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Old 06-21-2005, 11:35 AM
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Default Mexican drug commandos expand ops in 6 US states

http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles...5expandops.htm

Mexican drug commandos expand ops in 6 U.S. states
Feds say violent, elite paramilitary units establish narcotics routes north of border

World Net Daily | June 21 2005

FLASHBACK: Former DEA Agent: Mexican Commandos Killing In South West US To Protect Bush Drug Cartel

WASHINGTON ? The ultra-violent, U.S.-trained elite, Mexican paramilitary commandos known as the "Zetas," responsible for hundreds of murders along the border this year, have expanded their enforcement efforts on behalf of a drug cartel by setting up trafficking routes in six U.S. states.

A U.S. Justice Department memo says the U.S.-trained units have recently moved operations into Houston, San Antonio and the states of California, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Georgia and Florida. They have been operating in Dallas for at least two years, according to the feds.

The original Zetas are former Mexican army commandos, some apparently trained in the U.S. by Army special forces to combat drug gangs. Members of a broader Zetas organization have worked for the Gulf cartel since 2001. They provide firepower, security and the force needed to oversee shipments of narcotics and smuggled aliens along the border and up Interstate 35, which runs through Texas and Oklahoma.

According to FBI officials, the Zetas are attempting to consolidate their grip on the smuggling route along I-35. Anyone caught not paying the 10 percent commission they charge on all cargo ? drugs or humans ? is killed, according to U.S. and Mexican law enforcement sources.

The Zetas have also brought their cold-blooded killing tactics to the U.S., say federal law enforcement authorities ? murdering rival drug dealers and sometimes innocent bystanders.

"Texas law enforcement officials report that the Zetas have been active in the Dallas area since 2003," said the Justice Department intelligence bulletin circulated among U.S. law enforcement officials. "Eight to ten members of the Zetas have been involved in multiple assaults and are believed to have hired criminal gangs in the area ... for contract killings."

The feds say the group has begun establishing its own trafficking routes into the United States and will protect them at any cost.

"U.S. law enforcement have reported bounties offered by Los Zetas of between $30,000 and $50,000 for the killing of Border Patrol agents and other law enforcement officers," the bulletin said. "If a Zeta kills an American law enforcement officer and can successfully make it back to Mexico, his stature within the organization will be increased dramatically."

The Zetas take their name from a radio code once used by its members. While originally there were 68, the Zetas have trained a second generation of commandos ? many of them sons and nephews of those trained by U.S. military forces to combat drug trafficking in Mexico. U.S. law enforcement officials say they now number more than 700. Their numbers also include some Mexican army deserters and former federal police officers.

U.S. and Mexican law enforcement authorities say the Zetas operate special training camps in the Mexican states of Tamaulipas and Michoac?n, where newly recruited Zetas take intensive six-week training courses in weapons, tactics and intelligence gathering.

The Zetas conducting a bloody war for control of the entire southern border in an effort to secure a monopoly on drug-smuggling and people-smuggling routes, according to law enforcement officials.

At least 600 have been killed this year in a wave of violence waged by the Zetas gang, headed by reputed drug kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, said Mexico's Attorney General Daniel Cabeza de Vaca.

Among the victims of the U.S-trained Zetas have been other suspected smugglers, hit men, police, soldiers and civilians on both sides of the 2,000-mile border.

There are widespread reports of the commandos making cross-border runs into U.S. territory in military-style vehicles, armed with automatic weapons.

The U.S. government spent millions of dollars training Los Zetas to intercept drugs, some of them coming from Mexico's southern border, before they could reach the U.S. The U.S. government has also sent U.S. Border Patrol agents to Mexico's southern border with Guatemala to train law enforcement and military forces to intercept human smugglers destined to reach the U.S.

Guzman, whose nickname means "Shorty," bribed guards to escape from prison in 2001. He is one of Mexico's most-wanted fugitives. U.S. authorities have offered a $5 million reward for his capture.

The spike in killings and kidnappings in northern Mexico in recent months has made headlines and prompted federal agents and soldiers to patrol the streets of Nuevo Laredo, across from Laredo, Texas. Recently, a new police chief in Nuevo Laredo was assassinated nine hours after taking office.

Among the 600 people murdered in gang shootings across the Mexican border this year, many were slain execution-style, with their hands tied behind their backs.

The violence along the border has reached a point where some are questioning President Vicente Fox's ability to govern the country.

