral relationship so some of the stupidity that gets said on the campaign trail on either side of the border does not stick." Both countries also will need to "lock in the fundamental sea change that has occurred" in the U.S.-Mexico relationship." read more

Drug War: In the shadows of globalisation: drug violence in Mexico and Central America

An analytic look at the drug war in Mexico and Centeral America from faraway Norway, via a Guatemala news site.

Guatemala News: "Although Mexico and Central America are far away from Norway, we are involved both as consumers of illegal goods and as participants in a global economy that for many does not leave other options for economic well-being than a life of criminality and extreme violence.

We ... have a responsibility primarily to ensure that the drama that is taking place in Mexico and Central America is not understood merely as yet another manifestation of the violent inclinations of drug lords. The situation is a tragic manifestation of the interplay among local political dynamics, socioeconomic and cultural processes, and the dark side of a global economy that we are also a part of. " read more

Immigration Crackdown: Why Mexican Immigrants Can't Get Ahead

Miller-McCune: "A recent report by sociologist Doug Massey and Ph.D. candidate Julia Gelatt of Princeton University reveals that the average wages of Mexican-born immigrants in the U.S., adjusted for inflation, were no higher in 2007... than they were in the early 1960s. ... (The authors) argue that a “new regime of immigration enforcement” is to blame for the stagnant wages of Mexicans in the U.S.

Last year ... 516,000 Mexicans entered the U.S. with temporary visas, primarily for seasonal farm labor, up from 36,000 in 1996. ... the total in 2010 was more than at the height of the Bracero Program in the 1950s. Although current rhetoric may suggest otherwise, nearly 80 percent of all Mexican migrants to the U.S. last year were not undocumented: They came in legally, as guest workers. And they are easy prey, Massey said, because they are not allowed to change jobs or join unions. Those who accept such visas are sometimes paid less than minimum wage, if they are paid at all, he said.

Meanwhile, he said, as the border has become militarized, the rate at which undocumented Mexicans return to their homeland within 12 months after entering the U.S. has dropped from 45 percent in 1986 to 15 percent today. That’s why the undocumented population in the U.S. has swelled to about 11 million, up from 5 million in 1986. Immigrants without papers are effectively marooned north of the border, Massey says; they don’t want to risk leaving because they would have to run a gantlet on their return." read more

Immigration Crackdown: Arizona officers turn in federal credentials

USATODAY.com: "Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio on Wednesday made a show of his detention officers turning in badges that came with their authorization to conduct federal immigration screenings in county jails.

... Federal officials ... removed that authority last week in the wake of a Justice Department report that accused the Sheriff's Office of violating civil rights and discriminating against Latino residents and inmates. ... A federal Department of Homeland Security official said a contingency plan already is in place that dedicates 50 immigration officers to enforce immigration laws at the jail." read more

Drug War Collateral Damage: Mexicans flood home for Christmas, wary of crime

AFP: "Hundreds of thousands of Mexicans and Central Americans have been clogging crossings at the US-Mexico border, braving bandits and corrupt authorities in a perilous migration south to be home for Christmas.
This year, travelers are taking greater precautions to avoid being robbed or kidnapped as they head through areas where violent drug gangs have been active, and migrants have been massacred." read more

Mexico Police Corruption: State Disbands Entire Police Force in Veracruz City

ABC News: "A Mexican state plagued by drug violence has disbanded the entire police force in the major port city of Veracruz, and officials say the Navy will take over." read more

Immigration Crackdown: Illegal Immigration Leads Federal Arrests

newsmax.com: "Illegal immigration topped the list of federal arrests between 2005 and 2009, according to the Justice Department’s Bureau of Justice Statistics. The bureau’s report released Wednesday shows a 23 percent increase each year in the arrest of illegal immigrants, with half occurring at the U.S.-Mexican border in Arizona, California, New Mexico, and Texas.

In 2009, the most recent year for which complete numbers were available, some 84,749 people were arrested and charged strictly with immigration offenses. In 2005, that figure was 38,041."

Drug War: Suspect in immigration agent killing held in US

The Associated Press: : "An alleged Mexican drug cartel member was arraigned in U.S. federal court Wednesday on murder charges from the roadside ambush of two U.S. immigration agents working south of the border. ... Julian Zapata Espinoza entered a not guilty plea and is being held in jail.

The charges included murder and attempted murder for the Feb. 15 mid-day attack ... that killed U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Jaime Zapata and wounded colleague Victor Avila as they were driving to Mexico City after a meeting with other U.S. personnel. The shooting in the northern state of San Luis Potosi was a rare attack on American officials in the country fighting violent drug cartels." read more'

Border: More Predator drones fly U.S.-Mexico border

Washington Post: "There are now eight Predators flying for U.S. Customs and Border Protection — five, and soon to be six, along the southwest border. After a slow rollout that began in 2005, government drones are now patrolling most of the southern boundary, from Yuma, Ariz., to Brownsville, Tex.

