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In Review: Mexico’s Drug War
Inside This Issue: October
2014
In Review: Mexico’s Drug War
Background: “Mexico’s Drug
War,” Council on Foreign
Relations
“Mexico’s New Drug War
Challenge,” Bloomberg
“Head Games,” Foreign Policy
“43 Missing Students, a Mass
Grave and a Suspect: Mexico’s
Police,” New York Times
North America News
Headlines
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The Mexican drug war can be seen as a series of unfortunate
consequences stemming from various apparent successes. Mexico
served largely as a transport base for the South American drug
route, before the successful dismantling of Colombia’s cartels in
the late 1980s. Over time, Mexico’s drug-trafficking infrastructure
combined with its proximity to the largest consumer of illicit
drugs created an environment where Mexican cartels could thrive.
Then, in 2006, former Mexican president Felipe Calderon
launched what is currently referred to as the Mexican Drug War,
involving a massive crackdown on these well-developed and
powerful cartels. Though this was initially seen as a positive
move, the Mexican government’s crackdown, in conjunction with
an increased role on the part of the U.S., has drastically escalated
the conflict, resulting in tens of thousands of deaths in drug-related
violence. Today, the conflict rages on as reports of mass graves,
beheadings, a culture of corruption and fear lay just at the U.S.’s
doorstep.
The Council on Foreign Relations recently published an excellent
background on the subject, “Mexico’s Drug War”:
Mexico's Drug Trafficking
Weak judicial and police institutions, as well as proximity to the
world's largest consumer economy, have made Mexico the hub of
one of the world's most sophisticated drug networks. For decades,
drug trafficking organizations (DTOs) used Mexico's entrenched
political system to create "a system-wide network of corruption
that ensured distribution rights, market access, and even official
government protection for drug traffickers in exchange for
lucrative bribes," writes David Shirk, director of the Justice in
Mexico project at the University of San Diego, in a 2011 CFR
report. However, it was not until the late 1980s, in the wake of the
successful dismantling of Colombia's drug cartels, that Mexican
drug organizations rose to their current prominence. As the
Colombian route was disrupted, Mexican gangs shifted from being
couriers for Colombia to being wholesalers.
Today, Mexico is a major supplier of heroin to the U.S. market,
and the largest foreign supplier of methamphetamine and
marijuana. Mexican production of all three of these drugs has
increased since 2005, as has the amount of drugs seized at the
southwest border, according to the U.S. Department of Justice
Page 1 of 14
[PDF]. More than 90 percent of cocaine now travels through Mexico into the United States,
up from 77 percent in 2003. Officials estimate that the drug trade makes up 3 to 4 percent of
Mexico's $1.2 trillion annual GDP—totaling as much as $30 billion—and employs at least
half a million people.
Mexico's drug cartels have splintered, forged alliances, battled one another for territory, and
evolved over the decades. Some of the most prominent organizations today include the Zetas,
Sinaloa Cartel, Juárez Cartel, Tijuana Cartel, Beltran Leyva, and the Knights Templar. Some
of these groups, like Sinaloa, are older, more established organizations, while others, like the
Knights Templar, have emerged more recently.
Mexico’s War Effort Under Calderón
Corruption and weakness in Mexico's judicial and police sectors have largely allowed the
drug trade to flourish. The police are easily bought, in part because of their meager earnings
(about $9,000-$10,000 a year), which fall below the average salary for public-sector
employees. On the website InSight Crime, Patrick Corcoran says "an underpaid officer could
double or triple his salary by simply agreeing to look the other way." Mexico's judicial
system—with its autocratic judges and lack of transparency—is also highly susceptible to
corruption.
Drug violence was on the rise by the time Calderón took office in 2006 with a pledge to
eradicate trafficking organizations, says Shirk. "Moving very aggressively to promote a lawand-order agenda was a deliberate strategy to cope with this chaotic moment," he says of the
Calderón administration. Calderón attempted to counter police corruption and combat the
cartels by increasing the role of the military in local security efforts, a trend that first began
under President Ernesto Zedillo in 1999. Calderón dramatically intensified this effort,
deploying tens of thousands of military personnel to supplement, and in many cases replace,
local police forces, as well as to lead civilian law enforcement agencies. Under this strategy,
the military has made several high-profile arrests and killings of cartel leaders. Through
bilateral cooperation with the United States, the military under Calderón killed or captured
twenty-five of the top thirty-seven most-wanted drug kingpins in Mexico.
