Posted on 09/08/2010 6:31:29 PM PDT by Kaslin
Energy: Mexico's state oil firm, our second-largest foreign supplier, is under attack from drug cartels. But that's not stopping the U.S. from investing more in its operations while American rigs lie idle in the Gulf.
The volatile Middle East is often seen as the nexus of risk to U.S. energy supplies. But the biggest threat may be next door, in Mexico. It's bad enough that oil production there is declining due to underinvestment. But now the state oil monopoly, Pemex, is encountering a threat no one foresaw a few years ago: attacks from the country's notorious criminal cartels.
The Los Angeles Times this week reported that the violent "Los Zetas" cartel has "crippled" production in the Burgos basin in Tamaulipas state, home of Mexico's biggest natural gas fields.
Thirty oil workers and contractors have been kidnapped, including five who were snatched in May and haven't been heard from since. The cartels force workers to collaborate with them to steal energy, which is then sold for cash.
The gunmen also shake information out of workers on security systems and the delicate workings of gas transport so they can hijack production. Natural gas, with its visible pipelines, is particularly vulnerable, but the cartels have begun moving on oil too.
Pemex won't send its inspectors to some of the areas where the cartels have gotten a foothold, and the Times reported the company doesn't want to talk about it.
These acts, from the same people who smuggle drugs and illegal immigrants into the U.S., amount to an attack on the Mexican state. One-third of the national budget comes from energy earnings. A cartel controlling Mexico's substitute for tax revenue effectively can take over the government.
(Excerpt) Read more at investors.com ...
No doubt Soros wants it that way.
Our troops will be in Mexico within a decade.
I guess this tells us a lot about Mexican 'management' of their oil resource and income. As high as crude prices have been for several years, and as high as oil company profits have been, one might wonder just what is being done with Mexican oil revenues and profit if they must have outside investment to continue production.
Sounds like just another US bailout of Mexico.
Its hard to steal natural gas.
Let me see...let the cartels steal the oil revenues and profits, or fund a military handsomely to fight them. I might want to become a mercenary if the price is right.
No problemo, once they control some or all the oil operations, they can just kidnap people and force them to run things for them.
Uh, lots of us have been predicting the takeover of Mexico's infrastructure by narcotraffickers, and for a long time.
That's why we refer to it as a narco-terrorist state. Even now, the traffickers control the government - anyone who thinks Calderon operates without ties to the biggest and most powerful groups is deluded.
The gangs are Mexico and Mexico is the gangs. Anyone who resists that....ends up face down in the arroyo.
We might want to first think about liberating land geographically situated in this country. Currently, Mexico has de facto possession of large swaths of southern Arizona and much of our National Park acreage.
Government officials in Mexico are so inexorably tied to the drug cartels that giving Mexico any help fighting their "drug problem" is lining the pockets of government officials.
If Mexico wanted to fix this, they would. But they don't. Too many officials at every level benefit from the drug cartels for them to ever make real progress toward ending this mess.
Our best hope would be to develop a coal powered automobile.
Mexico is lost. We send them more Tax $$ every day.
For what???? The best thing Mexico offers in return is blame and a daily insult.
The article goes on to say that the U.S. has been pitifully dependent on Mexico for its energy supplies for some time, and energy analysts are worried about the underinvestment by Mexico in it’s own oil. An explosion Tuesday at the country’s third-largest refinery did nothing to allay those concerns.
“Our troops will be in Mexico within a decade.”
Optimistic much? There won’t be a Mexico or USA within a decade at this rate. We become more like them every day.
“Government officials in Mexico are so inexorably tied to the drug cartels that giving Mexico any help fighting their “drug problem” is lining the pockets of government officials.
If Mexico wanted to fix this, they would. But they don’t. Too many officials at every level benefit from the drug cartels for them to ever make real progress toward ending this mess.”
BINGO! It’s SO much easier to blame the USA!
The world is full of liars.
I learned a long time ago how to make these. I don't need no stinking Mexico to supply me with them. ;-)
Without Mexico thousands of attorneys, judges, cops, prison guards, teachers, doctors, nurses, city, state and federal employees would be out of work. These people rely on Mexico for their jobs.
Where would Americans go to get their recreational and addiction drugs habits satisfied.
Mexico is an important parasite. Without it draining our resources we would be soaring ahead of the rest of the world. How would the elites maintain control over us? Martial law would have to be in effect.
“Without Mexico thousands of attorneys, judges, cops, prison guards, teachers, doctors, nurses, city, state and federal employees would be out of work. These people rely on Mexico for their jobs.......Mexico is an important parasite. Without it draining our resources we would be soaring ahead of the rest of the world.”
Hence outfits like SEIU, public employee unions, etc.
Parasitic relationship is exactly right. And the blood is all coming from those of us choosing not playing their insidious game.
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