Monday, May 26, 2008
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New Mexican ‘revolución’ crosses border, infects U.S.
Exclusive: Roger Hedgecock warns foreign president needs American support to eradicate smuggling cartels
By Roger Hedgecock
There’s a growing revolution in Mexico that pits the emerging smuggling-based illegal economy built by wealthy cartels, against the traditional, oil and tourist-based economy, the army and privileged classes of old Mexico. This revolution threatens the national security of the United States but is a non-event in the U.S. press and unknown to most Americans.
Those of us who live close to the border between the United States and Mexico are used to the daily reports of violent atrocities that accompany the incessant smuggling of people, drugs, weapons and whatever along its 1,600-mile span.
The media, in border towns on either side, are filled with stories of the travails of immigrants, the costs of immigrants and the violence that comes with this illegal tsunami of people. Every immigrant yearning to breathe free and every terrorist yearning to blow us up knows that the border with Mexico is open to all for the right price. The income from this trade is huge and has long ago attracted a consolidation of skilled and violent smuggling cartels who have carved out territories over which they exercise as much or more control as the Mexican government.
The war on drugs has gone on longer than any war in our history and is an abject failure. The revenue from drug smuggling is the second pillar of this emerging illegal Mexican economy.
From San Diego, Calif., to Brownsville, Texas, the value of all this smuggling rivals the (increasing) value of legal, NAFTA trade between the two countries. Legal and illegal trade is sometimes intertwined. Mexican police busted a Sharp Electronics warehouse in Rosarito Beach, Baja Calif., finding 1.5 tons of marijuana hidden inside TVs marked for shipment to Ontario, Canada.
In the 18 months since President Felipe Calderon took office vowing to defeat the cartels, the Mexican army, increasingly equipped with modern American-made arms, vehicles and communication, has been deployed across the country in a running battle against the cartels. The death toll is rising. The cartels have executed more than 4,000 people: judges, police chiefs and officers, mayors, military commanders and rival gang members, in a continuing battle over control of territory, particularly in the states of Chihuahua, Sinaloa and Durango.
Portions of the Mexican army have been compromised, and many Mexican soldiers are now cartel enforcers. Many “Zetas,” or Mexican special forces, have deserted and joined the cartel gangs. This week, six “Zetas,” who had been caught and tried in Nuevo Laredo, were sentenced to long prison sentences for protecting drug traffickers.
In Ciudad Juarez, on the border with Texas, a military officer assumed command of the city police last week, following the assassination of the police chief nine days earlier. The Juarez city government has purchased two up-armored SUVs to transport city officials in that dangerous city.
In the state of Guerrero, the 15-member police force in the small town of Zirandaro quit last week as the local cartel took over the town. Two weeks ago, a Mexican police chief showed up on the U.S. side requesting asylum, fearing for his life.
Even in the capital city, the highest ranks of government officials live in fear. Mexico’s acting federal police chief, Edgar Millan Gomez, was assassinated in his home in Mexico City May 8 by someone with keys to his house.
The value of Tijuana, Baja Calif., to the smuggling cartel is so great that the drop in tourism revenue caused by the violence of this new revolution is hardly missed. Tijiuana is the staging point for all kinds of smuggling operations, including more than two dozen tunnels that have been discovered under the border fence between Tijuana and San Diego. More and more, small boats leaving the beach west of Tijuana bring drugs and illegals on shore all along San Diego’s beaches.
Kidnapping and killing of Americans is epidemic, causing even a cautious State Department to issue a travelers advisory warning Americans about the dangers of travel in Mexico. It’s about time. The State Department’s own statistics show 128 Americans “executed” in Mexico from Jan. 1, 2005 to Dec. 31, 2007.
The danger now is that revenue from smuggling is so great that cartels can not only bribe officials to get their way, but they can permanently buy off (or kill off) key army, government, political and media figures, rendering Mexico a state dominated by the cartels. Things can get much worse in Mexico than they are today. And that means, things can get much worse for America, too. President Calderon deserves U.S. support as he fights the smuggling cartels for control of Mexico
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Roger Hedgecock is the longtime top-rated radio talk host in San Diego, Calif., on KOGO and, more recently, a nationally syndicated Saturday radio host heard already in 47 markets and on XM Satellite. He is the author of “The 2008 Conservative Voters Field Guide,” a series of books on 2008 issues. Guide No. 1-Immigration and No. 2-The War are available at the WorldNetDaily store. Learn more about Roger at www.rogerreport.com and www.rogerhedgecock.com