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.
Thursday, 11/12/09
La Hora (Quito, Ecuador) 11/11/09
Ecuador asks U.S. for immigration reform
The issues of security, commerce and immigration between the United States and Ecuador were dealt with at the U.S. Department of State when a 25 person delegation, including Luis Gallegos, the Ecuadoran Ambassador to the U.S., met with Thomas Shannon, U.S. Undersecretary for Latin America. The Ecuadoran delegation, headed by Jorge Orbe, the Sub-Secretary for Bilateral Relations of the Ministry of Foreign Relations, Commerce and Integration, also brought out the problems which concern the two million Ecuadorans estimated to be residing in the United States. Ambassador Gallegos pointed out the “cultural, social and educational support programs” that Ecuador has developed for the migrants and asked for greater coordination with the U.S. in this area, and he indicated his “preoccupation for the stagnation in the Congress” of the U.S. of the migratory reform project.
Gallegos pointed out: “An extensive legislation concerning the problem of the migrants is necessary. There are organizations arising in this country that criminalize them, and Ecuador maintains an open philosophy in this respect, centered on support for universal citizenship, mobility and family unity.”
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El Diario de Coahuila (Saltillo, Coah.) 11/11/09
The object is not to do away with drug traffic
One of the designers of the current strategy to combat organized crime in Mexico, the ex-Attorney General Eduardo Medina-Mora, now named as Mexico’s Ambassador to Great Britain, asserted that Mexico’s objective is not to do away with narcotraffic but to recuperate peace and tranquility for the country’s inhabitants. He stated this when he appeared before Mexican senators during his ambassadorial confirmation hearings. He added that, while the violence in Mexico is “grave”, it is necessary to place it in its proper dimension and to explain the objectives and tasks which the government carries out. He pointed out: “The fundamental objective of the Mexican state is not to end narcotraffic, that is not a reachable, attainable objective for any country individually.”
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Milenio (Mexico City) 11/11/09
In search of migratory reform for the undocumented [article’s heading in “Milenio”]
–full transl.- Members of the Mexican American Coalition for Migratory reform are in Guadalajara. Their objective is to reach an integral migratory reform for the undocumented Mexicans in the United States, which affects 12 million Mexicans who represent 50 percent of the immigrants who live in the United States, said Lorena Colin, national coordinator.
Alfredo Cuellar, professor at Fresno State University, asserted that the reform will be brought about “but the question is, when? Every second that goes by, the Mexican brothers suffer history’s most terrible hounding and harassment.” The group’s members said that the abuses and the discrimination toward those who lack documents are part of everyday life. “People live in terror. They are the so called modern slaves. They drive in fear while taking their children to school; they go to work; from there they return home and they don’t leave until the following day. They stay at home for fear that it might be the immigration police who knocks at the door,” commented Raul Murillo.
They said that even though President Barack Obama promised, while campaigning, to work on the issue during the first year of his mandate, they have not seen support from him and they pointed out that deportations have increased 47 percent since he became president. Murillo said that even though the round-ups of several years ago are no longer carried out, there is a search for citizens (sic) and they find them in their own homes. But he mentioned that 80 percent of those who return to Mexico were found while other citizens [We believe the speaker quoted here is using the term “citizens” to refer to fellow Mexicans] were being sought. What obligates Mexicans to leave the country is lack of opportunities, they said. Mario Hernandez said: “I urge the federal, state and municipal government to promote employment in Mexico: the long term solution to the migratory problem is to create jobs.”
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La Prensa Grafica (San Salvador, El Salvador) 11/11/09
Monetary remittances decrease
El Salvador’s Central Bank reported that individual monetary remittances from the U.S. to El Salvador reached 2.866 billion dollars from January to October of this year, a ten percent drop from the yearly average. Last year, the total of these remittances to El Salvador reached 3.788 billion dollars. These funds are considered the main prop of that country’s economy.
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Cambio de Michoacan (Morelia, Michoacan) 11/11/09
Drug use rising in Mexico
The number of drug addicts in Mexico has increased 57% since 2002. Marihuana, cocaine and meth-type stimulants have had the highest increase in usage. In Michoacan, cocaine is the drug most often used.
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Correo (Guanajuato, Gto.) 11/11/09
Official: violence increasing in Guanajuato
Mexico’s Dep’t. of Justice representative in the state of Guanajuato warned that the violence perpetrated by criminal groups there is on the increase, and noted that this year there have been 140 executions there. He added that the violence is on an “ascending spiral” because the criminal groups want to settle themselves in the state, but so far officialdom has not permitted it.
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Critica (Hermosillo, Sonora) 11/11/09
Cops and robbers
In Navojoa, state of Sonora, state police investigators managed to arrest four thugs who had been robbing a series of commercial establishments in that city. It turns out that three of them are ex-Navojoa police officers; two of the three had just been let go, one in October and the other in November of this year. The thugs were using an SUV stolen in Tucson, AZ; the radios they had been using had also been stolen from the local police.
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La Jornada (Mexico City) 11/11/09
More cops and robbers
In Juchitepec, state of Mexico, an undetermined number of state security police were wounded when they rescued five alleged kidnappers from a crowd of townspeople who intended to lynch and burn the thugs. The five had kidnapped a local businessman and were asking for a ransom of 500,000 pesos. After the police rescued the five, the mob threw stones and Molotov cocktails at the police facility as a form of protest. Later, it turned out that at least two of the five kidnappers who were about to be hung are also members of the federal security police.
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Ciudad Juarez: help wanted
Business organizations in Ciudad Juarez have asked for U.N. peace-keeping forces to bring to a halt the increasing violence which affects that city. The head of the Juarez “maquila” [trans-border assembly plants] association requested “the intervention of blue helmets to control the high index of criminality.” She added that the lack of effectiveness by officials at the three levels of government has caused local businesses to ask the U.N. for help. The head of the local chamber of commerce included in his request not only military police from the U.N. but also from the United States. Juarez, with 1.5 million residents, has a homicide rate of 150 per 100,000 inhabitants, one of the world’s most violent.
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El Porvenir (Monterrey, Nuevo Leon) 11/11/09
City transit police sacked
The city of Monterrey today let go 267 members of its traffic department for failure to meet required standards, corruption and failure to pass anti-doping tests. Of the total number, 224 were field enforcement and control agents; the rest were in administrative duties. The mayor also announced a zero tolerance policy from now on.
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El Financiero (Mexico City) 11/11/09
Marihuana haul in the Gulf of Baja
Mexican military and naval personnel seized 1,630 kilos (3,586 lbs.) of marihuana after a couple of suspect boats were seen heading north by Tiburon Island, Sonora, in the Gulf of Baja Calif. The weed smugglers managed to escape.
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