Mexico: Unjust and Unfair with Horrid Treatment for All.

This is an excerpt from a longer column in the Washington Post




But in Veracruz, Mexico, you don't rely on the police to punish the guilty and protect the innocent. “The last thing the system of justice provides is justice. I just didn’t trust the authorities,” Fernández said. He worried that the police would humiliate his daughter and then delay her case endlessly. “I knew they would fail us,” he said in an interview.

Instead, Fernández decided to meet with the men — the three alleged perpetrators and the purported driver of the car — and their well-to-do parents. In those sit-downs, which he taped, he demanded apologies. The young men complied.
“I regret what happened,” one said, his words captured on video. “I did great harm.”
“I don’t doubt it happened and we made a mistake,” another said. “We were wrong.”

Fernández hoped the expressions of contrition would help his daughter. Instead, things got worse. Rumors of Daphne's “promiscuity” began to spread on social media. In a note on Facebook, she described those days as a “kick in the stomach.” “If I’ve gone out drinking, if I have worn short skirts, like the great majority of girls my age, that’s why they’re going to judge me?” she asked. “For that reason, I deserved it?”

Out of options, the father and daughter filed a police report against some of the families, among the city's wealthiest. The case languished for months, until Fernández released the men's taped words to the news media, sparking national outrage. Finally, arrest warrants were issued. The first trial began a couple of months ago, after Diego Cruz, 21, was extradited to Mexico from Spain. (In a statement, the four accused deny ever admitting to the rape. They say Daphne got inside the Mercedes voluntarily because “she wanted the party to go on.")

It seemed as if Daphne might finally get something like justice. Instead, her father's prediction came true. A judge found that Cruz had touched the victim’s breasts and penetrated her with his fingers. But, the judge said, that didn't make Cruz guilty of assault, because he'd acted without “carnal intent.” The judge also found that while Daphne was forced into the car, she was never “helpless.” Cruz was deemed innocent.

Daphne's story — its horrible beginning and unjust end — has rippled across Mexico. Perhaps that's because the tale is so familiar. “To many citizens” in Veracruz, “there is little difference between the rich and the government, and between the government and the criminals,” according to the New Yorker piece. The ferocious Zeta drug cartel has a near-monopoly over the state. Eight out of 10 people there say they live in fear. Since 2011, at least 15 journalists have been killed and hundreds of people have vanished. (One human rights advocate, Father Alejandro Solalinde, called the city “a factory of forced disappearances.”)
Unsurprisingly, few trust the justice system and fewer come forward after an attack. In 2014, only 1 in 10 was reported to local authorities, according to Mexico’s National Institute of Statistics and Geography. The Mexican government’s National Institute for Women says more than 80 percent of sexual assaults are not reported, and barely 4.5 percent of criminals face sentencing in Mexico. A majority of victims told researchers that they didn't report because they didn't want to “waste their time,” the New Yorker piece said, citing a study.



There are two issues here - 1) the abuse/rape treatment of women and how rampant, and 2) how the trust in government/law/justice system is not just low, it is near non-existent due to corruption.

Pope, Mexico, and Walls

Dear Pope: 

You argue against walls, against states, and in favor of the universal church which stands as one against the affront of nation-states, which separate humanity and divide.

Yet, the church in Mexico speaks of traitors to the nation ... not to the church.

STOP.

The traitors are those who work against the interests of their country.  In Mexico - it would be a government who pushes the poor to flee - they would be the traitors.  Please advise your diocese papers accordingly.

Mexicans who help build Trump wall 'traitors,' top Archdiocese says

Reuters

March 26, 2017

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexicans who help build U.S. President Donald Trump's planned border wall would be acting immorally and should be deemed traitors, the Catholic Archdiocese of Mexico said on Sunday, turning up the heat on a simmering dispute over the project.

In a provocative editorial, the country's biggest Archdiocese sought to increase pressure on the government to take a tougher line on companies aiming to profit from the wall, which has strained relations between Trump and the Mexican government.

