Travel to Mexico?

[gyre]

I thought this conflict zone map might be useful to someone.

[gyre]

Why can't you buy allergy medicine without a background check anymore ...

Because the harder it is to get, the more money pours into gangland, so the more drugs will come in ...

How could the estimated 19,000 serial killers employed in mexican crime affect us?


MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico said Friday that it seized 229 metric tons of precursor chemicals used to make methamphetamine, the third such huge seizure this month at the Pacific port of Lazaro Cardenas, all of which were bound for a port in Guatemala.

The seizure bringing to over 534 tons the amount of meth chemicals detected at Lazaro Cardenas in less than a month.

Authorities announced on Dec. 19 that they had found almost 100 metric tons of methylamine at the port, and earlier said that 205 tons of the chemical had been found there over several days in early December.

Experts familiar with meth production call it a huge amount of raw material, noting that under some production methods, precursor chemicals can yield about half their weight in uncut meth.

The Attorney General's Office said the most recent seizure was found in 1,600 drums, and had been shipped from Shanghai, China.

All three shipments originated in China and were destined for Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala, authorities said.

The office has not indicated which cartels may have been moving the chemicals, but U.S. officials have noted that the Sinaloa cartel, Mexico's most powerful, has moved into meth production on an industrial scale.

Sinaloa also has operations in Guatemala, and given recent busts by the Mexican army of huge meth processing facilities in Mexico, the gang may have decided to move some production to Guatemala.

Lazaro Cardenas is located in the western Michoacan state, which is dominated by the Knights Templar cartel and previously by the La Familia gang.

However, a series of arrests, deaths and infighting may have weakened those gangs' ability to engage in massive meth production.



http://www.yahoo.com/_ylt=ApigtUmc_HIq8 ... 25975.html

[Packoderm]

If you're going to travel to Mexico, the two things you can do to help keep you safe is to not hang around the border areas too much and to avoid dealing in large amounts of drugs. If you are going to be dealing with drugs, that map could be useful in finding which business colleagues would be best with whom to collaborate or avoid according to the area you wish to visit or vice versa.

[gyre]

At least two people have posted on eplaya about traveling through Mexico end to end.

Though there is a great deal of news about the Mexican civil war, very little reaches us here in the usa, due to bad journalism, political pressure or lack of interest.

Do you know about the red press, narcomantas or the war declared on honest citizens just for being critical of the terrorism?

The drug gangs now have public relations divisions.

As you might expect, it's not about drugs anymore, but control of the country itself.


After bloggers were killed for exposing crimes and complaining, and hung off bridges with narcomantas, Anonymous attacked online, and has threatened to expose anyone with connections to the gangs.
Anyone.

[gyre]

After reporting this story and others, Blog del Narco was taken out by the Mexican government working with the cartels.

It is back up, but virtually destroyed now.
It held a staggering amount of material not long ago.
I don't know if it is a reliable source any longer.

Anonymous responded with multiple attacks, and threatens to expose journalists, police and any citizen co-operating with the cartels.

As with most serious issues, everyone is forced to take a side, cower on your knees or fight.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/blo ... _blog.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... nline.html

http://articles.cnn.com/2011-09-14/worl ... s=PM:WORLD



"This happened for snitching on Frontera Al Rojo Vivo (A Grupo Refroma internet forum created to both inform of and denounce cartel activity)"
"This will happen to all the internet snitches (Frontera al Rojo Vivo, Blog Del Narco, or Denuncia Ciudadano) Be warned, we’ve got our eye on you. Signed, Zetas"


“This will happen to all the Internet snitches,” a banner above the hanging bodies of a young man and woman read. “Be warned, we’ve got our eye on you.”

As the Washington Post’s William Booth reports, the two residents were found strung by their arms and legs from a pedestrian overpass on Tuesday morning, just across the Texas border in the industrial city of Nuevo Laredo. Their bodies showed signs of torture. The woman was disembowled.

The banner, which was signed “Z,” made clear that the people behind the crime were likely the Zetas — one of Mexico’s biggest and most violent drug cartels. The victims’ offense? Saying too much about the Zetas online.

The banner named two blogs it wanted to send a message to — both of them sites where users could post anonymous messages about instances of drug violence.