A senior U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration official, Anthony Placido, told Congress last week that Mexico's corrupt police forces were "all too often part of the problem rather than part of the solution" in fighting the drug cartels.

Fox won office in 2000, ending 71 years of one-party rule and promising to clamp down on the multibillion-dollar cross-border trade in cocaine, marijuana and heroin.

While initially winning praise for putting bosses like Benjamin Arellano Felix and Osiel Cardenas behind bars, his crime-busting reputation has been undermined by the alarming rise in violence, along with evidence Fox has failed to clean up Mexico's police forces.

Faced with the fallout on its southern frontier, the State Department has twice issued travel warnings for the Mexican border, where more than 30 U.S. citizens have been kidnapped.

Mexico's apparent inability to curb the bloodshed on the 2,000-mile border is affecting the financial markets. Banking group HSBC said "staggering" levels of violence could raise questions about Mexico's stability in the run-up to next year's presidential election. Fox is constitutionally barred from running for re-election.

His approval rating has taken a hit, dropping 3 points to 56 percent in a poll in May, with many Mexicans complaining of safety fears, particularly in the north.

Fox has pledged a "mother of all battles" against the drug traffickers he says are openly challenging the government.

"We have taken on the challenge and we will do battle against all the cartels' criminals and against organized crime," Fox said in a speech Friday.

He sent hundreds of troops and federal agents to the states of Tamaulipas, Sinaloa and Baja California last week after suspected drug hit men killed the police chief of Nuevo Laredo.

Despite the move, drug gangs shot and killed at least 11 people across the three states during the week, prompting observers to declare the operation, dubbed "Mexico Secure," a failure.

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Old 06-21-2005, 12:04 PM
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First how is this the "Bush Drug Cartel"?

Second I would like to see a copy of that Justice Department memo that says they are U.S. trained.

Third if there are "widespread reports" of the commandos making cross-border runs into U.S. territory in military-style vehicles, armed with automatic weapons and killing hundreds of people then why has this not been on the news?
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Old 06-21-2005, 02:33 PM
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David just as a f'rinstance look at how the US media dragged their feet on the Downing Street Memo. Do you think that those involved in this Mexican terrorist /Special Forces want to be found out so that people can do something about it? It's our obligation to not just blow it off and say it can't happen here. We must continually question the things we see and read in order to establish the possibility and to verify truth or falsehood. In this age of information, disinformation, and political spins that give the appearence of a two party system when in truth there is only one, every myth/rumour/theory probably has some basis in truth. Ignore it or expose it to be false. Simple enough right?

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Old 06-21-2005, 02:54 PM
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I have no doubt this kind of activity exists to some extent and has for some time but the claim of military units crossing our borders and killing hundreds of U.S. citizens? That makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. Anything of that scale is going to be reported no matter who tries to hush it up.

Everything in the story is ambiguous as well. Note the references to agencies rather then the people within the agencies. The reports are also referred to ambiguously with no reference made to the name of the report or were it was circulated.

If the above stories are true then I would have to say at best it was some of the worse reporting I have ever read in my life.
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Old 06-21-2005, 03:55 PM
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http://www.timesleader.com/mld/time...ws/11948900.htm

Mexico soldiers become cartel hit men

OLGA R. RODRIGUEZ

Associated Press


NUEVO LAREDO, Mexico - Zooming around in sport utility vehicles bristling with weapons, Mexican soldiers-turned-drug hit men have taken this border city to the brink of anarchy, infiltrating local police and threatening anyone who gets in their way.

Residents and law enforcement officials say the men are the feared Zetas, former members of a military intelligence battalion sent to the border to fight drug trafficking. Instead, they joined the Gulf Cartel, one of Mexico's top drug gangs. They adopted the name Zetas - a radio code for a military commander - recruited followers and made the city of 300,000 their home base.

For the past two years, the city of tree-covered plazas and hacienda-style restaurants has lived in a state of siege. Many residents are afraid to leave their homes at night, and few tourists venture over from Laredo, Texas, leaving the city's handful of horse-drawn buggies idle.

Killings and police corruption became so brazen that President Vicente Fox was forced to send in hundreds of troops and federal agents in March, and the only man brave enough to take the job of police chief was gunned down hours after he was sworn in this month.

Since then, soldiers and federal agents have flooded the streets, patrolling in trucks and setting up checkpoints. Still, daytime street killings are commonplace.