"Any company intending to invest in the wall of the fanatic Trump would be immoral, but above all, its shareholders and owners should be considered traitors to the homeland," said the editorial in Desde la fe, the Archdiocese's weekly publication.

On Tuesday, Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo warned firms it would not be in their "interests" to participate in the wall. But the editorial accused the government of responding "tepidly" to those eyeing the project for business.

A spokesman for the Archdiocese, which centers on Mexico City and is presided over by the country's foremost Roman Catholic cleric, Cardinal Norberto Rivera, said the editorial represented the views of the diocese.

Trump says he wants to build the wall to stop illegal immigrants from crossing the U.S. southern border. He has pledged Mexico will pay for the wall, which the Mexican government adamantly says it will not do.

The Desde la fe editorial, which was published online, said the barrier would only feed prejudice and discrimination.

"In practice, signing up for a project that is a serious affront to dignity is shooting yourself in the foot," it wrote. Mexican cement maker Cemex has said it is open to providing quotes to supply raw materials for the wall but will not take part in the bidding process to build it.

Grupo Cementos de Chihuahua, another company specializing in construction materials, has also signaled readiness to work on the project.

(Reporting by Dave Graham and Lizbeth Diaz; Editing by Peter Cooney)

Mexico and Immigration: Build a Wall (Mexico is already doing just that)

Apparently the government of Mexico wants to help 'Mexican' "citizens" to avoid being deported legally, if they are in the US illegally.

The most recent video put out by the Mexican government advises Mexican citizens to:

— Remain silent.
— Do not reveal your immigration status.
— Ask to speak with your nearest Mexican consulate.


If you are in the US legally, why are you remaining silent and asking to speak to the Mexican consulate?

You do not have a RIGHT to be in the US.  


According to Mexico's immigration law:

• Foreigners are admitted into Mexico "according to their possibilities of contributing to national progress."
• Immigration officials must "ensure" that immigrants will not only be useful additions to Mexico, but that they have the necessary funds to sustain themselves and their dependents.
• Foreigners may be barred from the country if their presence upsets "the equilibrium of the national demographics"; if they are deemed to be detrimental to "economic or national interests"; if they have broken Mexican laws; and if they are not found to be “physically or mentally healthy."
• The Secretary of Governance may "suspend or prohibit the admission of foreigners” if he determines such action to be in the national interest."

Mexican guards at the Guatemalan border, the locale for most attempts at illegal entry, are notorious for the brutality of their treatment of would-be immigrants. The guards' use of violence, rape, and extortion against those seeking to cross into Mexico has, in fact, managed the border so well that the country has only a minimal illegal-immigration problem.

Though Mexico has condemned America's construction of a border fence designed to prevent illegals from emigrating northward into the U.S., in September 2010 it was reported that the Mexican government was building a wall in the state of Chiapas -- along the Mexican/Guatemalan border -- to stop contraband from coming into Mexico.

Mexico is also notorious for its aggressive efforts to promote the illegal emigration of its own citizens into the United States. As Manhattan Institute scholar Heather MacDonald observes, Mexican officials in the U.S. and abroad are involved in a massive and almost daily effort to facilitate the passage of Mexicans into the U.S. in violation of American immigration law, and to subsequently normalize their status as quickly as possible.

Toward that end, Mexico publishes a comic book-style guide -- the Guía del Migrante Mexicano (Guide for the Mexican Migrant) -- offering "practical advice" on how to breach the U.S. border safely and evade detection once across. This publication is distributed by Mexico’s foreign ministry and the Mexican consulates; it is also available online.

Mexican consuls characterize virtually any U.S. law-enforcement efforts against illegal immigration as discriminatory and inhumane. Moreover, they have advanced a “disparate impact” theory maintaining that police actions -- whatever their context -- are invalid if they fall disproportionately upon illegal Mexicans.

 

Mexico: Ongoing Mayhem and Death

It just doesn't stop.



8 June 2012 Last updated at 00:08 ET
BBC News

Fourteen dismembered bodies found in north-east Mexico

 

 

Fourteen dismembered bodies have been discovered in a lorry in north-eastern Mexico, local officials say.