One was a web forum called Frontera al Rojo Vivo (“Red Hot Border”) owned by the Grupo Reforma media company, which is now closed, and the other was a popular news blog called El blog del Narco (“the Tipster Blog”.) The cartel also mentioned the tip line of the Attorney General of Mexico.

“The criminal gangs exert control over the press,” Carlos Lauria of the Committee to Protect Journalists told The Post. “The media stops. And in the absence of news, ordinary citizens turn to Twitter and Facebook to fill the void.”

Americas Quarterly reports that Mexican civilians have recently taken to reporting dangerous areas occupied by drug cartels along the country’s highways in real-time using Twitter.

But Wired points out that this kind of reporting also comes with risk — last month, rumors about gang attacks in the city of Veracuz spread on Twitter led to panic and the arrest of two people accused of “terrorism and sabotage.”

Drug cartels have always targeted reporters — more than 40 journalists have been killed in Mexico since 2004, according to the Post.

But if they are now specifically targeting those who write online, as well, the Wired writes, “a war against media... has turned even more dangerous.


This story compares middle eastern torture to mexican crime.
This is a false analogy.
The cartels are competing as they go through the entire medieval pantheon of torture on video.
They are correct about these same criminals operating inside the usa now.
http://www.examiner.com/immigration-in- ... ted-states

http://www.theranger.org/redesign/mexic ... -1.2641684

Terrorism charges for reporting on twitter
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/se ... e-30-years
http://www.stufftotweet.com/tweetthis/b ... arco-crime

http://gruporeforma.mural.com/Libre/Off ... doSelecc=2

http://www.blogdelnarco.com/

http://www.pgr.gob.mx/denuncia/denuncia.asp

[Packoderm]

So, it's safe to say that while visiting Mexico, it might be safer not to join any anti-cartel, watchdog organizations. Maybe somebody could do an internet search to see what the ratio is to the number of tourists killed in Mexico compared to the total number of visitors to Mexico.

[motskyroonmatick]

I spent 4 weeks in Baja MX and I felt more safe there than I feel in major cities in the US. There were only a couple times when I felt scetched out.
My rules are. Don't try to start, stop or get in the middle of anything.
I'd say the people I ran in to in Baja were 4 times as friendly, positive, helpful and accommodating than any other place I have traveled. With the ways and means I'd go back there in a heart beat.

[forty_eight]

No, it's true ... we're all gonna die! And probably in Mexico at the hands of vicious narco-warlords! The statistics ... all ... point ... to ... it?

VIVA MEXICO, CABRONES!

[gyre]

Motz, I've heard great things about Baja, but I also hear people are bailing there now as it has become more dangerous too.

Even years ago, a friend's brother was beaten nearly to death by mexican police on a main highway while robbing him.
He doesn't remember driving hundreds of miles after that, but was flown back to the states eventually and survived.
Massive head injury.

He went back.

[gyre]

So, it's safe to say that while visiting Mexico, it might be safer not to join any anti-cartel, watchdog organizations.
Maybe somebody could do an internet search to see what the ratio is to the number of tourists killed in Mexico compared to the total number of visitors to Mexico.

You really don't get it if you think accurate figures for that exist in an active war zone, or that they would be available if they were, with government and cartels repressing all press activity, including twitter.

Such counts aren't accurate in this country.

Safe to say it's no more dangerous than Sierra Leone.

You're only a target if you're thought to have money (american), a foreigner from anywhere, traveling inside mexico, or not working for a cartel and under their protection.

The death rate can only be estimated from the bodies displayed, and not hidden.

The important thing is that these groups are already here in this country too.

The Alarma reports going to 3,000 murder scenes in one year, in one state.
Only guesses can be made about hidden deaths.


Prensa roja
http://nuevoalarma.com.mx/


GRAPHIC CONTENT from the red press and the cartels

[Packoderm]

I was in Srinagar just a few weeks prior to their big blowup a while back, so I know a little about what a war zone feels like. If you're nervous, cross in Mexicali rather than Tijuana, avoid Ciudad Juarez, don't get involved with drug action, just be a tourist, and you should be fine. We drive down and camp in Baja each winter. I'd say it's about as safe for the average person as it was in Chicago during the height of prohibition.

[Ugly Dougly]

I went on a Mexico cruise last spring. One port we visited was Mazatlan. Now that a couple of tourists were killed there, it's apparently skipped by cruise lines as a port of call. The irony is that the murder rate is still probably higher in San Diego.

