Tag Archives: Mexico

The Bridge

FX’s The Bridge is my favorite new crime drama of the year. And while the story about a serial killer is compelling, the real strength of the show is the character development and conflict along the border between El Paso and Juárez.

The lead characters, Marco Ruiz, played by Mexican actor Demian Bechir, (nominated for an Oscar for his role in A Better Life) and Sonya Cross, played by German actress Diane Kruger (from Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds) are terrific in their roles, as is the supporting cast.

Kruger brings empathy, humor and tenacity to her role of a determined homicide detective with Asperger’s syndrome, an autism disorder that gives her a high intellect but a serious lack of empathy. Bechir’s depiction of a weary but honest cop beset by personal problems and a Mexican police force riddled with corruption, displays strength of character and a determination to rise above it all.

From the first episode in which a female corpse is revealed to be two dismembered halves, one American, one Mexican, deliberately placed across an international line on the “bridge” between the U.S. and Mexico, the series creates a mood missing from most television dramas. With its realistic settings, beginning with the opening credits, the series rises way above what passes for entertainment on the small and large screen today. The series even trusts that an intelligent audience can read Mexican scenes in subtitled Spanish.

As cable dramas retreat more and more into the realm of fantasy and horror, it’s exciting to discover a series that manages to be both tough and entertaining. By choosing the location along the Mexican and U.S. border, the writers should have plenty of stories to tell in the coming seasons. I certainly hope so.

You can catch all the previous episodes––minus most of the commercials––on The Bridge website at http://www.fxnetworks.com/thebridge.

Time To End The War On Drugs

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Benjamin Arellano-Felix

Benjamin Arellano-Felix, the former leader of the Tijuana Cartel was sentenced last week in U.S. District Court in San Diego to serve 25 years in federal prison and ordered to forfeit $100 million in criminal proceeds. The sentence followed his conviction for racketeering and conspiring to launder monetary instruments. After serving out his time in the U.S., he will be deported to Mexico to finish a 22-year sentence.

Jose Antonio Acosta-Hernandez, the Juarez Drug Cartel’s leader in Juarez and Chihuahua, Mexico, also pled guilty in El Paso, Texas last week, and was sentenced to life in prison for his participation in drug trafficking and numerous acts of violence in connection with the Barrio Azteca gang.

Despite these successes, the War on Drugs has been an abject failure. Drug smuggling and distribution are currently estimated to be a $300-$400 billion global business.

In a recent article, Jess Rigelhaupt, an assistant professor of history and American studies at the University of Mary Washington noted that the U.S. currently has more than 2.3 million people behind bars. One in every 100 adults is in jail. The incarceration rate is 750 per 100,000 residents, the highest rate in the world. We have 5 percent of the world’s population and 25 percent of the people in jail. We imprison people at a rate five times higher than comparable Western industrial nations. More than half of new prison sentences to state prisons between 1985 and 2000 were for drug offenses.

According to the Drug Sense website, the U.S. federal government spent over $15 billion on the war in 2010, which amounts to about $500 per second. Someone is arrested for violating a drug law every 19 seconds. Police arrested an estimated 858,408 persons for cannabis violations in 2009. Of those charged with cannabis violations, approximately 89 percent were charged with possession only. An American is arrested for violating cannabis laws every 30 seconds.

Last November, president Juan Manuel Santos of Colombia declared that market alternatives to deal with narcotics trafficking should be considered. In February, President Otto Perez Molina of Guatemala called for a debate on drug regulation to reduce violence in Latin America. Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Panama, Honduras and Mexico all voiced support for the initiative.

Three weeks ago, at the 55th annual session of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs in Vienna, Austria, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, former president of Brazil and chair of the Global Commission on Drug Policy, said, “There is a clear rise in public perception on the flaws of the current approach to deal with drugs in our society. We can no longer afford the levels of violence in Mexico, Brazil, Central America and West Africa, the trillions of dollars spent on this endless war and the obstacles it presents to harm reduction policies. It is about time that the UN and politicians in office engage on a constructive debate towards decriminalization, regulation, and public health programs that may reduce violence whilst preventing and relieving the suffering of drug abusers.”

