From the border: ‘We think they got the message’ (NM Ranchers)

After ranchers came out in force last week to voice concerns about border security, New Mexico’s political representatives in Washington say they are pushing for changes in strategy on everything from patrols to hiring, and deploying more boots on the border. About 600 people, residents and ranchers, packed a school meeting room in Animas last Thursday to express their concerns about the lack of security at the border.

The New Mexico delegation is proposing, by turn, changes in hiring procedure that could attract more locals to Border Patrol ranks; hardship pay for agents who agree to work the remote region; more horses to get mounted agents into rugged terrain beyond the reach of pickups and ATVs; and putting more agents on the borderline, not dozens of miles inland.

One proposal would also shift more National Guard drug interdiction resources to the New Mexico border. “We think they got the message,” said Caren Cowan, executive director of the Albuquerque-based New Mexico Cattle Growers’ Association. “I think the jury is still out on how we move forward. I think we stirred some attention, but it is way too soon to see if we will get what we need.”

The U.S.-Mexico border in New Mexico’s Bootheel runs east from the Arizona state line, then turns north – 86 miles of border and hundreds of square miles of inhospitable, mountainous desert country where drug traffickers have lately found a profitable route north.

Border Patrol and the Hidalgo County sheriff have confirmed break-ins in the area as well as an increase in the presence of drug mules – men carrying backpacks of dope on foot from Mexico – and traffickers in vehicles heading north toward Interstate 10, their sights set on lucrative drug markets throughout the U.S.

Drugs pouring over the border? Even though the US has poured billions of our tax dollars into dirt-poor Mexico....it never seems to reach the problem we/re supposed to be financing.

Ever hear of the MERIDA INITIATIVE?

I didn/t think so.

WIKI-—With the Merida Initiative set to expire on September 30, 2010, the U.S. State Department (under SoS Hillary) has proposed a major renewal and expansion of the program. If approved, starting in 2011, $310 million would be granted to Mexico, another $100 million for the Central American Regional Security Initiative (CARSI), and $79 million for the Caribbean Basin Security Initiative (CBSI).[28]

The U.S. Congress has now authorized $1.6 billion for the three-year initiative (2007â€“2010). The U.S. Congress approved $465 million in the first year, which includes $400 million for Mexico and $65 million for Central America, the Dominican Republic, and Haiti. For the second year, Congress approved $300 million for Mexico and $110 million for Central America, the Dominican Republic and Haiti. A FY09 supplemental appropriation is providing an additional $420 million for Mexico; and $450 million for Mexico and $100 million for Central America has been requested for FY10.[20]

Only about $204 million of that, however, will be earmarked for the Mexican military for the purchase of eight used transport helicopters and two small surveillance aircraft. No weapons are included in the plan.[21][22][23] The bill requires that $73.5 million of the $400 million for Mexico must be used for judicial reform, institution-building, human rights and rule-of-law issues.

The bill specifies that 15% of the funds will be dependent on Mexico making headway in four areas relating to human-rights issues, and on which the U.S. Secretary of State will have to report periodically to Congress.[24][25]

An additional $65 million was granted for the Central American countries (Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama); the House also included Haiti and the Dominican Republic in this bill for Central America, which is a comprehensive public security package that seeks to tackle citizen insecurity in Central America by more effectively addressing criminal gangs, improving information sharing between countries, modernizing and professionalizing the police forces, expanding maritime interdiction capabilities, and reforming the judicial sector in order to restore and strengthen citizens confidence in those institutions.[26]

Much of the funding will never leave the United States. It will go toward the purchase of aircraft, surveillance software, and other goods and services produced by U.S. private defense contractors.

While this request includes equipment and training, it does not involve any cash transfers or money to be provided directly to the Government of Mexico or its private contractors.

According to U.S. State Department officials, 59% of the proposed assistance will go to civil agencies responsible for law enforcement, and 41% to operational costs for the Mexican Army and Mexican Navy. While the initial cost for equipment and hardware that the military required is high, it is expected that future budget requests will focus increasingly on training and assistance to civil agencies.

As of November 2009, the U.S. has delivered about $214 million of the pledged $1.6 billion.[27]

============================================

Ut oh---Obama/s now requesting couple billion....to curb the Mexican drug trade into the US.

04/16/2008

Former President Bill Clinton has earned hundreds of thousands of dollars speaking on behalf of a Colombia-based group pushing the trade pact, and representatives of that organization tell The Huffington Post that the former president shared their sentiment.

In June 2005, Clinton was paid $800,000 by the Colombia-based Gold Service International to give four speeches throughout Latin America. The organization is, ostensibly, a development group tasked with bringing investment to the country and educating world leaders about the Colombia’s business opportunities.

The group’s chief operating officer, Andres Franco, said in an interview that the group supports the congressional ratification of the free trade agreement and that, when Clinton was on his speaking tour, he expressed similar opinions.

“He was supportive of the trade agreement at the time that he came, but that was several years ago. In the present context, I don’t know what his position would be. It is not only about union trade rights. It is about what benefit or damage it can do to the US economy,” said Franco. “Events with the Clinton campaign [concerning Mark Penn] are not good at all for the trade agreement... Right now it became a campaign issues and that is sad, because it needs to go through.”

The comments were supported by a June 23, 2005 article from the news portal Terra (uncovered by Ben Smith at Politico) in which Clinton offered unambiguous support for the free trade agreement with Colombia.

They appear to be the first public indication that Clinton has, at least in the past, supported the trade deal. But evidence that the former president has been sympathetic to Colombia’s position is widely known. In 2007, Clinton met personally with and accepted an award from Colombia’s controversial president, Alvaro Uribe, during a time when the country was attempting to improve its image within the United States. Subsequently, Clinton urged Congress to view the country in a more favorable light.

Moreover, Clinton has helped Frank Giustra, one of the biggest donors to the Clinton Global Initiative, score meetings with high-ranking Colombian officials. Giustra has several business interests in the country, and both he and Clinton have collaborated on an effort to fight poverty in developing world by partnering up with mining companies in Colombia and elsewhere.

http://nypost.com/2008/12/19/bubba-sheik-ing-the-money-tree/

Every aspect of the Bill Clinton presidency must be examined for wrongdoing. Recent news reports say the notoriously greedy Clintons used their tax-exempt Clinton Foundation charity to setup a Romney-like money-making private equity fund in the corrupt country of Colombia.

Why Colombia?

WIKI REFERENCE---In 2000, the Clinton administration committed $1.3 billion in foreign aid to the corrupt country of Colombia...... and up to five hundred military personnel to train local forces. An additional three hundred civilian personnel were allowed to assist in the eradication of coca.

The Clinton deal was an addition to $330 million of previously approved US aid to Colombia. $818 million was earmarked for 2000, with $256 million for 2001.

The Clinton-era appropriations for his Colombia Plan made Colombia the third largest recipient of foreign aid from the United States at the time.

--SNIP--

As of 2008, the U.S. has provided nearly $1.3 billion to Colombia through Clinton Plan Colombia nonmilitary aid programs:

<><> Alternative Development (2000-2008 cost: $500 million)

<><> Internally Displaced Persons (2000-2008 cost: $247 million)

<><> Demobilization and Reintegration (2000-2008 cost: $44 million)

<><> Democracy and Human Rights (2000-2008 cost: $158 million)

<><> Promote the Rule of Law (2000-2008 cost: $238 million)

LONG READ--REST AT https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plan_Colombia

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