New US War Front -- Mexican Border Corruption and Killings

"Hey Lucy, we have a problem," and its in our backyard. If we are not careful, the corruption, violence, and murder raging along the southern side of the southwest Mexican border may spill over. With illegal drug gangs terrorizing each other, law enforcement, newspaper reporters, and the local communities, getting a grip on crime in Mexico is critical for the financial viability of the Mexican economy, and the safety and security of Mexico and the US, particularly our states along the southwest border. If President Elect-Obama is looking for an expansion of his New Deal employment-based infrastructure and energy projects, I suggest the new war front to fight, is right here at home. Perhaps that is why Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano has been tapped for the Homeland Security Director position?

The issue of lawlessness and violence along the border is an order of magnitude more baneful than the free trade and migratory worker issues discussed in the campaign. The number of Mexican gang related slayings along the US border exceeds 4,500 to date in 2008. This number greatly exceeds the total number of US military deaths in Iraq since the war began in 2003, totaling 4.209 US personnel deaths in Iraq conflict at the time of this writing.

"Mexico has one of the highest kidnapping rates in the world, with dozens of Americans among the victims. Officially, an average 70 people are abducted each month, although private security firms say the real figure is 10 times higher. Most Mexicans don't report kidnappings for fear of endangering the victims' lives or that the police may be involved," reports the Houston Chronicle on 12/06/08. http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/world/6150186.html

Citing examples of the violence, the HC reports, "In a recent high-profile case that shook the nation, Fernando Marti, the 14-year-old son of a sporting goods magnate, was kidnapped and killed in Mexico City in August. Marti's driver and bodyguard also were tortured and killed. Two Mexico City police officers, including the head of the airport's anti-kidnapping squad, were later implicated in the murder and 14 more officers were under investigation."

The news of violence along the border has reached worldwide attention. Even far away Australia posted this recently -- "As the cartels compete for control of lucrative trafficking routes and fight against newly attentive authorities, bodies are routinely mutilated, videos of executions are posted on the Internet, corpses are dumped on playgrounds and heads roll in the streets.

"No one is immune to this anymore," said Roderic Ai Camp, a Mexico expert at Claremont McKenna College in California. "It has really brought home on a personal level that there's corruption and crime and, in extreme cases, violence that's touching everyone." Many of the kidnappings are carried out by the drug syndicates, which are diversifying their criminal activities amid a government crackdown on the narcotics trade. The recent deployment of 30,000 Mexican soldiers and federal police to areas controlled by the drug gangs, together with tightened U.S. border security and a slump in U.S. cocaine use, has dramatically cut the traffickers' profits, security officials here say.

Meanwhile, more than 5,000 Mexicans have been slain gangland-style since January — twice the rate for all last year. "The real issue isn't the death penalty," said Miguel Sarre, a Mexico City law professor. "It's the death sentences that are being carried out every day with no legal process against people who are involved in crime, and those who aren't." Spill over violence of this type if left unabated is a risk, particularly on the border, and the routes of interconnected gang transit and traffic.

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For an earlier blog on this topic read -- my blog first posted on 11/12/08.
http://d2crimewave.blogspot.com/2008/11/hard-times-hit-mexican-illegal-drug.html