The vehicle was parked outside the mayor's office in Ciudad Mante, in Tamaulipas state.

Reports say gang-related messages were found on the blankets covering 11 men and three women.

About 50,000 people have died in drug-related violence in Mexico since 2006, when President Felipe Calderon deployed the army to combat the cartels.

A man was reported to have abandoned the vehicle with the bodies, but very few details of the gruesome case are known, the authorities say.

There are no clear indications as to which of the powerful criminal groups in Tamaulipas was responsible for the killings, and none of the victims have been identified.

There are two main cartels operating in this region of Mexico - the vast criminal network known as los Zetas, and their main rivals, the Gulf Cartel.

The incident was first reported via Twitter and other social networking sites, which are increasingly becoming the first place via which such information reaches the public domain, the BBC's Will Grant in Tamaulipas reports.

The bodies were discovered just a day after the frontrunner in Mexico's presidential election, Enrique Pena Nieto, visited the state, promising to reduce the murder rate if elected, our correspondent says.

Last month, 49 beheaded and mutilated corpses were found dumped in the northern city of Monterrey.











Mexico

Mexican Crime: Nearly 50 bodies beheaded

More Mexicans are killed along the border than it would seem almost anything else.  The idea of anyone lecturing the US on the high levels of stress incurred by illegal aliens crossing US borders, or about how the US abuses illegal aliens when they are caught, is laughable. 

First, clean up your drug problems (1 in 4), clean up your towns and cities, provide jobs, provide security, and create new national police and local police forces after you fire and imprison the people who now inhabit those compromised positions.  Finally, elect an entirely new government not owned by the drug cartels.  THEN send someone to complain about whatever may still remain an issue.

Mutilated ?  Beheaded is what they were.

49 bodies, some mutilated, found in Mexico

By the CNN Wire Staff

updated 12:12 PM EDT, Sun May 13, 2012

Monterrey, Mexico (CNN) -- Mexican authorities found at least 49 bodies in the northern border state of Nuevo Leon Sunday morning, police said

The remains -- some of which were mutilated -- were found in plastic bags along the highway between the cities of Monterrey and Reynosa, the state-run Notimex news agency reported, citing police sources.

A message left on a wall nearby appeared to refer to the Zetas drug cartel.

Police and troops were combing the area and had set up checkpoints.

Authorities received a report of the bodies around 3 a.m. Sunday, police said.

The remains were found in the municipality of Cadereyta Jimenez, near the industrial city of Monterrey and about 80 miles southwest of the U.S. border, police said.

Forensic investigators were at the scene, and troops blocked the highway.

mexico

18 Headless Bodies in Mexico Tourist Area   By RANDY KREIDER May 10, 2012 —

go.com

Police found 18 mutilated, headless bodies near a lake popular with tourists and American retirees just outside Guadalajara, Mexico, a massacre that authorities blamed on the Zetas drug cartel.

A phone call alerted police to two vans on a dirt road near Lake Chapala early Wednesday morning. When police opened the van, they found 18 headless and dismembered bodies inside. Some were so badly mutilated that police have still not determined their gender. The bodies appear to have been refrigerated after death.

Handwritten messages were found in the van. "They are clearly messages between rival groups that are in conflict," said Tomas Coronado, prosecutor for the state of Jalisco. Officials said the notes were signed by the Zetas.

Los Zetas have been battling the Jalisco New Generation gang, a minor cartel allied with the Sinaloa cartel, which is the Zetas chief rival for dominance of the Mexican drug trade. The Zetas cartel, which was founded by ex-members of the Mexican military, controls most of eastern Mexico and much of the north.

A woman detained yesterday in connection with the separate kidnapping of 12 people in the same area told police that the abductions were connected to events in Tamaulipas state. Two dozen men and women were found decapitated or hanging from bridges in Nuevo Laredo, on the border with Texas, on Friday, where the Zetas are battling the Gulf cartel, another Sinaloa cartel ally.

mexico

Mexican Corruption

So the evidence was adequate to convict him, but then a panel of judges saw the light ... or were threatened and or bribed.  It isn't just the police, but the army, and the courts, and the government.

