"We Bring Fear"
A reporter flees the biggest cartel of all—the Mexican Army.
THERE IS A MAN DRIVING FAST down a dirt road leading to the border. A rooster tail of dust marks his passage. He is very frightened and his 15-year-old son sits beside him in silence. The boy is that way—very bright, yet very quiet. They are unusually close. The father has raised him as a single parent since he was four.
The father and son are fleeing to the United States. Back in their hometown of Ascensión, Chihuahua, men with assault rifles are searching for them. These men are soldiers in the Mexican Army and intend to kill the father, and perhaps the son, also. As the man drives toward the border crossing at Antelope Wells, New Mexico, he thinks the soldiers are ransacking his house. No one in the town will have the guts to speak up.
The man knows this absolutely.
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Exodus: Border-Crossers Forge a New America
Coyotes, pollos, and the promised van.
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Altered States of America
What a long, strange trip it's been: a drug war timeline.
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The Cartels Next Door
Cartels used to neatly divide Mexico. But as they have fractured, the violence has intensified. And moved north.
His name is Emilio Gutiérrez Soto and he is a reporter and that is why he is a dead man driving. He recalls how back when Carlos Salinas was president, the Mexican Army came to this same part of northern Chihuahua, beat up a bunch of peasants, tortured prisoners, and terrorized the community under the guise of fighting drug cartels. The peasants never filed any grievances because they knew any complaints would be ignored by their government. Or they would be disappeared. This is the kind of thing the reporter has understood since childhood but does not write and publish. Like the peasants, he knows his place in the system.
It is June 16, 2008, and in two days he will have his 45th birthday, should he live that long.
The military has again flooded northern Mexico, ever since President Felipe Calderón assumed office in December 2006 with a margin so razor thin that many Mexicans think he is an illegitimate president. One of his first acts was to declare a war on the nation's thriving drug industry, and his favorite tool was to be the Mexican Army, portrayed as less corrupt than the local or national police. Now some 45,000 soldiers, nearly 25 percent of the Army, are marauding all over the country, escalating the mayhem that consumes Mexico. In 2008, more than 6,000 Mexicans died in the drug violence, a larger loss than the United States has endured during the entire Iraq War. Since 2000, two dozen reporters have been officially recorded as murdered, at least seven more have vanished, and an unknown number have fled into the United States. But all numbers in Mexico are slippery, because people have so many ways of disappearing. In 2008, 188 Mexicans—cops, reporters, businesspeople—sought political asylum at US border crossings, more than twice as many as the year before. This is the wave of gore the man rides as he heads north.
He has tried to avoid this harsh reality. He has been careful in his work. His publisher has told him it is better to lose a story than to take a big risk. He does not look too closely into things. If someone is murdered, he prints what the police tell him and lets it go at that. If people sell or warehouse drugs in his town, he ignores it. Nor does he inquire about who controls the drug industry in his town or anywhere else.
The man driving is terrified of hitting an Army checkpoint. They are random and they are everywhere. The entire Mexican north has become a killing field. In Palomas, a nearby border town of maybe 7,500 souls, more than 40 men have already been executed in the past year, and several more have vanished in kidnappings; a mass grave was discovered in May. Some of these murders are by drug cartels. Some of these murders are by state and federal police. Some of these murders are by the Mexican Army. There are now many ways to die.
The high desert is beautiful, a pan of creosote with saucers of grass in moist low spots. Here and there volcanic remnants make black marks on the Earth and there is almost no water. Almost all the rivers flowing from the Sierra Madre vanish in the desert. But it is home, the place he has spent his life.
The reporter may die for committing a simple error. He wrote an accurate news story. He did not know that was dangerous because he thought the story was very small and unimportant. He was wrong and that was the beginning of all his trouble.
There are two Mexicos.
There is the one reported by the US press, a place where the Mexican president is fighting a valiant war on drugs, aided by the Mexican Army and the Mérida Initiative, the $1.4 billion in aid the United States has committed to the cause. This Mexico has newspapers, courts, laws, and is seen by the United States government as a sister republic.
It does not exist.
There is a second Mexico where the war is for drugs, where the police and the military fight for their share of drug profits, where the press is restrained by the murder of reporters and feasts on a steady diet of bribes, and where the line between the government and the drug world has never existed.
The reporter lives in this second Mexico.
Until very recently, he liked it just fine. In fact, he loves Mexico and has never thought of leaving. Even though he lives about 20 miles from the border, he has not bothered to cross for almost 10 years.
But now, things have changed. He knows about the humanitarian treaties signed by the United States and he thinks given these commitments, he and his boy will be given asylum. He has decided to tell the authorities nothing but the truth. He has failed to realize one little fact: No Mexican reporter has ever been given political asylum.
Suddenly, he sees a checkpoint ahead and there is no way to escape it.
Men in uniforms pull him over.
He discovers to his relief that this checkpoint is run by Mexico's migration agency, and so, maybe, they will not give him up to the Army.
"Why are you driving so fast?"
"I am afraid. There are people trying to kill me."
"The narcos?"
"No, the soldiers."
"Who are you?"
He hands over his press pass.
"Oh, you are the one, they searched your house."
"I have had problems."
"Those sons of bitches do whatever they want. Go ahead. Good luck."
He roars away. When he stops at the port of entry at Antelope Wells in the bootheel of New Mexico, US customs ask, as they always do, what he is bringing from Mexico.
He says, "We bring fear."
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so horrible.
