No country for old men?

[mickthecactus]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-11080584

[Deleted]

Yes, I saw that too, but I was really disappointed. I was thinking "at last a shootout like in the movies, where a million bullets fly in all directions with all of those people falling off the roof into a trough and all of the walls being perforated like a collander!" But no, it was just a little bitty shootout with all of the extra bodies discovered later.

[bixaorellana]

Geeeez, ~~ this really is not funny!

The last place I lived in the US was the very southernmost part of Texas, that tiny tip above the S in San Fernando in the article's map.

I used to drive to Brownsville and walk across the bridge into Matamoros, the large city just north of San Fernando. When I visited my sister in McAllen, Texas, we'd cross just as casually into Reynosa or Progreso. My sister's dentist is in Reynosa, for instance. Now she is telling me that people are too worried by the heavy military presence and are not crossing into Mexico any more. www.brownsvilleherald.com/news/visitors-115704-mission-bodytext.html

I don't know how much anyone wants to read about this, but this article - www.tucsonsentinel.com/nationworld/report/071610_riogrande_border - gives some insight into life on the long border between the US and Mexico as it was for so many years. It's an area affectionately known by some as "the third country", a reference to how towns on both sides partake of the culture of both countries.

I'm pasting the article below in its entirety as it gives an idea of the pervasiveness of the violence and how it's affecting life in general.

Governor: Violence paralyzes Mexico border areas
By MARK STEVENSON Associated Press Writer Posted: 08/12/2010 12:18:54 AM MDT

MEXICO CITY—Some areas of Mexico along the U.S. border have been paralyzed economically by drug violence, and the governor of the border state of Tamaulipas said Thursday the federal government should send relief funds.

Violence has affected tourism, commerce and investment, Gov. Eugenio Hernandez said during an anti-crime strategy meeting between Mexican state governors and President Felipe Calderon.

"It is necessary to send additional funds to reactivate the economy in the affected zones," Hernandez said. "The climate of lack of safety has reduced the flow of foreign investment, and it is urgent that a promotional campaign be designed to improve the country's image."

Hernandez did not specify which areas were paralyzed, but people in Tamaulipas cities such as Nuevo Laredo, Reynosa and Matamoros on the border with Texas say bloody turf battles between drug gangs have caused a falloff in business. Much of the region's employment comes from foreign-owned border assembly plants.

Speaking on the other side of the border, U.S. Ambassador Carlos Pascual agreed.

"Cartel-driven violence has moved southward to Mexico's business capital, Monterrey, forming a 'northeastern triangle' of violence among Matamoros, Nuevo Laredo and Monterrey," Pascual said Thursday, according to a prepared text of his remarks in the border city of El Paso, Texas.

"The security environment in Monterrey has turned, in just months, from seeming benevolence to extreme violence," he said of Mexico's third-largest city and major industrial hub.

Hernandez suggested Mexico's federal government send soldiers and federal police to beef up border customs checkpoints to stop the flow of weapons from the United States.

He also urged Calderon's government to transfer high-risk federal prisoners out of state prisons, saying that "we don't have the conditions" to hold them.

Calderon has been meeting with opposition parties, academics and civic groups as part of an unprecedented series of talks about his offensive against drug cartels—which has been criticized as making the country even less secure. More than 28,000 people have died in drug-related violence since Calderon launched the offensive in late 2006, sending thousands of troops to drug hot spots.

Calderon has used the forum to open the door to news ways of combatting organized crimes, including stricter measures against money laundering and possibly the first-ever restrictions on cash transactions. He also said last week he would consider a debate on legalization of drugs, though he personally opposes the idea.

He and many of the governors representing Mexico's 31 states agreed that more educational and job opportunities are needed for Mexican youth.

Youths "are probably the fertile ground from which the criminal organizations are drawing their strength," Calderon said.

"They recruit them and they send them out to the front, literally, to die," he added.

Calderon and many of the governors at the Mexico City meeting also stressed that the public needs to help by giving information to police.

A major complaint of soldiers and federal police dispatched to hot spots to combat drug gangs has been that local people are too scared, too involved or too distrustful of authorities to share information.

Nearly three-quarters of Mexicans have little or no confidence in politicians and political parties, and almost as many say the same of police, according to a poll released Thursday. However, about six of every 10 express some or a lot of confidence in Mexico's armed forces.

The poll of 1,200 people nationwide sponsored by Mexican civic groups had a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

"We have to build what some of you have talked about, which is citizen intelligence, a network of citizen and civic information that can help to combat organized crime," Calderon told the gathering, though he didn't specify how.

Later Thursday, federal police announced they arrested five suspects in last month's kidnappings of four journalists in northern Mexico. Luis Cardenas Palomino, regional security chief for the federal police, said the four men and one woman are members of the Sinaloa drug cartel.

The suspects were detained in Durango state, where the journalists were grabbed to pressure the television networks they work for to air video clips of men who identified themselves as police and described how they cooperated with a drug gang that is a rival of the Sinaloa cartel. Fearing for the safety of the journalists, the stations did so briefly.