Mexican general once tied to cartels shot dead

Associated PressAssociated Press

Posted: 04/23/2012 07:41:11 AM MDT

MEXICO CITY (AP) - A retired general who was convicted and later cleared of aiding one of Mexico's most powerful drug lords was shot and killed Friday in the capital, authorities said.

Former Brig. Gen. Mario Arturo Acosta Chaparro was attacked while at an auto shop in the Anahuac neighborhood and died at a hospital, Mexico City Attorney General Jesus Rodriguez Almeida said.

Witnesses told police that Acosta had just arrived at the auto shop to drop off a car when a lone gunman approached him and shot him three times in the head, Rodriguez said.

The assailant used a 9 mm handgun and got away on a waiting motorcycle driven by an accomplice, the attorney general said.

The former soldier had survived a 2010 attack in the Mexico City neighborhood of La Roma where gunmen shot him in the abdomen.

Acosta was incarcerated in 2000 on charges of protecting Amado Carillo Fuentes, a leader of the Juarez drug cartel who had died three years earlier after botched plastic surgery.

But in 2007 a panel of judges overturned Acosta's drug-trafficking conviction and ordered him released, ruling that prosecutors failed to prove the alleged links to Carillo Fuentes.

In 2002, Acosta was accused of homicide in the disappearance of leftist activists and revolutionaries during the government's "dirty war" against dissent during the 1970s and 1980s. A judge determined Acosta was not responsible for the disappearances and the charges were dismissed.

mexico

Dear Mexico

A letter from a concerned neighbour:

When we moved in some time ago, we had our problems.  I think we resolved them when we paid you off, I mean, paid you for any inconvenience you felt over the discrepancy with property lines.  Yes, we had some difficult times, but we paid you off, I mean, paid for all your inconveniences.

We watched as our children grew up, and while some of your kids would sneak over the property line, we didn't pay a lot of attention - we were neighbours.  We even hired some of your kids to do some work for us, in an effort to benefit both of us - the customers we serve and your kids and their friends. 

Things started to get messy in the late 20th century when several of your family members started to rebel.  As I recall, it was Chiapas and Guerrero who were busy causing problems for the family.  I remember the difficult times and how many members of your family ended up leaving and spending time in our facilities.  I remember the police going to your house more times than I can count.  So many problems and it was unfortunate you lost several family members during the struggles with Chiapas and Guerrero.

Then the problem got worse and it wasn't just with my kids using a little drug now and again.  I admit, we had to send our kids to rehab a few times, but as I understand it, 25% of your family have been arrested for use of drugs, and we all know that in your house, the laws for drug use are much more lax!

Now people are being killed in the streets, hung from poles, and beheaded.  This is too much.  It is no longer a problem just for your family.  A solution however is available.

We have several thousands of unemployed former Marines and Army who would be willing to accept a stipend to help clean up your neighbourhood.  We will use our intelligence services to find out who is on the take in your police, army, and government agencies.  We will arrest them, with your permission, and we will end the control by the cartels of 2/3 of your neighbourhood.

We will do all this because we are good neighbours and cannot have the problems overflowing into our home.  We would accept whatever rate you would be willing to charge for increased oil production.  We have been trying for several decades to cut off our need for oil from outside the neighbourhood and you can help us with this project.  At the same time, we can help provide greater funding to help all your family members without the usual and normal amounts of money taken by the police, government, and other corrupt officials.

This offer is indefinite, but I would like to suggest we have only so much patience before we unilaterally assist you in cleaning out the sewer.

Signed,
Your Concerned Neighbours.








Mexico 

27 Dead in Less than a Week: Mexico, a lawless state

Mexico, a country with a government so corrupted by drugs and drug money, they are unable to respond to the needs of their people.  A state in anarchy.  A people left to the evil of drug cartels.

I can see a legal argument for US intervention into that country to clean out their sewers.

