NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF FORMER BORDER PATROL OFFICERS
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Foreign News Report
The National Association of Former Border Patrol Officers (NAFBPO) extracts and condenses the material that follows from Mexican and Central and South American on-line media sources on a daily basis. You are free to disseminate this information, but we request that you credit NAFBPO as being the provider.
El Informador (Guadalajara, Jalisco) 8/7/08
– Ismael Placencia, president of the “Confederation of Industrial Chambers” of Mexico asserted at a press conference that the high indices of insecurity that exist in that country inhibit investment. Insecurity costs the country 120 billion dollars a year, the equivalent of 15 percent of the Gross Domestic Product; the Inter-American Development Bank points out that this cost is higher than that of the yearly production of the agricultural, mining, construction and power and water generation sectors, which represent 12 percent of the annual GDP.
Placencia pointed out that insecurity is not only the responsibility of the authorities but also that of the citizenry in general. He added that the government must exercise the law to the fullest, especially in the case of police who are involved with organized crime.
– Mexico’s Attorney General, Eduardo Medina, denies that the violence in Mexico is similar to that which flailed Colombia. In his judgment, Mexico lacks the circumstances which Colombia experienced, in which para-military groups on one side confronted FARC on the other side. He added that ” FARC lost its initial logic and now they are narcotraffic organized crime groups.” In the past decade, Colombia faced a “real risk of collapse of the democratic institutions” because of the cartels’ accumulated powers.
According to Medina, Mexico must learn from the Colombian lesson, particularly in the “reconstruction of the social fabric in communities dramatically affected by narcotraffic”, such as Bogota and Medellin.
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El Nuevo Diario (Managua, Nicaragua) 8/7/08
(first visit to site): There’s a preliminary report of a drug bust which took place last night and this morning (Thurs.) in the area of Bluefields, ( in Nicaragua’s southeast, on the Caribbean. ) There was gunfire and there are wounded and subjects are under arrest. “More than 40 bulks” of drug were seized and are being weighed.
(last minute re-visit to site) : “Some” two tons of cocaine seized, as well as 2 M16 rifles, 3 GPS devices, 2 radios, two men under arrest.
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La Prensa Grafica (San Salvador, El Salvador) 8/7/08
National holidays were celebrated in El Salvador and now the National Police reports that from July 28 to “zero hours” of August 5 there were 76 homicides. This is 17 murders less than for the same period last year but nevertheless represents a daily average of eight homicides.
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Frontera (Tijuana, Baja Calif.) 8/7/08
A small arsenal was seized and two brothers surnamed Alonso were arrested in an operation in the La Presa area of Tijuana. The haul included 4 assault rifles, ammo, clips and an extensive list of tactical gear plus the usual late model p/u, stolen from California.
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El Universal (mexico City) 8/7/08
In Culiacan, Sinaloa, Alejandro Cruz resisted being forcible abducted after four men in two vehicles cut Cruz’ vehicle off. He was then riddled by gunfire and became the 65th law enforcement officer to have been murdered in that state so far this year. (The article had no date but was posted in the latest news section)
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Diario Xalapa (Xalapa, Veracruz), Diario del Istmo (Coatzocoalcos, Ver.) 8/7/08
The chief of police at Agua Dulce, Veracruz, is now a fugitive, He was named as recipient of $1,500 dollars to allow a truckload of Central and South Americans to proceed toward the U.S. border. Fifteen other Agua Dulce police officers have now been detained in an area prison and charged with homicide. Chemical tests for gunpowder showed that five Agua Dulce police officers had fired weapons during – or after – the subsequent chase of the truck; the same tests showed that neither the two smugglers nor the aliens in the back of the truck had fired any weapons. Some of the aliens being smuggled died from the gunfire and one was completely paralyzed from a bullet wound to his spine. (Our report of yesterday relates.)
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El Debate (Culiacan, Sinaloa) 8/7/08
A northbound refrigerated truck carrying 160 blocks of cheese failed a “GT-200 molecular pistol” test. The cheese proved to be positive for cocaine and the drug is estimated to weigh 1.2 tons. The event took place at a highway checkpoint called “Precos”, near Los Mochis, Sinaloa, and south of Hermosillo, Sonora.
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El Diario (Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua) 8/7/08
This morning (Thurs.) Juarez had its third police officer murdered within the last 48 hours when Hector delgado was shot multiple times while inside a vehicle. The article ends: “These events take place amidst the supposed high military vigilance within the framework of Joint Operation Chihuahua which was put into action here to stop the narcoviolence which is growing today (and which) has become worse in the last months in the streets of the city.”
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La Cronica de Hoy (Mexico City) 8/7/08
(Extracts from the main feature article in the “Nation” portion of the site)
Juan Velasquez is a noted Mexican attorney with 38 years’ experience litigating high profile cases. In a question and answer session, he said that the Mexican police are the second most corrupt in the world and the first such in Latin America. He added that the laws are not carried out due to inefficiency and corruption, stating also that impunity reaches 98 % of cases. Crimes are not investigated or followed up and are not resolved or punished.
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Excelsior (Mexico City) 8/7/08
A “narco laboratory” considered the largest in Latin America was found at Ontiveros Ranch, Juanacatlan, Jalisco. Located in three buildings, it has six ovens and four “advanced processing machines” for the manufacture of narcotics. Some meth (22 kgs.) & firearms were also found, plus 8 tons of ephedrine and a light truck already loaded with at least three tons of drug for sale. Four men were arrested and three others escaped.
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Caracol Radio (Bogota, Colombia) 8/7/08
Police in Antioquia, Colombia, uncovered a cache of 103 AK-47 rifles in a rural area where a previous large amount of firearms and ammunition was found recently.
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El Colombiano (Medellin, Colombia) 8/7/08
Colombia’s Defense Minister said that five persons believed to be FARC guerillas were aiming to attack the ex-Minister of Justice and of the Interior. The five were found with 85 kgs. of “anfo” explosives.
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