Two of the journalists were freed by their captors, and federal police rescued the other two five days after they were kidnapped.

Also in Durango, troops clashed with gunmen Thursday, killing 12, the Defense Department said.

The department said soldiers were checking on a complaint about armed men at a ranch in the town of Santiago Papasquiaro when they were attacked. Three soldiers were wounded. source

[Deleted]

I confess that I was a bit flippant, but sometimes horror goes so far that it becomes completely abstract.

The most dreadful idea for me is, as usual, thinking that none of this would be happening if there were not so many avid consumers in the two countries to the north.

[bixaorellana]

Truthfully, your whole mental image of a wild west shootout was darkly humorous. I am just too shocked by the whole thing to find the humor right now. It was one of those things that from my perspective could be and was dismissed as being something isolated and distant. But now it seems to be spreading like a stain on both sides of the border.

About the supply & demand aspect of why it's happening ........ that could go around in a circle forever. Would there be so much demand if the insidious substances had not been introduced to create a demand, etc.?

Pragmatically, it's impossible for me to believe that the enormous volume needed to supply the US and Canada could enter the US without some kind of deep, entrenched corruption in ports, airports, commercial bridges, etc.

[gertie]

The whole thing is, in a way, deeply shocking. Perhaps your flippant comment was not in a way so far fetched in that I think we all tend to think of shootouts as something so far distant in the past as to have become romanticized. I doubt very much the old wild west shootouts were nearly so romantic nor bloodless as what we see on TV and in movies. I'm sure to the people of that day they were as upsetting and senseless as our modern day violence seems to us.

The drug violence at the border is often on the news now. I don't live that near the border in Texas myself, but many people even in my area have been in the habit of going to Mexico for the better prices. I know many who go for things like dental care, and a lot of manufacturing is just over the border as well because the plants can be staffed so much more cheaply. Besides the frequent admonishments on the news against travel into Mexico, a number of friends who had been in the habit of going there for personal reasons such as dental work no longer do so, and a friend who has manufacturing holdings here and in Mexico now only travels armed. A while ago he returned with several bullet holes and dents in his car, telling a pretty hair-raising tale of having a group of armed thugs try to hold up his vehicle, and only just managing to escape before they were able to box him in between two buildings in the manufacturing park where his business is located.

The drug issue is just in so many ways a very sad one, on both supply and demand side. While I think Bixa may be in some ways correct, on the other hand...we have just so much border. Even with all our modern equipment and lots of manpower, there are just so many ways of avoidance. Look at all the people who manage to get here who are simply poor honest folk looking for work. I would think if a man can hop through, so can containers of pretty much anything.

I've always thought perhaps a lot of the answer might be found in helping the poorest of the world to better lives, but even that ideal is a tough nut to crack. So many reasons for why certain areas are so poor.

[hwinpp]

Legalize it!

IMO the only solution. Then it can even be taxed. Win/win situation ;D

[mickthecactus]

Aug 26, 2010 4:02:13 GMT hwinpp said:

Legalize it!

IMO the only solution. Then it can even be taxed. Win/win situation ;D

100% in agreement. And I've never taken drugs in my life and I'm not about to start either.

[fumobici]

Yes, the only thing government could do that would actually bring an end to the violence is to legalize, tax and regulate the sale of recreational drugs, but that is unlikely to be a realistic political possibility so we can expect the carnage to continue unabated for the foreseeable future. There is some growing political momentum for legalizing at least the sale of marijuana in several states including California and this should at least help reducing the scope of the organized criminal activity in Mexico when it comes to pass.

[bixaorellana]

I have so much trouble accepting that as a solution. I'm trying to start a conversation about it here, if anyone would care to share opinions or examples from other countries.

[bixaorellana]

The hard facts in this article about Sandra Ávila Beltrán read like the story presentation for a Hollywood movie. Click the text for full story:

Ávila was born into narco royalty. As a child, she lived in opulence. She was offered private tuition, piano and dance lessons and frequent trips to SeaWorld and Disneyland. Her father, Alfonso Ávila Quintero, is related to the founder of the Guadalajara cartel. Her family’s lifestyle also included piles of money. She spent so many hours counting cash as a child that she could later swipe a clutch of bills and – just like a cocktail party trick – precisely calculate their value.

[lagatta]

Yes, it is quite a story. The Narco songs are the continuation of a tradition hundreds of years old in many cultures, but the scope and body count seem much higher.

[chexbres]

I think you have to wonder why people feel the need to anesthetize themselves on a regular - or even constant - basis.
The preponderance of opiates like OxyContin, which are freely prescribed in pain clinics (legitimate or not) really bothers me.
I guess as long as there is a huge amount of money to be made, people who are getting rich feel the need to protect themselves. Even if it's just the neighborhood guy selling dime bags of grass and a few pills, he's probably carrying a gun these days.

[bjd]

Chexbres, you mention something that surprises me whenever I hear/read about addiction to painkillers in the States. Pain clinics? What are those? Is that because so many people don't have proper medical care or is it just a way for doctors to seem to deal with people's problems without going beyond the pain?

