Mexican Senate reproaches the U.S.

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.
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Friday, 2/5/10

El Sol de Mexico (Mexico City) 2/4/10

“Mexican Senate reproaches U.S. for measures against migrants”

[Full transl. of article titled as above. The link below this story takes you to the Spanish language original.]

The Senate of the Republic approved sending a message to President Felipe Calderon so that he may ask the Government of the United States to reconsider the anti-immigrant measures intended to be taken in the neighboring country’s budget for 2011. All political parties of the Senate reproached the policy change of direction of the American President, Barack Obama, who has decided to go back on the promise he made to all the Hispanic groups that supported him, and now he insists on closing the border. The government of Barack Obama seeks to increase the funds to reinforce border security with 4.6 billion dollars to support 20 thousand agents of the Border Patrol, as well as to finish the first portion of the “virtual fence.”

The parliamentary majority at Xicotencatl (the street where the Senate Chamber is located,) also supported asking the government of Felipe Calderon to manifest an “estrangement” because of the anti-immigrant measures that would eventually be carried out, considering them contrary to human rights. The PRI (pol. party) Senator Rosario Green Macias, president of the Foreign Relations Commission (read: committee chairwoman), criticized President Obama severely for going back on the promise he made to the Hispanic groups, who supported him at all times, and for insisting on closing up the border. Besides announcing that he will build the missing portion of the “virtual fence” by means of which everyone who crosses, undocumented or illegally, will be detected and can be immediately jailed and later expelled, (and also) reinforcing the number of agents, for customs as well as for the border. She expressed her worry, “because from now on we Mexicans will not know what to believe when we speak with the President of all the Americans, because he is a President who fails to keep his word.”

The PAN Party member Adriana Gonzalez Carrillo introduced an “urgent and obvious resolution” Accord Point that earned the backing of all the groups represented in the Senate. She brought up that, three decades ago, the border states had a bit more than 16 percent of the population of each country. Now, the ones in the United States represent 22 percent and those of Mexico 17 percent. She stated, “The proportion of the Hispanic presence in the United States border states has increased significantly, and today, it’s 25 percent of the total population of Arizona, almost a third of that in California and Texas, and 42 percent in New Mexico.” From the rostrum, the senator stated that Mexican immigrants make the United States a better country, they work ceaselessly, pay taxes, create jobs, control inflation, contribute to the elders’ retirement and are, in short, the spinal column of many industries. 

http://www.oem.com.mx/elsoldemexico/notas/n1505459.htm

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El Universal (Mexico City) 2/4/10

An execution-style homicide every 48 minutes

The war carried out by organized crime in Mexico has already resulted in the death of 1,000 persons this year, an average of one death every 48 minutes. Statistics kept by this paper show that, in 2005, it took until September 11 to reach the same number of victims; by 2006, the date had moved up to June 30; in 2007 it happened earlier yet, on May 14; in 2008, on April 22, and in 2009, on February 20. The rest of the article goes on to report the number and locations of the very latest assassinations around the country, including eleven in Tijuana within the last 48 hours.

(The graph below reads: “An execution victim every 48 minutes in the country.” The smaller print below: “In just 34 days, the number of assassinations linked to organized crime surpassed one thousand. This was 17 days less than what it took in 2009, when it took 51 days to reach the same number.” The other boxes show the year and the number of days when the total of one thousand was reached. The circle on the right shows the percentage of homicides by state. The 25.6% on the top left of the circle reads “Others.”)

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Caracol Radio (Bogota, Colombia) 2/4/10

Smuggling of Chinese

Eight Chinese illegally in Colombia were found “camouflaged” among a load of merchandise in a truck attempting to enter Corabastos, a large food distribution facility in Bogota, Colombia. The driver, who was arrested, told police that an individual in the city of Pasto had given him ”an important sum of money” to transport the eight Chinese to Bogota. (Pasto is near the border with Ecuador, a country where Chinese may enter as visitors without a visa.)

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Prensa Libre (Guatemala City, Guatemala) 2/4/10

Guatemala cries for security

This year has begun with the odor of blood and lead in Guatemala. The five weeks of the new year have left grief and tragedy, and have given rise to a wave of rejection by business and religious groups, as well as by human rights groups, all of which clamor for security in the country. The spiral of violence, and the statistics that 2009 left, reflect the fact that approximately every 90 minutes one Guatemalan dies because of that violence. January closed with 462 homicides. The message sent by the authorities is that they are unable to combat criminality, and for that reason the people seek to arm themselves.

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Diario de Yucatan (Merida, Yucatan) 2/4/10

A weedy find

In the town of Miguel Aleman, Tamaulipas (some 80 mi. upriver from Matamoros,) Mex. army personnel on patrol spotted a man who was carrying a firearm and who went into a house. The soldiers entered the house and found 140 packages of marihuana totaling 966.5 kilos. The man managed to escape.

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La Cronica de Hoy (Mexico City) 2/4/10

Arsenal

In Tepic, state of Nayarit, Mex. soldiers and marines seized 14 AK47 assault rifles, an AR15 and a 45 mm. sub-machine gun, plus 3 grenades, 76 clips, 10,315 rounds for AR15, 4,406 rounds for AK47, 4 police badges and some communication gear. (No relating circumstances were shown.)

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La Voz de la Frontera (Mexicali, Baja Calif.) 2/4/10

Just one weapon

In Tijuana, Baja Calif., a citizen’s report led to the arrest of one Joaquin Pedroza Avila, 32. When located by state police officers, Pedroza was sitting in a vehicle and he supposedly offered them $20,000 dollars to let him go. On the back seat of the vehicle there was a .50 cal. Barret rifle, still packaged, a weapon capable of penetrating any vehicle armor. There was also a “fair size” package of cocaine and a similar one with “crystal.”

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