Mexico Drug War Carnage: Nearly 40 Killed Over The Weekend
I haven’t mentioned drug war deaths in Mexico for a few weeks. It’s sad that this has become so… usual, that I find myself skipping over article after article with drug war death counts in a search to share something more… interesting.
Yet people keep dying.
In Guadalajara, Mexico’s second largest city, armed men opened fire and tossed grenades into a crowded nightclub early Saturday morning, killing six and wounding at least 37 people.
Also on Saturday, eight people died in a police shoot-out in the prosperous northern city of Monterrey. The city, which lies at the intersection of major drug smuggling routes, is the site of an ongoing turf war between the Gulf Cartel and its former allies, Los Zetas. Suspected drug hitmen kidnapped and killed a senior police chief there Sunday night, according to Reuters.
A drive-by shooting killed two women and six men on the outskirts of Mexico City Sunday. One of the women was found naked on a nearby street after she was shot in the head. A seventh man was severely wounded.
Eleven people were killed in separate incidents over the weekend in the deadly border city of Ciudad Juarez, just across from El Paso, Texas. Five more people were shot and killed on the highway between Juarez and Chihuahua City, the capital of Chihuahua state.
So what are we doing about it?
KERLIKOWSKE: In the Bush administration the Mérida Initiative focused — and rightly so — on reducing violence as much as they could and improving law enforcement and the technology and equipment.
This administration is moving beyond that initiative and saying it can’t be just about law enforcement and the quality of intelligence. It also has to be about building civil society, building trust and cooperation of Mexican citizens towards law enforcement and the criminal justice system.
And as Arturo Sarukhan, the ambassador to the U.S. will tell you, “Don’t think of Mexico as just a transit country. We’re also a consumer country.†They’re dealing with their own drug problems, also. And so we helped Mexico open up their first drug court in Monterrey. I think they’re going to open their second drug court in Tijuana. So I think that trying to use the same balanced approach the next couple of years will make sense.
If only Mexico were as important to American presidents as Rome was Nero. This is more like fiddling while Gaul burns.
When these monsters finish moving ops into the US it will become that important. It also may well be too late. Well at least as long as the word “re-legalization” isn’t in their vocabulary.
Yup, thats the American answer to everything, throw more money at it, that will solve everything.
So we give them more money to buy more weapons of war to kill…yes…more people. Thats what your tax dollars buy…death and destruction.
One question, how many of those weapons end up in the hands of cartels?
Fixed your typo!
I do despair at the cynicism and blatant dishonesty of US government officials—from Hilary Clinton to Kerlikowske to William Brownfeld, US assistant secretary of state for international narcotics and law enforcement affairs—who despite all the evidence to the contrary, keep arguing that the War on Drugs is working and making significant progress in Latin America. And without any sense of irony, let alone shame, put forward Colombia as the model to follow. See this two contrasting examples:
The US denial:
http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/14275-colombia-provides-lessons-in-combating-organized-crime-us.html
The Colombian reality:
http://colombiareports.com/opinion/the-colombiamerican/14234-the-war-on-drug-gangs-finally-begins-but-is-it-too-late.html
It really beggars believe how much distortion can go unchallenged.
Gart Valenc
http://www.stopthewarondrugs.org
What we’re seeing is an exercise in eugenics disguised as a ‘public safety’ policy.
So long as it’s ‘little brown brother’ getting the chop, the folks in Warshington aren’t too concerned. The less people occupying strategically important real estate (in this case, mineral-wise), and the more that the survivors are reduced to social disorganization and political impotence by the mayhem, the less of a threat they are. ‘Divide and conquer’, as old as dirt.
And given that Mexico is a very populous nation, which places an enormous strain on its’ limited domestic resources, and that there’s only one place that they can go to (El Norte) in order to escape a generally hopeless economic and social situation, the DrugWar serves as a handy tool to accomplish both depopulation and destabilization.
Layers upon layers, wheels within wheels…
@Pete,
The problem with those that keep crying wolf, as Kerlikowske does, is that when they say the truth, nobody believes them. I never thought I will agree with Kerlikowske, but have to when he says in the interview you provided the link to:
«…the United States was founded in violence, and we’re a pretty violent country. You can’t change that.»
Gart Valenc
http://www.stopthewarondrugs.org
Another article over at the WSJ, fwiw:
In Mexico, Anti-Drug Leader Is Killed
I will say one thing about the people I live around down here. They don’t, to the nth degree, believe one iota of BS eminating out of Washington. This is the citizens I’m speaking of. And if the people don’t believe it’s in their best interest, it’s truly a lost cause. It just shows what the US DOESN’T know about Mexican culture.
Mexico is a “mental vacuum” for politial rhetoric, especially broadcasting from up North. It was like us winning the minds of the Vietnamese. It didn’t work there and it sure as hell ain’t working here!!
I agree EZ and they are losing that battle in the ‘north ‘ too, althought its very slow.
It amazes me that they have been and continue to sell it to America,,,,even with all the evidence showing corruption
at very high levels within our drug enforcement cartel
(re: Leonhart’s participation in a Ponze scheme and causing thousands of federal employee’s loss of retirement funds)that they are able to continue controlling America.
It is nothing less than shameful that America allows it.
“Mexico is a “mental vacuum†for politial rhetoric, especially broadcasting from up North. It was like us winning the minds of the Vietnamese. It didn’t work there and it sure as hell ain’t working here!!”
Come to Mexico, the other Vietnam.
This time we’re winning, ’cause Hillary Clinton says so.
Nah, I heard they grew really great pot in Vietnam. Mexico forgot how to do that for some reason.
Burn baby burn.
“…building civil society, building trust and cooperation of Mexican citizens towards law enforcement and the criminal justice system.â€
Kerlikowske is saying the U.S. wants Mexico to suffer the same judicial industrial complex the North Americans have. Yeah, right. Like that worked. Mexico is better off with the war it has.
So far, U.S. policy has been to foment any war that benefits its economy or improves its hegemony throughout the world. Its imperial reach is held together, in part, by drug wars.
Mexico is being set up to take the fall for American drug policies. The profiteers sit like vultures on the sidelines, taking their opportunities at will. The drugs final solution being proffered has an endless timeline. Everlasting war.