Gypsy Jan
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"The “Colombianization” of Ciudad Juarez and Chihuahua"
A high-ranking delegation of political, business and legal leaders from
Ciudad Juarez and the state of Chihuahua returned to Mexico this week
after completing a May 21 trip to Colombia. The visit netted commitments
by the Colombian government to train Chihuahua police and help implement
new social welfare programs.
The accords cover Colombian training of a planned Chihuahua state police
group of 50 rapid response, anti-kidnapping personnel, assistance in
improving police investigative and surveillance techniques and help in
establishing four social welfare programs in Ciudad Juarez modeled after
similar ones developed in Medellin, Colombia. Colombian trainers for the
new Chihuahua anti-kidnapping squad could be in Ciudad Juarez as early as
next month.
“It will be a very interesting experience to talk with President Alvaro
Uribe to find out his experiences over the course of the years,” said
Chihuahua Governor Jose Reyes Baeza in the run-up to the trip.
A major Colombian product, cocaine, has played a tremendous role in
shaping the history of Ciudad Juarez and Chihuahua during the last 30
years.
Led by Reyes Baeza, the 31-person Mexican delegation included State
Attorney General Patricia Gonzalez, Federal Congressman Octavio Fuentes,
Autonomous University of Ciudad Juarez Rector Jorge Quintana Silveyra,
state lawmaker and Mexican Green Party (PVEM) regional leader Maria Avila
Serna, businessman Luis Carlos Baeza, Ciudad Juarez Chamber of Commerce
President Daniel Murguia Lardizabal, and the mayors of Ciudad Juarez and
Chihuahua City, among numerous others. The invited list read almost like a
Who’s Who of Chihuahua society and politics.
Oddly enough, Antonia Gonzalez Acosta, the coordinator for the state
attorney general office’s Chihuahua’s current anti-kidnapping unit in
Ciudad Juarez, allegedly shot herself to death on the eve of the state
delegation’s visit to Colombia. Gonzalez was reportedly pregnant.
In Colombia, the Mexican visitors met with President Alvaro Uribe,
National Police Chief Oscar Naranjo Trujillo, Interior Minister Fabio
Valencia, and Attorney General Mario Iguaran. The Chihuahua delegation
also met with judges and prosecutors to discuss Colombia’s experience with
oral trials, a new legal model that is now in place in Chihuahua.
According to Ciudad Juarez Mayor Jose Reyes Ferriz, Medellin-style social
programs will be launched in his city with the twin goal of reducing
delinquency and creating social opportunities.
“We are going to apply the programs the Colombians have in Ciudad Juarez,”
Reyes said, "since the conditions in the city of Medellin are similar to
this border.”
Split among the municipal, state and federal governments, the programs
will cost about $4.5 million, Reyes said, but did not immediately offer
other details. The border mayor said he invited his counterpart from
Medellin to visit Ciudad Juarez.
Coming at a time of economic depression and an immediate budget deficit of
nearly $7 million for Ciudad Juarez alone, the costs of the Colombia trip
were questioned by local reporters and some members of the public.
Writing for the Lapolaka news website, Eduardo Salmeron warned of
corruption tainting the new training program.
“It scares me to think they continue importing models that correspond to
other realities and try to implement them in our contexts,” Salmeron
wrote. “What guarantee are we going to have that this group won’t
contaminate a structure which is full of vice?”
Earlier taking exception to the cost issue, Governor Reyes Baeza said the
expenses, which were paid by trip participants or their employers, will
reap many benefits in greater security. The Colombians, he said, are
offering their services for “practically free,” with the Mexicans expected
to pay nominal transportation and lodging costs. According to the
Chihuahua governor, local members of the new anti-kidnapping group will be
carefully selected.
An important issue not raised by the Chihuahua press was the relationship
between human rights and security training. The Colombian government’s
human rights record has been repeatedly criticized by international rights
organizations like Amnesty International.
The Chihuahua-Colombia agreements fit in with a growing synchronicity
between the conservative Calderon and Uribe administrations on important
economic, political and security issues in a hemisphere that is titling to
the left. Together with the Peruvian government of Alan Garcia, the
Calderon and Uribe administrations are vocal defenders of a free trade
model that has fallen into disrepute in much of Latin America.
On a geo-political scale, the Chihuahua-Colombia accords complement the
anti-drug, US-Mexico Merida Initiative that will provide hundreds of
millions of US dollars in security and military aid to the Calderon
administration
Politically, the Mexico City-Bogota connection was evident last week when
the Mexican government expelled a Colombian sociologist, Miguel Angel
Beltran, who was accused by Bogota of being an important member of the
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC)
The growing Mexico-Colombia cooperation is viewed with suspicion by the
Mexican left. Among the sore points is the Colombian army’s sneak attack
on a FARC encampment in Ecuador last year that killed guerrilla leader
Raul Reyes and 24 others, including four young Mexican visitors who were
ostensibly researching the FARC for academic purposes.
