Army Keeps Peace in Mexico?
Posted by John Malloy on 03/25/2009
The power of the Mexican military was on full display Tuesday in Ciudad Juarez, where police reported the third consecutive day without a drug slaying.
Ten drug-related killings in a single day were common before 9,500 army troops poured into the blood-soaked border town in the past few weeks, said Mauricio Mauricio, a spokesman for the Juarez municipal police.
“It’s a much more secure city at this moment,” he said. “We haven’t had murders with the same regularity and frequency as before.”
But as President Obama’s administration announced plans Tuesday to beef up U.S. security along its border with Mexico, there are questions about whether increased military and police efforts in both nations can yield long-term results.
Mexico has been spiraling into a deepening pit of violence, with 6,500 people killed in 2008 and the body count continuing apace this year. Most of that violence is occurring along the border, which worries Washington.
Mexican President Felipe Calderon and others have said recently that the United States must share responsibility because the demand for drugs and most of the weapons used by drug cartels comes from north of the border.
The drug war and security will be a major topic when U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visits Mexico on Wednesday and Thursday.
Andrew Selee, director of the Woodrow Wilson Center’s Mexico Institute, called Obama’s pledge on Tuesday to give $700 million in aid to Mexico and assign an additional 360 staff along the border a “substantive commitment” that shows the United States is serious about attacking the problem.
“It’s an attempt to really put some substance behind the idea of shared responsibility,” Selee said. “They finally committed some of the resources they said they would to this.”
Success will depend on the follow-through, he said.
“Now is the hard part,” he said. “It’s not easy to follow the money trail or stop the weapons or the criminal networks.”
Others say the Obama plan falls short.
Larry Birns, director of the Council on Hemispheric Affairs, a Washington policy institute, calls it a “militarized strategy” that isn’t oriented toward finding solutions based on economic development or social justice programs.
“This is a feel-good strategy that is meant to produce the illusion of concrete developments taking place when it’s actually just really more of the same,” Birns said. “You’re talking about a 2,000-mile border, so the odd 16 [agents] here or 12 there is not going to do the trick.”
On the other hand, Mexico’s major military commitment is certainly showing short-term benefits.
Before the army arrived in Ciudad Juarez, there had been more than 400 drug killings this year, police spokesman Mauricio said. Since the army arrived, slayings have dropped 95 percent, he said.
Peter Hakim, president of the Washington-based Inter-American Dialogue policy institute, says Mexico’s use of the army in Juarez — and its evident success — “shows that Mexico is definitely not a failed state. Nobody is going to challenge the government for control of a certain area.”
Selee sees it as “increased determination from the Mexican government to establish order.”…
www.cnn.com
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How Free Are We?
Right now (3/25/2009) I am watching this report about the kids being assassins for the cartels and can not help but notice the date on the tape is from 7-28-2006; which of course means that this is old news which is true. Another point that I would like to state is that they talk about Garcia being killed with his wife pregnant wife in the car. Not only do they fail to state that this happened in 2005 they also fail to state that Garcia was a high ranking member in the Mexican Mafia and was involved in the drug trade (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xu3Z8QqUgtE&feature=related) (start watching at 6:45).The truth is that this has been going on for a long time! So what is the advantage of bringing it up now and making a big deal about something that has been going on for years? As did many other people in school I read the book 1984 by George Orwell and realized, like everyone else did, that I would not want to live in that kind of world; but when I look at where we are today it brings up some unsettling similarities. I see people setting up cameras in their homes in the form of computers and phones that allow you to see the person you’re talking to. Do you really think that the government could not access those cameras and see into your homes? There is GPS being put into cars and cell phones which makes it easy to follow your every movement should the government choose to. Even while driving around in my car I see random video cameras set up around the city and also there are now cameras set up on the side of the highway that takes your picture and sends you a ticket if you are speeding. On the news they are saying Mexico may become a failed state but do not go into detail of what that means. It is a term is very broad and does not include details. The term “terrorists” is also being used to strike fear into people. Now I may wrong but I do see something that can very possibly occur in the near future and that is using the Mexican drug war to strike fear in American citizens in order to slowly strip away our rights to privacy and our freedom. I hear of making national ID cards and RFID chips will hold all of your personal information including finger prints and DNA data. I see us heading in the direction of 1984 and I think we need to stand up and look at what is really going on here. We need to stand united and not allow this to happen. It is your everyday, average people who are the foundation of this nation and without a stable foundation everything will fall. This is just my opinion on our current situation and I am practicing my right to freedom of speech. If you agree I encourage you to repost this in as many blogs and places possible and talk to family and friends about it. I am not saying I am right or wrong but just take my opinion into consideration with an open mind.
Interesting comment, to say the least….