It's horrific that this is how things are ending up for people who are willing to fight for the truth. Nobody knows anything anymore, there is no public outcry because this country, USA allmighty, doesn't see it. Nobody explains it further than what we see on the news. In US news channels there is no mention... in spanish news channels, they don't show it. We hear everything and know absolutely nothing...
Not much difference here....
"Doesn't see it"? Oh, our government "sees it" alright, but unfortunately, they are a part of the problem, and not the solution. I have long thought that the U.S. is every bit as corrupt as Mexico, it simply costs more here for the "mordida". Sure, there may be less overt violence, but it's corrupt nonetheless.
This is the best article
This is the best article I've seen on the real situation in Mexico. I don't know that there's much the US can do about the situation there. One thing is certain, US dollars are financing the violence in Mexico. Taking revenue away from the narco-cartels would be a good place to start. Legalizing marijuana and at least attempting drug treatment as an option for the hard stuff would be a good place to start. Mexico should be on the short list with Pakistan for potential failed states. It has a greater opportunity for repercussions as a neighbor. We need to take this seriously.
" We Bring Fear"
An incredibly powerful moving piece.
Are we also seeing the future of the USA?
Bringing Fear
There is a story which would relect what is actually taking place in Mexico, and to some extent this one does. However for the wrong reason.
Horrifying, despicable.
Have prominent members of the Mexican Army received training at the US-based School of the Americas, notorious for training armies in dictatorships in Central and South America.
Pressure must be brought to bear on Mexico. Perhaps a trade embargo? Yeah, like that's going to happen when countries as notorious as Columbia are lining up to sign trade agreements.
The Drug War and Chihuahua
The solutions are not ones that need rocket scientists to figure.
Legalize drugs in the U.S.. This could reduce the violence to innocent victims in the U.S. and Mexico.
Do not fund the Mexican military with U.S. money.
Pull down the ridiculous and useless wall and support efforts to build fair trade businesses in Mexico.
Support all efforts in Mexico for ethical, really democratic government.
Give asylum to Mexican citizens that are trying to escape the drug war and have been targeted by the drug lords and the military.
As I said, I am not a rocket scientist and these first attempts at solution of the problems are clear to me.
All of what this writer says
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All of what this writer says is true. I live ten miles from the border and the violence and mayhem is increasing. Why? Because the U.S. doesn't have the cojones to legalize drugs. So, those that want to sell it use ever more aggressive ways to market it. Guns. A lot of them. What is worse, a few more happy zombies or more corpses? We have to have the guts to choose.
trade embargo
It'll never happen as Mexico is a huge trading partner for the US as well as an oil producing nation. I agree with the comment above that we may just be seeing the future of our own country. Every day laws that make it more dangerous to be a whistle blower of any kind, a corporate owned heavily anti-immigrant biased Television and radio media. Our own government clearly already co-opted by the banks and financial powers to openly manipulate the stock market, and their theft of the national treasury. A nation going (gone?) broke and already absolutely corrupt. When money controls the power so ruthlessly, and is concentrated in the hands of the few who play the game,it is only a matter of time.
Pobre Mexico
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Charles Bowden, a hearty hand clap. I've been reading you for 15 years as part of my education about the border. Having lived in Mexico for 12 years at a time the narco-state was slowly developing, my heart shudders at what is happening now. Mexicans don't deserve the sanctioned terror that shadows their daily lives. Mexico, "so far from god, so close to the United States." Make no mistake, this horror wouldn't have happened if we didn't have such an appetite for drugs. Legalization may be a Pandora's Box, but it's hard to imagine a worse scenario than that unfolding on our doorstep. Legalize Marijuana, decriminalize cocaine, collect taxes, and use that money for drug rehabilitation and education.
mexicans and americans
Excellent article, especially for Americans to read, since these stories hardly get any coverage, even in solid sources like the New York Times.
I agree with the idea that there are (still) two Mexicos, and that the situation seems impossibly difficult. My parents left in the 80s, but I hope to go back and dedicate myself to helping in legal environmental and human rights issues.
Finally..a REAL report on
Finally..a REAL report on our nations' neighbors.
History repeating itself..As we slip into being a "failed state" our selves..no medical coverage or work for more and more of our citizens,inflation will devour
what financial resources we have left.
Shades of the early thirties in Germany.
Decimated by the losses of ww1,it shifted to revitalizing an industrialized mode and invaded its' neighbors with the baggage of hatefilled rhetoric.
We will too...it HAS to be someone elses fault..no?
We will be at war with Mexico within seven (7) years...for no reason but for having turned a blind eye to the truth spoken to here NOW...
How sad...how tragic...
But hey...it's business...and we all know "greed is good"
I am glad to be an old man now and not being a party to it...and watching these failings..It is going to hit the fan...
First off, the guy's a reporter...
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And, with reporters, as any news source, believe half of what you see, and a third of what you read.
If the citizens of Mexico(and, the citizens of the United States) were serious about ending the violence, they could take steps to do just that.
First step? Go someplace else. Mexico has many locales to the south where people could relocate to, and be safe.
Second step? Close the border. The US and other countries can still hold trade with Mexico, at shipping ports set up for the purpose. But, land crossings have long been a way for smugglers to ply their trade, so, with a closed border, suddenly they're out of business. There are other problems and hardships involved in that, but if the desired result is to shut down the smugglers, that will help more than anything else.
Third step? Reduce drug demand in the United States by doing things like decriminalizing marijuana, and supporting rehab over jail time for users, and deporting people back where they came from if they're smuggling into the United States. There's lots of information on the internet for people that want to get sober, and by not supporting criminals there's potentially a public safety payoff on top of everything else.