Fans of the Predators say the $20 million aircraft are a perfect platform to keep an watchful eye on America’s rugged borders, but critics say the drones are expensive, invasive, finicky toys that have done little — compared to what ordinary Border Patrol agents do on the ground — to stem the flow of illegal crossers, drug smugglers or terrorists." read more

Drug War Strategy: Reagan's War on Drugs Reduced Crime in an Unexpected Way

A most fascinating thesis.

The Atlantic Wire: "... a group of anthropologists at City University of New York floated a theory for the ongoing crime reduction in New York that they extrapolated nationally: Crime is falling because drugs are getting cheaper. In short, the thinking goes that most crime is drug-related in general, usually committed by users to pay for their fix. So if drugs are cheaper, users will commit fewer crimes to buy them. But there's an odd theme running through this: The paper hangs the decrease in drug prices largely on Ronald Reagan's strict drug policies, which eventually led to less violence, but not at all in the way the Ronald Reagan administration would have expected when it declared war on drugs.

Reagan (tackeled) the supply, the transportation, and the distribution of drugs. But the paper by anthropologists at John Jay college in New York argues that those policies didn't stem the flow of drugs. Rather, they helped make drugs cheaper, which eventually reduced the need for users to commit so many crimes." read more

Mexico Politics: Presidential election in 2012 most decisive in history

The Globe and Mail: "Carlos Fuentes, the Mexican writer and statesman, recently told the Globe’s editorial board that Mexico’s 2012 elections will be the most decisive in its history. The next president will have to confront the brutality of the drug cartels, and find a way to restore the public’s faith in security, and in the nation’s ability to transform itself." read more

Drug War: Mexican Forces Accused Of Abuses

NPR: "The city of Sabinas Hidalgo is stuck in the arid northern plateau of Mexico, roughly halfway between the industrial hub of Monterrey and the U.S. border. It's a place many Mexicans abandon in favor of trying to find work north of the Rio Grande.

This past summer, 22-year-old taxi driver Jesus Victor Llano Munoz was also considering heading north, but instead he was arrested by the Mexican navy and hasn't been heard from since. On June 23, a group of Mexican marines were searching the San Angel motel in Sabinas for drug suspects when Jesus Victor pulled his cab into the driveway of the motel.

His father, also a taxi driver named Jesus Victor Llano, was parked at a taxi stand across the street. "My son had just dropped off some passengers from his taxi," Llano says, when the marines ordered Jesus Victor into the back of a gray military pickup truck." read more

Drug War: Washington, D.C. police arrest 70 in yearlong drug, gun sting

D.C. police arrest 70 in yearlong drug, gun sting - Washington Times: "Using a mock recording studio as cover for a criminal enterprise, undercover officers from the Metropolitan Police Department confiscated 161 firearms, made 70 arrests and seized more than $7 million in drugs during a yearlong sting operation, authorities announced Monday.

The arrests made during “Operation Manic Enterprises” helped to close 15 armed robberies and two shootings and to break up a Mexican drug cartel looking to set up shop selling meth in Washington, police Chief Cathy L. Lanier said." read more

Drug War - the Money: US officials say rise in Puerto Rico illicit cash seizures is sign of drug smuggling shift - The Washington Post

Washington Post: "Law enforcement agencies have seized sharply increased amounts of suspicious cash in Puerto Rico over the past year, an apparent sign that more drug proceeds are flowing through the U.S. island territory and the Caribbean as a whole, officials say.

Large seizures of money, ranging from the tens of thousands of dollars to more than a million, have become routine in Puerto Rico, where traffickers can take advantage of frequent air and ship traffic to and from the continental United States to move both drugs and money, according to law enforcement officials in the region." read more

Drug War: U.S. authorities bust Mexico drug network in Arizona

It's "deja vu all over again" (Yogi Berra)

Reuters: "U.S. authorities have arrested 203 people and smashed a Mexican trafficking ring that funneled millions of dollars in drugs to Arizona for the powerful Sinaloa cartel, officials said on Tuesday.

