Se encuentra otra periodista mexicana decapitada en Nuevo Laredo - Más "Twitter Terror" por Los Zetas

Note to English readers: If you think Mexican drug cartels can't track someone down by their internet postings, think again. This female editor was just found executed, with a note by her body warning anyone who might use such means to convey information about the narcos.

Es María Macías, la editora de Primera Hora. El narcomensaje por su cuerpo fue firmado por Los Zetas, y amenaza de lo que les pasará a todos que usen las redes sociales para avisar o advertir de actividades de los narcos. Mas detalles disponibles en ingles acá: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-15055458.
Leer estos dos también: http://mexicogulfreporter.blogspot.com/2011/09/cuidado-con-tus-tweets-los-sicarios-te.html;http://www.theyucatantimes.com/2011/07/veracruz-press-furious-over-prosecutor%E2%80%99s-comments/

"La gran omisión de Obama" segun columnista Andres Oppenheimer

Les recomiendo a los que leen español: http://www.elnuevoherald.com/2011/09/21/1029752/oppenheimer-la-gran-omision-de.html

The United States is "9% stoned," say U.S. senators - the biggest drug consumer in the world

Mexican President Felipe Calderon, who is doing his best to strike hard at this country's vicious drug cartels, has repeatedly said that his country's geographic proximity to the United States is "like living next door to the biggest drug addict in town." I've said much the same thing on this site (Mexico's Continuing Agony). Drugs move north through Mexico to feed the habit of Americans, while U.S. dollars and machine guns move south.

Now two U.S. Senators agree - even though they're unlikely bedfellows. California's liberal Democrat Dianne Feinstein and Iowa's conservative Charles Grassley have co-authored a bi-partisan report entitled Responding to Violence in Latin America. The document says that in 2010 the United States had 22.6 million drug consumers over the age of 12, representing 8.9% of the country's population.

A direct quote from the U.S. congressional report (translated from a Spanish version): "Despite efforts to increase treatment and prevention programs, the United States remains the largest user of illegal drugs in the world." The study added that due to the huge U.S. drug demand, not only Mexico but all of Central America "has been converted into an operations center" to supply narcotics headed north.

It looks like Felipe Calderon knows exactly what he's talking about. The United States bears moral complicity for Mexico's continuing nightmare by fueling a voracious demand for all kinds of drugs. Plenty of Americans want to get stoned, even if 50,000 Mexicans have to die while they're doing so.

Dec. 6, 2011 - Mérida summit to U.S.: get drug usage under control, stop the flow of weapons
Dec. 29, 2011 - Honduras "invaded by drug traffickers," shipping tons of cocaine to U.S. customers

One reason 50 million U.S. citizens can't afford to buy health insurance

A few days ago I posted some rather dire stats about the economic realities of life in the United States today, as recently reported by the U.S. Census Bureau. It was entitled What impoverished country is this? [http://mexicogulfreporter.blogspot.com/2011/09/what-impoverished-country-is-this.html], and it attracted more readers than anything I've written to date. One of the saddest -- and most inexcusable -- stats in that posting is that 50 million Americans are too poor to buy health insurance.

For the most part I don't blame physicians and other medical professionals for the disastrous mess in the U.S. health care delivery system. Yes, most doctors are still doing pretty well, and they earn quite a satisfactory living compared to the rest of us. But they have decades invested in costly medical school education and post-graduate training. Like other professionals, they must continue studying and learning throughout their lives. The process never ends. And I've talked to plenty of doctors who've told me horrid details about the paperwork hoops and Catch 22s they have to jump through in order to get paid by U.S. health insurance companies. Of course, their fees are always greatly discounted.

Medical insurers and hospitals are far and away the biggest culprits, in my opinion. Have you ever been billed $25, for instance, for a Band-Aid, or perhaps for some skin lotion that an RN-trainee rubbed on your itchy back? Today the U.S. McClatchy news service has a must-read article about the absurd compensation packages enjoyed by many hospital CEOs. Key excerpts:

"Most CEOs at the largest and richest children's hospitals are paid more than $1 million in salary and benefits annually, an analysis of hospital tax records shows. Including retirement payouts and bonuses, three executives of children's hospitals collected $5 million or more in 2009, the most recent year for which compensation figures were available. Three others received $2 million. In all, 22 of 25 CEOs collected at least $1 million. Hospital CEOS, including those at children's hospitals, are among the most lavishly compensated executives in the nonprofit field."

