Will PRI's 2012 pretty boy candidate be "in bed with the cartels?" - so says Calderón

Opinion and News Analysis

Enrique Peña Nieto is a PRI politician who will almost certainly be the party's 2012 presidential standard bearer. He was governor of the State of Mexico until a few weeks ago, when he resigned to prepare for the campaign ahead.

Peña Nieto is a Robert Redford-style "pretty boy" politician. He'd look great on the cover of GQ magazine, sporting the latest fall offerings from Brooks Bros. Last year he married a popular Mexican soap opera ("telenovela") star, in a splashy wedding attended by the rich and famous. As a political candidate, Peña Nieto is right out of central casting.

Problem is, that's where it all ends. The man has not a a coherent thought in his head. I watched him in a 20 minute interview with the Mexican Milenio network a couple of weeks ago. He never stopped talking. He spoke right over the questions which the interviewer was desperately trying to get out. Peña Nieto is a motor mouth, yet he never really says anything. Perhaps he picked up his style by watching some U.S. politicians. He's been quoted as saying that since he was a little boy, he knew he wanted to be president of Mexico. What could be a worse prognosis for the country?

Yesterday the New York Times published a wide raging interview with president Felipe Calderón (see my posts just below). Accompanying the interview was a sidebar article. The article contained a statement by Republican congressman Mike McCaul of Texas, who serves on the House Homeland Security Committee. McCaul says that Calderón has already made it clear to U.S. officials that if Peña Nieto is elected, "he'll be weak on (anti-drug) matters and will sleep in the same bed as the cartels." In other words, a return to the "good ol' boy" days of so many previous PRI administrations.

What I like about Felipe Calderón is that he invariably tells it just like it is.

"Back to the Good Old Days:" Editorial of October 16, 2011 from The Yucatan Times

Click here: http://www.theyucatantimes.com/2011/10/back-to-the-good-old-days-in-mexico/.

Mexico's PRI party claims Iranian plot against U.S. was all make believe

The Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) ruled Mexico with an iron fist for 70 years, until the presidential election of 2000, which it lost to former president Vicente Fox. PRI lost again in 2006, to Mexico's current PAN (National Action Party) president Felipe Calderón. PRI is determined to recapture the presidency next year, and most political observers here agree that it has an excellent chance of doing so.

The centerpiece of PRI's 2012 campaign strategy is its opposition to Calderón's five year old war against the drug cartels, which it says has been a failure and a disastrous mistake. Today a PRI senate leader, Carolos Jiménez Macías (pictured below), upped the ante by accusing U.S. and Mexican authorities of having fabricated an Iranian plot to kill one or more foreign ambassadors in Washington, D.C. The plot was broken up by the FBI on September 29 with the arrest of one of the two Iranian ringleaders in New York, but the Justice Department did not disclose details until earlier this week. One of those details was that the arrested Iranian had traveled several times to Mexico to deal with a drug cartel sicario (hit man) who was supposed to carry out the murder(s). The hit man was in fact a Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) undercover operative.

U.S. officials have praised Mexico's cooperation and assistance in busting up the plot, and some Calderón officials took a bow earlier this week when the story broke. But the whole event may never have occurred, suggests the PRI political boss. "Let's see if over time it doesn't appear that the Americans (set up) the whole 'plot,'" said Jiménez Macíasn, who chairs the Mexican Senate's Asian-Pacific Foreign Affairs Committee. He also claimed that the episode was part of a U.S. attempt to intervene in Mexico's internal affairs.

Footnote: In a wide ranging September 28 interview with the New York Times published this weekend, president Calderón said that there are some in PRI who would prefer to return to the "old days," and try to "make a deal" with organized crime forces. That's a very charitable understatement. During decades of PRI control, nothing was done to curb the growing influence of drug traffickers. Even during the presidency of Calderón's immediate predecessor, Vicente Fox (a half-baked, early edition PANista), very little was done. Felipe Calderón is the first president in the history of Mexico to launch a full scale offensive against domestic criminals -- the drug cartels. The question is, will that offensive go up in smoke when a new president takes office in December 2012?