Jose Luis Santiago Vasconcelos, Mexico's top drug prosecutor, said the Zetas were recruited by Osiel Cardenas, the alleged leader of the Gulf Cartel, during the late 1990s when their unit was posted to the border state of Tamaulipas.

At the time, there were 30 Zetas who defected, Vasconcelos said, but they have since recruited other men from drug ranks and expanded.

After Cardenas' arrest in 2003, accused drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman sensed weakness and tried to move in on Nuevo Laredo, unleashing a bloody turf war with the Zetas that has transformed the city.

Since January, more than 70 people have been killed in Nuevo Laredo, compared to 65 for all of 2004.

The Zetas rule with fear, threatening police and city officials and extorting money from businesses, including restaurants, car dealerships and junkyards.

"They came and intimidated anyone who had influence or power in this city," said a businessman who asked not to be named for fear of reprisals. "They made it clear they owned the city."

They sometimes set up roadblocks to stop motorists when they suspected rivals were in the area, the businessman said.

Nuevo Laredo is the busiest trade area along the U.S.-Mexico border, with an average of 6,000 cargo trucks crossing daily into Texas carrying 40 percent of Mexico's exports.

Just across the Rio Grande is Interstate 35, a main north-south artery. It's a doorway to the United States for millions of dollars of legal and illegal goods.

It is also the most coveted drug smuggling route on the border, according to Mexican officials.

While drug trafficking is nothing new to Nuevo Laredo, the Zetas took things from bad to worse. They kidnap people for ransom and charge "fees" to migrant smugglers and other drug traffickers. They often kill those who refuse to pay, officials say.

"The gangs that were here before would kill each other, but now they don't respect anything or anyone," said Lazaro Alferez, a retiree who spends his afternoons in a downtown plaza. "I come out to the street, but I'm always afraid that I could get hit by a stray bullet."

The Nuevo Laredo newspaper El Manana in 2003 published a citizen's guide to detecting false officers after people started noticing armed men dressed like soldiers or police in the streets - really the Zetas.

"They use the same uniforms and insignia as law enforcement although some have the names and/or insignia of organizations that no longer exist," the guide read. "They usually carry a sidearm with no visible badges or IDs. If they have an ID, it is usually a fake."

The line between real and fake officers has become so blurred here that local officers opened fire on federal agents - wounding one - as they arrived to investigate the June 8 killing of newly inaugurated police chief Alejandro Dominguez.

"In actuality, law enforcement in Mexico is all too often part of the problem rather than part of the solution," Anthony Placido, head of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration's intelligence unit, told a congressional committee last week.

Nuevo Laredo Mayor Daniel Pena said Tuesday that 150 police officers will be fired after failing a screening process that included background checks and drug testing. The city police force of 724 officers were pulled off patrols last week to be investigated for possible links with organized crime.

Although a few U.S. shoppers seeking discount prescription drugs or cheap liquor still venture into Nuevo Laredo, the blow to the economy has been devastating, business owners say.

On Guerrero Avenue, a central commercial street that starts at the international bridge and transverses the city, at least 50 businesses have closed and those that remain open say business has been cut in half since January.

"This is the worst economic crisis we have seen in years," said Higinio Ibarra, who owns a souvenir shop in Nuevo Laredo's historic center, just two blocks from an international bridge. Ibarra said he has cut workers' hours to avoid laying them off.

Impunity in Nuevo Laredo has only exacerbated an already critical situation, city officials say. In more than 70 homicides in Nuevo Laredo since January, officials have arrested only one person: a 27-year-old mother who confessed to drowning her two children.

"There isn't much that authorities can do, because even if they get new police officers, the mafia will buy them off again or kill them," said Ramon Garza, who roams the city selling tacos from the back of a pickup truck.

For Garza, the solution is simple.

"We just have to wait for one of them to win," he said of Mexico's two main drug gangs. "Maybe then, we'll have a little peace."
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Old 06-21-2005, 04:03 PM
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http://www.theuniversalseduction.com..._from=&ucat=2&


http://www.narconews.com

".....Depending on which press reports you read, the Zetas were either trained at Fort Bragg or the School of the Americas in the United States to serve in a special forces unit in the Mexican military. But the allure of money in the narco-trafficking business caused them to turn their special powers to the dark side.

