Mexico In Grip Of Drug Cartels -State Dept. wants US Troops/Obama backs Executive Privilege for "Fast & Furious" Gun Running

[TotalMayhem]

Where is Danny Trejo when you really need him?

A small-town mayor and an aide were found stoned to death Monday in a drug-plagued western state, the fifth city leader to be slain in Mexico since mid-August.

Michoacan state Attorney General Jesus Montejano said the bodies of Tancitaro Mayor Gustavo Sanchez and city adviser Rafael Equihua were discovered in a pickup truck abandoned on a dirt road near the city of Uruapan.

Montejano's spokesman, Jonathan Arredondo, said initially that the victims were hacked to death with a machete, but the attorney general said they were killed with stones.

Source: Yahoo! News

[C. Flower]

The state of Mexico is desperate. I'm glad we've got a thread on it finally. Would you maybe broaden the thread title so that it can generally deal with drug-related events there ?

[C. Flower]

http://narcosphere.narconews.com/not...-troops-mexico

Narcosphere News is reporting that there is, with the agreement of the Mexican Government, the US has troops on the ground in Mexico training Mexican Special Forces.
The spectre of the School of the Americas returns.

At the Mexican government's request, the State Department is supporting US military trainings of the Mexican troops inside Mexico, according to federal procurement data and a statement released by the agency.

Procurement data from the Federal Procurement Data System shows that in September the US Embassy in Mexico City paid Sheraton Hotels more than $15,000 for an event featuring the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC, formerly the School of the Americas), a Department of Defense school that specializes in training students from Latin America and has a notorious history of contributing to human rights abuses abroad.

The Joint Special Operations University (JSOU), a military school that teaches special operations tactics, is also listed as being involved. The State Department has not disclosed which Sheraton hotels were used, but the procurement data states the contract work was performed in Mexico. Sheraton lists hotel locations in the historic center of Mexico City, the city's wealthy suburb of Santa Fe, the beach resort city of Cancún, and city of Monterrey.

When asked about the procurement data, embassy spokesman Alexander Featherstone first stated that the US Northern Command (NORTHCOM), a military unit created in 2002 for homeland defense missions, is involved in training the Mexican military with help from the State Department.

“At the request of the Mexican government and in coordination with the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City, USNORTHCOM conducts information exchanges and training across a number of broad areas and disciplines,” Featherstone said. “These trainings take place both in Mexico and the U.S.”

Mexico has been pulled apart by violent drugs related events, with the mast majority of firearms used coming from the US.

My fear would be that this destabilisation creates the condition for practical loss of independence for Mexico.

[Griska]

http://narcosphere.narconews.com/not...-troops-mexico

Narcosphere News is reporting that there is, with the agreement of the Mexican Government, the US has troops on the ground in Mexico training Mexican Special Forces.
The spectre of the School of the Americas returns.



Mexico has been pulled apart by violent drugs related events, with the mast majority of firearms used coming from the US.

My fear would be that this destabilisation creates the condition for practical loss of independence for Mexico.

But woe-betide any poor Mexican who tries to escape accross the border.

[Kodak]

I have been to Mexico and found the Mexicans to be very nice and decent, its just greed and corruption that have brought them to where they are now as it were, its just like here they don't enforce their own laws untill things get out of hand.

[C. Flower]

I have been to Mexico and found the Mexicans to be very nice and decent, its just greed and corruption that have brought them to where they are now as it were, its just like here they don't enforce their own laws untill things get out of hand.

The amount of drugs, arms and militarisation is shocking. I can't help feeling that the US may want to get a leg into Mexico, and this might be the way.

Apart from the information on the US special forces involvement, I have to admit I have no evidence whatsoever to bear that out.

[Griska]

The amount of drugs, arms and militarisation is shocking. I can't help feeling that the US may want to get a leg into Mexico, and this might be the way.

Apart from the information on the US special forces involvement, I have to admit I have no evidence whatsoever to bear that out.

There's been talk for years of a North American Union, comprising the U.S, Mexico and Canada.

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=14965

[Count Bobulescu]

Doesn’t get much more brazen than this! Note, 35-40K killed in drug war since 2006.



http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/...y.html?hpid=z4

[Captain Con O'Sullivan]

Must be a smell of oil around Guadalajara...

[Captain Con O'Sullivan]

Nightmare trip from hell some years ago through Mexico from the Guatemalan border right up to Mexico City. Chiapas region was quite interesting and it was around the time of Commandante Marcos- the Government had offered a safe passage to him for talks in Mexico. There were tanks and all sorts of army camped out on the approach to Mexico City.

I was glad I hadn't bought any 'Free Chiapas' or 'Marcos' teeshirts down that way as I was the only gringo for miles around and was searched about five or six times by Federales, Customs and local cops.