Did you notice those last four words -- in the nonprofit field? Remember, these execs never spent one day in med school. If they're lucky they might have a business degree. But they "networked" with the right people. Every time you go to the hospital, you or your insurance carrier (if you have insurance) picks up part of the tab for their salaries.

If you think those numbers are high, investigate what U.S. health insurance company CEOs earn. And of course, all these CEOs enjoy the finest health insurance available to protect themselves and their families -- gratis, as part of their compensation packages.
Read the McClatchy article for more details: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/09/25/124653/a-glimpse-at-the-high-pay-for.html

The Daily Obscenities of Mexico

Today's editorial opinion from The Yucatan Times, Merida, Mexico: http://www.theyucatantimes.com/2011/09/the-daily-obscenities-of-mexico/

Cubans completely ignore a rainy Alan Gross vigil in Washington, D.C.

Earlier this week I posted about today's dual-location prayer vigil for U.S. citizen Alan Gross, who is serving a 15 year prison sentence in Havana for state security crimes. The vigil was simultaneously conducted at the Cuban Interests Sections in Washington and at Cuba´s U.N. Mission in New York. I hope to speak with one of the vigil's primary organizers soon to see what the next plan of action may be, but in the meantime today's Washington Post has a brief article with the basics.

From the Post's photos, it looks looks like a few dozen people -- no more -- showed up to stand in the rain on a soggy day at the Cuban facility in D.C. Of course, it's an utterly hopeless endeavor. I feel for the Gross family, but if neither Jimmy Carter nor Bill Richardson could get the job done, a prayer vigil won't either. Interestingly, Alan's wife Judy told reporters that she'd had no contact with Richardson since he returned from the island earlier this month.

The Post also said that "a telephone number for the Cuban Interests Section in Washington rang unanswered Friday, and an e-mail message was not returned." That pretty much sums up how impressed the Cubans were with today's vigil.

Maryland Congressman Chris Van Hollen, who represents Alan Gross' district, spoke at the vigil. According to the Post Van Hollen said that relations between the U.S. and Cuba would not improve until Gross is released. "The message they're sending to the world is that they fear freedom and they won't do the humanitarian thing."

The United States has been delivering up that kind of pep talk to Cuba for more than 50 years -- since John F. Kennedy was president. They were idle words then and they remain so today, half a century later. U.S. policy towards Cuba, from the very unjust Blockade to the ridiculous travel restrictions which prohibit Americans from hopping on a plane to spend the weekend in Havana, have been and still are politically regressive and highly counterproductive. We're punishing the Cuban people because we don't like two worn out old men wearing green army fatigues. It´s time to change the tune drastically and to do something humanitarian ourselves: lift the failed Cuban Blockade and release the Miami Five. If we don't, I fear that Alan Gross may be in for a very long stay in Havana. And there is absolutely nothing in the world the United States of America can do about it.

The do-nothing prosecutor of Veracruz: Reynaldo Escobar Pérez

In Mexico a district attorney is referred to as a procurador, or sometimes as a fiscal. The person who holds that important office in the body-dumping city of Veracruz is one Reynaldo Escobar Pérez. I could write chapters about El Señor Procurador Pérez, but it wouldn't be good for my blood pressure to do so. A few facts will tell you all you need to know about the man's competency.

Case #1: In late July veteran Veracruz crime reporter Yolanda Ordaz de Cruz vanished. She had spent much of her 25 year journalistic career investigating organized crime, which in this country is just another way of saying the drug cartels. A few days later she "resurfaced" -- in parts. Her body was dumped on a local street and her head was tossed several blocks away.

Within 24 hours prosecutor Pérez called a press conference. He astonished the assembled media by declaring that Yolanda's murder, in his opinion, "had nothing whatever to do with her occupation as a journalist.” He went on to imply that she may have been connected to criminal elements herself, and had paid the price. That, by the way, is an allegation some Mexican prosecutors routinely make: that a certain reporter got "too close" to the story he/she was covering, got "dirty" by taking money from the drug cartels in exchange for not writing about them, and eventually suffered the consequences.