23 killed in Mexican border city

LA Times

May 4, 2012 | 5:45pm

MEXICO CITY -- Another 23 bodies were discovered Friday in the embattled border city of Nuevo Laredo, including five men and four women hanging from a highway overpass, authorities said.

The grisly surge in violence in Nuevo Laredo, across the river from Laredo, Texas, appears to be part of a battle between Mexico's two largest drug-trafficking gangs for control of the important land corridor.

The nine bodies dangling from the overpass were bloody, some were blindfolded, and, according to authorities, they bore signs of torture. The victims carried no identification but appeared to be between 25 and 30 years old, the state prosecutor's office said.

A banner hanging alongside them contained a profanity-laden message in which one drug gang, possibly the Zetas, threatens to eliminate another for "heating up the plaza" -- that is, provoking the kind of violence that could attract federal troops.

The Zetas have controlled the area, but a faction of the powerful Sinaloa cartel is moving to challenge them and is believed responsible for a car bomb detonated outside police headquarters last month.

Also Friday in Nuevo Laredo, 14 headless bodies were found in black garbage bags in a truck parked outside a government customs building, authorities said. The heads were later found in three ice chests near City Hall. All of these dead were men, also between the ages of 25 and 30. Similarly, a little more than two weeks ago, 14 other dismembered bodies were found near City Hall.

Much of Mexico, meanwhile, remained outraged over the killing of four current or former journalists in less than a week in the coastal state of Veracruz. One, Regina Martinez, was the correspondent for a national muckraking magazine, two were photojournalists, and the fourth had worked previously as a news photographer.

The battle between the Sinaloa cartel and the Zetas that is hounding Nuevo Laredo, in Tamaulipas state, is also terrorizing neighboring Veracruz. Violence and threats from the cartels, and inaction by the government and prosecutors, have left the Veracruz press corps frightened and less willing to report on criminal activity, a chilling phenomenon seen in many parts of Mexico.

mexico crime

One Mexican State Bordering The US Was Deadlier Than All of Afghanistan Last Year

By Edwin Mora
January 18, 2012

(CNSNews.com) – Organized crime-related deaths in one Mexican border state during the first nine months of 2011 exceed the number of Afghan civilians killed in roughly the same period in all of war-torn Afghanistan.

According to the Mexican government, from January through September 2011 2,276 deaths were recorded in the Mexican state of Chihuahua, which borders Texas and New Mexico.

A Nov. 2011 Congressional Research Service (CRS) report states that over nearly the same period – January through October 2011 – 2,177 civilians were killed in Afghanistan, where a U.S.-led war against the Taliban is underway. It did not provide a breakdown of responsibility for that period, but said that in 2010, 75 percent of civilian deaths were attributed to the Taliban and other “anti-government elements.”

Per capita, a person was at least nine times more likely to be murdered in Chihuahua last year than in Afghanistan. (Chihuahua has 3,406,465 inhabitants, according to Mexico’s 2010 census; the CIA World Factbook reports that in July 2011 the estimated population of Afghanistan was 29,835,392.)

According to the reported numbers, the drug-related murder rate was about 67 for every 100,000 inhabitants in Chihuahua last year, while in Afghanistan the civilian killing rate was an estimated seven for every 100,000 people living there.

There were more drug-related killings in Chihuahua than in any other Mexican state, according to the government figures. Chihuahua, the largest state in Mexico, includes Ciudad Juarez, a border city located across from El Paso, Texas. It is the deadliest city in Mexico and is considered one of the most dangerous places in the world.

According to the government tally, Juarez accounted for 1,206 (about 53 percent) of the 2,276 drug cartel-related murders in Chihuahua during the fist nine months of 2011.

The state capital, the city of Chihuahua, was also among the five deadliest cities in Mexico over that period, with 402 homicides reported.

The organized crime-related deaths in Mexico – officially referred to as homicides due to rivalry between delinquent organizations – include executions, deaths from encounters with authorities, direct aggression attacks, and killings stemming from violence between organized trafficking groups, according to the country’s government.

