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Juarez Schools Under Violence Threat

Saturday, December 13th, 2008

The pressures exerted by the Government of Mexico take their toll on schoolchildren in Juarez.

Not much reporting on this, but it seems to have been going on for a few months.

It was the case in TJ that, when the Tijuana Cartel was being dismantled by government pressure and rival drug trafficking operations, that cartel members took to kidnappings-for-ransom and other “petty” crimes, in order to raise cash.

The Juarez school threats would seem to be a corollary. Perhaps the Juarez Cartel is under threat in the same way: by government pressure and rival drug trafficking organizations.

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Posted in Border Insecurity, Border Security, Border Violence, Chihuahua, Drugs, Juarez, Mexico, Smuggling, Southwest Border | Comments Off

Nothing Like Self-Promotion as the Best Promotion

Monday, December 1st, 2008

Diana Washington Valdez blogs about some writer named Diana Washington Valdez’ new book. The topic is intriguing, at least until the next book on Mexican drug traffickers is written and self log-rolled.

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Posted in Drugs, Media, Mexico, Smuggling | Comments Off

An Evening in Juarez: Rich Wright’s Story

Tuesday, November 25th, 2008

There’s a remarkable piece of journalism by Rich Wright titled, The Mask of Red Death.

It’s remarkable at once for two quick reasons: First, El Paso journalism doesn’t rise to many heights (see 4 Borders Pundit), and, second few El Paso journalists can write well (see 4 Borders Pundit). Wright, in less than 2000 words, describes (creates?) a competent metaphor for Mexico’s current troubles. His story takes place in a bar in Juarez. The metaphor incorporates economy, culture, crime, corruption and, a 4 Borders Pundit fave, booze. 4BP never met a bar in the 20-something countries he visited that he couldn’t find metaphors in.

This metaphor, however, is different. It’s different because it’s better than 4BP has written about.

To get it out the way, any crime-novel devotee, or wannabe gonzo journalist will be taken in by his opening sentence: “Thursday night I went to Juarez .” It’s a simple sentence, but unloads, like a shotgun blast, loads of cultural connotations for Southwest Border-aware locals living here in current times. And, much unlike a double-aught blast to the stomach, Wright’s story just gets better from the opening sentence.

What transpires during Wright’s visit is nothing short of a Catholic School-rhetoric miracle come to life. He finds two world-class musicians in a working-class bar. And then he records them. And then he puts the recording up on YouTube.

You can see it, and you should see it, here.

The video, I think, portrays Mexico better than all the gawking press, gringo gossip, and foreigner-manufactured realities could: Mexico remains a sophisticated, complex, corrupt, life-loving and optimistic land that outsiders would do better to know than to avoid. Mexico is one of the few places where concert-hall musicians would deign to play for beer-drunk locals.

To hell with 15-second sound bites from MSM. Watch the whole thing and see both a story and the future of reporting.

And after all, when is the last time two world-class musicians turned up in a shithole ghetto bar in Detroit or Houston?

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Posted in Juarez, Media, Mexico | Comments Off

BBC on Border Violence: Killings Up In Spite of Mexican Army

Sunday, August 17th, 2008

The BBC tried to weigh in on the increased violence in Mexico. They incorrectly implied one thing. In actuality, the surge in army deployments didn’t cause the upswing in killings; their deployment was a result of the upswing in killings.

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Posted in Aliens, Baja California, Border Violence, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Drugs, Juarez, Mexico, Nuevo Leon, Smuggling, Sonora, Southwest Border, Tamaulipas | Comments Off

El Paso: That City of Walls

Wednesday, April 30th, 2008

Check out this cartoon. Then check out the landscape of El Paso. The cartoonist is so taken with the horror of the planned border fence (whether real or virtual) that s/he doesn’t see the irony in their own back yard.

El Paso is littered with rock walls. Practically every home has a wall surrounding its back yard. Businesses are divided by them. Streets and schools enjoy the coolness of the shadows they provide. FBI agents lurk behind them, looking for the next bribe-taking local yokel politician stumbling toward a wad of cash.

Fact is, El Paso is the embodiment of the sentiment expressed in this cartoon: it seems people think that some problems in El Paso can apparently be solved by building rock walls everywhere.

