Posted on 02/17/2006 6:22:07 PM PST by Murtyo
MEXICO CITY - Wracked by violent drug crime and too poor to arm its police properly, the Mexican state of Guerrero is seeking a $24 million bank loan to buy more guns and security equipment.
The local government plans to use the credit, approved by its Congress, to get guns, communications gear and police cars for the most cash-strapped parts of Guerrero, one of Mexico's poorest states, the state government said on Friday.
"We want to seek a credit line to acquire transportation and arms," a state government spokesman said.
Guerrero, whose craggy hills hide numerous marijuana and poppy fields, is home to the Pacific resort of Acapulco, which is grappling with a wave of killings between rival drug gangs.
Local police are hampered by a lack of good roads in much of the southern state, nestled between the Sierra Madre mountain range and the Pacific Ocean.
"It's much more complicated in isolated municipalities that don't have a road infrastructure, that don't have arms or the equipment to combat crime," Guerrero Governor Zeferino Torreblanca told Reuters.
"We want to have 250 million pesos (around $24 million) with a credit line that enables the 81 town councils to have a comparable set of arms," he said.
Acapulco has suffered an explosion of drug violence in recent months that marks a low point in the city's slow fall from grace since the 1950s, when the Hollywood set flocked to frolic on yachts and in seaside villas.
Drug smugglers are increasingly using bays and coves near Acapulco to land cocaine from Colombia and then take it overland to the United States.
A report in January by a security think tank called Acapulco the country's fifth worst city for the number of crimes committed per person -- a poorer record than even Mexico City, one of the world's most dangerous capitals.
While the federal government is fighting what President Vicente Fox has called "the mother of all battles" on drug gangs, Guerrero is taking some of its own measures including a purge of police forces and the move to buy weapons on credit.
Torreblanca, who aims to broaden Guerrero's taxpayer base to boost future revenues, said he was also planning to seek credit lines to fund new roads, jails and hospitals.
Criminals, by definition, Do Not Obey The Law...
Gun control only disarms the law abiding citizen...
Great, the US is buying more guns for the mexican criminals to get a hold of and bring with them across the border to use against us. Why won't the gov't buy me a gun, too?
Not quite. THEIR Congress is buying their cartels POLICE more weapons, to replace the ones OUR police confiscated in their Texas arsenal TIME SHARE vacation apartment.
I see. I didn't know they had a Congress. I missed that little word of *its*.
Peace through superior firepower. I imagine the narcos down there are well funded.
Mexico, like much of Russia, dances to the tune of organized crime. This fact alone warrants getting the fence system built aa soon as possible for the primary purpose of our national security.
Their primary tool is corruption and they'll take any mad Islamist's money as anyone elses to help get him over our border and into the mosque network we so foolishly allow.
They will. Buy a gun and get a permit to carry it for your business. Then write it off on your taxes as a business expense. The permit can be written off too.
Buy a big one that is expensive and enjoy it.
You can write off trips to the range as well as ammo too.
Guns for Guerrero Ping!
Please FReepmail me if you want on or off this South Texas/Mexico ping list.
What happened to the DINERO we've been sending them?
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