Its figures show that a total of 12,903 drug-related homicides took place across the country during the first nine months of 2011, taking Mexico’s drug-war death toll to 47,515 since President Felipe Calderon began a militarized crackdown on organized crime in December 2006.

Again comparing the Mexican and Afghanistan figures, the CRS report shows that 11,007 Afghan civilians were killed from 2007 through October 2011. That is about 80 percent fewer deaths than the 47,515 drug-related murders in Mexico over roughly the same period (December 2006 through September 2011).

Even if Afghan National Army (1,933) and police (3,834) fatalities are added to the civilian death toll the total number of deaths in Afghanistan over that period – 16,774 – is still almost three times smaller than the Mexican figure.

A total of 1,757 U.S. soldiers have died in and around Afghanistan since U.S.-led forces invaded in Oct. 2001 to topple the Taliban after its al-Qaeda allies attacked the U.S. homeland the previous month.

According to CNSNews.com’s detailed tally, which is derived primarily from Department of Defense reports, there were 399 U.S. military fatalities in Afghanistan during 2011, the second deadliest year of the war. (There were 497 deaths in 2010.)










mexico

US to reduce troop levels on Mexico border

Dec 20 12:54 PM US/Eastern

Agence France Presse

The United States will cut the number of national guard troops patrolling the border with Mexico as it steps up other surveillance on the porous southern border, officials said Tuesday.

The effort reflects "a new strategic approach," that includes "a number of new multi-purpose aerial assets equipped with the latest surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities," according to a statement from the departments of Homeland Security and Defense.

Homeland Security will have additional civilian personnel on the border enabling the Defense Department "to reduce the number of national guard troops at the southwest border while enhancing border security," the statement said.

President Barack Obama's administration had deployed around 1,200 troops, having been pressed by governors of border states who fear an influx of crime and a spillover of drug-related violence from Mexico.

But the statement said security would be boosted by more air surveillance, leaving fewer personnel on the ground.

The change in strategy will begin in January, with aircraft in place by March 1, the statement said.

"The air assets will reduce enforcement response time, enabling Border Patrol officers to quickly move from one location to another on short notice to meet emerging threats of illegal activity or incursion," said the statement.

In the fiscal year ended September 30, the number of border apprehensions was 340,252, down 53 percent from three years earlier and one-fifth of what they were at their peak a decade ago.

mexico

Mexico: someone left their head behind

Bag of Severed Heads Left Near Mexican School



Greg Wilson
Wednesday, Sep 28, 2011




Five severed heads found near a Mexico resort of Acapulco may be connected to the country's growing drug violence.

Five severed heads were left in a bag near a Mexican primary school, the latest example of the ruthless violence plaguing the country.

Police were not able to determine if the grisly find, in an Acapulco neighborhood, was connected to extortion threats against teachers. Some 140 schools have closed their doors in recent weeks due to frightened teachers going on strike, according to The Associated Press.

The men's heads were in a sack inside a wooden crate placed near the school, officers said. Messages threatening three aleged drug traffickers were also found in the bag.

Police had earlier discovered five headless bodies in another part of the city. Drug gangs have waged bloody battles for control of the Pacific Coast resort city. With the government cracking down on the drug trade, gangs are turning to extortion, according to the BBC. Last month, dozens of teachers in Acapulco said gangs had threatened them with violence if they did not hand over half their salaries.

It was unclear who was behind the killings or what the motive was.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Mexico

Dumber than Mud

There are those moment when you stop and wonder why God allowed such dumb creatures.  Ever watch an ant eater?  Makes little sense.  And a sloth - what on earth was going on with that creature.

And then we come to people who believe in fairies.

This is a video clip and will eventually be removed, as happens with all video clips.  However, the article follows.  The video clip can be watched (while it is posted) at this site.  Otherwise, the article follows:

Mexican claims he found a fairy

By Indo Asian News Service


Guadalajara (Mexico), Aug 12 (IANS/EFE) An unemployed 22-year-old bricklayer claims he has found a fairy in this western Mexican metropolis.

