Cartel Violence in Mexico Kills 23
[Guest post by DRJ]
Fox News reports that, near the Arizona border, rival Mexican smuggling and drug cartels engaged in a massive gun battle that left 21 dead:
“A massive gun battle between rival drug and migrant-trafficking gangs near the U.S. border left 21 people dead on Thursday, prosecutors said.”
And in Juarez, gunmen chased and killed a special prosecutor and one of her bodyguards.
Since 2006, over 4,300 people have been killed in Juarez and over 23,000 are dead nationwide. Mexico can barely function like this. How can it ever prosper? Plus, it’s inevitable that more and more violence will cross the border.
H/T Dana, with my thanks for consistently good links.
— DRJ
Obama said there was not threat or danger on the border and that crime is dropping. It must have been some other government that closed hundreds of square miles of US government land to US citizens due to the danger from aliens attacking Americans.
Have Blue (854a6e) — 7/1/2010 @ 9:46 pmSandra Salas Garcia … Dollar to a Do-nut she was killed by corrupt cops before she could nail them.
It is getting almost to the point that if Mexico could just have the level of violence found in Iraq or Afghanistan, it would be an improvement.
AD - RtR/OS! (1ed577) — 7/1/2010 @ 9:48 pmYeah, he has a habit of making the sound bite right after someone has moved the sandwich.
tyree (63c76f) — 7/1/2010 @ 9:50 pm“I’m ready to move forward, the majority of Democrats are ready to move forward and I believe the majority of Americans are ready to move forward,” he said.
…ironically this occurs just a mere 12 miles from the border and on the same day the president tells us we’re ready to move forward…with amnesty. The shame of our President is that he is so invested in getting the Hispanic vote that he is essentially willing to sacrifice and ignore the imminent danger to Americans for his own gain.
Dana (1e5ad4) — 7/1/2010 @ 10:00 pmYou have to admire anyone in Mexico who signs up to be a journalist or a police officer or politician.
There are gun “incidents” periodically in the San Bernardino area too. Cartel, my guess.
This is going to get worse–they smell weakness in El Norte.
Patricia (160852) — 7/1/2010 @ 10:01 pmReformers in Mexico have no friend in the US government these days.
We are actually turning a blind eye to the industry that empowers the killers.
It’s hard to say who is the worse neighbor, but I think it’s us. We could seriously cramp the thug’s style if we decided to.
Dustin (b54cdc) — 7/1/2010 @ 10:04 pmI read reports of other recent crime incidents in Mexico that are no less horrific. They evoke a return to an age of unspeakable violence, blood and barbarism. If current patterns hold, cannibalism will be the next new wave to hit the land south of the border.
I really would love to see the various nitwits of the left throughout America who wring their hands — and moan and weep — about anti-illegal-immigration policies packed into buses and forced to take a long, long vacation in Mexico.
Mark (411533) — 7/1/2010 @ 10:07 pmI read somewhere that the mayor of Juarez is so scared, and who can blame him, that he actually lives in El Paso. I have said it before, to those on the left there is absolutely, positively, unequivocally NO question that can be asked, to which the answer is either secure the border or put armed troops there.
Gazzer (48b1f9) — 7/1/2010 @ 10:19 pmSadly, they might even use the increased violence south of the border, not on the border which is as safe as it’s ever been (natch), so that fleeing mexicans can claim asylum. Never let a crisis…
Yes, a bus trip from Laredo to Cancun to Acapulco to Nogales would serve them right.
AD - RtR/OS! (1ed577) — 7/1/2010 @ 10:21 pmAnd Mexico had the temerity to issue a travel advisory re Arizona. All the Arizonans who were daft enough to buy a condo in Rocky Point, and who constantly say how safe it is (code for it’s only Mexicans getting raped, murdered or kidnapped) have gone awful quiet since the police chief got shot lasr week.
Gazzer (48b1f9) — 7/1/2010 @ 10:28 pmOf course, Mexico would be a peaceful country if it were not next door to the racist United States where we allow people to buy so many guns. If all the border states would only outlaw guns, like brave Mayor Daley is trying to do in Chicago, then Mexico would become an idyllic vacation paradise.
All the violence would cross the border.
Gesundheit (6acc51) — 7/2/2010 @ 5:40 amIts unfortunate that this is occuring
We need maybe, just maybe to start being a little more forceful with recreational drug users in the USA – the massive market that is fueling a financial boom for illegal groups
Maybe start confiscating homes and vehicles and business’ for those caught buying drugs
EricPWJohnson (cedf1d) — 7/2/2010 @ 6:23 amIf you have any family or friends who use drugs, do ALL you can to help them see the light and get off them. We must not be a part of this.
GeneralMalaise (9cf017) — 7/2/2010 @ 6:49 amIt is all our fault that the drug cartels cannot get along. Perhaps Obama can send a mediator to help them negotiate a profit splitting arrangement.
daleyrocks (1d0d98) — 7/2/2010 @ 6:53 amJust a tad draconian with your prescription in #12, doncha think, Eric PW?
GeneralMalaise (9cf017) — 7/2/2010 @ 6:57 amWithin just a few years, Mexico will become our North American version of Afghanistan.
And we’ll lose more troops intervening in Mexico than Iraq and Afghanistan combined.
SPQR (26be8b) — 7/2/2010 @ 7:06 amCartel Violence in MexicoProhibition Kills 23FIFY
CTD (7054d2) — 7/2/2010 @ 7:17 amHope and pray you are wrong, SPQR. The potential for that is certainly there.
