Politics on the Border
[Guest post by DRJ]
As if murder, violence and intimidation weren’t enough, now the Mexican cartels want to take control of local governments:
“One candidate was gunned down with his son inside his business. Another is missing after assailants torched her home. In some towns near the U.S. border, parties can’t find anyone to run for mayor.
The violence is intensifying fear that Mexico’s drug cartels could control July 4 local elections in 10 states by supporting candidates who cooperate with organized crime and killing or intimidating those who don’t.
Nowhere has the intimidation been worse than in the border state of Tamaulipas, where Mexican soldiers are trying to control an intensifying turf battle between the Gulf cartel and its former ally, the Zetas gang.
Gunmen burst into the farm supplies business of Jose Guajardo Varela Thursday and killed him and his son, after he ignored warnings to drop his bid for mayor of Valle Hermosa, a town about 30 miles (50 kilometers) south of Brownsville, Texas.
“Organized crime wants to have total control over local elections,” said Carlos Alberto Perez, a federal lawmaker for Calderon’s conservative National Action Party, known as the PAN.”
Cartel members already live in and run their drug businesses in American neighborhoods and use our cities as their drug distribution hubs.
If the cartels gain control of local border governments via elections, I fear it will make it even easier for them to cross the border and operate on American soil.
— DRJ
Am having the following bumper sticker printed, in bulk:
DEPORT ILLEGALS
Kevin Stafford (abdb87) — 5/15/2010 @ 9:09 pmIt’s the law!
I suspect that when the cartels start murdering journalists on this side of the border, things may change.
Of course, the cartels won’t do that what with the full force of the U.S. government ready to step in and stop them.
Ag80 (f67beb) — 5/15/2010 @ 9:41 pmI know the open border crowd say the answer is to legalize drugs but lets face it – that’s not going to happen anytime soon.
So if the Mexican government cannot control the crime on their side of the border they should shut the **** up about what laws Arizona enforces. It is too bad if illegals get caught up in the anti-drug efforts and the problems caused by the criminals.
But if the hardest working and clean living Mexicans keep coming here to work, Mexico will never get better. The Mexicans I know are needed back in their hometowns strengthening the society there. The U.S. government is not doing Mexicans and their home country any favors by ignoring illegals.
MU789 (8034a8) — 5/15/2010 @ 9:46 pmNot much different from the Chicago way, except they are much better armed. Thuggery rules…
gazzer (7c0559) — 5/15/2010 @ 10:28 pmMU789.
Amen. Mexico is not a poor country. Mexico is an extremely wealthy country. It essentially has everything to be successful: A large, healthy population, extensive natural resources, a rich culture and an educated middle-class.
And, yet, it is willing to export a significant portion of its viable labor pool to the U.S. and express outrage when we try to enforce our laws.
If you really step back and look at it, Mexico should be one of the most powerful nations on the Earth.
I’m no expert, but I have ideas why this is not so, but I’m not a liberal, so what I think doesn’t matter.
Ag80 (f67beb) — 5/15/2010 @ 10:45 pmWell, I’m not a member of the open borders crowd (I say deport all illegals), but prohibition is a failure. It does nothing but empower organized crime and spread misery. The best thing our government could do to mitigate the harmful effects of vice is to regulate it, not prohibit it.
Anon Y. Mous (d5e0ff) — 5/16/2010 @ 12:24 amMexico should be one of the most powerful nations on the Earth. I’m no expert, but I have ideas why this is not so
The nub of the problem is evident here in the US, in which a large percentage of the Latino population tends to be academic laggards, consistently overrepresented in grade-school drop-out rates and consistently underrepresented in the student body of various colleges.
Adding fuel to the fire — the Achilles’ Heel, if you will — is the large portion of the Latino community that thinks and votes in a woe-is-me, down-with-the-man liberal/pro-Democrat-Party manner.
The hard-working nature of people is only part of what allows a society to move upward and onward—and the average Mexican, as one example, certainly doesn’t kick back and sit at home all day eating bon bons. However, the willingness of individuals to follow a grueling work schedule by itself doesn’t necessarily allow a community to progress to the next level.
Mark (411533) — 5/16/2010 @ 8:35 amIf the cartels gain control of local border governments via elections,
LA city council officials (Hi, Janice Hahn!) should be required to move to the towns south of the border. They can then run for political office down there.
The naivete, idealism and foolishness of the left in America shouldn’t be protected behind its comfortable, heavy layer of limousine liberalism.
Mark (411533) — 5/16/2010 @ 8:40 amThe problem of illegal aliens in the US can be addressed exactly the same way Abraham Lincoln confronted illegal war profiteering during the War of Northern Aggression.
It worked then, and it’ll work now, all we need to remedy our problem is the will to face it squarely and to adopt an already proven solution.
ropelight (cf13a8) — 5/16/2010 @ 9:26 amVera Cruz
EricPWJohnson (7ff4d9) — 5/16/2010 @ 12:11 pmSo, what exactly happens when we get a violent failed state on our southern border?
1. We ignore it and accept refugees, as now, but more so.
2. We respond to individual events with federal police, and deport all Mexicans who commit crimes.
3. We respond to individual events with military reprisals, and secure the border.
4. We respond by occupation of border states, as a buffer zone and secure the border from forward positions.
5. We respond by incorporation, solving the border problem entirely, but creating others.
I think all these suck.
Kevin Murphy (5ae73e) — 5/16/2010 @ 12:55 pmI say we take off and nuke the site(s) from orbit!
It’s the only way to be sure….Right?
Armageddon Rex (8ba883) — 5/16/2010 @ 7:17 pmOkay folks,
Either
1) institute the death penalty for drug consumption a.la Saudi Arabia, Iran, Singapore
or
2) Legalize marijuana, and decriminalize small amounts of cocaine, crack, ecstacy and heroine.
(1) is for authoritarian conservatives who have no qualms about throwing people who smoke up into the slammer “for their own good” (chuckle: salt and smoking for proggies is the same albeit with a tax).
(2) is for those conservatives who realize what a tremendously damaging, monstrous evil the war on drugs has been, and the harm from letting people get high or destroying their lives is much much less compared to the rampaging narco gangs.
Pick your poison
Contemplationist (c6acaf) — 5/18/2010 @ 12:18 pm