More on the Iranian plot: http://mexicogulfreporter.blogspot.com/2011/10/us-busts-iranian-plot-to-assassinate.html.

More on PRI: http://mexicogulfreporter.blogspot.com/2011/10/writer-excoriates-mexicos-pri-party.html; and: http://mexicogulfreporter.blogspot.com/2011/10/jurrasic-park-in-mexico.html.

17 Texas counties dominated by cartels

Mexican cartels, particularly Los Zetas and Cartel Golfo, dominate drug trafficking and other serious crimes in 17 Texas counties, says the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

According to a 51 page 2011 Threat Assessment, some six million Texans reside in the affected areas, most of them along the Gulf coast. The epicenter of drug activities in the area is Houston, which serves as the primary dropping off point and distribution center for narcotics headed to many destinations, especially the southeastern United States.

The overwhelming majority of traffickers in the busy corridor which extends from the border to Houston are Mexican, or have ties to Mexican gangs. Other cartels active in the region include La Familia Michoacána and Cartel Sinaloa. But law enforcement authorities emphasize that all of the cartels work closely with local organized crime elements on the Texas side of the border.

The FBI says that large quantities of drugs cross the border at Reynosa, Matamoros and Nuevo Laredo, and proceed to locations like Beaumont, Corpus Christi and Houston, where cartels maintain safe houses to store drugs and weapons. The government says that Houston is an important distribution center for New Orleans and other U.S. cities in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana and Mississippi.

Mexican drug cartels recruit Texas school kids, says Department of Public Safety

Mexican drug cartels actively recruit U.S. secondary school students to work with them and support narcotics trafficking operations on both sides of the border, says the Texas Dept. of Public Safety. In a public warning to parents of adolescents, officials said they have been aware of the problem since 2009, but several recent events involving students have heightened their concerns.

DPS says that drug traffickers employ youngsters to carry drugs across border bridges connecting Mexico with Texas. Because the kids speak both Spanish and English, and live in the area, they are naturals for the work. They blend in well, and their age makes them less likely to be suspected by law enforcement.

The agency reported one case of a 12 year old resident of a border county who was arrested while driving a stolen van with over 800 kilos of marijuana. In another incident, two young boys were lured into Mexico with the promise of earning money. Once there, they were held as captives until their families paid a ransom for their release.

"Parents need to speak with their children, and let them know how the cartels want to exploit them," said DPS. "Obviously, a drug dealer is not going to show up at your front door, waving dollar bills. He’s going to try to befriend your child at school."

Texas border counties are home to less than 10% of the state’s population, but about 20% of all minors convicted of serious offenses live there, says the Dept. of Public Safety.

24 hours of violence in Acapulco, Veracruz leaves 17 dead

Despite the fact that both of these coastal resort cities have heavy concentrations of federal and state law enforcement authorities, violence and executions continue. Eleven bodies were found in different locations of Guerrero state, where Acapulco is located, and six in Veracruz and its environs. The separate incidents occurred from Thursday night through Friday (October 13-14).

In September, Veracruz experienced an unprecedented surge of violence, with over 80 execution victims being dumped by drug gangs, some in public locations and in broad daylight. Authorities attribute those events to a war between the rival Los Zetas and Los Matazetas, and sent in federal troops a week ago. In Guerrero, extortion threats received by school teachers coupled with the ordinary daily diet of narcoviolence also prompted the government to send in federal reinforcements.

At Mexico's national Dialog for Peace yesterday (see post just below), president Felipe Calderón said that Veracruz had been "left in the hands" of Los Zetas. He implied that local officials bear part of the blame. Last week its chief prosecutor abruptly resigned (http://mexicogulfreporter.blogspot.com/2011/10/do-nothing-prosecutor-of-veracruz.html). The governor of Veracruz has continued to deny the seriousness of the problem presented by warring cartels in the region (http://mexicogulfreporter.blogspot.com/2011/10/make-believe-world-of-veracruz-governor.html), and has suggested that last month's mass dumping of bodies in the city represents little more than criminals killed by criminals.

