Drug Violence spins Mexicon toward "Civil War"

[Anonymous]

Anyone have any opinins about what is going on in Mexico right now?



http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/americas/02/18/mexico.drug.violence

Drug violence spins Mexico toward 'civil war'

(CNN) -- A shootout in a border city that leaves five alleged drug
traffickers sprawled dead on the street and seven police wounded. A
police chief and his bodyguards gunned down outside his house in
another border city. Four bridges into the United States shut down by
protesters who want the military out of their towns and who officials
say are backed by narcotraffickers.

That was Mexico on Tuesday.

What is most remarkable is that it was not much different from Monday
or Sunday or any day in the past few years.

Mexico, a country with a nearly 2,000-mile border with the United
States, is undergoing a horrifying wave of violence that some are
likening to a civil war. Drug traffickers battle fiercely with each
other and Mexican authorities. The homicide rate reached a record
level in 2008 and indications are that the carnage could be exceeded
this year. Watch a reporter duck to avoid gunfire »

Every day, newspapers and the airwaves are filled with stories and
images of beheadings and other gruesome killings. Wednesday's front
page on Mexico City's La Prensa carried a large banner headline that
simply said "Hysteria!" The entire page was devoted to photos of
bloody bodies and grim-faced soldiers. One photo shows a man with two
young children walking across a street with an army vehicle in the
background, with a soldier standing at a turret machine gun.

Larry Birns, director of the Washington-based Council on Hemispheric
Affairs, calls it "a sickening vertigo into chaos and plunder."

By most accounts, that's not hyperbole.

"The grisly portrait of the violence is unprecedented and horrific,"
said Robert Pastor, a Latin America national security adviser for
President Jimmy Carter in the late 1970s.

"I don't think there's any question that Mexico is going through a
very rough time. Not only is there violence with the gangs, but the
entire population is very scared," said Peter Hakim, president of the
Inter-American Dialogue, a Washington-based policy center.

Speaking on a news show a few weeks ago, former House Speaker Newt
Gingrich called it a civil war. Birns agrees.

"Of course it's a civil war, but that only touches the violence of
it," he said Wednesday. "It's also a civic conflict, as an increasing
number of people look upon the law and democratic values as something
that can be violated."

Hakim is not prepared to go that far.

"One has to be careful and not overdo it," he said. "Mexico is a long
way from being a failed state. Mexico has real institutions. It paves
roads and collects the garbage. It holds regular elections."

Enrique Bravo, an analyst with the Eurasia consulting group, points
out that the violence so far is mostly affecting just drug gangs and
is primarily localized along the U.S. border and Mexico's western
coast.

The violence along the border is particularly worrisome, analysts say.

"The spillover into the United States is bound to expand and bound to
affect U.S. institutions," Birns said.

(more)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Anyone have any opinins about what is going on in Mexico right now?



http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/americas/02/18/mexico.drug.violence

Drug violence spins Mexico toward 'civil war'

(CNN) -- A shootout in a border city that leaves five alleged drug
traffickers sprawled dead on the street and seven police wounded. A
police chief and his bodyguards gunned down outside his house in
another border city. Four bridges into the United States shut down by
protesters who want the military out of their towns and who officials
say are backed by narcotraffickers.

That was Mexico on Tuesday.

What is most remarkable is that it was not much different from Monday
or Sunday or any day in the past few years.

Mexico, a country with a nearly 2,000-mile border with the United
States, is undergoing a horrifying wave of violence that some are
likening to a civil war. Drug traffickers battle fiercely with each
other and Mexican authorities. The homicide rate reached a record
level in 2008 and indications are that the carnage could be exceeded
this year. Watch a reporter duck to avoid gunfire »

Every day, newspapers and the airwaves are filled with stories and
images of beheadings and other gruesome killings. Wednesday's front
page on Mexico City's La Prensa carried a large banner headline that
simply said "Hysteria!" The entire page was devoted to photos of
bloody bodies and grim-faced soldiers. One photo shows a man with two
young children walking across a street with an army vehicle in the
background, with a soldier standing at a turret machine gun.

Larry Birns, director of the Washington-based Council on Hemispheric
Affairs, calls it "a sickening vertigo into chaos and plunder."

By most accounts, that's not hyperbole.

"The grisly portrait of the violence is unprecedented and horrific,"
said Robert Pastor, a Latin America national security adviser for
President Jimmy Carter in the late 1970s.

"I don't think there's any question that Mexico is going through a
very rough time. Not only is there violence with the gangs, but the
entire population is very scared," said Peter Hakim, president of the
Inter-American Dialogue, a Washington-based policy center.

Speaking on a news show a few weeks ago, former House Speaker Newt
Gingrich called it a civil war. Birns agrees.

"Of course it's a civil war, but that only touches the violence of
it," he said Wednesday. "It's also a civic conflict, as an increasing
number of people look upon the law and democratic values as something
that can be violated."

Hakim is not prepared to go that far.

"One has to be careful and not overdo it," he said. "Mexico is a long
way from being a failed state. Mexico has real institutions. It paves
roads and collects the garbage. It holds regular elections."

Enrique Bravo, an analyst with the Eurasia consulting group, points
out that the violence so far is mostly affecting just drug gangs and
is primarily localized along the U.S. border and Mexico's western
coast.

The violence along the border is particularly worrisome, analysts say.

"The spillover into the United States is bound to expand and bound to
affect U.S. institutions," Birns said.

(more)

Situations south of the border have spilled over into the US and have affected US institutions and citizens. Why use "bound" and future tense?

[Anonymous]

Maybe he is saying it is bound to expand even more.

[Anonymous]

The mayor of Cuidad Juarez moved his family to El Paso last month in the face of death threats. Now the treats say the family isn't safe in El Paso either.

"Gang initiation" was behind the assault against a South Carolina sheriff's deputy and his K-9 dog by three youths 15 - 19. The objective was to "get us a cop." All three are in the country illegally, all three carried 12 g. shotguns. Wanna bet they were not FBI background checked to get them?

And our Director of Homeland Security vows yesterday to "get to the bottom of it" when Customs Enforcement agents seized illegal immigrants in a machine shop in Washington State, performing worksite enforcement. Apparently, law enforcement under Obama is not supposed to enforce "that" law and some rouge field office personnel did not get the memo.

Curiouser and Curiouser.