That same article also reviewed the latest violence and reach of the drug cartels including examples that ranged from the streets of Phoenix to the woods of North Carolina. With our politicians too busy trying to protect their political careers, with this President having attended well over 150 political fund raisers just in 2012 alone, and Congress currently on a five week vacation, I think that we can assume nothing will be done in the foreseeable future to address our 40 year losing/lost war on drugs.
However, as a public service, let's review what has been going on with the cartels since we last discussed their reach, wealth and violence back in June in order to continue to appreciate the growth of their power in the face of our polticians' inaction:
- In a July 26, 2012 Associated Press article, the Mexican government's human rights commission reported that while there had been 126 attacks on Mexican journalists or media outlets since 2000, only 24 of these cases have been prosecuted, and only two of these cases resulted in conviction. Those attacks resulted in 82 journalists being killed and 16 that have gone missing, their whereabouts or bodies never discovered.
The overwhelming majority of these attacks were probably from Mexican drug cartels that do not like to have their names and deeds published in any form. When journalists are in danger just from reporting the truth, freedom of the press and democracy in general are in mortal danger of being swallowed up by the drug cartel violence. While hard working, honest Mexican journalists are being assassinated at alarming rates, our politicans are on a five week vacation.
- A June 15, 2012 article from the Associated Press reported five heavily armed Mexican policemen entered a hotel in western Mexico just before dawn to apprehend three men that they marched out of the hotel in handcuffs and their underwear. Sounds like a typical police raid of some bad guys that could occur in a city and in any country.
But while these were apparently legitimate police officers, it turns out they were not making any arrests. Local Mexican prosecutors say these real police officers apparently were taking orders from criminals. Just hours after the three were seized, they were found asphyxiated and beaten to death, most likely the work of a drug cartel kill order. We know this happened because the apprehension aspect of the hit was caught on videotape.
The article reports that not only were real police used in the caper but they also used real police vehicles. Despite having a clean view of the faces of those involved, it took Mexican authorities about six months to finally getting around to arresting the offending officers, none of whom have gone on trial yet.
The article also reported on another incident in Mexico where a town's mayor was assassinated by officers on his own police force. His transgression? Honestly trying to clean up drug cartel-related corruption in his local government. While police are getting corrupted in Mexico, our politicians are on a five week vacation.
- An Associated Press report from June 13, 2012 reported on how the drug cartels are now tunneling their booty into the United States rather than bringing them overland. Details of the article include the following:
- Three sophisticated drug tunnels equipped with lighting and ventilation, including one with an actual rail car system, were recently discovered along the Mexican border in less than one week.
- Authorities believe these tunnels signal that the drug cartels are building passages to escape heightened detection above ground.
- Two of the tunnels were incomplete, including one that the Mexican army found in a Tijuana warehouse. This tunnel had more than 40 TONS of marijuana at its entry.
- The tunnel stretched nearly 400 yards, including more than 100 yards into the United States.
- Mexican soldiers found the Tijuana warehouse along with four moving trucks full of marijuana, a trailer full of dirt, pickaxes, wheelbarrows, drills and other excavation equipment. This is the tunnel that was equipped with a rail car system.
- A completed tunnel was found in a vacant strip mall store in the southwestern Arizona city of San Luis.
- An incomplete tunnel along Arizona's border with Mexico was found during an inspection of a drainage system on the Mexican side of Nogales in early stages of construction.
- According to the AP article, the 240-yard tunnel in San Luis, showed a level of sophistication not typically associated with other crude smuggling passageways that tie into storm drains in the state: "When you see what is there and the way they designed it, it wasn't something that your average miner could put together," said Douglas Coleman, special agent in charge of the Phoenix division of the Drug Enforcement Administration. "You would need someone with some engineering expertise to put something together like this."
- More than 70 tunnels have been uncovered coming out of Mexico since October 2008 and more than 150 drug smuggling tunnels have been found along the border since 1990.
- Law enforcement raids late last year on two tunnels, linking San Diego and Tijuana, uncovered a 52 TONS of marijuana on both sides of the border.
- According to an August 3, 2012 article from the LA Times, a former Mexican state governor recently pleaded guilty in a U.S. court to accusations that he helped launder millions of dollars for cocaine traffickers in Mexico.
According to the article, former governor Mario Villanueva "was paid between $400,000 and $500,000 in cash for each load of cocaine that [the Juarez cartel] brought into and shipped out of Quintana Roo," which added up to millions of dollars in the 1990s. "In return, [he] provided state and federal police and other resources to offload, transport, store and protect the cocaine shipments."
Villanueva was not a member of a fringe political party, he was part of the primary political party that had ruled Mexico for decades He actually used a cohort at Lehman Brothers, a giant investment bank to launder the drug cartel's money. While the ex-govenor was pleading guilty, our politicians were on a five week vacation.
As we see above, we are still losing the war drugs. Decades after Nixon declared war on drugs, Americans still use illegal drugs, criminal gang suppliers are still more than willing to supply those illegal drugs, we still have not had an adult conversation in this country about this problem, and our politicians are on a five week vacation.
"Love My Country, Loathe My Government" proposes a process to address this ongoing problem. After forty years, doing the same thing does not appear to be working. A new, ground up approach is needed with all options on the table including decriminalization and legalization. Otherwise, before we know it, corrupt cops, dead journalists, and drug smuggling tunnels will be coming to your neighborhood soon.
Please visit our Presidential website, "The United States Of Purple," at:
http://www.unitedstatesofpurple.com/
The United States of Purple is a new grass roots approach to filling the office of President of The United States by focusing on the restoration of freedom in the United States, focusing on problem solving skills and results vs. personal political enrichment, and imposing term limits on all future Federal politicians. No more red states, no more blue states, just one United States Of America under the banner of Purple.
The United States Of Purple's website also provides you the formal opportunity to sign a petition to begin the process of implementing a Constitutional amendment to impose fixed term limits on all Federally elected politicians. Only by turning out the existing political class can we have a chance of addressing and finally resolving the major issues of or times.
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.cato.org/
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://realpolichick.blogspot.com/
http://www.flipcongress2010.com/
http://www.reason.com/
http://www.repealamendment
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