I couldn’t agree more.

How To Defeat Terrorism

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Saudi Arabian ambassador Adel Al-Jubeir

Some have argued over the last decade that the best and most cost-effective way to prevent terrorism in the U.S. is through good intelligence work rather than through lengthy wars in Muslim countries. The latest example supporting this line of thinking occurred today when it was revealed that an Iranian-backed plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the United States was disrupted by the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Agency.

An Iranian American, Manssor Arbabsiar, 56, has been arrested in the case. Gholam Shakuri, an Iran-based member of the secret Quds Force unit of Iranian’s Revolutionary Guard, was also charged but is not in custody.

The two men were charged with conspiracy to murder a foreign official, conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction, and conspiracy to commit an act of terrorism, among other counts. Arbabsiar has confessed to the charges and is cooperating with authorities in custody according to government officials. The men planned to detonate a bomb at a busy Washington restaurant, killing Adel Al-Jubeir, the Saudi Arabian ambassador to the U.S., and scores of innocent bystanders.

However, a DEA informant posing as a member of Los Zetas, a Mexican drug cartel, infiltrated the plot. The Zetas cartel was to be paid $1.5 million to carry out the attack, and two advance payments of nearly $50,000 each were wired to an FBI-controlled bank account in August.

Los Zetas, founded by a group of Mexican Army Special Forces deserters, began as the military wing and private mercenary army of the Gulf Cartel. Los Zetas took their name from the radio code used for top-level officers in the Mexican army. After the arrest of the Gulf Cartel’s leader, Osiel, Cárdenas Guillen, the Zetas began operating independently, which led to the bloody turf war that has engulfed Mexico. The DEA describes them as perhaps “the most technologically advanced, sophisticated and violent of the paramilitary enforcement groups.”

The DEA informant who helped crack the case, had been charged with a drug offense and agreed to cooperate in the investigation by posing as a member of the Zeta drug cartel in a meeting with the conspirators in May. Later meetings took place in the U.S. and Mexico.

FBI Director Robert Mueller told reporters today that the case “reads like the pages of a Hollywood script.” But I believe it reads more like a recipe for winning the war on terror.

A Success In The Drug War

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As I looked at Edgar Valdez Villarreal’s smiling, smug photo in the newspaper this morning, I wondered what his photo might look like a decade from now after he serves his first ten years of what will no doubt be a very long sentence in prison. I suspect the American born drug lord called “the Barbie” by the Mexicans because of his fair complexion and green eyes will not be smiling smugly in future photos.

Villarreal is the third major Mexican drug lord killed or captured in less than a year. Mexican President Felipe Calderon has been roundly criticized for pursuing an aggressive war against organized crime and the cartels in the face of escalating violence that has claimed an estimated 28,000 lives. But what, I ask, is the alternative?

Calderon could just ignore the cartels and the massive flow of drugs into the U.S. Before he decided enough was enough, Mexico was well on its way to becoming the next Somalia, a country controlled by warring, well-armed gangs and corrupt government officials. Earlier this week, 72 immigrants were murdered on their way to the U.S. by the Zeta drug cartel. Human trafficking has become an additional source of income for the drug cartels, as they grow more desperate for money to fund their operation. Yesterday, a firebomb killed eight people in a bar in Cancun. The owner of the bar had refused to pay extortion money to the Zetas. If the violence continues to expand into tourist areas such as Cancun, Mexico’s economy could suffer a devastating blow.

Colombia, under the leadership of former President Alvaro Uribe and newly elected President Juan Manuel Santos, has pursued a similar strategy against the FARC and the Colombian cartels. As a result of these security policies, Marxist guerrillas are on the run, kidnappings have been reduced, and the economy is on the rebound.

Rather than ignoring or aggressively pursuing the cartels, Former Mexican President Vicente Fox has joined with those urging Calderon to legalize drugs in Mexico, saying that could break the economic power of the country’s brutal drug cartels. Calderon has agreed to open the door to discussions about the legalization of drugs, even though he remains opposed to the idea.