Federal magistrate to al-Qaida: you owe $9.3 billion USD for 9/11 attacks

In 2003, a group of insurance companies which had been required to satisfy property and casualty claims arising out of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks filed a civil indemnification action in a New York federal court against al-Qaida. The shadowy international organization of course never responded to the lawsuit, and a default judgment was entered against it in 2006.

In recent months a damage hearing was held on the claim, and today a magistrate recommended that judgment be entered against al-Qaida for $9.3 billion USD. The magistrate found the actual damages to be $3.1 billion, but at the plaintiffs' request he tripled them, as allowed by federal law. The magistrate's ruling now goes to a U.S. district judge, who likely will approve it as a matter of course.

Unless assets traceable to al-Qaida are discovered, the judgment will be worth no more than the paper on which it's printed. But civil judgments in the United States never expire, provided they are periodically renewed.

Mexico fires 121 immigration agents for corruption and narco ties

Mexico's National Institute for Migration (INM) is responsible for processing and keeping tabs on tens of thousands of tourists, visitors, immigrants and undocumented persons who pass through the country every year, including many from war torn areas in Central America, where drug traffickers are locked in vicious conflict with civil authorities.

From time to time allegations surface that some INM personnel are on the payrolls of drug cartels, or are taking bribes, or are tolerating the abuse of poor migrants passing through the country on their way to the U.S. In recent months there have been several highly publicized cases of migrants who were kidnapped by traffickers and extorted for cash, or pressed into service as "drug mules" for the cartels, and forced to carry narcotics across the border. Hundreds of those migrants were later executed and buried in remote graves. Their remains are still being discovered. And here in Merida, in 2009, a high ranking INM official was fired after he was linked to a local prostitution ring which smuggled in women from neighboring countries, including Cuba. His job was to get them falsified visas and work documents. He narrowly escaped criminal prosecution, and was barred from government employment for 15 years.

Today INM announced the summary firing of 121 of its employees, in the states of Chiapas, Sonora, Tabasco, Tamaulipas, Quintana Roo, Veracruz and the Federal District, all of which have heavy migrant or transient populations. The government said they were suspected of corruption or ties to organized crime, but gave no other details.

Ladies in White ("Las Damas de Blanco") founder dies in Havana from Dengue fever

The Ladies in White of Havana is a loose knit organization started almost a decade ago by a group of women protesting the detention of 75 men arrested during a wave of political repression in 2003. They have frequently clashed with Cuban authorities over the years, and at times have been roughed up on the streets by Castro regime agents and sympathizers. The group was originally composed of immediate family members of the 75 detainees, but eventually morphed into a much broader organization, espousing the political and civil rights of every Cuban, and demanding the release of all political prisoners. Because of their nonviolent resistance, hey have proved themselves a formidable adversary -- and a major headache -- for the Old Men of Havana.

This evening comes word that one of their founders, 63 year old Laura Pollan, has died after a week long battle with the dreaded Dengue fever. Dengue is a tropical, mosquito born illness which afflicts much of the world, including the Yucatán, where there have been a number of deaths in recent weeks. Fortunately, most people experience milder forms of Dengue, and statistically very few actually succumb to the illnes. Pollan died in a Havana hospital, where she was admitted after developing severe respiratory problems.

Pollan's husband, one of the original 75, was just released in February.

Note: Subsequent press reports in the days immediately following Pollan's death have disagreed on the exact cause(s). It appears that she suffered from numerous ailments, and was generally in a compromised state of health when hospitalized. But she did have Dengue. This is probably one of those cases where a physically stronger person would have survived.

Calderón strategy against drug cartels having positive impact in U.S., says DEA

The United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) says that moving drugs into the U.S. has became more challenging for Mexico’s cartels since president Felipe Calderón took office in 2006.

"Our intelligence information, which includes intercepted communications between traffickers, corroborates the fact that president Calderón’s efforts have made it more difficult to supply the U.S. market with drugs," said Rodney G. Benson, DEA’s intelligence director, in testimony and a report presented to a House of Representatives committee on October 4. The report was released today.