If they don’t think that, then why do they build so many of them?

–Walls to keep out news of suicidally-drunk underage teenage drivers screaming down Country Club at three in the morning.

–Walls to keep us from seeing the legion of abused and neglected pets in our unthinking neighbors’ yards.

–Walls to keep us from viewing the latest TAKS scores from our next generation of geniuses (or bribe-takers).

–Walls to hide us from the view of white and African-American beggars at street-corners, selling candy and bullshit at Airway & Montana, Fred Wilson & 54, or Redd & North Desert.

–Walls to keep out the latest bad news of the antics of the Commissioners Court.

And one more thing. The author of the article, listed as a Professor Emeritus at Sul Ross, should go back to school. His analogy to the Berlin Wall misses on a main point: it was East Germany that erected that wall, not West Germany. To bring his fantasy to reality, then, it would be Mexico building the wall on the Southwest Border, not the United States.

Well, “emeritus” means “retired” in academic circles, and for that, we can come out from around our own wall, and be thankful.

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Posted in Border Insecurity, Border Security, El Paso, El Paso Politics, Environment, Humor, Mexico, Migration, Politics, Satire, Southwest Border | Comments Off

ASARCO’s Ad Campaign… and our First Response

Monday, February 18th, 2008

So ASARCO got their air quality permit, thanks to the State of Taxes Texas.

An air quality permit is not the same as a politically-accurate permit asserting that the quality of air emitted by Texas bureaucrats is any finer than the sublime perfumes of the nearest stockyard.

It’s just a permit, and permits are permitted, by law and by the very nature of the word.

That’s the reality of how home-grown carpetbaggers roll in The Lone Stud State.

Thus, despite our potentially-choked lungs and could-be lead-laden watery eyes (or not), and surrounded by our devoted MS-afflicted offspring and our three-legged dogs, we are pushing through with a series of parodies. The first comes now, and why did ASARCO make it so easy for us?

Now here’s a world-class ASARCO original ™ ad, suitable for parody naked adulation. Note the dramatic effect of black-and-white postering, which is not to say it’s fascist in design, as there are no red spot color calls that would complete the Teutonic Triumvirate of black-white-red (often used by Nazis, South American political parties, Chicano farm workers movements and beret-wearing, scooter-riding, grandma-killing commie Guevaristas (which is the same as at least one Obama campaign worker). The designer could have just had a bad day. What with the bankruptcy and uncertainty over pay stubs, it’s possible ASARCO had to cull the bottom of the advertisorial barrel for a graphic artist who would work in exchange for stock futures. Which is not to say the Artist was a punk, except s/he could have been just a tad desperate. Or s/he could have been a corporate wonk alarmingly left alone with PowerPoint of a frantic afternoon, with a 5 p.m. deadline to fax ad thumbnails to Guadalupe or Rio de Right Wing, Argentina, or Hull, or Kosovo, or wherever ASARCO decides its off-shore corporate HQ is this week. (Click for full-sized badness):

And here’s our new ad, built during an all-nighter in between coughing jags, blood tests for lead poisoning at the ER, and furious phone consultations with both lead poisoning specialists at the Mayo Clinic and alcohol-poisoning specialists at Acetunas (click for full-sized goodness and click again for print-sized wonderfulness, if your so-called Internet browser supports that):

Later on, once we’ve exhausted all medical approaches to our health issues as well as creative approaches to parodying ASARCO, we’re going to explore other reasons for Mayor Crook’s Cook’s opposition to the re-opening of ASARCO. Can anyone say “land grab?”

Can anyone say, “FBI El Paso Corruption Investigation?” We knew you could.

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Posted in ASARCO, El Paso, El Paso Politics, Environment, Humor, Juarez, New Mexico, Parody, Politics, Texas | Comments Off

Psst. It’s Called “Co-Optation,” and Mexican Lawmakers Want to Introduce It to the U.S.

Tuesday, January 22nd, 2008

Sonora state legislators have complained about Arizona’s new employer sanctions law, which punishes those who hire illegal aliens.

By doing so, they hope to co-opt existing American cultural systems, laws and norms to suit their needs.

After all, it beats having the intellect, moral strength and political acumen to deal with their self-made failures. Evolutionary biology explains all, in this case.

