In case you wondered how the sales of U.S. military weapons, equipment and training to Mexico are going, I suggest this article from today’s El Diario. I did a quick translation posted here. I was not able to find the specific DOD report quoted by the reporter, but these older compilations of Direct Commercial Sales are compiled by the Federation of American Scientists website.
Direct Commercial Sales and other data:
Based on the info in the article on helicopters posted today by Gordon, I suspect these numbers to keep growing. And I expect the numbers of dead to grow also. There is obviously no control over who eventually gets these weapons. We simply know that so far this year, an average of nearly 1,400 people are victims of intentional homicide (homicidios dolosos) each month. The numbers for March were just posted today and all categories of homicide show increases from Jan and Feb. See:
total jan feb mar
|
HOMICIDIOS (H)
|
8,345 |
2,804 |
2,668 |
2,873 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
CULPOSOS (HC)
|
4,298 |
1,435 |
1,400 |
1,463 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
DOLOSOS (HD)
|
4,047 |
1,369 |
1,268 |
1,410 |
I am still not clear if these numbers include killings resulting from military confrontations or if these are strictly the averiguaciones previas (initial investigations) opened by various state police agencies that funnel information through the state attorneys general to the Sistema Nacional de Seguridad Publica. I think it is safe to say that this average figure of 1,400 intentional homicides per month is a low estimate. Molly Molloy
UPDATE
I did not do my due diligence today when I posted the El Diario story. I did recall the Narco News story featuring Tosh Plumlee on the border with the US military, but I didn’t look it up. Had I done that, I would have realized that Narco News has done numerous stories about the US military weapons and equipment in Mexico going back to 2009. And Narco News provides the links to the source documents on the Direct Commercial Sales programs that El Diario sources in today’s article. Also, Bill Conroy checked with Tosh Plumlee and Plumlee reports that he was never contacted by El Diario, though the story presents it as a quote. The quote is actually from the Narco News story (links below) translated into Spanish… Here are Bill Conroy’s comments, including this from his email to me: “Plagiarism left unaddressed becomes permission.” Molly
From Bill Conroy (posted with permission):
Has the Mexican press along the border suddenly discovered Narco News? First the Zambada Niebla story, now this? The US press already ripped us off when we originally reported on this topic, and told everyone where to find the DCS reports, even CBS News. The links below will tell you where to find the DCS info. And we also did a series of stories based on public records and other documents we obtained related to training of Mexican law enforcers and military. Links below as well. This news should have been pressed hard years ago by mainstream media on both sides of the border, when the murder rate was roaring up initially.
For links and to read more of Conroy’s commentary, click here
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