Escalating Violence
But Calderón's military offensive did little to diminish the cartels' presence. The crackdown
on cartel leaders splintered the organizations, creating between sixty and eighty new drug
trafficking gangs, according to Mexican secretary of the interior Miguel Ángel Osorio
Chong. Succession battles and territorial rivalries have also intensified. The violence has also
branched out beyond the cartels: More than forty mayors and former mayors have been
killed, along with dozens of city council members and other municipal leaders. Kidnappings
and extortion are commonplace, and massacres of civilians have increased. In February 2014,
the government confirmed that 26,000 people remain "disappeared."
Analysts from the University of San Diego's Trans-Border Institute write that the worst
cases of violence are confined to 10 percent of Mexico's municipalities, but observers
remain alarmed because of their quick escalation during Calderón's term. According to
government figures, total homicides spiked to around 120,000 over Calderón's six-year
term—double the figure under the previous president, Vicente Fox.
Page 2 of 14
But because official Mexican government statistics do not differentiate between drug-related
deaths and other types of homicides, quantifying the precise toll of the drug war has been a
challenge for analysts. The Trans-Border Institute's 2013 report on drug violence in Mexico
estimates that during Calderón's term, organized crime–style killings made up anywhere
from 30 to 60 percent of total homicides in a given year, depending on the sources used to
calculate the figures.
(…)
The militarization strategy has also resulted in accusations of serious human rights abuses.
Human Rights Watch reports that Mexican security officials violated human rights in the
offensive against the cartels through killings, torture, and forced disappearances. "Almost
none of these abuses are adequately investigated, exacerbating a climate of violence and
impunity in many parts of the country," HRW's 2013 report states.
(…)
Peña Nieto’s Drug War
Strategy
Peña Nieto, upon taking
office in late 2012, pledged
to refocus the government's
priorities on curbing
kidnappings, extortion, and
other forms of violence
affecting Mexican civilians
on a daily basis. He began
his term by centralizing
Mexico's security operations
under the Interior Ministry,
which analysts say
improved coordination
between intelligence and
operations agencies, and
calling for judicial reforms.
This has resulted in more
high-profile captures of drug
lords, including Mexico's
most wanted kingpin,
Joaquín "El Chapo"
Guzmán of the Sinaloa
Cartel, in February 2014.
Shirk writes that one major
policy difference between
Peña Nieto and Calderón is
that Peña Nieto has focused
on shifting the government's
rhetoric on the drug war:
Image source: “Mexico’s New Drug War Challenge,” Bloomberg Businessweek
Excerpt: “For Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, the capture of Joaquin “El
Chapo” Guzman, head of Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel and arguably the world’s most
notorious drug lord, is as momentous as the killing of Osama bin Laden was for
President Obama. By nabbing “Shorty,” Peña Nieto has both made his country
safer and improved his political standing.
Bin Laden’s death marked not the end of al-Qaeda but its evolution into a more
dispersed and no less deadly threat. Guzman’s arrest likewise highlights a
shift in Mexico’s criminal landscape from big cartels to smaller and more
violent drug-running groups that also practice extortion and kidnapping.
The fight against these groups will be arduous and door-to-door. It’s a Mexican
fight, which is why it would be a mistake to move Guzman to the U.S., where he
faces multiple federal indictments. Denying Mexico the chance to show it can
hold such criminals to account could undermine Peña Nieto’s credibility.
Tactics need to change. When the state of Michoacán’s government was overrun
by the Knights Templar drug gang and self-styled vigilantes, Peña Nieto’s
administration in effect took over the state, deploying the military
billions of
Page 3and
of 14
dollars in assistance. Peña Nieto cannot afford to do that in every state that faces
a severe crime problem.”
"Whereas the Calderón administration was obsessed with security, President Peña Nieto has
been obsessed with not being obsessed with security. An aggressive press campaign has tried
to make Mexico the new darling of international investors, as the BRIC countries have begun
to lose their luster."
(…)
U.S.-Mexico Cooperation
Security cooperation between the United States and Mexico expanded significantly with the
Mérida Initiative, launched in 2007, which designated nearly $1.4 billion in U.S. funds for
Mexico, Central America, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic. The bulk of the money went to
Mexico, with a mandate to "break the power of organized crime, strengthen the U.S. southern
border, improve Mexican institutional capacity, and reduce the demand for drugs," according
to CFR's Shannon O'Neil [PDF]. In March 2010, this partnership was renewed with Beyond
Mérida, which placed a larger emphasis on addressing the socioeconomic factors underneath
the violence.
