Almost the same thing happened a few years back, here we go again.
~ From France 24 News, originally from AFP via MSN News:
Avocado Farmers Take Up Arms As Mexico Violence Spikes
Ario de Rosales (México) (AFP)
"A convoy of vigilantes snakes along a road in western Mexico, vowing to defend their avocado orchards from gangs sowing terror in a country reeling from a new wave of bloodshed.
Armed with assault rifles and other firearms, the masked men travel between plantations and maintain checkpoints in Ario de Rosales in Michoacan state, the scene of a bloody cartel turf war.
Before they began patrolling the area, residents lived in fear of kidnapping, extortion and theft of avocados, according to a member of the self-defense group Pueblos Unidos, which says it has 700 members.
"We need to be armed to defend ourselves," he told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity, wearing a badge reading "Down with injustice, no more dead."
Previously, criminals "came to do what they wanted to us, and that doesn't happen anymore," he added.
President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador opposes such self-defense groups -- a phenomenon that dates back to 2013 -- saying that some of them have become fronts for criminals.
Such comments are not well received in Ario de Rosales, where another Pueblos Unidos member says the president should "get his shoes dirty" to discover the reality of life in the area, where the Jalisco New Generation and Los Viagras cartels operate.
The police and military "feared the criminals or were paid by them to do nothing," said another vigilante who gave his name as Martin.
- 'Hugs not bullets' -
It is estimated that there are around 50 such self-defense groups in Mexico, which has seen intensifying violence in recent months, notably in Michoacan and the northern states of Tamaulipas and Zacatecas.
Mexico registered 14,243 murders in the first five months of the year, and the bloodshed has shown no sign of stopping since then.
On June 19, alleged members of the Gulf Cartel shot dead 15 people described by the government as innocent victims in the border city of Reynosa in Tamaulipas.
Four attackers were killed by the police.
One hitman who was arrested said that the massacre sought to "heat up the plaza" -- a form of random killings to divert the attention of the authorities away from other areas.
On June 29, nine bodies were found near Ciudad Miguel Aleman, also in Tamaulipas, where criminals are fighting for control of a border bridge used to smuggle drugs, weapons and migrants, according to an intelligence source.
And a shootout between alleged gang members left 18 dead in Zacatecas, where the bodies of two policemen were hung from a bridge.
Despite the escalation in violence, Lopez Obrador refuses to declare war on the cartels, arguing that this policy failed in the past.
Instead he has maintained a strategy of "hugs not bullets" and fighting crime at its roots by attacking poverty and inequality.
More than 300,000 people have been murdered since the government of then president Felipe Calderon deployed the military in the war on drugs in 2006.
- 'Power vacuums' -
Since then the dominant cartels have splintered to the point that around 200 gangs now operate in the country, according to the think tank InSight Crime.
Lopez Obrador has told the United States that he wants to end military cooperation in fighting narcotics trafficking.
"You cannot confront violence with violence," he said on Friday about the situation in Aguililla, another Michoacan town terrorized by warring gangs.
In April, former US ambassador Christopher Landau said that Lopez Obrador saw the cartels as a "distraction" from a domestic agenda mostly focused on social programs.
"So he has basically adopted a pretty laissez-faire attitude towards them," said Landau, who was ex-president Donald Trump's envoy in Mexico City.
Lopez Obrador's policy of non-confrontation with the cartels has left "power vacuums" exploited by gangs, according to Jose Reveles, a drug trafficking specialist.
In Aguililla, residents recently attacked a garrison with homemade explosives to try to pressure the military into reopening roads that had been blocked by rival gangs.
"We were trapped in the village and getting food was very difficult," said Eugenia, a mother of two living in the town.
Aguililla is at the center of a turf war between Carteles Unidos and Jalisco New Generation, whose leader Nemesio Oseguera was born there.
"While the government said that things were fine and there was no organized crime, we saw them on a daily basis, with high-powered weapons," another resident who did not want to be named told AFP.
"The government always looks the other way."
© 2021 AFP
~~~~~
 |
| Kristi looks like shit |
Before I list the atrocities here, this next one might help...because in both countries I feel bombarded with super creepy news... like the horrible heat and implosion of the environment, or like in the case of Kristi Noem et al. Do you ever wonder about that old cliche that went something like, doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results is insanity ? (BTW, Einstein did not make up that quote.) At any rate, worth the read:
~ From Counterpunch
By, Henry A. Giroux
Resistance is Not Futile: Fighting Back in an Age of Manufactured Ignorance
[Henry A. Giroux currently holds the McMaster University Chair for Scholarship in the Public Interest in the English and Cultural Studies Department and is the Paulo Freire Distinguished Scholar in Critical Pedagogy. His most recent books are America’s Education Deficit and the War on Youth (Monthly Review Press, 2013), Neoliberalism’s War on Higher Education (Haymarket Press, 2014), The Public in Peril: Trump and the Menace of American Authoritarianism (Routledge, 2018), and the American Nightmare: Facing the Challenge of Fascism (City Lights, 2018), On Critical Pedagogy, 2nd edition (Bloomsbury), and Race, Politics, and Pandemic Pedagogy: Education in a Time of Crisis (Bloomsbury 2021):His website is www. henryagiroux.com. ]
~~~~~
Do any of you believe this principle could apply to Mexico ?
~~~~~
 | ||||
| Dream House (click the link) | |
Meanwhile, my knee is killing me - I tried the CBD Cream and it did nothing; now I'm headed to the tub to soak in Dead Sea Minerals and then try the Australian Dream Cream which is pricey. I just refuse to use any NSAID ever again.
I found a house built in the 1920s then remodeled in the early '90's near to Windansea & Marine St.; but looking closely at the satellite pictures, the old beaches from Windansea to the Cove are packed wall to wall with what looks like dorks and hodads and they took most of the darling old time homes out and put up a million crappy condos, they have ruined it ! It doesn't matter, I couldn't afford it anyway and Mike doesn't think there are too many progressive people left like in the days of the Pumphouse Gang and then later, Angela Davis. Yea, I know but I can dream. If you go to the link, you'll see Charlie Chaplin in the hallway - there was a lot of this type of architecture in the 20's in California including the Montecito Inn which was was built by Chaplin & his friends.
Speaking of Australia, we are wrapping up "Mr. In Between" who I think is the ultimate anti-hero, but none of reviews have described him as that.
So, later tonight or tomorrow I'll fill in the blanks around here.... it's been pretty bad.
No comments:
Post a Comment