A fifth Mexican national, National Autonomous University of Mexico student
Lucia Moret, survived the attack and was given temporary asylum in
Nicaragua before returning to Mexico. Moret currently faces prosecution in
an Ecuadoran court for infringing on the country’s national security.
The March 2008 attack on the FARC encampment led Ecuador and Venezuela to
break diplomatic relations with Colombia, and even threatened to erupt
into a regional war.
The Chihuahua-Colombia alliance unfolds amid a rise in kidnappings in
Ciudad Juarez and other parts of Chihuahua. Kidnappings have sparked
multiple political crises for the state government in recent weeks.
Earlier this month, hundreds of members of the Mormon and Mennonite
communities of northwestern Chihuahua camped out for days in front of the
Governor’s office in Chihuahua City to protest the kidnapping-for-ransom
of 16-year-old Eric LeBaron, who was later freed unharmed.
On May 19, hundreds of residents of Ascension, an agricultural
municipality located south of the New Mexico border, occupied the town
hall to demand the deployment of the army and other actions directed
against kidnappers and violent criminals.
“There are not 3 or 5 or 20 kidnappings” said Alfredo Frias Reyes,
municipal government secretary. “We are more than 20,000 people who have
been sequestered and we cannot continue like this.”
Like Ciudad Juarez, shop owners in Ascension are putting up their
businesses for sale or trying to rent out storefronts. Residents are
reportedly fleeing to the United States and other parts of Chihuahua.
Following the Ascension protest, the Mexican army and Chihuahua state police increased patrols in the zone.
Sources: Norte, May 21, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 2009. Articles by Arturo
Chacon, Ricardo Espinoza, Francisco Lujan, Herika Martinez Prado, Felix
Gonzalez, and editorial staff. El Universal, May 24, 2009. Frontenet.com,
May 20, 22, 26, 2009. Articles by Sergio Valdez, Maribel Alba and Arturo
Carrillo. El Diario de Juarez, May 10, 18, 20, 21, 22, 2009. Articles by
Carlos Hernandez M. and editorial staff. La Jornada, May 24, 2009.
Editorial. Lapolaka.com, May 6, 21, 23, 25, 26, 2009. Proceso/Apro, May
14, 2009. Article by Sara Lovera.
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow mindedness.”
—Mark Twain
\"La vida es dura, el corazon es puro, y cantamos hasta la madrugada.” (Life is hard, the heart is pure and we sing until dawn.)
—Kirsty MacColl, Mambo de la Luna
\"Alea iacta est.\"
—Julius Caesar
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Bajahowodd
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Wow! The problem is almost solved. Look how quickly Columbia cleaned up their drug problem. Oh, that's right. They haven't. But they sure spent a ton
of US dough.
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Woooosh
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| Quote: | Originally posted by Bajahowodd
Wow! The problem is almost solved. Look how quickly Columbia cleaned up their drug problem. Oh, that's right. They haven't. But they sure spent a ton
of US dough. |
kind of like dumb and dumber isn't it?
\"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing\"
1961- JFK to Canadian parliament (Edmund Burke)
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Bajahowodd
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You got that. Modeling after Columbia seems to have only one expected result. More US aide. The pity is that we have institutionalized the whole war
on drugs concept so that barring some earth-shaking event, it's going to be perpetual.
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Bajahowodd
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You got that. Modeling after Columbia seems to have only one expected result. More US aide. The pity is that we have institutionalized the whole war
on drugs concept so that barring some earth-shaking event, it's going to be perpetual.
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Ken Cooke
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| Quote: | Originally posted by Bajahowodd
Wow! The problem is almost solved. Look how quickly Columbia cleaned up their drug problem. Oh, that's right. They haven't. But they sure spent a ton
of US dough. |
The security situation in that country is much improved. I as an American tourist benefitted from this first-hand. I can visit Bogota without being
kidnapped outside of the city at night. 10 years ago would have been a different story.
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Gypsy Jan
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Columbia is Much Improved
If Anthony Bourdain, of the Travel Network show, "No Reservations" is to be believed.
The neighborhoods that were the breeding ground for the cartels are now becoming places for family and growth - the Columbian government has worked to
put in place money for infrastructure and education.
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow mindedness.”
—Mark Twain
\"La vida es dura, el corazon es puro, y cantamos hasta la madrugada.” (Life is hard, the heart is pure and we sing until dawn.)
—Kirsty MacColl, Mambo de la Luna
\"Alea iacta est.\"
—Julius Caesar
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CaboRon
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| Quote: | Originally posted by Bajahowodd
You got that. Modeling after Columbia seems to have only one expected result. More US aide. The pity is that we have institutionalized the whole war
on drugs concept so that barring some earth-shaking event, it's going to be perpetual. |
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Ken Cooke
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Some good background reading on the region
Panama could become next narco battleground
FARC insurgents are increasingly crossing the border from Colombia. Authorities fear that they will spread the drug violence that has convulsed parts
of Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras.