Over the past few years, the United States has sent unarmed drones to collect intelligence on
traffickers, and has also sent CIA operatives and retired military personnel to a Mexican
military base, while training Mexican federal police agents to assist in wiretaps,
interrogations, and running informants. The United States has also ramped up security on its
own side of the border, spending approximately $3 billion annually on patrolling the border.
More than twenty thousand border patrol agents have been deployed, double the number
from a decade earlier. U.S.-Mexico cooperation has also been effective in targeting drug
kingpins: In a 2013 Congressional testimony, O'Neil said that many of the Mexican
government's high-profile arrests or killings of top-level drug lords "resulted from bilateral
intelligence and operational cooperation."
However, O'Neil notes, the United States has not made substantial progress combating some
of the domestic issues factoring into Mexico's drug war. U.S. drug consumption and demand
remain high, and firearms continue to be trafficked into Mexico from the United States. The
arms component has been high-profile in recent years due to a controversial U.S. Bureau of
Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) gun-trafficking sting known as "Fast and
Furious." In 2009, two thousand U.S. weapons were sold to people known to be involved
with the drug cartels to track down cartel leaders, but some 1,400 weapons were lost, many
of which later turned up at crime scenes, including at the site of a shooting of a U.S. borderpatrol agent in December 2010.
(Council on Foreign Relations, emphasis added)
Against this backdrop, many argue that the capture and arrest of the Sinaloa Cartel’s kingpin
Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman in February 2014 marked a new chapter in Mexico’s drug war. Of
course El Chapo’s arrest did not lead to the immediate decline in drug-related violence, or even a
long-term victory in the drug war. In fact, anyone paying attention will see a regular tempo of
news and reports on Mexico’s successful capture of kingpins and drug lords. With a situation as
complex as the War on Drugs, it is impossible to say that there is a right answer; however, it is
clear that simply taking out high-profile leaders is an unsustainable and even counterproductive
approach to this problem. Even Mexico’s current president Enrique Peña Nieto recognized this
when he campaigned on a sharp split from his predecessor’s policies and promised a new
Page 4 of 14
strategy that would “take on
structural roots of drug
trafficking and focus
institutional efforts on attending
to the social causes of the
criminal phenomenon.” But as
Evelyn Krache Morris argues in
Foreign Policy, this new
strategy has yet to manifest:
And yet, on Feb. 22, it was
Peña Nieto's government
that celebrated the capture
of the biggest prize of them
all: Joaquin "El Chapo"
Guzman Loera, head of the
Sinaloa cartel. "The
apprehension of one of the
most wanted drug lords at
the international level shows
the effectiveness of the
Mexican state," Peña Nieto
trumpeted, following the
arrest. The capture came
less than a year after the
Peña Nieto government had
nabbed another big fish:
Miguel Treviño Morales, or
"Z-40," leader of Los Zetas,
was captured in July 2013.
Though he came into office
with the best of intentions
and understands well the
futility of an endless series
of high-profile arrests and
the resilience of the cartels,
Peña Nieto can’t, it seems,
resist the allure of the big
get.
(…)
So why has he reverted back
to what he views as an
ineffective strategy?
Because comprehensive
reform, of the sort that could
rebuild the credibility and
Image source: “Think Again – Mexican Drug Cartels,” Foreign Policy
Excerpt: “Drugs are just the tip of the iceberg. In the popular U.S. television
series Breaking Bad, about a high school teacher turned methamphetamine
kingpin, there was an instructive exchange. When the show's antihero, Walter
White, was asked whether he "was in the meth business or the money business,"
he replied, "I'm in the empire business."
The same can be said of the drug-trafficking organizations (DTOs), which are
independent and competing entities -- not an association like OPEC. The sale of
cocaine, heroin, marijuana, and meth remains extremely profitable. The U.S.
Justice Department has put the cartels' U.S. drug trade at $39 billion annually.
But the DTOs have diversified their business considerably, both to increase
their profits and to exclude rivals from new sources of revenue. For example,
they are dealing increasingly in pirated intellectual property, like counterfeit
software, CDs, and DVDs. The most destructive new "product," however, is
people. The cartels have built a multibillion-dollar business in human
trafficking, including the shipment of both illegal immigrants and sex workers.
What the DTOs are really selling is logistics, much like Wal-Mart and
Amazon.com. Wal-Mart was one of the first retailers to run its own fleet of
trucks, providing tailored shipping at a lower cost that in turn gave the company
an edge over its competitors. Similarly, Amazon may have started as a
bookseller, but its dominance, as Fast Company put it, is "now less about what
it sells than how it sells," providing a distribution hub for all sorts of products.