Mexico has problems. But, we help make those problems worse, I think, because of some of our policies, and we can change our policies but we can't change their country, that's something their citizens will have to see to themselves. There's supposed to be about 100 million people living in Mexico, do they support the drug trade? Probably not...so, what will they do about it, and how can we/should we try to help, or is it time for their citizens to take issue with their own national problems independently of the United States? Sometimes, 'help' doesn't...
Klaatu marachas necktie
GarySeven
As the fact checker on for this piece, I want to emphasize that in every possible instance we obtained multiple verifications of the events, especially with regard to Emilio's interaction with the Mexican military. While I believe Emilio's word 100% (he is a smart and gracious person) we have found other ways to confirm this story as well. If you have specific doubts feel free to email me at sbaldwin@motherjones.com.
As for some of your suggestions:
1) Emilio cannot go live anywhere else in Mexico because all of Mexico, even the south, has a strong military presence. If it were drug traffickers that Emilio was fleeing this might be an option, but the military is national and have a long history of impunity in the south of Mexico.
2) Google "Operation Intercept" for some perspective on what it might look like if we closed the border. It is simply an impossible thing, too many people live trans-border lives and too much trade happens at the ports of entry.
3) Here, here. We must reduce demand and make it harder for the cartels to get our guns if things are going to change.
tough situation
This article is heartbreaking, yet stories like it are too numerous these days. It's clear the U.S. needs to end the drug war that's financing so much of this corruption, but after that all we can really do is to stand back and try to favor the Mexican economy from the outside. I think there's a lot of ridiculous paranoia in these comments blaming the U.S. for everything wrong in Mexico, when that's just impossible. Nobody can fix Mexico except Mexicans. Do people here really think the U.S. has some interest in keeping its southern neighbor poor and unstable? Who would you rather have as a neighbor, Mexico or Canada?
Why do you think the U.S.
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Why do you think the U.S. has an interest in keeping it's own citizens poor and unstable? Give up the ignorant view that the U.S. REALLY wants good for everyone.
From the perspective of a
From the perspective of a fellow journalist, this should be an an award-winning article. If I were the author, or a member of the editorial staff of MJ, I would submit it to every appropriate organization that grants journalism awards - including Pulitzer. Extremely well written, insightful, personal, captivating and certainly educational to me, and obviously to other readers as well.
And I liked the fact-checker volunteering to weigh in on its accuracy. Nice touch. Congratulations all around.
Sacring people away from drugs is useless
The drug trade is a billion-dollar industry. This fact alone should have served us to understand the uselessness of attempting to stop it by policing people and forcing them not-to do business with narcotics. When you first read that a young woman was caught carrying a pound of cocaine while crossing the border (therefore setting off her own demise by spending 20-odd years in prison) you may look down upon the woman as dumb. But what happens when you realize that, had she been successful, she would've been set for life,... by just carrying a meager pound of cocaine? Not so dumb after all, was she? There is so much money involved, and it appears to be so easy for anyone to get into it, that I truly believe the only way to (first) hinder, then diminish, and (eventually) erradicate drug-trafficing is by dumping the market with legally, yet controlled drugs in such a proportion that a sniff of cocaine get to be worth less than an aspirine. How do we go about this? Same thing we do with tobacco and liquor: Mass-produce them until the cost-benefit ratio is brought down to absurd levels (ever heard of an aspirine cartel?). People who do drugs (as do people who drink or smoke) will find a way, but the difference is that those people could be put under some sort of control (if needed or desired); Mexico's drug-related violence stems from the dealers, together with the corrupt police and military, killing each other and those involved (journalists, bystanders, clean politicians) not from the use of narcotics. More people die from lung cancer than from drug misuse (or drug-induced behaviour) in any country in the world. Policing the drug trade only pulls the price of drugs up, benefiting producers and dealers.
Strange I´ve lived in
Strange I´ve lived in Mexico for over 35 years and I don´t see ¨Soldiers marauding the countryside¨. Yes theres crime here and everywhere in the world, yes the border is more dangerous, many central americans illegally enter Mexico from the south and border cities are packed and when you have a lot of people you´re going to get a certain percentage of criminals.
This problem developing in Honduras will send a new surge of illegals northward, Mexico has to confront this before they get to the states. The problem is all connected to greed... the daily minimum wage here is 5 dollars a day, so of course immigrants look at the Ämerican Dream¨not knowing that often its an American nightmare. Ive seen foreign companies pull out of the country because they could find labor at 5 cents an hour cheaper someplace else. So who wins..neither Mexico or the U.S.
Brad Will
great MoJo piece on the Mexican military and narco-trafficking
I would have liked you folks to include the name, Bradley Roland Will, when you mentioned the murdered reporters.
He was killed October 27, 2006, in Oaxaca Mexico reporting on the teachers' strike and the social movement against impunity and corruption which blossomed around it. More here: www.friendsofbradwill.org and here: bradwill.org
He was 36 and a new father and his murderers were witnessed by numerous people and caught on video.
His murderers were Mexican Government paramilitaries and a year after he was killed Bush announced the Merida Initiative (aka Plan Mexico), rewarding the security forces which killed him with impunity and the civilian government which covered it up. That got our organization - Friends of Brad Will - involved in exposing and advocating against the 'drug war' militarization package which is arming these same unaccountable security forces.
