NewsTaco

By Louis Nevaer, New America Media

MEXICO CITY – Mexican youths living in border cities from Tijuana to Ciudad Juarez are reclaiming civil society via cultural movements emerging on the heels of a six year, government-led “War on Drugs” that has left many Mexican border communities ravaged by violence.

The new wave of border music

In Ciudad Juarez, Mexico’s deadliest city, where the drug war has been exacerbated by a well documented (and still unsolved) wave of violence directed against women, a growing number of young people are using music as a platform to raise their voice against the culture of violence, fear and apparent impunity enjoyed by the drug cartels and those shadowy criminals responsible for the wave of femicides.

Since 1993 more than 700 women have been murdered or sexually assaulted in Ciudad Juarez, just a few miles from the mild-mannered suburbs of El Paso, Texas. The violence has been well documented by, among others, Teresa Rodriguez, a Univision reporter whose 2008 book, The Daughters of Juarez, gave voice to the city’s many women who live in daily fear.

The new music being fashioned by young people on the border – the genre has come to be known as “Nueva Ola Fronteriza” (new border wave) — stands in sharp contrast, both lyrically and sonically, to “Narco Corridos” (drug ballads), a genre of music that glamorizes the exploits of the drug cartels. Those ballads, which spin tales of drug lords such as Ciudad Juarez’s Amado Carrillo Fuentes (known as the Lord of the Skies) and Tijuana’s Arellano-Felix brothers, who controlled the drug routes between Tijuana and San Diego, are now held in disdain by many Mexican youth. Their attitudes are perhaps best summed up by a popular Youtube video depicting young people ridiculing legendary narco-corrido groups such as Los Tigres del Norte as “so last decade.”

In Ciudad Juarez, the popularity of Nueva Ola Fronteriza music is clearly gaining acceptance, even to the point of becoming mainstream. One band, Maldita Vecindad (Damned Neighborhood, roughly translated) is so popular that it has garnered major corporate sponsorships, including from Corona beer. Another local band, Pajaros Sin Alas (Birds Without Wings) eschews the style and narrative of the Narco Corrido groups by creating music with a modern electronic beat and lyrics that speak not of drug deals gone bad, but of Zen and peace. Yet another popular group, Caifanes, has hundreds of thousands of fans and plays to sold-out stadiums. And quiet arguably it is Diego Antillon, of the group Airek, who best exemplifies the impulse of Nueva Ola Fronteriza to forego words altogether – consider their song “Magic” — in favor of a more evocative and less literal approach to the music.

While the Nueva Ola Fronteriza movement surges along the Mexican side of the border, less certain is whether the new music, and the message it contains, will resonate in the U.S. southwest, where Narco Corridos have been wildly popular for more than a decade. In 2004, just a short time after Narco Corridos had crossed over to a U.S. audience, the BBC reported that: “In the U.S. the market for Mexican regional music, including narco corridos, is worth about $300 million a year, with Los Angeles being the hub of the narco corrido industry. Los Tigres’ most recent album sold nearly 500,000 copies in the U.S. alone.”

But the Narco Corrido craze is ancient history to today’s youth – they were in diapers when Los Tigres del Norte first made a splash in the impoverished barrios of East L.A. — who are filling stadiums across northern Mexico, and whose music is redefining the cultural scene in Ciudad Juarez.

Meanwhile, a different cultural movement is afoot to reclaim public spaces for visual and culinary art that is changing the way people think about Tijuana, another Mexican border town deeply scarred by cartel violence.

Tijuana’s mean streets, re-imagined

All it took was The New Yorker magazine praising Javier Plascencia, chef and owner of Tijuana’sMision 19 restaurant in January, 2012, to shift all eyes to the famed Baja California border city as a hot spot of culinary innovation. “Unlike other Mexican states, whose food traditions go back hundreds of years and are rigidly codified, Baja has no established regional cuisine,” wrote Dana Goodyear. “Plascencia’s mission is to… turn Tijuana into a site of gourmet pilgrimage. Given the city’s recent history, this is a particularly challenging task. Mexico is regarded as the world’s kidnapping capital and even though conditions have improved, the popular perception of Tijuana as unsafe remains.” As a result of Goodyear’s review, well-heeled San Diegans are now prepared to wait weeks for a reservation and trek to Tijuana to have Plascencia prepare them dinner.

