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| Caribbean-Latin America |
| Mexico Starting To Fall Apart |
| 2008-09-01 |
| Moving quickly to address mounting anger over crime, President Felipe Calderon promised Sunday to adopt several proposals from civic groups who led more than 100,000 Mexicans in marches against daily kidnappings and killings. Among the measures are the creation of a citizens' panel to monitor government progress in fighting crime, better police recruiting and oversight systems and equipping police with more powerful weapons, Mexico's conservative president said. Calderon acknowledged that Mexicans are desperate to see results two years after he took office and began an aggressive battle against drug traffickers and other criminal gangs. The government "shares the demands and the indignation of the people," Calderon said after meeting with 14 civic leaders who staged Saturday night's candlelight protests in the capital and cities across the country. "We know the biggest problem in Mexico is public insecurity." Homicides and kidnappings have surged despite the deployment of more than 25,000 soldiers and federal police to hotspots across Mexico, and the arrest of several top drug lords. Hours before Saturday's protests, the severed heads of two women were found near the attorney general's offices in northwestern city of Durango, according to local media reports citing the same agency. No motive was given, but drug gangs in Mexico often behead their rivals. Calderon offered few details about the proposed panel _ the Citizen's Institute of Social and Criminal Prevention _ but members of the 14 civic groups told reporters the president promised a concrete plan within a month. "We're going to keep demanding: What's happening, what's happening, what's happening?" said Laura Elena Herrejon, of the civic group Pro-Neighbor. "Everyone who is listening to us must keep up the pressure." Calderon said he had already included many of the other ideas in a 74-point anti-crime agreement drawn up last month during a national security meeting with governors and mayors. Even while vowing aggressive action, Calderon warned that rooting out drug gangs and cleaning up Mexico's police will be a long fight. Drug cartels have fought back with daily attacks against police, gunning them down at their homes, checkpoints and headquarters. Dozens of officers have quit in terror, leaving many police forces in disarray, particularly along the gang-plagued northern border with the United States. The rise in violence "is a consequence of the gradual and growing disintegration of public and governmental institutions," Calderon said, acknowledging that "in many places authorities have been overwhelmed by delinquency and crime." A sea of white-clad demonstrators filled Mexico City's enormous Zocalo square Saturday night, many holding photographs of their kidnapped loved ones. |
| Posted by:Anonymoose |
| #22 Oh Mexico City... A taxi driver tried to rob me there. That didn't go well... for him |
| Posted by: European Conservative 2008-09-01 23:59 |
| #21 OldSpook - not just thing thing, but every development/issue WRT Mexico includes, as part of any intelligent and rational reaction, the same element: make the border real and enforceable. It's very analogous to the Israeli security barrier, er, apartheid/Berlin Wall/genocide wall - sure there are small pains it causes, and some people get upset, but all this is nothing as against the benefits. Recall the absurd delay and caterwauling about the Israeli barrier - and how it all turned out? Frank G, I knew we were neighbors, and I have much the same story - grew up going to TJ and beyond for lobster, beer, surf, etc. Mexicans are among the warmest nicest folks on Earth, and I've been lucky to compare in dozens of different countries. But I wouldn't go south now at gunpoint. Tropical resorts maybe - mainland, or even Cabo - but nothing near the border, or in the DF. I recall reading an internal email or something over in Baghdad, and smiling with irony and disgust at the travel warning on Nuevo Laredo - the language was the same as that applied to Iraq (this was during the "lost years" of 05/06). I used to shock/edumucate many friends back here (via phone/email) and even over there by pointing out that Fallujah and Baquouba and Nuevo Laredo were all places to avoid, for the same reason. |
| Posted by: Verlaine 2008-09-01 23:49 |
| #20 Underscores the need for the border fence NOW. |
| Posted by: OldSpook 2008-09-01 23:15 |
| #19 We can tax them, regulate them and better control the distribution to the already addicted through medical professionals We couldn't even properly treat most of those addicted to alcohol, nicotine and prescription painkillers. How would we accomplish treating the much larger and more incorrigible number of those addicted to drugs currently illegal as well? |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2008-09-01 22:58 |
| #18 Drug consumption fell during Reagan's preesidency. Right. Nancy Reagan said "Just say no." Bill Clinton said "It ain't immoral if it's only oral." POTUS sets a moral tone, an example, and people tend to follow it. There was a reason I felt squeamish the whole time Clinton was in office. Everybody thought it was cool as long as the economy was humming but, as we found out on 9/11, it wasn't. |