I have never seen any credible evidence proving such in Yolanda's case. The Veracruz newspaper for which she worked went ballistic over his comments, and demanded Pérez' firing. But he's still in office, and of course Yolanda's murder has never been solved. And here's the "rest of the story," as the late Paul Harvey used to say in his magnificent voice. On June 20, just a few weeks before Yolanda's kidnapping and brutal execution, her long-time boss at the paper -- together with his entire family -- was also murdered. A narco execution squad showed up at 6:00 a.m. at the home of Miguel Ángel López, marched right inside and shot him, his wife and their 20 year old son. Those murders, too, remain unsolved. Here is my original news story on Yolanda's case: Veracruz reporter paid with her life: http://mexicogulfreporter-supplement.blogspot.mx/2011/11/veracruz-press-furious-over-prosecutors.html.

Case #2: Many of you by now have heard of the recent "Twitter Terror" case. About a month ago two Veracruz residents, a man and a woman, independently learned of an alleged attack against a local school. Fortunately it turned out to be baseless rumor. But before the facts were known they had passed the story along via social networks. The news spread like wildfire through Veracruz -- after all, the city is used to real terror on a regular basis. Many working parents left their jobs and rushed to the school to pick up their children. Supposedly there was such public panic that two dozen car accidents occurred, although both their number and severity probably have been exaggerated. Everyone was relieved when it became clear that it was all a big mistake. But that was not the end of the matter. Veracruz prosecutors charged the pair with the transmission of terroristic communications and “sabotage.” The latter claim was apparently included because the affected school was forced to shut down, and because some local businesses came to a virtual halt as workers left their jobs, rushing to get their kids. The first offense carries up to 30 years in jail, and the second up to 20 years. By the way, the woman defendant is a reporter. As I said before, Veracruz is not a good place to be if you're a dedicated journalist.

A furor over the case and the absurdity of the charges erupted within and without Mexico. Several attorneys and prominent legal organizations came to the defense, gratis. Amnesty International condemned the prosecution. But for almost a month Reynaldo Escobar Pérez and Veracruz Governor Javier Duarte (see my post on him below) stubbornly hung on, refusing to abandon the malicious -- and silly -- case. Earlier this week they finally threw in the towel, aware that the winds of public opinion had turned against them and that they were going to lose in court. Upon their release, both of the accused persons said they had been abused and roughed up by local police when arrested. Here is my recent editorial on the Twitter Terror case: Mexico Should Proceed With Caution In “Twitter Terror” Cases: http://mexicogulfreporter-supplement.blogspot.mx/2011/11/mexico-should-proceed-with-caution-in.html.

Case #3: Over the past 48 hours, 49 semi-naked cadavers have been casually dumped on Veracruz streets, 35 of them downtown during the 5:00 p.m. rush hour. The execution squad members had utterly no fear of stopping in front of hundreds of motorists and passersby, casually getting out of their luxury SUVs and discarding the corpses (from two cattle trucks which followed closely behind), all of which bore signs of torture followed by strangulation, asphyxiation or death from gunshot wounds. We call that impunity.
I rest my case. Would you want Reynaldo Escobar Pérez to be your local D.A.?

P.S.: Another reporter, a young man, has gone missing this week in Veracruz. His father has not seen him since last weekend and reported his disappearance two days ago. This is unlikely to have a happy outcome.

Hugo Chávez returns home after latest chemotherapy - and he's full of big news

Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez returned to Caracas last night (September 22), after spending five days in Havana for what he says will likely be his last round of chemotherapy for an undisclosed form of cancer. He met with Cuban President Raul Castro and with Fidel Castro for five hours before departing the island. The events were reported today in Cuba's government controlled newspapers, Granma and Juventud Rebelde (Young Rebel). Chávez' self-prognosis was glowing: "Everybody is agreed that my test results are very positive. We can say that the chemotherapy phase is over, that chapter is closed, and now I can get on with making a full recovery." His remarks were at odds with claims by a former U.S. diplomatic official reported yesterday (see my post below). The official claims that he was told by reliable sources that Chávez condition is quite guarded, and that he had not responded well to the latest round of treatment.

In any case Chávez was full of news yesterday on arrival in Caracas. He condemned Barack Obama's remarks to the United Nations General Assembly concerning the pending Palestinian application for statehood as a "monument to cynicism." More surprisingly, Chávez' Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, Temir Porras, told the AP in a telephone interview that Chávez deserved partial credit for this week's release of two Americans who had been detained in Iran since 2009. Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal were each released on $500,000 USD "bail" several days ago, although there is no expectation that they will ever return to the country for further legal proceedings. They were arrested after straying across the border between Iran and Iraq while hiking. Bauer and Fattal have repeatedly said it was an inadvertent crossing, but Iraqi officials accused them of various crimes, including spying. Several governments helped negotiate the release, particularly Omán's. However, Porras said that Chávez decided to get involved in the case because he believes Bauer's and Fattal's account of what happened. According to Porras, Chávez "asked his Iranian counterpart, Mahmud Ahmadinejad, to undertake a 'benevolent review' of the case, and if he saw fit, to release the young men to their families as a humanitarian gesture."