Mind you, the French are the highest consumers of tranquilizers and sleeping pills.

[fumobici]

I think the epidemic of opiate addiction in the US is a direct result of well known economic forces, the hollowing out of the middle class, the offshoring of jobs and any gains in productivity no longer being shared but instead diverted to a tiny upper class. People self medicate to treat their despair, their hopelessness. As the American Dream is being deliberately killed, people turn to artificial dreams found in pills and syringes. The only solutions are political, no amount of interdiction, enforcement or drug treatment or education will work as long as no political will exists to fix the underlying causes of the despair.

[Deleted]

+1 fumo.

[mossie]

You might call it Globalisation disease, spread by fat cats. We suffer from it here as well.

[questa]

Out in the deserts of Australia there were many Aboriginal lands where there were no jobs and kids didn't go to school but wandered around in a semi-permanent daze of petrol sniffing. All they needed was an old Coke can and a twist of wire to hang it from their neck. Then they were off with the fairies.
The habit was quickly addictive and after a while the user's organs packed up, mainly the liver and the kids would often die before reaching their teens. The hopelessness and despair hung like a fog over the place.

Then the Government decreed that all vehicles in these areas convert to OPAL...a fuel that does not give a 'high', They built a great swimming pool, but kids could only use it if they had attended school all day. They employed Aboriginal teachers who taught in the local language as well as English. A special school bus went from house to house to collect school kids. Parents were counselled about the necessity of education, homework etc.

Now the kids are proud of their school and do well, they show up clean and bright with laughter and are totally engaged. The parents asked if they could learn too, so programs were started for them.
The principal has won many awards and it is a great example of spending the taxpayers money well.

[chexbres]

Exactly what fumobici said.

It's incredibly easy to claim that you hurt your back or neck - either at work or elsewhere - and have a doctor give you a "starter prescription" for something like Vicodin, without taking X-Rays or MRIs to find out what's wrong. Most of the time, a US doctor spends 5 minutes with a patient, hands over a prescription and it's done.

But since this class of drugs is highly regulated and the pharmacist can't refill it until you go back to the doctor (who might not give you another Rx), many people either go "doctor shopping" or go to neighborhood pain clinics and get more Vicodin or something stronger. These clinics pop up overnight, most often in poverty-stricken neighborhoods, and perform no tests at all - many are frequented by police and firemen with legitimate injuries but who have become addicted to painkillers and can't confess for fear of losing their jobs. Other patients might be depressed housewives, hard-core junkies, people gathering drugs to sell for profit or just people who can't find any other solution to relieve their pain - whether physical or mental.

Pharmaceutical sales representatives used to supply these places, but most of the purchasing is done via the internet, where it's easier for the "doctor" to cover his tracks.

I worked in a reputable doctor's office for a year - the sales reps would visit the doctor then always ask the staff if they wanted any "candy" - tranquilizers, painkillers, amphetamines, antibiotics, you name it. Everybody "knew somebody who needed a little something"...

In France, I've been treated for serious back problems - I always received painkillers, but also had to undergo MRIs and other tests, followed by several visits to a physical therapist. The MRIs and X-Rays were always shown to me and explained in detail by the doctor right after they had been done. Then my regular doctor would ask me to check in periodically - if I felt I needed more medication, it was given to me. I'm not a French resident, but the cost of all these tests and visits is minimal, compared to what I was charged in the US, even with insurance.

[questa]

There is a back-up system in Australia. For strong codeine medications the doctor has to phone a national office in Canberra, give my Medicare number and her Practising number and reason for prescribing the drug. The office checks our frequency of use before giving her a permission number to write the prescription. Takes about 2 minutes and is a good way to pick up over-prescribing doctors, doctor shopping patients and national use of strong drugs.

[bixaorellana]

A few days ago I walked with my dogs to the steps that go up to the Cerro del Fortín (<-- replies #s 50 thru 54). I was rocked back by the emotional punch of seeing an exceptionally effective remembrance of the disappeared forty-three students painted on the risers of the steps. It was a sunny afternoon and the paint was very fresh and white, but I didn't have my camera. I went back the next morning in the rain. The paint had run and the light was gray, but you can see here what I saw.

Many of you will have seen photos and allusions I've made here to "Los 43" and perhaps have followed the tragedy in the news, but here is some background: overviews from the BBC and the NYTimes, and an in-depth (with extensive links) from Wola.

[lagatta]

It seems more an assertion of brute power than anything else - student protests in a small town are hardly a threat to the State.

[htmb]

Impressive display and very moving. It’s good you returned for photographs. I think the dreary, wet weather adds something extra, too. Quite appropriate.

[bixaorellana]

True, LaGatta -- who knows what triggered it all. Whatever the hell happened, it was surely over-kill, to use an horribly apt expression.

Thanks so much, Htmb. You've seen the stairs in the daylight, so can imagine how they presented the perfect canvas for such a stark, necessary statement.

[kerouac2]

"Leave no witnesses."

[mickthecactus]

Gosh. I started this a long time ago...

[kerouac2]

Some subjects refuse to die, often with good reason.