Since then, Tijuana has been singled out and praised in various media outlets for the revival of its murals, the renovation of its public spaces, for going green by planting thousands of new trees, and even for inspiring a signature “look” for tattoos.

Reporter Jill Holslin praised ”the new, hip Tijuana” in the pages of At The Edges, heralding the revival of two public spaces – Pasaje Gomez and Plaza Madero — that until recently had been virtually abandoned out of fear of violence. Both places now attract middle class Mexicans — and Californians — who appear as relaxed, easy-going citizens enjoying afternoons of leisure, without a care in the world.

The result of the recent changes is electrifying, and exemplifies the resilience of Mexican border communities that have for so long been terrorized by violence. The reality of Tijuana’s recent triumphs sits in contrast to the hysterical portrayal of Tijuana in last year’s film by Oliver Stone,Savages.

There’s a saying for this in Spanish, of course: “No hay mal que cien años dure,” meaning, “There is no evil that will last a hundred years.”

A generation of young Mexicans living along the border is proving that proverb right.

This article was first published in New America Media.

[Photo (above): Mexican music group, Pajaros Sin Alas. Image from www.89decibeles.com]

By Sam Quiñones, A Reporter’s Blog

Years ago, I had a run-in with drug-smuggling Mennonites in the area around Cuauhtemoc, Chihuahua in Mexico, and wrote about it, and the decay of traditional Mennonite communities there, in my second book, Antonio’s Gun and Delfino’s Dream.

A recent narcotics arrest in Canada is about that as well. The Mexican Old Colony Mennonites have been working with drug cartels, and been major importers of marijuana and cocaine to Canada and the U.S. themselves, for years.

They began in the late 1970s, early 1980s, and were able to use their ingenuity as mechanics and welders to fashion new hiding places for drugs in trucks and cars.

For my book, I found that the largest drug bust in the history of the state of Oklahoma up to that time was a Mennonite ring run out Cuauhtemoc. The main informant, now presumed dead, was himself Mennonite.

Used to be a Mennonite family crossing into El Paso would be waved through Customs. Now they get the full treatment — drug dogs, mirrors under the car, etc.

One man I spoke with said a common way to smuggle drugs was to strap them around a senile grandmother, wearing a long dress and a traditional bonnet and looking for all the world like a peasant for the 1800s.

This photo here is from an AA meeting I attended for Mennonites in the communities near Cuauhtemoc.

This article was first published in A Reporter’s Blog.

Sam Quiñones has been a working reporter for 25 years, including 10 years in Mexico as a freelance writer. He is the author of  two books, and many stories about immigrants, gangs, drug trafficking and more.

[Photo by Sam Quiñones]

By Sam Quiñones, A Reporter’s Blog

I guess it was only a matter of time, but …Nazario Moreno, deceased leader of La Familia Michoacana, the narco-Catholic drug cartel now finding itself on hard times due to his death and that of others in the structure, has apparently been “canonized” as a folk saint.

Folk saints are nothing new to Mexico. Juan Soldado is the unofficial patron saint of migrants. Toribio Romo, a priest from Jalisco, holds a similar position. Jesus Malverde, who likely never lived at all, began as patron saint of the poor mountain folks in Sinaloa who became, in turn, the drug traffickers who made the state famous and turned Malverde into the patron saint of narcos.

Michoacan has also been fertile ground for strange religious movements — witness the community of New Jerusalem under excommunicated Padre Nabor in another part of the Tierra Caliente. (I wrote about New Jerusalem and Malverde in my first book, True Tales from Another Mexico.

Moreno, though, was particularly bloodthirsty, and considered a messiah by his followers. One of his nicknames was “El Mas Loco” — The Craziest One. Who knows? Maybe in Apatzingan, Michoacan — an area known for violence, heat, and dope — that’ll be what recommends him to the faithful.

This article was first published in A Reporter’s Blog.

Sam Quiñones has been a working reporter for 25 years, including 10 years in Mexico as a freelance writer. He is the author of  two books, and many stories about immigrants, gangs, drug trafficking and more.

[Photo by Sam Quiñonez]

Monday, June 4, 2012

Cuomo Seeks Cut in Frisk Arrests (The New York Times): “From 2002 to 2011, New York City recorded 400,000 low-level marijuana arrests, according to his analysis. That represented more arrests than under Mr. Bloomberg’s three predecessors put together — a period of 24 years. Most of those arrested have been young black and Hispanic men, and most had no prior criminal convictions.”