See Physicians for Human Rights report on the Mexican Government "investigation" into his murder. And this for the picture of his murderers (all identified and free):
http://www.rsf.org/Authorities-says-policeman-former.html
Would be great if you folks would write a story about him and our efforts to obtain justice for his murder.
Best,
Robert Jereski
Congressional Liaison
Friends of Brad WIll
MoJo-er?
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Emilio Soto sounds like a helluva muckraking journalist. How bout offering him a job at MoJo? Spanish-language investigative journalism pieces on happenings south of the border.
"We Bring Fear"
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"our" politicians are working hard to turn America into Mexico, so THEY can be feudal "nobles" too. The "war" is on Your RIGHTS, not Drugs or Terror. In 2005 there was a PANIC due to a rumor that Chinese with a NUKE had crossed the Mexican border and were headed to blow up Boston. The border is STILL wide open ......
www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/02/26/60minutes/main4831806.shtml
Above is a transcript from March 2nd (rerun on June 21) 60 MINUTES. In brief, the Government acknowledges that it has no control of the border. TONS of drugs and Millions of ILLEGALS enter this country. TONS of cash and TONS of weapons leave this country. They have no way of knowing how many "TERRORISTS" have crossed (IF there IS such a creature)
TWO things were of major interest:
(1) The Department of Homeland STUPIDITY acknowledges they have no control - therefore, HOW are they going to protect you from TERRORISTS, if they cannot stop gangbangers.
(2) The "head" of the Department of Homeland STUPIDITY (and others) tries to blame YOUR right to keep and bear ARMS for the weapons going south. The only trouble is ........ they showed and talked of MISSILES, HAND GRENADES, BELT FED MACHINES GUNS. Those are weapons STOLEN FROM THE AMERICAN MILITARY. They are not coming from the SEMI-auto Civilian world! They are direct from your Military's ARMORIES. Not only can your Government NOT PROTECT the borders .... and YOU. The Government CANNOT HANG ON TO IT'S OWN WEAPONS!!!
We Bring Fear Articles
Strangely, I have lived in Chiapas, Mexico, for over the past five years and the Mexico portrayed in these articles looks nothing like Mexico here. In spite of the urban legends the Mexican Government and the CIA (through the State Department) perpetuate about the Zapatistas, I feel safer here than I would in downtown DC after dark. I would trust the Mexican Army before I would trust civil control by the "Christian" American mercenaries Blackwater.
The closest knowledge I have of Ciuad Juarez is my English student from the family of a banking executive who fled from there to here when the violence there just became to dangerous for them to live there. There are many Mexican Army bases in Chiapas and I have taught English in some of them and only encountered decent, professional officers equivalent to my experience as a former US Army officer.
Too bad the Gringo's base all their stereotypes of Mexico on these kind of stories and "naco" illegal immigrants in the US who do not represent the best of Mexican society.
It's almost like the Bowden is describing another country entirely and makes me wonder what his political agenda is.
Recommendations for Mexico
Here are my recommendations:
1. Don't give the Mexican Army anymore American money - there is too much temptation for corruption.
2. Spend the money in the US to adopt E-Verify, Real ID and secure the border from drug smugglers, more illegal immigrants, and NRA Gun Club war profiteers who are selling the cartels American automatic weapons and ammunition.
3. Legalize marijuana, for Christ's sake. America ended Prohibition when they finally saw what a folly is was, and, albeit alcohol is a worse drug, at least they try to control it, tax it and take away the black market from the mafia.
4. End the political corruption in the US where greedy politicians take bribes (in the form of "contributions", of course) to look the other way at corporations who entice and illegally hire undocumented workers from Latin America.
5. Adopt a temporary worker visa program like Canada where young, able-bodied workers shore up the graying baby-boomer population by producing and paying taxes and social security.
6. Adopt the same laws for Mexican nationals in the US as Mexico has for me:
A. I must renew my work visa once a year with letters of references, fees, and criminal checks. Only then can I renew my driver's license for only one year with advanced technology holograms, currency transparencies, digital signature, picture and fingerprints with an embedded chip and bar code for verification that make the low tech and easily copied licenses in the US look like they came from a box of Cracker Jacks.
B. Under the Mexican Constitution, any citizen here may arrest and hold me if I am here illegally. Caught being here illegally will result in a least 4 weeks in prison before the US Consulate can bail me out for my immediate deportation.
C. Working here illegally results in immediate deportation and well enforced, heavy fines for my employer. Jealous co-workers and even neighbors will report me to immigration for this.
D. Unless I marry a Mexican or my wife and I have waited ten years for naturalization (including an exam on Mexican history and culture 99% of the natives can't pass), our children are not citizens.
E. Once I am naturalized, I can never hold public office.
The United States needs to take it's head out of it's a$s and wake up to the corruption of the present failed policies regarding Mexico and Mexicans, and to the continued cost of making drugs illegal because of the whims of a "Moral Majority" who like to cherry-pick Leviticus 18:22 to judge and condemn others but wouldn't know verse 19:33 if it bit them in the butt.
This is real journalism, very rare nowadays
For years, Bowden has written about conditions along the US/Mexico border, with a great deal of realism. There aren't very many doing this kind of work. Instead, much of what passes for journalism about the border is just recycled assumptions and stuff done in a short amount of time without checking too deep.
I'm glad to see this work carried in a national magazine. It would be much better if Bowden's work were picked up by more of the big media. Most of what US citizens know about what is going on is either outright lies or incomprehensible mush.
mr. bowden
I thought this article was written in an overly dramatic style and really didn't tell one much that hadn't already been told
Border Wars
The border towns of Mexico do not represent Mexico. That area has its own culture and its own language. The culture is a mixture of the worst of Mexico and the worst of the U.S. Their language is Spanglish, not easily understood by most Mexicans or Americans.