Quite interesting going through the Chiapas region itself though at night because we were advised to lie down and the carriage lights were turned off going through certain areas as the Chiapas separatists liked to used the lit up carriages as target practice apparently.

'Twas as bad as the last Luas on a Friday night.

[sinsin]

You are well behind the curve on this one,lads.
I will make a few posts on it,
But I don't want to take over the thread.

The ATF's "Fast and Furious" operation allowed thousands of weapons to be smuggled into Mexico and into the hands of drug cartels.

http://www.thenewamerican.com/world-...atf-gunrunning

http://publicintelligence.net/atf-fa...ea-informants/

[sinsin]

A high-level player with one of the most notorious narco-trafficking organizations in Mexico, the Sinaloa “cartel,” claims that he has been working with the U.S. government for years, according to pleadings filed recently in federal court in Chicago

http://publicintelligence.net/sinalo...-s-government/

How a big US bank laundered billions from Mexico's murderous drug gangs...Warren Buffet...Master of the Universe


http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011...ico-drug-gangs

Drug money saved banks in global crisis, claims UN advisor
http://www.guardian.co.uk/global/200...n-cfief-claims

[Fermoy]

What group were these masked gunmen were in military uniforms from I wonder , what country ?

Mexico Horror: Gunmen Dump 35 Bodies on Avenue

Suspected drug traffickers dumped 35 bodies at rush hour beneath a busy overpass in the heart of a major Gulf coast city as gunmen pointed weapons at frightened drivers. Mexican authorities said Wednesday they are examining surveillance video for clues to who committed the crime.
Horrified motorists grabbed cell phones and sent Twitter messages warning others to avoid the area near the biggest shopping mall in Boca del Rio, part of the metropolitan area of Veracruz city.
The gruesome gesture marked a sharp escalation in cartel violence in Veracruz state, which sits on an important route for drugs and Central American migrants heading north.
The Zetas drug cartel has been battling other gangs for control of the state.
Prosecutors said it's too soon to draw conclusions from the surveillance video.
"We're not going to confirm or deny anything," Veracruz state Attorney General Reynaldo Escobar Perez told the Televisa network Wednesday. "We're looking at it in different ways, we're seeing different numbers, that's why we don't want to get ahead of ourselves."

AFP/Getty Images
General view of the scene where 35 bodies... View Full Size


AFP/Getty Images
General view of the scene where 35 bodies were found at the Adolfo Ruiz Cortinez Blvd in Boca del Rio municipality, Veracruz State, Mexico, Sept. 20, 2011.


Escobar said the bodies were left piled in two trucks and on the ground under the overpass near the statue of the Voladores de Papantla, ritual dancers from Veracruz state. He said some of the victims had their heads covered with black plastic bags and showed signs of torture.
Among the bodies was a local police officer who had gone missing two weeks ago, Escobar told W Radio in Mexico City. He told MVS Radio many of the victims were strangled, some bled to death and one person had been shot dead.
Escobar did not return phone calls from The Associated Press.
Police have identified 32 of the victims so far and maintain they all had criminal records for acts such as murder, drug dealing, kidnapping and extortion and were linked to organized crime, said Magda Zayas, spokeswoman for the Veracruz Attorney General's Office.
State Gov. Javier Duarte said on his Twitter account "the killing of 35 people is deplorable, but it's even more deplorable the same victims chose to extort, kidnap and kill."
Duarte said an intelligence database shows the 35 victims had a criminal background.
Motorists posted Twitter warnings said the masked gunmen were in military uniforms and were blocking Manuel Avila Camacho Boulevard.
"They don't seem to be soldiers or police," one tweet read. Another said, "Don't go through that area, there is danger."
Veracruz is currently hosting a conference of Mexico's top state and federal prosecutors and judiciary officials.
Local media said that 12 of the victims were women and that some of the dead men had been among prisoners who escaped from three Veracruz prisons on Monday, but Escobar denied the escaped convicts were among the dead.
At least 32 inmates got away from the three Veracruz prisons. Police recaptured 14 of them.
Drug violence has claimed more than 35,000 lives across Mexico since 2006, according to government figures. Others put the number at more than 40,000.
http://abcnews.go.com/International/...venue-14570209

[TotalMayhem]

What group were these masked gunmen were in military uniforms from I wonder , what country ?

A message left beside the bodies found on Tuesday threatened to kill all Zetas and announced: "There is a new owner of the turf." The message was signed GN, initially assumed to refer to Gente Nueva (New People), a name used elsewhere in Mexico by gunmen associated with the Sinaloa cartel.

[Fermoy]

A message left beside the bodies found on Tuesday threatened to kill all Zetas and announced: "There is a new owner of the turf." The message was signed GN, initially assumed to refer to Gente Nueva (New People), a name used elsewhere in Mexico by gunmen associated with the Sinaloa cartel.

Anyone could have left that note .