For Ted Cruz and David Dewhurst, language roles reversed (Univision News): In the race for the Republican nomination for the Texas Senate, Texas Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst says he will debate challenger Ted Cruz, but only if one of them is in Spanish. Cruz, a second-generation Cuban-American and longtime Texan, admits he speaks more Spanglish than Spanish. The Houston Chronicle also adds some extra background.

Sinaloa cartel, Zetas push Mexico’s drug violence to new depths (Los Angeles Times): “Though clearly always under the sway of the Sinaloa cartel, with inexplicably ostentatious wealth, brisk Hummer sales and opulent mansions, most of Sinaloa state had remained relatively peaceful during the first years of the drug war — precisely because one group was in control and unchallenged.”

Mexico blanks Brazil 2-0 (Fort Worth Star-Telegram): I’m posting this story of El Tri’s victory mainly for the photos. Nothing like having 85K fans cheering for futbol inside of JerryWorld.

10 Hispanic powerbrokers who are making Las Vegas better (Las Vegas Sun): “The growth of the demographic has translated into more Latino business ownership. Hispanics own 8 percent of (Nevada’s) companies, and their 18,000 businesses generate $3.2 billion in sales and receipts. They employ tens of thousands of workers.”

Elite Mexican “Los Diablos” team crosses border to battle fires (WFAA): A story about 32 men who work in both Mexico and the U.S. to fight fires. They go where others can’t. Two notes about the story:

• Notice the sentence about their work visas. I can only imagine the comments had that not been noted.
• Also, you might be wondering like I did about why there were no interviews with the firefighters. The sad reason why: “But these firefighters who fearlessly put their lives on the line were concerned about being singled out in interviews. They worried the spotlight would make them targets back home along the border in Mexico, where extortion is a problem for anyone perceived to earn a good living.”

Colombians march in honour of Bogota rape victim (BBC News): More than 6,000 people marched on Sunday to honor the memory of Rosa Elvira Cery, a single mother who was raped last month and later succumbed to her injuries. “Her story has led to an outcry in Colombia, where more than 51,000 women were victims of violence last year.” More info (in Spanish) on the case from El Tiempo.

Fans say goodbye to boxer Johnny Tapia (Albuquerque Journal): I became a Johnny Tapia fan later in his career, so while I missed some of his best fights, he was still sharp and charismatic enough to make me a fan. He certainly battled his demons. And who knows how much further his career could have gone without the drugs and violence?  But he meant a lot to the city of Albuquerque. That’s evident not only by the near-7,000 in attendance at his memorial service, but check out the placement (while you can) the story received on the Journal’s front page. If you want another great Tapia obit, check out Deadspin’s. “In his life he was 4-1 against death and that is really something too.”

Why Spain’s in much worse shape than Florida (The Washington Post): “In the 2000s, both Florida and Spain had large, unsustainable housing bubbles that eventually popped. Since then, however, Florida has largely stabilized. Spain, by contrast, is still reeling from 25 percent unemployment, and its woes are threatening to rip apart the euro. “

(Editor’s note: We republish this article, almost a year to the day after it was first published; first in remembrance of a U.S. veteran, and secondly so that the incident is not forgotten. There has been no movement on the case – that we know of – in the last twelve months.)

By Sara Inés Calderón

An Arizona SWAT team shot 26 year-old José Guerena, 26, 71 times, wounding him about 60, as they executed a search warrant on his home. The former Marine who served two tours in Iraq was killed when he saw men with guns advancing on his home. Police accidentally shot a gun; the resulting confusion lead to Guerena bleeding out and dying in his own home. Police refused to allow medical personnel in to help save his life. The Daily Mail reported:

An ambulance reportedly arrived in a few minutes, but medical personnel were not allowed inside to see Mr Guerena for an hour and 14 minutes, the family’s attorney, Chris Scileppi, told ABC News affiliate KGUN.

