Posted on 08/20/2008 11:37:13 AM PDT by IntheknowGuy
Old Hugh Hewitt is apparently getting good intel (14 August FR Post "Military Coup in Mexico"). Powerful and influential senior Mexican General, General Segio Aponte Polito, was recently removed from his position as the 2nd Military District Commander (LA Times, 9 Aug). Unlike the US, Generals in Mexico don't get “resigned”..they play major roles in many power broker positions (and yes, until late, behind the scenes). The Mexican Military is fed up with not being able to control the spiraling arms race and increasing sophistication of the cartels. Expect to see Aponte in the future..and before the US election...Wait and see.
Just pointing you to Aponte..it could mean nothing..but indications are he might be the spearhead for a potential near term “shift” in Mexican politics. Again, we shall see.
and then this past year with his complete love affair with mitt romney seemed ridiculous and an obvious attempt to sell his lame book.
a coup in mexico is highly unlikely.
________________________
Take a wait and see attitude. Hewitt is pro Romney probably because both are Mormon. Mormons in Mexico know what is going on in that country.
Hewitt is Presbyterian, not Mormon
Baja post brought him praise, criticism
By Sandra Dibble
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
August 8, 2008
It started with a single, random gunshot inside a Brazilian restaurant in Mexicali, the capital of Baja California.
No one was injured on that Sunday afternoon last month. But the stray bullet tore open the deep fissure between the region’s highest-ranking military official and top state law enforcement officials.
MIGUEL CERVANTES / Special to the Union-Tribune
Gen. Sergio Aponte Polito, the outspoken commander of military forces in Baja California, is being transferred to Mexico City.
The conflict culminated yesterday with the announcement that Gen. Sergio Aponte Polito, the outspoken commander of military forces in Baja California, is being transferred to Mexico City.
The general’s supporters worry they are losing a fierce opponent of corruption and organized crime, but detractors say he created drama that diverted attention from fighting such evils.
In a 21-page letter delivered to reporters Sunday, Aponte accused state law enforcement agents of corruption and said their bosses are upset that his military forces have upstaged them in the struggle against drug traffickers.
During his 20 months in Baja California, El General Aponte, as he is commonly known, cut a powerful public figure. Inside a tightly guarded military base perched above downtown Tijuana, he delivered news of the latest arrests and drug seizures in an authoritative baritone, standing near seized items and calling on citizens to denounce wrongdoing.
In a country where military leaders traditionally maintain low profiles, he has spoken out boldly – some say imprudently – against drug traffickers and government corruption. Such candor has been warmly received by many crime-weary Baja California residents.
“He has managed to awaken the sympathies and support of a large segment of society,” said Víctor Clark, a human rights activist in Tijuana.
The Mexican military is taking on a growing role against drug trafficking across the country under President Felipe Calderón. In the past three years, about 6,000 deaths in Mexico have been attributed to drug killings, as violent cartels compete for lucrative smuggling routes to feed the demand of U.S. drug users.
The military is generally viewed as more trustworthy than civilian forces, which have struggled with persistent corruption. But critics say soldiers aren’t equipped or trained for investigations, leading to potential human rights violations and leaving civilian prosecutors with faulty evidence.
In Sunday’s open letter, Aponte, 64, accused the Baja California Attorney General’s Office of “falsehood, incompetence and deceit.” He said state authorities were trying to use the accidental restaurant shooting to sully his reputation.
“It would seem that I was subjected to the Holy Inquisition, . . . all for the simple fact that I was inside a family restaurant, when someone else accidentally caused a firearm to go off,” the general wrote.
The next day, Francisco Blake, the state’s lieutenant governor, faced reporters alongside the two main targets of the general’s wrath: Rommel Moreno Manjarrez, the attorney general, and Daniel de la Rosa Anaya, the secretary of public safety.
“The state government has never orchestrated a media campaign to harm any individual or institution,” Blake said. “Nobody is questioning his commitment and dedication to the vigorous fight that all levels of government are waging against drug trafficking.”
José Carlos Vizcarra Lomelí, head of the Baja California Citizens Council for Public Safety, said the general is within his rights to speak out, but that “these types of incidents are distracting . . . We just want them to sit together and talk and resolve their problems.”
Yesterday, a terse Aponte offered no explanations as he told a few local media outlets that he was taking a new position in Mexico City as president of the Supreme Military Tribunal.
Despite the friction with state officials, the institutional relationships remain unbroken, said Gov. José Guadalupe Osuna Millán. “The military will remain in their posts, and keep heading up civilian institutions until the governor decides this is no longer necessary, but for now it remains necessary.”
Aponte says that under his watch, soldiers have seized 539 metric tons of marijuana, 3,871 kilos of cocaine and 282 kilos of crystal methamphetamine. They have destroyed 800 clandestine airstrips and seized 1,243 vehicles, 1,583 weapons and 211,000 cartridges. They have made 1,388 arrests.
Despite the numbers, some won’t be sorry to see the general go, saying his public accusations were inappropriate and potentially harmful.
“He’s pursuing means that go beyond the bounds of the law when he makes pronouncements that impugn specific law enforcement officers without due process,” said David Shirk, director of the University of San Diego’s Trans-Border Institute.
Although the general’s letter Sunday accused government officials of trying to link him to the accidental gunshot, he was never openly accused.
Justo Buenaventura, a retired army major and until recently the head of the State Preventive Police, initially denied it was his weapon, then stepped forward to say it had gone off by accident.
Buenaventura has since been removed from his state police post.
Seem to remember Hewitt himself saying he was Mormon. If not, I stand corrected.
Hewitt is an Evangelical Presbyterian, a converted Catholic.
Are you watching El Pantera? When I read about El General Aponte, it sounded very familiar.
“The Mexican military is firmly under civilian control “
What civilian control....the drug cartels?
“Hard to believe the Mexican people would tolerate this.”
They don’t, they come here instead and piss and moan about how bad they’ve got it.
C'mon, does every thread have to be about that?
Don't get to watch much TV.
I hate military dictatorships, with their strutting, big-bellied macho bully boys, prison camps and desaparacedos. Not a model for Mexico. The true model here is Colombia, which figured out how to successfully defeat a narco insurgency without giving up democracy.
The worsening situation in Mexico, despite its barbarity, breadth of murder, kidnappings, and corruption, is not resonating in the American psyche (albiet, perhaps the border states). We agonize and scrutinize the security situation in Iraq, headlines about dozens of wounded and dead, and we have this raging debate on the way ahead there. We have more deaths in our inner-cities from drug related crime nationwide, let alone the horrific numbers climbing in our southern neighbor..yet it doesn’t appear to be a front burner concern...and the Mexican senior military leadership knows this. Expect to see “martial law” and Calderon will be complicate...they know they must take a stand, and that the US doesn’t seem to take proportional concern about it. Look what happened in Georgia..and the world view is, we did nothing (yet to be seen, Moscow has lost a great deal of momentum, and will be staggering from this for years)
Here is an article where Hewitt says he is Presbyterian.
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=26055
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