Mexico’s Spreading Drug Violence And World Of Political Corruption
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I have one piece of advice for the citizens of Mexico.
Don’t come here looking for freedom. Look for freedom in your own country. Quit voting in the corrupt political leaders. Quit supporting the “Gang” mentality. The American Dream can be a reality for Mexico if you work for it in your own country. Make Mexico a place people want to come to and not run from. It takes time, effort and determination. If you applied the same effort you have to brave the harsh desert conditions to come here and live, why not apply it to your own country? Its just that simple.
November 21, 2008
Author: Stephanie Hanson
Mexico’s economy is slowing–remittances from abroad are down, as is U.S. demand for Mexican exports. But one sector is doing a brisk business–the funeral industry near the U.S. border (Reuters). Since Mexican President Felipe Calderon began his offensive against drug cartels and organized criminals in December 2006, drug-related killings have escalated, as has the need for undertakers. Though the drug war receives minimal attention north of the border, some authorities say it increasingly threatens the stability of the Mexican state and poses a security threat to the United States.
Calderon has moved aggressively against Mexico’s drug cartels. He has deployed over thirty thousand soldiers across the country, purged several police forces of corrupt members, and pushed a judicial reform package through Congress. But the violence has only mounted. More than four thousand people have died in drug-related violence this year, up from more than 2,500 deaths in 2007. The escalation is so great that drug gangs are widely suspected of causing the plane crash in early November that killed the interior minister, though the government says pilot error was the cause (NYT).
The drug cartels’ infiltration of the police, judiciary, and political parties has severely compromised the government’s ability to fight the drug cartels, some experts say. As Alma Guillermoprieto writes in the New Yorker, the end of one-party rule in Mexico precipitated the need to run expensive election campaigns, which the drug cartels are reported to now fund. The Mexican army is considered relatively clean, but its deployment has presented new opportunities for corruption, and causes tension with local security forces.
Experts say little progress will be made until Mexico’s police and judiciary are reformed.
Related: Today from the LA Times
Former drug official in Mexico accused of taking bribe
Noe Ramirez Mandujano, who led an elite investigations unit, is the highest-ranking law enforcement official to be arrested. He allegedly tipped off the Beltran Leyva drug gang for $450,000.
Reporting from Mexico City — In a widening probe of corruption at top levels of Mexican law enforcement, authorities said today that they had arrested the nation’s former top anti-drug official for allegedly taking $450,000 to tip off traffickers.
Noe Ramirez Mandujano, a veteran federal prosecutor who resigned in July as head of an elite unit known as SIEDO, is charged with passing tips to the Beltran Leyva gang in the western state of Sinaloa, Mexican Atty. Gen. Eduardo Medina Mora said.
Ramirez, 47, becomes the highest-ranking law enforcement official to be arrested amid a government investigation of infiltration of police agencies by drug traffickers.
Five other officials from SIEDO, a division of the attorney general’s office that spearheads drug investigations, already face charges of leaking intelligence to the Sinaloa group.
Medina Mora said a member of the gang told authorities he paid a total of $450,000 to Ramirez as part of a monthly payoff scheme “in exchange for providing information about investigations and ongoing actions” against the Sinaloa drug smugglers.
The attorney general said Ramirez had voluntarily appeared before prosecutors to answer the accusations but there was sufficient cause to detain the former official.
If true, the accusation represents another serious setback to President Felipe Calderon’s war on Mexican drug cartels, a centerpiece of his 2-year-old administration. Mexico is awash in drug violence, with more than 4,000 people dead this year, according to unofficial media counts.
This latest arrest, amid a government inquiry called Operation Cleanup, may demonstrate Calderon’s commitment to rooting out official corruption but it also will likely further undermine public confidence in the war on drugs.
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