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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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

Your Saturday RSS Feed – 07 July 2007

Friday, July 6th, 2007

EL PASO FBI CORRUPTION CASE UPDATE:
County Commissioner Dan Haggerty ponders the meaning of his existence and how said existence may have triggered the ongoing investigation. Haggerty recalls his contacts with the FBI back in the day, which seemingly started out as chit-chat sessions initiated by the FBI. Yeah, the FBI routinely calls up politicos to chit-chat because, you know, that’s how they like to spend taxpayers’ money. I wonder if any politician is so naive anymore and, after wondering, I doubt it.

Frank Apodaca, president and CEO of Access HealthSource Inc., got put on paid leave, likely due to the ongoing investigation. The parent company of Access HealthSource, Inc., Access Plans USA is reportedly conducting its own independent investigation.

Newspaper Tree notes that business goes on as usual inside the El Paso County Courthouse. NT seems like a decent enough online rag but, honestly, “spending the morning walking the halls and riding the elevators of the courthouse” isn’t exactly working towards establishing one’s superior journalistic bona fides.

Newspaper Tree also reports on the government’s attempt to disqualify El Paso attorney Mary Stillinger from representing three clients related to the ongoing corruption case.

Keeping the story hot, I guess, El Paso Times reports that County Commissioner Miguel TerÃ¡n will not resign. Because, you know, he’s not been charged or convicted of anything. OK.

CONTENTION IN EL PASO NOT ALL RELATED TO THE FBI CORRUPTION CASE: On 03 July, a Border Patrol agent was investigating a report of illegal migrants in the vicinity of Hill and Ninth Streets. Something happened down a manhole and the BP agent fired in self-defense, wounding one. The contention is the result of the involvement of the Border Network for Human Rights, a leftist group with an office down at 1101 E. Yandell in El Paso. A few first- and second-hand accounts by Barrio Segundo residents make an El Paso Times article, with Louie Gilot’s byline. To his credit, Gilot notes the number of attacks on BP agents in the area this year: 59. Generally, according to their website, Border Network for Human Rights agitates for “basic human rights” — which sounds good to college kids — like legalization, healthy communities and human mobility. But BNHR doesn’t talk about who funds the bill. Right now the bill is paid by Americans. BNHR does not agitate for reduced attacks on Border Patrol agents, for the fiscal responsibility of educating Mexican kids in El Paso public schools by the citizens of Juarez, for equal access to Juarez schools and health care by El Pasoans, or for that matter, the right to drive around Juarez shopping without fear of murder, kidnap or robbery, as happens right across the border. I guess that’s a POE Bridge Too Far for BNHR, and it telegraphs its Leftist agenda. I’d watch my wallet if a BNHR Guevarista walked up to me.

MORE CONTENTION: Illegals are getting uppity with more than hapless Border Patrol “rocking” victims these days. Michelle Malkin links to Elvira Arellano’s announcement of a “campaign of resistance” against the US government. Who is Elvira Arellano? She’s a Mexican activist, an illegal, and a sanctuary seeker since she’s been hiding out in a church in Chicago for who knows how long. I’d think that a threat to “bring the government to a halt” warrants a raid of that church by any law enforcement entity whose members swear to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States.” Happy Fourth of July, Elvira “FOB” Arellano.

CHURCH LADY REPORTS: On a happier, errr, more sacreligious note, seems the Roman Cathloic Mass has gotten a bit more enlightened recently. What’s next, a smoking lamp, a Tiki statue and retro-cool Members Only jackets worn by parishoners?

SHE’S NOT GOING TO BE ELECTED ANYWAY: Hillary a felon? Say it ain’t so.

IN MEXICO: Was it a flying witch? Or merely a promo for the new Harry Potter movie?

ISLAMADMINISTRIVIA: A macho, woman-hating Muslim cleric tries to flee in a burka. He didn’t want to meet 72 virgins in Paradise, apparently: he wanted to be one. How fine it is to lay the smackdown on women in Islam, and then use their identity to escape justice. I’d ask BNHR about Muslim treatment of women, because I think Pakistan has borders, I’m sure I’d only hear crickets in response.

“OFFICER’S KID”: That was a slur among military kids back in the day, and maybe today, too. Military officers had the worst-behaved kids on any base or post, or so it seemed. It was a stereotype: the successful, well-paid, college-educated servicemember and his/her crap, sluggish, juvenile delinquent spawn. These days, I guess that stereotype transmogrifies nicely to politicians.

ABOUT THAT DINING OUT EXPERIENCE: Gotta love it. Not. Not when waiters and waitresses are morons. The most hit-or-miss part of a dining experience, besides whether you’re paying $50 for a burned filleted scallop with a stale chive on top because the chef is drunk, is the wait staff. They set the tone of the meal. Or don’t. They get tipped, or don’t, depending on your perception of how they perform. So there is Bitter Waitress, a site that argues for good tips for good service, and tells great tales along the way.