Mexicans from that area could not imagine a nice American town like Greenville, SC with friendly, polite people. Most Americans could not imagine a nice Mexican town like Orizaba, Veracruz with easy going, friendly people. Of course, places like Greenville and Orizaba don't make the news and would probably make a boring movie.
The fact is, there is a war going on in a third world country. Wars are not pretty, especially in developing countries. The battles will be ugly and vicious with plenty of innocent people getting caught in the line of fire. The border towns have always been festering with excessive crime and corruption. It's now comming to a head and we, Americans and Mexicans, are watching the story unfold on TV and the papers.
A Letter from Emilio
Hi all,
We received a statement today from Emilio Gutiérrez Soto which I've copied below. Emilio writes from El Paso as he awaits his asylum trial.
Illegitimacy, the criminal power of the Mexican state
Emilio Gutierrez Soto
July 7, 2009
Thousands of Mexican men and women have succumbed to the criminal power of the Mexican state. Taking shelter under the pretext of a supposed fight against the drug cartels, the state has deployed its Armed Forces in the streets of Mexico, violating all civil rights and increasing the incidence of violence to a level not seen since the epoch of the Revolution. The real premise for this fight is to reinforce the illegitimate presidency of Felipe Calderon. The military occupation is without a doubt a sign of the administration’s weakness.
The constant violations of the fundamental rights of its citizens has put Mexico under the magnifying glass of the Interamerican Commission of Human Rights which bases its arguments on just a few cases out of the thousands that have been filed during the eight and a half years of PAN (National Action Party) governments, characterized by arrogance and a tendency to ignore the laws. The current Mexican leader, Felipe Calderon, wears his illegitimacy like a halo and the Armed Forces are well aware that it is his political weakness that has given them the opportunity to leave their barracks. The result has been a wave of bloody violence in which thousands of innocent people have been executed in the streets of Mexico and hundreds have fled into exile. It has also resulted in an increase in poverty, a destroyed economy, damage to the education system and above all, insecurity that permeates the society at all levels.
The assault committed by President Felipe Calderon and a group of legislators in the Mexican Congress in December 2006 that anointed him as head of state has had another consequence: the profession of journalism finds itself under constant threat and yet continues to document the unprecedented increase in homicides, illegal raids and searches, physical aggressions, disappearances and other crimes at the hands of the Armed Forces. But without even the hint of a response to the media which has intermittently called for a halt to these offenses on the part of the state.
Calderon’s immobility in the face of the nation’s enormous problems has only resulted in greater violence in the Mexican streets under the signature of the military. Taking into account the illegitimacy and weakness of the president, it has already been announced that the army will remain in the streets until 2013, that is, until one year after the current presidential term ends, thus insuring that the next president enters the office under the continuing threat of military rule.
Warning: the culture of death will continue into the foreseeable future.
Meanwhile, thousands of Mexicans are in danger of becoming victims, simply because the Army suspects their involvement in some illicit activity. The rule of law has been left out of the military’s plans of action. Hundreds of accusations have now been filed against the military and Calderon’s government appears not to give a damn. Mexicans have had to become accustomed to bearing witness to forced disappearances, kidnappings, extortion, home invasions, injuries inflicted by soldiers, rapes and robberies. And the impunity that conceals the actions of the illegitimate government. The coup d’etat has already happened, but the government hides its weakness, knowing that one false step is all it will take to dislodge its lackluster leader. The only path left is to follow the orders of the military leaders.
From December 17, 1999 until June 14, 2008, I was in charge of the northwestern regional bureau of one of the most influential newspapers in the state of Chihuahua, El Diario. During this period, I documented the constant aggressions by Army personnel against the civilian population. Many of them had no other way of finding out about these incidents except in the pages of this newspaper.
I was threatened with death for doing my job by the Chief of the Fifth Military Zone of Chihuahua, General Garcia Vega. “You have already published three foolish stories against the Army and this has greatly angered the Secretary of Defense and there will not be a fourth,” he told me when I was forced to meet with him in the center of the town of Ascension.
I filed a complaint with the police authorities of the state of Chihuahua and found myself involved in an official conspiracy involving the governor, Jose Reyes Baeza Terrazas. I then complained to the State and National Human Rights Commissions. The state did not take up the case and the national organization recommended “conciliation” with the Mexican Army, an entity that has never sanctioned those who threatened me.
Last year, soldiers violently broke into my house in Ascension searching for weapons and drugs, and in the process violated all of the rights belonging to me and to my son according to the Constitution of Mexico. They found nothing, nor did they issue an apology. To the contrary, they threatened that I was obligated to denounce Organized Crime and left me the telephone number of the Military Headquarters located in Nuevo Casas Grandes in the state of Chihuahua.
In June, accompanied by my son who was then 15, I left my beloved country, crossing the border between Chihuahua and New Mexico to seek the protection of the United States of America. As it turned out, my son was detained for two months in a juvenile prison and I was held for seven months in an immigration detention camp under the authorities of the Department of Homeland Security. This was better than suffering the attack that was planned for us by the Army that would have taken our lives. I was warned in time and it gave us the chance to flee our country, a failed state headed by Felipe Calderon.