The multi-agency bust, led by Tempe police and the Drug Enforcement Administration, dismantled a cell running heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine and marijuana to Arizona for the Sinaloa Cartel, headed by Mexico's most wanted man, Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman." read more

Human Rights Violations - Guerrero Students: Mexico attorney general's offic announces the detention of 12 state policemen for the killing of students in Guerrero

CNN Mexico: The Attorney General's Office announced the detention of six Guerrero state police and six ministirial police in relation to the death of two school students Raúl Isidro Burgos Rural Normal School during a rally registered on December 12. Spanish original

Drug War Bloodshed: Police find 10 bodies in Durango, Mexico clandestine graves

Associated Press: " Prosecutors announced Monday they have found another clandestine grave holding 10 bodies in the northern Mexico state of Durango, bringing to 14 the number of such burial sites found in the state this year." read more

Immigration Crackdown: Federal agents to screen Arizona jail inmates

latimes.com: " The Homeland Security Department will use 50 immigration agents to screen jail inmates in Arizona's most populous county after revoking the sheriff's authority to access its systems, the agency said Monday in a letter to Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.). ... the 50 dedicated agents will "screen, identify, apprehend and remove criminal aliens" found in Maricopa County jails. The agents will replace county officers who had special training and the authority to perform the task in Sheriff Joe Arpaio's lockups." read more

Drug War Bloodshed: For the second year, Mexico is the most dangerous country for journalists

Translated by MexicoBlog

Mileno: EFE: The report published today by an NGO said that 12 journalists were killed in Mexico during 2011. Spanish original

Drug War Politics: Majority of Mexicans Would Accept the Sending of U.S. Agents

Translated by MexicoBlog

El Universal: A survey taken by the Mexican Center for Economic Research and Teaching (CIDE) found that 57% of Mexicans would accept help from the U.S. in fighting the drug cartels, including the sending of U.S. personnel into Mexican territory. Spanish original

Immigration Crackdown: Alabama Judge Cites Anti-Latino Remarks in Blocking Parts of Immigration Law

Fox News Latino: "A federal judge says anti-Latino comments by Alabama legislators led him to put part of the state's immigration law on hold. U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson said the Legislature's debate on the law "was laced with derogatory comments about Hispanics."

The two examples cited by Thompson were from Democratic legislators who voted against the bill, not from Republicans who supported it." read more

Immigration Crackdown - South Carolina: Judge to issue immigration law ruling by year's end

TheState.com: "South Carolina should know before the start of the new year whether it can proceed with its immigration laws. U.S. District Court Judge Richard Gergel said he would issue a decision on the federal government's request to block implementation before the law is scheduled to go into effect Jan. 1.

It is unlikely Gergel would block the entire law. But his questioning of attorneys Monday morning during a hearing over the the federal government's lawsuit against South Carolina indicate he could choose to block at least portions of the law." read more

Drug War Strategy: 80 Former Mexican Officials Spying For The U.S.

EFE/Fox News Latino: "At least 80 former members of the Mexican government are working as spies for U.S. agencies, the La Jornada newspaper reported over the weekend, citing officials. Mexican officials told the newspaper that former government officials ranging from police officers to high-level officials have been detected working for the United States.

The former officials have been working as agents for the Drug Enforcement Administration, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, or ATF, and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, La Jornada said." read more

Drug War Politics: Latin American leaders assail U.S. drug ‘market’

This article presents a good review of recent calls by Latin American presidents for the US to re-evaluate its drug policy. While its lead speaks of "disgust for U.S. drug consumers," it goes on to present the leaders' call for considering "market alternatives" to take profits away from the drug cartels.

Washington Post: "Latin American leaders have joined together to condemn the U.S. government for soaring drug violence in their countries, blaming the United States for the transnational cartels that have grown rich and powerful smuggling dope north and guns south.

Alongside official declarations, Latin American governments have expressed growing disgust for U.S. drug consumers — both the addict and the weekend recreational user heedless to the misery and destruction paid for their pleasures." read more

Mexico Politics: Mexican Presidental Race Begins in Earnest

With the official filing of candidacies this past weekend, the race for the Mexican presidency is off and running. The current president, Felipe Calderón, of the PAN party, cannot run for re-election. His party currently has three candidates competing for its nomination. Enrique Peña Nieto is the candidate of PRI, which held total power for 70 years. In public opinion polls, he holds a significant lead over all other candidates, including Andrés Manuel López Óbredor of the leftist PRD (Party of the Democratic Revolution).

The three candidates of PAN (National Action Party) launced their campaigns against the PRI (Institutional Revolutionary Party) candidate Enrique Peña Nieto on the first day of the primaries leading to the election of the Presidency of the Republic next July.

Ernesto Cordero said he did not forget the 70 years of crisis and the "corrupt PRI government," nor the fact that the State of Mexico (where Peña Nieto was governor) has the largest number of femicides. On Saturday, Peña said he can forget the author of a book, as happened in Guadalajara, but not violence.

Santiago Creel, meanwhile, "I don't want to see a government of ignorance come to be". Josefina Vazquez Mota said: "I am the lady of the house that others speak of with contempt." (This was a reference to the report that)  a week ago ... in an interview, Peña Nieto said that he did not know the price of tortillas because he was not "the lady of the house."