Hat Tip: Stop the ACLU.

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Posted in Border Security, Law Enforcement, Mexico, Migration, Sonora, Southwest Border | Comments Off

Border Invaded Again and Again? Say It Ain’t So!

Saturday, January 12th, 2008

Michelle Malkin notes a recent recent Judicial Watch FOIA request on the number of Mexican military and police incursions into the US.

Noted. Still, it’s a fact that Mexican organized criminal enterprises routinely adopt the uniforms, weapons and vehicles of federal, state and local enforcement entities (including the Mexican military, which has an internal security role and targets drug traffickers). I doubt all of these incursions were by military or law enforcement members. The notorious Hudspeth County, TX, incident in 2006, which was widely reported, was likely such a situation, as corrupt Mexican soldiers are really a bit more sophisticated (yes, sophisticated) and wouldn’t so easily allow themselves to be so exposed. Some other incursions were by mistake — losing one’s bearings happens more than you might think along remote parts of the Southwest Border, and US law enforcement entities have done it as well (though certainly not as often as Mexican LE). The rest of the incursions? That’s the problem not sufficiently addressed by either the US or the government of Mexico.

Here’s the incursion report, courtesy of Judicial Watch.

Malkin notes that this candidate has a lot to say on immigration, little of it good or, well, even consistent. You might say it’s enough to make you cry. And that guacamole reference? Please, patronize Latinos some more, will ya?

One Malkin commenter argues for the use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) to patrol the border. That’s a slow interagency process, held up by the public servants at the FAA. If Katrina can’t make the FAA move faster, what makes you think a little thing like national sovereignty will?

Border security is serious business, and government policies on immigration are complex, convoluted and sometimes out-of-date (think citizenship by birth), which is why this satire, and this one, hit home.

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Posted in Aliens, Border Insecurity, Mexico, Migration, Smuggling, Southwest Border | Comments Off

Drug Smuggler Aldrete-Davila Takes it in the Hiney Again

Friday, November 23rd, 2007

Remember Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila, the drug smuggler who was paid by the U.S. to help convict USBP agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean for shooting him in the ass when he was smuggling marijuana into the US in 2005?

He’s about as dumb as we thought he was back then.

El Paso Times notes his tearful family letting that Aldrete crossed into the US because he thought he was getting more money from the feds — for Christmas gifts.

You can’t make this stuff up. One hundred and twenty-nine other dummies just got rounded up in El Paso in the same way. High IQ is not highly-regarded among the criminal set along the border.

Aldrete, who lives in Juarez, from where he gazed lovingly at the William Beaumont Army Hospital in El Paso where he received ace medical attention, had said he’d never cross back into the US — with or without a load of dope, presumably.

I expect Aldrete will have a lot more worries about his backside in prison than the bullet lodged there a couple of years ago. While Ramos and Compean have suffered from inmates’ abuse, this celebrity trafficker will be (in)famous enough to learn about new ways to make his butt-ocks hurt. They really ought to get TVs out of prisons.

Patterico links to the news, and Johnny Sutton’s name turns up in the comments, like a chow chip under your boot.

Diggers Realm has more.

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Posted in Border Insecurity, Border Patrol, CBP, DEA, Drugs, Juarez, Law Enforcement, Smuggling | Comments Off

11 August 2007: Your Weekend RSS Update

Saturday, August 11th, 2007

Here we are with another roundup of items of interest, guaranteed to feed your RSS reader like a Porterhouse down the gullet of a high-heeled cowboy boot wearing bribe-taker. No. Please stay. The references are only as dumb as they sound.

EL PASO FBI CORRUPTION CASE:
Lawyer Martie Jobe’s got issues. [Hat Tip: Newspaper Tree.]

Former First Southwest Company’s Hector Zavaleta Jr, may have been working for the G-Men, sez someone from out of state. Ermm, OK. Next.

Did not know until last week that the El Paso Times has a players list and timelines of events in the corruption case. You can find it here.

From the Department of Non-story Departments, Ramon Bracamontes of the El Paso Times tells us that speculation and rumors abound at the El Paso County Courthouse after the May FBI raid. What — civil servants engaged in speculation and rumor, possibly on company time? Say it ain’t so, Ramon! What’s next, goofing off, watching TV, surfing the Internet and updating resumes???