| Posted by: Abu Uluque 2008-09-01 18:36 |
| #17 Build the Border Wall. Secure the borders. |
| Posted by: Tiny Phaper7687 2008-09-01 18:12 |
| #16 If goverment doesn't tackle moral issues, what precisely is it that it does? Enforce Millsian liberty. That's why contraceptives are legal in Connecticut and abortions are legal everywhere. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2008-09-01 17:55 |
| #15 ... we Americans have reservations about government tackling moral issues. If goverment doesn't tackle moral issues, what precisely is it that it does? All criminal laws are a codification of a moral code and the case for most civil laws being the same is easily made. |
| Posted by: AzCat 2008-09-01 17:26 |
| #14 I live less than 20 miles from the border, used to go south a lot: Tijuana, Ensenada, and Puerto Nuevo for lobster dinners, San Felipe twice a year for 4-5 day beach time. I wouldn't go now if you paid me. The cartels have grown too large and rich and well-armed to be combatted without resorting to the Columbian model (death squads), I'm afraid. Most of the police, and a bunch in the Mil/Army are corrupt |
| Posted by: Frank G 2008-09-01 17:18 |
| #13 I didn't know they were importing Meth from Mexico or anywhere else south. As for legal, how are users going to make the money to buy that stuff [after a heavy sin tax like tobacco or alcohol], since they're unlikely to be holding down a job to sustain the habit? Isn't interesting that when one talks about legalizing one substance, the nanny police are criminalizing the use of another. Hell, soon if you just use regular sugar, let alone transfat, you're going to be put on rehab. /sarcasm off |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2008-09-01 17:18 |
| #12 What time is it? Mickey's big hand is on the five and his little hand is on the twelve. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2008-09-01 17:11 |
| #11 "Mexico Starting To Fall Apart" Starting? |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2008-09-01 17:05 |
| #10 It's time to criminalise being high in public and decriminalising drugs. |
| Posted by: Bright Pebbles 2008-09-01 16:22 |
| #9 There is a time to moralize and a time to act. What time is it? |
| Posted by: Richard of Oregon 2008-09-01 16:12 |
| #8 JFM, Agree 100%. We can't keep drugs out of prisons. How do we think we can keep them off the streets? The problem is drug use is a moral problem and we Americans have reservations about government tackling moral issues. That's part of why our schools are so bad. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2008-09-01 15:41 |
| #7 Waiting for roumors of a midnte plane from Bangla, brining Merry Makers for a busman's holiday. |
| Posted by: .5MT 2008-09-01 15:29 |
| #6 This is the reaosohn drugs should be legalized Drug consumption fell during Reagan's preesidency. But then camùe Clinton who scaled back drug enforcement, softened penalties for drug smuggling and began to make noises about legalization. This is teh result. Hover the right strategy is attack the problem at the user not productione end. No more people using drugs => no more people smuggling or producing. |
| Posted by: JFM 2008-09-01 14:49 |
| #5 Overwhelmed with delinquency and crime? More like they are part and parcel of it. Clean up the police and half the battle is done. |
| Posted by: Swamp Blondie in the Cornfields 2008-09-01 14:46 |
| #4 Hardly much tax revenue to be raised if it's legalized...it seems to me everybody who wanted to would grow their own plants. And how would you regulate home-grown plants? Or would you try to make growing their own plants illegal even though it's been legalized. I don't think that would go over very well. I always hear that argument to tax it...and I'm very skeptical about it. |
| Posted by: Harcourt Gletch7831 2008-09-01 14:45 |
| #3 This is the reason why drugs should be legalized. We can tax them, regulate them and better control the distribution to the already addicted through medical professionals. It would reduce AIDs, crime and end the easy profit that fuels these mafias. Those that say it would increase drug use should note that keeping them illegal has done nothing to reduce the problem. Drugs are readily available to anyone who wants them. We need to fix the problem in the same way that we dealt with prohibition. Let's just acknowledge the problem and deal with it within the law rather than outside of it. |
| Posted by: Betty Grating2215 2008-09-01 13:31 |
| #2 It's a combination of several groups that each are too difficult to deal with: the drug lords, the labor union leaders, and the top-forty family leaders. Between them or alone they can bring the country to a halt, and doing so is preferable to giving up what they have. |
| Posted by: Steve White 2008-09-01 13:20 |
| #1 Sounds like they're seriously working on their failed state certificate. Is it my imagination or does Mexico really seem more like Mussolini's Italy than any real democracy? Just seems that the Mafia are still to powerful for the police to deal with. |
| Posted by: AlanC 2008-09-01 13:14 |