Consider what has happened in just the past few weeks:
- An article in the August 5, 2011 issue of The Week magazine reported that the Columbian government was going to dismantle the government agency that was responsible for overseeing the assets that were seized from drug cartels and gangs. This agency was created 20 years ago to oversee to manage the real estate, mansions, ranches, artwork, cars, jets, cash, and other stuff taken from arrested criminals.
Why is the agency being disbanded? Apparently, agency employees had seen to it that most of the seized assets had disappeared due to corruption and mismanagement. The missing assets were valued in the billions of dollars. An official investigating the scandal reported that he was looking at "the mother camp, the starship, of corruption." The remaining assets will be inventoried, sold off, and proceeds given to victims of drug violence.
This is just another example of how cancerous the failed war on drugs can become. The outrageous amount of money that has become concentrated in drug criminal organizations can now reach into any aspect of a legitimate government, corrupting the quality and principles that government should stand for. Such cancers are a direct danger to freedom and liberty everywhere.
- An Associated Press report from September 2, 2011 reported that Mexican police arrested 31 suspected drug cartel members associated with the Zetas drug cartel. What makes this bust different from other basic drug busts is that more than half of the 31 people arrested were actually police officers.
This is just another example of the types of corruption we just covered in Columbia and we can expect in our own country if we do not address this problem soon. The reach and wealth of the drug cartels is so large that it is apparently not a problem for them to reach deeply into all aspects of the government operations, the same operations that are supposed to be above criminal influence.
As an aside, the article reports that at least 35,000 Mexican citizens have been killed in violent incidents relative to the Mexican government's crackdown on the drug cartels which began in late 2006. This comes out to an average of over 20 citizens a day losing their lives.
- Another Associated Press article, this one from September 9, 2011 reported that the Mexican navy had recently dismantled a sophisticated drug cartel telecommunications system, an action that included the arrest of 80 people and six police officers. The equipment they confiscated included 13 radio antennae that enabled the Zetas gang to coordinate its drug activities across several Mexican cities.
This is just another example of how powerful the drug cartels have become. What other criminal activity could afford to operate its own sophisticated communications system like this one?
- Late August, over 50 Mexican citizens were killed when armed men ignited gasoline at a casino in Monterrey, Mexico. The local attorney general said the atrocity was an act of a unnamed drug cartel. Cartels apparently often extort casinos and other businesses, threatening violence if the businesses refuse to pay the blackmail. Unfortunately, this possible act of retaliation resulted in over 50 gamblers getting caught in the violence and losing their lives.
- Speaking of blackmail, an article in the September 9, 2011 issue of The Week magazine reported that 10% of the schools in Acapulco, Mexico had to close becasue teachers were not showing up for work. Why? Because, according to the teachers, some of their peers had been kidnapped for not giving the drug cartels half of their salaries as demanded by the cartels. Thus, the cartels are not only exhorting money from bsuinesses but also from the salaries of common workers.
- Given the recognized violence and dangers to innocent Mexican citizens from drug cartel violence, one would have thought that the U.S. government would be doing everything possible to mitigate the violence. However, that is not the case when one considers the idiotically planned "Fast And Furious" gun running program that was implemented by the U.S. government's ATF organizations.
The original idea behind Fast and Furious was to allow weapons to be purchased under the supposed watchful eye of ATF agents in the southwestern part of the United States, allow those purchased weapons to cross over into Mexico, and hopefully, track those weapons to drug cartels in Mexico. This would, hopefully, expose the weapon networks used by the drug cartels and help authorities shut them down.
As you can see, there was a lot hope involved in this program, none of which came to pass. The tracking of these weapons never materialized but the weapons did materialize in the hands of drug cartel people in Mexico. According to a September 9, 2011 article that appeared in the LA Times, the tracking of over 2,000 weapons were lost and hundreds of these weapons have turned up at hundreds of Mexican crime scenes, many of which involved the deaths of Mexican citizens. Two of the lost weapons were also found at the site where U.S. Border Patrol agent Brian Terry was killed.
The article discusses an example of one incident of this illegal arms purchase. In emails uncovered by Congressional committees looking into this fiasco, they found a documented incident where an Arizona food stamp recipient walked into a gun store, plopped down $12,000 in cash, and walked out with a tripod mounted .50 caliber rifle. And the ATF let him get away with what was obviously a drug cartel financed purchase.
The article further reports that personnel in White House actually knew what was going on with this program, given the email trail the Congressional investigations have found. Thus, the upper echelon of our government knew that this illegal and ill formed plan was going on. Who knows how many laws were broken, with the knowledge of White House personnel.
Illegal guns were purchased with government knowledge. Illegal gun purchases were allowed to illegally cross a U.S. border. Illegal guns purchased and illegally allowed to pass over a border which was in violation of international gun treaties and laws. Illegal guns purchased and illegally allowed to cross a U.S. border in violation of international treaties and laws are involved in the death of scores of Mexican citizens and a U.S. Border patrol agent. What a mess.
What is to be learned by all of these related incidents? The money and the related corruption involved is massive, leading to the drug cartels being able to pervert government and police integrity in more than one country. Money that results in the cartels obtaining the latest weaponry and latest support resources such as a wide ranging, instantaneous communications system. Government incompetence that actually breaks the law and facilitates the cartels getting a lot of heavy duty weaponry, such as the .50 caliber weapon discussed above.
Something has to be done before all of these horrible effects take root in this country. We need a focused, comprehensive, and probably courageous stand by the political class to understand root causes of the drug addiction problem in this country, what are viable options to minimize the negative impacts of these root causes on our society, government, and democracy, and what is the correct solution to fix this exploding problem.
Step 26 from "Love My Country, Loathe My Government" provides a possible process to execute this change. And a changed strategy is needed, the current strategy, the "war on drugs" has resulted in today's dangerous environment.
My fear is that the courage will not be there within the politcal class any time soon. To try and execute a change in our strategy in this area, a year from a Presidential election, will be next to impossible, given the less than stellar performance of our politicians in the past. And that trait will likely result in more corruption, more addiction, more violence, and more death. A disgrace.
Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available, at http://www.loathemygovernment.com/. It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday
Please visit the following sites for freedom:
http://www.loathemygovernment.com/
http://www.cato.org/
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://realpolichick.blogspot.com/
http://www.flipcongress2010.com/
http://www.reason.com/
http://www.repealamendment.com/
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