Police involved in the Tucson SWAT raid in the neighborhood, three other homes fell under the warrant, apparently did not identify themselves to anyone inside the home. The result is that Guerena, who managed to avoid being killed in Iraq, was killed in his own home after coming home from a 12-hour shift in a mine. The Arizona Daily Star reported:

Guerena’s role in the narcotics investigation is unclear and deputies would not comment on what was seized from his home…

Vanessa Guerena says she heard noise outside their home about 9 a.m. Thursday and woke her husband who had just gone to bed after working a 12-hour shift at the Asarco Mine, she said. There were no sirens or shouts of “police,” she said.

Guerena told his wife and son to hide inside a closet and he grabbed the AR-15 rifle, his wife said.

His wife insists there were no drugs in their home, and police have yet to prove otherwise. It gets even worse, as apparently the police were the ones who shot first, by accident:

Apparently one of the SWAT team’s deputies accidentally fired his gun, leading to confusion.

This is a pretty egregious case of police brutality and racial profiling, if you ask me. I can’t imagine the terror this poor woman and her son experienced, listening to her husband die, pleading for help, being ignored and treated like a criminal as he lay bleeding out on his own carpet.

[USMC Photo Via]

By Wuicho Vargas

Violence, I must admit, is taking over the southernmost part of Texas. Here in the Rio Grande Valley we have grown accustomed to it. Sad, but true, we seem to have turned numb to the horrible escalating violence. But who can blame us? We are border towns that have been in touch with violence since our creation — try to find a corrido about the border that has a happy ending.

About three weeks ago I was driving to my mom’s paletería, and as I reached the traffic light to turn left, I saw a tumult of stopped cars at the green light. When I got close to the cars, they slowly started to move forward, and there was a white hummer that quickly accelerated, going against traffic. At first I was afraid that this was going to turn ugly, just like in Monterrey, but then the Hummer turned its lights on, and I realized that it was an undercover cop car. I didn’t know that cops had Hummers. My fear evaporated.

The traffic began to disperse and I was able to turn. As I reached the other side of the freeway, I turned my head to the right and saw that there was a black Suburban surrounded by eight or nine cop cars and two white undercover cop hummers. Meanwhile a helicopter was hovering above them. That moment was too surreal that I wasn’t able to digest it until I got to my mom’s paletería.

Once I got there, I asked her if she had heard or knew what was going on one block away, to this she only answered with a “no.” But there were two ladies eating ice cream at a bench inside the place who asked me what was happening. I told them what I saw and their only response was that “it was probably el cartel.” That was it — no emotion — no feeling, but there was this horrible certainty and security that this was cartel stuff.

Later I found out that the drivers of the Suburban were two guys, one was 18 and the other 19, who had in their possession a whole arsenal. Bulletproof vests, grenades, and army exclusive ammo were found inside that suburban. They were taking the ammo to their hiding place, which was a couple of blocks up north, inside a trailer home. It came to light that they were committing kidnappings and robberies.

There has been talk about violence spilling over the border, we are a part of it here in the southern border, but I can’t totally agree with that. For me, these are just things that happened before, but since the frequency has increased, it is harder to keep it underground. We could blame it on the lack of journalism, or the fear and danger that accompanies these things, but there is also another side to things. There are interests that are jeopardized every time something like this comes out to the light, for example tourism and investors.

I just hope this violence does not get out of hand, and that our police and government figures we have roaming around the border keep it under control. There have been other instances when persecutions began in the city and end up at the river, and since that is Mexico’s business, the U.S. can’t do anything about it. This for me is ridiculous, since both nations want to preserve the welfare of their people; I don’t believe there should be a communication barrier when these things happen. Our systems of protection and security should be revaluated and the border should once and for all be a safer place.

Wuicho Vargas is a writer who lives in McAllen, Texas.

[Photo By vectorportal]

By Cindy Casares

This week marks the one-year anniversary of the mysterious murder of ICE Special Agent Jaime Zapata, a Brownsville native, who was gunned down on a stretch of highway in central Mexico on February 15, 2011. He was allegedly killed by members of Los Zetas drug cartel in a case of mistaken identity. The federal government has yet to make public key details about the case, like why Zapata and his partner Victor Avila of El Paso were sent alone down a notorious stretch of highway known for gang activity when they could have flown or traveled with an armed escort of Mexican military or police. (Avila was shot, but not killed in the ensuing ambush.) Because grand jury testimony in the case against suspected Zeta member Julian Zapata Espinoza was “accidentally taped over” by a court reporter, we may never know the truth.