Jose Maldonado, who charges a monetary 'donation' in exchange for displaying what appears to be a simple plastic figure kept in a container of formaldehyde, says he has already received 3,000 visits from people eager to see the so-called fairy at his home in Lomas Verdes, one of Guadalajara's poorest and most dangerous neighbourhoods.

'I was picking guavas and I saw a twinkling. I thought it was a firefly. I picked it up and felt that it was moving; when I looked at it I knew that it was a fairy godmother,' Maldonado told EFE.

The tale of the fairy that Maldonado claims to have discovered last weekend has run like wildfire through the area and his home is now besieged by the curious, some of whom wait for up to an hour to enter.

What Maldonado shows the paying public is a small container filled with formaldehyde containing a humanlike figure about 2 centimeters tall, with a gelatinous consistency and a certain resemblance to Peter Pan's Tinkerbell.

Maldonado says that what seems to be just a little plastic figure is a fairy and that it was alive when he found it. And there are those who believe him.

'I've seen everything and, yes, I believe the fairy is real. Therefore, I wanted to come to confirm that those myths are true,' said Cesar Ramirez, a visitor.

To be allowed to examine the 'fairy' for a few seconds and take a photograph of it, the curious must make a donation to financially help out Maldonado who recently lost his job.

His neighbours have also taken advantage of the situation to sell photographs and keyrings with the image of the fairy for about 20 pesos ($1.60), as well as refreshments including drinks and food to those people while they wait in line outside Maldonado's house.

mexico

Mexico: Acapulco no longer a riviera. It's become a morgue

Five headless bodies found in Acapulco

Sat, Aug 20 2011

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Authorities in Mexico found the decapitated bodies of four men and a woman in Acapulco on Saturday, the latest in a string of slayings in the popular Pacific resort this week.

Federal police said the corpses of two men and a woman were found tied up in the back of a sport utility vehicle near Acapulco beach, in what appeared to be a crime related to drug gangs.

Reforma newspaper said messages were left in the vehicle linking the killings to the powerful Sinaloa cartel, headed by Mexico's most wanted capo, Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman.

The dismembered and decapitated bodies of two other men were found at the entrance to an outlet of Sam's Club, a unit of U.S. retailer Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

Daily Excelsior described the past few days as a "black week" for Acapulco, noting at least 25 people had been killed before Saturday's events.

Robberies and assaults have also plagued the port city, prompting local gas station attendants to stage a temporary walkout on Friday to protest the lack of security.

About 42,000 people have died in drug-related killings in Mexico since President Felipe Calderon went to war on the cartels shortly after taking office at the end of 2006.

Violence was long concentrated in northern Mexico, but cities farther south, including Acapulco, have increasingly been swept up in the lawlessness.





 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Mexico

Obama on Immigration

Vacations.  Wars that no one understands.  Hundreds of millions on an unknown curious war.  Billions for Europe.  Unemployment roaring along.  Green jobs - never materialized (actually they did, just not in the US).  A debt that has risen by nearly 4.5 trillion in 2.5 years - a Congress of Democrats in control - and they have controlled the money since 2006 - not Bush and not the Republicans.  Trillions.  Almost as much as Bush in 8 years, and we are worse off.  A president who golfs while soldiers die.  A president who golfs more than Buwsh ever did or could have.  In fact, Bush and Clinton combined is what Obama is working toward breaking the record.  A president who can spend $20,000 going to a show in New York, a president who can fly on separate planes, with a motorcade larger than any Bush ever had ... a president who pontificates, but does so in a language no one understands, for America is not the clay Obama would like us to be - not to be molded into something gentler ... after all, it was the Obama administartion that for nearly a year reminded everyone, often daily, to get over it, they won.  Bush never once said such a comment.  We heard it from the Obama administration daily.

A president who is detached, playing golf, on vacation, while Rome burns.  Not upholding the laws of the United States, governing by fiat - like Rome. 

