This is Diary #2 about the ATF gunrunning scandal. [Previous Rec list diary is here: CBS NEWS: ATF Partly Responsible for Mexico Violence]
What makes this story hit home especially hard is that the very same gun that killed a Border Patrol agent recently was a gun that the ATF allowed to go into cartel hands....on purpose.
The would-be pundits breathlessly reminding the world that the drug war is "not important" and barely relevant to US politics seem unable to acknowledge the ciitizens' voices in Mexico, whose strenuous opposition to this drug war grow louder. By the day.
See: A Poet Now Leads the Movement in Mexico. [Rescued diary]
CBS News has continued its investigation. There are a couple of updates, the first being:
Mexico Wants to Sue U.S. Gun makers.
CBS News has learned that the Mexican Government has retained an American law firm to explore filing civil charges against U.S. gun manufacturers and distributors over the flood of guns crossing the border into Mexico.
Sources say Mexico's frustration with U.S. efforts to stop the flow of weapons has pushed them into this novel approach. The law firm is looking at charges that may include civil RICO. The contract was signed on November 2, 2010 by a representative of Mexico's Attorney General, at their Washington embassy.
On November 5, 2010 President Felipe Calderon expressed his frustration to CBS News correspondent Peter Greenberg: "We seized more than 90,000 weapons...I am talking like 50,000 assault weapons, AR-15 machine guns, more than 8,000 grenades and almost 10 million bullets. Amazing figures and according to all those cases, the ones we are able to track, most of these are American weapons."
Overnight News Digest recently posted news about the latest mass grave uncovered in Mexico:
Twenty-two suspected Zetas drug gang members have been held in the latest arrests over the killings of 145 people found in mass graves this month in northeast Mexico, the justice ministry has said.
The arrests brought the total to 55 detained, including 16 police officers and a suspected ringleader, for alleged involvement with the mass graves found in San Fernando, Tamaulipas state, near the US border.
Meanwhile, even more details have broken about the US Federal Government's involvement in sending guns to cartels in Mexico:
CBS NEWS: ATF gunwalking scandal: Second agent speaks out
Jaquez is so opposed to the strategy, he's speaking out. "You don't let guns walk. I've never let a gun walk."
Yet ATF agents told us they were ordered to let thousands of weapons walk. Two of them, assault rifles, were later found at the murder scene of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry in Arizona last December. Another gunrunning suspect under ATF surveillance was linked to the shooting of Customs Agent Jaime Zapata. And sources say many more "walked" weapons turned up at Mexican crime scenes.
Jaquez said, "I think this incidence is probably one of the darkest days in ATF's history."
But ATF wasn't working alone on the case known as "Fast and Furious." Documents show ATF had conference calls with "DHS" (Homeland Security). "USMS" (U.S. Marshals) and DEA. An "ICE," or Customs agent, was on ATF's Fast and Furious team. They were advised by an "AUSA," or Assistant U.S. Attorney under the Justice Department.
What's going on at the U.S. Justice Department? Assistant US Attorneys are letting guns walk to cartels, but the DOJ is helping politicians shut down cannabis reform? The D.E.A has raided cannabis providers in CA, CO, MT, AND MI yet they participated in letting guns walk to Mexico?
This is clearly unacceptable. We endure drug war propaganda from the DEA and ONDCP, then watch events like this unfold.
And we continue, along with a flood of assault weapons on the black market, continue to send $$ to Calderon to militarize the streets of Mexico, when the US won't even bother to reform its policy for the no.1 domestic 'drug' (which remains on the schedule 1 classification list with heroin, meth, and Grover Norquist's favorite: cocaine.)
While Calderon continues the conservative policy of militarizing the war on drugs, other countries like Portugal and the Netherlands save millions by pursuing harm reduction. Mexican legislators legalized personal possession of virtually all recreational drugs in an attempt two years ago to quell the corruption in police departments and scale down the drug war to just fighting cartels ravaging the country.
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Wikileaks cables showed us what's really going on in Mexico: agencies compete with each other and don't cooperate enough to win a war that is by definition un-winnable.
And Calderon, who is the one who escalated this massive drug war in Mexico, is pointing his finger back at us and going, "well....well....your agencies don't cooperate either"
Obama wants to speed up a billion dollars of American aid to Mexico in the form of the failed Merida Initiative.
Wikileaks exposes the 'war on drugs' in Mexico.
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But one prominent industry representative for gun makers spoke up:
According to the Mexican government database, there were 15,273 drug-related killings in 2010.Overall, a total of 34,612 people have died in drug-related killings in the four years since Mexican President Felipe Calderon declared a stepped-up offensive against drug cartels.
Richard Feldman, President of the Independent Firearms Association and former gun industry association executive said: "Maybe we should be suing the Mexican government for their failure to prevent drugs from coming into our country."
The stupid. It f*cking burns.
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And it kills.
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Go see the MEXICO DRUG WAR UPDATE by drcnet.org: EVERY SINGLE DAY CARTEL TERRORISM DISRUPTS MEXICAN LIFE.
Wednesday, April 13
In Ciudad Juarez, the bodies of four men who were last seen being kidnapped by members of a special police unit were discovered in a ravine just outside the city. Three police officers from the elite "Grupo Delta" have been arrested for the March 26 kidnapping. The four victims are all between 23 and 28 years old.
In Monterrey, six people were killed during a fire fight between the Army and a group of gunmen. Five of the dead were armed suspects and one was an uninvolved female motorist who was killed in the crossfire. Additionally, an eight-year old girl was wounded in the legs when she was hit by stray bullets during the incident, which began when soldiers gave chase to two SUVs full of armed men.
Thursday, April 14
In Ciudad Juarez, a state prosecutor was gunned down outside his home by heavily armed men. Marion Ramon Gonzalez was leaving his home at 8:20am when he was attacked by men carrying assault rifles who had arrived in three black vehicles.
In Ciudad Juarez, three children were killed when unknown assailants threw a Molotov cocktail through the window of their home. The mother escaped the blaze with her hair and clothing on fire.
Friday, April 15
In Veracruz, a police chief and two of his officers were killed after being ambushed by gunmen. Juan Moreno Lopez was the head of the inter-municipal police force for the Minatitlan-Cosoleacaque area. The other two officers were his bodyguards. These deaths bring to nine the number of police officers killed in the Veracruz area in under a month.
Saturday, April 16
In Ciudad Victoria, Tamaulipas, Mexican marines captured a high-ranking Zeta who has been linked to the mass graves in the San Fernando area. Martin "Comandante Kilo" Estrada Luna was arrested along with five others during a raid. He has also been linked to the August 2010 murder of 72 migrants and is thought to be the Zeta commander responsible involved in drugs, extortion, and human trafficking activities in the area.
In Tepic, Nayarit, a man was found skinned and posed on a bridge in the city. This is the third case of someone being skinned in the last several weeks in Tepic. The victim -- who remains unidentified -- had had his hand cut off and left placed on his chest.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/...
Because these things are happening mostly in places where brown people live, you won't see this very much in US media, which is more obsessed with the latest white female teenager to go missing on a vacation somewhere.
The racism that drives the Drug War in America also is the culprit for the shocking indifference to this violence in Mexico.