At a hearing before the House’s Homeland Security Committee this week, Rep. Michael McCaul, (R-Austin), grilled Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano over rumors that Jaime Zapata may have been killed with weapons that entered Mexico through the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ botched gun- walking Operation Fast & Furious. The unauthorized operation was responsible for hundreds of guns making their way across the border into Mexico with at least one weapon being found at the murder scene of slain U.S. Border Patrolman Brian Terry in Arizona.

“Madame Secretary, there’s been some speculation that the weapons used to kill Agent Zapata may have been linked to the Operation Fast & Furious. Do you have any information that would indicate there’s a connection there?” McCaul asked.

“I have no information to that effect, no. I don’t know one way or the other,” Napolitano said before eventually becoming annoyed that what was supposed to be a hearing on President Obama’s 2013 proposed budget for the Department of Homeland Security had been hijacked by McCaul to find out more about Fast & Furious and its possible connection to Zapata’s death.

Napolitano placed the responsibility for any and all information regarding the Fast & Furious case squarely on the ATF, later telling U.S Rep. Patrick Meehan (R-Pa.) that she has not even spoken to Attorney General Eric Holder about it despite the fact that it’s been designated an interagency case. She is also unaware, she says, to what extent her ICE agents were informed of Operation Fast & Furious or to what extent they’ve participated in the ensuing investigation.

Meanwhile, at a church in Brownsville, Texas, Mary Zapata-Muñoz and her husband, Amador Zapata Jr., were no closer to an answer about why their 32-year-old son was killed.

“If we had known the situation, we wouldn’t have let him go,” Amador Zapata said in an interview with The Brownsville Herald. As the Zapatas crossed themselves at a mass to mark the anniversary of their son’s death, ICE Director John Morton and more than 30 uniformed officers from the Department of Homeland Security and Border Patrol along with top officials from all levels of government sat in the pews.

“I have nightmares of his last moments, what it must have been like. Being in a foreign country, not to hurt anybody. He must have thought ‘what’s going on?’ ‘What are these people doing?’ How did they take his life? Can you imagine what it must have been like? What he must have gone through?” Zapata-Muñoz said.

Zapata’s mother, who has spoken before of her fears that a cover up could be underway, repeated her resolve this week to ensure that everyone responsible for her son’s death is brought to justice. Then she recited an adage about how the person giving the order is as responsible as the one executing it.

It remains to be seen, however, if the person who gave these orders will pay.

[Photo by D.C.Atty]

By Melissa del Bosque

News Wednesday evening that U.S. military officials had arrived in Matamoros went viral over Twitter and other social media sites along the Mexican border and by Thursday morning Mexicans were talking of an U.S. invasion.

Video footage filmed by Univision’s Brownsville affiliate, KNVO-TV 48, showed a convoy of Mexican military trucks escorting armored SUVs through the streets of Matamoros in the early morning hours. An U.S. Customs and Border Protection helicopter hovered overhead as the convoy sped through downtown Matamoros.

The city of Matamoros has been under siege since 2010 when the Zeta Cartel officially declared war with its former ally the Gulf Cartel, which has long controlled the smuggling territory from Matamoros to Reynosa.

Was this meeting of U.S. and Mexican military officials a new twist in the increasingly disastrous and bloody drug war, which has already killed upwards of 50,000 people?

With the 2012 elections nearing and Mexico’s drug war worsening, U.S. politicians have been advocating for a deeper involvement in Mexico’s military campaign. Republican candidates like Rick Perry have advocated for a military intervention in Mexico. Congressional Republicans such as Texas’ Mike McCaul and Florida’s Connie Mack have been lobbying heavily to label narcotraffickers as “narco-terrorists.” Congressman Mack filed a bill in November, HR 3401 called the Enhanced Border Security Act that would replace Plan Merida with, according to the bill’s summary, “counterinsurgency tactics under a coordinated and targeted strategy to combat the terrorist insurgency in Mexico waged by transnational criminal organizations…”

In September, Texas Agriculture Commissioner Todd Staples released a report written by retired U.S. generals Barry McCaffery and Robert Scales that called for a military intervention on the border. The “military assessment” refers to drug cartel operatives as “narco-terrorists” and U.S. border counties are referred to as the “sanitary tactical zone” where military operations can push back the “narco-terrorists.”

