NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF FORMER BORDER PATROL OFFICERS (www.nafbpo.org) presents the Foreign News Report
Over the weekend: Changes in the drug market; US supports change in Cd. Juarez strategy
Saturday 1/23/10
El Financiero (Mexico City) 1/22/10
The powerful drug market
Mexican Secretary of Public Security Genaro Garcia Luna asserted that the rising level of violence in Mexico is a consequence of the increase in drug consumption in Mexico that is generating keen interest within the domestic market.
He maintains that the growth in drug usage is very large. Just in amphetamines alone, the usage multiplied five times between 2002 and 2008. It is estimated that 1.7 million people use cocaine daily and 3 million Mexicans use marihuana, all of which represents an important internal market.
Garcia Luna says that "profits in the dirty drug business are very attractive since each kilogram of cocaine is equivalent to $95,000 just for transporting it from Colombia to the US. He said that in Colombia, the country of production, the kilo of cocaine costs $2,198, but in Mexico the wholesale price is $12,500 and in the US it rises to $97,400, representing a profit of slightly over $95,000.
Furthermore, this same kilo that leaves Colombia for Europe can increase in price up to $101,490, representing millions in profits. Comparing the domestic wholesale market in Mexico, Garcia Luna points out that the national total drug consumption (marihuana, cocaine, heroin and synthetic) amounts to a wholesale value of $811.08 million, representing a very compelling economic attraction to the organized criminal gangs, which contributes to the increased violence in the country.
Legislators reject Garcia Luna's assessment, holding firm to the idea that the US is responsible for the increasing violence because of its greater consumption and absence of war between criminal gangs there. [All monetary figures are in US dollars.]
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Cambio de Michoacán (Morelia, Michoacán) 1/22/10
Drugs and arms seizure
The Mexican Army located three clandestine drug laboratories in Michoacán and seized synthetic drugs and an arsenal of weapons. The armament confiscated included 118 40-caliber grenades, 21 firearms, clips and ammo. The operation was carried out in the areas of Cheran, Purepero and Tangancicuaro, Michoacán. [Photo relates.]
Mayor again wounded in armed attack
The mayor of Tiquicheo, Michoacan, Maria Santos Gorrostieta Salazar, who was gravely injured last October in an armed attack that killed her husband, has again been wounded by an armed group while attending a meeting of regional city officials in Altamirano, Guerrero. She and her entourage were singled out at the gathering by the gunmen. Latest reports are that the mayor will once again survive as well as four others wounded in the attack, including a news correspondent.
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Sunday 1/24/10
El Tiempo (Bogota, Colombia) 1/23/10
Details of pact between FARC and ELN revealed
Details of a pact recently reached between the communist guerilla groups Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the National Liberation Army (ELN) were published after El Tiempo learned of them through intelligence sources. The accord supposedly ends the often fractious relationship between the two rebel organizations and brings them into an alliance regarding disputed territories, a problem that has interfered with the trafficking of narcotics. One article of the pact addresses the threat of the "Yankee imperialism" and use of military bases.
Although not the central issue of the pact, the representatives of both rebel groups committed themselves to making a joint plan to counter the presence of US personnel in Colombia and their use of Colombian air bases.
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El Debate (Sinaloa) 1/23/10
Another multiple execution in Sinaloa
The bodies of three men were found piled together in an open field near Ahoma, Sinaloa, apparent victims of continuing mob killings. The three were blindfolded, their feet tied and each had been shot in the head.
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Frontera (Tijuana, Baja California) 1/23/10
Alien smuggling interrupted
An alien smuggler was arrested and five of his clients, all from the state of Oaxaca, were detained for questioning at the bus center in Tecate, Baja California. The alleged smuggler, 18, had charged the five aspiring illegal border crossers $2,000 each for bringing them into the US.
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Monday 1/25/10
El Universal (Mexico City) 1/24/10
Federal judiciary official assassinated
The body of the Official Secretary of the Mexican Federal Judiciary in Veracruz City, Veracruz, was found decapitated and dismembered with a narco message stabbed into her chest. Attorney Nayeli Reyes Santos had been abducted four days before when intercepted in her car by an armed group. The message found attached to her mutilated body was signed "Los Zetas." Unofficial sources reported her death was related to the arrest last week of a Gulf drug cartel boss.
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US applauds departure of Army from Cd. Juarez
Carlos Pascual, US Ambassador to Mexico, applauded the security strategy in Cd. Juarez, Chihuahua, that exchanges the military command for Federal Police. Referring to the change as an intelligent and proper measure, he reasoned that the federal agents were better suited for the security job because, unlike the military, they have the legal authority to participate actively in judicial proceedings, collect evidence, cordon areas and introduce evidence. Pascual said that with the military confrontations with narcotraffickers, they either killed the criminals or took them into custody for the purpose of obtaining confessions or more information, but such information was not admissible in a judicial process. "The number of arrests rose, but the number of cases tried didn't change," said the ambassador in an interview with the news agency Notimex.
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El Porvenir (Monterrey, Nuevo Leon) 1/24/10
Six dead in gun battle
An armed confrontation between the Mexican Army and a group of criminals left at least six dead and others wounded. The fight took place in the town of Doctor Arroyo, Nuevo Leon, in the southern tip of the state. No official information has been released. According to early reports, the fight lasted a little over an hour.
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Frontera (Tijuana, Baja California) 1/24/10
US joins in search for missing children
US authorities have joined in the search for two children swept away in flooding from recent heavy rains in Tijuana. It is considered very possible that the bodies of the two brothers, 2 and 5 years old, could be in US territory. San Diego firemen and the Border Patrol have begun the search on that side of the border. It is hoped that US rescue personnel will be able to provide more information. [Photo relates.]
US border Patrol Agent searches for missing children.
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The National Association of Former Border Patrol Officers (NAFBPO) extracts and condenses the material that follows from Mexican and Central and South American on-line media sources on a daily basis.