The Mexican government spends about $8.2 billion annually on law enforcement. It’s estimated that it would save between 5 percent and 15 percent of GDP if narcotics were legal in all countries. But those savings fall to as low as 1 percent if drugs were legalized only in Mexico. Ultimately, all countries, including the U.S., would have to legalize and regulate the drug trade. It’s extremely unlikely that will happen.

And so Calderon is left with little choice but to aggressively challenge and pursue men like Villarreal. The violence and deaths will continue, but my guess is, the drug lords who have managed to avoid killing or capture are not smiling now.

Deficits and Drugs

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November 2, 2010 is the date of the mid-term elections. It’s also a date that may signal the beginning of a major change in our drug laws. While fourteen states and DC have enacted laws legalizing medical marijuana, if Proposition 19 passes in California, it will be the first U.S. state to legalize the drug.

Legalizing marijuana appears to have broad support in the state, with 51% to 56% of Californians surveyed in various polls saying they favored making marijuana legal for social use and taxing the sales proceeds to help bail out the cash-strapped state.

Those supporting the measure assert that banning marijuana has contributed to an increasingly deadly underground economy run by brutal drug cartels that have cost billions in scarce law enforcement resources and made criminals out of countless law-abiding citizens. Those opposed to the measure worry about increased drug usage and impaired driving crashes and say the social costs far outweigh the money it would bring in.

Under the initiative, simple possession of an ounce or less of marijuana, currently a misdemeanor offense punishable by a $100 fine, would be legal for anyone at least 21. It also would be lawful to grow limited amounts in one’s own home for personal use. While sales would not be legalized outright, cities and counties could pass laws permitting commercial distribution subject to local regulations and taxes. Retail sales would still be limited to an ounce for adults 21 and older.

Despite our decades long battle against the cartels and traffickers, the U.S. still has some of the highest rates of drug use in the world, and more than a quarter of its prison inmates are behind bars for drug-related offenses. Mexico’s U.S. backed war on drugs has left more than 28,000 people dead since December 2006. Recently, former Mexican President Vicente Fox said Mexico should consider legalizing the production, distribution and sale of drugs in order to “break the economic structure that allows the mafias to generate huge profits in their business.”

It is truly ironic that government budget deficits largely created by anti-drug politicians may lead to the legalization of marijuana in California. And its passage may spearhead a national movement toward decriminalizing the drug in states across the country.

The Iron Pipeline

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Recently, the Minneapolis Star Tribune newspaper ran a series of investigative reports about Paul Giovanni de la Rosa, the son of a former Mexican diplomat and a U.S. citizen living in the small town of Medford, Minnesota. Giovanni de la Rosa was arrested by the ATF at the Mexican border and charged with smuggling 31 firearms to drug cartels in Mexico over a two year period. He had purchased the firearms at a Cabela’s sporting goods in Owatonna, Minnesota.

According to the federal Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, there are roughly 54,000-licensed gun dealers in the U.S., nearly 7,000 of them along the U.S./Mexican border. In Mexico there is only one. Run by the Mexican army, it’s located in Mexico City and is called the “Directorate for Arms and Munitions Sales.” Anyone wishing to purchase a firearm in Mexico must obtain a permit from the army, which can take months to get. Citizens can buy only one handgun. It must stay inside the home where it’s registered and it can’t be larger than a .38 special. Owners who want to transport their firearms outside their homes need a permit that must be renewed annually. Hunting and sport rifles can be transported, but they are also heavily regulated. There are also limits on how much ammunition buyers can purchase each month, where they can take the gun, and who they can sell it to.

It’s estimated that roughly 7,000 to 8,000 firearms are sold legally in Mexico each year and that includes sales to private security firms. Yet in 2009, Mexican authorities seized almost 30,000 weapons, primarily from the drug cartels. Close to two-thirds of the firearms seized in Mexico were sophisticated rifles and assault weapons — AK-47s, R-15s, .50-caliber Barretts.

So if Mexico has some of the toughest gun-control laws in the world, yet the country’s drug cartels are armed to the teeth with illegal weapons, where could all those sophisticated firearms be coming from?

