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| Caribbean-Latin America |
| Mexican prisoners given temporary release and guns to kill at night |
| 2010-07-27 |
Putting a new spin on prisoner job skill development, Mexican officials have revealed that prisoners at a northern Mexico jail were regularly allowed out to perform nighttime murders for hire. From the New York Times:
The bullets were matched with those from jail guards' firearms. And while it seems like something out of Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill series, this is just a particularly egregious example of state-sanctioned barbarity in prisons. Our own prisons suffer not merely because of poor conditions but because those who finish serving time for a first offense frequently return having committed a worse crime. Meanwhile, gang culture is just a casual fact of prison life. So those who leave can't help but take with them gang instincts. The difference between our system and Mexico's seems to be that our guards don't loan out their weapons. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #7 Well we know one party, on this side of the vaguely enforced border, in particular has been working hard to emulate PRI. The other has been working on emulating the keystone cops. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2010-07-27 19:57 |
| #6 Thank you Fred and Badanov. Aside from you, this is a hidden war. The silence makes one wonder who all on this side is connected how with whom on the other. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2010-07-27 19:52 |
| #5 The AP: Mexico's Catch-and-release justice system: CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico – It's practically a daily ritual: Accused drug traffickers and assassins, shackled and bruised from beatings, are paraded before the news media to show that Mexico is winning its drug war. Once the television lights dim, however, about three-quarters of them are let go. Even as President Felipe Calderon's government touts its arrest record, cases built by prosecutors and police under huge pressure to make swift captures unravel from lack of evidence. Innocent people are tortured into confessing. The guilty are set free, only to be hauled in again for other crimes. Sometimes, the drug cartels decide who gets arrested. |
| Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 2010-07-27 18:28 |
| #4 Believe it or not I have been following the story since the July 18th massacre in Torreon. If you want to hear it from the guy who told Los Zeta naming names and so on, click here: it's a snuff video that started the investigations and arrests going. Warning, it's all in Spanish. |
| Posted by: badanov 2010-07-27 18:23 |
| #3 I believe it. Chances are, if they're cartel guys, they live better inside then most people outside. And, you gotta admit, it's a helluva an alibi... |
| Posted by: tu3031 2010-07-27 13:14 |
| #2 Maybe BS, maybe not. It's definitely the case that at least one segment of Mexico's ruling class -- the corrupt PRI elite that dominated the nation for 70 years, losing power only recently -- has long been in cahoots with the cartels. The PRI elite probably still have many loyal cadres running the prisons. Also, it's likely that the Mexican state, like most oligarchies, becomes progressively weaker as you get farther from the capital city. Under oligarchy you often find local fiefdoms that are run, if that's the right word, as lawless mini-states. Could well be the case in Torreon. |
| Posted by: lex 2010-07-27 13:06 |
| #1 I smell BS: prisoners who murder are let out, given a gun, murder their victim, and come back. Yah, Riiiiiiight. |
| Posted by: Ptah 2010-07-27 10:34 |