With a little help from his friends, Jon Hammar released

MGR's view -
"Oh I get by with a little help from my friends" (The Beatles 1967)

Guadalajara -
Former Marine Lance Cpl. Jon Hammar has been released from a Mexican jail. He was arrested last August for violating the country's strict laws against firearms possession, but a herculean effort by U.S. politicians and media sources turned the tide in his favor and persuaded officials in this county to free him on Friday.

CNN reported late last night that Hammar "languished for more than four months in a Mexican prison on a questionable gun charge." In fact there was nothing at all questionable about the charge. Hammar broke Mexican law, plain and simple. The penalty was draconian, to be sure, but so are many U.S. criminal sentences.

An interesting footnote to this case: Last week Mexico's Foreign Ministry (the equivalent of the U.S. State Dept.) reported that worldwide, over 1,300 Mexican citizens are locked up in foreign jails and prisons, awaiting trial or serving sentences. But that number did not include incarcerated Mexicans in the United States. Why? Simply because there are so many. The U.S. has 51 separate prosecutorial entities: 50 at the state level, one at the federal level. Moreover, within each state prosecutions are generally handled by local district attorneys on a county by county basis. It would be a huge task to determine how many Mexican nationals are being held prisoner in American jails and prisons today, so Foreign Ministry officials didn't address the question. The only certainty is that not one of them will find a Get Out of Jail card under the Christmas tree.

More than a year ago, Enrique Peña Nieto allegedly promised U.S. officials that if elected Mexico's president, he would he would "do whatever they told him to do." He's proving he's a man of his word.

Apr. 4, 2013 - Mexican Senate wants details on Mexican citizens facing death penalty in U.S.

And now, how about some holiday cheer for Judy Gross? There are still three days left to do the deal.

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Dec. 17 - The Second Amendment and the NRA tour Mexico