From January 2007 to March 2011, the price of a gram of cocaine rose 87.2%, from an average of $101 dollars to an average of $189 dollars, according to the DEA. The agency attributes the increase to disruption of shipments north. "This is a positive impact without parallel," said Benson.

The DEA report said that "the battle against organized crime launched by Calderón is a heroic effort which has left the cartels wounded and vulnerable, but also more dangerous, (since they are) acting out of true desperation."

DEA claims that the cartels now supply drugs worldwide, including to Europe, Australia, Asia, and the Middle East, as well as the United States.

Benson argued against those who urge consideration of legalizing drugs in order to reduce violence. "History indicates that once traffickers leave the drug trade, they simply gravitate to other forms of crime," he told legislators.

Dec. 30, 2011 - Calderón drug war strategy has been the right one
Nov. 21, 2011 - Why the L.A. Times Just Doesn't Get It

Mexicans pour out emotions at national town hall: The Dialog for Peace

Mexicans from all regions of the country and all walks of life gathered today at a national forum on how best to deal with the endless cycle of drug violence which is racking the nation. The so-called Dialog for Peace was held in Mexico City’s historic Chapultepec Castle (pictured). President Felipe Calderón, accompanied by his wife, presided over the often emotional gathering, accompanied by various government officials and cabinet members.

Many family members of victims of narcoviolence appeared and delivered statements, often imploring Calderón’s government to change its strategy, or to abandon altogether the offensive against the drug cartels. Some accused the president of having turned Mexico into a police state, and of violating the country’s constitution by using military forces to suppress domestic crime. Calderón denied both charges. One speaker told the president that he owed an apology to Los Zetas, generally regarded as the most violent and brutal of Mexico’s cartels. “That I will never do,” responded Calderon.

Mexican poet and peace activist Javier Sicilia, whose son was murdered in March 2011, accused Calderón of actively fostering the popular belief that vigilante or paramilitary squads – such as Los Matazetas – would assist the government in its ongoing war against the cartels. “There are no paramilitaries in Mexico,” said the president.

The president denied that Mexico has taken on an “authoritarian face” by aggressively going after the cartels. “I, too, favor an integrated approach” to the problem of crime, he said, in reference to the demands of many speakers for more focused attention on economic and social issues which promote drug trafficking.

Earlier this week a group of Mexican attorneys and others submitted a complaint to the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands, asking that Calderón and other Mexican government and military leaders be indicted for acts amounting to war crimes. An initial hearing in that case is scheduled for November 25.

Today's Dialog for Peace began at 9:00 a.m. and ended at 3:30 p.m. This was the country's second such national forum this year.

About the International Criminal Court case: http://mexicogulfreporter.blogspot.com/2011/10/mexican-intellectuals-will-file-hauge.html; and: http://mexicogulfreporter.blogspot.com/2011/10/prominent-mexican-professor-leads.html; and: http://mexicogulfreporter.blogspot.com/2011/10/mexican-government-officially-responds.html.

About Los Matazetas: http://mexicogulfreporter.blogspot.com/2011/09/mexicos-new-vigilantes-los-matas-zetas.html; and: http://mexicogulfreporter.blogspot.com/2011/10/los-matazetas-are-just-competing-drug.html; and: http://mexicogulfreporter.blogspot.com/2011/10/8-matazetas-12-zetas-arrested-in.html.

Cuba rejected one for one prisoner swap

The Associated Press reports this morning that Cuba recently rejected a swap of Maryland contractor Alan Gross, who is serving a 15 year sentence in Havana for state security crimes, in return for the release to Cuba of convicted spy René González. González, 50, was freed from a federal prison on October 7, after serving 13 years for conspiracy and failing to disclose that he was a Cuban agent. Under the terms of a conditional release order, he must remain in the United States under parole supervision for another 36 months. González is a U.S. born citizen, but also holds Cuban citizenship.