Well, as with most mainstream media scripts on the drug war, the real story behind the Zetas is a bit more complicated. Narco News interviewed several former and current high-ranking DEA and Department of Homeland Security officials to get the straight scoop.

Here?s what we were told...."

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Zetas (Mexican Gang) Burn Media?s Script in War on Drugs
A Closer Look at Narco-Capitalism on U.S.-Mexico Border
By Bill Conroy
Special to The Narco News Bulletin
The violence plaguing the border town of Nuevo Laredo, sister city of Laredo, Texas, has led to travel advisories being issued by the State Department and dire warnings from U.S. officials that narco-traffickers are on the hunt for U.S. citizens.

The truth is that the violence in Nuevo Laredo is a direct byproduct of narco-capitalism. Sure, if you happen to be on the wrong street corner when a gunfight breaks out, you are in danger, just like you would be in any inner city in the states when rival gangs pull out their pieces and start shooting at each other.

In addition, just like in any big city in the states, you have to be careful of the company you keep.

?Narcotics is the underlying reason (for the violence) but not for those caught in the middle,? explains one federal law enforcer who works the border near Nuevo Laredo. ?I am sure some of the victims were just too friendly with bad people and were taken somewhere for a good time, and it got out of hand, and they were killed. But it seems the majority of them were indeed linked to narcotics, since guns, paraphernalia were found. It?s too much of a coincidence that they disappear without a trace and then are later found in deep-concreted holes in the back of narcos? houses. Sad but true.?

Adds a former high-ranking DEA official: ?Will narco-traffickers go after you just because you?re an American? No. But sometimes you can be in the wrong place at the wrong time.?

At the center of the rash of murders and kidnappings in the Mexican border town is supposedly a gang of ruthless former Mexican military commandos known by the codeword Zetas.

Depending on which press reports you read, the Zetas were either trained at Fort Bragg or the School of the Americas in the United States to serve in a special forces unit in the Mexican military. But the allure of money in the narco-trafficking business caused them to turn their special powers to the dark side.

Well, as with most mainstream media scripts on the drug war, the real story behind the Zetas is a bit more complicated. Narco News interviewed several former and current high-ranking DEA and Department of Homeland Security officials to get the straight scoop.

Here?s what we were told.

First, the Zetas are a very amorphous group that started out from a core of Mexican special forces defectors who over time have either recruited or trained additional members. But make no mistake about it; the Zetas are very good at what they do. One former DEA official says they are ?better than the Secret Service.?

?In terms of weapons, communications, perimeter control and security, these guys are very good,? he adds.

A major reason for their ?professionalism? in this area is that many of the Zetas have received some specialized military or other tactical training from U.S. agencies, including from the DEA, FBI and U.S. military.

A former DEA officials who worked extensively south of the border during his career explains:


?A lot of the Zetas came from former Mexican police offices or the military, and some are even students from universities in Texas that work part time with the Zetas to provide security. So they come from a diverse background. Some of them have prior training from the DEA, FBI and the U.S. military, as well as other agencies. We go to great lengths to assure they are not engaged in criminal activity before training them, but later on they can be lured into drug business by the money. It happens ? And they (the Zetas) are very organized and have recruiters, who are out constantly bringing in new people and training them.?

That means the Zetas understand U.S. and Mexican government strategy in the drug war, and they are equipped, thanks to the money inherent in the narco-trafficking trade, to carry out sophisticated surveillance, security and assassination assignments.

According to U.S. law enforcement officials, the Zetas are a true mercenary force that will work for the highest bidder.


Showdown

The two rival drug lords at the center of the turf war in Nuevo Laredo are allegedly Osiel Cardenas Guillen and Joaquin ?El Chapo? Guzman.

Cardenas, who has been in jail on drug charges in Mexico since 2003, reportedly oversees his narco-trafficking organization from prison. His group, often referred to in the mainstream press as the ?Gulf cartel,? has controlled the Nuevo Laredo market for years.

Cardenas? primary enforcers are the Zetas. Along with the Zetas, Cardenas organization also has plenty of local Mexican cops on the payroll, according to U.S. law enforcers.

?Clearly, a number of Mexican state police are corrupt,? says a former DEA supervisor. ?They often get killed (in these turf wars) because they are working for a rival drug organization.?

(By the way, it?s no secret that narco-traffickers also buy off law enforcers on this side of the border as well.)

In recent years, Guzman has made inroads into the Nuevo Laredo market by waging a bloody street war against the Cardenas organization and the Zetas.

