Threatened Mexico police boss quits

[bemildred]

Source: al Jazeera

The police chief of Mexico's largest border city has stepped down after criminal gangs threatened to kill a policeman every 48 hours until he resigns.

Roberto Orduna, the public safety secretary in Ciudad Juarez, quit hours after a police officer and prison guard from the city were found dead on Friday.

Both bodies had messages from unnamed criminal gangs saying at that least one officer would be killed every two days until he quits.

The slayings were a sign that criminal gangs are determined to control the police force of the biggest Mexican border city, with a population of 1.3 million people south of El Paso, Texas.


Read more: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2009/02/200922022404773139.html

[No Elephants]

1. Yikes. Scary.

[The Brethren]

3. Yup, very scary

for Mexico and us.



Know what you're paying for. The Stimulus Plan ("American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009"): Orig. House version -- http://appropriations.house.gov/pdf/RecoveryBill01-15-09.pdf , House spreadsheet -- http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pV-c6t5fOVmNorqMpHvnCMw ; Senate version -- http://appropriations.senate.gov/News/2009_02_02_The_American_Recovery_and_Reinvestment_Act_of_2009.pdf ; and Senate compromise -- http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h111-1 , Text and $$$ details of Senate compromise -- http://appropriations.senate.gov/News/2009_02_08_UPDATED_Appropriations_Provisions_of_American_Recovery_and_Reinvestment_Act.pdf?CFID=4043629&CFTOKEN=40573040 . In addition to -- http://readthestimulus.org/amdth1.pdf , along with -- http://www.readthestimulus.org/ . Final version, Feb. 13th, 1500 pgs. worth -- http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/arra_public_review/ , more details on the final version -- http://www.taxpayer.net/resources.php?category=&type=Project&proj_id=1913&action=Headlines%20By%20TCS , including spending -- http://cbs4denver.com/national/Web.government.accountability.2.937188.html

[downindixie]

2. legalise drugs

take away the profit.

"Prohibition goes beyond the bounds of reason in that it attemps to control a man's appetite by legislation,and makes a crime out of things that are not crimes"

Abraham Lincoln

[carlyhippy]

6. if drugs are legalized, wouldn't it make the cartels angry?

They would be losing price control of their businesses...I am for legalization of pot, if alcohol is legal, so should be cannibis.

[Still Sensible]

4. Horrible what's going on there

but I just hate inaccuracy. Juarez is not the largest border city and it is not even close. Tijuana has at least 3.5 million people (even though the Mexican census that pretty much everybody knows is woefully inaccurate says 1.5 million). In any event, it's bigger than Juarez. Of course Tijuana is having plenty of murder of its own to contend with.

[carlyhippy]

5. probably a wise choice on his behalf

.

[bemildred]

7. That was my thought.

It's kinda obvious who's winning.

[rabs]

8. Mexicans talk about the violence

We had dinner tonight with 10 Mexican nationals living legally and working here in the States. Steered the conversation to the violence along the border.

Cartels along the border are fighting among themselves for control of the drug traffic to the U.S. They pay police and in some cases soldiers for protection. So Cartel A will attack Cartel B, killing cartel members, plus its police and soldiers. Cartel B retaliates, killing members of Cartel A and its police and soldiers. It is a war of cartels, in which innocent people are caught in the cross-fire.

Two cartel killings recently have taken place on this side of the border, a hit done in El Paso and another in Albuquerque.

Two people said they knew of two kidnappings where ransom had been paid but the victim was killed anyway. Those were not drug connected, but were done by common criminals.

Intriguing historical was related by a man at the dinner: In Mexico it is said that every 100 years there is a war.

1810: Mexico's war of independence from Spain.
1910: Beginning of the Mexican Revolution.
2010: ?????

Mexico has a population of 110 million, so do not foresee any large-scale civil war. What I do see is a civil war among the cartels fighting to control the flow of drugs across the border. For the folks at the dinner, that's okay with them. Let the cartels kill each other off.

If the violence spreads, maybe the solution would be the militarization of the northern border states, followed by a full-scale "pinochetazo" to wipe out the cartels.