Tag Archives: US Policy

Response to: On Drug War Violence Along Texas Border…. via Huffington Post

I wish that the people who write these stories would consider the statement from many years ago from Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan:

“Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts.”

It is also interesting that the clamor for MORE SPENDING on border security, regardless of the facts that show constant increases in border security spending since 2004 and a steady decrease in violent incidents on the US side of the border, come from the same right-wing citizens and politicians who berate the democratic administration for government spending…

And, even the “facts” provided on the violence in Juarez seem disconnected from reality:

“Juarez has seen well over 2,000 people killed each year in the drug war, he said. In 2009, that figure peaked at 2,754 murders, according to El Diario, the city’s major newspaper. The number of murders in Juarez fell to 2,086 last year, a 24 percent drop.”

Apparently the 3,622 people killed in Juarez in 2010 (by far the most violent year ever in the border city since the Mexican Revolution) don’t count. And the story repeats the old “50,000” number for those killed in Mexican violence. And not a shred of evidence is provided on any people killed on the US side of the border. But, if you would really like to escape reality (without taking drugs), take a look at the readers’ comments on this story… molly

Cracking the Mexican Cartels—NYTimes op-ed

Does anyone believe this?  What about the YEARS of testimony from victims
of violence and extortion in Ciudad Juarez, that the Federal Police are the
perpetrators? What evidence is there that this “top-down” strategy of
killing or arresting “king-pins” has done anything to decrease the supply
of drugs flowing out of Mexico or raising the prices of drugs in the US?

“To do that, he would need forces capable of patrolling urban areas,
collecting intelligence, and gathering the evidence necessary to prosecute
drug traffickers — functions that only professionalized law enforcement
agencies could carry out. To win this war, Calderón needed cops he could
rely on.”

I would propose that the evidence indicates that the military and police
forces patrolling urban areas are guilty of hunting down street level drug
sellers and killing them, and of extorting businesses, kidnapping people
and all manner of other crimes. And that the violent effects of this
so-called successful strategy is causing the violence to spread to areas of
Mexico far beyond the border. It will be interesting to see if the longer
version of this article to be published in Foreign Affairs presents any
evidence of these claims…  molly

 

In Mexico, Biden shoots down talk of drug legalization… via McClatchy

It is interesting how these political leaders never seem to speak of the
growth of DOMESTIC drug consumption in their countries. Much of the
violence that erupted in Mexico and esp. in Juarez beginning in 2008, can
be attributed to domestic retail drug sales–neighborhood tienditas selling
cocaine, heroin and meth to street users in the city. Juarez is estimated
to have 100,000-200,000 addicts and virtually every street corner and
barrio and colonia and prison are markets to be controlled by local gangs.
That kind of competition produces a lot of violence. molly
Yet some regional leaders — Mexican President Felipe Calderon prominent
among them — voice deepening frustration at high U.S. drug demand, flows of
drug profits and weapons southward, and the seeming contradiction between
American pressure for harsh suppression measures in Latin America while, in
the United States, a growing number of states permit medical marijuana

McClatchy

By Tim Johnson

In Mexico, Biden shoots down talk of drug legalization