GeneralMalaise (9cf017) — 7/2/2010 @ 7:44 amthe massive market that is fueling a financial boom for illegal groups
You fail to mention that the “massive market” you’re referring to has become so lucrative and deadly precisely because it’s illegal. Make a lot of this crap legal (or at least decriminalize it) and the cartels lose, big – time. If you believe in markets you have to admit that our decades – long war on drugs has not only been a massive failure, but it’s also been a hideously expensive one. No, it’s not a panacea by any means, but it’s a small step worth taking at this point in time.
Dmac (ab1849) — 7/2/2010 @ 8:18 amAn oversimplication of what is going on in Mexico, I think, Dmac.
SPQR (26be8b) — 7/2/2010 @ 8:22 am“But our borders are just too vast for us to be able to solve the problem only with fences and border patrols. It won’t work. Our borders will not be secure as long as our limited resources are devoted to not only stopping gangs and potential terrorists, but also the hundreds of thousands who attempt to cross each year simply to find work.”
– President Barack Hussein Obama on July 1, 2010
NO, WE CAN”T!
GeneralMalaise (9cf017) — 7/2/2010 @ 9:12 amI think Dmac has the right idea, but is not quite finished in thinking of the methods of application. The market is here, the supply is there. Coordinate the two. Drug testing is very common now. I haven’t had a job recently that it was not included. Make a mistake at work, and they administer another one. Take it a step further. You are a goverment official or employee. You get tested, just like us. You’ve been preaching socialism from the pulpit, you get tested right after services. You favor legalization, you get tested. Next step, you get your wish. Go and live with your suppliers. If I remember correctly, in the original Democracies, you could be voted out. If your blood votes against you, then you can go and earn your way back in.
MarkM (e6e166) — 7/2/2010 @ 9:28 amWe could secure the border with the issuance of Letters of Marque & Reprisal!
AD - RtR/OS! (688ffe) — 7/2/2010 @ 9:40 amMake a lot of this crap legal (or at least decriminalize it) and the cartels lose, big – time
It would be nice if things were that simple. In actuality, I think it’s not much less naive than theorizing that internecine conflict, particularly murder, among the Mafia or between the Blood and Crips won’t be high because of the concept of honor among thieves. Because people who share the same values (rotten ones, at that) will live happily together.
Or, better yet, that inner-city crime and poverty (and dysfunction) in America will pretty much disappear once society no longer is saddled with the racism, discrimination and rigidity of the 1950s or 1930s.
Mexico already is so wide and open that the narcotics trade might just as well be legal. Moreover, some of the bloody violence isn’t between the gangs and the government, but between and among the gangs themselves.
Also, legalization of drugs won’t answer the question of why is the rate of kidnapping for ransom so high in Mexico, or why is street crime in general far too common? Some of that is fueled by people who are so hooked on getting intoxicated, they become dependent on crime to eke out their meager existence.
Mark (411533) — 7/2/2010 @ 11:53 amAnd yet the Mexican government (so-called) will not go “Chicago Rules” on the cartels, regardless of who or how many get assassinated.
Can you say “losing strategy”?
Frank Drebbin (8096f2) — 7/2/2010 @ 12:02 pmA great deal of the kidnapping in AZ is related to the smuggling of illegals, and the rings wanting additional payments. So, they just lock up people until they get more money from their friends/relatives in either Mexico, or here.
AD - RtR/OS! (688ffe) — 7/2/2010 @ 12:17 pmAn oversimplication of what is going on in Mexico, I think, Dmac.
I didn’t state that it was, SPQR – hence my qualifier of “no, it’s not a panacea by any means.” What I want to see is a honest discussion of the myriad cause and effects regarding the drug suppliers and the market for drugs in this country. We can mass all the troops on the border we wish (as well as build a real border wall), but the want will always be here among some members of the US population. There is too much dogmatic thinking on both sides of the issue today – either it’s let’s allow all drugs or punish everyone who touches them. Ridiculous, and it never gets close to dealing with the actual problem at hand.
Dmac (ab1849) — 7/2/2010 @ 2:53 pmMost of the calls for legalization these days imply that the revenue from taxes would help pay down high deficits. However taxation at that level would give the financial incentive for the cartels to continue their current business, and they already have the infrastructure in place.
Have Blue (854a6e) — 7/2/2010 @ 4:46 pmAnd, with the increased consumption of drugs, what kind of productivity would the economy have?
AD - RtR/OS! (688ffe) — 7/2/2010 @ 4:53 pmProductivity has been the engine that drives the increases in the standard of living that we have seen since WW-2.
What kind of a country will it be if we’re all too stoned to go shopping at WalMart, and buy Chinese-made goods?
work more to buy more
ColonelHaiku (9cf017) — 7/2/2010 @ 5:04 pmdrugs to work more to buy more
drugs vicious cycle
Someone recently did a calculation on how much would have to be consumed to make the numbers they are trying to tout in California. To say the least they are pretty unsustainable, even providing that 100% of adults decided to partake.
Have Blue (854a6e) — 7/2/2010 @ 5:36 pmI think Obama killed more strawmen in his immigration speech yesterday than the death toll in this latest incident.
daleyrocks (1d0d98) — 7/2/2010 @ 6:06 pmWe punish the employers for hiring illegals. Or at least we’re supposed to. Why don’t we take a step back on drugs and punish possession the same as sale or more? We have not succeeded in drying up the trade, why don’t we try drying up the market?
nk (db4a41) — 7/2/2010 @ 6:42 pmWith a possession offense, the offender is infecting himself/herself. Drug sales is the infection of many.
Drug abuse is a self-hate thing.
GeneralMalaise (9cf017) — 7/2/2010 @ 6:54 pmThis is so sad. Mexico has always been one of my favorite places to visit. The Riviera Maya is spectacular. This can’t be doing their tourist trade a bit of good. Not to mention the death and destruction the Mexicans are being subjected to.
Josefina Argüello (047ece) — 7/5/2010 @ 8:30 am