Guzman?s operation, referred to in the mainstream press as the ?Sinaloa cartel,? has a couple hundred hired guns committed to the battle in the border town of some 500,000 people, according to law enforcers. Cardenas has a slightly larger force, law enforcers contend.

?One thing people, including the media, don?t seem to see that is very important is that most of the significant narco-traffickers come from the Mexican state of Sinaloa,? says one former DEA supervisor. ?That?s because Sinaloa has fertile ground and a railroad line running through it, so some mafia groups historically started to develop there, and it now has an infrastructure, so it is kind of a hub.?

The bloody turf war in Nuevo Laredo is being waged to gain control of the market, because it is considered a key transportation node in the drug-trafficking business. Guzman has moved in big for that reason, and his organization is allegedly responsible for the murders of numerous Mexican law enforcers who are on the payroll of the Cardenas organization, according to U.S. law enforcement sources.

?He (Guzman) is like the Robin Hoodlum of today,? one federal border law enforcer told Narco News. ?That is why all the comandantes and officers who are being, or were being, paid by the Zetas are being shot. Chapo (Guzman) is getting control of the authorities. ??


PR Campaign

The law enforcers also contend that Guzman, as part of his strategy in taking over Nuevo Laredo?s narco trade, has employed journalists in the area to spread propaganda favorable to his operations. That, in turn, has led to hits being ordered against some journalists as part of the turf war.

?These narco-traffickers are very astute, and they do use journalists to do campaigns against other competing groups and to make their group look like Robin Hood,? explains a former DEA supervisor. ?So some journalists do write stories for money. Narco-traffickers do own some media people.?

(And can we really assume that only happens in Mexico? Borders do not seem to restrict extreme capitalism, as the war on drugs clearly demonstrates.)

The Zetas figure into the picture because, to date, they have allegedly been aligned against Guzman?s organization. However, as one former DEA officials tells it, in the narco-trafficking business, there is no one player calling all the shots. Rather, at any given time, there are a number of organizations, some gaining power, some dwindling in power, but all vying for their piece of the market. So the players, and the teams they play for, also are constantly in flux.

?A lot of people think there is one or two organizations controlling the drug trade, but that?s just not the case,? explains one retired DEA supervisor. ?There may be one organization that is dominant in an area for a time, but there are always other organizations working to make inroads and smaller ones coming up.

?What that means is you have to be extremely ruthless if you want to compete, so it?s much more intense than a normal business. You have to develop a massive infrastructure, including security, assassins, connections in law enforcement and government, a money laundering system, and have access to smart investors.

?Narco traffickers are very smart people, but they aren?t experts in all those areas, so their organizations have to become very structured, and the competition is extreme, which is why things so easily escalate into violence.?

The Zetas represent one part of that structure, so that means when the Zetas sense the tide is turning against their current employer, like true mercenaries, they will follow the money. And in true business fashion, another organization will work them into their ?structure.?

In that case, the turf war in Nuevo Laredo could settle down, assuming Guzman gets the upper hand and, by extension, the loyalty of the Zetas.

That is, until Guzman falls, and the next narco-general emerges to stake a claim on the empire.

And so goes the ongoing saga of extreme capitalism in the narco-trafficking market. The militarization of the border in the name of the war on drugs isn?t likely to change that game, but rather likely only allow for more bullets to be spent.

Ok, that?s my report for now. I?ve got to check my front door. I hear someone knocking
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Old 06-21-2005, 04:06 PM
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Default Nuevo Laredo: Martial Law as Media Stunt in the Failed War on Drugs

http://narcosphere.narconews.com/sto.../14/104713/876

Nuevo Laredo: Martial Law as Media Stunt in the Failed War on Drugs
By Al Giordano,
Posted on Tue Jun 14th, 2005 at 10:47:13 AM EST
"We are not in the era of Al Capone and Prohibition.?
- Slain Police Chief Alejandro Dom?nguez Cuello, prior to his death

It?s a wet dream for Commercial Media journalists: The new police chief of the Mexican border city of Nuevo Laredo took office last Wednesday. Nine hours later he was gunned down. US Ambassador to Mexico Tony Garza quickly issued a press release harping a song of I-told-you-so: ??A few weeks ago, I asked the State Department to re-issue a public announcement about the on-going violence in the border region.?