Our affair is not unique. It is just one of many that happen each day in Mexico and that Calderon and his military accomplices try to hide from the world, even though the Interamerican Human Rights Commission has documented many cases in which the Armed Forces have perpetrated horrendous crimes. It has been documented that Mexico and its leaders are guilty of criminal negligence that affects the daily life of its people.
But things will not change anytime soon. The Mexican Army has begun to savor the benefits of being in the streets of Mexico and in command positions in the most important ministries of the State. It will be hard for them to abandon the dirty work they have carried out against the people. Few if any of the complaints that are filed ever get reported to the commanders in charge.
In the northwestern region of Chihuahua, businessmen, ranchers, campesino leaders and other wealthy and prominent members of the community continue to be executed by armed commandos that roam the highways of the region. These armed groups appear to operate under the authority of the state or of the Armed Forces. Young women are kidnapped and raped by criminal gangs that seem to operate under official protection, but the local law enforcement authorities’ hands are tied by incompetence. Dozens of executions have taken place since we left this region of Mexico that we love so much. But these acts have been covered up by the Army. And by the silence and fear of those who remain behind.
Calderon’s failed battle against organized crime continues to kill many innocents. The Mexican people also suffer as they see their property, health, security, education and other indicators of well being left by the wayside as the government gives priority to the military who have monopolized the resources of the state in what is a thinly veiled coup d’etat.
More than three more years of conspiracy, crimes and illegitimacy remain in the term of this most unpopular president who is completely contaminated by the crime that he says he is fighting.
This makes me remember the
This makes me remember the famous Carlos Castaneda qoutes in his "Teachings of Don Juan" - where they say humans have 4 enemies and the first one them is fear and the second is power.
And Orwells famous line - "Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely".
-- Mark (Infrared Sauna)
Political Axe to Grind?
Could Gutiérrez Soto have a political axe to grind as he complains "Felipe Calderon, wears his illegitimacy like a halo" referring to the Revolutionary Democratic Party (PRD), whose candidate, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, narrowly lost to Calderon with 36.1% of the vote in 2006?
The popularity of the PRD is fading in Mexico. In this month's midterm elections, the old guard PRI (Revolutionary Institutional Party) had 36.7 percent of the vote at the expense of the leftist PRD that came in a distant third with 12.2 percent to 28 percent for Calderon's National Action Party (PAN).
I have no doubt Gutiérrez Soto suffered what he says he suffered at the hands of the Mexican Army but he clearly comes across as a rabid Perredista and some of his problems may have been aggravated by his fervor.
carbomb
Starting his car by remote is no help. They can just push 8-10 disposable lighters up his tailpipe into the muffler box which is normally situated below the fuel tank (stupidly). 5 minutes driving and boom. If they want to get you, they will. No point worrying about it.
When a illiegal president
When a illiegal president sits in the house of pines in Mexico, with a illegal use of troops, would US citizens stand for this kind of abuse? See Mexico for what it is. A proving ground for all US based arms merchants to try out their products. Why cant Mexico legalize drugs? I know why not. Because it would make Mexico rich beyound US control. It would make Mexicans workers stay in Mexico and then who would pick up after the US? The corruption in Mexico starts in Washington which backs a bald pirate president called FECAL = shit in spanish. Felipe Calderon.
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Legalize pot
End prohibition...and at least legalize cannabis...
And knock 60% of the blocks out from under the two North American cartels...based in the two national Capitols...D.C. and D.F.
Border wall, "for profit" immigrant internment camps, racial profiling and imprisonment of little people in possession, militarization of the border, greedy US corporations and money laundering banks...and a government that funds, arms...even covertly...is traumatizing both sides of the border in a wholesale violation of human rights. That in turn fuels the racists, xenobobes and nativists.
The inhumanity that prohibition costs citizens of both countries is evil. Pot can grow naturally from Alaska to Argentina. Today the US and Canada out produce Mexico. Prohibition only drives the value and therefore fuels organized crime...and corruption...in and outside of government.
Freedom of choice will allow legitimate capitalization, taxation and government control of distribution. Wasted billions on the "war on drugs" could be redirected to restore both countries infrastructure, education and health care. And then there would be no debate on how to finance and accomplish good things instead of exacerbating evil human activities that grows in our societies like malignant cancer.
My deepest respect to the true journalists who have gotten this story out. Like waves upon the waters, it will be shared with thousands...upon thousands...upon thousands.
People of peaceful and moral character have the strength to stand up to this evil...and change the dynamics without resorting to the tactics organized crime driven and government driven violence.
Jay
yet another shade of blood-red gray...
I had the opportunity to share this article with a fellow Chihuahuan, another journalist. He agreed wholeheartedly in the impunity with which the Mexican Army is acting, he has wrote a few notes on that himself. He also stated that Emilio has been, for many years, yet another corrupted journalist, with bonds with both the Judiciales and the Narcos of that area.
The account of the illegitimacy of president Calderon is another imprecision of this article. Yes, he won by a narrow margin, and those in fiercely Perredista Mexico City felt plundered by the election results, which merely showed the divide between the urban Mexicans and those of us scattered in the large territory currently under both, military and narco siege...
yet another shade of blood-red gray...
I had the opportunity to share this article with a fellow Chihuahuan, another journalist. He agreed wholeheartedly in the impunity with which the Mexican Army is acting, he has wrote a few notes on that himself. He also stated that Emilio has been, for many years, yet another corrupted journalist, with bonds with both the Judiciales and the Narcos of that area.