Drug-trafficking organizations are using the same philosophy to cut costs, better
control distribution, and develop new sources of revenue.
The one element of the U.S.-Mexico relationship that has received no shortage
of attention is the border, yet the technology and money dedicated to enhancing
security there have not been enough to thwart creative DTOs. The Sinaloa
cartel, for example, has an extensive network of expertly constructed tunnels
under the border, some featuring air-conditioning. (The workers who build the
tunnels are frequently executed after the work is completed.) At the other
extreme, traffickers have used catapults to launch deliveries from Mexico into
the United States.
Logistics, then, are the DTOs' main source of revenue, and illegal drugs are
but one of the products they offer. As the cartels' revenue streams become
increasingly diversified, the drug trade will become less and less important. In
fact, the prospect of the DTOs' selling their services to terrorists, say by
transporting weapons of mass destruction across the U.S.-Mexico border, has
begun to frighten analysts both inside and outside government.
Page 5 of 14
the effectiveness of Mexico's judicial system, is hard. These major efforts, only part of Peña
Nieto's ambitious plans for reform in Mexico, have largely stalled or, in the case of the
Gendarmería, have been watered down. And because for all of his administration's
understanding of the complexities and nuance of combating drug trafficking, there are still
few things that beat a big arrest for symbolic value, and for sending a message (and for
taking a wanted and dangerous man off the streets -- no one, of course, is arguing that El
Chapo should be free). The fight against DTOs is, at least partially, about who can give the
appearance of winning and being in control. The DTOs themselves understand this too.
That's why, for example, they leave mutilated bodies by the side of the highway, near a busy
overpass.
(…)
And there are reasons to find hope that real progress is taking place in the fight against
trafficking -- even if it keeps a lower profile. While media was paying attention to the capture
of an aging drug lord, and focused on the network of sewage tunnels that El Chapo used to
temporarily evade capture, they missed a much bigger story: The discovery of a 481-footlong smuggling tunnel leading from Arizona to Nogales, Sonora, which traffickers used to
smuggle tons of illegal drugs and other contraband into the United States. (The tunnel has
since been shut down.)
Congratulations on your big fish, Mr. President, but you would do well to remember your
own advice: It's moves like these -- dismantling the logistical and financial networks of drug
trafficking organizations -- that will, in the end, do more damage than any high-profile arrest.
(Foreign Policy)
As Evelyn Krache Morris points out, the drug trade is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to
the business and impact of the DTOs. But even beyond the illicit trade business, the DTOs
domino effect on the country perpetuates the system that allows them to thrive, for example the
corruption and abuse in policing. In early October, the New York Times reported on “43 Missing
Students, a Mass Grave and a Suspect: Mexico’s Police”:
They were farm boys who did well in school and took one of the few options available
beyond the backbreaking work in the corn and bean fields of southern Mexico: enrolling in a
local teachers college with a history of radicalism but the promise of a stable classroom job.
Leonel Castro, 19, the oldest of seven siblings, vowed to use his salary to help his
impoverished family. Júlio César, 19, thought he could run a school one day and ensure the
best for the next generation. Adán Abraham de la Cruz, 23, wanted to put his computer skills
to good use in the classroom.
“He was just preparing himself to get ahead like any young person would do,” said Mr. de la
Cruz’s father, Bernabé.
Now, they are among 43 students reported missing after deadly clashes with the police on
Sept. 26, when at least six student protesters and bystanders were killed in the restive, rural
state of Guerrero, one of the poorest in the country and long afflicted by political, social and
criminal upheaval.
Page 6 of 14
The state prosecutor investigating why the police opened fire on students from their vehicles
has found mass graves in Iguala — the small industrial city where the confrontations
occurred — containing 28 badly burned and dismembered bodies.
The prosecutors had already arrested 22 police officers after the clashes, saying the officers
secretly worked for, or were members of, a local gang. Now they are investigating whether
the police apprehended the students after the confrontation and deliberately turned them over
to the local gang. Two witnesses in custody told prosecutors that the gang then killed the
protesters on the orders of a leader known as El Chucky.
“I saw police trucks go up and down the hill to up there, where the bodies are found,” said
one man in the neighborhood near the site who declined to give his name out of fear. “Then
came the news they found the grave and it may be the students. But you would be a fool
around here to accuse the police and expect to live.”
Even in a country accustomed to mass
killings, the case has generated alarm,
both for the possible involvement of the
police and for the fact that the students
were not known to have criminal ties.