By Saturday, Mexican President Vicente Fox sent in a convoy of federal police who, on an access road to a country club near the city, ended up in a shootout with local police. Newspaper editorialists salivated: ?Until Mexico takes aggressive measures to fight crime and combat the violence that has spilled into the streets, the country will remain unsafe for residents and tourists,? lectures one such boilerplate text in the San Antonio Express-News, which in a careless turn of the pen declares ?the country? ? an entire nation, not just the border city ? unsafe.

But as a US Customs agent admitted yesterday in a rare moment of candor, none of this grand show of force is going to make anybody any safer?


The story of Nuevo Laredo under Martial Law makes for a great motion picture, putting even Soderbergh to shame, and causes lots of huffing and puffing by the press corps feeling courageous as its members take official dictation from hotel rooms along the border. Not one of them, yet, has investigated or asked questions about the systemic causes of the violence. And why would they? The Commercial Media loves the violence! It sells papers, boosts ratings, and will no doubt bring awards to the worst offenders among the professional simulators.
Fox, on Monday, sent in the Armed Forces to occupy the city, rounding up 720 police officers for interrogation, subjecting them to polygraph and urine tests for drugs, taking away their cell phones but apparently not, in the case of one who the attorney general?s office claims killed himself while he was interrogated last night, their guns.

But according to at least one candid agent of the US Department of Homeland Security?s Burea of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), all this expenditure and muscle ain?t gonna make anybody safer.

"When the Mexican government puts pressure on them, it's like a fumigator, and they'll come across the border like cockroaches," said Al Pe?a, who heads criminal investigations for the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement,? reports the Houston Chronicle. The agent, of course, for the sake of his job security, had to then backpedal and put a smiley face on it all: ?I think we are coming to see something positive, but it's unfortunate that all these people have died to get where we are.?

It?s the Prohibition, Stupid

The slain police chief, Alejandro Dom?nguez Coello told reporters last January: ?"We are not in the era of Al Capone and Prohibition.? Yeah. Right. There?s a fitting epitaph for his tombstone.

But in at least one sense, the late police chief had a point: During the era of alcohol prohibition in the United States (1918-1933), unlike today, Mexico did not adhere to the policy. As the website Tijuana.com, of another famous Mexican border city, recounts:


?In 1917, San Diego banned cabaret dancing. Tijuana capitalized on this idiocy by building scores of cabarets and casinos. By now the fledging community of Hollywood had heard all about Tijuana and its irresistibly short three hour drive down the California coast. That trek soon became a pilgrimage when, in 1920, the United States launched Prohibition and outlawed alcoholic beverages. Tijuana gladly welcomed America's thirsty citizens with open arms that have never closed and a nightlife that never sleeps!?
Nuevo Laredo, until very recently, had a hopping nightlife, just like Tijuana (in a large part because of overly strict "drinking age" laws and enforcement on the US side of the border). But as that city?s daily El Ma?ana reports today: ?The Golden Era for Restaurants Is Over.? Cheesy Tex-Mex bars like ?Se?or Frog?s? (of the ?Carlos & Charlie?s? chain) that are favorite gringo watering holes have shut their doors in Nuevo Laredo?s historic center, ever since US State Department ?travel advisories? began frightening the Texans away.

?Our clientele is 80 percent North American and 20 percent national,? Pablo Longoria, manager of the Dorado restaurant in Nuevo Laredo told El Ma?ana. ?You can see the situation as it is today: there are no clients.?

Once again, Mexico bears the brunt of the US-imposed ?War on Drugs? and we have Martial Law in Nuevo Laredo. National Mexican political columnist Carlos Ram?rez wonders aloud today if this latest maneuver ?could mean the first step toward a Plan Colombia for Mexico.?

The hammer slams down upon Nuevo Laredo, today an occupied city. But for as long as governments uphold a policy of prohibition on drugs (instead of the kinds of regulations that, since 1933, ended the similar violence that once surrounded the former prohibition on alcohol in the United States), narco-trafficking, and all the gangland violence it brings, will march on.

It?s like the golf ball under the rug: Swat it down in Nuevo Laredo, and, as the aforementioned Homeland Security agent admitted, it will just pop up somewhere else.

Mexico doesn?t need a ?Plan Colombia.? She needs a ?Plan Tijuana? of the kind she had in the 1920s. When it comes to the drug war, Mexico is a battered wife. She needs a divorce from the brutal prohibition that a shotgun wedding with US drug policy has historically imposed upon her.

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