Obama to deport illegals by ‘priority’

Case-by-case plan will curb numbers

By Stephen Dinan

The Washington Times

Thursday, August 18, 2011



Bowing to pressure from immigrant rights activists, the Obama administration said Thursday that it will halt deportation proceedings on a case-by-case basis against illegal immigrants who meet certain criteria, such as attending school, having family in the military or having primary responsible for other family members’ care.

The move marks a major step for President Obama, who for months has said he does not have broad categorical authority to halt deportations and said he must follow the laws as Congress has written them.

But in letters to Congress on Thursday, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said she does have discretion to focus on “priorities” and that her department and the Justice Department will review all ongoing cases to see who meets the new criteria.

“This case-by-case approach will enhance public safety,” she said. “Immigration judges will be able to more swiftly adjudicate high-priority cases, such as those involving convicted felons.”

The move won immediate praise from Hispanic activists and Democrats who had strenuously argued with the administration that it did have authority to take these actions, and said as long as Congress is deadlocked on the issue, it was up to Mr. Obama to act.

“Today’s announcement shows that this president is willing to put muscle behind his words and to use his power to intervene when the lives of good people are being ruined by bad laws,” said Rep. Luis V. Gutierrez, Illinois Democrat, who has taken a leadership role on the issue since the death of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy in 2009.

The new rules apply to those who have been apprehended and are in deportation proceedings, but have not been officially ordered out of the country by a judge.

Ms. Napolitano said a working group will try to come up with “guidance on how to provide for appropriate discretionary consideration” for “compelling cases” in instances where someone already has been ordered deported.

Administration officials made the announcement just before Mr. Obama left for a long vacation out of Washington, and as members of Congress are back in their home districts.

The top House Republican on the Judiciary Committee said the move is part of a White House plan “to grant backdoor amnesty to illegal immigrants.”

“The Obama administration should enforce immigration laws, not look for ways to ignore them,” said Rep. Lamar Smith, Texas Republican. “The Obama administration should not pick and choose which laws to enforce. Administration officials should remember the oath of office they took to uphold the Constitution and the laws of the land.”

Immigration legislation has been stalled in Congress for years as the two parties have sparred over what to include.

Republicans generally favor stricter enforcement and a temporary program that would allow workers in the country for some time, but eventually return to their home countries. Democrats want the legislation to include legalization of the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants now in the country, and want the future guest-worker program to also include a path to citizenship so those workers can stay permanently.

Since 2007, when the issue stalled in the Senate, more than 1 million illegal immigrants have been deported.

Democrats said those deportations are breaking up families and that it’s an unfair punishment for a broken system.

Hispanic voters are a key voter bloc as Mr. Obama seeks re-election next year, but many of them felt he broke his promise to them to work on legislation once he took office. Thursday’s move already was paying dividends as Hispanic advocacy groups praised the steps.

“After more than two years of struggle, demonstrations, direct actions and other activities, the administration has signaled that they are capable of delivering direct relief for immigrant families,” said Casa de Maryland, a pro-immigrant group. “We eagerly await confirmation from community members that their families can now expect to remain together.”

Two years ago, some staffers at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services had prepared a draft memo arguing that the administration retained broad powers that could serve “as a non-legislative version of ‘amnesty.’ “

But agency leaders and others in the administration had argued that the memo was inaccurate.

It was unclear Thursday how many people might be affected by the new rules. Pressure groups said up to 300,000 people could be eligible. In fiscal year 2010 alone, the government deported nearly 200,000 illegal immigrants who it said did not have criminal records.

Given the case-by-case basis of Thursday’s announcement, though, the groups said the actual number of people allowed to stay could be far lower.

In June, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the agency that handles interior immigration law enforcement, issued guidance expanding authority to decline to prosecute illegal immigrants. The goal, ICE leaders said, was to focus on catching illegal immigrants who have committed other crimes or are part of gangs.

The chief beneficiaries of the guidance are likely to be immigrant students who would have been eligible for legal status under the Dream Act, which stalled in Congress last year.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Nevada Democrat, who asked Homeland Security this year to exempt illegal-immigrant students from deportation, said the move will free up immigration courts to handle cases involving serious criminals.





 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
obama