Miguel Martínez, a representative for
the families, said students at the school
had fought back against extortion
attempts by gangs last year, but it was
not clear if that could have made them a
target now.
Image source: “Mexico’s Vigilantes are Building Scrappy DIY
Tanks to Fight Narcos,” Global Post
Another interesting consequence of the drug war is the country’s
vigilantes. The Atlantic reports: “Over the past few years, drug-related
violence in Mexico has driven local citizens to the breaking point. Fed
up with the lack of security provided by the police, and with
intimidation and attacks from members of various drug cartels and
criminal gangs, people have started their own self-defense groups.
Armed groups of ordinary citizens have set up security checkpoints,
disarmed and chased away police they considered ineffective, and
even organized ambitious manhunts to apprehend or kill suspected
criminal bosses. While the vigilante groups have had some success,
the Mexican government is now trying to reign in the lawless aspects
by integrating these citizens into a new police group called the Force
Rural State -- formally providing them with weapons, uniforms, and
training. While some of the vigilantes are cooperating, others insist
they won't lay down their own guns until top leaders of The Knights
Templar (Los Templarios) drug cartel are arrested.” (The Atlantic)
The students, by many accounts, had
been soliciting money in Iguala for an
Oct. 2 demonstration rejecting cuts to
their state-financed school, which
opened in 1926 and has long played a
role in local social justice movements.
Such student demonstrations are part of
a well-known militancy that goes back
decades and has provoked violence in
the past. It did again this time, as
students got into a skirmish with the
police when they tried to steal buses to
take to and from the demonstration,
human rights groups said.
The mayor and the police chief of
Iguala are now on the run, having
disappeared after being subpoenaed in
the case, and the governor of the state
confirmed that the local gang, known as
Guerreros Unidos, had infiltrated the
Page 7 of 14
police force in Iguala, as well as other police departments in the state.
The specter of corrupted police has haunted Mexico for years. But these disappearances
come at a time when President Enrique Peña Nieto is already confronting the prosecution of
at least three soldiers charged with homicide in another recent case — the shooting death of
22 people captured in a warehouse in June.
(…)
Parents of the missing students doubt the effectiveness of state investigators. A team of
forensic experts from Argentina with long experience in mass disappearance cases has
arrived, and on 6 October it began interviewing family members and collecting other data as
part of an independent investigation, though it was unclear if the experts would have access
to the bodies found.
(…)
In a sign of defiance and concern, placards and bumper stickers are popping up here and in
other cities in Guerrero on buses, storefronts and buildings. Their slogan —
#HastaEncontrarlos — means: “Until they are found.”
(New York Times)
North America News Headlines
Don’t Forget Canada and Mexico
Like the majority of his modern predecessors, President
Obama has looked to Europe, the Middle East, and Asia
as the regions where America’s vital interests are most
often engaged. This year is no different as the United States copes with a lethal combination of
challenges from the metastasizing Iraq-Syria civil war to Russian aggression in Ukraine, Chinese
adventurism in Asia, and the climate and Ebola crises. While these threats won’t go away
anytime soon, there is better news for Americans closer to home in the form of a strategic
opportunity right in our own backyard. In an unusually far-sighted report issued in early October,
two of our country’s most impressive global strategists — David Petraeus, former CIA director
and head of US Central Command, and former World Bank President Bob Zoellick — make a
compelling case that Americans should work with Mexico and Canada to build a new North
American partnership for the future. Issued by the Council on Foreign Relations (where I serve
on the board of directors), the report suggests we have the opportunity to realize a new era of
growth and prosperity for the nearly 500 million people who live in our three countries. As the
United States climbs out of the Great Recession and recovers from two costly and divisive
Middle East wars, the return road to a more successful American foreign policy might thus run
through Mexico City and Ottawa. Twenty years ago, the three countries took a leap of faith by
committing to the landmark North American Free Trade Agreement. Since then, we have
enjoyed significantly greater investment, trade, and economic growth in North America. To build
on this success, Zoellick and Petraeus co-chaired a task force of American business, government,
and academic leaders to consider how we might create an even closer, symbiotic future with
Mexicans and Canadians. Their key judgment is that stronger ties with Canada and Mexico
Page 8 of 14
can create a “continental base for US global policy.” In other words, if we make North
America, at long last, a much higher strategic priority, that might help to boost the long- term
geo-strategic position of the United States itself. To get there, Washington needs to move North
America from the periphery to the center of its strategic attention. Zoellick and Petraeus
advocate an ambitious strategy starting with new regional infrastructure to support the
extraordinary growth in oil and gas production in the United States and Canada. Reluctant
Democrats should listen to their call for administration approval of the Keystone pipeline project
and an end to restrictions on the sale of American oil and gas overseas. Equally reluctant
Republicans should listen to their support for immigration reform as a critical step to knit the
region together. (Boston Globe, emphasis added)
Mexico Affirms Major
Drop in Central American
Migrants
In a report published by
Mexico’s daily La
Jornada, Mexico’s
Interior Secretary claims
that during the JulySeptember quarter of
2014, adult migration of
undocumented
Hondurans — the largest
group transiting through
Mexico — reported a
decrease of 43 percent
compared to numbers
recorded in June. The
authorities say the trend is
the same for minors. The
report apparently starkly
contrasts early summer
Image source: “U.S. Mexican Security Cooperation: The Merida Initiative and
numbers when there was a
Beyond,” Congressional Research Service
“humanitarian crisis” of
thousands of migrant children and adolescents crossing Mexico. In June the numbers of
Honduran youth was reportedly at 830,000, while the Interior Minister now says in September
the number dropped to 403,000.