Chávez indeed fancies himself an international player. Several weeks ago he called upon "independent nations" to come to the aid of deposed Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.

Hugo Chávez' condition in dispute after his latest cancer treatment in Cuba: http://mexicogulfreporter.blogspot.com/2012/03/hugo-chavez-condition-in-dispute-after.html.

Veracruz now an armed camp; prosecutors confirm that drug turf war led to massacre

Veracruz this Friday morning is an armed camp. A thousand or more soldiers are patrolling the city where the 11th Mexican National Conference of Judicial Officers and Prosecutors is meeting in a downtown hotel, not far from Tuesday's mass dumping of bodies. Authorities say that the latest outbreak of violence is the result of fierce competition between competing cartels for control of all drug sales within the city. A government official, addressing the Conference, said that "the illicit drug activity here poisons society, and is the primary cause of the violence we are seeing." A nice political sound bite to be sure, but it tells us absolutely nothing about what authorities plan to do.

Veracruz Governor Javier Duarte: a man out of touch with reality

Javier Duarte is the Governor of Veracruz state, where bodies coincidentally keep turning up on street corners. This week the 11th Mexican National Conference of Judicial Officers and Prosecutors happens to be meeting in the capital city of Veracruz, so there are a lot of powerful people in town. On Tuesday narco criminals drove up in a convoy of vehicles about 5:00 p.m. and nonchalantly dumped 35 corpses on a busy street, while hundreds of horrified rush hour commuters looked on. The convention site is in a hotel just a stone's throw away. Yesterday 14 more bodies were casually tossed out in other neighborhoods. And what does Governor Duarte have to say about all of this?

"In Veracruz, we don't minimize crime. Here we confront it and we fight it." How, Governor?

Veracruz "en la bolsa de los narcos" - Veracruz, a city out of control

It´s true. Today, while prosecutors and judicial authorities from all over Mexico convened for a special "security summit" in the city, more cadavers were dumped from vehicles in prominent locations around town -- almost right under their collective noses. There were seven new bodies (at least the numbers are going down). They had been bound, tortured and shot before being tossed out on the public right of way. Call it a welcome note from Los Zetas to the assembled prosecutors and judges.

So who's running Veracruz? Certainly not anyone remotely connected with the Mexican government. A primary problem in Veracruz is its utterly incompetent local prosecutor. Watch for a follow-up report on him soon.

Update Thursday, Sept. 22, 9:00 p.m. The latest report this evening from Veracruz is that 14 additional bodies were dumped today -- not seven as I reported earlier. That makes 49 since Tuesday at 5:00 p.m. It puts a staggering work load on forensic experts and mortuary workers. Many/most of these bodies will never be claimed. Some may not even be identified.

Presumed narco murder on Mexico's famed Riviera Maya

Felipe Carrillo Puerto, Quintana Roo - The 28 year old son of the Director of Urban Development in this Gold Coast state was kidnapped and murdered today, says a spokesperson for the prosecutor´s office. Police say Amer Abisai Montalvo Pool was shot at least twice with a .38 caliber weapon. His body was found near the vehicle which he had been driving. Evidence indicates he may have been chased by his assailants.

The events occurred in Felipe Carrillo Puerto municipality. Although one media report called the homicide the presumed work of drug traffickers, officials have not yet so characterized it. Family members said that in recent days Pool had received telephone threats from unknown persons. His body showed signs of beating and other physical abuse, presumably inflicted just before or just after he was shot. Pool’s throat was cut.

In recent months Quintana Roo state has experienced increasing levels of drug related violence. On September 9, Playa del Carmen’s Chief of Tourist Police Mario Gómez Frías was executed at close range while on patrol. A second officer with him was shot four times but survived. On September 14 the mayor of Solidaridad, Filiberto Martínez Méndez, survived an attack while he was traveling from Playa del Carmen to Cancun. That event occurred on the main road from Cancun International Airport to the city proper.