AP said its story is based upon information provided by U.S. officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. According to the proposal, once Gross had been freed the U.S. would "evaluate other Cuban complaints." The primary other Cuban complaint is its demand for the release of González' co-conspirators, all of whom were arrested in south Florida in 1998. Convicted of similar crimes, the group is collectively known as the Miami Five. The four others are still serving lengthy prison terms, and the U.S. has repeatedly said it will not swap them for Gross, who it refers to as a political prisoner.

Today's news is not surprising. In Mexico City earlier this week, the president of Cuba's parliament, Richard Alarcón, publicly rejected the same proposal. "How could anybody think that the two cases are comparable? One deals with a man who is just finishing up a (13 year) sentence (González),the other with a man who is just beginning a (15 year) sentence (Gross). It's like comparing apples to pears."

According to the AP report, Cuba counter offered to release Gross in return for González and at least one other of the Miami Five, a trade which the U.S. rejected, says AP.

Footnote to this story: Following the A.P. report, the U.S. State Department denied today that it had ever offered to trade even René González for Alan Gross. Officials from State did acknowledge that in September, direct talks were held with Cuban officials over the Gross case, but nothing else. "We're not considering freeing any of the Five," said a spokesperson. The absolute stalemate continues.

More on the René González case: http://www.theyucatantimes.com/2011/09/u-s-shows-revolting-double-standard-in-rene-gonzalez-case/.
More on Richard Alarcón's statements: http://mexicogulfreporter.blogspot.com/2011/10/cuba-gives-resounding-no-to-unilateral.html.
Why there should be a complete prisoner exchange: http://www.theyucatantimes.com/2011/08/alan-gross-y-los-cinco-de-miami/.

El siempre extraño Vicente Fox

¿Qué exactamente significan hoy los comentarios de el estimable Vicente Fox? Entrevisto esta tarde por periodistas sobre la cooperación entre México y el gobierno de los Estados Unidos por interrumpir un complot entre dos iranís y un supuesto sicario de los zetas (pero realmente, un agente encubierto de DEA), dijo el ex mandatario mexicano, “Es una tomadura de pelo, es una tomadura de pelo eso. Ya no voy a decir más. Esa es una tomadura de pelo. Tú interpreta mis palabras.” Según los reporteros presentes, Fox estaba muy enojado sobre la tema.

Siempre muy extraño, eso señor . Pero recuerden, el mismo Fox ha opinado que sería buena idea negociar una paz -- o “cesar de fuego” -- con los narcos.

Bueno, que lo haga, Vicente.

Mexico gives a boost to education

Mexico's Cámara de Diputados, or lower legislative body, today approved a proposed constitutional amendment which will mandate a high school education for all students. The measure now passes to the legislatures of the 32 Mexican states (including the federal district) for formal ratification. Seventeen of those must approve it before it can be signed into law by president Felipe Calderón.

The proposed amendment was passed once before by the lower house, in December 2010. But the Mexican Senate made some minor changes to the law, which had to be approved by the deputies. They did so today by an easy margin.

Legislators say that by 2021, the plan for mandatory secondary education will be in place throughout Mexico. Currently, Mexican law requires only nine years of education. The new law will specify 12. Mexico has over 20 million citizens between 10 and 19 years of age.

Drug cartels present greater threat to U.S. security than Iran, says State Department

Only 48 hours after U.S. authorities announced the disruption of an Iranian plot to assassinate the Saudi Arabian ambassador in Washington, a State Department official told Congress today that Latin drug cartels present a greater threat to the security of the United States than does Iran.

William Brownfield, assistant secretary of state for the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, testified today before the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

“Our greatest threat is now in Central America, from where drug cartels and criminal gangs move 90% of the cocaine which arrives in the United States,” said Brownfield. He told legislators that the situation presents a serious danger to all governments in the region.

The Republican committee chair said that the potential for internationally linked terrorism should be of great concern to the U.S., since one of the arrested Iranians had tried to hire someone he believed to be a Mexican drug cartel sicario (hit man) to carry out the planned assassination. The hit man was actually an undercover DEA agent.

The senior Democrat on the committee said that the United States should view its “neighbors (in Latin America) not as threats, but as opportunities” to enhance U.S. security.

More on the Iranian plot.
More on Latin drug cartels and their U.S. operations.