While the authorities do not officially explain the reasons for the drop, they unofficially point to
an operation implemented in Mexico’s southern states where many migrants board the freight
train, known as the bestia, or beast, to travel northward. The operation, announced in July by
president Enrique Peña Nieto, has consisted of utilizing security forces to deny migrants from
climbing aboard the train as well as increasing the speed of the train so as to dissuade passengers.
The plan is to “protect the safety of the migrants.” The authorities announced the overall
cost would amount to 6.6 billion pesos ($450 million dollars). However civil organizations
and migrant rights groups criticize the operations as not a form to “rescue” undocumented
migrants but rather to “criminalize and harass them.” Fraile Tomas Gonzalez of the
Page 9 of 14
migrantshelter, La 72, in Tenosique, Tabasco, says that the actions are “far from providing
security for migrants..the increase in speed exposes migrants to potential mutilation, or even
death.” Rights defenders also criticize the authorities for a growing policy of detaining migrants
indefinitely. They affirm that at least 1,219 undocumented migrants have been incarcerated since
2013, many without facing any charges. Many Central American migrants flee their home
countries due to growing insecurity and violence perpetrated by organized crime groups and
corrupt local police officials. (TeleSur, emphasis added)
Mexico’s President Talks Reform and the Immigration Debate
You know, in the United States, when people think about Mexico, still it is immigration
that dominates the way they think about it. What do you think when you hear the debate
about immigration in Washington?
First of all, I think that the relationship between Mexico and the United States is a lot broader,
and sometimes it would be surprising to know the many details of the relationship – the number
of daily crossings, legal crossings, every day. About a million people every day, people coming
and going from one country to the other, because of work and trade and the trade level that we
have, which is so broad, which we will probably talk about.
But when you hear some of the anti-immigrant language, the rhetoric, do you think it's
racist?
I think it's discriminatory, yes. And I think it's unfortunate for a country whose formation and
historic origin relies so much on the migration flows of many parts of Europe, Asia, for instance.
I think this is a country whose origin, to a great extent, is one of migration. And that's why it's
unfortunate to hear this exclusionary and discriminatory tone regarding the migration flows into
the United States. (CNN, GPS with Fareed Zakaria)
Mexico August Jobless Rate Dips as Economy Rebounds
Mexico's jobless rate fell in August, pointing to stronger domestic consumption as Latin
America's No. 2 economy picks up some speed after a weak start to the year. Mexico's
seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 4.87 percent in August, the national statistics agency
said on 22 September, down from a 5.16 percent rate in July. Economists expect Mexican
economic growth to pick up to about 2.5 percent this year from a 1.4 percent rate in 2013.
(Reuters)
Mexico Annual Inflations Eases but Still above Ceiling
Mexican annual inflation remained above the central bank's tolerance ceiling in early September
but cooled slightly versus late August, suggesting that policymakers will hold borrowing costs
steady at a record low for some time. A separate report showed Mexico's economy grew at its
fastest pace in three months in July, in a sign that Latin America's No. 2 economy is picking up
after a weak start to the year. Inflation for the 12 months through the first half of September
slowed to 4.21 percent, below the 4.23 percent rate reached in the second half of August,
national statistics institute data showed on 24 September. The figure was still above expectations
for a 4.15 percent rise in a Reuters poll and the 4.15 percent rate for the full month of August.