While some weapons certainly come from other countries, it seems obvious to those with any common sense that U.S. citizens like Paul Giovanni de la Rosa are smuggling weapons over the border into Mexico along the “iron pipeline” and selling them to drug cartels.

Lobbyists from the NRA argue that strict gun laws in Mexico have done nothing to prevent criminals and drug cartels from obtaining firearms and have left the average citizen in Mexico defenseless. But one is left to wonder if the U.S. had the same restrictive gun laws as Mexico, would 30,000 illegal weapons, many of them assault rifles, be in the hands of drug cartels.

According to the Los Angeles Times, drug-related violence has led to as many as 22, 700 deaths in Mexico since the start of 2007. That’s more deaths than U.S. fatalities in the Iraq War.

Arresting and prosecuting gun smugglers like Paul Giovanni de la Rosa must continue, but it will not stop the carnage. It appears that neither the Supreme Court nor Congress has the stomach for challenging the NRA by restricting U.S. gun sales. Perhaps, the U.S. needs to take another approach and rethink our failed drug policies. But that’s another discussion.

Mexico’s Civil War

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During the 1980s, Pablo Escobar and his ruthless Medellín Cartel became synonymous with violence and death in Colombia. His policy in dealing with law enforcement and government officials was known as plata o plomo, silver or lead. Those that couldn’t be bribed were killed. This resulted in the deaths of hundreds, including civilians, policemen and state officials. Escobar was also responsible for the murder of Colombian presidential candidate Luis Carlos Galán as well as the bombing of Avianca Flight 203 and the DAS building bombing in Bogotá in 1989. That year, Forbes magazine estimated he had a personal fortune of $25 billion, making him the seventh-richest man in the world. His Medellín cartel controlled 80% of the global cocaine market. The Colombian government finally went on the offensive and Escobar was eventually hunted down and killed in 1993. While the majority of cocaine is still produced in Colombia and cartels still exist, Mexican cartels have grown increasingly more powerful. The State Department estimates that 90% of cocaine entering the United States transits Mexico.

Facing a situation similar to Colombia’s in the 1980s and 1990s, Mexican President Felipe Calderón declared war on the drug traffickers after his election in 2006 by deploying nearly 45,000 troops and 5,000 federal police to 18 states. As in Colombia, there has been an alarming increase in deaths. Estimates are that 9900 people have died in drug-related incidents since January 2007. Cities such as Tijuana and Nuevo Laredo have become armed camps. But Calderón’s war on the drug cartels has had an effect beyond the increased levels of violence and deaths. The U.S. government estimates that the amount of cocaine seized on U.S. soil dropped by 41 percent between early 2007 and mid-2008. And yesterday, Mexico captured Teodoro Garcia Simental, known as El Teo, one of Mexico’s major drug kingpins. His capture follows the arrest of Benjamin Arellano Felix and the death of his brother Raul, the leaders of the Arellano Felix gang.

Still, the U.S. Justice Department now considers the Mexican drug cartels the greatest organized crime threat to the United States as violence spills across the Mexican border. Officials in cities such as Phoenix have reported an alarming increase in killings, kidnappings and home invasions connected to Mexico’s cartels. Also, more than 200 Americans have been killed in Mexico since 2004. The governors of Arizona and Texas have asked the federal government to send additional National Guard troops to help those already there supporting local law enforcement efforts against drug trafficking.

While Colombia has experienced a continuing decrease in levels of violence as current President Alvaro Uribe continues the country’s war against drug traffickers and military groups like the FARC, it’s anyone’s guess whether Calderón and Mexico will succeed. The level of corruption runs deep.

Along with continued military and financial support to Colombia and Mexico, the U.S. could help reduce drug usage and violence by decriminalizing marijuana usage and treating it as a public health problem rather than a security problem. Studies have found that using drug user treatment to reduce drug consumption in the United States is seven times more cost effective than law enforcement efforts alone, and it could potentially cut consumption by a third. Decriminalization, particularly of small quantities of marijuana, might also save money and countless lives in Mexico and in the U.S.