Posted on 06/09/2005 6:00:30 AM PDT by MeneMeneTekelUpharsin
MONTERREY, Mexico — For weeks, no one applied for the Nuevo Laredo police chief job. Many saw it as a death sentence. But Alejandro Dominguez proudly took office on Wednesday, saying he wasn't afraid of anything. Nine hours later, he was ambushed and killed by gunmen who fired some three dozen times. Dominguez's violent death was the latest blow to Nuevo Laredo, a city across from Laredo, Texas, that has been crippled by a wave of drug violence. The city is on the front line of a turf battle between Mexico's two largest drug gangs, the Gulf and Juarez cartels. Since January, more than 60 people have been killed there, including several city police officers.
President Vicente Fox's administration sent in 700 soldiers and federal agents in March to try to restore law and order. Dominguez, a businessman who once worked at the federal Attorney General's office, was sworn in Wednesday afternoon, and promised to weed out corruption in the city. "I don't owe anybody anything. My duty is to the citizenry," he said. "I think those who should be afraid are those who have been compromised." After dark, a group of assailants opened fire as he climbed into his Ford Lobo outside the city's business chamber, which he led.
State police director Fernando Vallejo said officials had recovered 35 to 40 casings from assault rifles similar to those used by drug gangs. A witness told authorities Dominguez was targeted by a group of men who arrived in three dark Chevy Suburbans. "They cut him off so he couldn't go," said the witness, who asked not to be identified. "They shot him from inside (the vehicles) and then got out to shoot him some more." The witness said that once Dominguez was dead, the gunmen climbed back into the Suburbans and drove slowly away, with their lights turned off.
Last month, Nuevo Laredo Mayor Daniel Pena said no one had come forward to replace Police Chief Jose Valdes, who left the post to become City Council secretary. Dominguez was selected from a group of three potential candidates. He was the only one to voluntarily seek the job. Authorities say drug violence in Nuevo Laredo intensified after the 2003 arrest of Osiel Cardenas, the alleged leader of the Gulf Cartel, in the nearby city of Matamoros. They say accused drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman has been fighting Cardenas to gain access to drug smuggling routes in Nuevo Laredo and other border cities. The U.S. government has issued a warning to tourists traveling to the border, at the request of U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Tony Garza. Garza has come under fire from Mexican officials who say the warning is unnecessary.
I bet we trained them too.
Maybe it is time to de-criminalize drugs. Make it a huge crime to sell it, traffic in it, or sell to minors. Give people 25 to life for a first offense, and leave it up to the prosecutor and judge to be able to plea this out if they turn in anyone above them. IOW, take the profit out of it. Do the same with Coke and Heroin. No jail time for possession, but life for the suppliers/trafficers. Let doctors prescribe heroin to addicts under a strict registration program, and fer Gawds sake, find out where each and every shipment of Ephedrine or Pseudo-Ephedrine ends up. Actually begin to win the WOD, instead of just using it as campaign rhetoric.
Mexico's imports of the cold medicine have jumped to 224 tons from 66 tons in the past five years. Hmmm
Mexican Populace quickly becoming American populace?
Pretty darned good recommendations. I would quibble with the plea bargaining, since I am opposed to it on principle: I know the rationale, but in many (most?) cases it just allows prosecutors to suborn perjury under cover of law.
I remember once walking across the border from Laredo to Nuevo Laredo and being really struck by the difference. It was like traveling from Earth to Mars. One side green, the other brown. One side with nicely paved roads, the other with roads buckled and rutted. One side with well-dressed, well-fed children the other side with hungry children in tattered clothes. And on and on. Yet, the people on both sides were Mexicans ethnically. It was just the vagaries of politics and war that caused the amazing difference. The memory remains vivid today, many years after the experience.
Laredo to Nuevo Laredo and being really struck by the difference
That sounds worse than what I experienced between East and West Berlin in '80.
Looks like Mexico is not capable of maintaining law and order. I suggest that we send the US Army in to fix that problem.
"Uhhhhh...I dunno...the problem with Mexico, is the Mexican Populace. They are largely passive, afraid, and poor with no interest in helping the situation."
And unarmed!!
Not yet.
There's a lot of sensationalism out there in regard to immigration. I mean, I live in Houston...but I have yet to see the roving bands of MS-13 gang members killing innocent civilians without mercy.
Granted it's a problem...but you can see the responses right?
First the minutemen bring attention to the problem...then everyone gets hysterical about the issue, which isn't bad because it draws focus to the borders and then action is (maybe slowly) taken...because individuals in the U.S. have the resources and the means to do so.
Such resources, and willingness, are absent in Mexico, Nuevo Laredo, which is why the country (Mexico) is corrupt and almost lawless. People take what they can, when they can in Mexico since there is little honest opportunity...Vicente Fox's fault.
Drudge has something on nearly 1 in 7 Americans is Mexican/Hispanic...my point is, what's the point? It's obvious that 6 in 7 aren't. And again...must countries depend on an influx of immigrants to survive...look at the studies that Euroupe is slowly dying...and their immigration is largely islamofacists. I'll take the Mexicans everyday of the week and twice on Sunday over that.
We need to secure the borders...no doubt, but we need to do so in the right way. We have time before we need to mine the border, dig trenches filled with gas, electrify the razor wire fences, etc...which is what the libs want us to do..so they can point to the administration and say it's creating a facist police state (which is what they want in truth.)
"This quaint Mexican custom will come to America along with the immivasion."
Let them try. We'll acquaint them a few American customs of our own.
Mexico sucks.
(Pssstt . . Nuevo Laredo is one of the major port of entry cities we have with Mexico - it is RIGHT ON THE (WORTHLESS) BORDER.)
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MONTERREY, Mexico — For weeks, no one applied for the Nuevo Laredo police chief job. Many saw it as a death sentence. But Alejandro Dominguez proudly took office on Wednesday, saying he wasn't afraid of anything. Nine hours later, he was ambushed and killed by gunmen who fired some three dozen times. Dominguez's violent death was the latest blow to Nuevo Laredo, a city across from Laredo, Texas, that has been crippled by a wave of drug violence. The city is on the front line of a turf battle between Mexico's two largest drug gangs, the Gulf and Juarez cartels. Since January, more than 60 people have been killed there, including several city police officers.
President Vicente Fox's administration sent in 700 soldiers and federal agents in March to try to restore law and order. Dominguez, a businessman who once worked at the federal Attorney General's office, was sworn in Wednesday afternoon, and promised to weed out corruption in the city. "I don't owe anybody anything. My duty is to the citizenry," he said. "I think those who should be afraid are those who have been compromised." After dark, a group of assailants opened fire as he climbed into his Ford Lobo outside the city's business chamber, which he led.
Wasn't there recently a big story in Time or Newsweek about the arrival of Latino gangs in the USA, and how they ARE becoming a major problem?
...and this is what we let into our country illegally every day of the week.
I can just about see into Mexico from where I live. It'll be a cold day in Hades before I cross that border heading south. Don't have to, seeing as the border keeps coming to me.
"Dominguez was targeted by a group of men who arrived in three dark Chevy Suburbans."
When SUV's go to the Dark Side.
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