Local law enforcement agencies along the U.S. border are bulking up with military grade weaponry. DPS recently purchased six armored gun boats. The boats cost $580,000 a pop. Each boat has six mounted machine guns. They look like they should be hunting Somali pirates in the Suez Canal. And don’t forget the drones that the U.S. military is flying over Mexico.

Thursday morning I called Col. Wayne Shanks, Chief of Public Affairs with U.S. Army Northern Command in San Antonio. Shanks said three U.S. military officers and approximately nine U.S. Customs and Border Protection Officials attended the meeting Wednesday at the Mexican Army base in Matamoros.

Shanks said meetings like the one in Matamoros are not new but an ongoing effort to coordinate with Mexico.

“It’s a fairly regular occurrence on both sides of the border,” Shanks said. “What was new was that CBP (Customs and Border Protection) came along.”

Shanks said it was a “coordination meeting to discuss topics of interest between the two parties.” He said he had no further details of the subject matter of the meeting. But he did say that Army North has had 60 meetings in the last year with Mexican military officials. Shanks said even more meetings are scheduled for 2012.

He added that the U.S. military and law enforcement officials were unarmed. “It is up to the host country to provide the security,” he said.

By the looks of the heavily armed convoy of Mexican Army humvees and armored SUVs, Mexico wasn’t taking any chances with its invited guests. Neither was the United States, with a Dept. of Homeland Security helicopter flying overhead in Mexican airspace.

With the security situation worsening in Mexico, Army North seems to be taking a stronger interest in our neighbor to the south. In 2012, U.S. Gen. William Caldwell will take over command of Army North in San Antonio. He’s spent the last two years training Afghan security forces. Caldwell is relatively young and very well respected inside and outside the Beltway.

It doesn’t seem logical that the U.S. Army would send Caldwell to San Antonio unless they had an important operation for him to command. Northern Command has already been tasked with training Mexican security forces for the past three years. With Caldwell in charge the question is will U.S. Northcom ramp up its efforts in Mexico? Anybody vaguely familiar with U.S.-Mexico relations knows that no Mexican politician who wants to win an election would ever allow armed and uniformed U.S. soldiers onto Mexican territory. But how far will they allow U.S. officials to operate covertly?

Mexico’s security crisis is serious. Local police have long colluded with drug cartels, as have some members of the federal police and the Mexican Army. In many border cities like Matamoros, local police have long worked as enforcers for the cartel.

But what’s ailing Mexico is endemic corruption wrought from 71 years of rule under the PRI party – the so-called ‘perfect dictatorship.’ Calderon’s militarization of Mexico has been a disaster. Reports show that soldiers unleashed in Mexican cities have tortured and murdered civilians. Mexico doesn’t need more soldiers; it needs an army of honest judges who will try cases and honest police who will conduct investigations that lead to arrests. And it needs political leaders who don’t collude with drug dealers.

With U.S. Predator drones flying overhead, the recent assignment of the U.S.’ former Deputy Ambassador of Afghanistan to Mexico City and General Caldwell to San Antonio, Mexicans have a right to wonder: what’s the next chapter in Mexico’s drug war? Does the War on Drugs become a counterinsurgency? Does it become Mexistan?

[Photo By james_gordon_los_angeles]

The basic story goes like this. One of the members of the hackers group Anonymous became mixed up with the Mexico’s scary drug cartel, the Zetas (although this has come into question). Anonymous responded by making the threat to release the Zetas’ information publicly, called #OpCartel. The result is that there is some sort of vague threat set to take place tomorrow.

Here’s the breakdown from The Guardian:

The apparent climbdown by the group came as one security company, Stratfor, claimed that the cartel was hiring its own security experts to track the hackers down – which could have resulted in “abduction, injury and death” for anyone it traced.

Two hacker members of “Operation Cartel”, which said earlier this week that it would expose members of the murderous cartel, have now indicated that they are stopping their scheme to identify collaborators and members because they don’t want anyone to be killed as a result.

Stratfor had warned on 28 October that there could be disastrous results from the plan: “Loss of life will be a certain consequence if Anonymous releases the identities of individuals cooperating with cartels. The validity of the information Anonymous has threatened to reveal is uncertain, as it might not have been vetted. This could pose an indiscriminate danger to individuals mentioned in whatever Anonymous decides to release.”

A Stratfor expert also commented on the affair for CNN. Had you heard this story, what do you think will happen?