(Reuters)
Massacre Wasn’t First Report of Violence in Iguala, Mexico
Page 10 of 14
Long before the city of Iguala became known for one of Mexico’s most horrific mass murders,
its mayor had a cloud over his head. Word on the street was that Mayor Jose Luis Abarca
Velazquez was mobbed up, local police had become his enforcers and Iguala had slid into
darkness. That belief has only mounted since local police under Abarca’s command opened fire
on a throng of protesting student teachers Sept. 26, leading to six known deaths and 43 missing
students. Mass graves discovered in early October near this city in coastal Guerrero state have
yielded 28 unidentified bodies, deepening distress over the fate of the student teachers. Abarca
and his chief of public security are now fugitives, and the ominous signs around them have only
grown. Take the video posted to YouTube in early October. In it, a woman who identifies herself
as Leonor Villa Ortuno is shown blindfolded, her hands bound. Under interrogation, she recounts
how two of her sons were killed for drug trafficking. A third got out of federal prison in
Tamaulipas last year on drug-related charges. “How are you related to the mayor of Iguala, Jose
Luis Abarca Velazquez?” asks a voice off camera. “He’s my son-in-law,” Villa Ortuno answers.
She then relates her family’s long-standing connections to the Beltran Leyva narcotics cartel. A
breakaway faction of the cartel, known as Guerreros Unidos (United Warriors), operates in the
region around Iguala. Then another question comes. “What relation is there between the
Iguala mayor and the United Warriors?” “My son-in-law protects them,” Villa Ortuno
responds, “in exchange for a monthly fee of 2 million pesos ($149,200). He runs all city
police officers and commanders at his will.” The veracity of the video couldn’t be ascertained,
or whether the woman was speaking under severe coercion. It wasn’t clear whether she was
subsequently released. But Rene Bejarano, a former federal legislator and prominent figure in the
Party of the Democratic Revolution, known by its Spanish initials as the PRD, said he
recognized Villa Ortuno from the video as the mayor’s mother-in-law and acknowledged that his
leftist party’s historic grip on Guerrero state had been damaged by its dissemination. In the tape,
the woman says her sons backed the successful PRD campaign of Angel Aguirre for governor of
Guerrero in 2011 on behalf of the Beltran Leyva crime group. Mexican Attorney General Jesus
Murillo Karam told Radio Formula on 8 October that he’d been aware of the tape for a year but
hadn’t looked into it because it was a matter for “counterintelligence,” without elaborating. He
added that a murder allegation had been lodged against the mayor last year but that proof was
never gathered. (…) For some residents of Iguala, run-ins with the mayor were frightening,
perhaps even lethal, and made dealings with City Hall unnerving. Abarca came to office in 2012.
He immediately put a cluster of relatives into the city administration, including his wife, three
cousins, a sister-in-law and a brother-in-law, nephews, a half brother and his daughter, among
others. (McClatchy DC, emphasis added)
Mexico’s Explanation of Army’s Slaying of 22 Suspects Raises More Questions than Answers
For more than two months, Mexico did little to explain how a Mexican army patrol escaped
practically unharmed from a gunfight that left 22 suspected criminals dead in a grain warehouse.
In early October, officials changed their story to say soldiers may have committed murder, but
questions about the lop-sided confrontation remain. Why did state prosecutors and the army
quickly declare soldiers had behaved appropriately in killing the suspects on June 30? Why did
federal prosecutors wait until September to investigate the crime scene? Why haven't
investigators interviewed a woman who witnessed the slayings? Did higher-ranking officers
know about, or order, the killings? The deaths in San Pedro Limon, a mountain town about 95
miles southwest of Mexico City, have caught the attention of international human rights groups,
the United Nations and Mexicans who recall previous cases of suspicious deaths and
disappearances that authorities attempted to explain away. Doubts about the official version of
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events gained strength following an Associated Press investigation into the killings. In late
September, Mexico's Defense Department announced an officer and seven soldiers would face
military discipline for their roles in the killings. Then, on 1 October, federal prosecutors said
three of the soldiers, all privates, will be charged with homicide for opening fire "with no
justification whatsoever." Questions immediately arose about how the three could kill the
suspects without any of them trying to run away or resist. The walls of the warehouse are marked
with clusters of shots fired at chest-level. There are no signs of stray shots or sprayed gunfire that
would have come if the three soldiers had mowed down the group with automatic fire. President
Enrique Pena Nieto seemed eager on 2 October to assure the public that the probe isn't over.
