El Financiero (Mexico City) 4/5/10
"The other Way of the Cross: 126 executed in 12 states"
Even Holy Week could not hold back the wave of violence affecting a large part of Mexico. Between Wednesday, March 31 and yesterday, 126 executions in 12 states were reported. Main contributors were the states of Tamaulipas, Chihuahua, Mexico and Morelos with a total of 110 cases reported.
Add to that the armed attack on the prison in Reynosa to free prisoners and the Molotov cocktail attack by organized crime on the Catholic Temple near Cd. Juarez.
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El Universal (Mexico City) 4/5/10
Guatemala, warehouse for the narco
Guatemala has become one of the main points for the Mexican drug cartels' delivery and storage of drugs that come principally from Colombia. From Guatemala, at least three routes of transport are used to deliver the narcotics to the US.
Officials of the Mexican Secretary of National Defense (Sedena) report that the major cartels use transports identified as Central, Gulf and Pacific. The central route is controlled by the Sinaloa cartel; the Gulf, by the Gulf cartel and their former allies, Los Zetas; and the Pacific route is used by the Juarez, Sinaloa, Tijuana, Beltran Leyva brothers and La Familia Michoacána. The Pacific route is used for the transport of chemicals needed in the production of synthetic drugs. These chemical products come mainly from Asia and Europe and enter Mexico through the seaports of Manzanillo, Colima and Lazaro Cardenas, Michoacán, ports used by both La Familia Michoacána and the Sinaloa cartel. Competition by the various rival transporters using the same areas keeps the violence rate high.
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Venezuela - Russia arms deal
The purchase of Russian arms by Venezuela could add up to some 5 billion dollars under a new agreement, according to official Russian sources. The government of Hugo Chavez has already spent more than 4 billion dollars in arms purchases from Russia, including helicopters and 100,000 Kalishnikov rifles [the "K" in AK-47 ]. Quoting the closing statement of the article" "Venezuelan arms agreements are one of the various issues that have irritated the US in its relations with Russia."
A second article regarding the arms agreement addresses a request by the US for Venezuela to make their purchases of arms transparent in order to prevent the "migration" of the arms to other parts of the region.
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National Association Of Former Border Patrol Officers
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Foreign News Report
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