The account of the illegitimacy of president Calderon is another imprecision of this article. Yes, he won by a narrow margin, and those in fiercely Perredista Mexico City felt plundered by the election results, which merely showed the divide between the urban Mexicans and those of us scattered in the large territory currently under both, military and narco siege...
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Obama & Co = Trafficking in Illicit Drugs
Asked if his New York Crime Family was dealing in narcotics, John Gotti replied: "No, who can compete with the government?"
Here Read:
+ DynCorp: Beyond the Rule of Law / Colombia Journal:
--"Despite the fact that a company contracted by the U.S. government to carry out its program of fumigating and eradicating coca crops in Colombia has been caught smuggling heroin out of the country, no attempts have been made to bring it to justice."
"These discoveries might only be the tip of the iceberg as DynCorp’s activities are conducted in absolute secrecy and appear to be beyond the jurisdiction of any governmental body. A high ranking police official in Colombia, who has known about DynCorp since their 1993 arrival in Colombia, told Semana magazine, 'no authority, whether the Civil Aviation Authority, police or army, is authorized to search DynCorp’s planes. Nobody knows what they carry on their return to the United States because they are untouchable.'”
"According to the Guardian Weekly, the U.S. government’s contract with DynCorp is full of ambiguities, giving the company even more leeway to avoid oversight by both Colombian and U.S. authorities. This not only increases the opportunities for DynCorp employees to personally profit from drug-trafficking, but also enables the company to conduct counter-insurgency operations for the U.S. government that go far beyond their official role of assessing and implementing the fumigation of illicit crops."
+ Breaking the Grip? Obstacles to Justice for Paramilitary Mafias in Colombia / Human Rights Watch:
--"Eric Holder would have a troubling conflict of interest in carrying out this work in light of his current work as defense lawyer for Chiquita Brands ..."
"Chiquita has already admitted in a criminal case that it paid the AUC around $1.7 million in a 7-year period and that it further provided the AUC with a cache machine guns as well."
"Indeed, Holder himself, using his influence as former deputy attorney general under the Clinton Administration, helped to negotiate Chiquita's sweetheart deal with the Justice Department in the criminal case against Chiquita."
+ Banana Cream Pie / The Next Hurrah:
--"I asked him about the drugs-for-weapons exchange and the Chiquita freighters.... 'Look, there were drugs, and there were times that they sent drugs for weapons. They sent the kilos of drugs, and from out there, those duros said we are going to send this many kilos of drugs and I need this many rifles,' Lorenzo said."
+ Dirty Tricks, Inc.: The DynCorp-Government Connection Conspiracy Digest:
--"Even more sinister is the fact that DynCorp manages email and information systems for many federal investigation agencies like FBI, DOJ and SEC. What does that mean? Whenever criminal behavior is detected, DynCorp controls the information, giving it defacto power to subvert the process of law and cover-up corporate-government criminal activities."
"Dudley Mecum, DynCorp Director since 1988, who just happens to also be the managing director of ... CitiGroup, the New York banking conglomerate, convicted of serial money laundering and other criminal offenses."
+ Citigroup Tries to Repair Its Image in Japan / NY Times:
--"In particular, the regulators discovered that the office did little to monitor against money laundering ..."
+ The Banking Industry´s Dirty Little Secret: Money Laundering For The Drug Cartels / American Chronicle:
--"The United Nation´s Office on Drugs and Crime Executive Director Antonio Maria Costa recently told the Austrian magazine Profil that drug money has been the only thing that has kept many major banks in business."
+ UN crime chief: Was the bailout the largest drug money laundering operation in history? / Corrente:
--"The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime had found evidence that 'interbank loans were funded by money that originated from drug trade and other illegal activities,' Costa was quoted as saying. There were "signs that some banks were rescued in that way."
Now consider how, in USA v. Juan Vincent Castrillon (2nd Circuit Homepage / Decisions / Sotomayor Dissent), Judge Sonia Sotomayor stated:
"I agree fully with the majority that there was ample evidence establishing the existence of a large-scale, international money laundering conspiracy. I disagree, however, with the majority's conclusion that there was sufficent evidence for a rational juror to conculde, beyond a reasonable doubt, that Huezo had the requisite knowledge and specific intent to launder the the proceeds of specified unlawful activity so as to support his conviction for money laundering or conspiracy."
Yet the facts of the case are:
Huezo drove a fellow conspirator and a suitcase containing $500,000 to a meeting with an undercover cop.
On a latter occasion, surveillance disclosed that Huezo started his Jeep then left it running while positioning himself so he could see both the front of the house and the street, whereupon another conspirator emerged with a suitcase containing another $500,000 which he placed in the back of the Jeep for a second delivery.
Huezo had $6,000 cash in his possession.
+ National Drug Intelligence Center Puerto Rico/US Virgin Islands High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Drug Market Analysis 2009 (USDOJ):
"The San Juan High Intensity Financial Crime Area (HIFCA) reports that the leaders of high-profile money laundering organizations based in Central American and South American countries maintain money laundering cells in Puerto Rico and the USVI. The cells launder the illicit proceeds generated by traffickers operating in the HIDTA region and, in doing so, use financial institutions, money remitters, shell corporations, bulk cash smuggling, and other methods, such as the Colombian Black Market Peso Exchange."
+ FALN, Holder, and Obama: The Price Paid by One 'Ordinary American' / Human Events:
New Year's Eve, 1982: NYPD's bomb squad rushed to headquarters at One Police Plaza--a Puerto Rican Independance Group (FALN) bombing had destroyed the entrance...