(Fox News, Associated Press)
ISIS Threat to Canada not Imminent but Real, CSIS Director Warns
The threat of ISIS to Canada is real, but Canada's spy agency has no information suggesting it's
one that's imminent, CSIS director Michel Coulombe told the House public safety committee on
8 October. The comment by Coulombe, head of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, runs
counter to repeated warnings by Prime Minister Stephen Harper and other government MPs that
jihadists from the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria could attack Canada. "It does pose a real threat,
but like I mentioned, we have no information indicating an imminent attack," Coulombe told
MPs. "We don't want to sound alarmist. We're telling people that they should go about their daily
life, but we have to be vigilant," he said. Coulombe also provided more information about an
August report detailing more than 130 Canadians who had travelled abroad to join in
alleged terrorist activities and 80 individuals "who have returned to Canada after travel
abroad for a variety of suspected terrorism-related purposes." Some of those individuals
could be involved in related work like fundraising or propaganda, Coulombe said. "I don't want
people to believe that we have 80 returnees who were hard fighters in Iraq and Syria, because
that is not the picture we have at the moment, although we have some of them." (…) The number
of Canadians who have travelled abroad to join in alleged terrorist activities, Coulombe said,
varies between 130 and 145. And while others estimate the number to be much higher,
Coulombe said CSIS works with facts and has confirmed the 130 who are overseas, as well as
the 80 back in Canada. "It's a firm number that we're aware of. And yes, we know where they
are," Coulombe said. (…) Canada and the U.S. exchange "entry" information on citizens of other
countries as a form of exit control; Public Safety Canada's website explains that entry into one
country confirms exit from the other. Blaney said the government is contemplating exchanging
information with the U.S., as detailed in the government's Beyond the Border plan to co-ordinate
national security efforts and ease the flow of goods and people across the border. (CBC News)
Canada to Increase Monitoring of Possible Terrorist Suspects
The Canadian government said 8 October it will use additional powers in the coming weeks to
monitor those who could become terrorists and to help combat what it says is a threat to the
country from the Islamic State militant group. That threat has been increased by Ottawa’s
decision to send Canadian warplanes to the U.S.-led campaign against the militants, the head of
Canada’s intelligence agency said. “We have no information indicating an imminent attack, but
we have to remain vigilant because the threat is real,” Michel Coulombe, head of the Canadian
Security Intelligence Service, told a parliamentary committee. Bob Paulson, the head of the
Royal Canadian Mounted Police, said there are roughly 63 national-security investigations under
way, focusing on 90 individuals suspected of possible terrorist activity. The promise to beef up
security measures was made at the same meeting by Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney
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and came a day after his government won parliamentary backing for a Canadian military
contribution to the U.S.-led campaign against ISIS in Iraq. Other western nations have talked
of beefed-up measures to address terrorist threats and the potential dangers of extremists
returning home after fighting in conflict zones. The British government has, for instance, said
that it would introduce legislation to make it easier to seize people’s passports to counter the
security threat posed by Islamist extremists traveling to and from such areas as Syria and Iraq.
The Canadian government passed a law last year that makes it a crime to leave, or attempt to
leave, the country to engage in terrorist activity. (Wall Street Journal)
Keystone be Darned: Canada Finds Oil Route around Obama
So you’re the Canadian oil industry and you do what you think is a great thing by developing a
mother lode of heavy crude beneath the forests and muskeg of northern Alberta. The plan is to
send it clear to refineries on the U.S. Gulf Coast via a pipeline called Keystone XL. Just a few
years back, America desperately wanted that oil. Then one day the politics get sticky. In
Nebraska, farmers don’t want the pipeline running through their fields or over their water source.
U.S. environmentalists invoke global warming in protesting the project. President Barack Obama
keeps siding with them, delaying and delaying approval. From the Canadian perspective,
Keystone has become a tractor mired in an interminably muddy field. In this period of national
gloom comes an idea -- a crazy-sounding notion, or maybe, actually, an epiphany. How about an
all-Canadian route to liberate that oil sands crude from Alberta’s isolation and America’s
fickleness? Canada’s own environmental and aboriginal politics are holding up a shorter and
cheaper pipeline to the Pacific that would supply a shipping portal to oil-thirsty Asia. Instead, go
east, all the way to the Atlantic. Thus was born Energy East, an improbable pipeline that its
backers say has a high probability of being built. It will cost C$12 billion ($10.7 billion) and
could be up and running by 2018. Its 4,600-kilometer (2,858-mile) path, taking advantage of a
vast length of existing and underused natural gas pipeline, would wend through six provinces
and four time zones. It would be Keystone on steroids, more than twice as long and carrying a
third more crude. (Bloomberg, emphasis added)
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