And then there’s this attitude. Rule #1: Never leave less than a 20% tip. It’s “tipping poorly” if you have a problem with anything, according to 86 Bad Tips. Including sluggish, forgetful, annoying, stumbling, snot-dripping, angry, failed, besotted wait staff. Well, I guess the red, black and yellow colors of the web page tip you to the militant attitude of its host.

Here’s another waiter blog.

And another.

Here’s an article that will make you end your dining-out experience and just cook at home.

LOL THIS: You’ve heard of LOL Cats. Now get ready for LOL terrorists. My entries are here.

Posted in Border Insecurity, Border Patrol, Border Security, Border Violence, CBP, Democrat, El Paso, FBI, Food, Juarez, Law Enforcement, Media, Mexico, MSM, Politics, Restaurants, Southwest Border, Terrorists | Comments Off

Video Game Defames Peaceful, Pretty Image of Juarez, Mexico, says Peacekeeping, Handsome Mayor

Sunday, March 18th, 2007

Hector Murguia, mayor of Juarez, Mexico, has condemned the new video game, “Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2,” because of its setting in Juarez. Murguia thinks the game promotes violence and instills values which are “upside down.” The game “attempts to divide the good will of the residents of American and Mexican cities,” he said.

Memo to the mayor: there isn’t that much good will between El Paso and Juarez. Americans, in particular Mexican-Americans and Mexican immigrants, don’t want any part of what Juarez is, except for keeping up family ties with relatives on the other side of the river. Murguia can sniff all he wants, but he presides over a remarkably inept, uncaring local government, riddled like Swiss cheese with corruption and violence. Once a decent destination for thousands of day-tripping American tourists and the occasional overnighter, Juarez is descended into a killing field where incorruptible cops, judges, attorneys and public servants are targeted by criminal groups or corrupted cops, judges, attorneys and public servants. Corrupted public officials attend BBQs on the ranches of local traffickers; they tip off cartel members of impending federal police raids; they extort businesses; they build themselves fancy homes in the few safe neighborhoods of the city, a la Aldrich Ames and well above what their incomes allow.

Figure on about five murders a week in Juarez, and that’s conservative. If the Juarez Cartel didn’t have the place well-locked down, imagine Nuevo Laredo times a thousand.

Hell, most Mexicans you see in El Paso are day-tripping tourists doing shopping, not illegal migrants heading to fields and factories. That’s because it’s cheaper to buy Mexican products in El Paso, not to mention luxuries like diapers, toiletries and appliances from China. Smart Chihuahuans put their money in Wells Fargo, and buy second homes here — for safety, security and the fact that they can smuggle their kids into good (by Mexican standards) education and health care system.

Tinted glass on the mayor’s company car must block his view of the “for lease” signs seen on office buildings all over town; of the numbers of native Indians selling chewing gum and bracelets at red lights; of the potholes; of the decaying infrastructure; of the lack of building code enforcement; of the drunkenness and random gunfire; of the slavery of Central American women in prostitution and factory work; of the corrupt public transport and taxicab industry; of the bodies discovered — nearly daily — in neighborhoods, victims of targeted assassinations and usually new (and often teenaged) members of drug gangs “given up” deliberately by traffickers in deals with local law enforcement. He doesn’t see the drowning victims in the Rio Grande; doesn’t look at the anti-gringo xenophobia that pervades border towns; and doesn’t worry about terrorists crossing the Southwest Border (or of the Government of Mexico’s stated intent to stop it) because they’re moving out of his turf.

They sell a T-shirt or two there. One says, “Souvenir of Juarez” and is a picture of an AK-47. The other is an international symbol-like graphic of a body being stuff into the trunk of a car underneath the word, “Juarez.” Now that’s entrepreneurship by somebody, but Hector ain’t complaining about that.

I can see a mod to the game already: a dam in Juarez is in danger of bursting and endangering thousands and thousands of residents who were allowed to build below it. The danger comes from a terrorist bomb. Or a 500-year flood. Take your pick, although the latter really happened last year.

UPDATE: Luis Carrasco of the El Paso Times takes the right approach to Hizonner and video games.

Posted in Juarez, Mexico | Comments Off

Not the Bordertown I Know

Saturday, February 17th, 2007

In the movie Bordertown, Jennifer Lopez is cast as the intrepid reporter covering the infamous killings of women in Juarez.

“It wants to be a thriller, a piece of investigative journalism, a political soapbox and a vehicle for Jennifer Lopez,” intrepid reviewer Kirk Honeycutt writes for Hollywood Reporter.

Sounds like the newsroom at The El Paso Times.

Naturally, Amnesty International has pinned a Valentine rose on Lopez for her participation in this bomb. Seems you can do good, bad and ugly and AI will weigh in with its awesome, college-age denizens possessed of talent and dedication (until they graduate and spend their money on mortgages and diapers)

Artists for Amnesty, indeed. Amnesty from what — careers drooping faster than an aging singer’s famous curvy butt?

Don’t watch this film for any exploration of the Juarez killings.

Watch this one instead.

Bonus points: the apperance of Antonio Banderas, who never heard about a dumb movie about Mexico he wouldn’t cast for.