They found the body of Edelmiro Cavazos on a dirt road on the outskirts of Santiago, a popular tourist spot near Monterrey, Mexico.
The 38-year-old, U.S.-educated mayor of Santiago had been shot execution-style, hands tied behind his back, head bound with tape.
Cavazos, whose body was found Wednesday, was the fifth Mexican mayor gunned down in the past two years - the latest high-profile victim in a nation
that is bleeding to death from its War on Drugs.
The mayhem in Mexico has gotten so bad that President Felipe Calderon launched an unprecedented public debate and political summit on ways to end the
war, possibly by legalizing drugs.
The reason Mexico's politicians are desperate for peace is simple.
More people are dying each day from the bullets and bombs of drug traffickers in their country than are being killed in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars
combined.
In the border city of Juarez, the epicenter of the violence, 60 residents were gunned down between Friday and Monday.
Since December 2006, 28,000 Mexicans have been murdered, including more than 2,000 police and security officials.
Drug gangs have resorted to car bombs, kidnappings and have even blockaded wealthy neighborhoods of Monterrey in spectacular displays of force.
The escalating carnage is a direct result of Calderon's decision, shortly after his election in 2006, to station 45,000 soldiers and police on the
country's streets to combat the cartels.
Calderon's military surge was backed by more than $1.2 billion in drug war aid from former President Bush, and by several hundred million more from
the Obama administration.
Although Mexican officials have captured or killed scores of drug lords and seized tons of drugs, the violence and the trafficking continue to
mushroom.
The country's tourism is dying, its industry is suffering and thousands have fled violence-plagued border cities like Tijuana, Matamoros and Juarez.
Meanwhile, two industries in the U.S. are flourishing from Mexico's tragedy.
More than 7,000 gun shops have sprouted on the U.S. side of the border, and their owners seem not to care where the merchandise goes. Three-quarters
of the 84,000 weapons, including high-powered assault rifles, that Mexican officials have seized since 2006, originated in the U.S.
Then there are the banks.
On March 12, federal prosecutors in Miami charged Wachovia Bank with repeatedly failing to report possible money-laundering activity by money-transfer
firms from Mexico that used the bank.
Some of the more than $370billion wired to Wachovia from Mexico bought planes here that were used to transport drugs.
Wells Fargo, which owns Wachovia, immediately entered into a deferred prosecution agreement and paid the federal government $160 million in fines.
Several other U.S. banks have also been discovered flouting money-laundering laws.
No wonder former Mexican president Vicente Fox, a conservative businessman, is urging his country to legalize the production, sale and distribution of
drugs "as a strategy to weaken and break the economic system that allows cartels to earn huge profits."
The Mexican people, Fox says, have paid too high a price for this war on drugs, while the gun dealers and bankers in the U.S. continue to make a
killing.woody with a view - 8-20-2010 at 04:29 PM
WOW! wells fargo is my criminal banker. $160 million vs. $370 billion.
i guess it's worth the penalty, eh? if you're the bank! i guess we're doomed if the govt didn't confiscate $370 billion as proceeds from a criminal
enterprise.......DENNIS - 8-20-2010 at 04:33 PM
Quote:
Originally posted by BajaNews
The Mexican people, Fox says, have paid too high a price for this war on drugs, while the gun dealers and bankers in the U.S. continue to make a
killing.
Mexico would like the US to control the sale of arms, but with our libertys and rights, it can't happen and Mexico knows that.
The logical next step would be to legalize arms for people in Mexico for protection, but that option is never mentioned.
Seems that Mexico is at much to blame as the US on the gun issue.
The Lie that will not DIE
MrBillM - 8-20-2010 at 10:25 PM
Wonder WHY ?
Because it's another excuse for the Liberals to push their agenda.
"Three-quarters of the 84,000 weapons, including high-powered assault rifles, that Mexican officials have seized since 2006, originated in the U.S".
The number of weapons with identifiable Serial Numbers turned over to ATF and traced to U.S. sources totals 14-17 percent of the total figure, but at
least the phony number is moving in the right direction. They were originally claiming 90 percent which was the number of the those submitted to ATF
for verification.
[Edited on 8-21-2010 by MrBillM]vgabndo - 8-20-2010 at 10:37 PM
And exactly why are we supposed to believe YOUR number?
And, what percentage of the 84,000 have been neatly packed up and sent to the American ATF? That has a big influence on your effort to push your
conservative agenda.
MY Numbers ?
MrBillM - 8-20-2010 at 11:08 PM
It's tough dealing with VGA and other Dumbchits, but I keep trying.
Although when this came up last year, I quoted from the Government source, the following addresses some of those numbers and the methodology used to
come up with the inflated figure.
From the El Paso Times 05/14/2009:
EL PASO -- More than 90 percent of about 11,000 guns tied to violence in Mexico's drug wars came from the United States, but those weapons were
handpicked for tracing by Mexican authorities.
The Mexican federal attorney general's staff recently acknowledged that Mexican authorities had seized 35,943 arms, including 2,800 grenades, since
the crackdown against the drug cartels began in December 2006.
That means Mexico provided the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives with serial numbers for less than a third of the weapons that
were seized.
The National Rifle Association and others contend that various U.S. and Mexican officials have exaggerated the number of U.S. weapons seized in Mexico
to push for stricter gun controls in America.
Earlier this year, officials of the ATF stated publicly that 90 percent of the weapons recovered in Mexico in connection with drug violence were
traced to the United States.
Relying on the ATF's 90 percent figure, President Barack Obama and Mexico's ambassador to the United States, Arturo Sarukhan, said U.S. guns were
fueling drug violence in Mexico.
But the 90 percent figure was overblown because Mexico did not provide the ATF with serial numbers for all the weapons it seized, according to
information obtained by the El Paso Times through the Freedom of Information Act.
"During fiscal years (October through September) 2007 and 2008, Mexico submitted to ATF 11,055 crime guns to be traced. ATF determined that 94 percent
of those crime guns originated from various sources within the United States," the ATF said.
"It is important to note that the 94 percent figure only relates to the crime guns that Mexico provided to ATF to be traced."
On Wednesday, ATF officials said about 2,800 of the 11,055 weapons were imported to the United States from other countries before they ended up in
Mexico.
ATF administrators also said "a small percentage could not be determined to have a nexus to the United States."
The ATF did not respond to other questions about the traced weapons, such as how many were tracked to U.S. foreign military exports or U.S. direct
commercial sales.
Interesting to note that the 36k figure has jumped to 84k since 2008. That is a figure that is suspect, too, since there are no New figures from ATF.
But, maybe the Mexican Authorities count differently. It's tough when you run out of fingers AND toes.