[Video By CNN; Photo By vectorportal]

Sometimes there’s a story that comes along that just blows your mind — this is one of those stories. Millions of dollars in marijuana was found bundled up with cilantro in Chicago yesterday. The Chicago Tribune reported:

About 7,000 pounds of marijuana worth an estimated $20 Million was confiscated today by police from a West Englewood warehouse, Chicago police officials said.

The marijuana was found bundled and hidden among pallets of cilantro im the warehouse in the 2100 block of West 74th Street, police said.

My time covering the border exposed me to stories of smuggled avocados, horses, drugs, money, meat and much more, but ruining perfectly good cilantro with marijuana just about takes the cake!

[Photo By qfamily]

There were a lot of stark contrasts this week on our weekly NewsTaco roundup.

For example, while we featured a piece by Salomón Baldenegro about Arizona’s racist stance on ethnic studies, a Texas college implemented the first ever totally online Mexican-American studies degree. While Alabama’s immigration law is resulting in students disappearing from its schools, a Texas non-profit is engaging its Latino students to great results. A recent report found widespread abuses by the Border Patrol, even as a few retired military men in Texas claim that militarizing the border is the only solution to what they fallaciously term a “war zone” in that area of the country.

So, I’m going to break it down for you really quickly here and then list my picks for your extensive perusal. Have a great Sunday!

Sara’s Top Pick:

• Steve Murdock: Educating Latinos Vital To Future Of U.S.

Culture:

A new report commissioned by Texas’ next wannabe Lieutenant Governor and current Agriculture Commissioner Todd Staples literally labels the border as a warzone. This, despite actual reality and statistics to the contrary.

Ultimately what this report represents is the theft of the daily reality lived by millions of people along the U.S.-Mexico border by partisan politicos who are invested not in the best interests of Texas, but in their own selfish ends. Making the border into a war zone is fodder not just for political campaigns, but for untold gobs of money to be used for “border security,” by say, retired military men and overzealous politicians?

The report, “Texas Border Security: A Strategic Military Assessment” is bogus for many reasons. First, why is a state-sponsored report that cost taxpayers $80,000 taking a militaristic point of view? Is this about public safety or employing two retired military men with connections? The report’s authors, retired Maj. Gen. Robert Scales and Gen. Barry McCaffrey, actually claim that their anecdotal evidence is more important than actual statistical proof (that comes from agencies like, say, the Texas Department of Public Safety) because, ”You don’t wait for the statistics to be rolled out.”

Among the fallacies in the report from The Austin American-Statesman:

…McCaffrey raised eyebrows when he spoke of “hundreds of people murdered on our side of the frontier,” a statistic that far exceeded the 22 killings between January 2010 and May 2011 identified by the Department of Public Safety as being related to drug cartels. When asked about the number, McCaffrey pointed to statements from a Brooks County rancher, who told reporters that hundreds of bodies had been found in the county in recent years.

Most of the bodies were those of illegal immigrants crossing the brush trying to avoid the U.S. Border Patrol checkpoint in Falfurrias and not victims of direct assaults, according to the Brooks County sheriff’s department.

That these fools made more for one fabricated report than some Texas families make in a year is laughable, but what’s tragic is that this is actually a state-sanctioned action. Half of the report is made up of “attachments” of other agencies’ documents and includes (predictably) untold numbers of military-style acronyms and scary-sounding phrases like, “ Mexico: Our Vulnerable Center of Gravity” (How does that even make sense?). Now, ignoring the fact that normal reports include appendices and references, as opposed to attachment and bibliographies, I’m going to venture to say that these guys are not who we need to be either investigating or prescribing policy for the State of Texas. The fact that the state’s Agricultural Commissioner is sacrificing the dignity and actual pressing needs of millions of Texans to promote some sort of wacko fantasy of two retired military guys that they are going to help prevent war along the border.

And, as I mentioned earlier, the people hurt the most by this are ultimately border residents themselves, who may not be living in the midst of a drug-fueled war zone, but are suffering from other tangible problems, such as poverty, unemployment, lack of health care, under-funded schools and other less sexy, less military-like problems. It’s too bad that Staples and his buddies are too busy playing war games to notice that the closest thing to a war being played out on the border is the one between fantasy and reality.