All of this is the work of the drug cartel Los Zetas. The entire Gold Coast tourist trade -- Cancun, Playa del Carmen and similar resorts -- could collapse, just as did Acapulco's on Mexico's Pacific coast, if local authorities don't get the situation under control. The drugs are moving north from Belize, and that's why Q.R. has become such a battleground.

Yucatan Times story, with photo.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez in serious condition

Several months ago Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez -- the United States' two aspirin headache in this region -- announced that he had an undisclosed form of cancer. The official version is that the illness was discovered when he was in Havana for an unrelated surgical procedure in June. After receiving several rounds of chemotherapy Chávez returned home to much fanfare in Caracas, announcing that by all means he would be a candidate in the country's 2012 presidential election. Now the question is whether he'll make it that long.

U.S. diplomat Roger Noriega, a former ambassador to the Organization of American States, says that reliable "inside sources" have told him that Chávez is "in very serious condition and is not reacting well" to the latest round of treatment. Chávez flew to Havana last weekend in the company of Bolivian president Evo Morales, and predicted that this week's chemotherapy would be his final. Apparently it's not working out that way. Noriega has allegedly told U.S. officials that they should prepare for "a world without Hugo Chávez," or at least one with a greatly reduced Chávez presence.

Noriega says that Chávez is concealing the truth about his condition because he believes he can be reelected only if the Venezuelan people are confident that he is recovering, and that he'll actually be able to serve as president for a few more years. The plan, according to Noriega, is just to get Chávez' name on the ballot, assuming that he is marginally well enough to make a few campaign appearances. Noriega says that Chávez' still wide-spread popularity in the country is not transferable to other political candidates he might endorse.

In Havana today Chávez' brimmed with confidence as he told Venezuelan television, "God willing, this last treatment will be enough."

Felipe Calderón acknowledges Mexican police corruption: "We need to get our house in order"

Winding up his trip to the United States after addressing the U.N. General Assembly in New York, President Calderon stopped in Los Angeles and delivered his remarks to the Mexican community there. "It's going to take time, but we don´t have any option, we have to clean up the police in our country." He also urged his audience, "Write your families back home, tell them to go to their governor, go to their mayor, and ask, 'When are you going to clean up these police departments?'" The president added, "Help us, because if society as a whole does not get involved and make some demands on our officials, this job is never going to get done."

Calderon condemned again the now defunct DEA "Fast and Furious" arms sales program, which resulted in the transfer of over 2,000 military grade firearms directly to Mexican drug cartels or their purchasing agents in the United States. He told his L.A. audience that after Mexico captured the high ranking narco criminal Jesús Enrique Rejón Aguilar, Aguilar testified that U.S. DEA agents had even showed him how to remove a tracking device from an AK-47 they had sold him. While some heads rolled as a result of "Fast and Furious" (http://mexicogulfreporter-supplement.blogspot.com/2011/11/two-us-officials-quit-over-fast-and.html), others involved actually got promotions. As the saying goes, government work is great if you can get it.

Dollar hammers Peso in early trading; Greek economic woes continue; U.S. markets nosedive

Update Friday, Sept. 23, 9:00 a.m. The U.S. dollar is still on a roll this morning. In most institutions a dollar will return at least 13 pesos, and those wising to buy dollars will have to fork over 14+ pesos -- both yearly highs.
Original Report: The U.S. dollar hit another high as world markets opened this morning. A dollar cost 14.05 Mexican pesos, and brought 13.25 pesos in return. Some experts predict that by day's end the dollar will return 13.65 to 13.95 pesos. Continuing global economic difficulties coupled with the European sovereign debt crisis, the latter of which has its epicenter in Greece, are vigorously boosting the U.S. currency. For the same reasons the dollar also advanced against the Euro. Greece announced today that it will continue with austerity measures in order to avoid default on its public debt. Pensions were cut again and civil service jobs were suspended or terminated, which brought demonstrators onto the streets once more. Transportation workers and air traffic controllers are staging work stoppages, which will disrupt travel. The situation is really heating up in Athens, just as it did in May and June, and there is the potential for violent uprisings. Further evidence that both Europe and the United States stand at The Edge of the Precipice. See my post below.

Update from the Associated Press Thursday, Sept. 22, 4:00 p.m. "Stocks have closed sharply lower after investors sold stocks with abandon, convinced that the U.S. and the world are headed for a new recession. The Dow Jones industrial average fell as much as 527 points. At the close of trading, the Dow was down 391.01 points, or 3.5 percent, at 10,733.83. Nineteen stocks fell for every one that rose."