EL PASO’S SPINNING WHEELS OF JUSTICE: District Clerk Gilbert Sanchez says the wheels of justice are running off the rails over at the County Attorney’s Office. That assumes that justice on the Border had wheels to begin with.

ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT KILLED IN EL PASO: He’d not been shot at the 28 previous times he unlawfully entered the US. Bonus: The loopy Border Network for Human Rights appears.

USBP AGENT CHARGED WITH MURDER IN ARIZONA: County Judge takes action against the Feds over there.

WELL, DUH: A Mexican narco linked to Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila of shot-in-the-butt-ocks fame has pleaded guilty to operating a Davila drug stash house. Limp-a-long Davila, of course, gained fame and free Army medical care when he got plugged in an incident with USBP Agents Ramos and Compean, who were notorious for their selfless service to the Constitution. US Attorney Johnny Sutton remains involved up to his butt-ocks in this continuing border scandal, in particular trying to sort out whether Davila took a drug load through a Port-of-Entry while he enjoyed his federally-granted status as a quasi-US citizen.

SOME DAY MEXICAN COPS MAY SHOOT ILLEGAL MEXICANS IN THE US: Santa Fe will hire Mexican nationals as law enforcement officers. Based on what goes on in Mexico with cops, that won’t end well. On the other hand, if you’re feeling insecure about wandering around Santa Fe, you’ll be able to hire a cop off his beat for about sixty bucks as your armed guard, same as in Juarez.

UNFORTUNATE: An immigration attorney teaching at West Point mischaracterizes what servicemembers fight for. It’s not the government they defend, but rather the Constitution. [Hat Tip: Bender’s Immigration Bulletin.

ASARCO STINKS IN MORE WAYS THAN ONE: Asarco, the once-and-future smelting plant on the West Side of El Paso, has spent thousands on local radio ads proclaiming how its operation will create four hundred or so jobs for the three-quarter million El Pasoans to choose from. Perhaps one of those jobs will be tax attorney.

AND THERE’S MORE THAN ONE WAY TO POLLUTE EL PASO: Don’t sneak away from the campfire just yet, Tigua Indians. If you paid your taxes, the State of Texas might be more lenient about your desperate desire to fleece grasping Hispanics and Gringos at that casino you so badly want.

IS IT XXXXXX RESTAURANT FOR BRIBE-ISTA BETTI FLORES? Someone said it is a BBQ place in town. I don’t know, even though a waitress in one well-known place offered me all the free Mountain Dew I want for 25 cents. And an extra half-rack of ribs for just a dollar. I keed. But honestly, $10k for a vote? That’s chump change, even in a burg where the median income is something like a thousand pesos, or something.

GOOD FENCES MAKE GOOD NEIGHBORS: Except on the Southwest Border. El Paso Times ran an article on Border Patrol workers who repair vandalized or destroyed fence portions along the border. Can’t find it now, but a simple fact for politicians to ponder remains: It takes far more resources to maintain an initiative than it does to implement it. Starting up something just to win an elections means you might have to slog throught the boring side of politics to keep it going, especially if it’s a Bill, say, or a bridge that has your first and last name on it.

HANDS ACROSS THE BORDER FENCE: Opponents of a border fence announced sixteen days of protests. El Paso mayor John Cook is joining forces with 4 Borders Pundit’s favorite loopy locals, the Border Network for Human Rights, to protest, umm, something. None of the participating groups have offered any concrete solutions, methinks, because none of those mentioned in the article seem to have any kind of overarching, holistic expertise on the intricacies of border life, to say nothing of figuring out what to do with those irksome illegals who go after Border Patrol agents with bolt-cutters and get shot to death for it.

HOW TO KILL OFF RESTAURANTS: Govern them to death. Business and liberal-left politics don’t mesh well, which leads to, well, hungry dining-outers with a Bay Area attitude. I keep saying, the bottom line trumps naively optimistic tulips-and-May Day dancing, every time. The two are as incompatible as Western boots and stiletto heels.

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Posted in ASARCO, Border Insecurity, Border Violence, Democrat, El Paso, Environment, Juarez, Liberal, Migration, Politics, Southwest Border | Comments Off

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