[Photo By Semhur]

By Zach Gonzalez

Austin, Texas — The complexity of the issues both Mexico and the United States face in working together to come up with solutions to the drug war makes the situation for both nations very unique. How is it that we choose to address this complex issue? Do we take an optimistic stance, looking at what is happening and the opportunities that may arise or already in front of us? Do we let our emotions get in the way of how we view each other as neighbors? What about the impact this war on drugs has on our neighbors that live further down the street in Guatemala, El Salvador, and Panama?

Vice President of Intelligence of Stratfor Fred Burton, Mayor Raul G. Salinas of Laredo, and El Paso County Judge Veronica Escobar took a stab at discussing the different perceptions they held on the violence in Mexico on Sunday morning at the Texas Tribune Festival. Each of them agreed that this problem affects both the U.S. and Mexico but their ideas and solutions towards solving this reality that is affecting the border towns, families, and economies differed.

Escobar said the U.S.’s role needs to be to address this problem, “because it needs to find a way to create policy with our neighbor and trading partner.” She continued, “We need immigration reform. About 85% [of immigrants] are non-criminal folks essentially here because they are lured to the U.S. for a job.” She also advocated for working on “smarter initiatives,” giving the building of ports as an example.

Apart from her beliefs that we need to focus on building initiatives to improved economics around our borders, she also brought an emotionally, pessimistic view towards Mexican society. She stated, “If I get carjacked in Mexico, I don’t think I can trust the cops or authorities in Mexico to help me.” She even expressed that “the war on drugs for the U.S. is a failure.”

Fred Burton opened his discussion by talking about the importance geography plays in this issue. He explained it as an ultimate source of profiteering, which the cartels understand so well that they are beginning to utilize different regions of the world to expand. Burton said, “Atlanta and Los Angeles have fallen to the control of the Mexican Cartel networks.” Furthermore Burton notes about the cartel even moving further south in to Central America. “This is not just a Mexico problem anymore. This is a central and Latin America issue. We need to stop pointing the finger at Mexico.”

Burton further said how the FBI since 2001 has been focusing on counter-terrorism issues rather than on the issues that really deal with the complexities of the violence and drug war in both our countries. He said, “Texas is ground zero for this. Most of the drugs are flowing directly through Texas. As you get closer and closer to the border of Mexico, people [cartels] have more fights for geography.”

Laredo Mayor Raul G. Salinas brought in an aura of optimism in addressing these issues. “We have to show Mexico that we are partners. This is going to affect Mexico and the United States and even job creation. Those trucks coming across every day are jobs for the United States!” After the discussion we spoke to Salinas, as well as Escobar.

Interview with Laredo Mayor Raul G. Salinas

NewsTaco: What are your solutions as leaders that have already agreed that we needed to work with Mexico to solve this issue?

Salinas: I think you have to use good role models. We have a Latina Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor that came from humble beginnings, got a education and made it too the highest court. We need to communicate what good they can accomplish but also show the dangers that exist on the other side.

NewsTaco: When discussing the children population, how do we prevent our kids from even falling in the trap of the cartel? On both sides of the border?

Salinas: We just have to tell them that’s not the way to do it, and that we need to be better role models for them as parents so that they don’t fall in to that trap.

NewsTaco: How we can inspire the youth of border communities on both sides to not look to cartel activity as a legitimate avenue of income?

Salinas: It doesn’t matter you are from; we are enriched with two cultures. And as Latinos who live on the borders, we cherish our mothers and I always tell kids to not do anything to embarrass their family name.

Interview with El Paso County Judge Veronica Escobar

NewsTaco: What is your personal policy prescription regarding the violence in Mexico?

Escobar: I have been advocating for comprehensive immigration reform since my time in grad school. Without reform, we face a diminished resource pool to tackle the violence. We make strategic choices with funding that are not very wise. For example when we use personnel to apprehend economic migrants instead of criminals. I also believe we need more investment into our ports instead of building walls.

NewsTaco: What then should we value moving forward in the debate?

Escobar: We need to value honesty. The rhetoric recently has portrayed border communities negatively, as opposed to places of opportunity. Everyone across the state should care about a healthy border because it affects the economy.

NewsTaco: And so how do we shift that mentality?

Escobar: We do that by talking about it. I try to redefine the border whenever I speak. It has to be framed that what success for us is success for the state and nation.

[Photo By Noddy]