A total of 4 FALN bombs exploded in a single hour that night--including at the Manhattan FBI office and a federal courthouse in Brooklyn...
Though Puerto Rico voted to remain a part of the US, the FALN waged war on America with bombings, kidnappings, threats and intimidation. The most horriffic attack was the 1995 Fraunces Tavern bombing in Lower Manhattan--timed to go off during lunch hour...
"After members of the FALN were arrested, they threatened Judge Thomas McMillen's life ... Carmine Valentine told the judge, "You are lucky that we cannot take you right now," ... Dylcia Pagan warned the courtroom: "All of you, I would advise you to watch your backs." And Ida Rodriguez told the judge, "You say we have no remorse. You're right. ... Your jails and your long sentences will not frighten us."
"Eight of these FALN terrorists later would receive pardons from President Clinton ..."
"Holder played a central role in freeing these terrorists ... in this case he recommended that clemency be granted--despite vehement opposition from the FBI, the Bureau of Prisons, and his own Justice Department."
+ Tony Rezko / Wikipedia:
--"... the jury found Rezko guilty of six counts of wire fraud, six counts of mail fraud, two counts of corrupt solicitation, and two counts of money laundering ..."
+ Grim proving ground for Obama's housing policy / Boston Globe:
--Obama helped Rezko--his close friend and most important fund-raiser--get $87,000,000 to renovate 1,000 low-income Chicago apartments.
"We Bring Fear"
Awesome article - fearless journalism and great writing. Please let me know how I can find out more about both Emilio and Carlos. Keep up the great work!
Ira
Fundraiser for Emilio--August 21
On August 21, several friends are holding a fundraiser for Emilio Gutierrez in Las Cruces, NM, featuring an appearance by Charles Bowden.
Emilio has still not received his work permit and thus has no way to earn money for basic necessities and back-to-school expenses for his son, while awaiting a hearing on his application for political asylum.
________________________________________________
When: FRIDAY AUGUST 21, 2009, 7:00 PM
Where: 5541 Camino Escondida, Las Cruces, NM 88011
Killing me softly with your Laws
A benefit for Emilio Guitierrez
a newspaper reporter from Mexico seeking POLITICAL ASYLUM in the United States.
Emilio's first 7 months in the USA were spent in an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center.
The government has unreasonably delayed his permit to work in the United States.
Join us for music, poetry, wine and other beverages and tasty snacks under the magnificent skies of the New Mexico desert.
Music & original poetry by Deliriously Serious & the Las Cruces SLAM Poets
Special guest appearance and POLITICAL RANT by Harpers, Mother Jones, National Geographic & GQ writer:
CHARLES BOWDEN*
SUGGESTED DONATION: $25
If you cannot attend, but would like to make a donation, please send in care of:
Molly Molloy
New Mexico State University Library
Box 30006 Dept 3475, NMSU
Las Cruces, NM 88003
For more information, please contact:
Molly Molloy, mollymolloy@gmail.com, 575-680-6463
*Author of Juarez: the Laboratory of Our Future; Down by the River: Drugs Money Murder & Family; Inferno; Exodus/Exodo; Killing the Hidden Waters; Blood Orchid; Blues for Cannibals; Some of the Dead are Still Breathing...
Bowden is the voice I seek
Bowden is the voice I seek on all the border issues!
Hooray for Bowden!
I agree with an earlier post that Charles Bowden deserves a Pulitzer. Straight talk about a dire situation that is terrorizing millions who simply want what's best for themselves, their families, their villages, and their nation.
eh, whats new? go to any 3ed
eh, whats new? go to any 3ed world country and you'll see something like this. also no surprise our government wont step in, the last thing we need is 3 Million Mexican refuges coming here because we move our army into Mexico.
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This is the best article
This is the best article I've seen on the real situation in Mexico. I don't know that there's much the US can do about the situation there. estetik ameliyatlar One thing is certain, US dollars are financing the violence in Mexico. Taking revenue away from the narco-cartels would be a good place to start. burun estetiği ameliyatları Legalizing marijuana and at least attempting drug treatment as an option for the hard stuff would be a good place to start.göğüs büyütme ameliyatları Mexico should be on the short list with Pakistan for potential failed states. It has a greater opportunity for repercussions as a neighbor. We need to take this seriously. göğüs estetiği
I had the opportunity to share this article with a fellow Chihuahuan, another journalist. He agreed wholeheartedly in the impunity with which the Mexican Army is acting, he has wrote a few notes on that himself. göğüs küçültme ameliyatları He also stated that Emilio has been, for many years, yet another corrupted journalist, with bonds with both the Judiciales and the Narcos of that area. karın germe estetiği
The account of the illegitimacy of president Calderon is another imprecision of this article. vajina estetiği Yes, he won by a narrow margin, and those in fiercely Perredista Mexico City felt plundered by the election results, which merely showed the divide between the urban Mexicans and those of us scattered in the large territory currently under both, military and narco siege... lazer epilasyon
In the northwestern region of Chihuahua, businessmen, ranchers, campesino leaders and other wealthy and prominent members of the community continue to be executed by armed commandos that roam the highways of the region. estetik cerrahi These armed groups appear to operate under the authority of the state or of the Armed Forces. meme dikleştirme Young women are kidnapped and raped by criminal gangs that seem to operate under official protection, but the local law enforcement authorities’ hands are tied by incompetence. jinekomasti Dozens of executions have taken place since we left this region of Mexico that we love so much. But these acts have been covered up by the Army. And by the silence and fear of those who remain behind.
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