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Mexico's interior minister and 13 others die in jet crash
International Herald Tribune ^ | Nov. 5,2008 | AP

Posted on 11/05/2008 9:21:55 AM PST by AuntB

MEXICO CITY: A plane crash that killed two top officials in the war against drug trafficking appears to be an accident, but foreign investigators have arrived in Mexico to rule out an attack by cartels....

The government Learjet 45 plowed into rush-hour traffic in a wealthy neighborhood of Mexico City late Tuesday, killing Interior Secretary Juan Camilo Mouriño, the former anti-drug prosecutor José Luis Santiago Vasconcelos and at least 11 others.......

The deaths are a major blow to President Felipe Calderón's already embattled government and its fight against drug trafficking.

Mouriño, 37, was Calderón's top cabinet minister, in charge of domestic politics and security. Vasconcelos was previously in charge of prosecuting and extraditing drug traffickers and had been the target of at least one assassination attempt in the past.

Téllez said the authorities had not found any indication that the 10-year-old aircraft exploded or caught fire while in flight. He said a mechanical failure may have caused the crash.

U.S. experts from the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board arrived Wednesday....

Many Mexicans immediately suspected sabotage caused the crash Tuesday, especially because drug traffickers have increasingly attacked officials involved in Calderón's battle with violent cartels.

Five top law enforcement officials have been detained as the authorities investigate possible links between their agency and a drug cartel, Mexico's attorney general said Tuesday.

One of those detained, Victor Gerardo Garay Cadeña, once the interim commissioner of the agency, the federal preventive police force, resigned Friday to face questioning over whether his subordinates had ties to the Zambada drug cartel.

Last week, officials revealed that another agency responsible for fighting drug trafficking had been infiltrated by the rival Beltrán Leyva cartel.

(Excerpt) Read more at iht.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Foreign Affairs; Mexico
KEYWORDS: drugcartels; immigration; mexico; wod

1 posted on 11/05/2008 9:21:56 AM PST by AuntB
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To: AuntB
Mexico is heading either for civil war, or a narco coup.

Are you ready to deal with that one, President Obama?

2 posted on 11/05/2008 9:24:56 AM PST by mojito
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To: mojito

Very troubling.


3 posted on 11/05/2008 9:26:42 AM PST by Brian S. Fitzgerald
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To: AuntB
He said a mechanical failure may have caused the crash.

This was sabotage.

4 posted on 11/05/2008 9:27:51 AM PST by mojito
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To: AuntB
well...the (Drug Inducted) corruption (& assassinations) continues.

5 posted on 11/05/2008 9:29:37 AM PST by skinkinthegrass (just b/c you're paranoid, doesn't mean "they" aren't out to get you.. :^)
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To: AuntB
A plane crash that killed two top officials in the war against drug trafficking appears to be an accident, but foreign investigators have arrived in Mexico to rule out an attack by cartels....

Riiiiight. Just like Columbia and Pablo Escobar bombing a plane of 100 people to kill one Politician..... that too was an "accident" accdg to the Gov't fearful that people would see how weak they were.

6 posted on 11/05/2008 9:30:47 AM PST by theDentist (Qwerty ergo typo : I type, therefore I misspell)
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To: mojito
Are you ready to deal with that one, President Obama?

I'm sure he is. He'll just evacute all the civilians into Texas, where ACORN will set up registration/welcome centers.

7 posted on 11/05/2008 9:31:44 AM PST by dead (I've got my eye out for Mullah Omar.)
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To: skinkinthegrass

“well...the (Drug Inducted) corruption (& assassinations) continues.”

Yes, and it continues on the 1.5 billion the US taxpayers sent down there recently to fight the cartels. That $$$ is in the cartels hands if you ask me.


8 posted on 11/05/2008 9:32:53 AM PST by AuntB ( "During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act." - George Orwell)
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To: dead

Community organizing as foreign policy?

I’d find your line a bit of amusingly bitter hyperbole, if you weren’t actually telling the even more bitter truth.


9 posted on 11/05/2008 9:39:54 AM PST by mojito
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To: AuntB
That $$$ is in the cartels hands if you ask me.

Agree...Government = Drug Cartels.

10 posted on 11/05/2008 9:42:33 AM PST by skinkinthegrass (just b/c you're paranoid, doesn't mean "they" aren't out to get you.. :^)
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To: mojito
Mexico is heading either for civil war, or a narco coup.

Are you ready to deal with that one, President Obama?

Russia will target South of the Border to stir up trouble for us. The Soviets loved using drugs to destabilize societies, including ours.

0bama ...is so green.

11 posted on 11/05/2008 11:45:03 AM PST by happygrl (Atlas Shrugged: post election tagline)
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