[Ugly Dougly]

Okay, it's actually much higher.

[gyre]

Kashmir must be very interesting.

Dougly, you may be right, but I can guarantee you that the murder rate is under reported in San Diego, like most places.
In a place like Mexico, the actual rate may be only a vague guess.

It's the rapid escalation that concerns me.

On accuracy of statistics, it is now believed that the infanticide rate in "the good old days" that many want to return to, with birth control and abortion illegal, was about 1500 a year for what was a large city then.
We would consider that a small population now.
I have investigated the murder rate in my town and even the body count is far higher than the 'murder rate'.
A planned murder is easy to conceal.

Recall that Baltimore was just caught under reporting rape by 80%, along with other cities.
I think this is standard practice where I live.


It isn't hard to figure out that death is bad for tourism.
Even the usa and australia fudge these numbers.

My city may be as deadly as some places in mexico, but if they are skinning people and burying them alive, and trying to take over the federal government here, they are keeping very quiet about it.
So far.

The same gangs that are in mexico are in my city in numbers too.

[gyre]

Don't you find it particularly strange that the cartels issue public press releases about each other?


It's been compared to BTK and the Zodiac Killer issueing press releases about each other here.


is this a cultural thing, or just peculiar to this war?

[Ugly Dougly]

Dunno, but my spidey sense tells me that there's a good chance we'll be involved in this before long.

[CornMan]

Don't you find it particularly strange that the cartels issue public press releases about each other?


It's been compared to BTK and the Zodiac Killer issueing press releases about each other here.


is this a cultural thing, or just peculiar to this war?

Wouldn't that be called propaganda - the primary and most effective tool used in war?

I say the U.S. aught to throw a monkey wrench in this whole thing by legalizing most drugs and decriminalizing the most harmful ones. Meth is about nearly as economical to produce as tub and tile soft scrub cleanser if produced from legitimate sources. It could be administered at clinics with the patient's well being in mind toward the goal of reducing and/or ceasing meth use. Marijuana is less harmful than tobacco and should be sold wherever alcohol and cigarettes are sold so that the stigma, and thus the allure is minimalized. Psychotropic mushrooms should be completely legal without regulation other than taxation and toxicity oversight and age appropriate distribution. - just like the mushrooms you get at the supermarket or Black Angus restaurant on your steaks which however have no age appropriate oversight. Tobacco needs to be underscored and fatty foods without essential nutrients need further regulation and scrutiny. All in all, tobacco should be completely eradicated at some pointm if the well being of Americans were to be anywhere near our top priority. Anobolic steriods need to serious look to see the risk/benefit among the various products available. More money should be allocated toward making performance enhancing drugs safer and more effective rather than concern ourselves with mainly detection of illegal substances.

[Ugly Dougly]

I wonder if the US took the bold step of even legalizing marijuana, that would cut deep into the profits of some very serious motherfuckers. We would find our nation at war with the drug cartels, and not in a figurative sense.

[CornMan]

I wonder if the US took the bold step of even legalizing marijuana, that would cut deep into the profits of some very serious motherfuckers. We would find our nation at war with the drug cartels, and not in a figurative sense.

We'll never know until we try. I say we should legalize pot and decriminalize meth and cocaine. Sell the pot like we do our booze and distribute the meth and cocaine from rehab clinics.

[theCryptofishist]

The methadone clinics...how well do they work? I know roughly where the clinic in in San Francisco, and it's kinda seedy. Is that just where they place them? Maybe maintenance is the way to go, but nobody's going to want a bunch of meth heads in their neighborhood. Even on the stuff they are disruptive...

[CornMan]

I lived across the street from a methadone clinic in midtown Sacramento, and I didn't even know it was a clinic until a neighbor told me. At certain times of the day, there was a line of people lined up to get their stuff. No big deal.

[gyre]

Accurate police records -

Currently in the news here is 40,000 police memos filed instead of police reports.
it's worse than that though.
They have resisted even taking memos.
These crimes were not investigated or reported.

The chief says he has no reason to think this was deliberate fraud (how laughable).
There is no intention to investigate the old crimes or this situation.

Meanwhile, another cop arrested in uniform dealing with massive amounts of drugs.
Five so far.

A city councilwoman calls the former chief a thug and gangster.