By Chris Kraul
May 24, 2009
Reporting from El Real, Panama -- The heavily armed rebels usually show up in groups of 20 or more, dressed in green fatigues and seeking food.
"Of course you have to give it to them," said one resident of this isolated village 35 miles west of the Colombian border. "People don't like that
they're here, but with few police and many informants around, they keep quiet."
Then just as suddenly, the rebels with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, melt back into the jungle.
Over the last decade, the leftist insurgents have regularly spilled over into Panama, seeking rest and respite from pursuing Colombian armed forces.
But rarely have they appeared as frequently or penetrated so deeply into Panamanian territory as in recent months, say residents and officials here in
Darien province.
And guns aren't all they're bringing with them.
Panamanian and U.S. officials say it's no coincidence that drug-related violence has risen in tandem with the more frequent sightings of the
guerrillas, whom the State Department labels drug traffickers and terrorists.
U.S. counter-narcotics officials believe that the FARC and other Colombian traffickers are shipping more drugs from Colombia overland across Panama to
avoid tighter control of Pacific and Caribbean coastal waterways by the Panamanian and U.S. naval forces.
All this has Panamanian and U.S. officials concerned that Panama could become the next battleground in narco-wars that have convulsed parts of Mexico,
Guatemala and Honduras.
"Before, drugs in Panama were seen as a U.S. problem. Now officials here see it more as a common cause," said one foreign counter-narcotics official
who was interviewed this month in Panama City.
Whether it's because of the drug trade or more aggressive pursuit by Colombian troops, the increased presence of the FARC on Panama's side of the
Darien rain forest is indisputable, several locals said.
"In the last year or two, you really notice them more," another El Real resident said this month. "They come around to buy necessities -- rice, beans,
salt and milk -- and they always pay. They don't involve themselves in local disputes and other issues. But they have their informants who tell them
if the police are coming."
Like others interviewed for this story, El Real residents spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of FARC reprisal.
They have good reason. In early April, rebels killed a Colombian refugee in nearby Boca de Cupe in front of his three children, leaving a note pinned
to his chest inscribed with the word sapo -- Spanish slang for "snitch."
There have been other violent incidents. In December, Panamanian border police killed a FARC guerrilla and captured another in a shootout a few miles
west of the border.
The new emphasis on overland drug routes is unleashing bloody struggles for control among competing narcos for the Panamanian corridors, authorities
say. Homicides in the capital are up by nearly 40% in recent years, due in part to the booming drug trade, officials say. In 2007 and '08, cocaine
seizures in Panama totaled 120 tons, a big increase from previous years.
In April, two suspected members of Colombia's so-called Office of Envigado cartel were abducted as they left Panama City's swank Metro Plaza shopping
mall. Their decapitated bodies were found outside the city. Authorities suspect Mexican narcos with the Sinaloa cartel were responsible.
The drug trade has spawned a new generation of gangs in the capital that are paid "in kind" with cocaine by the FARC and other traffickers for doing
their legwork.
A recent census turned up the presence of 108 gangs in the country, a revelation to authorities who thought Panama was immune to a problem that has
spawned crime waves in Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras. Many of the gangs are thought to have links to the FARC.
In reaction, the U.S. Embassy has launched a $4-million anti-gang program that is funded from the Merida Initiative, the anti-drug aid package that
was passed by Congress mainly to help Mexico fight the cartels.
In an e-mailed statement to The Times, U.S. Ambassador to Panama Barbara J. Stephenson said: "We strongly believe that the situation in Panama argues
for working with at-risk youth to prevent gang violence from taking root, and for training the police in community policing principles so they form
strong ties with their communities -- a proven recipe for preventing crime."
Rising violence in Panama was the No. 1 issue on voters' minds during presidential elections held this month, pollsters said. Supermarket magnate
Ricardo Martinelli won the election in part because his campaign promise to get tough on crime resonated with voters.
Kraul is a special correspondent.
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Martyman
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I always thought bajahowodd and woooosh were the same person. Huh!!
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Bajajorge
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What the hell, let's bail out Mexico too. What's a few more bucks added to the national debt?   
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Bajahowodd
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I have the greatest respect for Whoooosh and his posts. That's as far as it goes. We are not one and the same.
That being said, FARC is alive and well. I'm hoping that Jorge's post was meant to be humorous. That's because, in the end, we cannot "buy" out of
what is human nature. People always seek a way to "feel better". Drugs and alcohol provide that stimulus. If we ever really think we will be able to
end the violence associated with illicit drugs, we will have to confront the idea that many of these drugs are no more potent or dangerous than
alcohol. legalize, control and tax. Until that day dawns, status quo. Le gusta?
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Ken Cooke
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| Quote: | Originally posted by Bajahowodd
legalize, control and tax. Until that day dawns, status quo. Le gusta? |
Not just in the United States, but around the world to stop groups like las FARC or ELN from profiting from this illicit trade, and the subsequent
terror taking place throughout Latin America.
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Bajahowodd
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Por supuesto, amigo. Verdad.
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