At the links are two articles on the efforts of different churches in El Paso joining their efforts to help the refugee families from Central America… Now most of these people–mostly women with young children–are being held in detention centers set up at the Border Patrol Training facility in Artesia, NM and at several military bases in Texas, Arizona and California… By imprisoning these people, they will have practically NO access to attorneys who can advise them of their rights to apply for asylum or other relief from quick deportation…
Category Archives: US Defense
Honduran President Wants a ‘Plan Colombia’ for Central America…Panamerican Post
By all means, let’s INCREASE military and security payouts to corrupt military and police in Central American countries. Remember that the murder rate in Ciudad Juarez exploded to nearly 300 homicides per 100,000 people AFTER the Plan Merida inspired military surge into the state of Chihuahua… Honduras already has a murder rate of 100… And the city of San Pedro Sula’s murder rate approaches 200. More guns, helicopters and training for police who already are experts at torture thanks to US military advisers and they may surpass Mexico in murderousness. The victims? Poor people. The result? An ever greater EXODUS of refugees showing up at the border. -molly
Honduran President Wants a ‘Plan Colombia’ for Central America (Pan-American Post)
Former U.S. Border Patrol Agent Reported Overtime Pay Abuse 30 Years Ago, Concerns Continue Today…
Former U.S. Border Patrol Agent reported overtime pay abuse 30 years ago, concerns continue today: DHS overtime not properly documented, certified
Whistleblowers inside the Department of Homeland Security have come forward to describe chronic falsification of employee time cards within the federal agency. One said his attempts to address the problem 30 years ago went unanswered.
“I turned myself in,” John Randolph, a former agent with U.S. Customs and Border Protection, said in an exclusive interview with The E.W. Scripps Company. “It was a can of worms 30 years ago. You can imagine what it is now.”
Read the full story here.
The video story is on YouTube.
Plan Merida materiel in Mexico…U.S. sold military weapons to private companies in Mexico
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
U.S. role at a crossroads in Mexico’s intelligence war on the cartels…Washington Post
I recommend careful reading of this article by Dana Priest of the Washington Post… A few paragraphs are highlighted. There is also an excellent graphic at the link showing the very small number of Mexican military and police killed since 2006…the number is significant, but not when compared to the 100,000+ civilians killed and the 25,000+ disappeared.
After reading this article, I’m struck by this sub-headline below: Violence deepened ties
I think we should ask: “Did the violence deepen tie (between Mexican and US security forces) OR did the deepened ties increase the violence??
The article confirms many of the operations revealed by the Wikileaks files on Mexico and covered in detail by Narco News Bulletin. The article also describes some detail about the long-standing and extremely close relationship between Mexican security forces (especially CISEN) and the CIA dating back to the 1980s. The information on US drones being used in Mexican security operations is especially interesting and troubling…I highlighted the paragraphs on the lack of effects on the supply and price of heroin, cocaine and other drugs in the US, despite the extremely high number of Mexican deaths. The main thing missing from the article is any hint that there is no information to be able to determine that the dead are indeed cartel criminals. But, we can’t have everything.
Read the article… comments welcome. molly
The Pentagon Seeks to Regain the Initiative in South America–Raul Zibechi
This is worth reading. Note the Plan Colombia $$ being used to train
Mexican and Central American police… Also, this quote from Noam Chomsky
at the end. I don’t always agree with Chomsky, but what he says here seems
to reflect clearly what we see in Mexico and Central America…I would only
add that the “war on drugs” is being used to carry out social cleansing in
Latin America also, not just domestically.
“The war on drugs,” Chomsky says, “is an attempt to control the
democratization of social forces,” because “it is a thin cover for
counterinsurgency abroad” and “at home it functions as … ‘social
cleansing’,” resulting in the mass imprisonment of black youth. Therefore,
he concludes, the “failure” of the war on drugs is “intentional,” since
what it seeks is the destruction of the social fabric by violence, and “to
destroy autonomous economic efforts of diverse communities in the region,
to the benefit of powerful interests.”
Two Mexican generals detained for alleged drug gang ties–Reuters; more…
Note this from the Mexican article that is not included in the Reuters
piece:
___________
Information from investigations carried out by DEA inside the US revealed
that some Mexican army and marines have been collaborating with the Zetas
and the Gulf, Sinaloa and Juarez cartels. The US officer, who asked that
his name and agency not be revealed because he was not authorized to make
statements to the press, said that the premise had always been maintained
that military officers were innocent until proven guilty and in some cases,
they will be seeking extradition to the United States so that they can
collaborate with justice in the US.
Information from the US anti-drug agency indicates that, after a year and a
half of operations in US territory, arrests have been made that have led to
the capture of members of the Zetas, as well as those of La Familia
Michoacana, and the Gulf and Sinaloa cartels inside US territory.
Panetta cites 150,000 deaths from narco-violence in Mexico in trilateral meeting in Toronto
Leon Panetta (US Sec of Defense) met with his counterparts from Mexico and
Canada yesterday in Toronto. A headline story in the Mexican press (EFE
article from El Diario is posted below) says that Panetta cited a report
from Mexican General Galvan Galvan, Sec. of Defense in Mexico, that 150,000
people had been killed in the war on narcotrafficking. He did not specify
the time span. There are more comments on the press coverage below from
Frontera List member Jim Creechan from Canada.
Just based on homicide statistics reported by the federal police agencies
in Mexico, I would estimate that the number is now about 109,000 homicides
since 2007. It is impossible to know at this point what numbers the
Mexican military might be citing and for what time period. Jim provides
more links in his comment from Mexican and international sources. I also
posted an article on the meeting from the US Dept of Defense webpage. It
has nothing about numbers….
I agree that it will be interesting to see if this number gets picked up in
more media and cited. It would seem like one of the major media folks in
Mexico City might be able to get their hands on the same report that
Panetta read… ?? Molly
Panetta Attends Historic Trilateral Defense Meeting
Guerra vs narco en México ha cobrado 150 mil vidas: EU
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